Category Archives: Section Three

Paul’s Religious Mind Revisited, Part 5

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In the year of King Uzziah’s death,[1] yehôvâh (יהוה) sent the prophet Isaiah to harden the descendants of Israel living in the southern kingdom of Judah (Isaiah 6:9-12 NET):

“Go and tell these people: ‘Listen continually, but don’t understand!  Look continually, but don’t perceive!’  Make the hearts of these people calloused; make their ears deaf and their eyes blind!  Otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, their hearts might understand and they might repent and be healed.”

I replied, “How long, sovereign master?”

He said, “Until cities are in ruins and unpopulated, and houses are uninhabited, and the land is ruined and devastated, and the Lord has sent the people off to a distant place, and the very heart of the land is completely abandoned.”

The NET translation of the final verse of this chapter extending the period of this hardening through the destruction of the Old Testament religion in 70 A.D. is almost unique: Even if only a tenth of the people remain in the land, it will again be destroyed, like one of the large sacred trees or an Asherah pole, when a sacred pillar on a high place is thrown down.  That sacred pillar symbolizes the special chosen family.[2]  Those who returned from Babylon still didn’t understand the message of the Old Testament Scriptures that they must all be born from above.[3]  They continued in their own works believing, it works if you work it.

You have been given the opportunity to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, Jesus told his disciples, but they have not.  For whoever has will be given more, and will have an abundance.  But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.  For this reason I speak to them in parables: Although they see they do not see, and although they hear they do not hear nor do they understand.[4]  Jesus called the religious institutions created by people hardened by yehôvâh the power of darkness.[5]  Paul’s old human Saul knew this power of darkness firsthand (Acts 26:4, 5, 9-11 NET).

Now all the Jews (Ἰουδαῖοι, a form of Ἰουδαῖος) know the way I lived from my youth, spending my life from the beginning among my own people and in Jerusalem.  They know, because they have known me from time past, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee…Of course, I myself was convinced that it was necessary to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus the Nazarene.  And that is what I did in Jerusalem: Not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons by the authority I received from the chief priests, but I also cast my vote against them when they were sentenced to death.  I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to force them to blaspheme.  Because I was so furiously enraged at them, I went to persecute them even in foreign cities.

I’ll consider the story of Jesus’ arrest as a measure of how calloused their hearts, how deaf their ears and how blind their eyes had become: Judas obtained a squad of soldiers and some officers of the chief priests and Pharisees,[6] a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent by the chief priests and experts in the law and elders.[7]  Then Jesus, because he knew everything that was going to happen to him, came and asked them, “Who are you looking for?”[8]

Jesus hearkened attentively to the Holy Spirit in ways that I can scarcely imagine, but He knew everything that was going to happen to him because of the scriptures that say it must happen this way.[9]  Jesus’ Father in heaven revealed to Peter that Jesus is the Christ (e.g., Messiah), the Son of the living God.[10]  But Peter was so calloused, deaf and blind he did not believe the scriptures that say it must happen this way even when Jesus told him (Matthew 16:21, 22 NET):

From that time on Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.  So Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him: “God forbid, Lord!  This must not happen to you!”

Who are you looking for? Jesus asked the crowd armed with swords and clubs (John 18:5, 6 NET):

They replied, “Jesus the Nazarene.”  He told them, “I am he.” (Now Judas, the one who betrayed him, was standing there with them.)  So when Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they retreated and fell to the ground.

I don’t know if this was a miraculous manifestation of Jesus’ presence or simply that He threw the arresting officers off-balance by standing there rather than running.  He had run before.  Or perhaps they expected Him or his disciples to resist (John 18:7-9 NET).

Then Jesus asked them again, “Who are you looking for?”  And they said, “Jesus the Nazarene.”  Jesus replied, “I told you that I am he.  If you are looking for me, let these men go.”  He said this to fulfill the word he had spoken, “I have not lost a single one of those whom you gave me.”

Now this is the will of the one who sent me, Jesus said to those who had pursued Him across the lake after eating of the loaves and fishes He had blessed and multiplied, that I should not lose one person of every one he has given me, but raise them all up at the last day.[11]  When I was with them, He had prayed to his Father, I kept them safe and watched over them in your name that you have given me.  Not one of them was lost except the one destined for destruction (Matthew 27:3-10), so that the scripture could be fulfilled.[12]

When those who were around him saw what was about to happen, the accounts of Jesus’ arrest continued, they said, “Lord, should we use our swords?”[13]  They had two (Luke 22:35-38).  The crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent by the chief priests and experts in the law and elders took hold of Jesus and arrested him.[14]  Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, pulled it out and struck the high priest’s slave, cutting off his right ear.  (Now the slave’s name was Malchus.)[15]  But Jesus said, “Enough of this!”  And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.[16]

Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath!  Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?[17]  For all who take hold of the sword will die by the sword.  Or do you think that I cannot call on my Father, and that he would send me more than twelve legions of angels right now?  How then would the scriptures that say it must happen this way be fulfilled?”[18]

Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders who had come out to get him, “Have you come out with swords and clubs like you would against an outlaw?  Day after day when I was with you in the temple courts, you did not arrest me.  But this is your hour, and that of the power of darkness![19]  But this has happened so that the scriptures would be fulfilled.”[20]

Then all the disciples left him and fled.  A young man was following him, wearing only a linen cloth.  They tried to arrest him, but he ran off naked, leaving his linen cloth behind.[21]  Then the squad of soldiers with their commanding officer and the officers of the Jewish leaders arrested Jesus and tied him up.  They brought him first to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.  (Now it was Caiaphas who had advised the Jewish leaders that it was to their advantage that one man die for the people.)  Simon Peter and another disciple followed them as they brought Jesus to Annas.[22]

Now the ones who had arrested Jesus led him to Caiaphas, the high priest, in whose house the experts in the law and the elders had gathered.  But Peter was following him from a distance, all the way to the high priest’s courtyard.[23]  (Now the other disciple was acquainted with the high priest, and he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard.)  But Simon Peter was left standing outside by the door.  So the other disciple who was acquainted with the high priest came out and spoke to the slave girl who watched the door, and brought Peter inside.[24]  When they had made a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them.[25]

I’ve listened to sermons where Peter’s denial of Jesus was portrayed as cowardice.  A Gospel harmony such as this highlights how Peter and all the disciples would have fought to the death at Jesus’ command.  Both Matthew and Mark record that they fled only when Jesus made it clear that He intended to be arrested, tried and executed (Matthew 26:56; Mark 14:49b, 50) so that the scriptures of the prophets would be fulfilled.  Jesus’ disciples weren’t cowards; they had calloused hearts, deaf ears and blind eyes for the Scriptures.  But even as the rest fled, Peter followed Jesus at a distance (along with another, possibly John) when he was the one most guilty of a violent criminal act against the high priest.

The unbeliever assumes that the words recorded in the Gospel narratives do not recount what actually happened during Jesus’ arrest but are the post hoc literary inventions of religious minds.  If Jesus had actually said and done these things during his arrest, they reason, the response and outcome would have been different.  At very least the arresting officers would have returned empty-handed saying, “No one ever spoke like this man!”[26]

The believer can use that hypothetical person who would have, or should have, responded differently to Jesus’ teaching and actions as a baseline to derive a relative measurement of the power of darkness, the effects of yehôvâh’s hardening (John 7:47-52 NET):

Then the Pharisees answered, “You haven’t been deceived too, have you?  None of the rulers or the Pharisees have believed in him, have they?  But this rabble who do not know the law are accursed!”

Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before and who was one of the rulers, said, “Our law doesn’t condemn a man unless it first hears from him and learns what he is doing (ποιεῖ, a form of ποιέω), does it?”  They replied, “You aren’t from Galilee too, are you?  Investigate carefully and you will see that no prophet comes from Galilee (Matthew 4:12-16; Isaiah 9)!”

This is the religious milieu where Saul thrived and out of which the apostle Paul was called.  This nearly eight hundred years of calloused hearts, deaf ears and blind eyes, hardening in a word, provides the historical and cultural contexts for his religious mind.

The table I constructed to harmonize the Gospel narratives follows.  Some of the temporal arrangements are admittedly arguable.

Jesus’ Arrest

Matthew 26:50b-58 (NET)

 Mark 14:46-54 (NET) Luke 22:47a, 49-55 (NET)

John 18:3-16, 18 (NET)
So Judas obtained a squad of soldiers and some officers of the chief priests and Pharisees.
Then [a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent by the chief priests and elders of the people] came… Then [a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent by the chief priests and experts in the law and elders]… While [Jesus] was still speaking, suddenly a crowd appeared… They came to the orchard with lanterns and torches and weapons.
Then Jesus, because he knew everything that was going to happen to him, came and asked them, “Who are you looking for?”  They replied, “Jesus the Nazarene.”  He told them, “I am he.” (Now Judas, the one who betrayed him, was standing there with them.)  So when Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they retreated and fell to the ground.  Then Jesus asked them again, “Who are you looking for?”  And they said, “Jesus the Nazarene.”  Jesus replied, “I told you that I am he.  If you are looking for me, let these men go.”  He said this to fulfill the word he had spoken, “I have not lost a single one of those whom you gave me.”
When those who were around him saw what was about to happen, they said, “Lord, should we use our swords?”
…and took hold of Jesus and arrested him. …took hold of [Jesus] and arrested him.
But one of those with Jesus grabbed his sword, drew it out, and struck the high priest’s slave, cutting off his ear. One of the bystanders drew his sword and struck the high priest’s slave, cutting off his ear. Then one of them struck the high priest’s slave, cutting off his right ear. Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, pulled it out and struck the high priest’s slave, cutting off his right ear.  (Now the slave’s name was Malchus.)
But Jesus said, “Enough of this!”  And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.
Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back in its place! But Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath!  Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?”
For all who take hold of the sword will die by the sword.  Or do you think that I cannot call on my Father, and that he would send me more than twelve legions of angels right now?  How then would the scriptures that say it must happen this way be fulfilled?”
At that moment Jesus said to the crowd, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me like you would an outlaw?  Day after day I sat teaching in the temple courts, yet you did not arrest me. Jesus said to them, “Have you come with swords and clubs to arrest me like you would an outlaw?  Day after day I was with you, teaching in the temple courts, yet you did not arrest me. Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders who had come out to get him, “Have you come out with swords and clubs like you would against an outlaw?  Day after day when I was with you in the temple courts, you did not arrest me.
But this is your hour, and that of the power of darkness!”
But this has happened so that the scriptures of the prophets would be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled. But this has happened so that the scriptures would be fulfilled.”  Then all the disciples left him and fled.
A young man was following him, wearing only a linen cloth.  They tried to arrest him, but he ran off naked, leaving his linen cloth behind.
Then they arrested Jesus… Then the squad of soldiers with their commanding officer and the officers of the Jewish leaders arrested Jesus and tied him up.
They brought him first to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.  (Now it was Caiaphas who had advised the Jewish leaders that it was to their advantage that one man die for the people.)  Simon Peter and another disciple followed them as they brought Jesus to Annas.
Now the ones who had arrested Jesus led him to Caiaphas, the high priest, in whose house the experts in the law and the elders had gathered.  But Peter was following him from a distance, all the way to the high priest’s courtyard. Then they led Jesus to the high priest, and all the chief priests and elders and experts in the law came together.  And Peter had followed him from a distance, up to the high priest’s courtyard. …led him away, and brought him into the high priest’s house.  But Peter was following at a distance.
(Now the other disciple was acquainted with the high priest, and he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard.)  But Simon Peter was left standing outside by the door.  So the other disciple who was acquainted with the high priest came out and spoke to the slave girl who watched the door, and brought Peter inside.
After going in, he sat with the guards to see the outcome. He was sitting with the guards and warming himself by the fire. When they had made a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. (Now the slaves and the guards were standing around a charcoal fire they had made, warming themselves because it was cold.  Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.)

[1] Isaiah 6:1a (NET) Note 1: “approximately 740 B.C.”

[2] Isaiah 6:13 (NET)

[3] John 3:7b (NET)

[4] Matthew 13:11-13 (NET)

[5] Luke 22:53b (NET)

[6] John 18:3a (NET)

[7] Mark 14:43b (NET)

[8] John 18:4 (NET)

[9] Matthew 26:54 (NET)

[10] Matthew 16:16b (NET)

[11] John 6:39 (NET)

[12] John 17:12 (NET)

[13] Luke 22:49 (NET)

[14] Matthew 26:50b (NET)

[15] John 18:10 (NET) Table

[16] Luke 22:51 (NET)

[17] John 18:11 (NET) Table

[18] Matthew 26:52b-54 (NET) Table

[19] Luke 22:52, 53 (NET)

[20] Mark 14:49b (NET)

[21] Mark 14:50-52 (NET)

[22] John 18:12-15a (NET)

[23] Matthew 26:57, 58a (NET)

[24] John 18:15b, 16 (NET)

[25] Luke 22:55 (NET)

[26] John 7:46 (NET)

Who Am I? Part 4

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I spend a large portion of my Christmas holiday with three post-Christian women I’ll call Grandmother, Mother and Daughter because of their relationship to one another.  I call them post-Christian because they were all professing Christians at one time.  Grandmother still calls herself a Christian.  She means a non-Buddhist, non-Hindu, non-Jew, non-Muslim who believes in Jesus.  Her ex-husband was a Baptist Sunday school teacher who abused her, and Mother as a child.  Daughter is the most non-Christian, vocally pagan of the three with Mother falling somewhere between.  Their transformation began with a desire for a more feminine God.  I regret now not taking Mother’s question more seriously.  I didn’t understand at the time that this desire would lead through Mother Earth to a Mother Goddess and on to full-fledged paganism.

I pointed out that yehôvâh (יהוה) created male and female: God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים) created humankind in his own image, in the image of God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים) he created them, male and female he created them.[1]  I talked about the meaning of El Shaddai (ʼêl, אל; shadday, שדי) and a few other references to God as feminine.  But I emphasized that the general understanding of God as masculine was due primarily to the fact that we are all feminine in relation to the operation of his grace through Jesus Christ.

I am accepted among them as the kindly, odd, somewhat benighted, old man who studies the Bible in his spare time, so ordinary conversation—what’ve you been up to?—offers many opportunities.  A recent conversation with Grandmother and Daughter turned naturally to Jesus’ dying thoughts on the cross.  I read Psalm 22 aloud.  Daughter was visibly, tearfully moved and vocally overwhelmed that David could write such exact knowledge so many centuries before Jesus was born.

I spoke of God having mercy on whoever he chooses to have mercy and hardening whoever he chooses to harden.  I said I had been considering how, and told them the story of two prophets, Nathan and John the Baptist.  When Pharisees and Sadduccees, religious leaders, came to be baptized for repentance (Matthew 3:11, 12; Mark 1:4-8; Luke 3:15-17) John said, You offspring of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?[2]  And he challenged them to put their works religion to the test: Therefore produce fruit that proves your repentance…[3]

What I didn’t say but will record here for my own memory’s sake, whether these particular Pharisees and Sadduccees were directly responsible or not, John’s words were not secret and would have tended to harden the resolve of the religious elite to kill Jesus: the Lord (yehôvâh, ויהוה) desired to crush him (e.g., Jesus).  On the other hand yehôvâh desired David’s repentance and sent Nathan to that effect.

He was sent after King David had committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had her husband killed to cover it up.  Nathan told David a story (2 Samuel 12:1-6) about a rich man who had entertained a traveler with a meal.  The rich man hadn’t served up any of his own sheep or cattle, but the one ewe lamb he took from a poor man.  Then David became very angry at this man.[4]  You are that man![5] Nathan said to him.

“Did he kill him?” Daughter asked.  I was actually surprised that she had forgotten the story.

No, I answered, I have sinned against the Lord![6] David said and then he wrote the 51st Psalm.  I got to read Psalm 51 aloud to them.  When I finished Grandmother responded to a look on Daughter’s face at the line—Look, I was guilty of sin from birth, a sinner the moment my mother conceived me.[7]

“I don’t believe that either,” Grandmother said.

This is a point to concede by the way.  If it offends or hurts your feelings, welcome to the human race.  Being guilty of sin from birth, a sinner the moment my mother conceived me is equivalent to being born of the flesh of Adam (Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15:42-58).  You do not want a relentless God who will pursue you with goodness and mercy all the days of your life to spend that time convincing you the hard way that you are a sinner instead (John 16:7-11).

Goodness and mercy, by the way is the NKJV translation of Psalm 23:6a.  In the NET it was translated goodness and faithfulness (chêsêd , וחסד).

chêsêd Hebrew KJV NET Tanakh Septuagint
Psalm 23:6a וחסד mercy faithfulness mercy ἔλεός[8]


Daughter informed me that my religion has a lot of guilt in it as she praised me for my adherence to it, and insisted that we, she and her pagan friends, desperately need a canon (i.e., of written scripture).

On Yule I learned that Mother had been taking drugs.  I wasn’t personally that aware of the winter solstice.  Daughter and Mother wished one another happy Yule in the car as I drove them to rehab.  It’s probably the only reason I knew anything at all.

I hadn’t known the night before that Mother had informed Daughter she was abusing drugs.  Daughter called me the next morning when Mother hesitated to actually commit herself to rehab.  In the car on the way Daughter was jubilant and excited that Mother was doing the right thing.  Yes, rehab is better than sitting home alone shooting dope, but I was much more somber and subdued.

At her home I had sat with her, held her and listened to her enough to convince myself that Mother had no interest in repentance.  Daughter was right.  My presence alone persuaded Mother to shower, dress and leave with us for the rehab facility.  But in the car I felt like I was delivering her up for more hardening.  In my admittedly limited experience I know no one who has returned to faith in Christ from the higher power mysticism of a twelve-step program.  I watched sadly the full realization of incarceration creep across her face as she was taken from us.  No matter what I say or how much I protest, Mother and Daughter believe I live a life of rules, while they are free.

I gave them My statutes, yehôvâh explained in the philosopher’s dream chapter of Ezekiel the prophet, and informed them of My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live.[9] I call it the philosopher’s dream chapter because yehôvâh explained so much of his own understanding of Israel’s history there.  Then the twelve-year-old Jesus had this chapter at his disposal to renew and refresh his now human mind.

The Hebrew word translated My statutes was chûqqâh (חקותי).  It was translated προστάγματά in the Septuagint.  The Hebrew word translated My ordinances was mishpâṭ (משפטי), and δικαιώματά, a form of δικαίωμα, in the Septuagint.  This was translated the righteous requirements in: Therefore if the uncircumcised man obeys the righteous requirements (δικαιώματα, a form of δικαίωμα) of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?[10]

In the same chapter yehôvâh explained: I also gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live.[11]  Here the Hebrew word translated statutes was chôq (חקים); chûqqâh is the feminine of chôq according to Strong’s Concordance.  It was still translated προστάγματα in the Septuagint.  And again, the word translated ordinances was mishpâṭ (ומשפטים) in Hebrew and δικαιώματα in the Septuagint.  I don’t think these are different statutes or different ordinances.

The commandment…was intended to bring life.[12]  The law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.[13]  But if a law had been given that was able to give life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.[14]  God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh.[15]  For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died.[16]  For we know that the law is spiritual – but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin.  For I don’t understand what I am doing.  For I do not do what I want – instead, I do what I hate.[17]

Also I gave them My Sabbaths, yehôvâh said in the philosopher’s dream chapter, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) who sanctifies them.[18]

In practice many professing faith in Jesus do not believe that yehôvâh/Jesus sanctifies[19] them.  We trust Him for justification only, primarily forgiveness.  We believe our sanctification is a measure of our own good works, obedience accomplished in our own strength for our own glory.  We do not believe that here and now a Sabbath rest remains for the people of God.  For the one who enters God’s rest has also rested from his works, just as God did from his own works.[20]  I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.  So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.[21]  Thus we must make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by following the same pattern of disobedience[22] (ἀπειθείας, a form of ἀπείθεια; literally, disbelief)  Do we then nullify the law through faith?  Absolutely not!  Instead we uphold the law.[23]

I want to consider the movie The Host as a Holy Spirit metaphor for one who does not yet experience Him.  There are many spoilers here and as a metaphor the film is fatally flawed.  But in the hope of communicating some small portion of the Ineffable, here goes.

“The earth is at peace,” a resistance leader named Jebediah (William Hurt) narrates the beginning of the film.  “There is no hunger.  There is no violence.  The environment is healed.  Honesty, courtesy and kindness are practiced by all.  Our world has never been more perfect.  Only it is no longer our world.  We’ve been invaded by an alien race.  They occupy the bodies of almost all human beings on the planet.  The few humans who have survived are on the run.”

Then we are introduced to Melanie (Saoirse Ronan) fleeing her enemies: honesty, courtesy and kindness.  Following her earthly father’s example, she attempts suicide but lives, despite her best efforts, only to be possessed by Wanderer (also Saoirse Ronan).  Melanie’s old human survives to fight Wanderer for control of their body.

The Seeker (Diane Kruger) interviews Wanderer to glean Melanie’s memories for knowledge of other old humans in the resistance underground.  When she decides that Melanie’s old human is too strong for Wanderer, she plans to put Wanderer in a more compliant host, search Melanie’s memories herself and then let Melanie die the death she wanted.  But Wanderer has begun to love Melanie.  They flee The Seeker together.

Melanie tricks Wanderer into the desert and leads her to Uncle Jebediah and the underground resistance.  Uncle Jeb uses all of his authority as a leader to keep others in the resistance from killing the obviously possessed Melanie/Wanderer.  Even Melanie’s lover Jared (Max Irons) has no sympathy for her at first.  In a get-to-know-you walk-and-talk Uncle Jeb shortens Wanderer’s name to Wanda.

Melanie begins to love Wanda as she witnesses Wanda’s concern for the people Melanie loves, even some she hates or is indifferent toward.  The metaphor breaks down, of course.  The holy spirits, called souls in the film, are many and varied, and some or not as holy as Wanda.  The Seeker ironically becomes almost human in her fears that she personally is losing control to her host Lacey (also Diane Kruger) and that the holy spirits may ultimately lose their possession of the humans.  In the end The Host becomes Satan’s wet dream as The Seeker’s fears become flesh: holy spirits collaborate with the resistance to rid humans of the holy spirits.

 

Mother is on the verge of bankruptcy.  I helped her in a similar position nearly twenty years ago.  She called me before I left for Christmas.  I offered to help again.  She accepted.  As I drove the hundred miles or so to my own mother’s house the evening after Mother committed herself to rehab I understood why we hadn’t met to review her finances yet.  I recalled the things I’ve said and done with Grandmother, Mother and Daughter, fretted over some things I hadn’t said or done and heard Darth Vader echoing in my head, saying, “Now his failure is complete.”

As far as I know I am the believer of record in their lives.  I will give an account of this stewardship before Jesus.  As the enormity of my failure to live a life that commends others to Jesus inundated me in crushing waves, the image of my mother scrubbing the basement floor on her hands and knees popped into my mind.  Of all the things she had said or done, of all the things I might have complained that she hadn’t said or done, this simple image stuck with me.

I had overdosed on some hallucinogen.  I had thrown up all night long on her basement floor.  My mother cleaning up after me became a living metaphor of my life.  I had returned to drugs because a simple taste a few days earlier brought back the feeling I had lost since my early days of trusting Jesus again.  I made many more bad decisions along the way.  But my mother never gave up on me.

As I drove through the dark hills thinking perhaps I had been spared from helping Mother again financially, the admonition of my penny-pinching father came to mind:

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

The words weren’t his but Rudyard Kipling’s.[24]  A man like me would be a fool to attempt Kipling’s vision of manhood apart from the Holy Spirit.  But the image of my mother’s loving persistence and my father’s words of counsel gave me some hope that I was there, the right person at the right place and time.  And that image and those words carried me through that dark night until the continuous infusion of the Holy Spirit’s love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and control took over again the next morning.

[1] Genesis 1:27 (NET)

[2] Matthew 3:7 (NET)

[3] Matthew 3:8 (NET)

[4] 2 Samuel 12:5a (NET) Table

[5] 2 Samuel 12:7a (NET) Table

[6] 2 Samuel 12:13a (NET) Table

[7] Psalm 51:5 (NET) Table

[8] In the Septuagint both chêsêd (וחסד) and ṭôb (טוב) were translated by the one Greek word ἔλεός.

[9] Ezekiel 20:11 (NASB)

[10] Romans 2:26 (NET) Table

[11] Ezekiel 20:25 (NASB)

[12] Romans 7:10 (NET)

[13] Romans 7:12 (NET)

[14] Galatians 3:21b (NET)

[15] Romans 8:3a (NET)

[16] Romans 7:11 (NET)

[17] Romans 7:14, 15 (NET)

[18] Ezekiel 20:12 (NASB)

[19] When I struggled the most with this concept my Pastor was from the Christian and Missionary Alliance.  Today, as I scanned their webpage titled “Sanctification,” nothing jumps out at me as problematic except my own spiritual tic.  My flesh and my religious mind hear obedience in step 3 “to A Spirit-Filled Life”—“We maintain a continuous relationship with Jesus through obedience to His Word”—as a trigger word, calling me back to a DIY works religion.  But now I just translate obedience back into Greek, ὑπακοή, attentive hearkening, and the trigger obey disappears.  I remain (μείνατε, a form of μένω) in Jesus through faith instead (which is the actual word used in John 15:1-11 the Scriptural source of step 3).

[Addendum 1/26/2017] I’m not so sure Paul would agree that 1 Corinthians 3:1-4 “clearly teaches that there are two kinds of Christians.”

[20] Hebrews 4:9, 10 (NET)

[21] Galatians 2:20 (NET)

[22] Hebrews 4:11 (NET)

[23] Romans 3:31 (NET)

[24] If, by Rudyard Kipling

Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 2

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Instruct these people as follows, yehôvâh had said to Moses: ‘You are about to cross the border of your relatives the descendants of Esau [Jacob’s brother], who inhabit Seir.  They will be afraid (yârêʼ, וייראו; Septuagint: φοβηθήσονται, afraid) of you, so watch yourselves carefully.’[1]

The rabbis who translated the Septuagint understood the last phrase, καὶ εὐλαβηθήσονται ὑμᾶς σφόδρα (“and they will be very cautious,” of you; i.e., of Israel).  Either works in context.  The origin of this fear was the destruction of the Egyptians in the Red Sea: The nations will hear, Moses and the Israelites sang to yehôvâh.  Israel by contrast overflowed with confidence (Exodus 15:13 NET):

By your loyal love you will lead the people whom you have redeemed; you will guide them by your strength to your holy dwelling place.

The Hebrew word translated By your loyal love was chêsêd (בחסדך).  Below is a table of forms of chêsêd and their translations in Genesis to the giving of the law.

chêsêd

 Hebrew KJV NET Tanakh

Septuagint
Genesis 19:19 חסדך mercy kindness mercy δικαιοσύνην
Genesis 20:13 חסדך kindness loyalty kindness δικαιοσύνην
Genesis 21:23 כחסד kindness loyalty kindness δικαιοσύνην
Genesis 24:12 חסד kindness Be faithful kindness ἔλεος
Genesis 24:14 חסד kindness you have been faithful kindness ἔλεος
Genesis 24:27 חסדו mercy faithful mercy δικαιοσύνην
Genesis 24:49 חסד kindly faithful kindly ἔλεος[2]
Genesis 32:10 החסדים mercies faithful mercies δικαιοσύνης
Genesis 39:21 חסד mercy kindness kindness ἔλεος
Genesis 40:14 חסד kindness kindness kindness ἔλεος
Genesis 47:29 חסד kindly kindness kindly ἐλεημοσύνην
Exodus 15:13 בחסדך mercy By your loyal love in Thy love δικαιοσύνῃ
Exodus 20:6 חסד mercy covenant faithfulness mercy ἔλεος

This equation of mercy, kindness, faithfulness, loyalty and loyal love with δικαιοσύνῃ, righteousness, is a profound lesson in itself for one who neglected what is more important in the law – justice, mercy, and faithfulness: the righteousness (δικαιοσύνη) of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith, just as it is written, “The righteous (δίκαιος) by faith will live.”[3]  Paul quoted Habakkuk 2:4.  The Tanakh reads, Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just (tsaddı̂yq, וצדיק) shall live by his faith.  The Septuagint translated into English reads, “If it draws back, my soul is not pleased in it, But the just shall live by my faith.”  The first part was translated, if he shrinks back, I take no pleasure in him[4] in the New Testament.

NET Parallel Greek

Septuagint
if he shrinks back, I take no pleasure in him.

Hebrews 10:38b

 ἐὰν ὑποστείληται, οὐκ εὐδοκεῖ ἡ ψυχή μου ἐν αὐτῷ

Hebrews 10:38b

 ἐὰν ὑποστείληται οὐκ εὐδοκεῖ ἡ ψυχή μου ἐν αὐτῷ

Habakkuk 2:4a Table
The righteous by faith will live

Romans 1:17b

 ὁ δὲ δίκαιος ἐκ πίστεως ζήσεται

Romans 1:17b

 ὁ δὲ δίκαιος ἐκ πίστεώς μου ζήσεται

Habakkuk 2:4b


The nations will hear and tremble,[5] the song Moses and the Israelites sang continued.  The Hebrew word translated tremble was râgaz (ירגזון).  As Joseph sent his brothers back to Canaan to bring their father and their families to Egypt, He said to them, “As you travel don’t be overcome with fear.”[6]  The Hebrew word translated be overcome with fear was also râgaz (תרגזו) but a footnote (31) acknowledged:

The verb means “stir up.” Some understand the Hebrew verb רָגָז (ragaz, “to stir up”) as a reference to quarreling (see Prov 29:9, where it has this connotation), but in Exod 15:14 and other passages it means “to fear.” This might refer to a fear of robbers, but more likely it is an assuring word that they need not be fearful about returning to Egypt. They might have thought that once Jacob was in Egypt, Joseph would take his revenge on them.

The rabbis who translated the Septuagint did not agree.  They chose ὀργίζεσθε (a form of ὀργίζω) in Genesis 45:24.  Be angry (ὀργίζεσθε) and do not sin,[7] Paul quoted the Psalm[8] in his letter to the Ephesians.

NET

 Parallel Greek

Septuagint
Be angry and do not sin…

Ephesians 4:26a

 ὀργίζεσθε καὶ μὴ ἁμαρτάνετε

Ephesians 4:26a

 ὀργίζεσθε καὶ μὴ ἁμαρτάνετε

Psalm 4:4a

And in Exodus 15:14 they chose ὠργίσθησαν (another form of ὀργίζω).  The nations were enraged[9] (τὰ ἔθνη ὠργίσθησαν) is nearer the rabbis’ understanding in the Septuagint ἤκουσαν ἔθνη καὶ ὠργίσθησαν.

The song continued, anguish will seize the inhabitants of Philistia.[10]  The Hebrew word translated anguish was chı̂yl (חיל).  It was translated pain (בחילה) in Job 6:10 and writhing (חיל) like a woman in childbirth in Psalm 48:6.  That is what the translators of the Septuagint picked up on with ὠδῖνες (a form of ὠδίν): Now when they are saying, “There is peace and security,” Paul wrote believers in Thessalonica, then sudden destruction comes on them, like labor pains (ὠδὶν) on a pregnant woman, and they will surely not escape.[11]

Then the chiefs of Edom will be terrified,[12] Moses’ song continued.  The Hebrew word translated terrified was bâhal (נבהלו).  It was also translated terrified (נבהל) in 1 Samuel 28:21, but they were dumbfounded (נבהלו) in Genesis 45:3 and panicked (ויבהל) in Judges 20:41.  That hasty confused state of mind seemed to be what the rabbis responded to in the Septuagint with ἔσπευσαν (a form of σπεύδω).  Hurry (σπεῦσον, another form of σπεύδω), Jesus said to Saul [Paul] in a vision, and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.[13]

The song continued, trembling will seize the leaders of Moab.[14]  Here the Hebrew word translated trembling was raʽad (רעד).  It was translated shake uncontrollably (רעדה) in Psalm 48:6 and panic (רעדה) in Isaiah 33:14.  It was translated τρόμος in the Septuagint.  Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went out and ran from [Jesus’] tomb, for terror (τρόμος) and bewilderment had seized them.[15]

Moses and the people sang, and the inhabitants of Canaan will shake.[16]  The Hebrew word translated will shake was mûg (נמגו).  It was translated are cringing (נמגו) in Joshua 2:9 and seemed to melt (נמוג) in 1 Samuel 14:16.  This was the sense the rabbis understood in the Septuagint: “all those inhabiting Canaan melted away” (ἐτάκησαν, a form of τήκω), whether by death, defection or fleeing as refugees.  Peter prophesied, the heavens will be burned up and dissolve, and the celestial bodies will melt away (τήκεται, another form of τήκω) in a blaze![17]

Fear and dread will fall on them; by the greatness of your arm they will be as still as stone until your people pass by, O Lord, until the people whom you have bought pass by.[18]  In the Septuagint this was understood as a request for more supernatural fear and trembling: “May fear and trembling fall upon them.”[19]  The Hebrew word translated fear (ʼêymâh, אימתה) was translated my terror in yehôvâh’s promise: I will send my terror (ʼêymâh, אימתי) before you, and I will destroy all the people whom you encounter.[20]  This terror was associated with an angel: For my angel will go before you and bring you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I will destroy them completely.[21]  Fear was φόβος in the Septuagint.   And Zechariah, visibly shaken when he saw the angel, was seized with fear (φόβος).[22]  The Hebrew word translated dread was pachad (ופחד), which was translated τρόμος in the Septuagint.

There was a lot of anger, pain, panic, trembling and defection among the people who heard about the Egyptians drowned in the Red Sea.  There was fear and dread of supernatural origin besides.  The fear (yirʼâh, יראת; Septuagint: φόβος) of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.[23]  I heard that often with no trace of irony.  Apparently the NET translators heard it the same way for they went a step farther and translated yirʼâh to obey: To obey the Lord is the fundamental principle for wise living.[24]

An oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked, David penned, There is no fear (pachad, פחד; Septuagint: φόβος) of God before his eyes.[25]  I didn’t hear this simply as a factual diagnosis but as a prescription for more fear.  I don’t think I’m entirely alone in this.  I had a pastor once who took No Fear sportswear as a personal insult.  Perhaps he was considering the quotation credited to Albert Camus: “Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear.”

I didn’t find the context for this quote online so I’m just guessing, but I suppose that Camus didn’t know many French citizens who became committed NAZIs during the occupation out of fear, only resistance fighters and collaborators.  We see the same phenomenon in the Old Testament if we will see it: some rebelled against God, others adopted a hypocritical religiosity.  What is born of the flesh is flesh[26] and the works of the flesh[27] erupt eventually through the hypocritical veneer of any religion (Romans 3:10-18 NET).

“There is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God.  All have turned away, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, not even one.”

“Their throats are open graves, they deceive with their tongues, the poison of asps is under their lips.”

“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”

“Their feet are swift to shed blood, ruin and misery are in their paths, and the way of peace they have not known.”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

This is the diagnosis.  The prescription is given in Jesus’ summary of Israel’s history: You must all be born from above,[28] not more fear but more God, the righteousness (δικαιοσύνη) of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe,[29] more of our daily bread, more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and Holy Spirit control, not pumped up artificially by some virtue of mine like some little engine that could, but flowing freely and continuously from those rivers of living water,[30] his Holy Spirit.  For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.[31]

If I may assume that yehôvâh’s instruction, how to behave[32] in Edom, implies yehôvâh’s intent that Israel pass through Edom, then the result of all of this anger, pain, panic, trembling, defection, fear and dread was exactly what one believing Jesus’ summary of Israel’s history would expect: Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border.[33]  Edom said to [Israel], “You will not pass through me, or I will come out against you with the sword.”[34]  Fear (φόβος), John explained, has to do with punishment.[35]

Though fear did not supply Esau’s descendants with enough faith in yehôvâh to allow Israel to cross through their land of Edom, it kept them from attacking Israel and being destroyed by yehôvâh.  Fear can produce collaborators.  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom if the collaborators don’t settle down to live in it (1 John 4:15-19).  In that case they may have been better off as resistance fighters (Revelation 3:14-22).

Back to Who Am I? Part 4

Back to Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 5

[1] Deuteronomy 2:4 (NET)

[2] Here ʼemeth (ואמת) was translated δικαιοσύνην.

[3] Romans 1:17 (NET)

[4] Hebrews 10:38b (NET)

[5] Exodus 15:14a (NET)  Also in the Tanakh, tremble

[6] Genesis 45:24b (NET) In the Tanakh, fall not out

[7] Ephesians 4:26a (NET)

[8] Psalm 4:4 Also râgaz (רגזו) in Hebrew, translated Stand in awe in the Tanakh and Tremble with fear in the NET.

[9] Revelation 11:18 (NET)

[10] Exodus 15:14b (NET)

[11] 1 Thessalonians 5:3 (NET)

[12] Exodus 15:15a (NET)

[13] Acts 22:18b (NET) Table

[14] Exodus 15:15b (NET)

[15] Mark 16:8a (NET)

[16] Exodus 15:15c (NET)

[17] 2 Peter 3:12b (NET)

[18] Exodus 15:16 (NET)

[19] Exodus 16:16a (NETS)

[20] Exodus 23:27a (NET)

[21] Exodus 23:23 (NET)

[22] Luke 1:12 (NET)

[23] Psalm 111:10a (NKJV)

[24] Psalm 111.10a (NET)

[25] Psalm 36:1 (NKJV)

[26] John 3:6a (NET)

[27] Galatians 5:19-21 (NET)

[28] John 3:7b (NET)

[29] Romans 3:22a (NET)

[30] John 7:37-39 (NET)

[31] Romans 8:14 (NET)

[32] Deuteronomy 2:4-7 (NET)

[33] Numbers 20;21a (NET)

[34] Numbers 20:18 (NET)

[35] 1 John 4:18b (NET)

Romans, Part 84

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For I tell you, Paul continued writing to believers in Rome, that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and thus the Gentiles glorify God for his mercy.[1]  These are two seemingly independent clauses joined by the conjunction δὲ, “but, moreover, and.”  Any of these would be easier to understand than and thus, indicating that the second clause is logically dependent upon the first.  But rather than reject it I’m inclined to slow down and consider it very carefully.

The translators acknowledge the difficulty in a footnote (6): “There are two major syntactical alternatives which are both awkward: (1) One could make ‘glorify’ dependent on ‘Christ has become a minister’ and coordinate with ‘to confirm’ and the result would be rendered ‘Christ has become a minister of circumcision to confirm the promises…and so that the Gentiles might glorify God.’ (2) One could make ‘glorify’ dependent on ‘I tell you’ and coordinate with ‘Christ has become a minister’ and the result would be rendered ‘I tell you that Christ has become a minister of circumcision…and that the Gentiles glorify God.’ The second rendering is preferred.”

I began with a survey of the promises made to the fathers (πατέρων, a form of πατήρ):

…the promises made to the fathers… (τὰς ἐπαγγελίας τῶν πατέρων)
Abram Genesis 12:1-3, 7; 13:14-17; 15:1-7, 18-20; 17:1-8[2]
Abraham Genesis 17:18-21; 18:10-14, 17-19, 26-32; 21:12-13; 22:15-18
Isaac Genesis 26:2-5, 24
Jacob/Israel Genesis 28:13-15; 31:3; 35:9-12; 46:2-4

Some of the promises were personal and came to pass in the father’s own lifetime.  But look, the word of the Lord came to [Abram]: “[Eliezer of Damascus] will not be your heir, but instead a son who comes from your own body will be your heir.”[3]   Is anything impossible for the Lord? He said to Abraham.  I will return to you when the season comes round again and Sarah will have a son.[4]  The Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives.  I will be with you.”[5]  The promises made to all three concerned the land, their descendants and a singular descendant.

The Lord’s angel called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “‘I solemnly swear by my own name,’ decrees the Lord, ‘that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will greatly multiply your descendants (zeraʽ, זרעך; Septuagint: σπέρμα, singular) so that they will be as countless as the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants (zeraʽ, זרעך; Septuagint: σπέρμα, singular) will take possession (yârash, וירש; Septuagint: κληρονομήσει, a form of κληρονομέω, 3rd person singular) of the strongholds of their enemies.  Because you have obeyed me, all the nations of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using the name of your descendants (zeraʽ, בזרעך; Septuagint: σπέρματί, singular).’”[6]

“This word,” [zeraʽ, זרעך] C. John Collins wrote, “in the singular can refer to offspring, either in a collective sense or as a specific descendant (much as the English word ‘offspring’).”[7]  I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore, is an example of the singular in a “collective sense.”  [Desmond] “Alexander argues,” Mr Collins continued, “that the second and third instances of ‘offspring’ are used for a specific offspring.”[8]  Given that, and without any academic credentials to defend, I wonder about some of the other promises.  The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) appeared to Isaac and said (Genesis 26:2-5 NET):

“Do not go down to Egypt; settle down in the land that I will point out to you.  Stay in this land.  Then I will be with you and will bless you, for I will give all these lands to you and to your descendants (zeraʽ, ולזרעך; Septuagint: σπέρματί, singular), and I will fulfill the solemn promise I made to your father Abraham.  I will multiply your descendants (zeraʽ, זרעך; Septuagint: σπέρμα, singular) so they will be as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them (zeraʽ, לזרעך; Septuagint: σπέρματί, singular) all these lands.  All the nations of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using the name of your descendants (zeraʽ, בזרעך; Septuagint: σπέρματί, singular).  All this will come to pass because Abraham obeyed me and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

Did yehôvâh promise that, All the nations of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using the name of [Isaac, Esau and Jacob]…because Abraham obeyed Him?  The Tanakh is considerably more circumspect in translation: and by thy seed shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves; because that Abraham hearkened to My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.  To Jacob yehôvâh said (Genesis 28:13-15 NET):

“I am the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה), the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father Isaac.  I will give you and your descendants (zeraʽ, ולזרעך; Septuagint: σπέρματί, singular) the ground you are lying on.  Your descendants (zeraʽ, זרעך; Septuagint: σπέρμα, singular) will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west, east, north, and south.  All the families of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using your name and that of your descendants (zeraʽ, ובזרעך; Septuagint: σπέρματί, singular).  I am with you!  I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land.  I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you!”

Did yehôvâh promise that, All the families of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using the name Israel?  Again, the Tanakh is more circumspect in translation: And in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.  Why would Gentiles translate the Scripture this way?  Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his descendant, Paul wrote believers in Galatia.  Scripture does not say, “and to the descendants,” referring to many, but “and to your descendant,” referring to one, who is Christ.[9]

Why would contemporary Gentiles, the primary beneficiaries of these particular promises, change yehôvâh’s promises? and [Jesus Christ] shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in [Jesus Christ] shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because [Abraham] hast hearkened to [His] voice.[10]  And, by [Jesus Christ] shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves; because that Abraham hearkened to [His] voice, and kept [His] charge, [His] commandments, [His] statutes, and [His] laws.[11]  And in [Israel] and in [Jesus Christ] shall all the families of the earth be blessed.[12]

And since I’ve gone down this rabbit hole I might as well complete the set: all the families of the earth will bless one another by your name[13]  [i.e., Abram], where the Tanakh reads: in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.  It seems absurd to continue to defend one word thus.  But I didn’t start down this path trusting the translators of the NET.  What I called an inclination is a leading I have learned to trust following Jesus through the Scripture.  Still, I doubt this is what Paul had in mind. 

“Look, your house is left to you desolate!” Jesus had said to the circumcised. “For I tell you, you will not see me from now until you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!’”[14]  “Look, your house is forsaken!  And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!’”[15]  It would be difficult for one who did not believe that Jesus is yehôvâh to understand how He has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth to confirm the promises made to Abram/Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel.

The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants (zeraʽ, לזרעך; Septuagint: σπέρματί, singular) I will give this land.”[16]  Isolated as this promise is I’m inclined to hear לזרעך as both, “in a collective sense” and “as a specific descendant.”  The idea that yehôvâh promised to give this land to yehôvâh come to earth in human flesh as Jesus the Messiah is admittedly unintelligible.  But the idea that yehôvâh promised Abram that one of his descendents, to whom the land was given, is yehôvâh come to earth in human flesh as Jesus the Messiah is powerful indeed.  Jesus is ever worthy, ever producing the fruit of the kingdom of God.  At a moment when the rest of the descendants of Israel were about to lose the vineyard as they would lose the kingdom of God Jesus has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth to confirm the promises made to Abram/Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel.

After Lot had departed, the Lord said to Abram, “Look from the place where you stand to the north, south, east, and west [Table].  I will give all the land that you see to you and your descendants (zeraʽ, ולזרעך; Septuagint: σπέρματί, singular) forever [Table].  And I will make your descendants (zeraʽ, זרעך; Septuagint: σπέρμα, singular) like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone is able to count the dust of the earth, then your descendants (zeraʽ, זרעך; Septuagint: σπέρμα, singular) also can be counted [Table].  Get up and walk throughout the land, for I will give it to you” [Table].[17]  That day the Lord made a covenant with Abram: “To your descendants (zeraʽ, לזרעך; Septuagint: σπέρματί, singular) I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River [Table]– the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, [Table] Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,[Table] Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites [Table].”[18]  And finally (Genesis 17:8 NET):

I will give the whole land of Canaan – the land where you are now residing – to you and your descendants (zeraʽ, ולזרעך; Septuagint: σπέρματί, singular) after you as a permanent possession.  I will be their (Septuagint: αὐτοῖς, plural) God.”

“So how did it come about,” Manfred Davidmann asked rhetorically, “that the Jewish people were expelled twice from the country God promised them with their grip on the country weakening at the present time?  Without a shadow of a doubt the Jewish people lost the country in the past because they did not fulfil their part of the bargain, because they broke the terms of the Covenant…In the language of religion, the land of Israel does not belong to anyone other than God.  Those who live in it may use and benefit from the land but only as long as they follow God’s laws.”[19]

Mr. Davidmann might have taught my Sunday school class.  The “Torah states a scientific law, the Social Cause-and-effect Relationship {1}, which is that the consequences of keeping or not keeping the Torah laws are inescapable, that what happens to one is in the end the inevitable result of one’s own behaviour…this is a scientific law which was defined and stated using the language of religion to get the message across to listeners in such a way that they could understand at least the effects of this ’cause-and-effect relationship’.”  He may have raised a few eyebrows with the adjective scientific but all in all I think my elders would have gone along with him.  I have a few comments about Mr. Davidmann’s abbreviated version of the law:

The essential social provisions of Torah law are clear and to the point.  This is what the Torah lays down as a matter of law {1}:

  1. The community has to provide (‘lend’) money to those who need it, free of interest.
  2. All such loans, if outstanding, are to be cancelled every seventh year.
  3. The country’s wealth, and this applies particularly to productive capital such as land, belongs equally to all and needs to be shared out.
  4. Inhabitants are also entitled to have a sabbatical year every seventh year. During this sabbatical year they are entitled to be freed from work at the expense of the community.

Every person is entitled as a matter of right to social security.  This means that people are entitled to be supported by the community not only when they fall on hard times but also to maintain their independence as independent breadwinners for their families.  For example, the community has to provide backup funds to those who need them and they have to be provided as and when required.

To prevent people being exploited through their need these funds have to be provided without charging interest and such ‘loans’ are cancelled every seventh year if the borrower has been unable to repay them.

It is the inhabitants who keep the social laws, who keep Torah law, who are entitled to these rights.

As for item #4 there is a qualitative and substantive difference between farmers trusting yehôvâh enough to let their lands go fallow one year in seven and an angry mob demanding their “rights” to a year’s vacation at “community” expense.  Aside from that federal, state and municipal governments in the United States of America provide most of these welfare benefits in spirit if not to the letter of the law.  But none of this is sufficient to fulfill the law.  It was the so-called moral law ignored by Mr. Davidmann that prescribed the death penalty for so many offenses, for the letter kills quite literally.

So here I am, one of the believing Gentiles [who] glorify God for his mercy (ἐλέους, a form of ἔλεος).  And this, because the righteousness of God which fulfills the law does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy (ἐλεῶντος, a form of ἐλεέω).[20]  No one can come to me, Jesus said, unless the Father who sent me draws him.[21]  So then, God has mercy (ἐλεεῖ, another form of ἐλεέω) on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden.[22]  And what if he is willing to make known the wealth of his glory on the objects of mercy (ἐλέους, a form of ἔλεος) that he has prepared beforehand for glory – even us, whom he has called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?[23]

By that mercy I have been called to faith in Jesus Christ, forgiven of my sins, born from above, filled continuously with the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control of his Holy Spirit.  This only I want to learn from you, Paul wrote teetering believers in Galatia: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?  Are you so foolish?  Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?  Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?[24]  It would be treasonous for me to turn back now and pretend that I might fulfill the law by obeying it, whether in part or in total.

So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.[25]  Through the law comes the knowledge of sin.  But now apart from the law the righteousness of God (which is attested by the law and the prophets) has been disclosed – namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe.[26]  I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.  So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  I do not set aside God’s grace, because if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing![27]

I’ll return to this in another essay.

[1] Romans 15:8, 9a (NET)

[2] This is an interesting article I stumbled across searching for confirmation that σπέρμα, σπέρματί and σπέρματός are singular.  http://www.lionelwindsor.net/2010/03/16/the-singular-seed-of-galatians-316/

[3] Genesis 15:4 (NET) Table

[4] Genesis 18:14 (NET)

[5] Genesis 31:3 (NET)

[6] Genesis 22:15-18 (NET)

[7] C. John Collins, “GALATIANS 3:16: WHAT KIND OF EXEGETE WAS PAUL?” Tyndale Bulletin 54.1 (2003), p. 84

[8] Ibid., p. 85

[9] Galatians 3:16 (NET)

[10] Genesis 22:17b, 18 (Tanakh)

[11] Genesis 26:4b, 5 (Tanakh)

[12] Genesis 28:14b (Tanakh)

[13] Genesis 12:3b (NET) Table

[14] Matthew 23:38, 39 (NET)

[15] Luke 13:35 (NET)

[16] Genesis 12:7a (NET) Table

[17] Genesis 13:14-17 (NET)

[18] Genesis 15:18-21 (NET)

[19] http://www.solhaam.org/articles/land.html

[20] Romans 9:16 (NET) Table

[21] John 6:44a (NET)

[22] Romans 9:18 (NET)

[23] Romans 9:23, 24 (NET)

[24] Galatians 3:2-4 (NKJV)

[25] Romans 7:12 (NET)

[26] Romans 3:20b-22 (NET)

[27] Galatians 2:20, 21 (NET)

Paul’s Religious Mind Revisited, Part 4

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Here are two different descriptions Paul wrote of himself, separated by an affliction.

Before the Affliction

 The Affliction

After the Affliction
“All things are lawful for me” – but I will not be controlled by anything.

1 Corinthians 6:12b (NET)

 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, regarding the affliction that happened to us in the province of Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of living.  Indeed we felt as if the sentence of death had been passed against us, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.  He delivered us from so great a risk of death, and he will deliver us.

2 Corinthians 1:8-10a (NET)

 For we know that the law is spiritual – but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin.  For I don’t understand what I am doing.  For I do not do what I want – instead, I do what I hate.  But if I do what I don’t want, I agree that the law is good.  But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me.  For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh.  For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it.  For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want!  Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me.

Romans 7:14-20 (NET)

I’ve listed these passages as “Before…” and “After the Affliction” because Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.[1]  I actually think that all of 1 Corinthians may have been written from somewhere deep within that affliction.  Paul’s pride—I will not be controlled by anything—was relative—I am…sold into slavery to sin.  I don’t believe it was pride in his own strength.  The sense of invincibility that comes with the Holy Spirit’s ἐγκράτεια is all too familiar (and I don’t do miracles or see visions or write Scripture).  The Greek word translated controlled is ἐξουσιασθήσομαι (a form of ἐξουσιάζω).  When Jesus’ disciples debated which of them was to be regarded as the greatest[2] (μείζων, a form of μέγας), He said (Luke 22:25-27 NET):

The kings of the Gentiles lord it over (κυριεύουσιν, a form of κυριεύω) them, and those in authority over (ἐξουσιάζοντες, another form of ἐξουσιάζω) them are called ‘benefactors.’  Not so with you; instead the one who is greatest (μείζων, a form of μέγας) among you must become like the youngest, and the leader (ἡγούμενος, a form of ἡγέομαι) like the one who serves (διακονῶν, a form of διακονέω).  For who is greater (μείζων, a form of μέγας), the one who is seated at the table, or the one who serves (διακονῶν, a form of διακονέω)?  Is it not the one who is seated at the table?  But I am among you as one who serves (διακονῶν, a form of διακονέω).

The other occurrences of forms of ἐξουσιάζω refer to control over a husband’s or wife’s body because of πορνείας (a form of πορνεία) in Corinth.  It is not the wife who has the rights (ἐξουσιάζει, another form of ἐξουσιάζω) to her own body, but the husband.  In the same way, it is not the husband who has the rights (ἐξουσιάζει, another form of ἐξουσιάζω) to his own body, but the wife.[3]  The NKJV reads: The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does.  And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.[4]  The negation οὐκ ἐξουσιάζει is absolute.  I don’t believe such slavery is to be exercised apart from mutual consent on a moment by moment basis.  To force my wife to have sex with me by the strength of my arm or a “law of Paul” is not love.

The Greek word translated sold into slavery is πεπραμένος (a form of πιπράσκω).  Because he was not able to repay it, Jesus told a parable about the kingdom of heaven, the lord ordered him to be sold (πραθῆναι, another form of πιπράσκω), along with his wife, children, and whatever he possessed, and repayment to be made.[5]  The slave (δοῦλος) asked his lord for mercy.  The lord had compassion on that slave (δούλου, another form of δοῦλος) and released him, and forgave him the debt[6] until that slave would not forgive a fellow slave.

I’ve referred to Romans 7 often (in Romans, Part 28 most fully) as a description of a “house divided, one born of the flesh and of the Spirit”: 1) our old man (παλαιὸς ἡμῶν ἄνθρωπος; literally, “our old human”) was crucified with [Jesus] so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved (δουλεύειν, a form of δουλεύω) to sin;[7] and 2) the new man (τὸν καινὸν ἄνθρωπον; literally, “the new human”) who has been created in God’s image – in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth.[8]  The one thing I would correct here is: “I believe, however, that through faith I, the new man or woman, lay claim to more and more of my mind and my members.”

I want to correct what I was apparently thinking more than what I actually wrote.  I assumed without grounds that the maturity of the new human through faith led to more independence.  I’ve tripped over this assumption often without ever acknowledging it.  The sentence of death has been passed against us who believe: Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.[9]  Identifying with the new me cannot mean simply transferring allegiance from the old me to the new me who has been created in God’s image.

The new me is spirit, born of the Spirit; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.  Maturity of the new human leads to more and more dependence upon his Holy Spirit.  As 1 Corinthians 13 is a practical description of love, Romans 7:14-20 is a practical description of humbling oneself before God because it accurately describes the human condition vis-à-vis God the Father.  We tear down arguments and every arrogant obstacle that is raised up against the knowledge of God, Paul wrote believers in Corinth, and we take every thought captive to make it obey (ὑπακοὴν, a form of ὑπακοή) Christ.[10]

The verb obey would have been a form of ὑπακούω, “to hear under (as a subordinate), that is, to listen attentively.”  The clause καὶ αἰχμαλωτίζοντες πᾶν νόημα εἰς τὴν ὑπακοὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ reads “and we lead away captive each thought into the attentive hearkening of Christ.”  I’m not even depending on my attentive hearkening or obedience as a new human, but on Christ’s attentive hearkening or obedience through his Spirit, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father.  With this in mind I’ll continue to look at “Paul’s Regime” and “Jesus’ Regime.”

Paul’s Regime

Jesus’ Regime
I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.  In no way did I mean the immoral people of this world, or the greedy and swindlers and idolaters, since you would then have to go out of the world.  But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who calls himself a Christian who is sexually immoral, or greedy, or an idolater, or verbally abusive, or a drunkard, or a swindler.  Do not even eat with such a person.  For what do I have to do with judging those outside?  Are you not to judge those inside?  But God will judge those outside.  Remove the evil person from among you.

1 Corinthians 5:9-13 (NET) Table1 Table2

 And to the one who conquers and who continues in my deeds until the end, I will give him authority over the nations – he will rule them with an iron rod and like clay jars he will break them to pieces, just as I have received the right to rule from my Father – and I will give him the morning star.  The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Revelation 2:26-29 (NET)

 

Here Paul gave a fragment of the letter that preceded 1 Corinthians: [Do] not…associate with sexually immoral people (πόρνοις, a form of πόρνος).  He didn’t mean the πόρνοις of this world, but didn’t make that clear apparently.  In other words, what was written in the prior letter was the teaching (yeast, Matthew 16:5-12) of the Pharisees: Now when the Pharisee who had invited [Jesus] saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.”[11]  Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming to hear [Jesus].  But the Pharisees and the experts in the law were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”[12]

The teaching of the Pharisees also helps explain why Paul used ζύμη in such a peculiar way, the yeast (ζύμῃ) of vice and evil.  For Jesus, The kingdom of heaven is like yeast (ζύμῃ), and, the kingdom of God…is like yeast (ζύμῃ).  He warned his disciples, Be on your guard against the [teaching] (ζύμης, another form of ζύμη) of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy (ὑπόκρισις).[13]

Israel was instructed to eat the Passover dressed to travel, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand.  You are to eat it in haste.[14]  The meaning of unleavened bread, bread without yeast, in the Passover meal was that the swiftness of Israel’s liberation from Egyptian captivity would not allow time for their bread to rise.  It is stated clearly in Exodus 12:33, 34 (NET):

The Egyptians were urging the people on, in order to send them out of the land quickly, for they were saying, “We are all dead!”  So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, with their kneading troughs bound up in their clothing on their shoulders.

While it is understandable that after centuries of eating unleavened bread at a holy festival, “In later times, ‘leaven’ and ‘corruption’ were regarded as synonymous terms,”[15] it is also fairly clearly the thought of religious minds.  It was not ignorance: “During the festival of Maẓẓot [Passover] it was strictly forbidden to eat anything leavened…The reason for this prohibition is given in Ex. xii. 34-39…”[16]  It was an active preference for the teaching of revered religious leaders or other human authorities, the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees and Herod.

To believers in Galatia Paul wrote about the teaching of the one who is confusing (ταράσσων, a form of ταράσσω) you,[17] that Gentile believers in Galatia should be circumcised, and called it ζύμη: A little yeast (ζύμη) makes the whole batch of dough rise![18]  Though he was confident in the Lord the Galatians would reject that teaching in favor of his own, the former Pharisee did not yet call his ζύμη.

But now I am writing to you, Paul continued to believers in Corinth, not to associate with anyone who calls himself a Christian (ἀδελφὸς) who is sexually immoral (πόρνος), or greedy, or an idolater (εἰδωλολάτρης), or verbally abusive, or a drunkard, or a swindler.  Do not even eat with such a person.[19]  The Greek word translated to associate with is συναναμίγνυσθαι (a form of συναναμίγνυμι).  The same word was translated do [not] associate closely in a letter to believers in Thessalonica: But if anyone does not obey our message through this letter, take note of him and do not associate closely (συναναμίγνυσθαι, a form of συναναμίγνυμι) with him, so that he may be ashamed.  Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother (ἀδελφόν, another form of ἀδελφός).[20]  Paul used μὴ the qualified negation in both instances.

The former sounds like excommunication while the latter sounds like some kind of in-house suspension.  But I can’t blame the translators.  To the Corinthians Paul wrote, Remove the evil person from among you.[21]  To the Thessalonians he wrote, do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.  To the Corinthians he wrote of πόρνος and εἰδωλολάτρης.  Jesus had John write to the angel of the church in Thyatira about a woman who by her teaching deceives my servants (δούλους, another form of δοῦλος) to commit sexual immorality (πορνεῦσαι, a form of πορνεύω) and to eat food sacrificed to idols (εἰδωλόθυτα, a form of εἰδωλόθυτον).[22]  I am throwing…those who commit adultery (μοιχεύοντας, a form of μοιχεύω) with her into terrible suffering, unless they repent of her deeds.  Furthermore, I will strike her followers (τέκνα, a form of τέκνον; literally, children) with a deadly disease (θανάτῳ, a form of θάνατος; literally, death)…[23]

Jesus’ distinction between his deceived servants—terrible suffering (θλῖψιν μεγάλην)—and Jezebel’s followers—deadly disease (θανάτῳ, death)—was part of what caught my attention and encouraged me to compare and contrast Jesus’ and Paul’s regimes.  Who but Jesus could make this judgment?  Outwardly both groups were committing adultery with (μετ᾿, a form of μετά) her, possibly but not necessarily as her partner, inspired by her teaching, probably within a group she led.  What I didn’t fully appreciate until doing this study was how fluid and continuous these groups were over time.  Individuals in either group may have repented and Jesus’ deceived servants may have continued in Jezebel’s teaching and become her followers.  Paul’s fear that false teaching might also function as yeast is not completely unfounded.  The human preference for human teachers as opposed to being led (John 16:12-16) by the Holy Spirit is not something I can wish away.

I’ll pick this up in another essay.

[1] Proverbs 16:18 (NET) Table

[2] Luke 22:24b (NET)

[3] 1 Corinthians 7:4 (NET)

[4] 1 Corinthians 7:4 (NKJV)

[5] Matthew 18:25 (NET) Table

[6] Matthew 18:27 (NET)

[7] Romans 6:6 (NET)

[8] Ephesians 4:24 (NET)

[9] Romans 6:3, 4 (NET)

[10] 2 Corinthians 10:4b, 5 (NET)  Both noun and verb are found in Romans 6:16 – ὑπακοήν and ὑπακοῆς (forms of ὑπακοή), ὑπακούετε (a form of ὑπακούω). Also Hebrews 5:8, 9 – ὑπακοήν (a form of ὑπακοή), ὑπακούουσιν (a form of ὑπακούω).

[11] Luke 7:39 (NET)

[12] Luke 15:1, 2 (NET)

[13] Luke 12:1 (NET)  The actual word order is: “the yeast which is hypocrisy of the Pharisees.”  The argument could be made that yeast means hypocrisy in this case.  I’m sticking with teaching on the assumption that Jesus would have said simply hypocrisy if that’s all He meant to say.

[14] Exodus 12:11 (NET)

[15] http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9694-leaven

[16] http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9694-leaven

[17] Galatians 5:10b (NET)

[18] Galatians 5:9 (NET)

[19] 1 Corinthians 5:11 (NET) Table

[20] 2 Thessalonians 3:14, 15 (NET)

[21] 1 Corinthians 5:13b (NET) Table

[22] Revelation 2:20 (NET)

[23] Revelation 2:22, 23a (NET)

Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 1

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Then we left Horeb, Moses said, and passed through all that immense, forbidding (yârêʼ, והנורא) wilderness that you saw on the way to the Amorite hill country as the Lord our God had commanded us to do, finally arriving at Kadesh Barnea.[1]  The word forbidding gives the impression that the fearfulness of the wilderness was primarily environmental.  But I would be remiss in a study of fear to ignore what happened in that immense, forbidding wilderness (Numbers 11:1, 2 NET).

When the people complained, it displeased the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה).  When the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) heard it, his anger burned, and so the fire of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) burned among them and consumed some of the outer parts of the camp.  When the people cried to Moses, he prayed to the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה), and the fire died out.

Without minimizing the fearfulness of this incident the word complained may be a little misleading, particularly in light of the subject headings: The Israelites Complain, Complaints about Food and Moses’ Complaint to the Lord.  The Tanakh reads: And the people were as murmurers, speaking evil in the ears of HaShem;[2] and when HaShem heard it, His anger was kindled… The implication seems to be that the people thought yehôvâh would not or could not hear them.  And the people cried unto Moses; and Moses prayed unto HaShem, and the fire abated.  They got that message.  Their complaints about food were made more or less to Moses (Numbers 11:4-6 NET).

Now the mixed multitude who were among them craved more desirable foods, and so the Israelites wept again and said, “If only we had meat to eat!  We remember the fish we used to eat freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.  But now we are dried up, and there is nothing at all before us except this manna!”

Moses did not respond as a murmurer.  He took his frustration directly to yehôvâh (Numbers 11:11-15 NET):

“Why have you afflicted your servant?  Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of this entire people on me?  Did I conceive this entire people?  Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your arms, as a foster father bears a nursing child,’ to the land which you swore to their fathers?  From where shall I get meat to give to this entire people, for they cry to me, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat!’  I am not able to bear this entire people alone, because it is too heavy for me!  But if you are going to deal with me like this, then kill me immediately.  If I have found favor in your sight then do not let me see my trouble.”

The fire of yehôvâh did not fall upon Moses.  He received help instead.  I’ve written elsewhere about the help Moses received.  Here I want to return to fear.  “And say to the people,” yehôvâh said to Moses (Numbers 11:18-20 NET):

‘…you have wept in the hearing of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה), saying, “Who will give us meat to eat, for life was good for us in Egypt?”  Therefore the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) will give you meat, and you will eat.  You will eat, not just one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes out your nostrils and makes you sick, because you have despised the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we ever come out of Egypt?”’”

Even Moses was concerned about making such a promise publicly.  “The people around me are 600,000 on foot,” He said, “but you say, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month.’  Would they have enough if the flocks and herds were slaughtered for them?  If all the fish of the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?”[3]

“Is the Lord’s (yehôvâh, יהוה) hand shortened?” yehôvâh replied.  “Now you will see whether my word to you will come true or not!”  So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord (yehôvâh).[4]  The mere fact of complaining was not so much the issue as the manner of the complaint and the faithfulness of the complainant (Numbers 11:31-33 NET).

Now a wind went out from the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) and brought quail from the sea, and let them fall near the camp, about a day’s journey on this side, and about a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, and about three feet high on the surface of the ground.  And the people stayed up all that day, all that night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail.  The one who gathered the least gathered ten homers, and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp.  But while the meat was still between their teeth, before they chewed it, the anger of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) burned against the people, and the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) struck the people with a very great plague.

I’ve written about Miriam’s challenge to Moses’ authority and what happened to her elsewhere.  The people of Israel had ample opportunity to fear yehôvâh in that immense, forbidding wilderness.  And here I am thinking of what yehôvâh told Isaiah, admittedly, many centuries later (Isaiah 8:12, 13 NET):

“Do not say, ‘Conspiracy,’ every time these people say the word.  Don’t be afraid (yârêʼ, תיראו) of what scares (môrâʼ, מוראו) them; don’t be terrified (ʽârats, תעריצו).  You must recognize the authority (môrâʼ, מוראכם) of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) who commands armies.  He is the one you must respect (ʽârats, מערצכם); he is the one you must fear.”

In the Septuagint the Hebrew word yârêʼ (והנורא; translated forbidding in Deuteronomy 1:19) was translated φοβερὰν (a form of φοβερός) in Greek.  Though φοβερὰν doesn’t occur in the New Testament, other forms of φοβερός do (Hebrews 10:26-31 NET):

For if we deliberately keep on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins is left for us, but only a certain fearful (φοβερὰ, another form of φοβερός) expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume God’s enemies.  Someone who rejected the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.  How much greater punishment do you think that person deserves who has contempt for the Son of God, and profanes the blood of the covenant that made him holy, and insults the Spirit of grace?  For we know the one who said, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”  It is a terrifying (φοβερὸν, another form of φοβερός) thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

The people of Israel were plagued by a fearful expectation of judgment rather than a fear of yehôvâh that entailed faith or reverence.  And that fearful expectation of judgment led to a chronic mistrust of yehôvâh’s motives.  I hear it even in their request to send spies into the promised land.  I made the following table assuming that Moses consulted yehôvâh before acting on the people’s request.

Numbers 13:1-3 (NET)

Deuteronomy 1:20-23 (NET)
Then I said to you, “You have come to the Amorite hill country which the Lord our God is about to give us.  Look, he has placed the land in front of you!  Go up, take possession of it, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, said to do.  Do not be afraid or discouraged!”  So all of you approached me and said, “Let’s send some men ahead of us to scout out the land and bring us back word as to how we should attack it and what the cities are like there.”  I thought this was a good idea…
The Lord spoke to Moses: “Send out men to investigate the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites.
You are to send one man from each ancestral tribe, each one a leader among them.”  So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the command of the Lord. …so I sent twelve men from among you, one from each tribe.
All of them were leaders of the Israelites.

Most of the spies returned from the promised land fearing the people who lived there rather than yehôvâh.  “We are not able to go up against these people,” they said, “because they are stronger than we are!”[5]  The rest of the people of Israel defied yehôvâh and refused to enter the promised land, saying, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had perished in this wilderness [Table]!  Why has the Lord brought us into this land only to be killed by the sword, that our wives and our children should become plunder?  Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt [Table]?” So they said to one another, “Let’s appoint a leader and return to Egypt [Table].”[6]

Their mistrust was evident to Moses: You complained among yourselves privately and said, “Because the Lord hates us he brought us from Egypt to deliver us over to the Amorites so they could destroy us!  What is going to happen to us?  Our brothers have drained away our courage by describing people who are more numerous and taller than we are, and great cities whose defenses appear to be as high as heaven itself!  Moreover, they said they saw Anakites there.”[7]

At Sinai Moses said to the people, “Do not fear (yârêʼ, תיראו), for God has come to test you, that the fear (yirʼâh, יראתו) of him may be before you so that you do not sin.”[8]  It is important to recognize the results of that test: The fear of the Lord is weakened through the flesh, just like the law.  Jesus gave Nicodemus his summation of the human condition revealed in the Old Testament Scriptures (John 3:3, 5-8, 10 NET):

“I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God [Table]…unless a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all be born from above.’  The wind blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going.  So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit…Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you don’t understand these things?”

Precious few in Israel were led by his Spirit (Numbers 11:16, 17 NET):

The Lord said to Moses, “Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know are elders of the people and officials over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting; let them take their position there with you.  Then I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take part of the spirit that is on you, and will put it on them, and they will bear some of the burden of the people with you, so that you do not bear it all by yourself.”

I am certainly no better than the people in that immense, forbidding wilderness, arguably worse given my advantages.  I told Him I preferred not to have been born.  The fire of yehôvâh did not consume me because He came to earth in human flesh as Jesus the Messiah and died for our sins: he himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world.[9]

Though his Holy Spirit had been given, I was so busy doing I was still fairly clueless how to be led by Him.  In fact, if I remember correctly, I was thinking that the written words in the Bible were similar to divine programming taking over my mind.  Oh, well.  It kept me reading and trying to know Him through those written words.  None of this is to say that I am some kind of genius at being led by the Holy Spirit now.  Anyone who knows me knows that I have my fearful moments when I wrest back control resulting, more often than not, in an outburst of anger (Galatians 5:19-21 NET).

Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!

I have no excuse for it.  But it happens at work mostly, when I’m responsible for the quality of others’ work.  (Sometimes I work alone or someone else is lead.)  Though the work is seasonal we are salaried.  I don’t work again until January.  I definitely want to finish my working career at this job.  Though the knowledge and self-awareness of my fear of losing this job would seem to be helpful, it’s not when I think about it too much.  Then I add the fearful expectation that God will allow, or cause, all hell to break loose when I’m the lead to test me and make me better: The I-prayed-for-patience-so-God-gave-me-children syndrome.

Do not be afraid (yârêʼ, תירא) or discouraged![10] Moses said.  The Greek word used for yârêʼ in the Septuagint was φοβεῖσθε (a form of φοβέω).  When the disciples saw [Jesus] walking on the water they were terrified (ἐταράχθησαν, a form of ταράσσω) and said, “It’s a ghost!” and cried out with fear (φόβου, a form of φόβος).  But immediately Jesus spoke to them: “Have courage (θαρσεῖτε, a form of θαρσέω)!  It is I.  Do not be afraid (φοβεῖσθε, a form of φοβέω).”[11]

Then I said to you, Moses said, “Do not be terrified (ʽârats, תערצון), or afraid (yârêʼ, תיראון) of them!”[12]  The Greek word used for yârêʼ in the Septuagint was φοβηθῆτε (another form of φοβέω).  But I will warn you whom you should fear (φοβηθῆτε) Jesus said.  Fear (φοβήθητε, another form of φοβέω) the one who, after the killing, has authority to throw you into hell.  Yes, I tell you, fear (φοβήθητε) him![13]

I would do well to remember this if I persist in turning back from being led by the Holy Spirit.  But I freely admit, fear doesn’t work well on me for anything positive.  It is weakened through the flesh.  I respond better to love and mercy.  Aren’t five sparrows sold for two pennies? Jesus continued.  Yet not one of them is forgotten before God.  In fact, even the hairs on your head are all numbered.  Do not be afraid (φοβεῖσθε, a form of φοβέω); you are more valuable than many sparrows.[14]

I should take that more to heart when I’m afraid of losing my job, and be more thankful.  I have a much more violent, hair-trigger temper than the one that comes out to play at work.  And having been forgiven for the very same fear and mistrust, I find it much easier now than when I began to study the Old Testament to forgive the people of Israel and to learn from their mistakes (Romans 15:4 NET).

For everything that was written in former times was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and through encouragement of the scriptures we may have hope.

[1] Deuteronomy 1:19 (NET)

[2] From Names of God in Judaism under the heading ‘Other names and titles’: As the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton came to be avoided in the Hellenistic period, Jews began to read “Adonai” at its appearances in scripture and to say “Adonai” in its place in prayer. Owing to the expansion of chumra (the idea of “building a fence around the Torah”), Adonai itself has come to be too holy to say for Orthodox Jews, leading to its replacement by HaShem (“The Name”).

[3] Numbers 11:21, 22 (NET)

[4] Numbers 11:23, 24a (NET)

[5] Numbers 13:31b (NET) Table

[6] Numbers 14:2b-4 (NET)

[7] Deuteronomy 1:27, 28 (NET)

[8] Exodus 20:20 (NET)

[9] 1 John 2:2 (NET)

[10] Deuteronomy 1:21b (NET)

[11] Matthew 14:26, 27 (NET)

[12] Deuteronomy 1:29 (NKJV)

[13] Luke 12:5 (NET)

[14] Luke 12:6, 7 (NET)

Romans, Part 83

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But we who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not just please ourselves.[1]  I assume that the weak (ἀδυνάτων, a form of ἀδύνατος) referred back to the one who is weak in the faith (ἀσθενοῦντα [a form of ἀσθενέω] τῇ πίστει).  The weak person (ἀσθενῶν, another form of ἀσθενέω) eats only vegetables[2] and has a tendency to judge[3] those who do not do likewise.  And I assume this weakness is an infirmity of the flesh, since even the law…was weakened (ἠσθένει, another form of ἀσθενέω) through the flesh.[4]  Though Paul considered himself one of we who are strong, after the affliction that happened to [him] in the province of Asia[5] he identified wholeheartedly with the weak (2 Corinthians 11:29, 30 NET):

Who is weak (ἀσθενεῖ, another form of ἀσθενέω), and I am not weak (ἀσθενῶ, another form of ἀσθενέω)?  Who is led into sin, and I do not burn with indignation?  If I must boast, I will boast about the things that show my weakness (ἀσθενείας, a form of ἀσθένεια).

Let each of us [who are strong] please his neighbor for his good to build him up.[6]  I’ve already written how I feel about the strong (δυνατοὶ, a form of δυνατός).  But the time I’ve spent knowing the only true God (e.g., Jesus’ Father), and Jesus Christ, whom [He] sent,[7] has made me less faith-weak now than when I began.  Perhaps it is time to begin to please (ἀρεσκέτω, a form of ἀρέσκω) [my] neighbor for his good to build him up, or at least to appreciate the scope of such an undertaking.

When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased (ἤρεσεν, another form of ἀρέσκω) Herod and his dinner guests.[8]  This pleasure may or may not have been sexual desire.  Herodius’ daughter Herodius is portrayed as completely clueless in the Gospel narratives: 1) No king would offer half his kingdom to a woman with any grasp of power.  Herod didn’t offer it to his wife Herodias, for instance.  2) The offer seems to have perplexed the girl and sent her to her mother for advice.  And, 3) she followed her mother’s grisly advice without argument or any hint of rebellion.  She seems to have been mentally incompetent or very young or both.

If Herodias’ daughter Herodias was also Salome mentioned by Josephus (Antiquities 18.5.4) she was possibly as young as 12, little more than 16.  If not, she was Salome’s little sister.  Still, pleasing my neighbor with some fancy footwork probably doesn’t qualify as for his good to build him up.  When a complaint arose on the part of the Greek-speaking Jews against the native Hebraic Jews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food,[9] the Apostles proposed a solution that may have been closer to what Paul had in mind (Acts 6:2b-4 NET):

It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to wait on tables.  But carefully select from among you, brothers, seven men who are well-attested, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this necessary task.  But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

The proposal pleased (ἤρεσεν, another form of ἀρέσκω) the entire group…[10]

Do not give offense to Jews or Greeks or to the church of God, Paul wrote the Corinthians, just as I also try to please (ἀρέσκω) everyone in all things.[11]  Here, he equated pleasing everyone in all things to not giving offense to very disparate groups of people.  The Greek word translated offense is ἀπρόσκοποι (a form of ἀπρόσκοπος), defined quite beautifully in Thayer’s Greek Lexicon as “having nothing for one to strike against.”  I do not seek my own benefit, Paul continued, but the benefit of many, so that they may be saved.[12]

There are some caveats and warnings:

An unmarried man is concerned about the things of the Lord, how to please (ἀρέσῃ, another form of ἀρέσκω) the Lord.  But a married man is concerned about the things of the world, how to please (ἀρέσῃ, another form of ἀρέσκω) his wife, and he is divided.  An unmarried woman or a virgin is concerned about the things of the Lord, to be holy both in body and spirit.  But a married woman is concerned about the things of the world, how to please (ἀρέσῃ, another form of ἀρέσκω) her husband.[13]

I assume that Paul thought a divided man might succeed at pleasing his wife, but I have not, not enough that she would stick it out with me.  It makes me doubly aware that if any good is to come from me Jesus must please Himself through me by his Holy Spirit rather than rely on me to do it for Him.  I will fail; He will not.  No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, Paul wrote Timothy, so that he may please (ἀρέσῃ, another form of ἀρέσκω) the one who enlisted him as a soldier.[14]  Those who are in the flesh cannot please (ἀρέσαι, another form of ἀρέσκω) God.[15]

Am I now trying to gain the approval of people, or of God? Paul asked rhetorically in reference to the Galatians heeding a doctrine other than the grace of God in Jesus Christ.  Or am I trying to please (ἀρέσκειν, another form of ἀρέσκω) people?  If I were still trying to please (ἤρεσκον, another form of ἀρέσκω) people, I would not be a slave of Christ![16]

Finally then, brothers and sisters, we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received instruction from us about how you must live and please (ἀρέσκειν, another form of ἀρέσκω) God (as you are in fact living) that you do so more and more.[17]

For the appeal we make does not come from error or impurity or with deceit, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we declare it, not to please (ἀρέσκοντες, another form of ἀρέσκω) people but God, who examines our hearts.  For we never appeared with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed – God is our witness – nor to seek glory from people, either from you or from others…[18]

For you became imitators, brothers and sisters, of God’s churches in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, because you too suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they in fact did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and persecuted us severely.  They are displeasing (μὴ ἀρεσκόντων, another form of ἀρέσκω) to God and are opposed to all people, because they hinder us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved.[19]

These are not simple rules I might obey in my own strength or wisdom.  “Having nothing for one to strike against” among disparate people to please [my] neighbor for his good to build him up while pleasing God rather than people seems to describe a space, a terrain, where I need to be guided moment by moment by the Holy Spirit, with his love, his joy, his peace, his patience, his kindness, his goodness, his faithfulness, his gentleness and his control.  But this introduction to the scope of the terrain has prepared me to hear Romans 15:1-4 (NET):

But we who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not just please (ἀρέσκειν, another form of ἀρέσκω) ourselves.  Let each of us please (ἀρεσκέτω, a form of ἀρέσκω) his neighbor for his good to build him up.  For even Christ did not please (ἤρεσεν, another form of ἀρέσκω) himself, but just as it is written, “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”  For everything that was written in former times was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and through encouragement of the scriptures we may have hope.

The Greek words translated for his good are εἰς τὸ ἀγαθὸν (literally, “for this good”), though εἰς might have been translated “into, unto, to” or “towards.”  Grapes are not gathered from thorns or figs from thistles, are they? Jesus asked rhetorically.  In the same way, every good (ἀγαθὸν, a form of ἀγαθός) tree bears good (καλοὺς, a form of καλός) fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good (ἀγαθὸν, a form of ἀγαθός) tree is not able to bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree to bear good (καλοὺς, a form of καλός) fruit.[20]  And, Why do you call me good (ἀγαθόν, a form of ἀγαθός)?  No one is good (ἀγαθὸς) except God alone.[21]

The good for my neighbor is not for him to try to do good.  Though that may please me (especially if he does that good for or to me) it is hypocrisy, the work of an actor imitating the good.  “I’m not good but I play good on TV.”  My neighbor’s good is to be good, every good tree bears good fruit, a good tree is not able to bear bad fruit.  My neighbor’s good is to be born from above, to be led by the Holy Spirit.  For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.[22]  And, No one is good except God alone.

The Greek words translated to build him up are πρὸς οἰκοδομήν (a form of οἰκοδομή).  I can glean a lot of Paul’s attitude concerning οἰκοδομή and pleasing one’s neighbor for his good from 1 Corinthians 14:1-5 (NET):

Pursue love and be eager for the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.  For the one speaking in a tongue does not speak to people but to God, for no one understands; he is speaking mysteries by the Spirit.  But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening (οἰκοδομὴν, a form of οἰκοδομή), encouragement, and consolation.  The one who speaks in a tongue builds (οἰκοδομεῖ, a form of οἰκοδομέω) himself up, but the one who prophesies builds up (οἰκοδομεῖ, a form of οἰκοδομέω) the church.  I wish you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy.  The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets so that the church may be strengthened (οἰκοδομὴν, a form of οἰκοδομή).

Since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, seek to abound in order to strengthen (οἰκοδομὴν, a form of οἰκοδομή) the church.[23]  When you come together, each one has a song, has a lesson, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation.  Let all these things be done for the strengthening (οἰκοδομὴν, a form of οἰκοδομή) of the church.[24]  Paul wrote on this theme to believers in Ephesus as well (Ephesians 4:11-16 NIV):

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up (οἰκοδομὴν, a form of οἰκοδομή) until we all reach unity (ἑνότητα, a form of ἑνότης) in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.  Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.  Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.  From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds (οἰκοδομὴν, a form of οἰκοδομή) itself up in love, as each part does its work.

You must let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but only what is beneficial for the building up (οἰκοδομὴν, a form of οἰκοδομή) of the one in need, that it may give grace to those who hear.  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  You must put away every kind of bitterness, anger, wrath, quarreling, and evil, slanderous talk.  Instead, be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.[25]

Now may the God of endurance and comfort give you unity (φρονεῖν, a form of φρονέω; literally, “thought” or “thinking”) with one another in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Receive one another, then, just as Christ also received you, to God’s glory.[26]

[1] Romans 15:1 (NET)

[2] Romans 14:2b (NET)

[3] Romans 14:3 κρινέτω (a form of κρίνω); Romans 14:10 κρίνεις (another form of κρίνω)

[4] Romans 8:3b (NET)

[5] 2 Corinthians 1:8 (NET)

[6] Romans 15:2 (NET)

[7] John 17:3b (NET)

[8] Mark 6:22a (NET)  Also: Matthew 14:6

[9] Acts 6:1b (NET)

[10] Acts 6:5a (NET)

[11] 1 Corinthians 10:32-33a (NET)

[12] 1 Corinthians 10:33b (NET)

[13] 1 Corinthians 7:32b-34 (NET)

[14] 2 Timothy 2:4 (NASB)

[15] Romans 8:8 (NET)

[16] Galatians 1:10 (NET)

[17] 1 Thessalonians 4:1 (NET) Table

[18] 1 Thessalonians 2:3-6 (NET)

[19] 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16a (NET)

[20] Matthew 7:16b-18 (NET)

[21] Mark 10:18 (NET)

[22] Romans 8:14 (NET)

[23] 1 Corinthians 14:12b (NET)

[24] 1 Corinthians 14:26b (NET)

[25] Ephesians 4:29-32 (NET)

[26] Romans 15:5-7 (NET)

Sexual Immorality Revisited, Part 2

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The exercise of revisiting Paul’s Religious Mind and the meaning of Sexual Immorality has clarified a few things that were right in front of me all along.  I considered again the list of sins that described the former lives of some who were called to faith in Corinth:

1 Corinthians 6:9b, 10 (NET) Table

Parallel Greek
The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners, practicing homosexuals, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive, and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God. οὔτε πόρνοι (another form of πόρνος) οὔτε εἰδωλολάτραι οὔτε μοιχοὶ οὔτε μαλακοὶ οὔτε ἀρσενοκοῖται οὔτε κλέπται οὔτε πλεονέκται, οὐ μέθυσοι, οὐ λοίδοροι, οὐχ ἅρπαγες βασιλείαν θεοῦ κληρονομήσουσιν

Each word preceded by οὔτε, οὐ or οὐχ (a form of οὐ) gives a strong indication that Paul did not consider πόρνοι the one word that included all of the others.  In other words the list is not to be understood as, The πόρνοι: idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners, practicing homosexuals, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive, and swindlers.  I’ve considered this option, by the way, given the shorter list in Ephesians.

Ephesians 5:5 (NET)

Parallel Greek
For you can be confident of this one thing: that no person who is immoral, impure, or greedy (such a person is an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. τοῦτο γὰρ ἴστε γινώσκοντες, ὅτι πᾶς πόρνος ἢ ἀκάθαρτος ἢ πλεονέκτης οὐκ ἔχει κληρονομίαν ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ θεοῦ

So I began a subtractive process, trying to determine what πόρνοι did not mean.  As I studied ἀρσενοκοῖται (a form of ἀρσενοκοίτης; translated, practicing homosexuals) the obvious became more clear.  The Greek word ἀρσενοκοίτης is a compound of two words: 1) αρσην, male, and 2) κοίτη, couch, bed.

Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator made them male (ἄρσεν, a form of αρσην) and female,[1] Jesus answered the Pharisees who asked Him about divorce.  The men (ἄρσενες, another form of αρσην) also abandoned natural relations with women, Paul wrote the Roman believers, and were inflamed in their passions for one another.  Men (ἄρσενες, another form of αρσην) committed shameless acts with men (ἄρσεσιν, another form of αρσην) and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.[2]  The Greek is a bit more graphic: ἄρσενες ἐν ἄρσεσιν τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην κατεργαζόμενοι (literally, “male in male this unseemliness performing”).  The writer of Hebrews penned: Marriage must be honored among all and the marriage bed (κοίτη) kept undefiled, for God will judge sexually immoral people (πόρνους, another form of πόρνος) and adulterers (μοιχοὺς, a form of μοιχός).[3]  I can’t imagine one word better than ἀρσενοκοίτης (male marriage bed) to describe You must not have sexual intercourse with a male as one has sexual intercourse with a woman.[4]

I combined this with the fact that Paul’s particular usage of πορνεία in 1 Corinthians 5:1 is a fairly clear reference to You must not have sexual intercourse with your father’s wife; she is your father’s nakedness.[5]  And I came to one inescapable conclusion irrespective of whether Paul used πορνεία because he thought it meant anything and everything that was not sex between one man and one woman or because it was the only word he had had to use when he arrived in Corinth, constrained by his reliance on James’ abbreviated version of the law:

James’ abbreviated version of the law
…to abstain from things defiled by idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood…

Acts 15:20 (NET) Table

 ἀπέχεσθαι τῶν ἀλισγημάτων τῶν εἰδώλων καὶ τῆς πορνείας (a form of πορνεία) καὶ |τοῦ| πνικτοῦ καὶ τοῦ αἵματος
…that you abstain from meat that has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what has been strangled and from sexual immorality…

Acts 15:29a (NET) Table

 ἀπέχεσθαι εἰδωλοθύτων καὶ αἵματος καὶ πνικτῶν καὶ πορνείας (a form of πορνεία)

The inescapable conclusion is: in the letter called 1 Corinthians Paul taught Levitical law (as knowledge of sin not as a path of salvation) to Gentiles (1 Timothy 1:8-10 NET).

But we know that the law is good if someone uses it legitimately, realizing that law is not intended for a righteous person, but for lawless and rebellious people, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, sexually immoral people (πόρνοις, another form of πόρνος), practicing homosexuals (ἀρσενοκοίταις, another form of ἀρσενοκοίτης), kidnappers, liars, perjurers – in fact, for any who live contrary to sound teaching.

Gone was any pretense to be concerned about nothing among [them] except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.[6]  More importantly, perhaps, the pretense of not placing on the neck of the [Gentile] disciples a yoke that neither [Peter’s] ancestors nor [his contemporaries had] been able to bear[7] was utterly gone from Paul’s thinking.  That yoke would not be borne by the works of the flesh.  That is true.  But it would not be shirked either.  The yoke would be borne by the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe,[8] the fruit of the Spirit, the love [that] is the fulfillment of the law.[9]  Jesus said (Matthew 11:28-30; 5:17-20 NET):

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry.

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.  I have not come to abolish these things but to fulfill them.  I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter will pass from the law until everything takes place.  So anyone who breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever obeys them and teaches others to do so will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  For I tell you, unless your righteousness goes beyond that of the experts in the law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Do we then nullify the law through faith? Paul asked rhetorically.  Absolutely not!  Instead we uphold the law.[10]  Have I just made the case for πορνεία as a violation of Leviticus 18 or 20?  But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful [πορνείας, a form of πορνεία]) causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.[11]  I don’t think so.

I might have made that case.  I have a philosophical bent to my mind; I am a legalist in theory and in practice.  Why not see Matthew 5:32 as Jesus’ instruction to governor-priests and as vindication or exoneration of Ezra the priest?  Ancient Roman legislators had articulated concepts of lawful connubium.  The priests and bishops Constantine left to govern Rome when he abandoned it for Byzantium heard Jesus’ words as Roman law.  Wouldn’t Jesus follow Roman law?  It’s certainly more in line with the way my mind works.  Until, that is, I heard yehôvâh in the prophet Malachi (2:14b, 15a, 16 NET):

The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) is testifying against you on behalf of the wife you married when you were young, to whom you have become unfaithful even though she is your companion and wife by law [Table].  No one who has even a small portion of the Spirit in him does this [Table]…

“I hate divorce,” says the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהי) of Israel, “and the one who is guilty of violence,” says the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) who rules over all. “Pay attention to your conscience, and do not be unfaithful” [Table].

This is the intellectual and spiritual equivalent of a ratchet, and I cannot go back.  Now I hear, For God has consigned (συνέκλεισεν, a form of συγκλείω) all people to disobedience (ἀπείθειαν, a form of ἀπείθεια; literally, disbelief) so that he may show mercy to them all.[12]  We are all like fish caught in a net of disobedience.  Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under (ἐν; literally, in) the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable (ὑπόδικος; literally, under sentence, under judgment) to God.[13]

Ezra was exactly where yehôvâh wanted him to be when he said: O Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) God of Israel, you are righteous, for we are left as a remnant this day.  Indeed, we stand before you in our guilt.  However, because of this guilt no one can really stand before you.[14]  Who knows what would have happened if Ezra had stayed there, waiting on yehôvâh, instead of chasing after Shecaniah’s get-righteous-quick scheme (Ezra 10:2-4 NET).

Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, from the descendants of Elam, addressed Ezra: “We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the local peoples.  Nonetheless, there is still hope for Israel in this regard [Table].  Therefore let us enact a covenant with our God to send away all these women and their offspring, in keeping with your counsel, my lord, and that of those who respect the commandments of our God.  And let it be done according to the law [Table].  Get up, for this matter concerns you.  We are with you, so be strong and act decisively [Table]!”

I want to make this as clear as I possibly can.  If a man has married the wrong sort of woman he cannot redeem himself in God’s eyes, he cannot make himself righteous again, by divorcing her and sending their children away.  The religious mind encourages us to change our own behavior, to conform us to some image of righteousness derived from the law (or some lesser doctrine) by that religious mind.  The mind of Christ speaks to the wriggling soul caught in a net of disbelief, saying, Stop your striving (râphâh, הרפו) and recognize (yâdaʽ, ודעו) that I am God!  I will be exalted over the nations!  I will be exalted over the earth![15]  Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all be born from above.’[16]

I don’t live in Rome in the first half of the fourth century.  I don’t hear Jesus speaking to Roman legislators about external controls.  I hear Him speaking to the ἐκκλησία, those called by God the Father through Jesus Christ to be led by his Holy Spirit.  For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.[17]  For this and other reasons I still hear Jesus’ use of πορνείας (a form of πορνεία) in Matthew 5:32 and πορνείᾳ in Matthew 19:9 as a reference to the same πορνεῦσαι (a form of πορνεύω, e.g., sexualized worship) He condemned in Revelation 2:20 (NET):

But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and by her teaching deceives my servants to commit sexual immorality (πορνεῦσαι) and to eat food sacrificed to idols (εἰδωλόθυτα, a form of εἰδωλόθυτον).

Such sexualized worship was the bane of Israel’s descendents from the beginning of their existence as a nation: So do not be idolaters (εἰδωλολάτραι, a form of εἰδωλολάτρης), as some of them were.  As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”  And let us not be immoral (πορνεύωμεν, another form of πορνεύω), as some of them were (ἐπόρνευσαν, another form of πορνεύω), and twenty-three thousand died in a single day.[18]  Rather than thinking of it as an abbreviated version of the law it would be far more charitable to assume that sexualized worship was what James had in mind at the Jerusalem Council:

Jesus (NET)

 Parallel Greek James (NET)

Parallel Greek
…to commit sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols…

Revelation 2:20b

 πορνεῦσαι καὶ φαγεῖν εἰδωλόθυτα …to abstain from things defiled by idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood…

Acts 15:20 Table

 ἀπέχεσθαι τῶν ἀλισγημάτων τῶν εἰδώλων καὶ τῆς πορνείας (a form of πορνεία) καὶ |τοῦ| πνικτοῦ καὶ τοῦ αἵματος
…that you abstain from meat that has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what has been strangled and from sexual immorality…

Acts 15:29a

 ἀπέχεσθαι εἰδωλοθύτων (another form of εἰδωλόθυτον) καὶ αἵματος καὶ πνικτῶν καὶ πορνείας (a form of πορνεία)

I want to substitute a more literal understanding of ὁμολογεῖ (a form of ὁμολογέω) translated confesses and confess respectively in 1 John 4:1-3 (NET):

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.  By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that [speaks the same as] Jesus as the Christ who has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not [speak the same as] Jesus is not from God, and this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now is already in the world.

To that extent that the religious mind encourages us to reform our own behavior rather than to rely on the fruit of the Holy Spirit, it is the spirit of antichrist no matter how well-intentioned the mouthpiece. Suspicious of the Gospel I tried to be good first to prove that I was, failing that, I tried because “God will get you if you don’t watch out.”  My fear was flight from rather than toward God.  And yet, in that dark foreboding I became most aware of His forgiveness and patience.  Paul put it this way for Timothy (1 Timothy 1:15, 16 NET):

This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” – and I am the worst of them!  But here is why I was treated with mercy: so that in me as the worst, Christ Jesus could demonstrate his utmost patience, as an example for those who are going to believe in him for eternal life [Table].

Amanda Bynes delivers one of the funniest and most poignant lines in the movie Easy A: “Jesus tells us to love everyone.  I mean, even the whores and the homosexuals, but it’s just so hard.  It’s so hard because they keep doing it over and over again.”  An attitude of forgiveness toward others flows from the love that comes from the Holy Spirit.  Still, Jesus said, the one who is forgiven little loves little.[19] One who is forgiven much is forgiven often for the same offense, sometimes many more than seven times a day.  And that experience is far more persuasive than any threat (Matthew 18:34, 35 NET):

And in anger his lord turned him over to the prison guards to torture [the unforgiving slave] until he repaid all he owed.  So also my heavenly Father will do to you, if each of you does not forgive your brother from your heart.

In that sacred space of loving forgiveness the truth began to dawn on me that not only the desire and effort were God’s but the fulfillment of his desire and his effort was his as well, the kingdom, the power and the glory.  I’ll substitute the same literal understanding I used above for ὁμολογήσῃς (another form of ὁμολογέω) translated confess, and ὁμολογεῖται (another form of ὁμολογέω) translated confesses in Romans 10:9, 10 (NET):

…if you [speak the same as Jesus] with your mouth that Jesus is Lord[20] [e.g., yehôvâh as opposed to a Lord or Sir] and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes and thus has righteousness [πιστεύεται εἰς δικαιοσύνην; literally, “believes unto righteousness”] and with the mouth one [speaks the same as Jesus] and thus has salvation [ὁμολογεῖται εἰς σωτηρίαν; literally, “speaks the same as Jesus unto salvation”].

 

[1] Matthew 19:4 (NET) Table

[2] Romans 1:27 (NET) Table

[3] Hebrews 13:4 (NET)

[4] Leviticus 18:22a (NET) Table

[5] Leviticus 18:8 (NET) Table

[6] 1 Corinthians 2:2 (NET) Table

[7] Acts 15:10 (NET)

[8] Romans 3:22 (NET)

[9] Romans 13:10b (NET)

[10] Romans 3:31 (NET)

[11] Matthew 5:32b (NAB) Table

[12] Romans 11:32 (NET)

[13] Romans 3:19 (NET)

[14] Ezra 9:15 (NET)

[15] Psalm 46:10 (NET)

[16] John 3:7 (NET)

[17] Romans 8:14 (NET)

[18] 1 Corinthians 10:7, 8 (NET)

[19] Luke 7:47b (NET)

[20] NET note 10: Or “the Lord.” The Greek construction, along with the quotation from Joel 2:32 in v. 13 (in which the same “Lord” seems to be in view) suggests that κύριον (kurion) is to be taken as “the Lord,” that is, Yahweh. Cf. D. B. Wallace, “The Semantics and Exegetical Significance of the Object-Complement Construction in the New Testament,” GTJ 6 (1985): 91-112.

Sirach: Pro and Con

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What follows are pro and con comments from two websites.  I set the texts side by side in Greek and English translation for comparison/contrast and offer them here without comment.

“There are a number of references to the book of Sirach in the New Testament.  James 1:19 seems to quote Sirach 5:11.”[1]

James 1:19b (NET)

 Parallel Greek Sirach 5:11

Parallel Greek
Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. ἔστω δὲ πᾶς ἄνθρωπος ταχὺς εἰς τὸ ἀκοῦσαι, βραδὺς εἰς τὸ λαλῆσαι, βραδὺς εἰς ὀργήν Be swift to hear; and let thy life be sincere; and with patience give answer. γίνου ταχὺς ἐν ἀκροάσει σου καὶ ἐν μακροθυμίᾳ φθέγγου ἀπόκρισιν

“The Blessed Virgin Mary alludes to Sirach 10:14 in Luke 1:52.”

Luke 1:52 (NET)

 Parallel Greek Sirach 10:14

Parallel Greek
He has brought down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up those of lowly position… καθεῖλεν δυνάστας ἀπὸ θρόνων καὶ ὕψωσεν ταπεινούς The Lord hath cast down the thrones of proud princes, and set up the meek in their stead. θρόνους ἀρχόντων καθεῖλεν ὁ Κύριος καὶ ἐκάθισε πρᾳεῖς ἀντ᾿ αὐτῶν.

“There are four well known quotes from Christ that relate to Sirach.  Most well known is Christ’s statement in Matthew 7:16-20 which draws from Sirach 27:6.”

Matthew 7:16-20 (NET) Parallel Greek Sirach 27:6

Parallel Greek
You will recognize them by their fruit.  Grapes are not gathered from thorns or figs from thistles, are they?  In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree is not able to bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree to bear good fruit.  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  So then, you will recognize them by their fruit. ἀπὸ τῶν καρπῶν αὐτῶν ἐπιγνώσεσθε αὐτούς. μήτι συλλέγουσιν ἀπὸ ἀκανθῶν σταφυλὰς ἢ ἀπὸ τριβόλων σῦκα;  οὕτως πᾶν δένδρον ἀγαθὸν καρποὺς καλοὺς ποιεῖ, τὸ δὲ σαπρὸν δένδρον καρποὺς πονηροὺς ποιεῖ.  οὐ δύναται δένδρον ἀγαθὸν καρποὺς πονηροὺς |ποιεῖν| οὐδὲ δένδρον σαπρὸν καρποὺς καλοὺς ποιεῖν.  πᾶν δένδρον μὴ ποιοῦν καρπὸν καλὸν ἐκκόπτεται καὶ εἰς πῦρ βάλλεται.  ἄρα γε ἀπὸ τῶν καρπῶν αὐτῶν ἐπιγνώσεσθε αὐτούς. The fruit declareth if the tree have been dressed; so is the utterance of a conceit in the heart of man. γεώργιον ξύλου ἐκφαίνει ὁ καρπὸς αὐτοῦ, οὕτως λόγος ἐνθυμήματος καρδίας ἀνθρώπου.

“Also Matthew 6:12, ‘And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,’ mirrors Sirach 28:2 ‘Forgive your neighbor a wrong, and then, when you petition, your sins will be pardoned.’”

Matthew 6:12 (NET) Parallel Greek Sirach 28:2

Parallel Greek
…and forgive us our debts, as we ourselves have forgiven our debtors. καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφειλήματα ἡμῶν, ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφήκαμεν τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν Forgive thy neighbour the hurt that he hath done unto thee, so shall thy sins also be forgiven when thou prayest. ἄφες ἀδίκημα τῷ πλησίον σου, καὶ τότε δεηθέντος σου αἱ ἁμαρτίαι σου λυθήσονται.

“Mark 4:5,16-17 also resembles Sirach 40:15.”

Mark 4:5, 16, 17 (NET) Parallel Greek Sirach 40:15

Parallel Greek
Other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep….These are the ones sown on rocky ground: As soon as they hear the word, they receive it with joy.  But they have no root in themselves and do not endure.  Then, when trouble or persecution comes because of the word, immediately they fall away. καὶ ἄλλο ἔπεσεν ἐπὶ τὸ πετρῶδες ὅπου οὐκ εἶχεν γῆν πολλήν, καὶ εὐθὺς ἐξανέτειλεν διὰ τὸ μὴ ἔχειν βάθος γῆς….καὶ οὗτοι εἰσιν οἱ ἐπὶ τὰ πετρώδη σπειρόμενοι, οἳ ὅταν ἀκούσωσιν τὸν λόγον εὐθὺς μετὰ χαρᾶς λαμβάνουσιν αὐτόν, καὶ οὐκ ἔχουσιν ρίζαν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἀλλὰ πρόσκαιροι εἰσιν, εἶτα γενομένης θλίψεως ἢ διωγμοῦ διὰ τὸν λόγον εὐθὺς σκανδαλίζονται. The children of the ungodly shall not bring forth many branches: but are as unclean roots upon a hard rock. ἔκγονα ἀσεβῶν οὐ πληθύνει κλάδους, καὶ ρίζαι ἀκάθαρτοι ἐπ᾿ ἀκροτόμου πέτρας·

“Moreover, Patristic scholar Henry Chadwick claimed that in Matthew 11:28 Jesus directly quoted Sirach 51:27.”

Matthew 11:28 (NET) Parallel Greek Sirach 51:27

Parallel Greek
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Δεῦτε πρός με πάντες οἱ κοπιῶντες καὶ πεφορτισμένοι, καγὼ ἀναπαύσω ὑμᾶς Behold with your eyes, how that I have but little labour, and have gotten unto me much rest. ἴδετε ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς ὑμῶν ὅτι ὀλίγον ἐκοπίασα καὶ εὗρον ἐμαυτῷ πολλὴν ἀνάπαυσιν.

From Comment 8: “It’s also possible that Luke 11:41 ‘But give alms of such things as you possess, and behold, all things are clean unto you’ was influenced by Sirach 3:30 ‘Water will quench a flaming fire; and alms maketh an atonement for sins.’”

Luke 11:41 (NET) Parallel Greek Sirach 3:30

Parallel Greek
But give from your heart to those in need, and then everything will be clean for you. πλὴν τὰ ἐνόντα δότε ἐλεημοσύνην, καὶ ἰδοὺ πάντα καθαρὰ ὑμῖν ἐστιν Water will quench a flaming fire; and alms maketh an atonement for sins. πῦρ φλογιζόμενον ἀποσβέσει ὕδωρ, καὶ ἐλεημοσύνη ἐξιλάσεται ἁμαρτίας

The “apocrypha teach doctrines that contradicts Scripture (see, for instance, Sirach 3:3,30, in contrast with Galatians 2:16, 21; 3:10-14…”[2]

Galatians 2:16, 21 (NET)

 Parallel Greek Sirach 3:3, 30

Parallel Greek
…yet we know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.  And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by the faithfulness of Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified….I do not set aside God’s grace, because if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing! εἰδότες [δὲ] ὅτι οὐ δικαιοῦται ἄνθρωπος ἐξ ἔργων νόμου ἐὰν μὴ διὰ πίστεως |Ἰησοῦ| Χριστοῦ , καὶ ἡμεῖς εἰς Χριστὸν Ἰησοῦν ἐπιστεύσαμεν, ἵνα δικαιωθῶμεν ἐκ πίστεως Χριστοῦ καὶ οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων νόμου, ὅτι ἐξ ἔργων νόμου οὐ δικαιωθήσεται πᾶσα σάρξ….Οὐκ ἀθετῶ τὴν χάριν τοῦ θεοῦ· εἰ γὰρ διὰ νόμου δικαιοσύνη, ἄρα Χριστὸς δωρεὰν ἀπέθανεν. Whoso honoureth his father maketh an atonement for his sins….Water will quench a flaming fire; and alms maketh an atonement for sins. ὁ τιμῶν πατέρα ἐξιλάσεται[3] ἁμαρτίας….πῦρ φλογιζόμενον ἀποσβέσει ὕδωρ, καὶ ἐλεημοσύνη ἐξιλάσεται ἁμαρτίας.

Galatians 3:10-14 (NET)

 Parallel Greek Sirach 3:3, 30

Parallel Greek
For all who rely on doing the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not keep on doing everything written in the book of the law.”  Now it is clear no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous one will live by faith.  But the law is not based on faith, but the one who does the works of the law will live by them.  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us (because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”) in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles, so that we could receive the promise of the Spirit by faith. Ὅσοι γὰρ ἐξ ἔργων νόμου εἰσίν, ὑπὸ κατάραν εἰσίν· γέγραπται γὰρ ὅτι ἐπικατάρατος πᾶς ὃς οὐκ ἐμμένει πᾶσιν τοῖς γεγραμμένοις ἐν τῷ βιβλίῳ τοῦ νόμου τοῦ ποιῆσαι αὐτά.  ὅτι δὲ ἐν νόμῳ οὐδεὶς δικαιοῦται παρὰ τῷ θεῷ δῆλον, ὅτι ὁ δίκαιος ἐκ πίστεως ζήσεται· ὁ δὲ νόμος οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκ πίστεως, ἀλλ᾿ ὁ ποιήσας αὐτὰ ζήσεται ἐν αὐτοῖς.  Χριστὸς ἡμᾶς ἐξηγόρασεν ἐκ τῆς κατάρας τοῦ νόμου γενόμενος ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν κατάρα (ὅτι γέγραπται· ἐπικατάρατος πᾶς ὁ κρεμάμενος ἐπὶ ξύλου), ἵνα εἰς τὰ ἔθνη ἡ εὐλογία τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ γένηται ἐν Χριστῷ |Ἰησοῦ|, ἵνα τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν τοῦ πνεύματος λάβωμεν διὰ τῆς πίστεως. Whoso honoureth his father maketh an atonement for his sins….Water will quench a flaming fire; and alms maketh an atonement for sins. ὁ τιμῶν πατέρα ἐξιλάσεται ἁμαρτίας….πῦρ φλογιζόμενον ἀποσβέσει ὕδωρ, καὶ ἐλεημοσύνη ἐξιλάσεται ἁμαρτίας.

“Sirach 12:4-7 disagrees with Luke 6:27-38 and Matthew 5:43-48.”

Luke 6:27-38 (NET)

 Parallel Greek Sirach 12:4-7

Parallel Greek
“But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.  To the person who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other as well, and from the person who takes away your coat, do not withhold your tunic either.  Give to everyone who asks you, and do not ask for your possessions back from the person who takes them away.  Treat others in the same way that you would want them to treat you.

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?  For even sinners love those who love them.  And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?  Even sinners do the same.  And if you lend to those from whom you hope to be repaid, what credit is that to you?  Even sinners lend to sinners, so that they may be repaid in full.  But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back.  Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to ungrateful and evil people.  Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.  Give, and it will be given to you: A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be poured into your lap. For the measure you use will be the measure you receive.”

 Ἀλλὰ ὑμῖν λέγω τοῖς ἀκούουσιν· ἀγαπᾶτε τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ὑμῶν, καλῶς ποιεῖτε τοῖς μισοῦσιν ὑμᾶς,  εὐλογεῖτε τοὺς καταρωμένους ὑμᾶς, προσεύχεσθε περὶ τῶν ἐπηρεαζόντων ὑμᾶς.  τῷ τύπτοντι σε ἐπὶ τὴν σιαγόνα πάρεχε καὶ τὴν ἄλλην, καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ αἴροντος σου τὸ ἱμάτιον καὶ τὸν χιτῶνα μὴ κωλύσῃς.  παντὶ αἰτοῦντι σε δίδου, καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ αἴροντος τὰ σὰ μὴ ἀπαίτει.  Καὶ καθὼς θέλετε ἵνα ποιῶσιν ὑμῖν οἱ ἄνθρωποι ποιεῖτε αὐτοῖς ὁμοίως.  καὶ εἰ ἀγαπᾶτε τοὺς ἀγαπῶντας ὑμᾶς, ποία ὑμῖν χάρις ἐστίν; καὶ γὰρ οἱ ἁμαρτωλοὶ τοὺς ἀγαπῶντας αὐτοὺς ἀγαπῶσιν.  καὶ ἐὰν ἀγαθοποιῆτε τοὺς ἀγαθοποιοῦντας ὑμᾶς, ποία ὑμῖν χάρις ἐστίν; καὶ οἱ ἁμαρτωλοὶ τὸ αὐτὸ ποιοῦσιν.  καὶ ἐὰν δανίσητε παρ᾿ ὧν ἐλπίζετε λαβεῖν, ποία ὑμῖν χάρις [ἐστίν]; καὶ ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἁμαρτωλοῖς δανίζουσιν ἵνα ἀπολάβωσιν τὰ ἴσα.  πλὴν ἀγαπᾶτε τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ὑμῶν καὶ ἀγαθοποιεῖτε καὶ δανίζετε μηδὲν ἀπελπίζοντες· καὶ ἔσται ὁ μισθὸς ὑμῶν πολύς, καὶ ἔσεσθε υἱοὶ ὑψίστου, ὅτι αὐτὸς χρηστός ἐστιν ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀχαρίστους καὶ πονηρούς.  Γίνεσθε οἰκτίρμονες καθὼς [καὶ] ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν οἰκτίρμων ἐστίν.  Καὶ μὴ κρίνετε, καὶ οὐ μὴ κριθῆτε· καὶ μὴ καταδικάζετε, καὶ οὐ μὴ καταδικασθῆτε. ἀπολύετε, καὶ ἀπολυθήσεσθε·  δίδοτε, καὶ δοθήσεται ὑμῖν· μέτρον καλὸν πεπιεσμένον σεσαλευμένον ὑπερεκχυννόμενον δώσουσιν εἰς τὸν κόλπον ὑμῶν· ᾧ γὰρ μέτρῳ μετρεῖτε ἀντιμετρηθήσεται ὑμῖν.

 

 Give to the godly man, and help not a sinner.  Do well unto him that is lowly, but give not to the ungodly: hold back thy bread, and give it not unto him, lest he overmaster thee thereby: for else thou shalt receive twice as much evil for all the good thou shalt have done unto him.  For the most High hateth sinners, and will repay vengeance unto the ungodly, and keepeth them against the mighty day of their punishment.  Give unto the good, and help not the sinner. δὸς τῷ εὐσεβεῖ καὶ μὴ ἀντιλάβῃ τοῦ ἁμαρτωλοῦ.  εὖ ποίησον τῷ ταπεινῷ καὶ μὴ δῷς ἀσεβεῖ· ἐμπόδισον τοὺς ἄρτους αὐτοῦ καὶ μὴ δῷς αὐτῷ, ἵνα μὴ ἐν αὐτοῖς σε δυναστεύσῃ· διπλάσια γὰρ κακὰ εὑρήσεις ἐν πᾶσιν ἀγαθοῖς, οἷς ἂν ποιήσῃς αὐτῷ.  ὅτι καὶ ὁ ῞Υψιστος ἐμίσησεν ἁμαρτωλοὺς καὶ τοῖς ἀσεβέσιν ἀποδώσει ἐκδίκησιν.  δὸς τῷ ἀγαθῷ καὶ μὴ ἀντιλάβου τοῦ ἁμαρτωλοῦ.
Matthew 5:43-48 (NET) Parallel Greek Sirach 12:4-7

Parallel Greek
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be like your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?  Even the tax collectors do the same, don’t they?  And if you only greet your brothers, what more do you do?  Even the Gentiles do the same, don’t they?  So then, be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Ἠκούσατε ὅτι ἐρρέθη· ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου καὶ μισήσεις τὸν ἐχθρόν σου.  ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν· ἀγαπᾶτε τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ὑμῶν καὶ προσεύχεσθε ὑπὲρ τῶν διωκόντων ὑμᾶς,  ὅπως γένησθε υἱοὶ τοῦ πατρὸς ὑμῶν τοῦ ἐν οὐρανοῖς, ὅτι τὸν ἥλιον αὐτοῦ ἀνατέλλει ἐπὶ πονηροὺς καὶ ἀγαθοὺς καὶ βρέχει ἐπὶ δικαίους καὶ ἀδίκους.  ἐὰν γὰρ ἀγαπήσητε τοὺς ἀγαπῶντας ὑμᾶς, τίνα μισθὸν ἔχετε; οὐχὶ καὶ οἱ τελῶναι τὸ αὐτὸ ποιοῦσιν;  καὶ ἐὰν ἀσπάσησθε τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς ὑμῶν μόνον, τί περισσὸν ποιεῖτε; οὐχὶ καὶ οἱ ἐθνικοὶ τὸ αὐτὸ ποιοῦσιν;  ἔσεσθε οὖν ὑμεῖς τέλειοι ὡς ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὁ οὐράνιος τέλειος ἐστιν. Give to the godly man, and help not a sinner.  Do well unto him that is lowly, but give not to the ungodly: hold back thy bread, and give it not unto him, lest he overmaster thee thereby: for else thou shalt receive twice as much evil for all the good thou shalt have done unto him.  For the most High hateth sinners, and will repay vengeance unto the ungodly, and keepeth them against the mighty day of their punishment.  Give unto the good, and help not the sinner. δὸς τῷ εὐσεβεῖ καὶ μὴ ἀντιλάβῃ τοῦ ἁμαρτωλοῦ.  εὖ ποίησον τῷ ταπεινῷ καὶ μὴ δῷς ἀσεβεῖ· ἐμπόδισον τοὺς ἄρτους αὐτοῦ καὶ μὴ δῷς αὐτῷ, ἵνα μὴ ἐν αὐτοῖς σε δυναστεύσῃ· διπλάσια γὰρ κακὰ εὑρήσεις ἐν πᾶσιν ἀγαθοῖς, οἷς ἂν ποιήσῃς αὐτῷ.  ὅτι καὶ ὁ ῞Υψιστος ἐμίσησεν ἁμαρτωλοὺς καὶ τοῖς ἀσεβέσιν ἀποδώσει ἐκδίκησιν.  δὸς τῷ ἀγαθῷ καὶ μὴ ἀντιλάβου τοῦ ἁμαρτωλοῦ.

I think Sirach is exactly what the author claimed, the writing of a man who sought wisdom from God (Sirach 51:13-22).

When I was yet young, or ever I went abroad, I desired wisdom openly in my prayer.  I prayed for her before the temple, and will seek her out even to the end.  Even from the flower till the grape was ripe hath my heart delighted in her: my foot went the right way, from my youth up sought I after her.  I bowed down mine ear a little, and received her, and gat much learning.  I profited therein, therefore will I ascribe glory unto him that giveth me wisdom.  For I purposed to do after her, and earnestly I followed that which is good; so shall I not be confounded.  My soul hath wrestled with her, and in my doings I was exact: I stretched forth my hands to the heaven above, and bewailed my ignorances of her.  I directed my soul unto her, and I found her in pureness: I have had my heart joined with her from the beginning, therefore shall I not be forsaken.  My heart was troubled in seeking her: therefore have I gotten a good possession.  The Lord hath given me a tongue for my reward, and I will praise him therewith.

 

[1] http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2010/11/sirach-about-a-biblical-book-rejected-by-the-reformation/

[2] http://www.justforcatholics.org/a48.htm

[3] Aaron is to make atonement (Septuagint: ἐξιλάσεται) on its horns once in the year with some of the blood of the sin offering for atonement; once in the year he is to make atonement on it throughout your generations.  It is most holy to the Lord. (Exodus 30:10 NET)

Sexual Immorality Revisited, Part 1

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I want to look more closely at Kyle Harper’s article published in the Journal of Biblical Literature, “Porneia—The Making of a Christian Sexual Norm.”  He cited two sources to support the expansion of the meaning of πορνεία during the intertestamental period: Sirach and Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

In one sense Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs is relatively easy to dismiss as fiction.  It’s not unlike This Present Darkness.  The language of the novel may represent the beliefs of a certain segment of Evangelical Christians at a certain time in history.  It may use some words that are also used in the New Testament but it doesn’t dictate what those words meant to the human authors of the New Testament or what they mean to the Holy Spirit.  (And, yes, the two can be different [John 11:49-53 NET]).  But it is possible that Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs was written in Greek before the New Testament was written.  The human authors of the New Testament may not have been entirely immune to its influence or to the socially constructed reality within which it was written.

Sirach is another matter altogether.  “Perhaps the earliest witness to the more expansive meaning of πορνεία,” Mr. Harper wrote, “is the book of Sirach, composed in the first decades of the second century b.c.e.”[1]  If I had grown up Catholic, Sirach would be one of the Scriptures I use to understand the meaning of Greek words in the New Testament.  The only way I know to proceed is to examine Mr. Harper’s claims one at a time.  As a baseline “the practical warnings against prostitution (9:6; 19:2), common also to other wisdom literature”[2] follow:

Sirach 9:6

 Parallel Greek Sirach 19:2

Parallel Greek
Give not thy soul unto harlots, that thou lose not thine inheritance. μὴ δῷς πόρναις (a form of πόρνη) τὴν ψυχήν σου, ἵνα μὴ ἀπολέσῃς τὴν κληρονομίαν σου Wine and women will make men of understanding to fall away: and he that cleaveth to harlots will become impudent. οἶνος καὶ γυναῖκες ἀποστήσουσι συνετούς, καὶ ὁ κολλώμενος πόρναις (a form of πόρνη) τολμηρότερος ἔσται

While I agree that the passage in which Sirach 19:2 occurs reads like Old Testament wisdom literature, the passage surrounding Sirach 9:6 reads more like gezerot (Sirach 9:1-9):

Be not jealous over the wife of thy bosom, and teach her not an evil lesson against thyself.  Give not thy soul unto a woman to set her foot upon thy substance.  Meet not with an harlot (γυναικὶ ἑταιριζομένῃ), lest thou fall into her snares.  Use not much the company of a woman that is a singer, lest thou be taken with her attempts.  Gaze not on a maid, that thou fall not by those things that are precious in her.  Give not thy soul unto harlots, that thou lose not thine inheritance.  Look not round about thee in the streets of the city, neither wander thou in the solitary place thereof.  Turn away thine eye from a beautiful woman, and look not upon another’s beauty; for many have been deceived by the beauty of a woman; for herewith love is kindled as a fire.  Sit not at all with another man’s wife, nor sit down with her in thine arms, and spend not thy money with her at the wine; lest thine heart incline unto her, and so through thy desire thou fall into destruction.

Jesus used πόρναι (another form of πόρνη) in a way that owes nothing to Sirach: I tell you the truth, He said to the chief priests and elders of the people,[3] tax collectors and prostitutes (πόρναι, another form of πόρνη) will go ahead of you into the kingdom of God! [Table]  For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him.  But the tax collectors and prostitutes (πόρναι, another form of πόρνη) did believe.  Although you saw this, you did not later change your minds and believe him.[4]

Paul used πόρνης and πόρνῃ for prostitute without any particular reliance on Sirach (1 Corinthians 6:13b-17 NET).

The body is not for sexual immorality (πορνείᾳ), but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.  Now God indeed raised the Lord and he will raise us by his power.  Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?  Should I take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute (πόρνης, another form of πόρνη)?  Never!  Or do you not know that anyone who is united with a prostitute (πόρνῃ) is one body with her?  For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”  But the one united with the Lord is one spirit with him.

Paul’s understanding was rooted in God’s creation and a direct quote from Genesis 2:24 in Greek.

1 Corinthians 6:16b (NET)

 Parallel Greek

Genesis 2:24b Septuagint
“The two will become one flesh.” ἔσονται[5]…οἱ δύο εἰς σάρκα μίαν ἔσονται οἱ δύο εἰς σάρκα μίαν

I have admitted that the desire to be faithful to one woman took me by surprise while I was definitely making other plans.  That desire has been a constant companion, one I was unable to shake when young, and unwilling now that I am old.

Kyle Harper continued:

…Sirach breaks important new ground. “Two sorts of men multiply sins, and a third incurs wrath” (Sir 23:16–18 RSV). In the first two cases, the male sinner is described as an ἄνθρωπος πόρνος. Unfortunately it is not perfectly clear which sins precisely the author has in mind. The first ἄνθρωπος πόρνος sins “in the body of his own flesh.” The second ἄνθρωπος πόρνος is a man “for whom all bread tastes sweet,” and the third sinner is a man who disgraces his marriage bed, thinking himself beyond the sight of God. What is most remarkable is that πόρνος is being used to describe male sexual transgression. In classical Greek, the πόρνος was the male prostitute; here it is used in apposition to ἄνθρωπος (influenced by Hebrew) to mean “the sexually sinning man.”[6]

 

Sirach 23:16-18

Parallel Greek
Two sorts of men multiply sin, and the third will bring wrath: a hot mind is as a burning fire, it will never be quenched till it be consumed: a fornicator in the body of his flesh will never cease till he hath kindled a fire. Δύο εἴδη πληθύνουσιν ἁμαρτίας, καὶ τὸ τρίτον ἐπάξει ὀργήν· ψυχὴ θερμὴ ὡς πῦρ καιόμενον, οὐ μὴ σβεσθῇ ἕως ἂν καταποθῇ· ἄνθρωπος πόρνος ἐν σώματι σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ, οὐ μὴ παύσηται ἕως ἂν ἐκκαύσῃ πῦρ·
All bread is sweet to a whoremonger, he will not leave off till he die. ἀνθρώπω πόρνῳ (another form of πόρνος) πᾶς ἄρτος ἡδύς, οὐ μὴ κοπάσῃ ἕως ἂν τελευτήσῃ.
A man that breaketh wedlock, saying thus in his heart, Who seeth me? I am compassed about with darkness, the walls cover me, and no body seeth me; what need I to fear? the most High will not remember my sins: ἄνθρωπος παραβαίνων ἀπὸ τῆς κλίνης αὐτοῦ, λέγων ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ αὐτοῦ· τίς με ὁρᾷ; σκότος κύκλῳ μου, καὶ οἱ τοῖχοί με καλύπτουσι, καὶ οὐθείς με ὁρᾷ· τί εὐλαβοῦμαι; τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν μου οὐ μὴ μνησθήσεται ὁ ῞Υψιστος.

Though it was not “perfectly clear which sins precisely the author has in mind” to Mr. Harper, Fr. William Most had this to say:

In vv.16-27: Sirach speaks of three  kinds of sexual sins: he begins by speaking of the man who indulges himself sexually alone, in masturbation.  The fire will not go out, it will consume him. The sense is that this vice is like an addiction, indulging it makes it grow stronger.  Secondly, the one who sins with just any woman, even close relatives (v. 17: “to the fornicator all food tastes sweet”), will not stop until the fire burns him up.

I’m not so sure that ἄρτος (bread, food) stood for women.  The noun is masculine.  Though that in itself is not particularly meaningful, the more common understanding of πόρνῳ (another form of πόρνος) was catamite.  If Sirach had catamites in mind it reveals his moral reasoning vis-à-vis πόρνος ἐν σώματι σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ: The homosexuality of masturbation disturbed him.  Contrast the prophet Nathan’s point that a man should entertain the traveler (e.g., male sexual desire) with that which is his own (2 Samuel 12:1-4 NET).

Mr. Harper continued:

The description of an adulterous wife in Sirach also reveals the range of πορνεία: “Through her fornication she has committed adultery and brought forth children by another man” (23:22–23 NRSV). She will bear illegitimate offspring because ἐν πορνείᾳ ἐμοιχεύθη. Μοιχεία in Greek, when used of women, required the passive voice; it was difficult to emphasize the woman’s agency with μοιχεύω alone. The addition of ἐν πορνείᾳ here emphasizes her dishonorable behavior. Translations such as the NRSV, which make “commit adultery” active, obscure the reason why it was necessary to add ἐν πορνείᾳ as a way of underlining her volition in the dishonorable act.[7]

 

Sirach 23:22-23

Parallel Greek
Thus shall it go also with the wife that leaveth her husband, and bringeth in an heir by another. Οὕτως καὶ γυνὴ καταλιποῦσα τὸν ἄνδρα καὶ παριστῶσα κληρονόμον ἐξ ἀλλοτρίου·
For first, she hath disobeyed the law of the most High; and secondly, she hath trespassed against her own husband; and thirdly, she hath played the whore in adultery, and brought children by another man. πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ ἐν νόμῳ ῾Υψίστου ἠπείθησε, καὶ δεύτερον εἰς ἄνδρα ἑαυτῆς ἐπλημμέλησε, καὶ τὸ τρίτον ἐν πορνείᾳ  ἐμοιχεύθη (a form of μοιχεύω), ἐξ ἀλλοτρίου ἀνδρὸς τέκνα παρέστησεν.

The passage continues (Sirach 23:24-27):

She shall be brought out into the congregation, and inquisition shall be made of her children.  Her children shall not take root, and her branches shall bring forth no fruit.  She shall leave her memory to be cursed, and her reproach shall not be blotted out.  And they that remain shall know that there is nothing better than the fear of the Lord, and that there is nothing sweeter than to take heed unto the commandments of the Lord.

John, more than two centuries later, described a similar scene of inquisition (ἐπισκοπὴ; or visitation) without using ἐν πορνείᾳ to make his point.  Though the authenticity of this passage is under attack, it remains presently in Scripture.

John 8:3, 4 (NET)

Parallel Greek
The experts in the law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught committing adultery.  They made her stand in front of them ῎Αγουσιν δὲ οἱ γραμματεῖς καὶ οἱ Φαρισαῖοι γυναῖκα ἐπὶ μοιχείᾳ κατειλημμένην καὶ στήσαντες αὐτὴν ἐν μέσῳ
and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery.” λέγουσιν αὐτῷ· διδάσκαλε, αὕτη ἡ γυνὴ κατείληπται ἐπ᾿ αὐτοφώρῳ (a form of ἐπαυτοφώρῳ) μοιχευομένη (another form of μοιχεύω)

Mr. Harper continued:

Sirach also attests the use of πορνεία as a broadly conceived sexual vice. In ch. 41, the author gives a list of moral apothegms, some of them deliberately paradoxical. In the first of these, Sirach enjoins the reader to “be ashamed of sexual immorality [περὶ πορνείας] before your father or mother” (41:17 NRSV). The audience is implicitly masculine, and the meaning of πορνεία is clearly sexual. Later in the chapter, Sirach warns against “looking at a prostitute” (γυναικὸς ἑταίρας), against “gazing at another man’s wife,” and against “meddling with his servant-girl” (41:20–22 NRSV). Sirach attests to the ascent of a conjugal sexual morality in late Second Temple Judaism; the injunctions against sex with slaves and prostitutes are a noteworthy development.[8]

 

Sirach 41:17

Parallel Greek
Be ashamed of whoredom before father and mother: and of a lie before a prince and a mighty man; αἰσχύνεσθε ἀπὸ πατρὸς καὶ μητρὸς περὶ πορνείας (a form of πορνεία) καὶ ἀπὸ ἡγουμένου καὶ δυνάστου περὶ ψεύδους,

Sirach 41:22-24

Parallel Greek
and to look upon an harlot; And to turn away thy face from thy kinsman; ἀπὸ ὁράσεως γυναικὸς (a form of γυνή) ἑταίρας καὶ ἀπὸ ἀποστροφῆς προσώπου συγγενοῦς,
or to take away a portion or a gift; or to gaze upon another man’s wife. ἀπὸ ἀφαιρέσεως μερίδος καὶ δόσεως καὶ ἀπὸ κατανοήσεως γυναικὸς ὑπάνδρου (a form of ὕπανδρος),
Or to be overbusy with his maid, and come not near her bed; ἀπὸ περιεργείας παιδίσκης (a form of παιδίσκη) αὐτοῦ, καὶ μὴ ἐπιστῇς ἐπὶ τὴν κοίτην αὐτῆς

In context it is not possible to say that these things were all incidents of πορνείας in Sirach’s mind, especially when I add back the intervening verses:

Sirach 41:18-21

Parallel Greek
Of an offence before a judge and ruler; of iniquity before a congregation and people; of unjust dealing before thy partner and friend; And of theft in regard of the place where thou sojournest, and in regard of the truth of God and his covenant; and to lean with thine elbow upon the meat; and of scorning to give and take; And of silence before them that salute thee; ἀπὸ κριτοῦ καὶ ἄρχοντος περὶ πλημμελείας, ἀπὸ συναγωγῆς καὶ λαοῦ περὶ ἀνομίας, ἀπὸ κοινωνοῦ καὶ φίλου περὶ ἀδικίας καὶ ἀπὸ τόπου, οὗ παροικεῖς, περὶ κλοπῆς, ἀπὸ ἀληθείας Θεοῦ καὶ διαθήκης καὶ ἀπὸ πήξεως ἀγκῶνος ἐπ᾿ ἄρτοις,  ἀπὸ σκορακισμοῦ λήψεως καὶ δόσεως καὶ ἀπὸ ἀσπαζομένων περὶ σιωπῆς,

To “be ashamed of whoredom” (πορνείας) is one of many things to be ashamed of; πορνείας does not stand for all of the other things that bring shame (αἰσχύνεσθε; literally, make ugly, disfigure).  Though Sirach was mentioned first the examples given don’t appear to support the expansion of the meaning of πορνεία as well as Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs does.[9]

The most intriguing witness to the expansion of πορνεία and its ascent to the position of a chief vice is the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. The value of its testimony is compromised by the uncertainties surrounding the provenance of the work. The extant text is a redaction of the second century c.e. with Christian elements. But there are strong indications that the underlying source is a product of Hellenistic Judaism. Πορνεία is the first vice to appear in the first testament, and the root πορν- appears thirty-two times in the text. The warnings against πορνεία are pervasive, and they are so integral to the extant text that this preoccupation likely belongs to the original Hellenstic-Jewish fabric of the text.

Πορνεία in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs functions, as in Sirach, as a catchall vice for any sexual transgression. “Πορνεία has destroyed many” (T. Reu. 4:7). Wine and beauty lead to πορνεία, and the young are particularly susceptible to its charms (T. Jud. 14:2; T. Reu. 1:6; 4:6). Πορνεία was flexible enough to accommodate a wide range of sexual misdeeds. Reuben was guilty of πορνεία for sleeping with Bilhah, Rachel’s maid, because his father had been in the same bed (T. Reu. 1:6). Judah was conquered by the spirit of fornication, both for taking Tamar when he thought she was a prostitute and for marrying Bathshua (T. Jud. 13:3; 14:2, 3). Levi was encouraged to marry, while he was still young, a chaste Jewish girl, in order to avoid fornication (T. Levi 9:9). Potiphar’s wife tried, but failed, to lead the virtuous Joseph into πορνεία (T. Jos. 3:8). Benjamin predicted that his heirs would “fornicate the fornication of Sodom” (T. Benj. 9:1). Women, too, were especially vulnerable to the power of πορνεία (T. Reu. 5:3). In the Testaments, πορνεία has become an inclusive sexual category denoting illicit sexual activity, including incest, prostitution, exogamy, and unchastity. Issachar ends his testament by claiming, “I am 122 years of age, and I have never known a sin up to my death. Except for my wife, I never knew another woman. I have not committed πορνεία by the uplifting of my eyes” (T. Iss. 7:1–2). For Jews living in a Hellenic culture that tolerated, even encouraged the sexual use of dishonored women, πορνεία was an ever-present temptation, and it became the principal vice, the “mother of all evils” (T. Sim. 5:3). This sharp sensibility toward the danger of πορνεία, nurtured in the world of Hellenistic Judaism, lies behind future Christian developments.

[1] Kyle Harper: “Porneia—The Making of a Christian Sexual Norm;” Journal of Biblical Literature 131, no. 2 (2012); p. 371

[2] ibid.

[3] Matthew 21:23 (NET)

[4] Matthew 21:31b, 32 (NET)

[5] I removed γάρ, φησίν (translated, For it is said) from ἔσονται γάρ, φησίν, οἱ δύο εἰς σάρκα μίαν to make the comparison easier for those not accustomed to Greek letters and words.

[6] Kyle Harper: “Porneia—The Making of a Christian Sexual Norm;” Journal of Biblical Literature 131, no. 2 (2012); p. 371

[7] ibid.

[8] ibid., pp. 371-372

[9] ibid., pp. 372-373