Category Archives: Romans

Romans, Part 72

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In this essay I continue to consider Contribute (κοινωνοῦντες, a form of κοινωνέω) to the needs of the saints, pursue hospitality.[1] But  I’m looking at the dark side of contributing (or, sharing in), specifically (2 John 1:9-11 NET):

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not remain in the teaching of Christ does not have God.  The one who remains in this teaching has both the Father and the Son.  If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house and do not give him any greeting, because the person who gives him a greeting shares (κοινωνεῖ, another form of κοινωνέω) in his evil deeds.

My religious mind hears evil deeds in English as some sin, preferably one to which it is not particularly prone—molesting young boys, for instance—and fixates on that as the meaning of evil deeds.  In Greek, however—κοινωνεῖ τοῖς ἔργοις (a form of ἔργον) αὐτοῦ τοῖς πονηροῖς (a form of πονηρός)—is just as likely to mean “shares (or, contributes to) his works full of labours, annoyances, and hardships.”  This is the more likely meaning, in fact, in reference to the New Testament ἐκκλησία.  Religious people tie up heavy loads, hard to carry, and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing even to lift a finger to move them.[2]  Jesus said (Matthew 11:28-30 NET):

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (ἀναπαύσω, a form of ἀναπαύω).  Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest (ἀνάπαυσιν, a form of ἀνάπαυσις) for your souls (ψυχαῖς, a form of ψυχή).  For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry.

As I continue to distinguish the teaching of Christ from that of religious people I consider Love the Lord your God…with all your soul[3] (ψυχῆς, another form of ψυχή).  After Jesus’ Father revealed (Matthew 16:16, 17 NET) to Peter that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, and after Jesus instructed his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ[4] (Matthew 16:21-27 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!”  But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!  You are a stumbling block to me, because you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but on man’s.”  Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life (ψυχὴν, another form of ψυχή) will lose it, but whoever loses his life (ψυχὴν, another form of ψυχή) for my sake will find it.  For what does it benefit a person if he gains the whole world but forfeits his life (ψυχὴν, another form of ψυχή)?  Or what can a person give in exchange for his life (ψυχῆς, another form of ψυχή)?  For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.

Granted, there is a lot packed into this passage.  First to love yehôvâh with all your soul (or, life), is to become a follower of Jesus, yehôvâh incarnate, made human flesh as a man.  If anyone wants to become my follower, Jesus said, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.  I’ll consider deny himself as it is demonstrated here.  It was revealed to Peter that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah.  Peter thought he knew who the Messiah was and what He had come to do.

When the Messiah said 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, Peter said, This must not happen to you.  I assume that Peter didn’t even hear the part about being raised on the third day or his response would have revealed a different confusion.  All Peter heard was that the Messiah he and his people longed for would suffer at the hands of his religious leaders and be killed.

When Jesus called Peter Satan, He did not mean that Satan is the true representative of man’s interests.  He meant that Peter’s words appealed to that fleshly part of Jesus’ own humanity as Satan had tried to do in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12, 13, Luke 4:1-13 NET).  Peter accepted Jesus’ rebuke, picked himself up and followed all the way to what he perceived was a last stand (John 11:7-16 NET; cf verse 16) in the garden of Gethsemane (John 18:10, 11, Matthew 26:51-54, Mark 14:47, Luke 22:49-51 NET), without ever fully understanding what Jesus’ meant until after the resurrection.

Like Peter, I thought I knew what Jesus’ final statement meant: For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.  Alexander the coppersmith did me a great deal of harm, Paul warned Timothy.  The Lord will repay him in keeping with his deeds.  You be on guard against him too, because he vehemently opposed our words.[5]

The Lord will repay him in keeping with his deeds, is an allusion to Psalm 28:4 according to a note (19) in the NET.  A comparison of the Greek texts follows.

Paul (NET) Parallel Greek David (NETS)

Septuagint
Alexander the coppersmith did me a great deal of harm.

2 Timothy 4:14a

 Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ χαλκεὺς πολλά μοι κακὰ ἐνεδείξατο

2 Timothy 4:14a
The Lord will repay him in keeping with his deeds.

2 Timothy 4:14b

 ἀποδώσει αὐτῷ ὁ κύριος κατὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ

2 Timothy 4:14b

 Give them according to their works,

Psalm 28:4a

 δὸς αὐτοῖς κατὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτῶν

Psalm 28:4a
  and according to the wickedness of their practices;

Psalm 28:4b

 καὶ κατὰ τὴν πονηρίαν τῶν ἐπιτηδευμάτων[6] αὐτῶν

Psalm 28:4b
  according to the works of their hands give them;

Psalm 28:4c

 κατὰ τὰ ἔργα τῶν χειρῶν αὐτῶν δὸς αὐτοῖς

Psalm 28:4c
  render them their due reward.

Psalm 28:4d

 ἀπόδος τὸ ἀνταπόδομα αὐτῶν αὐτοῖς

Psalm 28:4d

“He’s making a list / And checking it twice / Gonna find out Who’s naughty and nice…He sees you when you’re sleeping / He knows when you’re awake / He knows if you’ve been bad or good / So be good for goodness sake!”[7]  No, my parents never tricked me into believing in Santa Claus.  They didn’t even trick me into believing that Jesus was born on December 25th.  Christmas was the arbitrary season the Church chose to celebrate Jesus’ birth.  I made this connection to being repaid in keeping with my deeds, thinking, I suppose, that parents made Santa Claus in Jesus’ image.  But children were never good for goodness’ sake.  They wanted presents, rewards, rather than a lump of coal.

This was essentially my understanding of good works.  They had nothing to do with salvation except that I should want to do them because Jesus did a “good work” for me, dying for my sins.  Good works were done primarily for rewards.  No one knew what these rewards might be but no one wanted to be left out when everyone else was receiving rewards for their good works.  As I got older, good works merited good things happening to or for me here and now, while bad works merited the opposite, karma, in a word.  Fear is the key motivation, whether fear of social embarrassment or literal harm.

And again Paul wrote, But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed!  He will reward each one according to his works.[8]  According to a note (16) in the NET this is a quotation from Psalm 62:12 and Proverbs 24:12.  The Greek texts are compared below.

Paul (NET) Parallel Greek David (NETS)

Septuagint
But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed!

Romans 2:5

 κατὰ δὲ τὴν σκληρότητα σου καὶ ἀμετανόητον καρδίαν θησαυρίζεις σεαυτῷ ὀργὴν ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ὀργῆς καὶ ἀποκαλύψεως δικαιοκρισίας τοῦ θεοῦ

Romans 2:5

 And to you, O Lord, belongs mercy,

Psalm 62:12a

 ὅτι τὸ κράτος τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ σοί κύριε τὸ ἔλεος

Psalm 62:12a
He will reward each one according to his works:

Romans 2:6

 ὃς ἀποδώσει ἑκάστῳ κατὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ

Romans 2:6

 because you will repay to each according to his works.

Psalm 62:12b

 ὅτι σὺ ἀποδώσεις ἑκάστῳ κατὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ

Psalm 62:12b

Mercy above is ἔλεος in the Septuagint.  Later in the same letter to the Romans Paul recalled the long name (Exodus 33:19 NET) of yehôvâh: I will have mercy (ἐλεήσω, a form of ἐλεέω) on whom I have mercy (ἐλεῶ, another form of ἐλεέω), and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.  So then, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy (ἐλεῶντος, another form of ἐλεέω).[9]  For God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy (ἐλεήσῃ, another form of ἐλεέω) to them all.[10]  “Go and learn what this saying means,” Jesus said to religious people, “‘I want mercy (ἔλεος) and not sacrifice.’  For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”[11]  And, “If you had known what this means: ‘I want mercy (ἔλεος) and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.”[12]

Paul (NET)

 Parallel Greek Solomon (NETS)

Septuagint
But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed!

Romans 2:5

 κατὰ δὲ τὴν σκληρότητα σου καὶ ἀμετανόητον καρδίαν θησαυρίζεις σεαυτῷ ὀργὴν ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ὀργῆς καὶ ἀποκαλύψεως δικαιοκρισίας τοῦ θεοῦ

Romans 2:5

 If you say: “I do not know this person,” be aware that the Lord is familiar with the heart of everyone, and he who formed breath for all, he knows everything,

Proverbs 24:12a [Table]

 ἐὰν δὲ εἴπῃς οὐκ οἶδα τοῦτον γίνωσκε ὅτι κύριος καρδίας πάντων γινώσκει καὶ ὁ πλάσας πνοὴν πᾶσιν αὐτὸς οἶδεν πάντα

Proverbs 24:12a
He will reward each one according to his works:

Romans 2:6

 ὃς ἀποδώσει ἑκάστῳ κατὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ

Romans 2:6

 he who will render to each according to his deeds.

Proverbs 24:12b [Table]

 ὃς ἀποδίδωσιν ἑκάστῳ κατὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ

Proverbs 24:12b

Here, though the familiar fear-of-the-Lord usage is evident, Solomon’s purpose was that His son Rehoboam as a prince and eventually king of Israel would, “Rescue them who are led to death, and buy back those who are to be slaughtered; do not delay!”[13]  In each of these verses the Greek phrase translated according to his deeds (or, works) is κατὰ τὰ ἔργα (a form of ἔργον) αὐτοῦ (according to their works is κατὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτῶν).  But Jesus made a minor change when speaking this way to his disciples, to those who followed Him, who loved yehôvâh with all their soul or life: ἀποδώσει ἑκάστῳ κατὰ τὴν πρᾶξιν (a form of πρᾶξις) αὐτοῦ.  Jesus’ followers will be rewarded according to their practice as opposed to their works.

Do they live by the Spirit (πνεύματι περιπατεῖτε)?  Are they led by the Spirit (πνεύματι ἄγεσθε) or by the flesh?  Their works of the flesh (τὰ ἔργα τῆς σαρκός) as isolated incidents are already forgiven, condemned in the flesh.  Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me.[14]  Of course, if they practice the works of the flesh they were never Jesus’ followers to begin with: Those who practice (πράσσοντες, a form of πράσσω) such things will not inherit the kingdom of God![15]

The hope for Jesus’ followers is the Sabbath rest…for the people of God:  For the one who enters God’s rest (κατάπαυσιν, a form of κατάπαυσις) has also rested (κατέπαυσεν, a form of καταπαύω) from his works (ἔργων, another form of ἔργον), just as God did from his own works.  Thus we must make every effort (Σπουδάσωμεν, a form of σπουδάζω) to enter that rest (κατάπαυσιν, a form of κατάπαυσις), so that no one may fall by following the same pattern of disobedience (ἀπειθείας, a form of ἀπείθεια).[16]  But the one who practices (ποιῶν, a form of ποιέω) the truth, Jesus said of his followers, comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds (ἔργα, a form of ἔργον) have been done in [or, by] God[17] (ὅτι ἐν θεῷ ἐστιν εἰργασμένα [a form of ἐργάζομαι]).

Finally, Jesus felt no need to motivate his followers with fear.  There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears punishment has not been perfected in love.  We love because he loved us first.[18]  Do not leave Jerusalem, He told them after his resurrection, but wait there for what my Father promised, which you heard about from me.  For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.[19]  And the fruit of the Spirit is love (ἀγάπη), joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.  Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.[20]

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets, Jesus cautioned.  I have not come to abolish these things but to fulfill (πληρῶσαι, a form of πληρόω) them.[21]  Love (ἀγάπη) does no wrong to a neighbor.  Therefore love (ἀγάπη) is the fulfillment (πλήρωμα) of the law.[22]  And whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me, Jesus said.  Whoever finds his life (ψυχὴν, another form of ψυχή) will lose it, and whoever loses his life (ψυχὴν, another form of ψυχή) because of me will find it.[23]

For we did not follow cleverly concocted fables when we made known to you the power and return of our Lord Jesus Christ, Peter offered, no, we were eyewitnesses of his grandeur.[24]  But in the light of these details even those who reject the Gospel as cleverly concocted fables need to pause to appreciate just how cleverly concocted the details are.  Maybe it’s not the devil in the details.

I began this essay with an oblique reference to pedophile priests.  My point is simply this: I don’t believe that Catholic priests who molested children were trusting in their deaths to sin (Romans 6:3-14 NET) through faith in Jesus’ crucifixion as they molested those children.  They weren’t believing their resurrection to new life (Romans 7:4-6 NET) through Jesus’ resurrection.  They weren’t walking or living by his Spirit (Romans 8:1-11 NET), depending on his daily infusion of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:13-6:5 NET).  I believe they relied on their own abilities as Catholic priests to live up to centuries of Catholic rules governing the behavior of Catholic priests.  That is molestation (or an eruption of any other sin) looking for a time and a place to happen, because it is the practice which plays to sin’s strength: the power of sin is the law.[25]

Romans, Part 73

[1] Romans 12:13 (NET)

[2] Matthew 23:4 (NET)

[3] Mark 12:30a (NET)

[4] Matthew 16:20 (NET)

[5] 2 Timothy 4:14, 15 (NET)

[6] http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=e)pithdeuma%2Ftwn&la=greek&prior=tw=n

[7] http://www.41051.com/xmaslyrics/santatown.html

[8] Romans 2:5, 6 (NET)

[9] Romans 9:15, 16 (NET)

[10] Romans 11:32 (NET)

[11] Matthew 9:13 (NET)

[12] Matthew 12:7 (NET)

[13] Proverbs 24:11 (NETS)

[14] Romans 7:20 (NET)

[15] Galatians 5:21b (NET)

[16] Hebrews 4:10, 11 (NET)

[17] John 3:21 (NET)

[18] 1 John 4:18, 19 (NET)

[19] Acts 1:4, 5 (NET)

[20] Galatians 5:22-24 (NET)

[21] Matthew 5:17 (NET)

[22] Romans 13:10 (NET)

[23] Matthew 10:38, 39 (NET)

[24] 2 Peter 1:16 (NET)

[25] 1 Corinthians 15:56b (NET)

Romans, Part 71

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This is a continuation of my consideration of Contribute (κοινωνοῦντες, a form of κοινωνέω) to the needs of the saints, pursue hospitality.[1]  I’ll begin with the dark side of contributing (or, sharing in): Do not lay hands on anyone hastily, Paul warned a young preacher, and so identify (κοινώνει, another form of κοινωνέω) with the sins of others.  Keep yourself pure.[2]  John mirrored this admonition to a leader ordaining elders (1 Timothy 5:17-22 NET) with one addressed to followers receiving leaders (2 John 1:9-11 NET):

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not remain in the teaching of Christ does not have God.  The one who remains in this teaching has both the Father and the Son.  If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house and do not give him any greeting, because the person who gives him a greeting shares (κοινωνεῖ, another form of κοινωνέω) in his evil deeds.

To begin to understand the teaching (διδαχῇ, a form of διδαχή) of Christ I turn to the Gospel according to Mark.  When asked by one of the experts in the law—Which commandment is the most important of all—Jesus replied with the love (ἀγάπη) [that] is the fulfillment (πλήρωμα) of the law[3] (Mark 12:29-31 NET):

“The most important is: ‘Listen, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love (ἀγαπήσεις, a form of ἀγαπάω) the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’  The second is: ‘Love (ἀγαπήσεις, a form of ἀγαπάω) your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no other commandment greater than these.”

That is true, Teacher, the expert in the law said, you are right to say that he is one, and there is no one else besides him.  And to love (ἀγαπᾶν, another form of ἀγαπάω) him with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength and to love (ἀγαπᾶν, another form of ἀγαπάω) your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.[4]  The concept of love as the fulfillment of the law was not foreign to him.  When Jesus saw that he had answered thoughtfully, he said to him, “You are not far (μακρὰν) from the kingdom of God.”[5]  And in this narrow distance I hope to find how the teaching of Christ differs from the teaching of religious people.

Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, Jesus said to religious people who accused Him of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul.  But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.  Make a tree good and its fruit (καρπὸν, a form of καρπός) will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit (καρπὸν, a form of καρπός) will be bad, for a tree is known by its fruit (καρπὸν, a form of καρπός).[6]  Though religious people may know this as it pertains to horticulture, in religious culture the religious mind hopes to make the tree good by making the fruit good.  If I do good things I will be good, rather than if I am good I do good.  Why make this reversal?

Love the Lord your God with all your heart[7] (καρδίας, a form of καρδία) is a quotation from Deuteronomy 6:5—Love the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) your God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהיך) with all your heart.  Here is what Jesus said about the heart with which we are to love yehôvâh.

Offspring of vipers, He said, speaking still to religious people.  How are you able to say anything good, since you are evil?  For the mouth speaks from what fills (περισσεύματος, a form of περίσσευμα) the heart (καρδίας, a form of καρδία).[8]  The word translated fills here is not πλήρωμα but carries the idea of filled to overflowing.  At the present time, Paul wrote the Corinthians, your abundance (περίσσευμα) will meet their need, so that one day their abundance (περίσσευμα) may also meet your need…[9]  So I take the mouth speaks from the abundance (or, overflow) of the heart as a psychological truth from the mouth of the Creator of the human psyche.

Now if I disallow that Jesus’ intent was to be as rude and insulting as possible to some of the world’s most accomplished religious people, what can I make of his statement?  I don’t think He expressed literal ignorance of how religious people say anything good.  He knew He had given them his word.  He quoted it, too: Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.[10]  That is the key, I think, to recall what Jesus knew.

He knew what was in man.  But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart (καρδίας, a form of καρδία),[11] Jesus reiterated this basic knowledge of the human psyche.  For out of the heart (καρδίας, a form of καρδία) come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.[12]  He knew he had not yet been crucified or resurrected.  He knew that the religious people before Him had not yet 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 [they] too may live a new life.[13]

He knew their old man was [not yet] crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate [them], so that [they] would no longer be enslaved to sin.[14]  He knew He had not yet sent the Holy Spirit to fill them with his love (ἀγάπη), joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.[15]  Do not leave Jerusalem, He told his disciples after his resurrection, but wait there for what my Father promised, which you heard about from me.  For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.[16]  You will receive power, He promised them, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.[17]

Given this knowledge Jesus’ words sound more like wonder and perhaps even a grudging admiration at how near to the kingdom of God these particular religious people had come on their own.  Though I called the distance narrow and recognize that the difference between the teaching of Christ and that of religious people is subtle, the gap is unbridgeable apart from yehovah’s incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection.  Not only is it impossible to love Him with all our evil hearts, our hard hearts love our religious rules more than our fellow human beings (Mark 3:1-6 NET):

Then Jesus entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand.  They watched Jesus closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they could accuse him.  So he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Stand up among all these people.”  Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath, or evil, to save a life or destroy it?”  But they were silent.  After looking around at them in anger, grieved by the hardness of their hearts (καρδίας, a form of καρδία), he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.”  He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.  So the Pharisees went out immediately[18] and began plotting with the Herodians, as to how they could assassinate him [Table].

We think our religious works merit special privilege or indulgence relative to those sinners who don’t even try to do good (Ezekiel 18:26-29 NET):

When a righteous person turns back from his righteousness and practices wrongdoing, he will die for it; because of the wrongdoing he has done, he will die.  When a wicked person turns from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will preserve his life.  Because he considered and turned from all the sins he had done, he will surely live; he will not die.  Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The Lord’s conduct is unjust!’  Is my conduct unjust, O house of Israel?  Is it not your conduct that is unjust?

Actually, our continued rejection of Jesus’ salvation (whether in whole or in part) opens the door of mercy to more sinners (Romans 11:11, 12, 15, 22, 23 NET)

I ask then, [Israel] did not stumble into an irrevocable fall, did they?  Absolutely not!  But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel jealous.  Now if their transgression means riches for the world and their defeat means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full restoration bring?

For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

Notice therefore the kindness and harshness of God – harshness toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.  And even they – if they do not continue in their unbelief – will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.

For this reason I tell you, Jesus said to religious people, that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit (καρποὺς, another form of καρπός).[19]  But the fruit (καρπὸς) of the Spirit, Paul wrote the Galatians, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.[20]  So religious people, actors at heart, reverse Jesus’ dictum, Make a tree good and its fruit (καρπὸν, a form of καρπός) will be good.  This, in a word, is our unbelief.

Religious people do not believe they need to be baptized by Jesus in the Holy Spirit.  We do not believe that his Father knows our needs before we ask Him—or that He is willing to supply our needs.  We don’t accept that our most pressing need is to sit at Jesus’ feet, to listen and to live by every word that comes from the mouth of God.  True, our unbelief is a continuum from ignorance of Jesus’ salvation to the selfish preference for some other way—“My way.”  But all lead to the same outcome: the vain attempt to make ourselves good by doing good deeds.  You are the ones who justify yourselves in men’s eyes, Jesus said to religious people, but God knows your hearts (καρδίας, a form of καρδία).[21]

But I say, live by the Spirit, Paul wrote the Galatians, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.  For the flesh has desires that are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh, for these are in opposition to each other, so that you cannot do what you want.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.  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 (πράσσοντες, a form of πράσσω) such things will not inherit the kingdom of God![22]

The good person brings good things out of his good treasury, Jesus concluded, and the evil person brings evil things out of his evil treasury.  I tell you that on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every worthless word they speak [the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart].  For by your words you will be justified (δικαιωθήσῃ, a form of δικαιόω), and by your words you will be condemned (καταδικασθήσῃ, a form of καταδικάζω).[23]

“Therefore I will judge (shâphaṭ, אשפט; Septuagint: κρινῶ, a form of κρίνω) you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord (ʼădônây, אדני) GOD (yehôvâh, יהוה).  Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin.  Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!  Why will you die, O house of Israel?  For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord (ʼădônây, אדני) GOD (yehôvâh, יהוה); so turn, and live.”[24]

[1] Romans 12:13 (NET)

[2] 1 Timothy 5:22 (NET)

[3] Romans 13:10b (NET)

[4] Mark 12:32, 33 (NET)

[5] Mark 12:34a (NET)

[6] Matthew 12:32, 33 (NET)

[7] Mark 12:30a (NET)

[8] Matthew 12:34 (NET)

[9] 2 Corinthians 8:14a (NET)

[10] Matthew 4:4b (NET)

[11] Matthew 15:18a (NET)

[12] Matthew 15:19 (NET)

[13] Romans 6:4b (NET)

[14] Romans 6:6b (NET)

[15] Galatians 5:22b, 23a (NET)

[16] Acts 1:4, 5 (NET)

[17] Acts 1:8a (NET) Table

[18] The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had εὐθὺς here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ευθεως (KJV: straightway).

[19] Matthew 21:43 (NET)

[20] Galatians 5:22, 23 (NET)

[21] Luke 16:15a (NET)

[22] Galatians 5:16-21 (NET)

[23] Matthew 12:35-37 (NET)

[24] Ezekiel 18:30-32 (ESV)

Romans, Part 70

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I’ll continue to consider Contribute (κοινωνοῦντες, a form of κοινωνέω) to the needs (χρείαις, a form of χρεία) of the saints, pursue hospitality.[1]  And as you Philippians know, at the beginning of my gospel ministry, Paul wrote, when I left Macedonia, no church shared (ἐκοινώνησεν, another form of κοινωνέω) with me in this matter (λόγον, a form of λόγος) of giving (δόσεως, a form of δόσις) and receiving (λήμψεως, a form of λῆψις) except you alone.  For even in Thessalonica on more than one occasion you sent something for my need (χρείαν, another form of χρεία).[2]

Here I begin to investigate contribute / shared in and the needs of the saints simultaneously.  Paul began this section of his letter with the words, I have great joy (Ἐχάρην, a form of χαίρω) in the Lord because now at last you have again expressed your concern for me.[3]  He didn’t say, I was really pissed off because you haven’t sent me any money in a long time.  Young’s Literal Translation is clunkier in style but probably carries the tone better:  And I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at length ye flourished again in caring for me, for which also ye were caring, and lacked opportunity…[4]

Was Paul worried about them?  It’s very likely: there is the daily pressure on me of my anxious concern (μέριμνα) for all the churches,[5] He wrote the Corinthians.  The Philippians had shared with him in the past, but then lacked opportunity.  Could it imply something more than lack of opportunity?  Thankfully, no.  Now I know you were concerned (ἐφρονεῖτε, a form of φρονέω) before but had no opportunity to do anything.[6]

Paul (and the NET translators) went out of his (their) way to say that he shared the joy (χαρὰ) of the Holy Spirit greatly (μεγάλως) in the Lord, because the Lord had kept the Philippians in Paul’s absence, and when the opportunity presented itself again the Lord’s own love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in and through the Philippians expressed itself in tangible concern (φρονεῖν, another form of φρονέω) for Paul.

Am I adding words here?  Yes, I am, but I believe I have the heart of Paul and the Holy Spirit.  In Greek χαρὰ (joy) comes from χαίρω (rejoice).  But in the fruit of the Holy Spirit our χαίρω comes from his χαρὰ.  I tried (and failed, I think) to express a similar joy to my daughter when she picked me up at the airport.

I’ve known her since she was six-years-old, too small to drive.  I remember helping her learn how to drive.  I shared her anxiety when she failed her first driver’s test, and her elation when she passed the second.  But there is no way her mother or I would have been comfortable asking her to navigate airport traffic then.  I remember taking a taxi from the airport to the hospital where she lay pathetically, helplessly in a hospital bed after a stroke.

I remember what it was like when she and her brother and her mother greeted me at the airport.  And I remember when their greetings became more and more infrequent, until there were none at all.  And I certainly know what it is like now to land at the airport and make my own way home to a dark, empty apartment.

When she pulled up to me, waiting at the curb at the airport, yes, my daughter saved me some taxi fare (though I may have spent as much or more filling her empty gas tank).  But the money had nothing to do with my joy.  I lacked the presence of mind to say to her, I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, though it’s clear to me now that’s what I meant.

I am not saying this because I am in need (ὑστέρησιν, a form of ὑστέρησις), Paul continued, for I have learned to be content in any circumstance.[7]  And this is the context of an often misquoted verse (Philippians 4:12, 13 NET Table):

I have experienced times of need (ταπεινοῦσθαι, a form of ταπεινόω) and times of abundance.  In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of contentment, whether I go satisfied or hungry, have plenty or nothing.  I am able to do all things through the one who strengthens me.

This last verse came up out of context in the movie Soul Surfer.  There will be spoilers here for those who haven’t seen it.  And please remember I’m not saying anything about the real Bethany Hamilton.  I don’t know Bethany Hamilton.  I’ve never even read her book.  I’m writing about a character in a movie named Bethany.

In the hospital after a shark attack, Bethany (AnnaSophia Robb) asks her father Tom (Dennis Quaid), “When can I surf again?”

“Soon,” Tom answers.

“How do you know?”

“Because [you] can do all things,” Tom prompts her.

“Through Him who gives me strength,” Bethany finishes the quote from Philippians 4:13 (ESV/NIV).

She trains hard with this hope and learns to surf again on a very small board.  But when she tries to compete she discovers, “I can’t do this anymore!…I don’t understand.  What happened to ‘I can do all things’?”  Thus Philippians 4:13 is laid to rest in Soul Surfer.

It’s not a big deal if one knows what Philippians 4:13 actually means.  Earlier in the film she won graciously.  Here she lost; she failed.  It was one of those times of need Paul wrote about.  The Greek word translated times of need was ταπεινοῦσθαι, to depress, to humiliate, to make low, bring low.  And Bethany did learn to be content when she was depressed, humiliated, made low.

She returns to competition and has a tremendous ride that would have assured her win if it were not disqualified for starting past the allotted time of the final heat.  With a peace and joy that surpasses even Tom’s understanding Bethany is as gracious in defeat at the end of the movie as she was in victory near the beginning.

“Are you upset you didn’t win today?” a reporter asks.

“I didn’t come to win.  I came to surf,” Bethany answers.

She can do all this—be content in times of need and times of abundance as it related to losing and winning surfing competitions—through him who gives her strength.[8]  Conversely, if one doesn’t already know what Philippians 4:13 actually means, it probably won’t be gleaned from Soul Surfer.  After the hard-work montage preceding the final competition the message of the film on that count is something like he-who-gives-me-strength is not as good at making one a world class surfer as hard work.  This is a true message by the way.  People become world class surfers by training hard, irrespective of their faith in Jesus Christ.

On the other hand, if your goal is to share in the righteousness of God, the best your hardest work can achieve is hypocrisy.  You will be an actor, play-pretending at righteousness.  AnnaSophia Robb is one of the best young actors in the business, but Bethany Hamilton and Alana Blanchard did the difficult surfing scenes.  Hard working actors don’t become doers (poets) of the law either.  For the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith, just as it is written, “The righteous by faith will live.”[9]

Nevertheless, you did well to share with (συγκοινωνήσαντες, a form of συγκοινωνέω) me in my trouble,[10] Paul continued.  And again, he emphasized, I do not say this because I am seeking a gift (δόμα).[11]  And, For I have received everything, and I have plenty.  I have all I need because I received from Epaphroditus what you sent – a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, very pleasing to God.[12] Rather, I seek the credit (καρπὸν, a form of καρπός) that abounds to your account (λόγον, a form of λόγος).[13]  I’m not so sure about translating fruit (καρπὸν) credit here.  The account, of course, is the λόγον each of us will give to God.  Who wouldn’t want to be able to say, I shared with Paul in his trouble?

My point, however, is that we trust God to work in us and through us by his Spirit, rather than second-guess Him by trying to establish our own works.  For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them.[14]  And my God will supply your every need (χρείαν, another form of χρεία) according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.[15]  There is no quid pro quo here: Send money to Paul and his God will supply your every need.  Paul’s God supplies the desire and wherewithal to contribute as surely as He supplies every other need.  May glory be given to God our Father forever and ever.  Amen.[16]

In Soul Surfer when Bethany is depressed, humiliated and made low, Tom attempts to encourage his daughter.  Cheri (Helen Hunt), Bethany’s mother, effectively shuts him down.  “Listen to her,” she says.  But when Bethany is ready to compete again, she comes to her father, working in his surfboard shed, saying, “Hey, Dad, I need your help.”

Bethany has analyzed her problem.  With only one arm she can’t duck dive under the big waves paddling out to the line.  She gets caught, tumbling under water, in the impact zone.  Her father smiles, reaches up into the rafters and retrieves a surfboard, already prepared for her, with a handle in the center of the board she can grasp with one hand to duck dive.

The first of the needs (χρείαις, a form of χρεία) of the saints listed in the New Testament comes from the mouth of John, baptizing in the Jordan River.  Jesus came to him to be baptized but John protested, “I need (χρείαν, another form of χρεία) to be baptized by you…”[17] He had already described Jesus’ baptism by contrast to his own: I baptize you with (ἐν, or, in) water, for repentance…He will baptize you with (ἐν, or, in) the Holy Spirit and fire.[18]

As an introduction to how we should pray Jesus promised, your Father knows what you need (χρείαν, another form of χρεία) before you ask him.[19]  Are we afraid to approach Him?  When religious people questioned Jesus’ disciples, why he ate with sinners, He answered, “Those who are healthy don’t need (χρείαν, another form of χρεία) a physician, but those who are sick do.  Go and learn what this saying means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice.’  For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”[20]

Jesus vigorously defended his followers from the judgment of the religious: “Look, why are they doing what is against the law on the Sabbath?”[21] they said as his disciples walked through the field plucking grain to eat.  “Have you never read what David did when he was in need (χρείαν, another form of χρεία) and he and his companions were hungry,” Jesus asked them, “how he entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the sacred bread, which is against the law for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to his companions?”[22] But Jesus didn’t let it drop there.  He took it one massive step further, saying, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath.  For this reason the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”[23]

And finally, I come to a tale of two sisters, Martha and Mary.  It is particularly interesting to me because I think I was a Martha who wants to be a Mary (Luke 10:38-42 NET):

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him as a guest.  She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened (ἤκουεν, a form of ἀκούω) to what he said.  But Martha was distracted (περιεσπᾶτο, a form of περισπάω) with all the preparations she had to make, so she came up to him and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work (διακονεῖν, a form of διακονέω) alone?  Tell her to help me.”  But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed (χρεία).  Mary has chosen the best part; it will not be taken away from her.”

[1] Romans 12:13 (NET)

[2] Philippians 4:15, 16 (NET)

[3] Philippians 4:10a (NET)

[4] Philippians 4:10 (YLT)

[5] 2 Corinthians 11:28 (NET)

[6] Philippians 4:10b (NET)

[7] Philippians 4:11 (NET)

[8] Philippians 4:13 (NIV) Table

[9] Romans 1:17 (NET)

[10] Philippians 4:14 (NET)

[11] Philippians 4:17a (NET)

[12] Philippians 4:18 (NET)

[13] Philippians 4:17b (NET)

[14] Ephesians 2:10 (NET)

[15] Philippians 4:19 (NET) Table

[16] Philippians 4:20 (NET)

[17] Matthew 3:14b (NET)

[18] Matthew 3:11 (NET)

[19] Matthew 6:8b (NET)

[20] Matthew 9:12, 13 (NET)

[21] Mark 2:24 (NET)

[22] Mark 2:25, 26 (NET)

[23] Mark 2:27, 28 (NET)

Romans, Part 69

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Contribute to the needs of the saints, pursue hospitality.[1]  I’ll forego the table of Scripture this time.  I’m convinced now that I’m not forcing the situation.  Paul was describing love empowered by the fruit of the Holy Spirit, not offering obedience to his own rules as the true path to living eternal life.  And there was always something arbitrary about what I was trying to do.  Kindness is the most obvious aspect of the fruit of the Spirit to effect contributing, but since I have used it already I would’ve said faithfulness.  And as I consider the needs of the saints I tend to focus on Love is patient.[2]

But the fruit of the Spirit isn’t really divisible into love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control any more than love is divisible into the constituent parts of Paul’s definition in 1 Corinthians.  I can’t spoof the fruit of the Spirit by striving to be loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and self-controlled, though I’m not sure I would have understood that if I hadn’t tried to do it on my own.

The Greek word translated contribute above is κοινωνοῦντες (a form of κοινωνέω).  It means to share, or to have in common: All who believed were together and held everything in common (κοινὰ, a form of κοινός).[3]  The group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, and no one said that any of his possessions was his own, but everything was held in common (κοινά, a form of κοινός).[4]  Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, the author of Hebrews wrote, [Jesus] likewise shared in their humanity.[5]  And this brings up another aspect of the concept common.

The Greek word translated share above is κεκοινώνηκεν, another form of κοινωνέω, or a form of κοινόω.  In the NET online if I click on the English word share I am taken to κοινωνέω, if I click on κεκοινώνηκεν in the parallel Greek I am taken to κοινόω.  Perhaps this is just a mistake.  It happens sometimes.  In Revelation 20:10 for instance if I click on lake I am taken to λίμνη (‘lake’), if I click on the parallel Greek λίμνην I am taken to λιμήν (‘harbor’ or ‘haven’).  But I’ll pursue this as if it is a possible understanding of the Greek rather than a coding mistake because all of these words share κοινός as their common root.

Jews from the province of Asia[6] accused Paul: he also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled (κεκοίνωκεν, a form of κοινόω) this holy place![7]  If this is a potential meaning of κεκοινώνηκεν it accentuates how He who became Jesus profaned, defiled or made Himself common as He shared (μετέσχεν, a form of μετέχω) in our humanity.  This isn’t difficult to grasp; a common woman was one shared by many.

I want to take a moment to discuss who He-who-became-Jesus is.  To most of my contemporaries He is the unknown Son of God who declared the known Jehovah as his Father.  I think of Him as the known yehôvâh (יהוה) who became flesh and blood as Ἰησοῦς and revealed his as yet unknown Father.  Admittedly, I would arrive at a stalemate on this issue from Scripture.  I lean the way I do because of personal experience.  That Jehovah killed someone or sent someone to die, even his own son, isn’t really news, certainly not good news.

If yehôvâh became a man  Ἰησοῦς and gave his own human life to satisfy his own righteous vengeance against human sin, if He created human beings knowing full well He would ultimately pay this price for them, that is news, very good news.  And it helps to explain the great pains He took,[8] and continues to take, to demonstrate the failure of any other means of redemption.  And with this understanding I can appreciate how yehôvâh bowed to the higher authority of his Father’s will, authority which supersedes all law or covenant, as He relented over the evil that he had said he would do to his people[9] at Sinai.

So what makes a person common, defiled or profane?  What defiles (κοινοῖ, another form of κοινόω) a person is not what goes into the mouth; it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles (κοινοῖ, another form of κοινόω) a person.[10]  The things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile (κοινοῖ, another form of κοινόω) a person.[11]  Jesus wasn’t talking about disease here.  For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.[12]

This knowledge wasn’t from yehôvâh’s omniscience but from  Ἰησοῦς’ personal experience.   Ἰησοῦς knew (ἐγίνωσκεν, a form of γινώσκω) what was in man (ἀνθρώπῳ, a form of ἄνθρωπος).[13]  God made the one who did not know (γνόντα, another form of γινώσκω) sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.[14]  The things that defile a person are already inside a person.  These are the things that defile (κοινοῦντα, another form of κοινόω, or ‘make common’) a person (ἄνθρωπον, another form of ἄνθρωπος); it is not eating with unwashed hands that defiles (κοινοῖ, another form of κοινόω) a person (ἄνθρωπον, another form of ἄνθρωπος).[15]

So are we all common, defiled, profane?  Certainly not, Lord, Peter protested to the voice which commanded him to slaughter and eat in a trance as he prayed, for I have never eaten anything defiled (κοινὸν, a form of κοινός) and ritually unclean![16]  In his trance Peter didn’t believe Jesus’ teaching, There is nothing outside of a person that can defile (κοινῶσαι, another form of κοινόω) him by going into him.[17]  The voice didn’t chide his unbelief but said simply, What God has made clean, you must not consider ritually unclean (κοίνου, another form of κοινόω)![18]  We take this to mean that all foods are clean.[19]  But Peter said, God has shown me that I should call no person defiled (κοινὸν, a form of κοινός) or ritually unclean.[20]

Macedonia and Achaia are pleased to make some contribution (κοινωνίαν, a form of κοινωνία) for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem,[21] Paul wrote the believers in Rome.  I think it’s important to consider the origin of the poor among the saints in Jerusalem:  All who believed were together and held everything in common, and they began selling their property and possessions and distributing the proceeds to everyone, as anyone had need (χρείαν, a form of χρεία).[22]  At first this economic system worked amazingly well (Acts 4:32-35 NET):

The group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, and no one said that any of his possessions was his own, but everything was held in common.  With great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was on them all.  For there was no one needy (ἐνδεής) among them, because those who were owners of land or houses were selling them and bringing the proceeds from the sales and placing them at the apostles’ feet.  The proceeds were distributed to each, as anyone had need (χρείαν, a form of χρεία). 

They sold land and houses, assets that could be leased or rented, believing, This same Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come back in the same way you saw him go into heaven[23] soon, in their lifetimes.  I’m not suggesting they acted contrarily to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, but that prompting may have been unique to their time and circumstances.

Jerusalem was destroyed in the lifetimes of many of them, and whatever lands and houses remained went to their Roman conquerors.  Israel had a penchant for arbitrary law (Judges 21:5, Ezra 10:8, Acts 9:1, 2 NET).  Converting lands and houses to cash may have been the only way for believers in Jerusalem to “keep” them.  [Y]ou accepted the confiscation of your belongings with joy, because you knew that you certainly had a better and lasting possession,[24] the writer of Hebrews acknowledged.

The deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, probably by design, kept the Jerusalem church from becoming a popular, bandwagon-style movement (Acts 5:11-13 NET):

Great fear gripped the whole church and all who heard about these things.  Now many miraculous signs and wonders came about among the people through the hands of the apostles.  By common consent they were all meeting together in Solomon’s Portico.  None of the rest dared to join them, but the people held them in high honor.

The More and more believers in the Lord [who] were added to their number, crowds of both men and women,[25] were drawn by Jesus, I trust, rather than the glitz and glam of the moment.  But it didn’t keep pace apparently with the conversion and spending of assets: If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacks daily food,[26] was James’ concern in the Jerusalem church.  At the Jerusalem Council when James, Cephas, and John, who had a reputation as pillars, recognized the grace that had been given to me, Paul wrote the Galatians, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we would go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.  They requested only that we remember the poor, the very thing I also was eager to do.[27]

For [Macedonia and Achaia] were pleased to [make some contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem], and indeed they are indebted (ὀφειλέται, a form of ὀφειλέτης) to the Jerusalem saints.[28]  For if the Gentiles have shared (ἐκοινώνησαν, another form of κοινωνέω) in their spiritual things (πνευματικοῖς, a form of πνευματικός), they are obligated (ὀφείλουσιν, a form of ὀφείλω) also to minister (λειτουργῆσαι, a form of λειτουργέω) to them in material things (σαρκικοῖς, a form of σαρκικός).[29]

This debt and obligation stem directly from, To [Israel] belong the adoption as sons, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.  To them belong the patriarchs, and from them, by human descent, came the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever!  Amen.[30]  Still, Paul called this debt and obligation καρπὸν (fruit): Therefore after I have completed this and have safely delivered this bounty (καρπὸν, a form of καρπός) to them…[31]  And so I take it for granted that he intended this debt and obligation to be dispatched by love empowered by the fruit of the Spirit much as I wrote elsewhere on the spiritual gift of contributing[32] (μεταδιδοὺς, a form of μεταδίδωμι).

I’ll write more on that in subsequent essays.  Here, I want to address two different but related issues: 1) I don’t think the communal economy of the Jerusalem church is normative, and 2) I think the debt and obligation to the poor among the saints in Jerusalem was as temporary as that unique situation.  I consider Paul’s own example (Acts 20:33-35 NET):

“I have desired (ἐπεθύμησα, a form of ἐπιθυμέω) no one’s silver or gold or clothing.  You yourselves know that these hands of mine provided for my needs (χρείαις, a form of χρεία) and the needs of those who were with me.  By all these things, I have shown you that by working in this way we must help (ἀντιλαμβάνεσθαι, a form of ἀντιλαμβάνομαι) the weak, and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive (λαμβάνειν, a form of λαμβάνω).’”

And I consider Paul’s teaching (1 Thessalonians 4:9-12; Ephesians 4:28 NET):

Now on the topic of brotherly love you have no need (χρείαν, another form of χρεία) for anyone to write you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.  And indeed you are practicing it toward all the brothers and sisters in all of Macedonia.  But we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, to aspire to lead a quiet life, to attend to your own business, and to work with your hands, as we commanded you.  In this way you will live a decent life before outsiders and not be in need (χρείαν, another form of χρεία).

The one who steals must steal no longer; rather he must labor, doing good (ἀγαθόν, another form of ἀγαθός) with his own hands, so that he may have something to share (μεταδιδόναι, another form of μεταδίδωμι) with the one who has need (χρείαν, another form of χρεία).

And I consider Paul’s understanding of the one new man (Ephesians 2:11-22 NET):

Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh – who are called “uncircumcision” by the so-called “circumcision” that is performed on the body by human hands – that you were at that time without the Messiah, alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.  But now in Christ Jesus you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  For he is our peace, the one who made both groups into one and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility, when he nullified in his flesh the law of commandments in decrees.  He did this to create in himself one new man out of two, thus making peace, and to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed.  And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, so that through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.  So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household, because you have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.  In him the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

And so I find it extremely difficult to believe that the Holy Spirit intended to re-divide this one new man into a permanent working-class of Gentiles supporting a permanent leisure-class of descendants of Israel because Paul wrote the saints of Macedonia and Achaia that they are indebted to the Jerusalem saints.  For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are obligated also to minister to them in material things.[33]  I believe that debt and obligation were superseded, once the Jerusalem church was scattered (along with its unique economy), by: Owe (ὀφείλετε, another form of ὀφείλω) no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.[34]

[1] Romans 12:13 (NET)

[2] 1 Corinthians 13:4 (NET)

[3] Acts 2:44 (NET)

[4] Acts 4:32 (NET)

[5] Hebrews 2:14a (NET)

[6] Acts 21:27 (NET)

[7] Acts 21:28b (NKJV)

[8] Genesis 4:7, 8; Genesis 6:5-8; Genesis 9:24-27; Exodus 20:4-6; Exodus 32:1-4; Matthew 5:17-20 NET

[9] Exodus 32:14 (NET)

[10] Matthew 15:11 (NET)

[11] Matthew 15:18 (NET)

[12] Matthew 15:19 (NET)

[13] John 2:25b (NET)

[14] 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NET)

[15] Matthew 15:20 (NET)

[16] Acts 10:14 (NET) Table

[17] Mark 7:15a (NET)

[18] Acts 10:15 (NET)

[19] Mark 7:19b (NET)

[20] Acts 10:28b (NET) Table

[21] Romans 15:26 (NET)

[22] Acts 2:44, 45 (NET)

[23] Acts 1:11b (NET)

[24] Hebrews 10:34b (NET)

[25] Acts 5:14 (NET)

[26] James 2:15 (NET) Table

[27] Galatians 2:9, 10 (NET)

[28] One might argue that they (we) were (are) more indebted to those in Israel who rejected Jesus.

[29] Romans 15:27 (NET)

[30] Romans 9:4, 5 (NET)

[31] Romans 15:28 (NET)

[32] Romans 12:6-8 (NET)

[33] Romans 15:27b (NET)

[34] Romans 13:8 (NET)

Romans, Part 68

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This will conclude my consideration of Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer[1] as a description of love rather than as rules to obey.  I’ll continue with the aftermath of the war between Israel and Benjamin.

So the people came to Bethel and sat there before God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, האלהים) until evening, weeping loudly and uncontrollably.[2]  They had a foretaste of eternal life, not pie in the sky by and by nor tears without end but an amazing opportunity to know yehôvâh intimately.  The brotherhood had joined together to purge evil from Israel.  The Benjaminites joined together to withstand them.  The brotherhood prevailed, then they mourned the loss of so many of their brother Benjaminites.

They said, “Why, O Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהי) of Israel, has this happened in Israel?”[3]  They regretted (nâcham, וינחמו) what had happened to their brother Benjamin. They acknowledged their part in it, saying, Today we cut off an entire tribe from Israel![4]  The text acknowledged yehôvâh’s complicity: And the people grieved (nâcham, נחם) for Benjamin, because the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) had made a void in the tribes of Israel.[5]  But they missed their moment to know Him.  I know this because Phinehas didn’t preach on the text: Then the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) relented (nâcham, וינחם) over the evil (raʽ, הרעה [H7451]) that he had said he would do to his people.[6]

Israel missed this eternal moment (as I’ve missed my own so often) because they treated it, not as a glorious insight and revelation to be savored but, as a problem to be solved.  How can we find wives for those who are left?[7]  Why was that a problem?  The Israelites had taken an oath in Mizpah, saying, “Not one of us will allow his daughter to marry a Benjaminite.”[8]   “After all, we took an oath in the Lord’s name,” the victorious brotherhood admitted, “not to give them our daughters as wives.”  So they asked, “Who from all the Israelite tribes did not assemble before the Lord at Mizpah?”[9]

The victorious brotherhood’s focus was not on eternal life, knowing yehôvâh, but on justifying themselves before yehôvâh: This is what the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) has commanded [Table]: If a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath of binding obligation on himself, he must not break his word, but must do whatever he has promised [Table].[10]  They had made two thoughtless oaths at Mizpah: They had made a solemn oath that whoever did not assemble before the Lord at Mizpah must certainly be executed.[11]  So from the beginning there was no real hope that the incident at Gibeah would be settled as a police matter: The Benjaminites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah,[12] but apparently did not attend.

And I, before I realized that I had the timing of events reversed, would have laid all that happened next on Jephthah.  I thought he was the brotherhood’s inspiration, a kind of butterfly effect, rather than someone overwhelmed by a massive wave of popular precedent.  That popular precedent might have become, if not the image of knowing yehôvâh, the image and meaning of obeying Him, if not for the precious words appended to its retelling: Each man did what he considered to be right.[13]   

Now it just so happened no one from Jabesh Gilead had come to the gathering.  When they took roll call, they noticed none of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead were there.[14]  Jabesh Gilead was east of the Jordan River in the land that Phineas had insinuated might be tainted.  I’ve written elsewhere about the cost of acknowledging a thoughtless oath.  But the victorious brotherhood had “good” reason not to confess the thoughtless oath that “justified” exterminating the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead, namely, their other thoughtless oath not to give their daughters as wives to the surviving Benjaminites (Judges 21:10, 11a NET):

So the assembly sent 12,000 capable warriors against Jabesh Gilead.  They commanded them, “Go and kill with your swords the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead, including the women and little children (ṭaph, והטף; Septuagint: the translators seem to have edited out the part about killing children).  Do this: exterminate every male, as well as every woman who has had sexual relations with a male.  But spare the lives of any virgins.”

They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young girls (naʽărâh, נערה; Septuagint: νεάνιδας) who were virgins (bethûlâh, בתולה; Septuagint: παρθένους)…[15]  The Benjaminites returned at that time, and the Israelites gave to them the women they had spared from Jabesh Gilead.  But there were not enough to go around.[16]

So, they commanded the Benjaminites, “Go hide in the vineyards, and keep your eyes open.  When you see the daughters of Shiloh coming out to dance in the celebration, jump out from the vineyards.  Each one of you, catch yourself a wife from among the daughters of Shiloh and then go home to the land of Benjamin.[17]  The Benjaminites did as instructed.  They abducted two hundred of the dancing girls to be their wives.[18]  Then the brotherhood disbanded, after having become as great a menace (to more women) as the children of Belial they exterminated.

“There is no one righteous, not even one, Paul gathered the judgments of yehôvâh on the wicked and unbelieving scattered primarily throughout the Psalms of David (also Isaiah) and applied them to all, “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 (See Septuagint comparison below), 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 (See Septuagint comparison below).”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”[19]

How can I rejoice (χαίροντες, a form of χαίρω) in hope here?  And I don’t mean simply in the face of ancient history.  For all our laws, all our police and all our courts, our “justice” is ultimately as puerile as theirs was.  It seems more like a time to endure (ὑπομένοντες, a form of ὑπομένω) in suffering than to rejoice in hope, but that is my point.

The same love which endures (ὑπομένει, another form of ὑπομένω) all things,[20] does not rejoice (χαίρει, another form of χαίρω) in iniquity (ἀδικίᾳ, a form of ἀδικία), but rejoices (συγχαίρει, a form of συγχαίρω) in the truth (ἀληθείᾳ, a form of ἀλήθεια);[21] love is the true justice which does no wrong to a neighbor in the first place; it is the fulfillment of the law,[22] rather than some vain effort to stuff the toothpaste back in the tube after injustice (ἀδικίᾳ, a form of ἀδικία) has prevailed.  And this love without hypocrisy, The love unfeigned, is what I think Paul continued to describe: Rejoice in hope (ἐλπίδι, a form of ἐλπίς), endure (ὑπομένοντες, a form of ὑπομένω) in suffering (θλίψει, a form of θλίψις), persist in prayer.[23]

Now may the God of hope (ἐλπίδος, another form of ἐλπίς) fill (πληρώσαι, a form of πληρόω) you with all joy (χαρᾶς, a form of χαρά) and peace (εἰρήνης, a form of εἰρήνη) as you believe in him, Paul wrote his benediction to the Romans, so that you may abound in hope (ἐλπίδι, a form of ἐλπίς) by the power (δυνάμει, a form of δύναμις) of the Holy Spirit.[24]  And by his power and the continuous infusion of his joy (χαρὰ) and his peace (εἰρήνη) [not to mention the other aspects of the fruit of the Spirit[25]], the apostles, after they had been beaten, left the council rejoicing (χαίροντες, a form of χαίρω) because they had been considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name[26] (e.g., Ἰησοῦ, a form of Ἰησοῦς, understood as yehôvâh).

So is this χαρὰ from the Holy Spirit like some kind of drug that overcomes reality?  On the contrary, it is an aspect of the truth (ἀλήθεια) that overcomes the injustice (ἀδικίᾳ, a form of ἀδικία) that masquerades as reality.  Set them apart in the truth (ἀληθείᾳ, a form of ἀλήθεια), Jesus prayed to his Father, your word is truth (ἀλήθεια).[27]  We understand in some sense that we are not to focus on the manmade muck we see around us.  We are keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith instead.  For the joy (χαρᾶς, a form of χαρά) set out for him he endured (ὑπέμεινεν, another form of ὑπομένω) the cross…[28]  And the one who endures (ὑπομείνας, another form of ὑπομένω) to the end (τέλος) will be saved.[29]

As I considered all this I read an article in MSN News online:[30]

An Islamic State Jihadist killed his mother in a public square in the Syrian city of Raqa who begged him to leave the organization, a monitor said Friday.  Ali Saqr, 20, had reported his mother, Lina, to IS authorities in Raqa because “she tried to persuade him to leave IS and flee the city,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.  Authorities subsequently arrested the woman and accused her of apostasy, the monitoring group said.  On Wednesday, she was shot to death by her son “in front of hundreds of people close to the mail service building in Raqa city,” the Observatory added.

Ali Saqr is a comtemporary example of Jephthah or any of the brotherhood who judged and condemned the Benjaminites in Gibeah.  He cannot go home to consider what he has done.  He has been judged and condemned by Superpowers who care nothing for him.  If the entry to hell is marked by the words—Abandon all hope, ye who enter here—then the entry to our synagogues and churches should read—yehôvâh relented over the evil that he had said he would do to his people—and the churches can add his most profound words—Follow Me!

Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice (καυχώμεθα, a form of καυχάομαι) in the hope (ἐλπίδι, a form of ἐλπίς) of God’s glory.  Not only this, but we also rejoice (καυχώμεθα, a form of καυχάομαι) in sufferings (θλίψεσιν, another form of θλίψις), knowing that suffering (θλῖψις, another form of θλίψις) produces endurance (ὑπομονὴν, a form of ὑπομονή), and endurance (ὑπομονὴ), character, and character, hope (ἐλπίδα, another form of ἐλπίς) .  And hope (ἐλπὶς) does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.[31]

“Repent,” Peter said, “and each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.”  With many other words he testified and exhorted them saying, “Save yourselves from this perverse generation!”  So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added.  They were devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.[32]

It seems fitting to end this essay with Paul’s instruction to Timothy on prayer (1 Timothy 2:1-6 NET):

First of all, then, I urge that requests, prayers, intercessions, and thanks be offered on behalf of all people, even for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.  Such prayer for all is good and welcomed before God our Savior, since he wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.  For there is one God and one intermediary between God and humanity, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself as a ransom for all, revealing God’s purpose at his appointed time.

Below are two tables comparing Old Testament quotations in Paul’s letter to the Romans to the Septuagint.

Romans 3:13 (NET)

 Romans 3:13 (Greek Text)

Psalms 5:9b; 140:3b (Septuagint)
Their throats are open graves,

they deceive with their tongues,

 τάφος ἀνεῳγμένος ὁ λάρυγξ αὐτῶν, ταῖς γλώσσαις αὐτῶν ἐδολιοῦσαν, τάφος ἀνεῳγμένος ὁ λάρυγξ αὐτῶν ταῖς γλώσσαις αὐτῶν ἐδολιοῦσαν
the poison of asps is under their lips. ἰὸς ἀσπίδων ὑπὸ τὰ χείλη αὐτῶν ἰὸς ἀσπίδων ὑπὸ τὰ χείλη αὐτῶν διάψαλμα
Romans 3:15-17 (NET) Romans 3:15-17 (Greek Text)

Isaiah 59:7a, 7c, 8a  (Septuagint)
Their feet are swift to shed blood, ὀξεῖς οἱ πόδες αὐτῶν ἐκχέαι αἷμα, οἱ δὲ πόδες αὐτῶν ἐπὶ πονηρίαν τρέχουσιν ταχινοὶ ἐκχέαι αἷμα
ruin and misery are in their paths, σύντριμμα καὶ ταλαιπωρία ἐν ταῖς ὁδοῖς αὐτῶν, σύντριμμα καὶ ταλαιπωρία ἐν ταῖς ὁδοῖς αὐτῶν
and the way of peace they have not known. καὶ ὁδὸν εἰρήνης οὐκ ἔγνωσαν (a form of γινώσκω). καὶ ὁδὸν εἰρήνης οὐκ οἴδασιν (a form of εἴδω).

[1] Romans 12:12 (NET)

[2] Judges 21:2 (NET)

[3] Judges 21:3a (NET)

[4] Judges 21:6 (NET)

[5] Judges 21:15 (NKJV)

[6] Exodus 32:14 (NET)

[7] Judges 21:7a (NET)

[8] Judges 21:1 (NET)

[9] Judges 21:7b, 8a (NET)

[10] Numbers 30:1b, 2 (NET)

[11] Judges 21:5b (NET)

[12] Judges 20:3a (NET)

[13] Judges 21:25b (NET)

[14] Judges 21:8b, 9 (NET)

[15] Judges 21:12a (NET)

[16] Judges 21:14 (NET)

[17] Judges 21:20, 21 (NET)

[18] Judges 21:23a (NET)

[19] Romans 3:10b-18 (NET)

[20] 1 Corinthians 13:7d (NET)

[21] 1 Corinthians 13:6 (NKJV)

[22] Romans 13:10 (NET)

[23] Romans 12:12 (NET)

[24] Romans 15:13 (NET)

[25] Galatians 5:22, 23 (NET)

[26] Acts 5:41 (NET) Table

[27] John 17:17 (NET)

[28] Hebrews 12:2a (NET)

[29] Mark 13:13b (NET)  I assume that this endurance is achieved by the patience (μακροθυμία) that is another aspect of the fruit of the Spirit not some act of will or human effort.

[30] “Syria jihadist ‘kills mother’ after she asked him to leave IS”

[31] Romans 5:1-5 (NET)

[32] Acts 2:38-42 (NET) Table1; Table2

Romans, Part 67

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I’m still considering, Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer[1] as a description of love rather than as rules to obey.  This essay picks up where I left off in the previous essay considering Phinehas’ background and role in events at Gibeah.

Now you have rescued the Israelites from the Lord’s (yehôvâh, יהוה) judgment,[2] Phinehas told the descendents of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh after hearing their defense.  It may not be obvious in the NET but it was a very poor choice of words: Now you have delivered (nâtsal, הצלתם) the children of Israel out of the hand (yâd, מיד) of the Lord (yehôvâh).[3]  It is not possible according to yehôvâh, Nor is there any who (ʼayin, ואין; literally, nothing) can deliver (nâtsal, מציל) from My hand (yâd).[4]  Beyond that, it was yehôvâh who delivered Israel from the hand of their enemies. 

O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord (yehôvâh),[5] Jacob prayed.  Rescue (nâtsal, הצילני) me, I pray, from the hand (yâd, מיד) of my brother Esau…[6]  The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) said [to Moses], “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt.  I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.  I have come down to deliver (nâtsal, להצילו) them from the hand (yâd, מיד) of the Egyptians…”[7]  Jethro rejoiced because of all the good that the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) had done for Israel, whom he had delivered (nâtsal, הצילו) from the hand (yâd, מיד) of Egypt.[8]

I’m particularly sensitive to this because I believed that Jesus delivered me from the hand of Jehovah (though I probably didn’t think about it in exactly those words).  My situation became more acute when I was too old to pray to Jesus but told to pray to “our Father in heaven” instead.  I was fairly compliant as a child with things over which I had control.  So I prayed to “our Father in heaven.”  But I couldn’t draw near to Him, not to Jehovah, the one who wanted to condemn me to hell for failing to keep his law.

Was deliverance from the hand of yehôvâh simply a slip of Phinehas’ tongue?  After all even in the New Testament the author of the letter to the Hebrews believed that it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.[9]  Or did Phinehas’ word choice accurately reflect his attitude?  David’s attitude by contrast, even regarding punishment, was, Please let us fall into the hand (yâd, ביד) of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה), for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand (yâd, וביד) of man.[10]  Had futility crept into Phinehas’ thoughts, a darkening of his senseless heart (Romans 1:21 NET Table)?

For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened.

These words were penned by a Benjaminite[11] who was extremely zealous for the traditions of [his] ancestors[12] until Jesus showed him a fresh and living way that [Jesus] inaugurated for us,[13] not based on the letter but on the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.[14]  I don’t fully understand how the Holy Spirit empowered people in the Old Testament (which is not to say that I fully understand Him in the New).

Samson is perhaps the most confusing example: Samson…grew and the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) empowered him.  The Lord’s (yehôvâh, יהוה) spirit began to control him in Mahaneh Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.  Samson went down to Timnah, where a Philistine girl caught his eye.[15]  Though his parents protested his choice, the text is clear that his father and mother did not realize this was the Lord’s (yehôvâh, מיהוה) doing, because he was looking for an opportunity to stir up trouble with the Philistines.[16]  Samson’s choice and great strength are not the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control[17] with which I am more familiar.

I turn to David again: Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.[18]  Perhaps Phinehas’ statement—Today we know that the Lord is among us, because you have not disobeyed the Lord in this[19]—is a similar recognition that yehôvâh’s presence, his Holy Spirit, creates the clean heart and steadfast spirit that effected righteousness among the descendants of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh.  Still, Moses wished for more for the descendants of Israel: I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them![20]

So I’m not sure whether Phinehas made a poor word choice or was becoming futile in his thoughts (e.g., actually intending to thank or praise the descendants of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh for delivering him from the hand of yehôvâh), whether he was fearing yehôvâh or afraid of yehôvâh, drawing near or fleeing in his heart and mind.  But I want to keep it as an open question as I move from the failure to resolve matters at Gibeah as a police function to war: The Benjaminites came from their cities and assembled at Gibeah to make war against the Israelites.[21]  

Vengeance War in Gibeah Divided Kingdom
The Lord spoke to Moses: “Exact vengeance for the Israelites on the Midianites…

Numbers 31:1, 2a (NET)

 The Israelites went up to Bethel and asked God, “Who should lead the charge against the Benjaminites?”  The Lord said, “Judah should lead.”

Judges 20:18 (NET)

 God told Shemaiah the prophet, “Say this to King Rehoboam son of Solomon of Judah, and to all Judah and Benjamin, as well as the rest of the people, ‘The Lord says this: “Do not attack and make war with your brothers, the Israelites.  Each of you go home, for I have caused this [Israel’s rebellion against Judah and Benjamin] to happen”’” [Table].

1 Kings 12:22-24a (NET)

I’ve placed the war in Gibeah between yehôvâh’s vengeance on the Midianites and his prohibition of Judah declaring war on the northern kingdom of Israel.  The Israelites assumed they were called to war against Benjamin and asked yehôvâh which tribe should lead.  The war was neither initiated nor forbidden by yehôvâh.  Judah should lead, He said.

Vengeance War in Gibeah Divided Kingdom
So Moses sent them to the war… They fought against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses, and they killed every male.  They killed the kings of Midian in addition to those slain – Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba – five Midianite kings.  They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword.

Numbers 31:6-8 (NET)

 The Israelites got up the next morning and moved against Gibeah.  The men of Israel marched out to fight Benjamin; they arranged their battle lines against Gibeah.

Judges 20:19, 20 (NET)

 They obeyed the Lord and went home as the Lord had ordered them to do [Table].

1 Kings 12:24b (NET)

Assuming that Judah actually did lead Israel at Gibeah, yehôvâh was obeyed in all three examples.  Since neither Judah nor the northern kingdom of Israel suffered any casualties in a war that didn’t happen I switched to Ai for purposes of comparison below. 

Vengeance War in Gibeah Ai
Then the officers who were over the thousands of the army, the commanders over thousands and the commanders over hundreds, approached Moses and said to him, “Your servants have taken a count of the men who were in the battle, who were under our authority, and not one is missing.

Numbers 31:48, 49 (NET)

 The Benjaminites attacked from Gibeah and struck down twenty-two thousand Israelites that day.

Judges 20:21 (NET)

 The Lord was furious with the Israelites.  Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai… So about three thousand men went up, but they fled from the men of Ai.  The men of Ai killed about thirty-six of them…

Joshua 7:1b, 2a, 4, 5a (NET)

Was yehôvâh over 600 times more furious with Israel at Gibeah than at Ai?  Okay, proportionally speaking, was He four and one half times more furious?  According to the Zohar, “God was unwilling that other sinners of Israel should be the instruments for punishing them [the descendants of Benjamin], and therefore numbers of them fell time after time until all the sinners in the attacking army had perished, and there were left only those more righteous ones who could more appropriately execute the work.”[22] If I had only the story of the battle at Ai to go on, I might agree with this assessment.  But I have more Scripture that the writer(s) of the Zohar rejected (Luke 13:1-5 NET):

Now there were some present on that occasion who told [Jesus] about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.  He answered them, “Do you think these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered these things?  No, I tell you!  But unless you repent, you will all perish as well!  Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower in Siloam fell on them, do you think they were worse offenders than all the others who live in Jerusalem?  No, I tell you!  But unless you repent you will all perish as well!” 

So apart from an explicit statement of Scripture (as in the case of Achan[23]) I assume that the opinion in the Zohar is unwarranted.  The reason given in the text has nothing to do with yehôvâh, rather there were seven hundred specially-trained left-handed soldiers among the Benjaminites.  Each one could sling a stone and hit even the smallest target.[24]

War in Gibeah Ai
The Israelite army took heart (châzaq, ויתחזק) and once more arranged their battle lines, in the same place where they had taken their positions the day before.

Judges 20:22 (NET)

 … and chased them from in front of the city gate all the way to the fissures and defeated them on the steep slope.  The people’s courage melted away like water.

Joshua 7:5b (NET)
The Israelites went up and wept before the Lord until evening.

Judges 20:23a (NET)

 Joshua tore his clothes; he and the leaders of Israel lay face down on the ground before the ark of the Lord until evening and threw dirt on their heads.

Joshua 7:6 (NET)

At Gibeah the Israelites suffered 22,000 casualties, grabbed or persuaded themselves and reformed their battle lines while the Israelites at Ai suffered 36 casualties and were routed.  The reason is given in the text: The men of Israel (not counting Benjamin) had mustered four hundred thousand sword-wielding soldiers, every one an experienced warrior.[25]

At Ai Joshua prayed, O, Master (ʼădônây, אדני), Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה)!  Why did you bring these people across the Jordan to hand us over to the Amorites…[26]  What will you do to protect your great reputation?[27]  Israel has sinned,[28] yehôvâh responded.  The Israelites are unable to stand before their enemies; they retreat because they have become subject to annihilation.[29]  The “trial” and execution of Achan[30] (along with his family) followed this.  In Gibeah (Judges 20:23b-25 NET):

They asked the Lord, “Should we again march out to fight the Benjaminites, our brothers?”  The Lord said, “Attack them!”  So the Israelites marched toward the Benjaminites the next day.  The Benjaminites again attacked them from Gibeah and struck down eighteen thousand sword-wielding Israelite soldiers.

Israel was no longer yehôvâh’s weapon of judgment: The Lord was furious with Israel.  He said, “This nation has violated the terms of the agreement I made with their ancestors by disobeying me.  So I will no longer remove before them any of the nations that Joshua left unconquered when he died.[31]  Then I consider the trajectory from weapon of judgment to objects of mercy[32] (Matthew 5:38-42 NET):

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’  But I say to you, do not resist the evildoer.  But whoever strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well [Table].  And if someone wants to sue you and to take your tunic, give him your coat also.  And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two.  Give to the one who asks you, and do not reject the one who wants to borrow from you [Table].”

Jesus spoke to objects (KJV: vessels) of mercy under occupation of a very effective Roman government.  In those days Israel had no king,[33] the story of the Levite and his concubine began, addressing not merely the lack of a hereditary monarchy but the fact that Israel had rejected[34] yehôvâh as their king.  I think what is witnessed at the battle of Gibeah is two well-trained armies fighting in their own strength, without yehôvâh’s aid or interference.[35]  The outcome is a foregone conclusion as long as the larger army continues to fight.  But at first the Israelites fought for principle while the Benjaminites fought for their lives.[36]  Apart from miraculous intervention Phinehas’ role was reduced to providing encouragement and officiating at sacrifices.[37]  He is virtually nonexistent in the text.

Admittedly, I’m threading the eye of a subtle needle here.  I recognize that the Israelites intended to go to war by the throw of the dice.  But I accept yehôvâh’s acquiescence (at a minimum) because the Scripture reads: The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) said, “Judah should lead”[38] and, The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) said, “Attack them!”[39]  At the same time I’m hearing, The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) said, “Attack, for tomorrow I will hand (yâd, בידך) them over to you”[40] and, The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) annihilated Benjamin before Israel,[41] as Phinehas’ manner of speaking, expressing yehôvâh’s foreknowledge and it’s fulfillment, and not necessarily yehôvâh’s direct involvement as when Israel was his weapon of judgment.

If I were able to interview all the survivors, I take it for granted that I’d hear many battlefield stories of individual and small group salvations credited to yehôvâh’s intercession.  I don’t doubt that many of those stories would be true examples of yehôvâh’s intercession.  Nor do I doubt that I would hear true salvation stories from both opposing armies.  But I doubt that Israel was yehôvâh’s weapon of judgment against Benjamin as they were against Midian.

The next day Israel followed the same tactic[42] against Benjamin that Joshua commanded at Ai.[43]  I don’t know if this came from Joshua’s writing, Phinehas’ memory or is evidence of the development of a professional military command structure with an institutional memory.  The Benjaminites apparently did not read Joshua, did not have Phinehas as an advisor or did not have a professional military command structure with an institutional memory and fell for the ruse.  The Israelites struck down that day 25,100 sword-wielding Benjaminites.[44]  Counting the 600 survivors they had only killed 1,000 in the previous two days of fighting while they suffered 40,000 casualties.

Israel apparently left the survivors alone for four months.  The Israelites regretted what had happened to their brother Benjamin.[45]  Why, O Lord God of Israel, has this happened in Israel? they prayed.  An entire tribe has disappeared from Israel today![46]

[1] Romans 12:12 (NET)

[2] Joshua 22:31b (NET)

[3] Joshua 22:31b (NKJV)

[4] Deuteronomy 32:39b (NKJV)

[5] Genesis 32:9a (NET)

[6] Genesis 32:11a (NET)

[7] Exodus 3:7, 8a (NET)

[8] Exodus 18:9 (NET)

[9] Hebrews 10:31 (NET)

[10] 2 Samuel 24:14 (NKJV)

[11] Romans 11:1, Philippians 3:5 (NET)

[12] Galatians 1:14b (NET)

[13] Hebrews 10:20a (NET)

[14] 2 Corinthians 3:6b (NET)

[15] Judges 13:24b-14:1 (NET)

[16] Judges 14:4a (NET)

[17] Galatians 5:22, 23a (NET)

[18] Psalm 51:10, 11 (NKJV) Table1 Table2

[19] Joshua 22:31a (NET)

[20] Numbers 11:29b (NET)

[21] Judges 20:14 (NET)

[22] http://jbq.jewishbible.org/assets/Uploads/412/jbq_41_2_idolofmicah.pdf

[23] In fact, no one would say that the 36 who died at Ai were worse sinners than the other 2,964 soldiers because as yehôvâh’s weapon of judgment all Israel was guilty and subject to annihilation because one man sinned.

[24] Judges 20:16 (NET)

[25] Judges 20:17 (NET)

[26] Joshua 7:7 (NET)

[27] Joshua 7:9b (NET)

[28] Joshua 7:11a (NET) Table

[29] Joshua 7:12a (NET) Table

[30] Joshua 7:16-26 (NET)

[31] Judges 2:20, 21 (NET)

[32] Romans 9:21-24  Darby related this directly to Romans 11:30-32 in his translation: For as indeed *ye* [also] once have not believed in God, but now have been objects of mercy through the unbelief of *these*; so these also have now not believed in your mercy, in order that *they* also may be objects of mercy.  For God hath shut up together all in unbelief, in order that he might shew mercy to all.

[33] Judges 19:1a (NET)

[34] 1 Samuel 8:6-9 (NET)

[35] Judges 7:9-14 (NET)

[36] Deuteronomy 13:12-18 (NET)

[37] Judges 20:26-28 (NET)

[38] Judges 20:18b (NET)

[39] Judges 20:23b (NET)

[40] Judges 20:28b (NET)

[41] Judges 20:35a (NET)

[42] Judges 20:29-48 (NET)

[43] Joshua 8:3-8 (NET)

[44] Judges 20:35b (NET)

[45] Judges 21:6a (NET)

[46] Judges 21:3 (NET)

Romans, Part 66

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I am still considering, by a very long way around, Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer[1] as a description of love rather than as rules to obey.  In this particular essay I’m attempting to add some detail if not some clarity to the questions asked at the end of the previous essay: Were the Benjaminites wholehearted supporters of the children of Belial’s right to know any strange man who wandered into town or to gang-rape young women?  Or did they decide that it was better to die fighting than to acknowledge the children of Belial among them and give their brothers legal cause to slaughter the inhabitants of that city with the sword; annihilate with the sword everyone in it[2]?

I assumed since the story of the Levite and his concubine came late in the book of Judges that it happened late in the time period that the Judges led Israel.  But the high priest at the time was none other than Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron.[3]

The Priest Lists
1 Chronicles 6:3b-15 (NET) 1 Chronicles 6:50-53 (NET) Ezra 7:1-5 (NET)
Aaron Aaron Aaron
Eleazar Eleazar Eleazar
Phinehas Phinehas Phinehas
Abishua Abishua Abishua
Bukki Bukki Bukki
Uzzi Uzzi Uzzi
Zerahiah Zerahiah Zerahiah
Meraioth Meraioth Meraioth
Amariah Amariah
Ahitub Ahitub
Zadok Zadok
Ahimaaz Ahimaaz
Azariah
Johanan
Azariah[4] Azariah
Amariah Amariah
Ahitub Ahitub
Zadok Zadok
Shallum Shallum
Hilkiah Hilkiah
Azariah Azariah
Seraiah[5] Seraiah
Jehozadak[6] Ezra

Phinehas was introduced apparently as a boy who took a javelin in his hand.[7]  And now I see what I never saw before in these events (Numbers 25:1-5 NET).

When Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality (zânâh, לזנות; Septuagint: ἐκπορνεῦσαι, a form of ἐκπορνεύω) with the daughters of Moab.  These women invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהיהן); then the people ate and bowed down to their gods (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, לאלהיהן).  When Israel joined themselves to Baal-peor (baʽal peʽôr, פעור), the anger of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) flared up against Israel.  The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) said to Moses, “Arrest all the leaders (rôʼsh, ראשי) of the people, and hang them up before the Lord (yehôvâh, ליהוה) in broad daylight, so that the fierce anger of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) may be turned away from Israel.”  So Moses said to the judges (shâphaṭ, שפטי) of Israel, “Each of you must execute (hârag, הרגו) those of his men who were joined to Baal-peor (baʽal peʽôr, פעור).”

Moses and the whole community of the Israelites, were weeping at the entrance of the tent of meeting.[8]  I don’t know if they wept because of the sorrow believers feel when those who profess faith are found in sin or because their leaders[9] were about to be executed or because of an unspecified[10] plague that ravaged them.   But as the people wept Zimri,[11] a man of Israel, paraded Cozbi,[12] a Midianite woman, before them.

When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he got up from among the assembly, took a javelin in his hand, and went after the Israelite man into the tent and thrust through the Israelite man and into the woman’s abdomen.[13]  Every other time I’ve read this I assumed that Phinehas was also a priest, acting with yehôvâh’s authority, prompted by his Holy Spirit.  But suspecting now that he was an upstart boy as liable to judgment and condemnation for his action as not, I hear yehôvâh’s words differently (Numbers 25:10-13 NET): 

The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) spoke to Moses: “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites, when he manifested such zeal for my sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in my zeal.  Therefore, announce: ‘I am going to give to him my covenant of peace.  So it will be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of a permanent priesthood, because he has been zealous for his God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, לאלהיו), and has made atonement for the Israelites.’”

So the plague was stopped from the Israelites.  Those that died in the plague were 24,000.[14]  And Phinehas lived to become the high priest advising the brotherhood assembled  at Gibeah demanding the lives of the children of Belial.  Unless he lived three hundred[15] or more years (and that remarkable feat wasn’t mentioned) this was not at the end of the rule of the Judges.  So I consider again the preamble of the book of Judges (Judges 2:18, 19 NET):

When the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) raised up leaders (shâphaṭ, שפטים) for them, the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) was with each leader (shâphaṭ, השפט) and delivered the people from their enemies while the leader (shâphaṭ, השופט) remained alive.  The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) felt sorry for them when they cried out in agony because of what their harsh oppressors did to them.  When a leader (shâphaṭ, השופט) died, the next generation would again act more wickedly than the previous one.  They would follow after other gods, worshiping them and bowing down to them.  They did not give up their practices or their stubborn ways [Table].

It is disheartening and a bit disconcerting (though not entirely implausible) to place the events at Gibeah at or near the top of this downward spiral rather than at its bottom.  But dating it nearer Israel’s conquest of annihilation against the prior inhabitants of Canaan may go a long way toward explaining the vindictiveness of the brotherhood toward their brothers.  Consider Phinehas’ formative education (Numbers 31:1-3 NET).

The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) spoke to Moses:  “Exact (nâqam, נקם; Septuagint: ἐκδίκει, a form of ἐκδικέω) vengeance (neqâmâh, נקמת; Septuagint: ἐκδίκησιν, a form of ἐκδίκησις) for the Israelites on the Midianites – after that you will be gathered to your people.”

So Moses spoke to the people: “Arm men from among you for the war, to attack the Midianites and to execute the Lord’s (yehôvâh, יהוה) vengeance (neqâmâh, נקמת; Septuagint: ἐκδίκησιν, a form of ἐκδίκησις) on Midian.

So Moses sent them to the war, one thousand from every tribe, with Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, who was in charge of the holy articles and the signal trumpets.[16]  They killed all the men, including Balaam son of Beor.[17]  But Moses was furious[18] (Numbers 31:15-18 NET):

Moses said to them, “Have you allowed all the women to live?  Look, these people through the counsel of Balaam caused the Israelites to act treacherously against the Lord (yehôvâh, ביהוה) in the matter of Peor – which resulted in the plague among the community of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה)!  Now therefore kill every boy, and kill every woman who has had sexual intercourse (mishkâb, למשכב) with a man.  But all the young women who have not had sexual intercourse (mishkâb, משכב) with a man will be yours.

I want to pause a moment to consider Balaam, to challenge and enlighten my own parochialism.  The Israelites killed Balaam son of Beor, the omen (qâsam, הקוסם) reader, along with the others.[19]  When you enter the land the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) your God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהיך) is giving you, Moses said to Israel, you must not learn the abhorrent practices of those nations.  There must never be found among you anyone who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, anyone who practices divination (qesem, קסם), an omen (qâsam, קסמים) reader, a soothsayer (nâchash, ומנחש), a sorcerer, one who casts spells, one who conjures up spirits, a practitioner of the occult, or a necromancer.  Whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) and because of these detestable things the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) your God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהיך) is about to drive them out from before you.[20]  Balaam was not a son of Israel but was of Pethor in Aram Naharaim.[21]  He was certainly no follower of Jesus.

Yet while not denying the truth of any of this I must accept that yehôvâh used Balaam as his prophet to Balak.  But the angel of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but you may only speak the word that I will speak to you.”  So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.[22]  Then the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) put a message in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and speak what I tell you.”[23] Then the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) met Balaam and put a message in his mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and speak what I tell you.”[24]

Balaam was affected by his association with yehôvâh.   He uttered his oracle[25] (mâshâl, משלו; also translated discourse and speech).  How can I curse one whom God (ʼêl, אל) has not cursed, or how can I denounce one whom the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) has not denounced?[26] Must I not be careful to speak what the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) has put in my mouth?[27]  Did I not tell you, ‘All that the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) speaks, I must do’?[28]  When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) to bless Israel, he did not go as at the other times to seek for omens (nachash, נחשים), but he set his face toward the wilderness.[29] 

This is not to say that Israel was wrong to kill Balaam when they found him in Midian.  If yehôvâh wanted to spare him, He could have warned Moses or Balaam himself.  If Balaam was warned but refused or was too fearful to flee, that is another story I won’t know for the time being.  And Balaam was not made perfect.  He still tried to accommodate his employers’ desire to destroy Israel by counseling them [in the name of Baal-peor(?)] how to use women to trip them up.  The Children of God called it “Flirty Fishing.”  Balaam was not fit to be a prophet of Israel (Deuteronomy 18:13-15 NET): 

You must be blameless before the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) your God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהיך), Moses continued.  Those nations that you are about to dispossess listen to omen (qâsam, קסמים) readers and diviners, but the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) your God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהיך) has not given you permission to do such things. The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) your God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהיך) will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you – from your fellow Israelites; you must listen to him [Table].

To pick up again with Phinehas’ formative education: The Israelites sent Phinehas, son of Eleazar, the priest, to the land of Gilead to the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh[30] to investigate why they had built an impressive altar[31] near the west bank of the Jordan River.  Tensions were running high, as high if not higher, then when the descendants of Reuben and Gad petitioned[32] Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the leaders of the community[33] for possession of the conquered land east of the Jordan.  Moses, forbidden to enter the promised land and near death, assumed that the descendants of Reuben and Gad plotted to discourage Israel from entering that land.  He said (Numbers 32:14, 15 NET):

Now look, you are standing in your fathers’ place, a brood of sinners, to increase still further the fierce wrath of the Lord (yehôvih, יהוה) against the Israelites.  For if you turn away from following him, he will once again abandon them in the wilderness, and you will be the reason for their destruction.

This is the end of a fearful diatribe that twice mentions yehôvâh’s anger: So the anger of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) was kindled that day,[34] and, So the Lord’s (yehôvâh, יהוה) anger was kindled against the Israelites.[35]  Whatever the fear of the Lord meant to yehôvâh, to Moses at that moment it meant fearing what yehôvâh could do to the whole of Israel if any disobeyed Him.

The descendants of Reuben and Gad joined their brothers in the conquest of Canaan west of the Jordan, but after they were blessed by Joshua and released to return home they built a strange altar.  When the Israelites heard this, the entire Israelite community assembled at Shiloh to launch an attack against them.[36]  They sent Phinehas and ten leaders with this message instead: “The entire community of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) says, ‘Why have you disobeyed the God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, באלהי) of Israel by turning back today from following the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה)?  You built an altar for yourselves and have rebelled today against the Lord (yehôvâh).’”[37] The same fear, what yehôvâh might do to the whole community, is evident (Joshua 22:17, 18, 22a NET):

The sin we committed at Peor was bad enough.  To this very day we have not purified[38] ourselves; it even brought a plague on the community of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה).  Now today you dare to turn back from following the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה)!  You are rebelling today against the Lord (yehôvâh, ביהוה); tomorrow he may break out in anger against the entire community of Israel….When Achan son of Zerah disobeyed the command about the city’s riches, the entire Israelite community was judged…

The descendants of Reuben and Gad replied (Joshua 22:24-27 NET):

We swear we have done this because we were worried that in the future your descendants would say to our descendants, ‘What relationship do you have with the Lord (yehôvâh, וליהוה) God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהי) of Israel?  The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) made the Jordan a boundary between us and you Reubenites and Gadites.  You have no right to worship the Lord (yehôvâh, ביהוה).’  In this way your descendants might cause our descendants to stop obeying (yârêʼ, ירא) the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה).  So we decided to build this altar, not for burnt offerings and sacrifices, but as a reminder to us and you, and to our descendants who follow us, that we will honor the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) in his very presence with burnt offerings, sacrifices, and tokens of peace.  Then in the future your descendants will not be able to say to our descendants, ‘You have no right to worship the Lord (yehôvâh, ביהוה).’

It is remarkable that soldiers on their way home to wives and families would even consider such a thing.  But in such tense times the descendants of Reuben and Gad had faced heightened suspicion from Moses and apparently the rest of Israel ever since they expressed a desire for land east of the Jordan that was ideal for cattle: Now the Reubenites and the Gadites possessed a very large number of cattle.[39]  Phinehas had even insinuated that there might be something wrong with the land: But if your own land is impure, cross over to the Lord’s (yehôvâh, יהוה) own land, where the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) himself lives, and settle down among us.[40]  (Gibeah, by the way, was west of the Jordan in the Lord’s own land, where the Lord himself lives.)

I will sharpen my lightning-like sword, and my hand will grasp hold of the weapon of judgment (Septuagint: κρίματος, a form of κρίμα); yehôvâh said, I will execute vengeance (Septuagint: δίκην, a form of δίκη) on my foes, and repay those who hate me![41]  He chose the soldiers of Israel as his weapon against the inhabitants of Canaan.  But his work is perfect (Septuagint: ἀληθινὰ, a form of ἀληθινός), for all his ways are just (Septuagint: κρίσεις, a form of κρίσις).  He is a reliable (Septuagint: πιστός) God (ʼêl, אל) who is never unjust (Septuagint: ἀδικία), he is fair (Septuagint: δίκαιος) and upright.[42]

To be that weapon those soldiers and all Israel must be that perfect in his sight.  Jesus knew what He was talking about when He taught: Do not judge (κρίνετε, a form of κρίνω) so that you will not be judged (κριθῆτε, another form of κρίνω).  For by the standard (κρίματι, another form of κρίμα) you judge (κρίνετε, another form of κρίνω) you will be judged (κριθήσεσθε, another form of κρίνω), and the measure you use will be the measure you receive.[43]

To achieve that perfection through a kind of “natural selection” (e.g., the death of those who did not achieve it) and the fear of that death, or the fear of whatever else yehôvâh’s anger might do to the living, puts the flesh, the Belial if you will, under tremendous pressure.  Perfection achieved in this manner exists only as long as the pressure that created it.  Relax that pressure ever so slightly and the flesh, the Belial, erupts as it did among the sons of Belial at Gibeah.  And so we find Phinehas, who lived his entire life under that kind of pressure, attempting to put the toothpaste back in the tube by the only means he knows.

Granted, the descendents of Benjamin didn’t respond to the situation like innocent men.  As a case in point hear the response of the descendents of Reuben and Gad (Joshua 22:22, 23 NET): 

El (אל), God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים), the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה)!  El (אל), God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים), the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה)!  He knows the truth!  Israel must also know!  If we have rebelled or disobeyed the Lord (yehôvâh, ביהוה), don’t spare us today!  If we have built an altar for ourselves to turn back from following the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) by making burnt sacrifices and grain offerings on it, or by offering tokens of peace on it, the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) himself will punish (bâqash, יבקש; Septuagint: ἐκζητήσει, a form of ἐκζητέω) us. 

Reach agreement quickly with your accuser while on the way to court, Jesus taught, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the warden, and you will be thrown into prison.[44]  When Phinehas the priest and the community leaders and clan leaders who accompanied him heard the defense of the Reubenites, Gadites, and the Manassehites, they were satisfied.  Phinehas, son of Eleazar, the priest, said to the Reubenites, Gadites, and the Manassehites, “Today we know that the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) is among us, because you have not disobeyed the Lord (yehôvâh, ביהוה) in this.  Now you have rescued the Israelites from the Lord’s (yehôvâh, יהוה) judgment (yâd, מיד; Septuagint: χειρὸς, a form of χείρ).”[45]

I’ll pick this up in the next essay.

Romans, Part 67

Back to Romans, Part 68

Back to Romans, Part 72

Back to Paul’s Religious Mind Revisited, Part 3

[1] Romans 12:12 (NET)

[2] Deuteronomy 13:15 (NET)

[3] Judges 20:28a (NET)

[4] Johanan was the father of Azariah, who served as a priest in the temple Solomon built in Jerusalem. (1 Chronicles 6:10 NET)

[5] 2 Kings 25:18, Jeremiah 52:24 (NET)

[6] Jehozadak went into exile when the Lord sent the people of Judah and Jerusalem into exile by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. (1 Chronicles 6:15 NET)

[7] Numbers 25:7 (NET)

[8] Numbers 25:6b (NET)

[9] The leaders of the people were rôʼsh, not  baʽal, and not belı̂yaʽal.

[10] Frankly, I don’t know if this plague was a deadly disease, the execution of the leaders of the people, the rampant ἐκπορνεῦσαι (Hebrew: zânâh, לזנות) of the people (and the word is people not men) with the daughters of Moab, or both of the latter.

[11] Numbers 25:14 (NET)

[12] Numbers 25:15 (NET)

[13] Numbers 25:7, 8a (NET)

[14] Numbers 25:8b, 9 (NET)

[15] Judges 11:26 (NET)

[16] Numbers 31:6 (NET)

[17] Numbers 31:7, 8 (NET)

[18] Numbers 31:14a (NET)

[19] Joshua 13:22 (NET)

[20] Deuteronomy 18:9-12 (NET)

[21] Deuteronomy 23:4b (NET)

[22] Numbers 22:35 (NET)

[23] Numbers 23:5 (NET)

[24] Numbers 23:16 (NET)

[25] Numbers 23:7a (NET)

[26] Numbers 23:8 (NET)

[27] Numbers 23:12 (NET)

[28] Numbers 23:26b (NET)

[29] Numbers 24:1 (NET)

[30] Joshua 22:13 (NET)

[31] Joshua 22:10 (NET)

[32] Numbers 32:5 (NET)

[33] Numbers 32:2 (NET)

[34] Numbers 32:10 (NET)

[35] Numbers 32:13 (NET)

[36] Joshua 22:12 (NET)

[37] Joshua 22:16 (NET)

[38] Did Phinehas’ zeal bring a “premature” halt to the execution of those who were joined to Baal-peor?  The Lord spoke to Moses: “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites, when he manifested such zeal for my sake among them…”

[39] Numbers 32:1 (NET)

[40] Joshua 22:19a (NET)

[41] Deuteronomy 32:41 (NET)

[42] Deuteronomy 32:4 (NET)

[43] Matthew 7:1, 2 (NET) Table

[44] Matthew 5:25 (NET)

[45] Joshua 22:30, 31 (NET)

Romans, Part 65

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I’m still considering Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer[1] as a description of love rather than as rules to obey.  I’m focusing now on the aftermath of the death of the Levite’s concubine.  The tribes of Israel sent men throughout the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “How could such a wicked thing take place?  Now, hand over the good-for-nothings (belı̂yaʽal, בליעל) in Gibeah so we can execute them and purge Israel of wickedness.”[2]

On the surface of it this sounds like a thoughtful and lawful way to proceed.  But I note that the Levite had not called the perpetrators of the crime in Gibeah good-for-nothings (KJV: children of Belial) but baʽal.[3]  Perhaps baʽal in this context communicated children of belı̂yaʽal to the Levite’s contemporaries, but I suspect that it carried a more technical legal weight in this particular accusation (Deuteronomy 13:12-18 NET).

Suppose you should hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you as a place to live, that some evil (belı̂yaʽal, בליעל; KJV: children of Belial) people have departed from among you to entice the inhabitants of their cities, saying, “Let’s go and serve other gods” (whom you have not known before).  You must investigate thoroughly and inquire carefully.  If it is indeed true that such a disgraceful thing is being done among you, you must by all means slaughter the inhabitants of that city with the sword; annihilate with the sword everyone in it, as well as the livestock.  You must gather all of its plunder into the middle of the plaza and burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It will be an abandoned ruin forever – it must never be rebuilt again.  You must not take for yourself anything that has been placed under judgment.  Then the Lord will relent from his intense anger, show you compassion, have mercy on you, and multiply you as he promised your ancestors.  Thus you must obey the Lord your God, keeping all his commandments that I am giving you today and doing what is right before him.

Not only that, but purge Israel of wickedness was a familiar theme from the law.

Reference NET Hebrew Septuagint
Deuteronomy 13:5 purge out evil from within ובערת הרע מקרבך ἀφανιεῖς τὸν πονηρὸν ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν
Deuteronomy 17:7 purge evil from among you ובערת הרע מקרבך ף ἐξαρεῖς τὸν πονηρὸν ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν
Deuteronomy 17:12 purge evil from Israel ובערת הרע מישׁראל ἐξαρεῖς τὸν πονηρὸν ἐξ Ισραηλ
Deuteronomy 19:13 purge out the blood of the innocent from Israel ובערת דם הנקי מישׁראל καθαριεῖς τὸ αἷμα τὸ ἀναίτιον ἐξ Ισραηλ
Deuteronomy 19:19 purge[4] evil from among you ובערת הרע מקרבך ἐξαρεῖς τὸν πονηρὸν ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν
Deuteronomy 21:9 purge out the guilt of innocent blood from among you תבער הדם הנקי מקרבך כי ἐξαρεῖς τὸ αἷμα τὸ ἀναίτιον ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν
Deuteronomy 21:21 purge out wickedness from among you ובערת הרע מקרבך ἐξαρεῖς τὸν πονηρὸν ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν
Deuteronomy 22:21 purge evil from among you ובערת הרע מקרבך ס ἐξαρεῖς τὸν πονηρὸν ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν
Deuteronomy 22:22 purge evil from Israel ובערת הרע מישׁראל ס ἐξαρεῖς τὸν πονηρὸν ἐξ Ισραηλ
Deuteronomy 22:24 purge evil from among you ובערת הרע מקרבך ס ἐξαρεῖς τὸν πονηρὸν ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν
Deuteronomy 24:7 purge evil from among you ובערת הרע מקרבך ἐξαρεῖς τὸν πονηρὸν ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν
Judges 20:13 purge Israel of wickedness ונבערה [5]רעה מישׁראל ἐκκαθαριοῦμεν πονηρίαν ἀπὸ Ισραηλ

I went to bed meditating on these details with a line from Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill, Volume 1” flitting around in my memory: “When fortune smiles on something as violent and ugly as revenge, it seems proof like no other that not only does God exist, you’re doing his will.”[6]  I awoke the next morning with the fresh insight that yehôvâh had this law (Deuteronomy 13:12-18) at his disposal throughout the period covered by the book of Judges.

The Israelites did evil (raʽ, הרע) in the Lord’s (yehôvâh, יהוה) sight.  They forgot the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) their God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהיהם) and worshiped the Baals (baʽal, הבעלים) and the Asherahs.[7]  They had become the children of Belial by definition.  The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) was furious with Israel,[8] but he did not invoke this law.  He turned them over to King Cushan-Rishathaim of Aram-Naharaim[9] instead.  They were Cushan-Rishathaim’s subjects for eight years.[10]  And I was reminded of Moses’ intercession with yehôvâh.

When the first forty day covenant ended yehôvâh had Israel dead to rights.  They had despised that covenant,[11] but yehôvâh intended to honor it: Whoever sacrifices to a god other than the Lord (yehôvâh, ליהוה) alone must be utterly destroyed.[12] 

So now, leave me alone, He said to Moses, so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them, and I will make from you a great nation.[13]

Turn from your burning anger, Moses interceded, and relent (nâcham, והנחם) of this evil (raʽ, הרעה) against your people.[14] 

Then the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) relented (nâcham, וינחם) over the evil (raʽ, הרעה) that he had said he would do to his people,[15] though they had made themselves children of Belial.  The prophet Samuel, the last of the judges, defined children of Belial as those who knew not yehôvâh: Now the sons of Eli [the priest] were sons of Belial (belı̂yaʽal,בליעל ); they knew (yâdaʽ ידעו) not the LORD (yehôvâh).[16]

Do not become partners with those who do not believe, Paul wrote the Corinthians, for what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship does light have with darkness?  And what agreement does Christ have with Beliar (Βελιάρ, a form of Βελίαλ)?  Or what does a believer share in common with an unbeliever?  And what mutual agreement does the temple of God have with idols?  For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said, “I will live in them and will walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”  Therefore “come out from their midst, and be separate,” says the Lord, “and touch no unclean thing, and I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,” says the All-Powerful Lord.[17] 

When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה), the passage in Judges continued, he (yehôvâh, יהוה) raised up a deliverer for the Israelites who rescued them.  His name was Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother [Table].  The Lord’s (yehôvâh, יהוה) spirit empowered him and he led (shâphaṭ, וישפט) Israel.[18]

I feel more than a little awkward about it, but I’ll quote from a website on Satanism, not to establish some identity for Belial.  The witch I worked for in school told me with a straight face that he worshiped Celtic Baal but did not believe that Celtic Baal existed in any other sense than as a personification of natural forces.  Though he would cringe at being compared to a Satanist (he perceived Satanism as a Christian heresy), I think one would find the same range from true believers to those who only believe in personifications of natural forces among Satanists.  I quote the following merely to hear Belial as what Paul called the flesh, speaking honestly, audaciously and uncensored by law or religion.

Belial is the carnal side of man, the lust, sex, pleasure and therefore the principal drives that make living worthwhile. People derive all the principal emotions of the higher ego from Belial: Pride comes from self control and suppression of the Belial, strength, pleasure and independence come from embracing it. Belial is the Master of the Earth, the force that holds Humankind by its balls, any security or stability are results of lessons learnt from dealing with this Crown Prince.

Belial is the champion of simply being human, for the flesh, the material and the carnal. In essence, a reverence for Belial affirms how “good” the flesh/humanity is. Unrestrained by law or morality; lawless; immoral; dissolute; lewd; lascivious, Unrestrained; uncurbed; uncontrolled; unruly; riotous; ungovernable; wanton; profligate; dissolute; lax; loose; sensual; impure; unchaste; lascivious; immoral, dissolute indulgence in sensual pleasure.[19]

We salt this flesh with law and spread religious jelly on it to alter its flavor somewhat, but can’t change its essence.  Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all be born from above,’[20] yehôvâh in human flesh as Jesus said.  And Paul wrote to believers in Rome (Romans 6:3-7 NET): 

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.

For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection.  We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.  (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.)

And again, Paul wrote to believers in Galatia (Galatians 2:20, 21 NET):

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!

The essence of Wiccan morality (as well as many American teenagers, among others) is stated, “as long as you aren’t harming anyone, do as you wish.”  But when we do as we wish in our flesh, we children of Belial, we inevitably and without fail do harm to someone.  And that brought me back to the Kill Bill quotation: “When fortune smiles on something as violent and ugly as revenge, it seems proof like no other that not only does God exist, you’re doing his will.”

These lines, spoken by a character known as the Bride in Volume 1 (aka Black Mamba), was played and partially created by Uma Thurman.  The Bride was a former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, a kind of Manson family with style, not political revolutionaries but contract killers.  We’re deep in Belial territory here, and the god to which the Bride referred (and personified for two films) was δίκη—Vengeance.  Here is an exchange between Black Mamba (the Bride) and Copperhead (Vivica A. Fox) from Kill Bill, Volume 1:

Black Mamba: I’m not gonna murder you in front of your [four-year-old] child, okay?

Copperhead: That’s being more rational than Bill led me to believe you were capable of.

Black Mamba: It’s mercy, compassion and forgiveness I lack—not rationality.

Copperhead: Look, I know I fucked you over.  I fucked you over bad.  I wish to God I hadn’t, but I did.  You have every right to want to get even.

Black Mamba (chuckling): No, to get even, even Stephen, I would have to kill you, go up to Nikki’s room, kill her, then wait for your husband to come home and kill him.  That’d be even, Vernita.  That’d be about square.

Copperhead: Look, if I could go back in a machine, I would.  But I can’t.  All I can tell you is that I’m a different person now.

Black Mamba: Oh, great.  I don’t care.

Copperhead: Be that as it may, I know I don’t deserve your mercy or your forgiveness.  However, I beseech you for both on behalf of my daughter.

Black Mamba: Bitch, you can stop right there.  Just because I have no wish to murder you before the eyes of your daughter does not mean parading her around in front of me is gonna inspire sympathy.  You and I have unfinished business.  And not a goddam fucking thing you’ve done in the subsequent four years, including getting knocked up, is gonna change that.

It hit home hard since I had thought that yehôvâh/Jesus was δίκη, and had mistaken his patience and mercy for proof of his nonexistence when I turned to atheism.  The word of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) came to[21] Ezekiel (Ezekiel 18:21-29 NET):

“But if the wicked person turns from all the sin he has committed and observes all my statutes and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die.  None of the sins he has committed will be held against him; because of the righteousness he has done, he will live.  Do I actually delight in the death of the wicked, declares the sovereign (ʼădônây, אדני) Lord (yehôvih, יהוה)?  Do I not prefer that he turn from his wicked conduct and live?

“But if a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and practices wrongdoing according to all the abominable practices the wicked carry out, will he live?  All his righteous acts will not be remembered; because of the unfaithful acts he has done and the sin he has committed, he will die.

“Yet you say, ‘The Lord’s (ʼădônây, אדני) conduct is unjust!’  Hear, O house of Israel: Is my conduct unjust?  Is it not your conduct that is unjust?  When a righteous person turns back from his righteousness and practices wrongdoing, he will die for it; because of the wrongdoing he has done, he will die.  When a wicked person turns from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will preserve his life.  Because he considered and turned from all the sins he had done, he will surely live; he will not die.  Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The Lord’s (ʼădônây, אדני) conduct is unjust!’  Is my conduct unjust, O house of Israel?  Is it not your conduct that is unjust?

This exercise altered my superficial observation that the brotherhood acted thoughtfully and lawfully.  I began to see four hundred thousand armed men, as likely as not to be sons of Belial themselves, rushing in where yehôvâh had not tread.

But the Benjaminites refused to listen to their Israelite brothers.  The Benjaminites came from their cities and assembled at Gibeah to make war against the Israelites.[22]

Why?  Was it because the Benjaminites wholeheartedly supported the children of Belial’s right to know any strange man who wandered into town or to gang-rape young women?  Or was it because their Israelite brothers came at them in battle array, four hundred thousand strong, armed with an implacable law that condemned them already?

[1] Romans 12:12 (NET)

[2] Judges 20:12, 13a (NET)

[3] Judges 20:5 (NET)

[4] NET note 37: “Heb ‘you will burn out’ (בִּעַרְתָּ, bi’arta). Like a cancer, unavenged sin would infect the whole community. It must, therefore, be excised by the purging out of its perpetrators who, presumably, remained unrepentant (cf. Deut 13:6; 17:7, 12; 21:21; 22:21-22, 24; 24:7).”

[5] I thought this was a typo since רעה has he ה at the end rather than at the beginning (הרע) like the other occurrences, but the letters are in the same order in the Hebrew OT online at ericlevy.com

[6] “Kill Bill, Volume 1”

[7] Judges 3:7 (NET)

[8] Judges 3:8a (NET)

[9] Judges 3:8b (NET) Also: Judges 3:12; 4:1-2; 6:1; 10:6-7; 13:1 (NET)

[10] Judges 3:8c (NET)

[11] Exodus 32:1-6 (NET)

[12] Exodus 22:20 (NET)

[13] Exodus 32:10 (NET) Table

[14] Exodus 32:12b (NET) Table

[15] Exodus 32:14 (NET)

[16] 1 Samuel 2:12 (KJV)

[17] 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 (NET)

[18] Judges 3:9, 10a (NET)

[19] “Belial, the Northern Crown Prince of Satanism”

[20] John 3:7 (NET)

[21] Ezekiel 18:1 (NET)

[22] Judges 20:13b, 14 (NET)

Romans, Part 64

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I am considering Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer[1] as a description of love rather than as rules to obey.   In a previous essay I wrote, “Dear God, I hope she was dead,” of the Levite’s concubine as she was sprawled out on the doorstep of the house.[2]  That hope is probably not the hope Paul wrote of if Rejoice in hope described love rather than instituted a rule to obey because Love is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth.[3]  I assume that chapter 19 of Judges related what happened in Gibeah and chapter 20 related what the Levite “explained” about what happened.  (But I don’t think I would make that assumption with any literature other than the Bible.)

Judges 19 (NET)

Judges 20 (NET)
Then the Israelites said, “Explain how this wicked thing happened!”  The Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, spoke up…

Judges 20:3b-4a (NET)
So they traveled on, and the sun went down when they were near Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin.  They stopped there and decided to spend the night in Gibeah…They were having a good time…

Judges 19:14, 15a,:22a (NET)

 “I and my concubine stopped in Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin to spend the night.

Judges 20:4b (NET)

So far so good, there is substantial agreement between the two accounts.

Judges 19 (NET)

Judges 20 (NET)
…when suddenly some men (ʼı̂ysh, אנשי) of the city (ʽı̂yr, העיר), some good-for-nothings[4] (belı̂yaʽal, בליעל); literally, “sons of worthlessness”), surrounded the house and kept beating on the door.

Judges 19:22b (NET)

 “The leaders (baʽal, בעלי) of Gibeah attacked me and at night surrounded the house where I was staying.

Judges 20:5a (NET)

Here, some men of the city, some good-for-nothings became the leaders of Gibeah in the Levite’s retelling of the tale.  If this were two Gospel accounts I would tend to add them together to understand that some men of the city, some good-for-nothings were also the leaders of Gibeah.  I’m not so trusting at the end of Judges.  But there may be no discrepancy at all.

The King James translators chose men in place of leaders.  So did the translators of the Septuagint (ανδρες, a form of ἀνήρ).  Still, I applaud the NET translators for attempting to highlight the difference here.  The account in Judges 19 called them men (ʼı̂ysh, אנשי) twice (note 50) while the Levite called them baʽal.  I will suggest that the term may be more derogatory or facetious than leaders.

For fire went out from Heshbon, Moses quoted a proverb, a flame from the city of Sihon.  It has consumed Ar of Moab and the lords (baʽal, בעלי) of the high places of Arnon.[5]  The Lord God of Israel[6] spoke through Joshua: The leaders (baʽal, בעלי) of Jericho, as well as the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites, fought with you, but I handed them over to you.[7]

When Gideon with his three hundred men, exhausted, but still chasing the Midianites,[8] asked the people of Succoth for bread, The officials (śar, שׁרי) of Succoth said, “You have not yet overpowered Zebah and Zalmunna.  So why should we give bread to your army?”[9] Gideon’s hungry men defeated Midian without their bread (Judges 8:13-17 NET):

Gideon son of Joash returned from the battle by the pass of Heres.  He captured a young man from Succoth and interrogated him.  The young man wrote down for him the names of Succoth’s officials (śar, שׁרי) and city leaders (zâqên, זקניה)– seventy-seven men (ʼı̂ysh, איש) in all.  He approached the men (ʼı̂ysh, אנשי) of Succoth and said, “Look what I have!  Zebah and Zalmunna!  You insulted me, saying, ‘You have not yet overpowered Zebah and Zalmunna.  So why should we give bread to your exhausted men?’”  He seized the leaders (zâqên, זקני) of the city, along with some desert thorns and briers; he then “threshed” the men (ʼı̂ysh, אנשי) of Succoth with them.  He also tore down the tower of Penuel and executed the city’s men (ʼı̂ysh).

The officials, leaders and men of Succoth insulted Gideon and were punished for it, but not once were they called baʽal.  That epithet was reserved for the leaders (baʽal, בעלי) of Shechem,[10] who conspired with Abimelech to murder Gideon’s legitimate heirs (Judges 8:33-35 NET).

After Gideon died, the Israelites again prostituted (Septuagint: ἐξεπόρνευσαν, a form of ἐκπορνεύω) themselves to the Baals (baʽal, הבעלים).  They made Baal-Berith (baʽal berı̂yth,בעל ברית) their god (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, לאלהים).  The Israelites did not remain true to the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) their God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהיהם), who had delivered them from all the enemies who lived around them.  They did not treat the family of Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) fairly in return for all the good he had done for Israel.

In other words, these baʽal worshippers were disloyal to God and his leadership.  The temple of Baal-Berith[11] even financed Abimelech’s rise to power.[12]  It makes me suspect that the Levite called the men of Gibeah baʽal (בעלי) to highlight their disloyalty and to indicate its source.

Judges 19 (NET)

Judges 20 (NET)
They said to the old man who owned (baʽal, בעל) the house, “Send out the man who came to visit you so we can have sex with (yâdaʽ, ונדענו) him.”

Judges 19:22c (NET)

 They wanted to kill (hârag, להרג) me…

Judges 20:5a (NET)

There is no usage of hârag (kill) to this point in the Bible that would lead me to believe that it could entail the euphemistic yâdaʽ (have sex with; literally, to know).  I would like to believe that the Levite felt some remorse, regret or at least some embarrassment that would cause him to avoid retelling his part in this story, but I can’t be fully convinced that I understand his motives.

Judges 19 (NET)

Judges 20 (NET)
The man who owned (baʽal, בעל) the house went outside and said to them, “No, my brothers!  Don’t do this wicked thing!  After all, this man is a guest in my house.  Don’t do such a disgraceful thing!  Here are my virgin daughter and my guest’s concubine.  I will send them out and you can abuse them and do to them whatever you like.  But don’t do such a disgraceful thing to this man!”

Judges 19:23, 24 (NET)

In the introduction of the tale the Levite didn’t tell—The man who owned (baʽal, בעל) the house—I find the denotation of baʽal.  The owner of an ox is baʽal (Exodus 21:28-32, 36).  If a man opens a pit or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it he is the owner of the pit; he is baʽal (Exodus 21:33, 34).  As the owner of an ox, so the owner of a donkey or of anything else is also baʽal (Exodus 21:34; 22:11-15).  So, of course, the owner of a house is baʽal (Exodus 22:8; Judges 19:22, 23).

Owned, Owner
Reference

NET

LXX
Exodus 21:28 …the owner (baʽal, ובעל) of the ox will be acquitted. κύριος
Exodus 21:29a …and its owner (baʽal, בבעליו) was warned… κυρίῳ
Exodus 21:29b …and the man (baʽal, בעליו) must be put to death (mûth, יומת). κύριος
Exodus 21:34a …the owner (baʽal, בעל) of the pit must repay the loss. κύριος
Exodus 21:34b He must give money to its owner (baʽal, לבעליו)… κυρίῳ
Exodus 21:36 …and its owner (baʽal, בעליו) did not take the necessary precautions… κυρίῳ
Exodus 22:8 …then the owner (baʽal, בעל) of the house will be brought before the judges (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, האלהים; Septuagint: ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ, “in the sight of God”)… κύριος
Exodus 22:11 …and its owner (baʽal, בעליו) will accept this… κύριος
Exodus 22:12 …he will pay its owner (baʽal, לבעליו). κυρίῳ
Exodus 22:14 …and it is hurt or dies when its owner (baʽal, בעליו) was not with it… κύριος
Exodus 22:15 If its owner (baʽal, בעליו) was with it… κύριος
Judges 19:22 They said to the old man who owned (baʽal, בעל) the house… κύριον
Judges 19:23 The man who owned (baʽal, בעל) the house went outside and said to them… κύριος

The owner of a woman was also baʽal.

Husband
Reference

NET

 Septuagint
Genesis 20:3 …for she is someone else’s (baʽal, בעל) wife (bâʽal, בעלת). συνῳκηκυῖα ἀνδρί
Exodus 21:22 …in accordance with what the woman’s husband (baʽal, בעל) demands of him… ἀνὴρ τῆς γυναικός
Leviticus 21:4[13] He must not defile himself as a husband (baʽal, בעל) among his people…

n/a
Deuteronomy 21:13 …you may have sexual relations (bôʼ, תבוא) with her and become her husband (baʽal, ובעלתה)… συνοικισθήσῃ αὐτῇ
Deuteronomy 22:22 If a man is caught having sexual relations (shâkab, שכב) with a married (bâʽal, בעלת) (baʽal, בעל) woman… συνῳκισμένης ἀνδρί
Deuteronomy 24:4 …her first husband (baʽal, בעלה) who divorced her is not permitted to remarry her… ἀνὴρ

By this reckoning the Levite was baʽal.  But surely yehôvâh, the creator and owner of everything, was also baʽal.  Suddenly it becomes easier to understand why ancient Israelites succumbed over and over again to baʽal worship, especially if the baʽal worshippers down the street practiced “sacred sex,” celebrating in worship things yehôvâh forbade.

Plead earnestly with your mother, yehôvâh spoke of Israel through the prophet Hosea years later, (for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband [ʼı̂ysh, אישה]), so that she might put an end to her adulterous (Septuagint: πορνείαν, a form of πορνεία) lifestyle, and turn away from her sexually immoral (Septuagint: μοιχείαν, a form of μοιχεία) behavior.[14]  However, in the future I will allure her, He promised.  I will lead her back into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.[15]

“At that time,” declares the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה), “you will call, ‘My husband (ʼı̂ysh, אישי)’; you will never again call me, ‘My master (baʽălı̂y, בעלי).’  For I will remove the names of the Baal (baʽal, הבעלים) idols from your lips, so that you will never again utter their names!”[16]

 

Judges 19 (NET)

Judges 20 (NET)
The men refused to listen to him, so the Levite grabbed (châzaq, ויחזק) his concubine and made her go outside.  They raped (yâdaʽ, וידעו) her and abused her all night long until morning.  They let her go at dawn.  The woman arrived back at daybreak and was sprawled out on the doorstep of the house where her master (ʼâdôn, אדוניה) was staying until it became light.

Judges 19:25, 26 (NET)

 …instead they abused my concubine so badly that she died (mûth, ותמת).

Judges 20:5b (NET)

Again the Levite’s version of the story is dramatically different from the account in Judges 19.  He didn’t mention his own involvement in his concubine’s rape or that she survived her ordeal.  Perhaps he didn’t know the latter, if she died during the night.  Though mûth, the Hebrew word translated died, can mean to kill or execute, the form here seems to be used of women who died of what we—with no access to the tree of life— consider “natural causes,”[17] or dead[18] animals.  As I wrote in a previous essay, I hope she died during the night but I’m not convinced that hope is in line with the truth.  Frankly, this particular Levite has given me no reason to trust his account.

The Hebrew word translated grabbed was translated persuaded in: His father-in-law, the girl’s father, persuaded (châzaq, ויחזק) [the Levite] to stay with him for three days, and they ate and drank together, and spent the night there.[19]  Instead of grabbing her with his hands and thrusting her out of the door, the Levite may have persuaded his concubine to sacrifice herself.  I don’t know if he grabbed her or persuaded her.  If he persuaded her I don’t know how he persuaded her, but I want to consider the faith of Jephthah’s daughter and σκάνδαλα (a form of σκάνδαλον; stumbling blocks).

As I wrote before I never want to disparage her faith in any way, but how I use the description of her faith as Scripture could become a stumbling block to others.  If I use her faith as a searchlight to examine my own work,[20] expose my faithlessness and repent, Then [I] can take pride in [myself; that is, my own progress] and not compare [myself] with someone else.[21]  But if I used her faith as an example for young women to follow, to guilt them into acting against their own self-interests, I would have become[22] one of the judges with evil motives.[23]  And I would have turned the compelling childlike faith of Jephthah’s daughter into a stumbling block for other young women.

Judges 19 (NET)

Judges 20 (NET)
When he got home, he took a knife, grabbed (châzaq, ויחזק) his concubine, and carved her up into twelve pieces.  Then he sent the pieces throughout Israel.

Judges 19:29 (NET)

 I grabbed hold (ʼâchaz, ואחז) of my concubine and carved her up and sent the pieces throughout the territory occupied by Israel, because they committed such an unthinkable atrocity in Israel.   All you Israelites, make a decision here!”

Judges 20:6, 7 (NET)

I sincerely doubt that the Levite persuaded his concubine to be carved up into twelve pieces—dead or alive.

The first occurrence of châzaq, the Hebrew word translated grabbed, in this form (ויחזק) in the Old Testament described the grip a famine had on Egypt: The famine was severe (châzaq, ויחזק) throughout the land of Egypt.[24]  The most common usage by far described the grip yehôvâh had on Pharaoh’s heart: But the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) hardened (châzaq, ויחזק) Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) had predicted to Moses.[25]  It was used to describe the grip He had on the hearts of all the peoples dwelling in the land of Canaan during Joshua’s conquest: For it was of the LORD (yehôvâh, יהוה) to harden (châzaq, ויחזק) their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle…[26]  It was translated control in: The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) gave King Eglon of Moab control (châzaq, ויחזק) over Israel because they had done evil in the Lord’s (yehôvâh, יהוה) sight.[27]

The Levite also described his grip but with the functionally equivalent word ʼâchaz (ואחז): But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and grab (ʼâchaz, ואחז) [the snake] by the tail” – so he put out his hand and caught it (châzaq, ויחזק), and it became a staff in his hand…[28]  In a different form ʼâchaz described yehôvâh’s grip on judgment: I will sharpen my lightning-like sword, and my hand will grasp hold (ʼâchaz, ותאחז) of the weapon of judgment; I will execute vengeance on my foes, and repay those who hate me![29]  But ʼâchaz also described the capture of someone fleeing: When Adoni-Bezek ran away, they chased him and captured (ʼâchaz, ויאחזו) him.[30]

So perhaps both accounts agree in mentioning the firmness of the Levite’s grip as he carved up his concubine.  Or perhaps both accounts agree describing the effort he expended before he could carve up his resistant and unwilling concubine.  Frankly, I can’t tell.  But the brotherhood of four hundred thousand sword-wielding foot soldiers[31] responded as one man[32] to the Levite’s explanation (Judges 20:8-10 NET):

Not one of us will go home!  Not one of us will return to his house!  Now this is what we will do to Gibeah: We will attack the city as the lot dictates.  We will take ten of every group of a hundred men from all the tribes of Israel (and a hundred of every group of a thousand, and a thousand of every group of ten thousand) to get supplies for the army.  When they arrive in Gibeah of Benjamin they will punish them for the atrocity which they committed in Israel.

Romans, Part 65

Back to Romans, Part 67

[1] Romans 12:12 (NET)

[2] Judges 19:26 (NET)

[3] 1 Corinthians 13:6 (NET)

[4] KJV: Belial.  See: “Belial, the Northern Crown Prince of Satanism”

[5] Numbers 21:28 (NET)

[6] Joshua 24:2 (NET)

[7] Joshua 24:11b (NET)

[8] Judges 8:4 (NET)

[9] Judges 8:6 (NET)

[10] Judges 9:2, 3, 6, 7, 18, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 39, 46, 47

[11] http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Baal-berith.html#.VjwAqIKFNAg; https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0003_0_01776.html, http://www.angelfire.com/empire/serpentis666/Baal-Berith.html

[12] Judges 9:4 (NET)

[13] This is a special case.  The KJV translated baʽal (בעל) being a chief man, forcing God to call his own priests baʽal.  Though that is some powerful prophetic irony, I think the NIV translators grasped the sense of it better: He must not make himself unclean for people related to him by marriage, and so defile himself.  The priest may make himself unclean or defile himself for a dead close relative who is near to him: his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, and his virgin sister… (Leviticus 21:2, 3 NET)

[14] Hosea 2:2 (NET)

[15] Hosea 2:14 (NET)

[16] Hosea 2:16, 17 (NET) Table1 Table2

[17] Genesis 23:2; 35:8, 19, 38:12; Numbers 20:1 (NET)

[18] Exodus 21:34, 36 (NET)

[19] Judges 19:4 (NET)

[20] Galatians 6:4, 5 (NET)

[21] Galatians 6:4 (NET)

[22] If the Levite persuaded his concubine this way, for instance, he made a distinction (διεκρίθητε, a form of διακρίνω) between himself—a holy Levite and a man—and his concubine—a sex slave and a woman.

[23] James 2:4 (NET)

[24] Genesis 41:56b (NET)

[25] Exodus 9:12 (NET) Also: Exodus 7:13, 22; 8:19; 9:35; 10:20, 27; 11:10; 14:8 (NET)

[26] Joshua 11:20a (KJV)

[27] Judges 3:12b (NET)

[28] Exodus 4:4 (NET)

[29] Deuteronomy 32:41 (NET)

[30] Judges 1:6a (NET)

[31] Judges 20:2 (NET)

[32] Judges 20:8 (NET) note 16

Romans, Part 63

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I am considering Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer,[1] as a description of love rather than as rules to obey.  The story of the Levite and his concubine in the book of Judges qualifies as ἀδικίᾳ that love is not glad about.  In the previous essay I wrote, “Dear God, I hope she was dead,” of the Levite’s concubine as she was sprawled out on the doorstep of the house.[2]  The problem with that hope is that the text doesn’t specify exactly when she died.

If my Mom found dog pee on the carpet she would rub the dog’s nose in it.  If that poor woman didn’t die from her injuries during the night I feel like my nose is being rubbed in the stench of the religious mind.

I’m trying to be mindful of our differing socializations, the Levite’s and mine.  John Wayne and Clint Eastwood would never send a woman out to face a pack of rapists.  “Women and children first” is second nature to me.  The Levite never heard Jesus’ teaching, What defiles a person is not what goes into the mouth; it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person.[3]  I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that he could not know that sending his woman out to a pack of rapists defiled him infinitely more than any pack of rapists could ever hope to do to him (Matthew 15:18-20a NET).

But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a person.  For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality (πορνεῖαι, a form of πορνεία), theft, false testimony, slander.  These are the things that defile a person…

“Get up, let’s leave!”[4] the Levite said the next morning to the woman sprawled out on the doorstep of the house.

Perhaps his apparent coldness to the one who saved his ass—literally—is just my misunderstanding of an ancient Hebrew idiom.  I thought Jesus was terribly rude to his mother when He said, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.[5]  Jesus, his mother Mary and his disciples attended a wedding in Cana.  All Mary had said to Him was, “They have no wine left.”[6]  My mother argues that I’m wrong to hear rudeness in Jesus’ response, rather that I should hear the crosscurrents of the obligation an eldest son felt toward his widowed or abandoned mother, and a godly mother’s sense of obligation to push him out the door to accomplish whatever God had sent Him to accomplish instead.

“Whatever he tells you, do it,”[7] Mary told the servants.  Jesus did this [turned water into wine] as the first of his miraculous signs, in Cana of Galilee.  In this way he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him,[8] and his quiet life, and hers, changed dramatically overnight.

If the Levite put the woman’s unresponsive but still breathing body on the donkey and went home,[9] his negligence alone made him culpable for her death.  Even a Samaritan, a pseudo-Jew, had more compassion on a total stranger who fell among robbers (Luke 10:34, 35 NET):

He went up to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them.  Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.  The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever else you spend, I will repay you when I come back this way.’

This became the meaning of the law, love your neighbor as yourself,[10] when Jesus asked an expert in religious law, “Which of these three [the priest or the Levite who passed by on the others side,[11] or the Samaritan] do you think became a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”  The expert in religious law said, “The one who showed mercy to him.”  So Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”[12]

If the woman was still alive when the Levite took a knife, grabbed his concubine, and carved her up into twelve pieces,[13] the reeking stench of the religious mind boggles the imagination, for she had become too tainted in his sight to serve any longer as his sex slave.  If this is the understanding I am meant to perceive from the text’s reticence to state with any precision when the woman died, I will suggest that law is required to create a religious monster of this magnitude.

Before the law Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has turned to prostitution, and as a result she has become pregnant.”[14]  The charge was true.  Tamar had removed her widow’s clothes and covered herself with a veil.  She wrapped herself and sat at the entrance to Enaim which is on the way to Timnah.[15]  She did this so that men, one man in particular in fact, would think she was a prostitute.[16]

Judah said, “Bring her out and let her be burned!”[17]

While they were bringing her out, she sent word to her father-in-law: “I am pregnant by the man to whom these belong.”  Then she said, “Identify the one to whom the seal, cord, and staff belong.”[18]

They were Judah’s, given in pledge to what he thought was a cult prostitute seated by the side of the road.  Judah recognized them and said, “She is more upright than I am, because I wouldn’t give her to Shelah my son.”  He did not have sexual relations with her again.[19]

It’s a complicated tale involving Tamar’s social security, Judah’s superstition and Onanism (like Ananias and Sapphira-ism, e.g., lying to the Holy Spirit).  But before the law it was that easy for Judah to confess his own guilt and acquit Tamar.  After the law this Levite earned his place in a fiery hell.  And my own deliberations were so alarmingly like his.

I didn’t exactly grab my daughter and throw her out of the house to a pack of ravenous men.  I didn’t exactly fill her with the confidence that she could be loved by one man for an entire lifetime either.  I had my own σκάνδαλα (a form of σκάνδαλον; stumbling blocks) as he had his.  The Levite had Lot, a righteous man in anguish over the debauched lifestyle of lawless men[20] as his example.

Look, I have two daughters who have never had sexual relations with a man, Lot had said to a pack of ravenous men of Sodom.  Let me bring them out to you, and you can do to them whatever you please.  Only don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.[21]  The Levite’s host did essentially the same thing to save him: Here are my virgin daughter and my guest’s concubine, he said.  I will send them out and you can abuse them and do to them whatever you like.  But don’t do such a disgraceful thing to this man![22]

God spared Lot and his virgin daughters: So the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house as they shut the door.  Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, from the youngest to the oldest, with blindness.[23]  In his own story the Levite played the role of the visitor.  He knew his host and his host’s daughter should be spared.  He knew he could not strike men blind.  So he did the only thing in his power to do: the Levite grabbed his concubine and made her go outside.[24]

My own deliberations during my second divorce, predicated largely on my own experiences during my first divorce, shared the Levite’s  myopia.  Not once did I consider, much less wait for, God’s miraculous intervention.  I deliberated and acted with only my own abilities in view, never considering the possibility of God’s graciousness, believing instead that I probably deserved to be punished with another divorce, and so, living up to that expectation of my religious mind.

I have written a lot about the Levite and virtually nothing about the men who threatened him and raped his concubine.  I relate to the Levite’s religious mind.  It is more difficult to relate to the men who surrounded the house where he and his concubine stayed.  To illustrate I’m reminded of a story told by artist Miru Kim in Esquire Magazine.

She takes beautiful, evocative photographs of deserted urban landscapes and ruins with either herself or her sister as the lone figure in the shot—nude.  She was photographing herself, alone in an abandoned train tunnel, when the vagrant who lived there returned.  A marginal man, underground, in the dark, far from any systems of social control, it was the perfect setting for a violent tragedy.  Miru Kim continues in her own words:

“I was so scared.  That was probably the scariest moment.  I saw a figure coming through the tunnel, and he didn’t have a flashlight or anything, so it was completely dark.  So I see this dark figure coming toward me, then I saw that it was just this old guy who looked pretty harmless, he just lived there.  So I dressed up and explained to him what I was doing — ‘I’m doing an art project, sorry to bother you’ — you know?  Because it’s like his house, you know?  So I told him, and he didn’t say much; he was just standing there like, Okay.  So I took off my clothes again and did it in front of him and he was kind of sitting in the picture, so I was like, ‘Do you mind moving forward out of the picture, please?’  And he was just sitting around watching, so I did my thing, then dressed up.  It was really filthy in there, real muddy, smelled like urine, and I was wiping off with baby wipes, and the guy was like, ‘Do you want my shirt to clean off?’  He looked probably sixty or so, I’m sure he’s younger than he looks, and really skinny.  He was really nice.  Afterward, we were sitting around talking about his life.  He kept on talking about Rikers Island, and that he likes it down there because it’s quiet.  I told him I liked that, too.  And then he was like, ‘Let me walk you out.’  He thanked me for treating him like a regular person.”

I understand this art lover.  I relate to this lover of women.  He is my brother.  The mob that surrounded the house in Gibeah seems like cartoon evil to me.  This is how old men portray the enemy to young men when they want them to fight their wars for them.

I recognize the humanity of the men in Sodom primarily by their religious minds.  Lot offended their moral sensibilities: “Out of our way!” they cried, and “This man came to live here as a foreigner, and now he dares to judge us!  We’ll do more harm to you than to them!”[25]  The men of Benjamin were given no such cover.  They were like irrational animals – creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed.[26]

I played a week-long gig in an army town about forty years ago.  When we finished the first night we had to excuse ourselves between two lines of soldiers wound all the way around our hotel.  They awaited their turn for two women side by side on their backs in another hotel room.  I had been in locker rooms in high school.  I can at least extrapolate from that experience what kind of macho-anti-masturbatory-group-think might possess a young man to pay for the privilege to be third, fifth (?), eleventh (?), thirty-second (?), fifty-third (?) in one of those lines.  I can’t find any experience to extrapolate from to get anywhere near the vigilantes (?) enforcing social norms (?) in Sodom or the welcoming committee (?) in Gibeah.

“Warm Bodies” is an interesting movie.  It might have been a great film if it weren’t narrated from the wrong point of view with unnecessary voiceovers.  A zombie eats a man’s brains.  This allows him to see the man’s thoughts and feel his feelings.  He falls in love with the man’s girlfriend.  It’s not a sexual or romantic love, though there is a humorous bit where he attempts to comb his hair before assuring her in labored speech and pantomime that he will not eat her.  “Keep you safe,” is his constant refrain.  And he lives up to his word, not eating her himself and defending her from other zombies who would.

Eventually the mob in Gibeah came face-to-face with a woman.  Like the vagrant in the abandoned train tunnel or the zombie in “Warm Bodies” they had an opportunity to see themselves in her frightened eyes and repent, but they gang-raped her instead.  To say that they deserved to die implies moral reasoning and social systems of adjudication.  The instinct to exterminate these men is more basic than that.  It is the instinct, perhaps, which binds us together as a brotherhood of men.  And the Levite’s macabre missive mustered four hundred thousand of the brotherhood.

A town in which most people are filled with the fruit of the Holy Spirit can afford one fat, lazy sheriff.  The image and meaning of the good in that town will be some aspect(s) of the citizens’ love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness or self-control.  A town in which most people are not filled with the fruit of the Holy Spirit must fund at least three shifts of virile nazis.  The image and meaning of the good in that town will be those virile nazis.  As Robin (Anne Heche) in “Six Days Seven Nights” replied to Quinn (Harrison Ford), who thought women preferred a man who was in touch with his feminine side: “Well, not when they’re being chased by pirates.  They like them mean and armed!”

Romans, Part 64

Back to Romans, Part 65

Back to Romans, Part 66

[1] Romans 12:12 (NET)

[2] Judges 19:26 (NET)

[3] Matthew 15:11 (NET)

[4] Judges 19:28 (NET)

[5] John 2:4 (KJV)

[6] John 2:3 (NET)

[7] John 2:5 (NET)

[8] John 2:11 (NET)

[9] Judges 19:28 (NET)

[10] Leviticus 19:18 (NET) Table

[11] Luke 10:31, 32 (NET)

[12] Luke 10:36, 37 (NET)

[13] Judges 19:29 (NET)

[14] Genesis 38:24a (NET)

[15] Genesis 38:14 (NET)

[16] Genesis 38:15a (NET)

[17] Genesis 38:24b (NET)

[18] Genesis 38:25 (NET)

[19] Genesis 38:26 (NET)

[20] 2 Peter 2:7 (NET)

[21] Genesis 19:8 (NET)

[22] Judges 19:24 (NET)

[23] Genesis 19:10, 11a (NET)

[24] Judges 19:25b (NET)

[25] Genesis 19:9a (NET)

[26] 2 Peter 2:12a (NET)