The Day of the Lord, Part 8

Posted on April 22, 2024 by admin

This is the conclusion of my consideration whether my assumption that Jesus called Judas Iscariot ὁ υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας (NET: the one destined for destruction) is like Jesus’ disciples’ discussion about having no bread¹ after He said: “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod!”² I’ll begin with a request John recorded that Jesus’ made of his Father (John 17:15 NET):

I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one.

John 17:15 Detail
Greek	English
οὐκ ἐρωτῶ	I am not asking
ἵνα	“that”
ἄρῃς αὐτοὺς	you…take them
ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου	out of the world
ἀλλ᾿ ἵνα	but that
τηρήσῃς αὐτοὺς	you keep them…
ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ	from the evil…

John also recorded God’s answer to Jesus’ request (1 John 5:18 LSV):

We have known that everyone who has been begotten of God does not sin, but He who was begotten of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him;

1 John 5:18 Detail [Table]
Greek	English
Οἴδαμεν ὅτι	We have known (“and continue to know” Perfect Tense) that
πᾶς	everyone
ὁ γεγεννημένος ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ	who has been begotten (“and continues to be” Perfect Tense) of God
οὐχ ἁμαρτάνει	does not sin,
ἀλλ᾿	but
ὁ γεννηθεὶς ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ	He who was begotten of God
τηρεῖ αὐτόν ³	keeps him

I’ll pause here a moment to address the NET translators’ objection (NET note 50) to ὁ γεννηθεὶς ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ as a reference to Jesus.

The One fathered by God [Jesus] protects him [the Christian].” This is a popular interpretation, and is certainly possible grammatically. Yet the introduction of a reference to Jesus in this context is sudden; to be unambiguous the author could have mentioned the “Son of God” here, or used the pronoun ἐκεῖνος (ekeinos) as a reference to Jesus as he consistently does elsewhere in 1 John. This interpretation, while possible, seems in context highly unlikely.

As I mentioned in another essay, the NET translators’ confused everyone who has been begotten of God does not sin with “the Christian.” Listen to how differently John addressed “the Christian” (1 John 1:8-2:2 ESV):

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

John had very high expectations for My little children (Τεκνία μου): ἵνα μὴ ἁμάρτητε (that you may not sin) is a purpose clause in the subjunctive mood. But this expectation is different from the positive affirmation: We have known that everyone who has been begotten of God does not sin.⁴ For this reason I would amend the NET translators’ first statement: “The One fathered by God [Jesus] protects him [the new man].” So, their main objection that “the introduction of a reference to Jesus in this context is sudden” and therefore “highly unlikely” rests solely on a desire for John “to be unambiguous.”

Did John or the Holy Spirit intend “to be unambiguous” or, rather, did they intend to highlight the strong connection between πᾶς ὁ γεγεννημένος ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ (everyone who has been begotten of God) and ὁ γεννηθεὶς ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ (He who was begotten of God)? Listen to another related request that Jesus made of his Father in the very same prayer (John 17:20, 21 LSV):

And I do not ask in regard to these alone, but also in regard to those who will be believing in Me through their word, that they all may be one, as You Father [are] in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one⁵ in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.

So, to conclude God’s answer to Jesus’ previous request that his Father keep them:

1 John 5:18 Detail Continued [Table]
Greek	English
καὶ ὁ πονηρὸς	and the evil one
οὐχ ἅπτεται	does not touch
αὐτοῦ	him

As I mentioned in another essay, the translators’ understood autou as a personal pronoun in the genitive case: “The genitive case has more uses than most other cases, but in general a noun in the genitive case helps to limit the scope of another noun by indicating its ‘kind’ or ‘class’.” None of the English translations I found understood autou as an adverb. There are probably more uses of the genitive case than I can glean from these short definitions, but this seems to ignore the genitive case and treat autou as if it were in the accusative case. I’ve begun a new thread surveying the New Testament usage of αὐτοῦ and ἑαυτοῦ so I won’t belabor that here.

My point here is the focus and concern of Jesus’ prayer as He is no longer in the world (John 17:6-12 LSV):

I revealed Your Name to the men whom You have given to Me out of the world; they were Yours, and⁶ You have given them to Me, and they have kept Your word [Table]; now they have known that all things, as many as You have given to Me, are from You, because the sayings that You have given to Me, I have given to them, and they themselves received, and have known truly, that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me [Table]. I ask in regard to them; I do not ask in regard to the world, but in regard to those whom You have given to Me, because they are Yours, and all Mine are Yours, and Yours [are] Mine, and I have been glorified in them; and I am no longer in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your Name, whom You have given to Me, that they may be one as We [are one]; when I was with them in the world, I was keeping them in Your Name; I guarded those whom You have given to Me, and none of them were destroyed, except the son of the destruction, that the Writing may be fulfilled [Table].

At the beginning of this passage I think it’s safe to say that Jesus prayed specifically for those to whom He had ministered personally: I revealed Your Name to the men whom You have given to Me out of the world; they were Yours, and You have given them to Me, and they have kept Your word.⁷ But then his gaze broadened: I ask in regard to them; I do not ask in regard to the world, but in regard to those whom You have given to Me, because they are Yours, and all Mine are Yours, and Yours [are] Mine, and I have been glorified in them.⁸

I say that Jesus’ gaze broadened here because John also recorded who Jesus would consider Mine, and therefore those whom You have given to Me, if he was crucified (John 12:27-33 LSV):

Now My soul has been troubled; and what will I say—Father, save Me from this hour? But because of this (John 12:20-26) I came to this hour; Father, glorify Your Name.” Therefore there came a voice out of Heaven, “I both glorified, and again I will glorify [it]”; the multitude, therefore, having stood and heard, were saying that there has been thunder; others said, “A messenger has spoken to Him.” Jesus⁹ answered and said, “This voice has not come because of Me, but because of you; now is a judgment of this world, now will the ruler of this world be cast forth; and I, if I may be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” And this He said signifying by what death He was about to die [Table];

John 17:12 Detail [Table]
Stephanus Textus Receptus	LSV	NET Parallel Greek	NET
οτε ημην μετ αυτων	when I was with them	ὅτε ἤμην μετ᾿ αὐτῶν	When I was with them
εν τω κοσμω	in the world
εγω ετηρουν αυτους	I was keeping them	ἐγὼ ἐτήρουν αὐτοὺς	I kept them safe
εν τω ονοματι σου	in Your Name	ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι σου	in your name
ους δεδωκας μοι	those whom You have given to Me	ᾧ δέδωκας μοι	that you have given me
εφυλαξα	I guarded	καὶ ἐφύλαξα	and watched over them
και ουδεις εξ αυτων	and none of them	καὶ οὐδεὶς ἐξ αὐτῶν	Not one of them
απωλετο	were destroyed	ἀπώλετο	was lost
ει μη	except	εἰ μὴ	except
ο υιος	the son	ὁ υἱὸς	the one destined
της απωλειας	of the destruction	τῆς ἀπωλείας	for destruction
ινα	that	ἵνα	so that
η γραφη πληρωθη	the Writing may be fulfilled	ἡ γραφὴ πληρωθῇ	the scripture could be fulfilled

The Greek phrase ουδεις εξ αυτων seems like a strange construction for none of them (LSV) and Not one of them (NET). Why not simply ουδεις αυτων? And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, yet none of them (οὐδεὶς αὐτῶν) was cleansed except (εἰ μὴ) Naaman¹⁰ the Syrian.¹¹ But John used ουδεις εξ three times.

Was he less proficient in Greek than Luke? I wondered. If John’s Gospel were written by a twenty-something John, I might accept that, but every indication is that it was written by the elder John who not only spent his youth with Jesus but enjoyed a lifetime with the indwelling Holy Spirit, making sense of those years. And what of the Holy Spirit? I decided to look deeper than mere occurrence.

Hasn’t Moses¹² given you the law? Yet not one of you (οὐδεὶς ἐξ ὑμῶν) keeps the law! Why do you want to kill me?¹³ The Greek word translated keeps was actually ποιεῖ (a form of ποιέω) rather than τήρει (a form of τηρέω) or φύλασσε (a form of φυλάσσω). So Jesus said to Jewish leaders¹⁴ (οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι), “not one of you does the law”? That sounds ridiculous on the face of it.

Jewish leaders were all about doing the law. Of course, one of the more salient features of the Gospels is that Jewish leaders were “all about doing the law” in much the same way I was all about doing compliance, to minimize my experience of being screamed at, to maximize my experience of being thought of and spoken of well, all for my praise and my glory. And Jesus was never all about looking at things “on the face of it” but on the heart.

It was past time to take ἐξ more seriously: Jesus said to Jewish leaders, “nothing out of you” or “from within you does the law.” In other words, nothing out of them or from within them loved God or their neighbor with the love God supplies through his own indwelling Holy Spirit (Mark 12:28-31 NET).

Now one of the experts in the law came and heard them debating. When he saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is: ‘Listen, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one [Table]. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength’ [Table]. The second is: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” [Table].

The Jewish leaders (and I) were like actors pretending to love like God by our own skill and in our own strength (weakened through the flesh). Only John recorded the disturbing words Jesus spoke to those Judeans who had believed (“and continued to believe”; Perfect Tense) him¹⁵ (πρὸς τοὺς πεπιστευκότας αὐτῷ Ἰουδαίους): You people are from your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires.¹⁶ It may not have been the best way to win friends and influence people, but it was perhaps the only way to tell his followers the truth about the evil within them, that evil Paul would later describe as the old man (τὸν παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον) who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires.¹⁷

John also recorded Jesus saying (John 16:4b-6 NET):

I did not tell you these things (John 15:1-16:4a) from the beginning because I was with you [Table]. But now I am going to the one who sent me, and not one of you (οὐδεὶς ἐξ ὑμῶν) is asking me, ‘Where are you going?’ Instead your hearts are filled with sadness because I have said these things to you.

Though Jesus’ word and his presence had already created in his disciples what Paul would later describe as the new man (τὸν καινὸν ἄνθρωπον) who has been created in God’s image—in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth,¹⁸ it was weak compared to the old man apart from Jesus’ own indwelling Spirit. “Nothing out of you” or “from within you is asking me” the most obvious question, Jesus marveled. They were focused instead on their own feelings.

So now, when I come to—Not one of them (οὐδεὶς ἐξ αὐτῶν) was lost except the one destined for destruction¹⁹—it is much easier to hear: “Nothing out of” or “from within them was lost (LSV: destroyed) except the one destined for destruction” (KJV: the son of perdition), e.g., the old man (τὸν παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον) who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires.²⁰

I wondered for a moment or two at ἀπώλετο, translated was lost (NET), is lost (KJV) and were destroyed (LSV), a form of ἀπόλλυμι, ἀπόλλω, ἀπολλύω in the 2^nd aorist tense and indicative mood. But Bill Mounce answered my concern in his article, “The Aorist is so much more than a past tense”:

I like Con Campbell’s word picture of the aorist. You are in a helicopter over the parade, looking at the parade as a whole. Buist Fanning talks about seeing the action from the outside as a whole rather than from inside the action (i.e., being part of the parade).

Because this is the basic genius of the aorist, it can have a phenomenally wide range of usage. You can be looking at the action as a whole but paying special attention to the beginning (“ingressive”) or to the end (“consummative”). It can describes [sic] something that simply is regardless of any time reference (“gnomic”).

But my favorite is to [sic] proleptic (futuristic) use of the aorist. Because time is secondary, the aorist can describe a future event and emphasize the certainty of the action. It is not a common usage, but it does show how we need to keep the idea of “time” in its proper place.

So, Jesus did not refer to Judas Iscariot any more or any less than He referred to me or anyone or everyone else. What Scripture, what Writing did this fulfill once and for all? Nothing less than the Name of God:

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
Exodus 34:6, 7a (Tanakh)	Exodus 34:6, 7a (NET)	Exodus 34:6, 7a (NETS)	Exodus 34:6, 7a (English Elpenor)
And HaShem passed by before [Moses], and proclaimed: ‘The HaShem, HaShem, G-d, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth [Table];	The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness,	And the Lord passed by before his face, and he called, “The Lord, the Lord God is compassionate and merciful, patient and very merciful and truthful [Table]	And the Lord passed by before his face, and proclaimed, The Lord God, pitiful and merciful, longsuffering and very compassionate, and true,
keeping mercy unto the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty [Table];	keeping loyal love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished,”	and preserving righteousness and doing mercy for thousands, taking away acts of lawlessness and of injustice and sins, and he will not acquit the guilty person [Table],	and keeping justice and mercy for thousands, taking away iniquity, and unrighteousness, and sins; and he will not clear the guilty;

According to a note (62) in the NET Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy 6:4, 5 and Joshua 22:5. A table comparing the Greek of his quotation in Mark 12:29b, 30 to that of the Septuagint follows.

Mark 12:29b, 30 (NET Parallel Greek)	Deuteronomy 6:4b, 5; Joshua 22:5b (Septuagint BLB)	Deuteronomy 6:4b, 5; Joshua 22:5b (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἄκουε, Ἰσραήλ, κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν κύριος εἷς ἐστιν, καὶ ἀγαπήσεις κύριον τὸν θεόν σου ἐξ ὅλης \|τῆς\| καρδίας σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ψυχῆς σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς διανοίας σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ἰσχύος σου	ἄκουε Ισραηλ κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν κύριος εἷς ἐστιν καὶ ἀγαπήσεις κύριον τὸν θεόν σου ἐξ ὅλης τῆς καρδίας σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ψυχῆς σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς δυνάμεώς σου [Table] ἐξ ὅλης τῆς διανοίας	Ακουε, ᾿Ισραήλ· Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν Κύριος εἷς ἐστι καὶ ἀγαπήσεις Κύριον τὸν Θεόν σου ἐξ ὅλης τῆς καρδίας σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ψυχῆς σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς δυνάμεώς σου ἐξ ὅλης τῆς διανοίας
Mark 12:29b, 30 (NET)	Deuteronomy 6:4b, 5; Joshua 22:5b (NETS)	Deuteronomy 6:4b, 5; Joshua 22:5b (English Elpenor)
Listen, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.	Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord. And you shall love the Lord your God with the whole of your mind and with the whole of your soul and with the whole of your power. …with all your mind…	Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and all thy strength. …with all your mind…

According to a note (63) in the NET Jesus quoted from Leviticus 19:18. A table comparing the Greek of his quotation in Mark 12:31a to that of the Septuagint follows.

Mark 12:31a (NET Parallel Greek)	Leviticus 19:18b (Septuagint BLB)	Leviticus 19:18b (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτόν	ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτόν [Table]	ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτόν
Mark 12:31a (NET)	Leviticus 19:18b (NETS)	Leviticus 19:18b (English Elpenor)
Love your neighbor as yourself	you shall love your neighbor as yourself	thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself

Tables comparing Deuteronomy 6:4 and Joshua 22:5 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET, and tables comparing the Greek of Deuteronomy 6:4 and Joshua 22:5 in the Septuagint (BLB and Elpenor), and tables comparing John 17:21; 12:30; Luke 4:27 and John 7:19 in the KJV and NET follow.

Deuteronomy 6:4 (Tanakh)	Deuteronomy 6:4 (KJV)	Deuteronomy 6:4 (NET)
HEAR, O ISRAEL: THE HaShem OUR GOD, THE HaShem IS ONE.	Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:	Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!

Deuteronomy 6:4 (Septuagint BLB)	Deuteronomy 6:3b, 4 (Septuagint Elpenor)
καὶ ταῦτα τὰ δικαιώματα καὶ τὰ κρίματα ὅσα ἐνετείλατο κύριος τοῖς υἱοῖς Ισραηλ ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ ἐξελθόντων αὐτῶν ἐκ γῆς Αἰγύπτου ἄκουε Ισραηλ κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν κύριος εἷς ἐστιν	Tκαὶ ταῦτα τὰ δικαιώματα καὶ τὰ κρίματα, ὅσα ἐνετείλατο Κύριος τοῖς υἱοῖς ᾿Ισραὴλ ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, ἐξελθόντων αὐτῶν ἐκ γῆς Αἰγύπτου. (4) ῎Ακουε, ᾿Ισραήλ· Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν Κύριος εἷς ἐστι
Deuteronomy 6:4 (NETS)	Deuteronomy 6:3b, 4 (English Elpenor)
And these are the statutes and the judgments, which the Lord commanded to the sons of Israel in the wilderness as they were coming out from the land of Egypt. Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.	and these [are] the ordinances, and the judgments, which the Lord commanded the children of Israel in the wilderness, when they had gone forth from the land of Egypt. (4) Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God is one Lord.

Joshua 22:5 (Tanakh)	Joshua 22:5 (KJV)	Joshua 22:5 (NET)
But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.	But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.	But carefully obey the commands and instructions Moses the Lord’s servant gave you. Love the Lord your God, follow all his instructions, obey his commands, be loyal to him, and serve him with all your heart and being!”

Joshua 22:5 (Septuagint BLB)	Joshua 22:5 (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἀλλὰ φυλάξασθε ποιεῖν σφόδρα τὰς ἐντολὰς καὶ τὸν νόμον ὃν ἐνετείλατο ἡμῖν ποιεῖν Μωυσῆς ὁ παῖς κυρίου ἀγαπᾶν κύριον τὸν θεὸν ὑμῶν πορεύεσθαι πάσαις ταῖς ὁδοῖς αὐτοῦ φυλάξασθαι τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ καὶ προσκεῖσθαι αὐτῷ καὶ λατρεύειν αὐτῷ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς διανοίας ὑμῶν καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ψυχῆς ὑμῶν	ἀλλὰ φυλάξασθε σφόδρα ποιεῖν τὰς ἐντολὰς καὶ τὸν νόμον, ὃν ἐνετείλατο ἡμῖν ποιεῖν Μωυσῆς ὁ παῖς Κυρίου, ἀγαπᾶν Κύριον τὸν Θεὸν ἡμῶν, πορεύεσθαι πάσαις ταῖς ὁδοῖς αὐτοῦ, φυλάξασθαι τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ καὶ προσκεῖσθαι αὐτῷ καὶ λατρεύειν αὐτῷ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς διανοίας ὑμῶν καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ψυχῆς ὑμῶν
Joshua 22:5 (NETS)	Joshua 22:5 (English Elpenor)
But take great care to do the ordinances and the law that Moyses the servant of the Lord commanded you to do: to love the Lord your God, to walk by all his ways, to keep his ordinances and to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your mind and with all your soul.”	But take great heed to do the commands and the law, which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you to do; to love the Lord our God, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commands, and to cleave to him, and serve him with all your mind, and with all your soul.

John 17:21 (NET)	John 17:21 (KJV)
that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me.	That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

John 17:21 (NET Parallel Greek)	John 17:21 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	John 17:21 (Byzantine Majority Text)
ἵνα πάντες ἓν ὦσιν, καθὼς σύ, \|πάτερ\|, ἐν ἐμοὶ καγὼ ἐν σοί, ἵνα καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐν ἡμῖν ὦσιν, ἵνα ὁ κόσμος πιστεύῃ ὅτι σύ με ἀπέστειλας	ινα παντες εν ωσιν καθως συ πατερ εν εμοι καγω εν σοι ινα και αυτοι εν ημιν εν ωσιν ινα ο κοσμος πιστευση οτι συ με απεστειλας	ινα παντες εν ωσιν καθως συ πατερ εν εμοι καγω εν σοι ινα και αυτοι εν ημιν εν ωσιν ινα ο κοσμος πιστευση οτι συ με απεστειλας

John 12:30 (NET)	John 12:30 (KJV)
Jesus said, “This voice has not come for my benefit but for yours.	Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes.

John 12:30 (NET Parallel Greek)	John 12:30 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	John 12:30 (Byzantine Majority Text)
ἀπεκρίθη \|Ἰησοῦς\| καὶ εἶπεν · οὐ δι᾿ ἐμὲ ἡ φωνὴ αὕτη γέγονεν ἀλλὰ δι᾿ ὑμᾶς	απεκριθη ο ιησους και ειπεν ου δι εμε αυτη η φωνη γεγονεν αλλα δι υμας	απεκριθη ο ιησους και ειπεν ου δι εμε αυτη η φωνη γεγονεν αλλα δι υμας

Luke 4:27 (NET)	Luke 4:27 (KJV)
And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, yet none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”	And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.

Luke 4:27 (NET Parallel Greek)	Luke 4:27 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Luke 4:27 (Byzantine Majority Text)
καὶ πολλοὶ λεπροὶ ἦσαν ἐν τῷ Ἰσραὴλ ἐπὶ Ἐλισαίου τοῦ προφήτου, καὶ οὐδεὶς αὐτῶν ἐκαθαρίσθη εἰ μὴ Ναιμὰν ὁ Σύρος	και πολλοι λεπροι ησαν επι ελισσαιου του προφητου εν τω ισραηλ και ουδεις αυτων εκαθαρισθη ει μη νεεμαν ο συρος	και πολλοι λεπροι ησαν επι ελισσαιου του προφητου εν τω ισραηλ και ουδεις αυτων εκαθαρισθη ει μη νεεμαν ο συρος

John 7:19 (NET)	John 7:19 (KJV)
Hasn’t Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law! Why do you want to kill me?”	Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me?

John 7:19 (NET Parallel Greek)	John 7:19 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	John 7:19 (Byzantine Majority Text)
Οὐ Μωϋσῆς \|δέδωκεν\| ὑμῖν τὸν νόμον; καὶ οὐδεὶς ἐξ ὑμῶν ποιεῖ τὸν νόμον. τί με ζητεῖτε ἀποκτεῖναι	ου μωσης δεδωκεν υμιν τον νομον και ουδεις εξ υμων ποιει τον νομον τι με ζητειτε αποκτειναι	ου μωσης δεδωκεν υμιν τον νομον και ουδεις εξ υμων ποιει τον νομον τι με ζητειτε αποκτειναι

Back to Romans, Part 27

¹ Mark 8:16b (NET) Table

² Mark 8:15b (NET)

³ The Stehanus Textus Receptus, Byzantine Majority Text and NA²⁸ had ἑαυτὸν (KJV: himself) here. In other words, Jesus protects Himself (including those who are his).

⁴ 1 John 5:18a (LSV)

⁵ The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had εν (KJV: one) here. The Net parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

⁶ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had καμοὶ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had και εμοι (KJV: and…me).

⁷ John 17:6 (LSV) Table

⁸ John 17:9, 10 (LSV)

⁹ The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had the article ο preceding Jesus. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

¹⁰ In the NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ Naaman was spelled Ναιμὰν, and νεεμαν in the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text.

¹¹ Luke 4:27 (NET)

¹² In the NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ Moses was spelled Μωϋσῆς, and μωσης in the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text.

¹³ John 7:19 (NET)

¹⁴ John 7:15 (NET); see NET note 32

¹⁵ John 8:31a (NET)

¹⁶ John 8:44a (NET) Table

¹⁷ Ephesians 4:22b (NET)

¹⁸ Ephesians 4:24b (NET)

¹⁹ John 17:12b (NET) Table

²⁰ Ephesians 4:22b (NET)

A Shadow of the Good Things, Part 10

Posted on April 14, 2024 by admin

My mother told the following story about her firstborn son:

His father worked the evening shift. Perhaps it was the only shift the young man could get. Perhaps he did it deliberately to earn more per hour. She was alone with their infant son in the afternoon in an upstairs city apartment in summer heat. She put her firstborn in a stroller and pushed him up the street to a corner dairy for a chocolate milkshake.

As they sat in the shade outside the dairy, she offered her son his first taste of chocolate milkshake. He grabbed it from her and wouldn’t let go. There wasn’t money for another. She wasn’t at all certain her husband would agree that there had been money for the first one. So, the twenty-three-year-old mother did without while her son drank too much, too soon for one so small.

I’ve heard that story many times. The time I recall most now, I was telling it myself as my sister and I reminisced after Mom’s death. Like Scrooge pleading to “sponge away the writing on this stone,”¹ I tried vainly once again to repent of a deed done before I have any memory of doing it. My sister laughed and said, “She told that story because she thought it was funny. She loves you.”

I’ve reacted to that story many different ways at different times throughout my life. I don’t think it’s funny—not now. Though I don’t recall the event, I am all too familiar with that child. He is the sin that lives in me.² He is the evil…present with me when I want to do good.³ He is the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires.⁴ He is unrestrained will: “I want.”

Though I say “unrestrained,” he was constrained somewhat by his stroller and the shortened reach of his chubby little arms. Do you still think he is funny? If I shout it in German, “Ich will!” perhaps you can hear the very worst of Adolf Hitler incipient in that child’s lust, a child who wouldn’t even share a chocolate milkshake with his own mother. Grant him power and he will covet and steal; he will rape and murder; he will try to conquer the world, shrieking a damnable lie: I AM AND THERE IS NO OTHER! No one I know has caused more harm to me or the people I love. And there is no one I would rather see condemned to the lake of fire for all eternity.

In another essay I began to consider the substance or body which cast the shadow of the scape-goat (English Elpenor) or the [goat] to be sent off (NETS) in Leviticus 16:8 (KJV, Septuagint) [Table]. And in another essay I wrote:

Truthfully, my religious mind wants I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin (Romans 7:14b NET) to apply to the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires.³ My old man may well be the proximate cause of my unspirituality and slavery to sin, but Paul described an I, as I am seen here and now, that is comprised of both an old man and a new man who has been created in God’s image—in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth:⁴For I want to do the good, he wrote, but I cannot do it.⁵

My sister was right: my mother loved me even before I was “comprised of both an old man and a new man who has been created in God’s image.” She didn’t grab me by the ankles and bash my brains out on the hot pavement that day. The words the only true God spoke through Isaiah the prophet to Cyrus, another old man more powerful than mine, follow:

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
Isaiah 45:4-8 (Tanakh/KJV)	Isaiah 45:4-8 (NET)	Isaiah 45:4-8 (NETS)	Isaiah 45:4-8 (English Elpenor)
For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect (בְּחִירִ֑י), I have even called thee [e.g., Cyrus] by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.	For the sake of my servant Jacob, Israel, my chosen one (bāḥîr, בחירי), I call you by name and give you a title of respect, even though you do not submit to me.	For the sake of my servant Iakob and Israel my chosen (τοῦ ἐκλεκτοῦ μου), I will call you by name and receive you, but you did not know me,	For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel mine elect (τοῦ ἐκλεκτοῦ μου), I will call thee by thy name, and accept thee: but thou hast not known me.
I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:	I am the Lord, I have no peer, there is no God but me. I arm you for battle, even though you do not recognize me.	because I am the Lord God, and there is no other god besides me, and you did not know me,	For I am the Lord God, and there is no other God beside me; I strengthened thee, and thou hast not known me.
That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.	I do this so people will recognize from east to west that there is no God but me; I am the Lord, I have no peer.	so that they who are from the rising of the sun and from its going down may know that there is no one besides me; I am the Lord God, and there is no other.	That they that [come] from the east and they that [come] from the west may know that there is no God but me. I am the Lord God, and there is none beside.
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.	I am the one who forms light and creates darkness; the one who brings about peace and creates calamity. I am the Lord, who accomplishes all these things.	I am the one who has prepared light and made darkness, who makes peace and creates evils; I am the Lord who does all these things.	I am he that prepared light, and formed darkness; who make peace, and create evil; I am the Lord God, that does all these things.
Drop down, ye heavens, from above (מִמַּ֔עַל), and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.	O sky, rain down from above (maʿal, ממעל)! Let the clouds send down showers of deliverance! Let the earth absorb it so salvation may grow and deliverance may sprout up along with it. I, the Lord, create it.’”	Let heaven rejoice from above (ἄνωθεν), and let the clouds shower down righteousness; let the earth bring forth mercy, and let it bring forth righteousness as well; I am the Lord who created you.	Let the heaven rejoice from above (ἄνωθεν), and let the clouds rain righteousness: let the earth bring forth, and blossom [with] mercy, and bring forth righteousness likewise: I am the Lord that created thee.

Though I was born evil incarnate,⁵ not yet born from above (γεννηθῆναι ἄνωθεν),⁶ that evil dwelt by the grace of God in a cute and cuddly package. Most women by the grace of God find that cute and cuddly infant package adorable and appealing. I was born by the grace of God through an intensely intimate process that made my birth and my existence uniquely special to my mother. And so, I lived, not by any virtue of my own, but by the grace of a loving God who gave me a mother who loved me and hoped for me and named me Daniel, that I would grow to stand alone, if necessary, with God.

I’m torn here because I want to get back to studying the Bible but I know my mother would argue with my assessment of myself. It seems obligatory to address how I fooled my mother a large portion, if not most, of the time. I think it boils down to the same thing that surprises me now about the direct honesty of that evil infant. I can only rationalize it as naive ignorance. My earliest memory of my own motivation was that I wanted my mother, my father, anyone, everyone really, to think well of me, to speak well of me. I would attempt to do almost anything to hear their praise.

Trying to please all the people all of the time to win their praise was exhausting and led directly to what some call defiance. My little brother began life with that strategy. It seemed stupid and annoying to me, a waste of time when one is weak and unarmed. If you can’t please all the people all of the time and you can’t kill all the people all of the time, one must compromise: compliance rather than defiance is that compromise.

I tried to the best of my ability to comply as much as I was able with the demands of those I couldn’t kill or intimidate. Compliance can seem like obedience, even righteousness, to those who look on external appearance only. Compliance, to optimize my experience of winning the praise of others, fooled me, too. I wasn’t subtle enough to imagine any righteousness beyond compliance.

Jesus saying, Woe to you⁷ when all people speak well of you, for their ancestors did the same things⁸ to the false prophets,⁹ was just word salad to me. But in the right circumstances at the right time and place I could nod and “yea, verily” with the best of them, without ever hearing Jesus’ aspersion on the meaning of my life. Eventually, I was so accustomed to my strategy of maximizing praise and minimizing being screamed at by the minimal level of compliance required, even when I tried to learn from the Bible I only heard what I expected to hear.

John wrote (1 John 5:16 NET):

If anyone sees his fellow Christian (τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ) committing a sin not resulting in death, he should ask, and God will grant life to the person who commits a sin not resulting in death. There is a sin resulting in death. I do not say that he should ask about that.

The fellow Christian John described here was also an I, as I am seen here and now, an I comprised of both an old man and a new man who has been created in God’s image—in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth.¹⁰ This I is not the same as everyone fathered by God (1 John 5:18 NET [Table]):

We know that everyone fathered by God does not sin, but God protects the one he has fathered, and the evil one (ὁ πονηρὸς) cannot touch him.

This I is the new man who has been created in God’s image—in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth.¹¹ The evil one cannot touch (οὐχ ἅπτεται) him. In other words, the old man and the new man are distinct, though both dwell together within John’s fellow Christian. The Greek word ἅπτεται (NET: touch) is a passive form of ἅπτω in the middle voice: “to fasten to, touch, grab, attach, cling; to reach, get as far as.” To my mind cannot implies οὐ δύναται in Greek: an inability, a lack of power. But this is οὐχ ἅπτεται, “does not touch.” The old man, the devil, evil does not touch the new man, period, end of statement.

Making God the subject of the clause—but God protects the one he has fathered—while not wrong exactly, is not what the Greek actually says. The subject of this clause is ὁ γεννηθεὶς (NET: the one he has fathered): “the one he has fathered protects him.” The NET translators didn’t distinguish¹² between the everyone fathered by God (πᾶς ὁ γεγεννημένος ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ) who does not sin (οὐχ ἁμαρτάνει) from the fellow Christian¹³ (τὸν ἀδελφὸν; literally, “the brother”) who does.

I assume that ὁ γεννηθεὶς (NET: the one he has fathered) refers to Jesus and his work on the cross in union with the new man who has been created in God’s image,¹⁴ while αὐτόν ¹⁵ (him) refers back to the singular πᾶς (NET: everyone) of everyone fathered by God.¹⁶

John made a similar distinction between his Dear friends (ἀγαπητοί, a form of ἀγαπητός) and the new man earlier in this same letter:

1 John 3:2 (NET)	1 John 3:6 (NET)
Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We¹⁷ know that whenever it is revealed we will be like him because we will see him just as he is.	Everyone who resides in him does not sin; everyone who sins has neither seen him nor known him.
1 John 3:2 (NET Parallel Greek)	1 John 3:6 (NET Parallel Greek)
ἀγαπητοί, νῦν τέκνα θεοῦ ἐσμεν, καὶ οὔπω ἐφανερώθη τί ἐσόμεθα. οἴδαμεν ὅτι ἐὰν φανερωθῇ, ὅμοιοι αὐτῷ ἐσόμεθα, ὅτι ὀψόμεθα αὐτὸν καθώς ἐστιν	πᾶς ὁ ἐν αὐτῷ μένων οὐχ ἁμαρτάνει· πᾶς ὁ ἁμαρτάνων οὐχ ἑώρακεν αὐτὸν οὐδὲ ἔγνωκεν αὐτόν

The NET translators chose whenever it is revealed for ἐὰν φανερωθῇ, where the KJV translators chose when he shall appear. Either way, we will be (ἐσόμεθα, a form of εἰμί) like him (i.e., like God, NET or like Jesus, KJV) at some future time because we will see (ὀψόμεθα, a form of ὁράω) him just as he is.¹⁸ This likeness to God or Jesus should, at a minimum, entail not sinning. And John confirmed that everyone who sins has neither seen (ἑώρακεν, another from of ὁράω) him nor known (ἔγνωκεν, a form of γινώσκω) him.¹⁹

Paul echoed and clarified this concept for John’s Dear friends (1 Corinthians 13:12 NET):

For now we see (βλέπομεν, a form of βλέπω) in a mirror indirectly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know (γινώσκω) in part, but then I will know fully (ἐπιγνώσομαι, a form of ἐπιγινώσκω), just as I have been fully known (ἐπεγνώσθην, another form of ἐπιγινώσκω).

This leads to the conclusion that John’s more absolute—has neither seen him nor known him—denoted everyone who sins (πᾶς ὁ ἁμαρτάνων) as the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires.²⁰ Conversely, Everyone who resides in him does not sin, refers to the new man who has been created in God’s image—in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth.²¹

So, returning to the evil one (ὁ πονηρὸς) cannot touch (οὐχ ἅπτεται) him (αὐτοῦ):²² the NET translators apparently understood αὐτοῦ as a personal pronoun in the genitive case. I am more inclined to understand αὐτοῦ as an adverb: “the evil one does not touch here,” or “there.” In other words, John described the new man as a holy place where God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit meets with the new man who has been created in God’s image—in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth as One.

I have lived as the old man, bereft of the new man. I am living as the new man, frustrated at times by that old man. I hope to live as the new man, separated entirely from the old man. When I began to consider the final judgment as a potential deadline for Jesus to have drawn all to Himself, I thought it was mostly for my convenience.

I have no authority or standing to tell Jesus that He can draw no one to Himself afterward, but final judgment is like an event horizon I have difficulty seeing beyond. While I am aware of no Christian theology which addresses Jesus’ drawing of all to Himself, or the impact of that drawing on the judgment of this world and the ruler of this world being driven out, I can’t now go back and pretend that I don’t hear Him saying (John 12:31, 32 NET):

Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when (ἐὰν) I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all²³…to myself.

Considering the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires,²⁴ the sin that lives in me,²⁵ as that which cast the shadow of the scape-goat (English Elpenor) or the [goat] to be sent off (NETS) in Leviticus 16:8 (KJV, Septuagint) [Table] adds an interesting line of evidence to that convenience of my choice. Rashi’s commentary to Leviticus 16:8 reads:

And Aaron shall place lots upon the two he-goats: He would place one [he-goat] on his right and one on his left. Then, he would insert both his hands into an urn [which contained two lots, one bearing the inscription “to the Lord” and the other “to Azazel.” These lots were mixed up, and Aaron, with both hands inside the urn] took one lot in his right hand and the other in his left hand, and he would place them upon them [the he-goats]: [The one] upon which [he placed the lot] with the inscription “to the Lord,” would be for God, while the one upon which [he placed the lot] with the inscription “to Azazel,” would be sent off to Azazel. — [Yoma 39a]

Azazel: This is a strong and hard mountain, [with] a high cliff, as the Scripture says [in describing Azazel] (verse 22 below),“a precipitous land (אֶרֶץ גְּזֵרָה),” meaning a cut-off land [i.e., a sheer drop]. — [Torath Kohanim 16:28; Yoma 67b]

Assuming that Rashi was reaching back into an actual institutional memory of this ceremony, Jesus seems to have alluded to it in his description of final judgment (Matthew 25:31-33 NET):

When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be assembled before him, and he will separate people (αὐτοὺς) one from another like a shepherd separates the sheep from (ἀπὸ) the goats [Table]. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

I’ll pick this up in another essay.

Tables comparing Isaiah 45:4; 45:5; 45:6; 45:7 and 45:8 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET, and tables comparing the Greek of Isaiah 45:4; 45:5; 45:6; 45:7 and 45:8 in the Septuagint (BLB and Elpenor), and tables comparing Luke 6:26 and 1 John 3:2 in the NET and KJV follow.

Isaiah 45:4 (Tanakh)	Isaiah 45:4 (KJV)	Isaiah 45:4 (NET)
For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.	For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.	For the sake of my servant Jacob, Israel, my chosen one, I call you by name and give you a title of respect, even though you do not submit to me.

Isaiah 45:4 (Septuagint BLB)	Isaiah 45:4 (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἕνεκεν Ιακωβ τοῦ παιδός μου καὶ Ισραηλ τοῦ ἐκλεκτοῦ μου ἐγὼ καλέσω σε τῷ ὀνόματί σου καὶ προσδέξομαί σε σὺ δὲ οὐκ ἔγνως με	ἕνεκεν τοῦ παιδός μου ᾿Ιακὼβ καὶ ᾿Ισραὴλ τοῦ ἐκλεκτοῦ μου, ἐγὼ καλέσω σε τῷ ὀνόματί σου καὶ προσδέξομαί σε, σὺ δὲ οὐκ ἔγνως με
Isaiah 45:4 (NETS)	Isaiah 45:4 (English Elpenor)
For the sake of my servant Iakob and Israel my chosen, I will call you by name and receive you, but you did not know me,	For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel mine elect, I will call thee by thy name, and accept thee: but thou hast not known me.

Isaiah 45:5 (Tanakh)	Isaiah 45:5 (KJV)	Isaiah 45:5 (NET)
I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:	I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:	I am the Lord, I have no peer, there is no God but me. I arm you for battle, even though you do not recognize me.

Isaiah 45:5 (Septuagint BLB)	Isaiah 45:5 (Septuagint Elpenor)
ὅτι ἐγὼ κύριος ὁ θεός καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἔτι πλὴν ἐμοῦ θεός καὶ οὐκ ᾔδεις με	ὅτι ἐγὼ Κύριος ὁ Θεός, καὶ οὐκ ἔστι πλὴν ἐμοῦ Θεός, ἐνίσχυσά σε καὶ οὐκ ᾔδεις με
Isaiah 45:5 (NETS)	Isaiah 45:5 (English Elpenor)
because I am the Lord God, and there is no other god besides me, and you did not know me,	For I am the Lord God, and there is no other God beside me; I strengthened thee, and thou hast not known me.

Isaiah 45:6 (Tanakh)	Isaiah 45:6 (KJV)	Isaiah 45:6 (NET)
That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.	That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.	I do this so people will recognize from east to west that there is no God but me; I am the Lord, I have no peer.

Isaiah 45:6 (Septuagint BLB)	Isaiah 45:6 (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἵνα γνῶσιν οἱ ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν ἡλίου καὶ οἱ ἀπὸ δυσμῶν ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν πλὴν ἐμοῦ ἐγὼ κύριος ὁ θεός καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἔτι	ἵνα γνῶσι οἱ ἀπ᾿ ἀνατολῶν ἡλίου καὶ οἱ ἀπὸ δυσμῶν, ὅτι οὐκ ἔστι Θεὸς πλὴν ἐμοῦ· ἐγὼ Κύριος ὁ Θεός, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἔτι
Isaiah 45:6 (NETS)	Isaiah 45:6 (English Elpenor)
so that they who are from the rising of the sun and from its going down may know that there is no one besides me; I am the Lord God, and there is no other.	That they that [come] from the east and they that [come] from the west may know that there is no God but me. I am the Lord God, and there is none beside.

Isaiah 45:7 (Tanakh)	Isaiah 45:7 (KJV)	Isaiah 45:7 (NET)
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.	I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.	I am the one who forms light and creates darkness; the one who brings about peace and creates calamity. I am the Lord, who accomplishes all these things.

Isaiah 45:7 (Septuagint BLB)	Isaiah 45:7 (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἐγὼ ὁ κατασκευάσας φῶς καὶ ποιήσας σκότος ὁ ποιῶν εἰρήνην καὶ κτίζων κακά ἐγὼ κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὁ ποιῶν ταῦτα πάντα	ἐγὼ ὁ κατασκευάσας φῶς καὶ ποιήσας σκότος, ὁ ποιῶν εἰρήνην καὶ κτίζων κακά· ἐγὼ Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς ὁ ποιῶν πάντα ταῦτα
Isaiah 45:7 (NETS)	Isaiah 45:7 (English Elpenor)
I am the one who has prepared light and made darkness, who makes peace and creates evils; I am the Lord who does all these things.	I am he that prepared light, and formed darkness; who make peace, and create evil; I am the Lord God, that does all these things.

Isaiah 45:8 (Tanakh)	Isaiah 45:8 (KJV)	Isaiah 45:8 (NET)
Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.	Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.	O sky, rain down from above! Let the clouds send down showers of deliverance! Let the earth absorb it so salvation may grow and deliverance may sprout up along with it. I, the Lord, create it.’”

Isaiah 45:8 (Septuagint BLB)	Isaiah 45:8 (Septuagint Elpenor)
εὐφρανθήτω ὁ οὐρανὸς ἄνωθεν καὶ αἱ νεφέλαι ῥανάτωσαν δικαιοσύνην ἀνατειλάτω ἡ γῆ ἔλεος καὶ δικαιοσύνην ἀνατειλάτω ἅμα ἐγώ εἰμι κύριος ὁ κτίσας σε	εὐφρανθήτω ὁ οὐρανὸς ἄνωθεν, καὶ αἱ νεφέλαι ῥανάτωσαν δικαιοσύνην· ἀνατειλάτω ἡ γῆ καὶ βλαστησάτω ἔλεος, καὶ δικαιοσύνην ἀνατειλάτω ἅμα· ἐγώ εἰμι Κύριος ὁ κτίσας σε
Isaiah 45:8 (NETS)	Isaiah 45:8 (English Elpenor)
Let heaven rejoice from above, and let the clouds shower down righteousness; let the earth bring forth mercy, and let it bring forth righteousness as well; I am the Lord who created you.	Let the heaven rejoice from above, and let the clouds rain righteousness: let the earth bring forth, and blossom [with] mercy, and bring forth righteousness likewise: I am the Lord that created thee.

Luke 6:26 (NET)	Luke 6:26 (KJV)
Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for their ancestors did the same things to the false prophets.	Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

Luke 6:26 (NET Parallel Greek)	Luke 6:26 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Luke 6:26 (Byzantine Majority Text)
οὐαὶ ὅταν ὑμᾶς \|καλῶς\| εἴπωσιν πάντες οἱ ἄνθρωποι· κατὰ τὰ αὐτὰ γὰρ ἐποίουν τοῖς ψευδοπροφήταις οἱ πατέρες αὐτῶν	ουαι υμιν οταν καλως υμας ειπωσιν παντες οι ανθρωποι κατα ταυτα γαρ εποιουν τοις ψευδοπροφηταις οι πατερες αυτων	ουαι οταν καλως υμας ειπωσιν οι ανθρωποι κατα ταυτα γαρ εποιουν τοις ψευδοπροφηταις οι πατερες αυτων

1 John 3:2 (NET)	1 John 3:2 (KJV)
Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that whenever it is revealed we will be like him because we will see him just as he is.	Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

1 John 3:2 (NET Parallel Greek)	1 John 3:2 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	1 John 3:2 (Byzantine Majority Text)
ἀγαπητοί, νῦν τέκνα θεοῦ ἐσμεν, καὶ οὔπω ἐφανερώθη τί ἐσόμεθα. οἴδαμεν ὅτι ἐὰν φανερωθῇ, ὅμοιοι αὐτῷ ἐσόμεθα, ὅτι ὀψόμεθα αὐτὸν καθώς ἐστιν	αγαπητοι νυν τεκνα θεου εσμεν και ουπω εφανερωθη τι εσομεθα οιδαμεν δε οτι εαν φανερωθη ομοιοι αυτω εσομεθα οτι οψομεθα αυτον καθως εστιν	αγαπητοι νυν τεκνα θεου εσμεν και ουπω εφανερωθη τι εσομεθα οιδαμεν δε οτι εαν φανερωθη ομοιοι αυτω εσομεθα οτι οψομεθα αυτον καθως εστιν

Back to Romans, Part 26

Back to The Day of the Lord, Part 8

¹ From “A Christmas Carol (Part 4)” by Charles Dickens. Movie: A Christmas Carol

² Romans 7:17b (NET) Table; Romans 7:20b (NET) Table

³ Romans 7:21 (NET)

⁴ Ephesians 4:22b (NET)

⁵ Psalm 51:5 [Table]

⁶ John 3:7 (NET)

⁷ The Stephanus Textus Receptus had υμιν (KJV: unto you) here. The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text did not (NET note 87).

⁸ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had τὰ αὐτὰ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ταυτα (KJV: so).

⁹ Luke 6:26 (NET)

¹⁰ Ephesians 4:22b (NET)

¹¹ Ephesians 4:22b (NET)

¹² NET note 49

¹³ 1 John 5:16a (NET)

¹⁴ Ephesians 4:24a (NET)

¹⁵ The NA²⁸, Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had τηρει εαυτον (KJV: keepeth himself) here. If one does not distinguish (NET note 49) between the new man and the sinning Christian, this becomes unintelligible: “the sinning Christian keepeth himself from sinning.”

¹⁶ 1 John 5:18a (NET) Table

¹⁷ The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had δε (KJV: but) here. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

¹⁸ 1 John 3:2b (NET)

¹⁹ 1 John 3:6b (NET)

²⁰ Ephesians 4:22b (NET)

²¹ Ephesians 4:24b (NET)

²² 1 John 5:18b (NET)

²³ I dropped the word people here, because that limitation is not in the Greek text: πάντας ἑλκύσω πρὸς ἐμαυτόν.

²⁴ Ephesians 4:22b (NET)

²⁵ Romans 7:20b (NET) Table

Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 6

Posted on February 21, 2017 by admin

Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, stole some of the riches [of Jericho which had been devoted to y^ehôvâh]. The Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) was furious (chârâh, ויחר; Septuagint: ἐθυμώθη, a form of θυμόω; ʼaph, אף; Septuagint: ὀργῇ, a form of ὀργή) with the Israelites.^[1] I’m still considering the third occurrence of yirʼâh (ויראתך) in the Bible, the word I’d hoped would distinguish the fear of the Lord from ordinary fear. I’ve skipped ahead a bit to explore what life was like for Israel under law as the sharp tip of the sword of divine judgment.

I notice right away that Achan stole some of the riches (chêrem, החרם) but y^ehôvâh was furious with the Israelites (literally, “the sons of Israel”). Achan’s was the “perfect” crime. No one but y^ehôvâh knew what he had done. For Joshua it was business as usual. He sent men from Jericho to Ai^[2] as spies. They reported that Ai would be easy to take: Don’t tire out the whole army, for Ai is small, the spies said. 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…^[3] The impact was immediate and devastating (Joshua 7:5b-9 NET):

The people’s courage melted away (mâsas, וימס) like water.

Joshua tore his clothes; he and the leaders of Israel lay face down on the ground before the ark of the Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) until evening and threw dirt on their heads. Joshua prayed, “O, Master (ʼădônây, אדני), Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה)! Why did you bring these people across the Jordan to hand us over to the Amorites so they could destroy us? If only we had been satisfied to live on the other side of the Jordan! O Lord (ʼădônây, אדני), what can I say now that Israel has retreated before its enemies? When the Canaanites and all who live in the land hear about this, they will turn against us and destroy the very memory of us from the earth. What will you do to protect your great reputation?”

In the previous essay I wondered “if I should simply accept that yirʼâh, similar to the fruit of the Spirit, comes from God.” At this particular moment Joshua didn’t believe—This very day I will begin to fill all the people of the earth with dread and to terrify (yirʼâh, ויראתך) them when they hear about you^[4]—was a supernatural fear given by y^ehôvâh. Clearly, he thought that fear originated from the uninterrupted triumph of Israel’s army: They annihilated with the sword everything that breathed…^[5] The Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) responded to Joshua (Joshua 7: 10-12 NET):

Get up! Why are you lying there face down (Table)? Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenantal commandment! They have taken some of the riches (chêrem, החרם); they have stolen them and deceitfully put them among their own possessions (Table). The Israelites are unable to stand before their enemies; they retreat because they have become subject to annihilation (chêrem, לחרם). I will no longer be with you, unless you destroy what has contaminated (chêrem, החרם) you (Table).

Here it didn’t matter whether Joshua’s command to the army was y^ehôvâh’s command or whether Joshua had understood Moses correctly, for y^ehôvâh took full responsibility for Joshua’s command^[6]: Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenantal commandment! The one caught with the riches (chêrem, בחרם) must be burned up along with all who belong to him, because he violated the Lord’s covenant and did such a disgraceful thing in Israel.^[7] I’ve written about what happened to Achan, his sons, daughters, ox, donkey, sheep, tent, and all that belonged to him^[8] elsewhere. Here I want to consider the alternative.

Achan’s confession reads: I saw among the goods we seized a nice robe from Babylon, two hundred silver pieces, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels. I wanted them, so I took them.^[9] Achan was one of the soldiers who annihilated (châram, ויחרימו) with the sword everything that breathed in the city, including men and women, young and old, as well as cattle, sheep, and donkeys.^[10] He had hacked and slashed his way through every living thing in the city to purge out wickedness from the promised land, and then became that wickedness himself. If we fault y^ehôvâh for dealing with Achan and all that was his in the way that he had dealt with others we would fault Him just the same for showing Achan mercy (James 2:8-13).

But that was then; this is now (Matthew 18:32-35 NET):

“Then his lord called the first slave and said to him, ‘Evil slave! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me! Should you not have shown mercy to your fellow slave, just as I showed it to you?’ And in anger his lord turned him over to the prison guards to torture him until he repaid all he owed. So also my heavenly Father will do to you, if each of you does not forgive your brother from your heart.”

This is one of the places from which the fathers of the Catholic Church have derived the doctrine of purgatory. “I have even heard elderly friends tell me how their Catholic schoolteachers would threaten unruly schoolboys with lurid descriptions of the fires of purgatory!” ^[11] Robert Stackpole wrote parenthetically. I didn’t grow up Catholic so I never actually feared this particular passage. We know that everyone fathered by God does not sin,^[12] scared me as an adult returning from atheism.

It has a Logic 101 quality that spoke to me early on.^[13] So also my heavenly Father will do to you, if each of you does not forgive your brother from your heart—seemed more like a clever turn of a phrase. By the time it clicked with me it caused no fear, but granted me permission to forgive. It helped me to locate and distinguish the Holy Spirit from that cacophony of voices, if you will (that variety of impulses, if you will not) inside me. It gave me strength to stand against my religion and its many reasons for withholding forgiveness: “you will appear weak, they will gain an advantage, they will never learn, they don’t deserve forgiveness, only God can forgive sins,” etc.

If I examine my fear of the knowledge that everyone fathered by God does not sin, the first thing I notice is that it didn’t cause me to flee at that particular moment in my life. I searched the Bible instead, “looking for loopholes” perhaps but seeking understanding. The first understanding I received appealed to the philosophical bent of my mind and though it seems like a loophole to many, it helped me to locate and distinguish the indwelling Holy Spirit (Romans 7:13-20 NET):

Did that which is good, then [e.g., the law], become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it would be shown to be sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual – but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin. For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want – instead, I do what I hate. But if I do what I don’t want, I agree (σύμφημι, a form of σύμφημι) that the law is good. But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me. For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want! Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me.

Being led by the Spirit came much more slowly for me. Mr Stackpole highlighted the problem: “the merits of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross are promised to those who repent in faith. The real question is, What about those whose repentance was weak and half-hearted…”^[14] Purgatory wasn’t the answer in my religious circle, but the quality and quantity of heavenly rewards. The “weak and half-hearted” would be “hippies” in the social hierarchy of heaven. Colin Smith wrote: “I trust that you will want to join me in storing up treasures in heaven, knowing that our righteousness is a gift from God in Christ Jesus, and that we serve a generous God who promises great rewards (100x!) to those who trust him and serve him faithfully.”

I didn’t know that my righteousness is a gift from God and probably thought that would be cheating. How could my position in the social hierarchy of heaven be a gift from God? And the common Bible verses quoted seemed at first reading to confirm my understanding of justification by faith and sanctification by my works: If someone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as through fire.^[15] Jesus taught, “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded back from you, but who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ So it is with the one who stores up riches for himself, but is not rich toward God.”^[16] And Paul instructed Timothy, Command those who are rich in this world’s goods not to be haughty or to set their hope on riches, which are uncertain, but on God who richly provides us with all things for our enjoyment. Tell them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, to be generous givers, sharing with others. In this way they will save up a treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the future and so lay hold of what is truly life.^[17]

Thank God I am such an accomplished sinner. Praise God that his Holy Spirit would not “help” me earn my social position in heaven by “my” good works as He kept me hungering and thirsting for his righteousness. I no longer feel any obligation to referee between purgatory and heavenly rewards. Both explanations were designed to encourage me to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness^[18] here and now. Neither was as effective on me as a hunger and thirst for righteousness,^[19] which I assume has come from God.

The alternative—that a hunger and thirst for Jesus’ righteousness originates with me—doesn’t scan. I’m not that kind of guy. A desire to be right? That’s me. A desire to appear righteous to you? Okay, that’s probably me, too. But the hunger and thirst for righteousness which I now have did not originate with me. So what do I know about yirʼâh?

Well, I’ll start with what I don’t know: I don’t know whether yirʼâh was a supernatural fear from God or the natural result of confronting an army that took no prisoners and captured no slaves. I know that yirʼâh was effective to accomplish God’s purpose to eradicate the wicked people who inhabited the promised land: It mustered^[20] their armies to march to their deaths. I don’t think Israel had anything like the confidence in y^ehôvâh which would be required to slaughter a peaceful, welcoming people. I’m thinking that yirʼâh may have become the one Hebrew word to describe the combination of yârêʼ and ʼâman: they feared (yârêʼ, וייראו) the Lord, and they believed (ʼâman, ויאמינו) in the Lord.^[21] And I have a compelling contrast between Rahab, an Amorite prostitute and innkeeper, who feared y^ehôvâh and Achan, an Israelite soldier and thief, who did not.

I don’t have the hard-edged definitive kind of knowledge I like but I have enough encouragement to continue studying. Besides, the hard-edged definitive kind of knowledge I like is really only useful for judging you—which brings me to the most bitter irony: When I take the name of y^ehôvâh/Jesus in vain by judging you for sins I share I lower the bar (Ezekiel 16:52-63), so to speak, and make it easier, if not expedient, for Him to show you mercy (Romans 11:29-31). When the Holy Spirit has his way with me and I live his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control^[22] I condemn you who are not led by the Spirit of God.^[23] The only way I can live with this most bitter irony, and continue to hunger and thirst for his righteousness, is to pray daily:

“My persistent prayer for justice”^[24] for all who call or have called or will call on our Father in heaven^[25] “is for the mercy on which everything depends,^[26] for it does not depend on human desire or exertion but on You who shows mercy, for You have consigned all to disobedience (ἀπείθειαν, a form of ἀπείθεια) so that You may show mercy to all.”^[27]

If He can save an accomplished sinner such as I am, I see no reason or excuse why He can’t or shouldn’t save a sinner like you.

Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 7

Back to Everyone Fathered by God Does Not Sin

Back to Who Am I? Part 5

Back to Conclusion

Back to Romans, Part 89

Back to Who Am I? Part 8

Back to Atonement, Part 1

Back to My Deeds, Part 3

^[1] Joshua 7:1b (NET)

^[2] Joshua 7:2a (NET)

^[3] Joshua 7:3b-5a (NET)

^[4] Deuteronomy 2:25a (NET)

^[5] Joshua 6:21a (NET)

^[6] Joshua 6:16-19 (NET)

^[7] Joshua 7:15 (NET) Table

^[8] Joshua 7:24 (NET) Table

^[9] Joshua 7:21a (NET) Table

^[10] Joshua 6:21a (NET)

^[11] What’s All This Talk of ‘Purgatorial Purification’? Part 2

^[12] 1 John 5:18a (NET) Table

^[13] It’s been a long time since I took Logic 101 so I checked again online that modus tollens is valid and found a reasonable exception.

^[14] What’s All This Talk of ‘Purgatorial Purification’? Part 2

^[15] 1 Corinthians 3:15 (NET)

^[16] Luke 12:20, 21 (NET)

^[17] 1 Timothy 6:17-19 (NET)

^[18] Matthew 6:33 (NIV)

^[19] Matthew 5:6 (NET)

^[20] King Sihon was hardened for this purpose.

^[21] Exodus 14:31 (NET)

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

^[23] Romans 8:14 (NET)

^[24] Luke 18:1-8 (NET)

^[25] Matthew 6:9-14 (NET)

^[26] Romans 9:14-16 (NET)

^[27] Romans 11:28-36 (NET)

Condemnation or Judgment? – Part 15

Posted on June 15, 2016 by admin

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was cast into the sea that caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, they pulled it ashore, sat down, and put the good (καλὰ, a form of καλός) fish into containers and threw the bad (σαπρὰ, a form of σαπρός) away. It will be this way at the end of the age. Angels will come and separate the evil (πονηροὺς, a form of πονηρός) from the righteous (δικαίων, a form of δίκαιος) and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.^[1] This parable about the kingdom of heaven focused commentators’ attentions on the church as opposed to the world at large.

“In the visible church,” Matthew Henry (1662-1714) wrote, “there is a deal of trash and rubbish, dirt and weeds and vermin, as well as fish….Hypocrites and true Christians shall be parted.”^[2] John Gill (1697-1771) added, “as many as [the angels] find to have a good work of grace wrought and finished in their souls, they will gather into Christ’s barn, into the everlasting habitations, the mansions in Christ’s Father’s house, he is gone to prepare: but as for the bad, who shall appear to be destitute of the grace of God, and righteousness of Christ, notwithstanding their profession of religion, they shall be rejected, as good for nothing, and shall be cast into the lake which burns with fire and brimstone.”^[3]

“Our Saviour never fails to keep before our minds the great truth that there is to be a day of judgment,” wrote Albert Barnes (1798-1870), “and that there will be a separation of the good and the evil. He came to preach salvation; and it is a remarkable fact, also, that the most fearful accounts of hell and of the sufferings of the damned, in the Scriptures, are from his lips. How does this agree with the representations of those who say that all will be saved?”^[4]

On the meaning of σαπρὰ (a form of σαπρός) the Pulpit Commentary (1884) reads: ^[5]

Not to be pressed to mean “corrupt, dead fish, in a state of rottenness” (Goebel), for surely fishermen seldom get many of these, but simply the worthless, the unfit for use. This would include the legally unclean. Tristram writes,” The greater number of the species taken on the lake are rejected by the fishermen, and I have sat with them on the gunwale while they went through their net, and threw out into the sea those that were too small for the market or were considered unclean” (‘Nat. Hist. of Bible,’ p. 291, edit. 1889)

Watch out for false prophets, Jesus said, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are voracious wolves. You will recognize them by their fruit (καρπῶν, a form of καρπός).^[6] I can be fairly specific here: Does the would-be prophet demonstrate love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control,^[7] the fruit (καρπὸς) of the Spirit? Or does the would-be prophet practice (πράσσοντες, a form of πράσσω) sexual immorality (πορνεία), impurity, depravity, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing,^[8] the works (ἔργα, a form of ἔργον) of the flesh?

Jesus continued, Grapes are not gathered from thorns or figs from thistles, are they? In the same way, every good (ἀγαθὸν, a form of ἀγαθός) tree bears good (καλοὺς, another form of καλός) fruit, but the bad (σαπρὸν, another form of σαπρός) tree bears bad (πονηροὺς, a form of πονηρός) fruit.^[9] I think it worth mentioning that the word translated bears is ποιεῖ (a form of ποιέω) in both occurrences. A good (ἀγαθὸν, a form of ἀγαθός) tree is not able to bear bad (πονηροὺς, a form of πονηρός) fruit, Jesus continued, nor a bad (σαπρὸν, another form of σαπρός) tree to bear good (καλοὺς, another form of καλός) fruit.^[10]

Make a tree good (καλὸν, another form of καλός) and its fruit will be good (καλὸν, another form of καλός), Jesus said to religious people, or make a tree bad (σαπρὸν, another form of σαπρός) and its fruit will be bad (σαπρὸν, another form of σαπρός), for a tree is known by its fruit.^[11] I’ve written elsewhere how the religious mind reverses this teaching. Every tree that does not bear good (καλὸν, another form of καλός) fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire, Jesus continued his warning about false prophets. So then, you will recognize them by their fruit.^[12]

This leads me inevitably to the old and new human (ἄνθρωπον, a form of ἄνθρωπος in Greek; I see no reason to specify gender). You were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and to put on (ἐνδύσασθαι, a form of ἐνδύω) the new man who has been created in God’s image – in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth.^[13] The word ἐνδύσασθαι means to sink into. In movies the femme fatale slips into something more comfortable. To put on the new human is considerably more macho.

I am working class all the way, rarely wear a suit. If I do, it is to fit in, to impress or to intimidate. It is a put-on in every sense of the word. “Fake it until you make it” works in those situations when “you can fool all of the people some of the time.” It doesn’t work with the new human because no creature is hidden from God, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account.^[14] To put on the new human I must believe that God has prepared it beforehand, ready and able to respond as He would have me respond.

This new human is the one who has been fathered by God: We know that everyone fathered by God does not sin, but God protects the one he has fathered, and the evil one cannot touch him.^[15] Everyone who has been fathered by God does not practice sin, because God’s seed resides in him, and thus he is not able to sin, because he has been fathered by God.^[16] This new human is the one who is led by the Spirit: For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.^[17] The old human is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires. It gets progressively worse, never better.

This was vividly portrayed for me—in me—the Saturday before Mother’s day. I had a rare opportunity to be home. My eighty-four-year-old mother asked me to finish trimming her bushes. Now, of course, she had a particular way it needed to be done. As I untangled the long extension cord that powered the trimmer I recalled that handling that cord caused her fall last summer. She broke her hip and lay on the driveway for ten hours, parched and burnt in the sun and then shivering in the rain, until my sister found her. But the whole time I trimmed those bushes the old human did nothing but bitch, moan and complain about her.

It didn’t affect my behavior. (I trimmed her bushes to the best of my ability. No, it wasn’t topiary by any stretch of the imagination.) The old human didn’t affect my attitude toward her. (I called and asked her to make sure.) But I can hardly wait to be rid of the foul thing! So when I hear—Angels will come and separate the evil from [ἐκ μέσου; literally “out from the midst of”] the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth—I wonder if that describes my release from this sin condemned in my flesh. And I’m confounded that so many pastors thought instead of members of their congregations. Why?

Do we differ in our understanding of the fruit of the Spirit?

“And here we may observe that as sin is called the work of the flesh,” Matthew Henry wrote, “because the flesh, or corrupt nature, is the principle that moves and excites men to it, so grace is said to be the fruit of the Spirit, because it wholly proceeds from the Spirit, as the fruit does from the root…” John Gill was a bit more equivocal: “Not of nature or man’s free will, as corrupted by sin, for no good fruit springs from thence; but either of the internal principle of grace, called the Spirit, Galatians 5:17 or rather of the Holy Spirit, as the Ethiopic version reads it; the graces of which are called ‘fruit’, and not ‘works’, as the actions of the flesh are; because they are owing to divine influence, efficacy, and bounty…”

Albert Barnes was explicit: “That which the Holy Spirit produces…Paul does not trace them to our own hearts, even when renewed. He says that they are to be regarded as the proper result of the Spirit‘s operations on the soul.” In the Pulpit Commentary the fruit of the Spirit was rationalized as “dispositions and states of mind,” and demeaned somewhat as “states of mind or habits of feeling [rather] than concrete actions,” but are still acknowledged as produced by the Holy Spirit: “[Paul] reckons up the dispositions and states of mind which it was the office of the Holy Spirit to produce in them.”

Do we differ in our understanding of the necessity and efficacy of God’s mercy?

“It is not of him that willeth….Applying this general rule to the particular case that Paul has before him,” wrote Matthew Henry, “the reason why the unworthy, undeserving, ill-deserving Gentiles are called, and grafted into the church, while the greatest part of the Jews are left to perish in unbelief, is not because those Gentiles were better deserving or better disposed for such a favour, but because of God’s free grace that made that difference. The Gentiles did neither will it, nor run for it, for they sat in darkness, Matthew 4:16. In darkness, therefore not willing what they knew not sitting in darkness, a contented posture, therefore not running to meet it, but anticipated with these invaluable blessings of goodness. Such is the method of God’s grace towards all that partake of it, for he is found of those that sought him not (Isaiah 65:1) in this preventing, effectual, distinguishing grace, he acts as a benefactor, whose grace is his own. Our eye therefore must not be evil because his is good…”

John Gill wrote: “but of God that sheweth mercy; in a free sovereign way and manner, which he is not obliged to by anything the creature wills or works; he is at full liberty, notwithstanding whatever they will or do, to give his grace and mercy, when, where, and to whom he pleases; and therefore to give it to some, and deny it to others, can never be accounted an act of injustice, since he is not bound to give it to any.”

Albert Barnes wrote: “But of God that showeth mercy – Salvation in its beginning, its progress, and its close, is of him. He has a right, therefore, to bestow it when and where he pleases. All our mercies flow from his mere love and compassion, and not from our deserts. The essential idea here is, that God is the original fountain of all the blessings of salvation.” The Pulpit Commentary doesn’t comment on Romans 9:16 directly but reads: “The argument (thus introduced by γὰρ) requires two understood premisses—that God cannot possibly be unrighteous, and that what he himself said to Moses must be true.”

Do we differ on who may be shown mercy?

Matthew Henry didn’t comment directly on Romans 11:32: “He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Christ’s errand into the world was to turn away ungodliness, to turn away the guilt by the purchase of pardoning mercy, and to turn away the power by the pouring out of renewing grace, to save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21), to separate between us and our sins, that iniquity might not be our ruin, and that it might not be our ruler. Especially to turn it away from Jacob, which is that for the sake of which he quotes the text, as a proof of the great kindness God intended for the seed of Jacob.”

So far so good. Mr. Henry quoted Paul quoting Isaiah:

NET

Parallel Greek

Septuagint

The Deliverer will come out of Zion; he will remove ungodliness from Jacob.

Romans 11:26b

ἥξει ἐκ Σιὼν ὁ ρυόμενος,

ἀποστρέψει ἀσεβείας ἀπὸ Ἰακώβ.

Romans 11:26b

καὶ ἥξει ἕνεκεν Σιων ὁ ῥυόμενος καὶ ἀποστρέψει ἀσεβείας ἀπὸ Ιακωβ

Isaiah 59:20

Then Mr. Henry quoted the same verse in Isaiah from the Masoretic text: “In Isaiah it is, The Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto those that turn from transgression in Jacob, which shown who in Zion were to have a share in and to reap benefit by the deliverance promised, those and those only that leave their sins and turn to God to them Christ comes as a Redeemer, but as an avenger to those that persist in impenitence.” Then he proposed an unbelievable solution: “Putting both these readings together, we learn that none have an interest in Christ but those that turn from their sins, nor can any turn from their sins but by the strength of the grace of Christ.”

In other words, no one can be saved since God will only show mercy to those who turn from their sins and none can turn from their sins apart from God’s mercy. With a Gospel message like that we need not wonder at the “deal of trash and rubbish, dirt and weeds and vermin” in his church. That’s not quite fair. Mr. Henry didn’t specify whether the “deal of trash and rubbish, dirt and weeds and vermin” were members of his own congregation or another. According to an online bio “he began his regular ministry as non-conformist pastor of a Presbyterian congregation…” Perhaps he wrote thus of Anglicans or Catholics. But I think I understand why he had no comment to make on Paul’s declaration: For God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all.^[18]

“Jews, though for the present unbelievers,” John Gill wrote, “yet it may be thought, that through the mercy the Gentiles had received, they would some time or other be provoked to seek for, and so obtain the same mercy, Romans 11:31, and the rather this may be given into and received, not only because they both have been in a state of unbelief, but the end and design of God in concluding them in it, were to have mercy on each of them, Romans 11:32…” I may be mistaken but I take Mr. Gill to mean that God will have mercy on some Jews and Gentiles (those who turn from their sins perhaps?). Mr. Gill continued, “which dispensation of God both to one and to the other by turns, in different ways, was so amazing and unaccountable to the apostle, that he breaks out into admiration at the wisdom and knowledge of God…”

“Mercy is favor shown to the undeserving,” wrote Albert Barnes. “It could not have been shown to the Jews and the Gentiles unless it was before proved that they were guilty. For this purpose proof was furnished that they were all in unbelief….Thus, all people were on a level; and thus all might be admitted to heaven without any invidious distinctions, or any dealings that were not in accordance with mercy and love….It does not prove that all people will be saved; but that those who are saved shall be alike saved by the mercy of God; and that He intends to confer salvation on Jews and Gentiles on the same terms.” I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, 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. ^[19]

“Thus the latter expression [e.g., Romans 11:32] is not in itself adducible in support of the doctrine of universalism,” the Pulpit Commentary reads. “Certainly the prospect of a universal triumph of the gospel before the end rises here before the apostle in prophetic vision; and it may be that it carries with it to his mind further glories of eternal salvation for all, casting their rays backward over all past ages, so as to inspire an unbounded hope. Such a hope, which seems elsewhere intimated (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:24-29; Ephesians 1:9, Ephesians 1:10, Ephesians 1:20-23; Colossians 1:15-20) would justify the glowing rhapsody of admiration and thanksgiving that follows more fully than if we supposed the apostle to contemplate still the eternal perdition of the multitudes who in all the ages have not on earth found mercy.”

Here the Pulpit Commentary referred to Romans 11:32-36 (NET):

For God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how fathomless his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has first given to God, that God needs to repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever! Amen.

I’ll pick this up again later.

Condemnation or Judgment? – Part 16

Back to Romans, Part 77

Back to Romans, Part 78

^[1] Matthew 13:47-50 (NET)

^[2] Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary

^[3] John Gill’s Exposition of the Whole Bible

^[4] Albert Barnes Notes on the Bible

^[5] Pulpit Commentary

^[6] Matthew 7:15, 16a (NET)

^[7] Galatians 5:22, 23a (NET)

^[8] Galatians 5:19-21a (NET)

^[9] Matthew 7:16b, 17(NET)

^[10] Matthew 7:18 (NET)

^[11] Matthew 12:33 (NET)

^[12] Matthew 7:19, 20 (NET)

^[13] Ephesians 4:22-24 (NET)

^[14] Hebrews 4:13 (NET)

^[15] 1 John 5:18 (NET) Table

^[16] 1 John 3:9 (NET)

^[17] Romans 8:14 (NET)

^[18] Romans 11:32 (NET)

^[19] Romans 9:15b, 16 (NET)

Saving Demons, Part 1

Posted on May 17, 2013 by admin

If senseless ^[1] Gentiles, chosen for salvation to make Israel jealous, reject the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness – a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness to pursue their own righteousness derived^[2] from a select subset of the law and their own religious rules, will that open Christ’s salvation to demons and fallen angels?

On the surface of it the question seems absurd to me, too speculative, though I appreciate the symmetry of the pattern. My problem, however, is that I remember when I believed that Paul’s “commandment”— So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus^[3]—was a pious fiction, a mind game based on the flimsiest of pretexts: Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?^[4]

Now, of course, I believe that Paul’s “commandment” was a carefully wrought conclusion based on a solid truth. And so I believe that I, too, 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!^[5] Furthermore, I now believe that this death facilitates forgiveness and the new resurrected (eternal) life by creating the distinction between me (the new man born of the Spirit) and the sin in my flesh (Romans 7:14-20 NET).

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

As John the Apostle wrote, We know that everyone fathered by God does not sin, but God protects the one he has fathered, and the evil one (πονηρὸς, a form of πονηρός) cannot touch him.^[6] That experience prompts me to keep an open mind and a running account as touch points come up. One of the first things that came to mind was Jesus’ response to the religious leaders’ charge that He blasphemed by claiming to be the Son of God: Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’?^[7]

When I wrote about it before ^[8] I focused on verses in Exodus where the Holy Spirit called human judges elohim.^[9] But Jesus apparently quoted Psalm 82:6 as well. The note in the NET reads: “The problem in this verse concerns the meaning of Jesus’ quotation from Ps 82:6. It is important to look at the OT context: The whole line reads ‘I say, you are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you.’ Jesus will pick up on the term ‘sons of the Most High’ in 10:36, where he refers to himself as the Son of God. The psalm was understood in rabbinic circles as an attack on unjust judges who, though they have been given the title ‘gods’ because of their quasi-divine function of exercising judgment, are just as mortal as other men. What is the argument here? It is often thought to be as follows: If it was an OT practice to refer to men like the judges as gods, and not blasphemy, why did the Jewish authorities object when this term was applied to Jesus? This really doesn’t seem to fit the context, however, since if that were the case Jesus would not be making any claim for ‘divinity’ for himself over and above any other human being – and therefore he would not be subject to the charge of blasphemy. Rather, this is evidently a case of arguing from the lesser to the greater, a common form of rabbinic argument. The reason the OT judges could be called gods is because they were vehicles of the word of God (cf. 10:35). But granting that premise, Jesus deserves much more than they to be called God. He is the Word incarnate, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world to save the world (10:36). In light of the prologue to the Gospel of John, it seems this interpretation would have been most natural for the author. If it is permissible to call men “gods” because they were the vehicles of the word of God, how much more permissible is it to use the word ‘God’ of him who is the Word of God?”

The psalm itself reads (Psalm 82 NET):

God (elohim)^[10] stands in the assembly of El; in the midst of the gods (elohim) he renders judgment. He says, “How long will you make unjust legal decisions and show favoritism to the wicked? (Selah) Defend the cause of the poor and the fatherless! Vindicate the oppressed and suffering! Rescue the poor and needy! Deliver them from the power of the wicked! They neither know nor understand. They stumble around in the dark, while all the foundations of the earth crumble. I thought,^[11] ‘You are gods (elohim); all of you are sons of the Most High.’ Yet you will die like mortals; you will fall like all the other rulers.” Rise up, O God (elohim), and execute judgment on the earth! For you own all the nations.

And the note in the NET on gods reads: “The present translation assumes that the Hebrew term אֱלֹהִים (’elohim, ‘gods’) here refers to the pagan gods who supposedly comprise El’s assembly according to Canaanite religion. Those who reject the polemical view of the psalm prefer to see the referent as human judges or rulers (אֱלֹהִים sometimes refers to officials appointed by God, see Exod 21:6; 22:8-9; Ps 45:6) or as angelic beings (אֱלֹהִים sometimes refers to angelic beings, see Gen 3:5; Ps 8:5).”

In the prophetic Song of Moses we read: They made him jealous with other gods,^[12] they enraged him with abhorrent idols. They sacrificed to demons, not God,^[13] to gods (elohim) they had not known; to new gods^[14] who had recently come along, gods your ancestors^[15] had not known about.^[16] And Paul wrote: I mean that what the pagans sacrifice is to demons and not to God.^[17] So I can side with the unbelievers Jesus addressed and believe that Psalm 82 was about Israel’s judges, or I can take the psalm at face value and believe that it was the pagan gods who made unjust legal decisions and showed favoritism to the wicked.

If God meant to save these demons, these rebellious angels, these fallen sons of the Most High, the first step would be that they die like mortals so they could be resurrected to a new life: And the Lord God said, “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever”^[18] (e.g., immortality corrupted by sin).

On the other hand the letter to the Hebrews reads: Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he likewise shared in their humanity, so that through death he could destroy the one who holds the power of death (that is, the devil), and set free those who were held in slavery all their lives by their fear of death. For surely his concern (ἐπιλαμβάνεται, a form of ἐπιλαμβάνομαι)^[19] is not for angels, but he is concerned (ἐπιλαμβάνεται, a form of ἐπιλαμβάνομαι) for Abraham’s descendants.^[20] Once again death played a pivotal role but God’s ἐπιλαμβάνεται (taking hold to rescue) might be limited to human beings here. Of course when I turn that around and say, “Hebrews 2:16 limits God’s mercy to human beings,” I feel more like Gollum,^[21] saying, “It’s mine! My precious,” than an obedient follower of Jesus, who commanded, Freely you received, freely give.^[22]

Saving Demons, Part 2

Back to Romans, Part 43

^[1] Romans 10:19 (NET)

^[2] Philippians 3:9 (NET)

^[3] Romans 6:11 (NET)

^[4] Romans 6:3 (NET)

^[5] Galatians 2:20, 21 (NET)

^[6] 1 John 5:18 (NET) Table

^[7] John 10:34 (NET)

^[8] The Son of God – John, Part 5

^[9] Exodus 21:6; 22:8, 9 (NET)

^[11] NET note: “Heb ‘said.’”

^[16] Deuteronomy 32:16, 17 (NET) Table1 Table2

^[17] 1 Corinthians 10:20a (NET) Table

^[18] Genesis 3:22 (NET)

^[20] Hebrews 2:14-16 (NET)

^[21] In “The Lord of the Rings” movies Sauron’s ring of power gave Gollum a corrupt immortality, dead in [his] transgressions and sins (Ephesians 2:1 NET).

^[22] Matthew 10:8b (NET)

Everyone Fathered by God Does Not Sin

Posted on April 16, 2012 by admin

John wrote, We know (Οἴδαμεν, a form of εἴδω) that everyone fathered (γεγεννημένος, a form of γεννάω) by God does not sin (ἁμαρτάνει, a form of ἁμαρτάνω), but God protects (τηρεῖ, a form of τηρέω) the one he has fathered (γεννηθεὶς, another form of γεννάω), and the evil one cannot touch (ἅπτεται, a form of ἅπτω) him.¹ This is one of the most frightening verses in the Bible to me (taken out of context).

If I am born of God, then I do not sin. I sin. Therefore I am not born of God.

This is a perfectly valid argument called modus tollens, denying the consequent. On the other hand, If we say we have not sinned (ἡμαρτήκαμεν, another form of ἁμαρτάνω), we make (ποιοῦμεν, a form of ποιέω) him a liar and his word (λόγος)² is not in us.³ Some context will help me understand my position between this rock and hard place and disentangle the fear of my religious mind from the Gospel (1 John 1:5-8 NET).

Now this is the gospel message we have heard from him and announce to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all [Table]. If we say we have (ἔχομεν, a form of ἔχω) fellowship (κοινωνίαν, a form of κοινωνία) with him and yet keep on walking in the darkness, we are lying and not practicing (ποιοῦμεν, a form of ποιέω) the truth (ἀλήθειαν, a form of ἀλήθεια). But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have (ἔχομεν, a form of ἔχω) fellowship (κοινωνίαν, a form of κοινωνία) with one another and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses (καθαρίζει, a form of καθαρίζω) us from all sin (ἁμαρτίας, a form of ἁμαρτία) [Table]. If we say we do not bear (ἔχομεν, a form of ἔχω) the guilt of sin (ἁμαρτίαν, another form of ἁμαρτία), we are deceiving ourselves and the truth (ἀλήθεια) is not in us.

Though the word translated gospel message above is ἀγγελία rather than εὐαγγέλιον, I don’t think the NET translators have made a mistake. This is truly more information about the Gospel, particularly as the Gospel relates to truth, lying and deception.

Gospel, Truth

Lying, Deception

God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.

1 John 1:5b (NET) Table

If we say we have fellowship with him and yet keep on walking in the darkness, we are lying and not practicing the truth.

1 John 1:6 (NET)

…if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

1 John 1:7 (NET) Table

If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

1 John 1:8 (NET)

The passage continues (1 John 1:9, 10 NET):

But if we confess (ὁμολογῶμεν, a form of ὁμολογέω) our sins (ἁμαρτίας, a form of ἁμαρτία), he is faithful (πιστός) and righteous (δίκαιος), forgiving (ἀφῇ, a form of ἀφίημι) us our sins (ἁμαρτίας, a form of ἁμαρτία) and cleansing (καθαρίσῃ, another form of καθαρίζω) us from all unrighteousness (ἀδικίας, a form of ἀδικία). If we say we have not sinned (ἡμαρτήκαμεν, another form of ἁμαρτάνω), we make (ποιοῦμεν, a form of ποιέω) him a liar and his word (λόγος) is not in us.

Here I find what it means to walk in the light as opposed to in the darkness.

Walk in the Light

Walk in the Darkness

…if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9 (NET)

If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

1 John 1:10 (NET)

John continued, stating his purpose and quieting the fear of my religious mind (1 John 2:1, 2 NET):

(My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin [ἁμάρτητε, another form of ἁμαρτάνω].) But if anyone does sin (ἁμάρτῃ, another form of ἁμαρτάνω), we have an advocate (παράκλητον, a form of παράκλητος) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One (δίκαιον, a form of δίκαιος), and he himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins (ἁμαρτιῶν, a form of ἁμαρτία), and not only for our sins but also for the whole world.

With my fear overcome I see one aspect of God’s protection (τηρεῖ, a form of τηρέω) and one potential meaning for everyone fathered (γεγεννημένος, a form of γεννάω) by God does not sin (ἁμαρτάνει, a form of ἁμαρτάνω).⁴ Sins that God forgives are also forgotten by God. But is there more to his τηρέω than that? (Frankly, I would rather not sin in the first place.)

Back to Introduction

Forgiveness

Back to Adultery and X

Back to Young, Virginal or Single

Back to Saving Demons, Part 1

Back to Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 3

Back to Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 6

Back to My Deeds, Part 3

Back to To Make Holy, Part 5

Back to Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Part 1

¹ 1 John 5:18 (NET) Table

² More Than the Minimum

³ 1 John 1:10 (NET)

⁴ 1 John 5:18 (NET) Note

Introduction

Posted on April 15, 2012 by admin

This is my attempt to use the sharpness and precision of Scripture to distinguish the Gospel from what I call the religious mind. Admittedly, the religious mind may be nothing more than a subspecies of the carnal mind (KJV) or the outlook of the flesh (NET),¹ but it is and has been particularly troubling to me. To begin let me clarify what I mean by Gospel. The standard text is 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 (NET):

Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel that I preached to you, that you received and on which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you – unless you believed in vain. For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received – that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day² according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at one time, most³ of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as though to one born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also.

These historical facts are only part of the Gospel as I am using the term. To this, at a minimum, I would add Romans 6:3-6 (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.

Here is where the Gospel begins to affect my life. Here is where I share in the Gospel. But just as the carnal mind or outlook of the flesh argues against the historicity of Christ’s atonement and resurrection, my religious mind debates my liberation from sin. It fills me with fear and outright unbelief when I encounter statements like 1 John 5:18 (NET):

We know that everyone fathered by God does not sin, but God protects the one⁴ he has fathered, and the evil one cannot touch him.

But if I remain calm and think for a moment, this fear and unbelief make perfect sense. My religious mind, as a subspecies of the carnal mind or the outlook of the flesh, feels its own weakness and fears its own demise when confronted with this Gospel (Romans 8:7 NET),

…because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so.

Addendum: September 22, 2018

Tables comparing 1 Corinthians 15:4; 15:6 and 1 John 5:18 in the NET and KJV follow

1 Corinthians 15:4 (NET)	1 Corinthians 15:4 (KJV)
and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures,	And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

Net Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
καὶ ὅτι ἐτάφη καὶ ὅτι ἐγήγερται τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ τρίτῃ κατὰ τὰς γραφὰς	και οτι εταφη και οτι εγηγερται τη τριτη ημερα κατα τας γραφας	και οτι εταφη και οτι εγηγερται τη τριτη ημερα κατα τας γραφας

1 Corinthians 15:6 (NET)	1 Corinthians 15:6 (KJV)
Then he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.	After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

Net Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ἔπειτα ὤφθη ἐπάνω πεντακοσίοις ἀδελφοῖς ἐφάπαξ, ἐξ ὧν οἱ πλείονες μένουσιν ἕως ἄρτι, τινὲς δὲ ἐκοιμήθησαν	επειτα ωφθη επανω πεντακοσιοις αδελφοις εφαπαξ εξ ων οι πλειους μενουσιν εως αρτι τινες δε και εκοιμηθησαν	επειτα ωφθη επανω πεντακοσιοις αδελφοις εφαπαξ εξ ων οι πλειους μενουσιν εως αρτι τινες δε και εκοιμηθησαν

1 John 5:18 (NET)	1 John 5:18 (KJV)
We know that everyone fathered by God does not sin, but God protects the one he has fathered, and the evil one cannot touch him.	We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.

Net Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
Οἴδαμεν ὅτι πᾶς ὁ γεγεννημένος ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ οὐχ ἁμαρτάνει, ἀλλ᾿ ὁ γεννηθεὶς ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ τηρεῖ αὐτόν καὶ ὁ πονηρὸς οὐχ ἅπτεται αὐτοῦ	οιδαμεν οτι πας ο γεγεννημενος εκ του θεου ουχ αμαρτανει αλλ ο γεννηθεις εκ του θεου τηρει εαυτον και ο πονηρος ουχ απτεται αυτου	οιδαμεν οτι πας ο γεγεννημενος εκ του θεου ουχ αμαρτανει αλλ ο γεννηθεις εκ του θεου τηρει εαυτον και ο πονηρος ουχ απτεται αυτου

Section One

Back to You Must Be Gentle, Part 3

Back to Condemnation or Judgment? – Part 5

Back to My Reasons and My Reason, Part 3

Back to Condemnation or Judgment? – Part 12

Back to Romans, Part 73

Back to Condemnation or Judgment? – Part 15

Back to Who Am I? Part 5

Back to Forgiven or Passed Over? Part 5

Back to Everyone Fathered by God Does Not Sin

Back to Saving Demons, Part 1

Back to Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 6

Back to Son of God – 1 John, Part 3

Back to The Life

Back to Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Part 1

Back to Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 13

Back to Who Am I? Part 2

Back to A Shadow of the Good Things, Part 2

Back to A Shadow of the Good Things, Part 5

Back to Psalm 22, Part 6

Back to Psalm 22, Part 13

Back to Christianity, Part 3

Back to The Day of the Lord, Part 6

Back to Christianity, Part 12

Back to Nothing True, Part 5

Back to Nothing True, Part 6

Back to A Shadow of the Good Things, Part 10

Back to The Day of the Lord, Part 8

¹ Romans 8:7

² The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had the article τῇ preceding day and third (τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ τρίτῃ). The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had it only before third (τη τριτη ημερα).

³ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had πλείονες here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had πλειους.

⁴ The NET parallel Greek text had αὐτόν here. NA²⁸, the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had εαυτον (KJV: but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself). See NET note 49.

The Gospel and the Religious Mind

An attempt to distinguish the mind of Christ from the ordinary religious mind.

Tag Archives: 1 John 5:18