The New Covenant, Part 3

Posted on July 2, 2022 by admin

In an article, “All of America Must Be a Hard Target to Prevent Mass Shootings,” James Pinkerton wrote:

Reacting to an earlier school shooting, former Los Angeles police officer J. Warner Wallace identified four driving causes: “an increase in social media use”; “an increased dependency on prescription medicine”; “an increase in single parent households”; and “a decrease in traditional Christian values,” including, we can add, the belief that bad people go to hell where they are tormented forever. It’s too bad that the idea of hell, just as the notion of evil, has been mostly banished by our secular culture.

This article was written in response to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

On May 24, 2022, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos fatally shot nineteen students and two teachers, and wounded seventeen other people, at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, United States.¹

Mr. Ramos didn’t surrender to authorities but fought apparently to the death. If he had been raised with “‘traditional Christian values,’ including…the belief that bad people go to hell where they are tormented forever” would he have feared death more? Would he have feared death enough to dissuade him from shooting 39 people including his grandmother?² Clearly, I don’t know the answer to those questions, but asking them helps me understand why some would prefer to deprive Mr. Ramos (and everyone else) of weapons that can kill so many so fast.

Fear of death didn’t dissuade Adam and Eve from eating the fruit God had forbidden. Granted, death may have been an abstract concept until Cain killed Abel. The law God gave to Israel added many fearful punishments including death (Exodus 21:12-22:20; Leviticus 7:20-27; 19:5-10; 20:1-9; 24:13-23; 26:14-38) for noncompliance. Israel didn’t keep the law in a way that satisfied God.

People may have been more or less satisfied with the law depending on whether they were victimized by lawbreakers or not. I know none of the children or adults killed or wounded in Uvalde at the Robb Elementary School. I’m more or less satisfied that the laws in Uvalde did what they could. At least, I’m not persuaded that any new laws would help significantly to prevent such killings.

Mr. Ramos seemed willing to die for his cause, whatever he perceived that cause to be.³

“Ramos’s social media acquaintances said he openly abused animals such as cats and would livestream the abuse on Yubo.^[111] Other social media acquaintances said that he would also livestream himself on Yubo threatening to kidnap and rape girls who used the app, as well as threatening to commit a school shooting.^[109] “On May 14, Ramos sent a private Instagram message reading, ’10 more days’. A person responded, ‘Are you going to shoot up a school or something?’ He replied, ‘No, stop asking dumb questions. You’ll see.’

Neither the law nor the fear of death deterred him from his course. At least, no one has reported that he curled up in a fetal position and cried when surrounded by armed men. Perhaps, there were no witnesses by that point.

Paul wrote (Romans 8:3, 4 NET):

God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

This fulfillment of the righteous requirement of the law…in us, who…walk according to the Spirit got short shrift from me when avoiding hell was my hope of “salvation.” Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead to save each of us first and foremost from our sinful selves.

Paul continued (Romans 8:5 NET):

For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit.

What is born of the flesh is flesh, Jesus told Nicodemus, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all be born from above.’⁴

Now the works of the flesh are obvious, Paul wrote, sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!⁵

For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh…For the outlook of the flesh is death…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. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.⁶

You people are from your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires,⁷ Jesus said to those Judeans who had believed him,⁸ arguably the best of the best at suppressing the sins of the flesh while still in the flesh. I already admitted I didn’t take Jesus seriously here until recently.

I recall when my mother tried to teach me about hell by putting my hand in a gas flame on the stove. She failed. She wasn’t strong enough, whether physically or emotionally, to overcome my resistance.

That sounds obscene without context, but frankly, I don’t remember the context. I probably said or did something that highly offended her. I did that often. She told me many times how often she was surprised by the sinfulness of her precious first born baby boy. This was long after I had said a sinner’s prayer to Jesus to escape hell.

Mom was consistent in her expectation that someone born of God should be different. I see that now. At the time she was up against a religious establishment that defended its religious traditions, and I had said the sinner’s prayer those traditions required. At that time I resented being called sinful. So I lived 65 years before I could or would acknowledge that I in my flesh was from [my] father the devil.

Jesus continued to describe my father and my unwitting relationship to him (John 8:44b-46a NET):

He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not uphold the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he lies, he speaks according to his own nature because he is a liar and the father of lies [Table]. But because I am telling you the truth, you do not believe me. Who among you can prove me guilty of any sin? [Table]

Jesus was not some egoist bolstering his own self-esteem by denigrating others. He is God, come to earth as a human being to, among other things, teach us what we did not understand, what we refused to understand, about ourselves (John 8:46b, 47 NET).

If I am telling you the truth, why don’t you believe me [Table]? The one who belongs to God listens and responds to God’s words. You don’t listen and respond because you don’t belong to God.

I hear this as a relative measure. For I know that nothing good lives in me, Paul wrote, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it.⁹ Even here, though, Paul recognized God’s law as the good (Romans 7:10b-12 NET):

So¹⁰ I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death! For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.

Now one of the experts in the law came and heard them [Pharisees and Herodians…Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection)] debating (Mark 12:28-34a NET).

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. 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.” The expert in the law said to him, “That is true, Teacher; you are right to say that he is one, and there is no one else besides him. And to love him with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices” [Table]. When Jesus saw that he had answered thoughtfully, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

Paul continued (Romans 7:13-17 NET):

Did that which is good, then, become¹¹ 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 (KJV: carnal), sold into slavery to sin [Table]. 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 [Table].

I wasn’t so clear. The good was what I wanted, irrespective of God’s law. My faith in this understanding of the good reached its zenith when I became an atheist, but it didn’t vanish overnight. God’s laws were added more or less reluctantly over time to my understanding of the good as what I wanted, but still may not have entirely supplanted it on a day-to-day basis.

While I might have seen some benefit to a law that inhibits you from messing around with my wife, if I wanted yours more than you did and she wanted me more than you, I was kind of fuzzy why you or God should interfere with the good we wanted. So, I “loved” and lusted after a friend’s wife for twenty years.

To Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength’ [Table] was a tall order when I thought of love as my feeling. It was all but impossible when I thought of the Gospel as an ultimatum: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or burn in hell for all eternity.” Socialized as a male American after Adolf Hitler’s death, during the reigns of Chairman Mao and Nikita Khrushchev anyone who made such an ultimatum was not one to be loved, but someone to be resisted to the death.

A better understanding of love (1 Corinthians 13) helped me to begin to love God. Even when I thought Paul’s description of love was rules for me to obey in my own strength, it gave me more practical things to do than trying to conjure a feeling of love. When I began to understand Paul’s description as God’s love, given freely to us as an aspect of the fruit of his Holy Spirit, everything began to change for the better. I began, in fact, to be born from above in practice.

“For no good tree bears bad fruit, Jesus taught, nor again¹² does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from brambles. The good person out of the good treasury of his¹³ heart produces good, and the evil person¹⁴ out of his evil treasury¹⁵ produces evil, for his mouth speaks from what fills¹⁶ his¹⁷ heart.¹⁸

I didn’t know Mr. Ramos. I know the fruit of the Spirit through the word of God and personal experience. Mr. Ramos was not led by God’s own love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control when he shot 39 people. You people are from your father the devil, Jesus warned, and you want to do what your father desires. He was a murderer from the beginning…¹⁹

United States Congressmen take an oath of office:²⁰

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”

Members of the U.S. Congress have forsworn themselves to enact legislation to infringe “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms.”²¹ And the President of the United States, who made a similar oath,²² signed that legislation.²³ Mr. Ramos’ acts of political terrorism have apparently succeeded where others have failed. Was this his conscious purpose and cause? I have no way of knowing.

Jesus warned us of a powerful liar and murderer who incites people to obey his will (John 8:44b, 44a NET):

He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not uphold the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he lies, he speaks according to his own nature because he is a liar and the father of lies.

You people are from your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires.

Do not be amazed that I said to you, Jesus said, ‘You must all be born from above.’²⁴

As I wrote this essay the Supreme Court of the United States of America barely affirmed the rather obvious fact that no right of abortion is mentioned in the document that constitutes the federal government of the United States. What impact might this tepid affirmation have on those who want a right of abortion, who want to destroy their unborn children, who want me (among others) to consider them righteous if they do so? I don’t know.

Considering the question, however, helps to confirm for me the relative futility of political action vis-a-vis the privilege of sharing the good news that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost (πρῶτος).²⁵ In other words, God in Christ has done all the heavy lifting to save sinners like you and me from our sinful selves. Know Him. [T]his is eternal life,²⁶ Jesus prayed.

“Look, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

It will not be like the covenant that I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant and I had no regard for them, says the Lord.

For this is the covenant that I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds, and I will inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be my people.

And there will be no need at all for each one to teach his countryman or each one to teach his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ since they will all know me, from the least to the greatest.

For I will be merciful toward their evil deeds, and their sins I will remember no longer” [Table].²⁷

Tables comparing Romans 7:13; Luke 6:43 and 6:45 in the NET and KJV follow.

Romans 7:13 (NET)	Romans 7:13 (KJV)
Did that which is good, then, 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.	Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
Τὸ οὖν ἀγαθὸν ἐμοὶ ἐγένετο θάνατος; μὴ γένοιτο· ἀλλὰ ἡ ἁμαρτία, ἵνα φανῇ ἁμαρτία, διὰ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ μοι κατεργαζομένη θάνατον, ἵνα γένηται καθ᾿ ὑπερβολὴν ἁμαρτωλὸς ἡ ἁμαρτία διὰ τῆς ἐντολῆς	το ουν αγαθον εμοι γεγονεν θανατος μη γενοιτο αλλα η αμαρτια ινα φανη αμαρτια δια του αγαθου μοι κατεργαζομενη θανατον ινα γενηται καθ υπερβολην αμαρτωλος η αμαρτια δια της εντολης	το ουν αγαθον εμοι γεγονεν θανατος μη γενοιτο αλλα η αμαρτια ινα φανη αμαρτια δια του αγαθου μοι κατεργαζομενη θανατον ινα γενηται καθ υπερβολην αμαρτωλος η αμαρτια δια της εντολης

Luke 6:43 (NET)	Luke 6:43 (KJV)
“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit,	For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
Οὐ γάρ ἐστιν δένδρον καλὸν ποιοῦν καρπὸν σαπρόν, οὐδὲ πάλιν δένδρον σαπρὸν ποιοῦν καρπὸν καλόν	ου γαρ εστιν δενδρον καλον ποιουν καρπον σαπρον ουδε δενδρον σαπρον ποιουν καρπον καλον	ου γαρ εστιν δενδρον καλον ποιουν καρπον σαπρον ουδε δενδρον σαπρον ποιουν καρπον καλον

Luke 6:45 (NET)	Luke 6:45 (KJV)
The good person out of the good treasury of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasury produces evil, for his mouth speaks from what fills his heart.	A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ὁ ἀγαθὸς ἄνθρωπος ἐκ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ θησαυροῦ τῆς καρδίας προφέρει τὸ ἀγαθόν, καὶ ὁ πονηρὸς ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ προφέρει τὸ πονηρόν· ἐκ γὰρ περισσεύματος καρδίας λαλεῖ τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ	ο αγαθος ανθρωπος εκ του αγαθου θησαυρου της καρδιας αυτου προφερει το αγαθον και ο πονηρος ανθρωπος εκ του πονηρου θησαυρου της καρδιας αυτου προφερει το πονηρον εκ γαρ του περισσευματος της καρδιας λαλει το στομα αυτου	ο αγαθος ανθρωπος εκ του αγαθου θησαυρου της καρδιας αυτου προφερει το αγαθον και ο πονηρος ανθρωπος εκ του πονηρου θησαυρου της καρδιας αυτου προφερει το πονηρον εκ γαρ του περισσευματος της καρδιας λαλει το στομα αυτου

Back to Christianity, Part 2

¹ “Robb Elementary School shooting,” Wikipedia

² “Robb Elementary School shooting,” Wikipedia: “Earlier in the day, he shot his grandmother in the forehead at home, severely wounding her.”

³ From “Robb Elementary School shooting – Perpetrator,” Wikipedia

⁴ John 3:6, 7 (NET)

⁵ Galatians 5:19-21 (NET) Table

⁶ Romans 8:5-8 (NET)

⁷ John 8:44a (NET) Table

⁸ John 8:31a (NET)

⁹ Romans 7:18 (NET) Table

¹⁰ In the NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ verse 10 begins with ἐγὼ δὲ ἀπέθανον (NET: and I died). These words conclude verse 9 in the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text.

¹¹ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἐγένετο here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had γεγονεν (KJV: made).

¹² The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had πάλιν here. The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text did not.

¹³ The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had αυτου here. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

¹⁴ The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ανθρωπος here. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

¹⁵ The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had θησαυρου της καρδιας αυτου (KJV: treasure of his heart) here. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

¹⁶ The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had the article του preceding what fills (KJV: abundance). The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

¹⁷ The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had the article της preceding heart. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

¹⁸ Luke 6:43-45 (NET)

¹⁹ John 8:44a (NET) Table

²⁰ SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OATH OF OFFICE

²¹ The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

²² Oath of Office for the Presidency

²³ “Joe Biden Signs Gun Control Law: ‘There’s Much More Work to Do’,” Breitbart

²⁴ John 3:7 (NET)

²⁵ 1 Timothy 1:15b (ESV)

²⁶ John 17:3 (NET)

²⁷ Hebrews 8:8b-12 (NET) [See Greek comparison tables]

Psalm 22, Part 5

Posted on October 20, 2020 by admin

This is a continuing look into Psalm 22 as the music in Jesus’ heart as He endured the cross.

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
Psalm 22:13 (Tanakh)	Psalm 22:13 (NET)	Psalm 21:14 (NETS)	Psalm 21:14 (Elpenor English)
They [strong bulls of Bashan] gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.	They [powerful bulls of Bashan] open their mouths to devour me like a roaring lion that rips its prey.	they [fat bulls] opened their mouth at me, like a lion that ravens and roars.	They [fat bulls] have opened their mouth against me, as a ravening and roaring lion.

The strong or fat bulls became like a roaring lion. I used the Greek of the Septuagint to cross reference with the New Testament. The Greek word translated They have opened was ἤνοιξαν (a form of ἀνοίγω). They opened their mouths “to disclose, bring into the open, reveal” their hatred for God, the same hatred that lives in all sinful flesh (Revelation 13:6 NET):

So the beast opened (ἤνοιξεν, a form of ἀνοίγω) his mouth to blaspheme^[1] against God—to blaspheme both his name and his dwelling place (σκηνὴν, a form of σκηνή), that is,^[2] those who dwell (σκηνοῦντας, a form of σκηνόω) in heaven.

The Greek word translated roaring was ὠρυόμενος (a form of ὠρύομαι). Peter wrote (1 Peter 5:8 NET):

Be sober and alert. Your enemy the devil, like a roaring (ὠρυόμενος, a form of ὠρύομαι) lion, is on the prowl looking for someone to devour.

The tongue is a small part of the body, James wrote, yet it has great pretensions.^[3] Think how small^[4] a flame sets a huge forest ablaze. And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents the world of wrongdoing^[5] among the parts of our bodies. It pollutes the entire body and sets fire to the course of human existence—and is set on fire by hell.^[6]

The things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, Jesus told his disciples, and these things defile a person. For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are the things that defile a person…^[7]

Paul listed θυμοί (a form of θυμός; NET: outbursts of anger) among the works of the flesh (τὰ ἔργα τῆς σαρκός): Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!^[8]

The Greek word translated ravening was ἁρπάζων, a form of ἁρπάζω. This particular form of ἁρπάζω doesn’t occur in the New Testament. As I scanned the other forms, standing as a spectator among the strong/fat bulls blaspheming as a ravening and roaring lion, looking up to Jesus as He endured the cross and this cacophony of sin while making music in his heart with Psalm 22, I heard his word with the same faithfulness that sustained Him (John 10:11-13 NET).

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The^[9] hired hand, who is not a shepherd and does^[10] not own sheep, sees the wolf coming and abandons the sheep and runs away. So the wolf attacks (ἁρπάζει, another form of ἁρπάζω) the sheep and scatters them.^[11] Because^[12] he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep, he runs away.

The Greek word translated good was καλός: “beautiful (in appearance), fair; good and pleasing in appearance, beautiful; good, useful; conducive to pleasure and enjoyment; advantageous, beneficial, desirable; free from defects, fine, precious; morally good, honest, noble, praiseworthy, contributing to salvation; blameless, excellent, unobjectionable; free from defects, fine, precious; pleasant, desirable, advantageous.” I’ve considered this beautiful good elsewhere.

The Greek words translated his life were the very familiar ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ. After the earlier study in Isaiah I am fully primed to hear Jesus’ soul/life as functionally equivalent to ζωὴν αἰώνιον (eternal life).

The Greek word translated lays down (KJV: giveth) was τίθησιν, an active voice, indicative mood, 3^rd person singular form of τίθημι in the present tense. Here I’ll spend some time meditating on some of the ways Jesus’ lays down his soul/life for (ὑπὲρ) the sheep.

The first definition of τίθημι in the Koine Greek Lexicon online is: “to put, place, lay, lay aside.” Paul wrote believers in Philippi (Philippians 2:5-8 NET):

You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had [Table], who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature [Table]. He humbled himself by becoming obedient (ὑπήκοος) to the point of death—even death on a cross!

The Greek word translated emptied was ἐκένωσεν (a form of κενόω). I began to understand his “laying aside” of this soul/life of God when I began to believe that יהוה (Yehovah) became a human being (John 1:1-5, 14).

The next definition is: “to cause to be, render.” Paul wrote believers in Ephesus (Ephesians 2:1-7 NET):

And although you were dead in your offenses and sins [Table], in which you formerly lived according to this world’s present path, according to the ruler of the domain of the air, the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience, among whom all of us also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were^[13] by nature children of wrath even as the rest…

But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even though we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you are saved!—and he raised us up together with him and seated us together with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth^[14] of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

The next definition of τίθημι is: “to set (something), place (something).” Jesus promised his disciples (John 14:16, 17 NET Table):

I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept because it does not see him or know him. But you know him because he resides (μένει, a form of μένω) with you and will be in you.

The next definition is: “to lay (something) (e.g., to lay stones for a building or road, thus to construct, make).” Paul continued his letter to believers in Ephesus (Ephesians 2:17-22 NET):

And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace^[15] to those who were near, so that through him we both have access in one Spirit (Romans 8:26, 27) to the Father. So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are^[16] fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household, because you have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole building,^[17] being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place (κατοικητήριον) of God in the Spirit.

The next definition of τίθημ is: “to pitch (a tent).” Paul wrote believers in Corinth (2 Corinthians 5:1-5 NET):

For we know that if our earthly house, the tent we live in, is dismantled, we have a building from God, a house not built by human hands, that is eternal in the heavens. For in this earthly house we groan, because we desire to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed,^[18] after we have put on our heavenly house, we will not be found naked. For we groan while we are in this tent, since we are weighed down, because^[19] we do not want to be unclothed, but clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life (ζωῆς, a form of ζωή). Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave^[20] us the Spirit as a down payment.

The next definition is: “to establish, institute, decree, ordain, appoint (e.g., to appoint a law for the land).” Jesus told his disciples (John 15:16, 17 NET):

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that remains, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. This I command you—to love one another.

The next definition of τίθημι is: “to give a name to (something or someone).” In his vision on Patmos John scribed Jesus’ letter To the angel of the church in Philadelphia^[21] (Revelation 3:11, 12 NET):

I^[22] am coming soon. Hold on to what you have so that no one can take away your crown. The one who conquers I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will never depart from it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God (the new Jerusalem that comes down^[23] out of heaven from my God), and my new name as well.

The Greek word translated conquers was νικῶν (a form of νικάω). A loud voice in heaven exclaimed in John’s vision, describing how one conquers (Revelation 12:10, 11 NET):

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, “The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the ruling authority of his Christ, have now come, because the accuser^[24] of our brothers and sisters, the one who accuses them^[25] day and night before our God, has been thrown down^[26] (Luke 10:17-20). But they overcame (ἐνίκησαν, another form of νικάω) him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die (Romans 6:1-23).

The next definition of τίθημι is: “to designate as, categorize as.” Paul wrote believers in Rome (Romans 8:1-4 NET):

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.^[27] For the law of the life-giving Spirit (τοῦ πνεύματος τῆς ζωῆς) in Christ Jesus has set you^[28] free from the law of sin and death. For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Apparently (NET note 1) on two separate occasions in the past, scribes added the final phrases of verse 4—μὴ κατὰ σάρκα περιπατοῦσιν (who do not walk according to the flesh) and ἀλλὰ κατὰ πνεῦμα (but according to the Spirit)—as appositive phrases to ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ (in Christ Jesus) in verse 1. I don’t doubt this is what Paul and the Holy Spirit meant by the phrase in Christ Jesus. It only becomes problematic if one ignores the hard-won experience by which Paul confirmed that There is therefore now no condemnation, and is led in the name of Christ away from the Holy Spirit back to one’s own efforts to obey the law in the flesh.

So here is another important designation or category (Romans 7:14-20 NET):

For we know that the law is spiritual—but I am unspiritual,^[29] 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 (καλός). But now it is no longer me doing it, but^[30] sin that lives (οἰκοῦσα, a form of οἰκέω) in me. For I know that nothing good lives (οἰκεῖ, another form of οἰκέω) 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 (οἰκοῦσα, a form of οἰκέω) in me [Table].

The next definition of τίθημι is: “to appoint (someone) (e.g., to make him a prophet, put a king on a throne).” Paul wrote to believers in Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 5:9-11 NET):

For God did not destine us for wrath (Romans 1:18-32) but^[31] for gaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that whether we are alert or asleep, we will come to life (ζήσωμεν, a form of ζάω; KJV: live) together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, just as you are in fact doing.

The next definition is: “to direct (someone) to do (something).” Jesus commanded his disciples (John 15:4, 5 NET):

Remain in me, and I will remain in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains^[32] in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain^[33] in me [Table].

“I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains (John 15:9-17) in me—and I in him—bears much fruit (Galatians 5:16-26) because apart from me you can accomplish nothing.

The next definition of τίθημι is: “to entrust (something) to (someone).” Paul wrote to Timothy (2 Timothy 1:11-14):

For this gospel I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher.^[34] Because of this, in fact, I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed because I know the one in whom my faith is set and I am convinced that he is able to protect what has been entrusted to me until that day. Hold to the standard of sound words that you heard from me and do so with the faith and love (Galatians 5:22, 23) that are in Christ Jesus. Protect that good thing (καλὴν, a form of καλός) entrusted to you,^[35] through the Holy Spirit who lives (ἐνοικοῦντος, a form of ἐνοικέω) within us.

The next definition is: “to allow (something to happen).” Jesus said (Matthew 5:15, 16 NET):

People do not light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before people, so that they can see your good (καλὰ, another form of καλός) deeds and give honor to your Father in heaven.

The next definition of τίθημι is: “to make a name for (someone).” Paul expounded to believers in Philippi the result of Jesus’ obedience to the point of death—even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:9-11 NET):

As a result God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow—in heaven and on earth and under the earth—and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

The final definition is: “to put (someone) in (a place) (e.g., to put him in jail).” Paul wrote to believers in Colossae (Colossians 1:13, 14 NET):

He [God, the Father] delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins [Table].

So who are the sheep for whom the good shepherd lays down (KJV: giveth) his soul/life? My sheep listen^[36] to my voice, Jesus said (John 10:27-30 NET):

and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life (ζωὴν αἰώνιον), and they will never perish; no one will snatch (ἁρπάσει, another form of ἁρπάζω) them from my hand. My Father, who^[37] has given them to me, is greater^[38] than all, and no one can snatch (ἁρπάζειν, another form of ἁρπάζω) them from my^[39] Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.

Tables comparing Psalm 22:13 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET, and comparing Psalm 22:13 (21:14) in the Septuagint (BLB and Elpenor), and tables comparing Revelation 13:6; James 3:5, 6; John 10:12, 13; Ephesians 2:3; 2:7; 2:17; 2:19; 2:21; 2 Corinthians 5:3-5; Revelation 3:7; 3:11-12; 12:10; Romans 8:1, 2; 7:14; 7:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:9; 2 Timothy 1:11; 1:14; John 10:27; 10:29 and Matthew 6:10 in the NET and KJV follow.

Psalm 22:13 (Tanakh)	Psalm 22:13 (KJV)	Psalm 22:13 (NET)
They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.	They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.	They open their mouths to devour me like a roaring lion that rips its prey.

Psalm 22:13 (Septuagint BLB)	Psalm 21:14 (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἤνοιξαν ἐπ᾽ ἐμὲ τὸ στόμα αὐτῶν ὡς λέων ὁ ἁρπάζων καὶ ὠρυόμενος	ἤνοιξαν ἐπ᾿ ἐμὲ τὸ στόμα αὐτῶν ὡς λέων ἁρπάζων καὶ ὠρυόμενος
Psalm 21:14 (NETS)	Psalm 21:14 (English Elpenor)
they opened their mouth at me, like a lion that ravens and roars.	They have opened their mouth against me, as a ravening and roaring lion.

Revelation 13:6 (NET)	Revelation 13:6 (KJV)
So the beast opened his mouth to blaspheme against God—to blaspheme both his name and his dwelling place, that is, those who dwell in heaven.	And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
καὶ ἤνοιξεν τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ εἰς βλασφημίας πρὸς τὸν θεὸν βλασφημῆσαι τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν σκηνὴν αὐτοῦ, τοὺς ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ σκηνοῦντας	και ηνοιξεν το στομα αυτου εις βλασφημιαν προς τον θεον βλασφημησαι το ονομα αυτου και την σκηνην αυτου και τους εν τω ουρανω σκηνουντας	και ηνοιξεν το στομα αυτου εις βλασφημιαν προς τον θεον βλασφημησαι το ονομα αυτου και την σκηνην αυτου τους εν τω ουρανω σκηνουντας

James 3:5, 6 (NET)	James 3:5, 6 (KJV)
So, too, the tongue is a small part of the body, yet it has great pretensions. Think how small a flame sets a huge forest ablaze.	Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
οὕτως καὶ ἡ γλῶσσα μικρὸν μέλος ἐστὶν καὶ μεγάλα αὐχεῖ. ἰδοὺ ἡλίκον πῦρ ἡλίκην ὕλην ἀνάπτει	ουτως και η γλωσσα μικρον μελος εστιν και μεγαλαυχει ιδου ολιγον πυρ ηλικην υλην αναπτει	ουτως και η γλωσσα μικρον μελος εστιν και μεγαλαυχει ιδου ολιγον πυρ ηλικην υλην αναπτει

And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents the world of wrongdoing among the parts of our bodies. It pollutes the entire body and sets fire to the course of human existence—and is set on fire by hell.

And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
καὶ ἡ γλῶσσα πῦρ· ὁ κόσμος τῆς ἀδικίας ἡ γλῶσσα καθίσταται ἐν τοῖς μέλεσιν ἡμῶν, ἡ σπιλοῦσα ὅλον τὸ σῶμα καὶ φλογίζουσα τὸν τροχὸν τῆς γενέσεως καὶ φλογιζομένη ὑπὸ τῆς γεέννης	και η γλωσσα πυρ ο κοσμος της αδικιας ουτως η γλωσσα καθισταται εν τοις μελεσιν ημων η σπιλουσα ολον το σωμα και φλογιζουσα τον τροχον της γενεσεως και φλογιζομενη υπο της γεεννης	και η γλωσσα πυρ ο κοσμος της αδικιας ουτως η γλωσσα καθισταται εν τοις μελεσιν ημων η σπιλουσα ολον το σωμα και φλογιζουσα τον τροχον της γενεσεως και φλογιζομενη υπο της γεεννης

John 10:12, 13 (NET)	John 10:12, 13 (KJV)
The hired hand, who is not a shepherd and does not own sheep, sees the wolf coming and abandons the sheep and runs away. So the wolf attacks the sheep and scatters them.	But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ὁ μισθωτὸς καὶ οὐκ ὢν ποιμήν, οὗ οὐκ ἔστιν τὰ πρόβατα ἴδια, θεωρεῖ τὸν λύκον ἐρχόμενον καὶ ἀφίησιν τὰ πρόβατα καὶ φεύγει – καὶ ὁ λύκος ἁρπάζει αὐτὰ καὶ σκορπίζει	ο μισθωτος δε και ουκ ων ποιμην ου ουκ εισιν τα προβατα ιδια θεωρει τον λυκον ερχομενον και αφιησιν τα προβατα και φευγει και ο λυκος αρπαζει αυτα και σκορπιζει τα προβατα	ο μισθωτος δε και ουκ ων ποιμην ου ουκ εισιν τα προβατα ιδια θεωρει τον λυκον ερχομενον και αφιησιν τα προβατα και φευγει και ο λυκος αρπαζει αυτα και σκορπιζει τα προβατα

Because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep, he runs away.

The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ὅτι μισθωτός ἐστιν καὶ οὐ μέλει αὐτῷ περὶ τῶν προβάτων	ο δε μισθωτος φευγει οτι μισθωτος εστιν και ου μελει αυτω περι των προβατων	ο δε μισθωτος φευγει οτι μισθωτος εστιν και ου μελει αυτω περι των προβατων

Ephesians 2:3 (NET)	Ephesians 2:3 (KJV)
among whom all of us also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest…	Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ἐν οἷς καὶ ἡμεῖς πάντες ἀνεστράφημεν ποτε ἐν ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις τῆς σαρκὸς ἡμῶν ποιοῦντες τὰ θελήματα τῆς σαρκὸς καὶ τῶν διανοιῶν, καὶ ἤμεθα τέκνα φύσει ὀργῆς ὡς καὶ οἱ λοιποί	εν οις και ημεις παντες ανεστραφημεν ποτε εν ταις επιθυμιαις της σαρκος ημων ποιουντες τα θεληματα της σαρκος και των διανοιων και ημεν τεκνα φυσει οργης ως και οι λοιποι	εν οις και ημεις παντες ανεστραφημεν ποτε εν ταις επιθυμιαις της σαρκος ημων ποιουντες τα θεληματα της σαρκος και των διανοιων και ημεν τεκνα φυσει οργης ως και οι λοιποι

Ephesians 2:7 (NET)	Ephesians 2:7 (KJV)
to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.	That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ἵνα ἐνδείξηται ἐν τοῖς αἰῶσιν τοῖς ἐπερχομένοις τὸ ὑπερβάλλον πλοῦτος τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ ἐν χρηστότητι ἐφ᾿ ἡμᾶς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ	ινα ενδειξηται εν τοις αιωσιν τοις επερχομενοις τον υπερβαλλοντα πλουτον της χαριτος αυτου εν χρηστοτητι εφ ημας εν χριστω ιησου	ινα ενδειξηται εν τοις αιωσιν τοις επερχομενοις τον υπερβαλλοντα πλουτον της χαριτος αυτου εν χρηστοτητι εφ ημας εν χριστω ιησου

Ephesians 2:17 (NET)	Ephesians 2:17 (KJV)
And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near,	And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
καὶ ἐλθὼν εὐηγγελίσατο εἰρήνην ὑμῖν τοῖς μακρὰν καὶ εἰρήνην τοῖς ἐγγύς	και ελθων ευηγγελισατο ειρηνην υμιν τοις μακραν και τοις εγγυς	και ελθων ευηγγελισατο ειρηνην υμιν τοις μακραν και τοις εγγυς

Ephesians 2:19 (NET)	Ephesians 2:19 (KJV)
So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household,	Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
῎Αρα οὖν οὐκέτι ἐστὲ ξένοι καὶ πάροικοι ἀλλὰ ἐστὲ συμπολῖται τῶν ἁγίων καὶ οἰκεῖοι τοῦ θεοῦ	αρα ουν ουκετι εστε ξενοι και παροικοι αλλα συμπολιται των αγιων και οικειοι του θεου	αρα ουν ουκετι εστε ξενοι και παροικοι αλλα συμπολιται των αγιων και οικειοι του θεου

Ephesians 2:21 (NET)	Ephesians 2:21 (KJV)
In him the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,	In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ἐν ᾧ πᾶσα οἰκοδομὴ συναρμολογουμένη αὔξει εἰς ναὸν ἅγιον ἐν κυρίῳ,	εν ω πασα η οικοδομη συναρμολογουμενη αυξει εις ναον αγιον εν κυριω	εν ω πασα οικοδομη συναρμολογουμενη αυξει εις ναον αγιον εν κυριω

2 Corinthians 5:3-5 (NET)	2 Corinthians 5:3-5 (KJV)
if indeed, after we have put on our heavenly house, we will not be found naked.	If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
εἴ γε καὶ \|ἐνδυσάμενοι\| οὐ γυμνοὶ εὑρεθησόμεθα	ειγε και ενδυσαμενοι ου γυμνοι ευρεθησομεθα	ειγε και ενδυσαμενοι ου γυμνοι ευρεθησομεθα

For we groan while we are in this tent, since we are weighed down, because we do not want to be unclothed, but clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
καὶ γὰρ οἱ ὄντες ἐν τῷ σκήνει στενάζομεν βαρούμενοι, ἐφ᾿ ᾧ οὐ θέλομεν ἐκδύσασθαι ἀλλ᾿ ἐπενδύσασθαι, ἵνα καταποθῇ τὸ θνητὸν ὑπὸ τῆς ζωῆς	και γαρ οι οντες εν τω σκηνει στεναζομεν βαρουμενοι επειδη ου θελομεν εκδυσασθαι αλλ επενδυσασθαι ινα καταποθη το θνητον υπο της ζωης	και γαρ οι οντες εν τω σκηνει στεναζομεν βαρουμενοι εφ ω ου θελομεν εκδυσασθαι αλλ επενδυσασθαι ινα καταποθη το θνητον υπο της ζωης

Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.

Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ὁ δὲ κατεργασάμενος ἡμᾶς εἰς αὐτὸ τοῦτο θεός, ὁ δοὺς ἡμῖν τὸν ἀρραβῶνα τοῦ πνεύματος	ο δε κατεργασαμενος ημας εις αυτο τουτο θεος ο και δους ημιν τον αρραβωνα του πνευματος	ο δε κατεργασαμενος ημας εις αυτο τουτο θεος ο και δους ημιν τον αρραβωνα του πνευματος

Revelation 3:7 (NET)	Revelation 3:7 (KJV)
“To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write the following: “This is the solemn pronouncement of the Holy One, the True One, who holds the key of David, who opens doors no one can shut, and shuts doors no one can open:	And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
Καὶ τῷ ἀγγέλῳ τῆς ἐν Φιλαδελφείᾳ ἐκκλησίας γράψον Τάδε λέγει ὁ ἅγιος, ὁ ἀληθινός, ὁ ἔχων τὴν κλεῖν Δαυίδ, ὁ ἀνοίγων καὶ οὐδεὶς κλείσει καὶ κλείων καὶ οὐδεὶς ἀνοίγει	και τω αγγελω της εν φιλαδελφεια εκκλησιας γραψον ταδε λεγει ο αγιος ο αληθινος ο εχων την κλειδα του δαβιδ ο ανοιγων και ουδεις κλειει και κλειει και ουδεις ανοιγει	και τω αγγελω της εν φιλαδελφεια εκκλησιας γραψον ταδε λεγει ο αγιος ο αληθινος ο εχων την κλειν του δαυιδ ο ανοιγων και ουδεις κλεισει αυτην ει μη ο ανοιγων και ουδεις ανοιξει

Revelation 3:11, 12 (NET)	Revelation 3:11, 12 (KJV)
I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have so that no one can take away your crown.	Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ἔρχομαι ταχύ· κράτει ὃ ἔχεις, ἵνα μηδεὶς λάβῃ τὸν στέφανον σου	ιδου ερχομαι ταχυ κρατει ο εχεις ινα μηδεις λαβη τον στεφανον σου	ερχομαι ταχυ κρατει ο εχεις ινα μηδεις λαβη τον στεφανον σου

The one who conquers I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will never depart from it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God (the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from my God), and my new name as well.

Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
Ὁ νικῶν ποιήσω αὐτὸν στῦλον ἐν τῷ ναῷ τοῦ θεοῦ μου καὶ ἔξω οὐ μὴ ἐξέλθῃ ἔτι καὶ γράψω ἐπ᾿ αὐτὸν τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ θεοῦ μου καὶ τὸ ὄνομα τῆς πόλεως τοῦ θεοῦ μου (τῆς καινῆς Ἰερουσαλὴμ ἡ καταβαίνουσα ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ μου), καὶ τὸ ὄνομα μου τὸ καινόν	ο νικων ποιησω αυτον στυλον εν τω ναω του θεου μου και εξω ου μη εξελθη ετι και γραψω επ αυτον το ονομα του θεου μου και το ονομα της πολεως του θεου μου της καινης ιερουσαλημ η καταβαινουσα εκ του ουρανου απο του θεου μου και το ονομα μου το καινον	ο νικων ποιησω αυτον στυλον εν τω ναω του θεου μου και εξω ου μη εξελθη ετι και γραψω επ αυτον το ονομα του θεου μου και το ονομα της πολεως του θεου μου της καινης ιερουσαλημ η καταβαινει εκ του ουρανου απο του θεου μου και το ονομα μου το καινον

Revelation 12:10 (NET)	Revelation 12:10 (KJV)
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, “The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the ruling authority of his Christ, have now come, because the accuser of our brothers and sisters, the one who accuses them day and night before our God, has been thrown down.	And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
καὶ ἤκουσα φωνὴν μεγάλην ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ λέγουσαν ἄρτι ἐγένετο ἡ σωτηρία καὶ ἡ δύναμις καὶ ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν καὶ ἡ ἐξουσία τοῦ χριστοῦ αὐτοῦ, ὅτι ἐβλήθη ὁ κατήγωρ τῶν ἀδελφῶν ἡμῶν, ὁ κατηγορῶν αὐτοὺς ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν ἡμέρας καὶ νυκτός	και ηκουσα φωνην μεγαλην λεγουσαν εν τω ουρανω αρτι εγενετο η σωτηρια και η δυναμις και η βασιλεια του θεου ημων και η εξουσια του χριστου αυτου οτι κατεβληθη ο κατηγορος των αδελφων ημων ο κατηγορων αυτων ενωπιον του θεου ημων ημερας και νυκτος	και ηκουσα φωνην μεγαλην εν τω ουρανω λεγουσαν αρτι εγενετο η σωτηρια και η δυναμις και η βασιλεια του θεου ημων και η εξουσια του χριστου αυτου οτι εβληθη ο κατηγορος των αδελφων ημων ο κατηγορων αυτων ενωπιον του θεου ημων ημερας και νυκτος

Romans 8:1, 2 (NET)	Romans 8:1, 2 (KJV)
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.	There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
Οὐδὲν ἄρα νῦν κατάκριμα τοῖς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ.	ουδεν αρα νυν κατακριμα τοις εν χριστω ιησου μη κατα σαρκα περιπατουσιν αλλα κατα πνευμα	ουδεν αρα νυν κατακριμα τοις εν χριστω ιησου μη κατα σαρκα περιπατουσιν αλλα κατα πνευμα

For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ὁ γὰρ νόμος τοῦ πνεύματος τῆς ζωῆς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ ἠλευθέρωσεν σε ἀπὸ τοῦ νόμου τῆς ἁμαρτίας καὶ τοῦ θανάτου	ο γαρ νομος του πνευματος της ζωης εν χριστω ιησου ηλευθερωσεν με απο του νομου της αμαρτιας και του θανατου	ο γαρ νομος του πνευματος της ζωης εν χριστω ιησου ηλευθερωσεν με απο του νομου της αμαρτιας και του θανατου

Romans 7:14 (NET)	Romans 7:14 (KJV)
For we know that the law is spiritual—but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin.	For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
Οἴδαμεν γὰρ ὅτι ὁ νόμος πνευματικός ἐστιν, ἐγὼ δὲ σάρκινος εἰμι πεπραμένος ὑπὸ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν	οιδαμεν γαρ οτι ο νομος πνευματικος εστιν εγω δε σαρκικος ειμι πεπραμενος υπο την αμαρτιαν	οιδαμεν γαρ οτι ο νομος πνευματικος εστιν εγω δε σαρκικος ειμι πεπραμενος υπο την αμαρτιαν

Romans 7:17 (NET)	Romans 7:17 (KJV)
But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me.	Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
νυνὶ δὲ οὐκέτι ἐγὼ κατεργάζομαι αὐτὸ ἀλλὰ ἡ \|οἰκοῦσα\| ἐν ἐμοὶ ἁμαρτία.	νυνι δε ουκετι εγω κατεργαζομαι αυτο αλλ η οικουσα εν εμοι αμαρτια	νυνι δε ουκετι εγω κατεργαζομαι αυτο αλλ η οικουσα εν εμοι αμαρτια

1 Thessalonians 5:9 (NET)	1 Thessalonians 5:9 (KJV)
For God did not destine us for wrath but for gaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.	For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ὅτι οὐκ ἔθετο ἡμᾶς ὁ θεὸς εἰς ὀργὴν ἀλλὰ εἰς περιποίησιν σωτηρίας διὰ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ \|Χριστοῦ\|	οτι ουκ εθετο ημας ο θεος εις οργην αλλ εις περιποιησιν σωτηριας δια του κυριου ημων ιησου χριστου	οτι ουκ εθετο ημας ο θεος εις οργην αλλ εις περιποιησιν σωτηριας δια του κυριου ημων ιησου χριστου

2 Timothy 1:11 (NET)	2 Timothy 1:11 (KJV)
For this gospel I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher.	Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
εἰς ὃ ἐτέθην ἐγὼ κῆρυξ καὶ ἀπόστολος καὶ διδάσκαλος	εις ο ετεθην εγω κηρυξ και αποστολος και διδασκαλος εθνων	εις ο ετεθην εγω κηρυξ και αποστολος και διδασκαλος εθνων

2 Timothy 1:14 (NET)	2 Timothy 1:14 (KJV)
Protect that good thing entrusted to you, through the Holy Spirit who lives within us.	That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
τὴν καλὴν παραθήκην φύλαξον διὰ πνεύματος ἁγίου τοῦ ἐνοικοῦντος ἐν ἡμῖν	την καλην παρακαταθηκην φυλαξον δια πνευματος αγιου του ενοικουντος εν ημιν	την καλην παραθηκην φυλαξον δια πνευματος αγιου του ενοικουντος εν ημιν

John 10:27 (NET)	John 10:27 (KJV)
My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.	My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
τὰ πρόβατα τὰ ἐμὰ τῆς φωνῆς μου ἀκούουσιν, καγὼ γινώσκω αὐτὰ καὶ ἀκολουθοῦσιν μοι	τα προβατα τα εμα της φωνης μου ακουει καγω γινωσκω αυτα και ακολουθουσιν μοι	τα προβατα τα εμα της φωνης μου ακουει καγω γινωσκω αυτα και ακολουθουσιν μοι

John 10:29 (NET)	John 10:29 (KJV)
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them from my Father’s hand.	My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ὁ πατήρ μου ὃ δέδωκεν μοι πάντων μεῖζον ἐστιν, καὶ οὐδεὶς δύναται ἁρπάζειν ἐκ τῆς χειρὸς τοῦ πατρός	ο πατηρ μου ος δεδωκεν μοι μειζων παντων εστιν και ουδεις δυναται αρπαζειν εκ της χειρος του πατρος μου	ο πατηρ μου ος δεδωκεν μοι μειζων παντων εστιν και ουδεις δυναται αρπαζειν εκ της χειρος του πατρος μου

Matthew 6:10 (NET)	Matthew 6:10 (KJV)
may your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.	Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημα σου, ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς	ελθετω η βασιλεια σου γενηθητω το θελημα σου ως εν ουρανω και επι της γης	ελθετω η βασιλεια σου γενηθητω το θελημα σου ως εν ουρανω και επι της γης

Psalm 22, Part 6

Back to Forgiveness and my Religious Mind

Back to The Will of God – Jesus, Part 1

Back to Romans, Part 17

Back to Funeral, Part 3

Back to Westworld, Part 4

Back to The Book of Life, Part 1

Back to The Book of Life, Part 2

Back to The New Covenant, Part 3

Back to Christianity, Part 2

Back to The Day of the Lord, Part 1

Back to A Shadow of the Good Things, Part 8

Back to A Shadow of the Good Things, Part 9

Back to The Day of the Lord, Part 7

Back to A Shadow of the Good Things, Part 10

^[1] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had βλασφημίας here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had βλασφημιαν (KJV: blasphemy).

^[2] The Stephanus Textus Receptus had και (KJV: and) here. The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text did not. So them that dwell in heaven was translated in the KJV as a third item to blaspheme rather than as an appositive phrase of his dwelling place; e.g., may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10b NET).

^[3] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had μεγάλα αὐχεῖ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had μεγαλαυχει (KJV: boasteth great things).

^[4] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἡλίκον here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ολιγον (KJV: a little).

^[5] The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ουτως (KJV: so) following wrongdoing (KJV: iniquity). The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

^[6] James 3:5, 6 (NET)

^[7] Matthew 15:18-20a (NET)

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

^[9] The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had δε (KJV: But) here. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

^[10] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἔστιν here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had εισιν (KJV: are).

^[11] The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had τα προβατα (KJV: the sheep) here. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

^[12] The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ο δε μισθωτος φευγει (KJV: The hireling fleeth) preceding this clause. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

^[13] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἤμεθα here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ημεν.

^[14] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had τὸ ὑπερβάλλον πλοῦτος here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had τον υπερβαλλοντα πλουτον (KJV: the exceeding riches).

^[15] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had εἰρήνην here. The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text did not.

^[16] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἐστὲ here. The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text did not.

^[17] The Stephanus Textus Receptus had the article η preceding building. The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text did not.

^[18] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had εἴ γε here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ειγε (KJV: If so be that).

^[19] The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text had ἐφ᾿ ᾧ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus had επειδη (KJV: for that).

^[20] The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had και (KJV: also) preceding gave (KJV: hath given). The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

^[21] Revelation 3:7a

^[22] The Stephanus Textus Receptus had ιδου (KJV: Behold) at the beginning of this clause. The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text did not.

^[23] The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Stephanus Textus Receptus had καταβαίνουσα here, where the Byzantine Majority Text had καταβαινει.

^[24] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had κατήγωρ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had κατηγορος.

^[25] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had αὐτοὺς here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had αυτων.

^[26] The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text had ἐβλήθη here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus had κατεβληθη (KJV: is cast down).

^[27] The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had μη κατα σαρκα περιπατουσιν αλλα κατα πνευμα (KJV: who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit) here. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

^[28] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had σε here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had με (KJV: me).

^[29] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had σάρκινος here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had σαρκικος (KJV: carnal).

^[30] The NET parallel Greek text had ἀλλὰ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus, Byzantine Majority Text and NA²⁸ had ἀλλ’.

^[31] The NET parallel Greek text had ἀλλὰ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus, Byzantine Majority Text and NA²⁸ had ἀλλ’.

^[32] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had μένῃ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had μεινη (KJV: abide).

^[33] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had μένητε here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Tex had μεινητε (KJV: abide).

^[34] The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had εθνων (KJV: of the Gentiles) here. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

^[35] The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text had παραθήκην here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus had παρακαταθηκην (KJV: which was committed unto thee).

^[36] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἀκούουσιν here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Tex had ακουει (KJV: hear).

^[37] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ὃ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ος (KJV: which).

^[38] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had μεῖζον here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had μειζων.

^[39] The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had μου here. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 1

Posted on November 28, 2016 by admin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Numbers 13:1-3 (NET)	Deuteronomy 1:20-23 (NET)
	Then I said to you, “You have come to the Amorite hill country which the Lord our God is about to give us. Look, he has placed the land in front of you! Go up, take possession of it, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, said to do. Do not be afraid or discouraged!” So all of you approached me and said, “Let’s send some men ahead of us to scout out the land and bring us back word as to how we should attack it and what the cities are like there.” I thought this was a good idea…
The Lord spoke to Moses: “Send out men to investigate the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites.
You are to send one man from each ancestral tribe, each one a leader among them.” So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the command of the Lord.	…so I sent twelve men from among you, one from each tribe.
All of them were leaders of the Israelites.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 2

Back to Paul’s Religious Mind Revisited, Part 6

Back to Peter’s First Gospel Proclamation Revisited, Part 1

^[1] Deuteronomy 1:19 (NET)

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

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

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

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

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

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

^[8] Exodus 20:20 (NET)

^[9] 1 John 2:2 (NET)

^[10] Deuteronomy 1:21b (NET)

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

^[12] Deuteronomy 1:29 (NKJV)

^[13] Luke 12:5 (NET)

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

Paul’s Religious Mind Revisited, Part 3

Posted on October 7, 2016 by admin

The movie Spotlight is named after a team of investigative journalists at the Boston Globe. They pierce a smokescreen of secrecy—fueled by police, prosecutors, defense attorneys, businessmen, civil servants, their own bosses and colleagues, even their own subconscious desires to protect the reputation of the Catholic Church—to shine a spotlight on priests’ abuse of children, both sexual and spiritual, in articles published in 2002. There are spoilers here. Though the film is based on actual events and people, I’m writing about characters in a movie, including the Catholic Church.

The scope of investigative journalist Mike Rezendes’ (Mark Ruffalo) research is broadened by phone conversations with Richard Sipe (Richard Jenkins – voice only), a psychiatrist and former priest, who treated pedophile priests during the last half of the 1960’s. I quote one of their conversations, more personal than professional.

“Richard, do you still go to mass?” Mike asks.

“No. No, I haven’t been to church for some time now. But I still consider myself a Catholic.”

“How does that work?”

“Well, the church is an institution, Mike, made of men. It’s passing. My faith is in the eternal. I try to separate the two.”

“Sounds tricky.”

“It is,” Richard agrees.

Cardinal Law (Len Cariou) presides over a shell game in the Boston Archdiocese, moving pedophile priests from parish to parish. A super at the end of Spotlight reads, “In December 2002, Cardinal Law resigned from the Boston Archdiocese. He was reassigned to the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, one of the highest ranking Roman Catholic churches in the world.”

The producers expect us to feel a certain way about that fact. I want to use it to distinguish church—a not-for-profit business—from what I’ll call ἐκκλησία, those called by God through Jesus Christ to be led by his Holy Spirit. Cardinal Law was promoted by the church. He was a company man defending it from scandal. Richard says: “the secretary-canonist for the papal nuncio…co-authored a report warning pedophile priests were a billion-dollar liability” sixteen years earlier than the present in the film. But this faithfulness to the church doesn’t work out so well for the ἐκκλησία, especially the little ones Jesus mentioned (Matthew 18:6, Mark 9:42, Luke 17:1, 2).

Spotlight editor Walter “Robby” Robinson (Michael Keaton) threatens attorney Eric Macleish (Billy Crudup)—who profited settling child abuse cases against the Church privately—for information and confirmation: “We’ve got two stories here. We’ve got a story about degenerate clergy, and we’ve got a story about a bunch of lawyers turning child abuse into a cottage industry. Now, which story do you want us to write?” Later however Robby admits regretfully:

“We had all the pieces. Why didn’t we get it sooner?…Macleish sent us a letter on 20 priests, years ago…We buried the story in Metro. No folo.”

“That was you,” Robby’s boss Ben Bradlee, Jr. (John Slattery) says. “You were Metro.”

“Yeah. That was me. I’d just taken over. I don’t remember it at all. But yeah…”

Paul was concerned with both, the church and the ἐκκλησία, without distinguishing between the two.

church

ἐκκλησία

When any of you has a legal dispute with another, does he dare go to court before the unrighteous rather than before the saints?….So if you have ordinary lawsuits, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame! Is there no one among you wise enough to settle disputes between fellow Christians? Instead, does a Christian sue a Christian, and do this before unbelievers?

1 Corinthians 6:1, 4-6 (NET)

The fact that you have lawsuits among yourselves demonstrates that you have already been defeated. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? But you yourselves wrong and cheat, and you do this to your brothers and sisters!

1 Corinthians 6:7, 8 (NET)

His most beautiful words to the ἐκκλησία and to the church are his words on love. In his letter to the Corinthians love was presented as one way, albeit, a way that is beyond comparison,^[1] a more excellent way (KJV), a still more excellent way (ESV), a way of life that is best of all (NLV), the most excellent way (NIV), the same way Jesus preached in the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5:13-48 NET). In his letter to the Romans Paul presented love as the only way (Romans 13:8-10 NET):

Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet,” (and if there is any other commandment) are summed up in this, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Cleary, the love of natural humans will not fulfill the law. We must all be born from above^[2] through faith in Jesus Christ, dependent instead on the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe,^[3] the love that is an aspect of the fruit of his Holy Spirit. I’ll continue contrasting Paul’s regime in 1 Corinthians 5 to Jesus’ regime in Revelation 2:18-29.

Paul’s Regime

Jesus’ Regime

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast (ζύμη) affects the whole batch of dough?

1 Corinthians 5:6 (NET)

But to the rest of you in Thyatira, all who do not hold to this teaching (who have not learned the so-called “deep secrets of Satan”), to you I say: I do not put any additional burden on you. However, hold on to what you have until I come.

Revelation 2:24, 25 (NET)

Clean out the old yeast (ζύμην, another form of ζύμη) so that you may be a new batch of dough – you are, in fact, without yeast (ἄζυμοι, a form of ἄζυμος). For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. So then, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast (ζύμῃ, another form of ζύμη), the yeast (ζύμῃ, another form of ζύμη) of vice and evil, but with the bread without yeast (ἀζύμοις, another form of ἄζυμος), the bread of sincerity and truth.

1 Corinthians 5:7, 8 (NET)

Not good your boasting (or, glorying, KJV, NKJV), Paul wrote. The Greek word translated good is καλὸν (a form of καλός). This is the beautiful good of Jesus’ works. What follows is a quote from an article by George Long in William Smith’s “A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities,” defining incestum in Roman law:

If a man married a woman whom it was forbidden for him to marry by positive morality (moribus), he was said to commit incestum (Dig. 23 tit. 2 s39). Such a marriage was in fact no marriage, for the necessary connubium between the parties was wanting. Accordingly, incestum is the sexual connection of a male and a female, whether under the form of marriage or not, if such persons cannot marry by reason of consanguinity.

There was no connubium between persons related by blood in the direct line, as parents and children. If such persons contracted a marriage it was Nefariae et Incestae nuptiae. There was no connubium between persons who stood in the relation of parent and child by adoption, not even after the adopted child was emancipated.

With this in mind I would say it was the most likely meaning of the kind of immorality that is not permitted even among the Gentiles.^[4] A man cohabiting with his father’s wife, was against the law, Roman law as well as y^ehôvâh’s law. In other words, it was a circumstance not unlike those in the movie Spotlight. Would anyone consider the conspiratorial cover-up revealed in Spotlight a beautiful good?

Of course, now I need to consider whether turn this man over to Satan (σατανᾷ, a form of Σατανᾶς; adversary) was simply an instruction to turn him over to Roman authorities in the city of Corinth. But I reject that notion just as quickly. Roman authorities had no interest in the blasphemy of Hymenaeus and Alexander. I find no guilt in him,^[5] Pilate said of Jesus, while the Jewish authorities had Him dead to rights for blasphemy (Matthew 26:25, Mark 14:63, Luke 22:71 NET) if He is not y^ehôvâh, the Son of God the Father.

Don’t you know that a little yeast (ζύμη) affects the whole batch of dough?^[6] Paul continued. Yes, that is exactly how Jesus expected his teaching to work in and through those who are called according to his purpose:^[7] He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast (ζύμῃ) that a woman took and mixed with three measures of flour until all the dough had risen.”^[8] To be fair Paul wasn’t writing about Jesus’ teaching. He wrote about the yeast (ζύμῃ, another form of ζύμη) of vice and evil. He’d already been-there-done-that as far as Jesus’ teaching was concerned. In 1 Corinthians he was scrambling to put the toothpaste^[9] back in the tube.

I need to pause to spell out what I’m actually thinking. That is the main purpose of these essays, after all, to remind me what I was thinking as I did a particular word study. As I worked on this one I stumbled across a website by Sherry Shriner. She uses many of the Scriptures I use to assert that “The Apostle Paul Was A Deceiver! He was Satan In The Flesh! An Antichrist!”^[10] I’m not asserting that at all, only that Paul is a human being, born from above, led by the Holy Spirit, struggling at times with the sinfulness of his own flesh or with overcoming his own religion, which he characterized as my own righteousness derived from the law.^[11]

More to the point here in 1 Corinthians 5 I think he struggled with 1) the repercussions of changing^[12] his manner of teaching—When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come with superior eloquence or wisdom as I proclaimed the testimony of God. For I decided to be concerned about nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified^[13]—and, 2) his allegiance to James’ abbreviated version of the law (Acts 15:19, 20 NET) from the Jerusalem Council—As [Paul, Silas and Timothy] went through the towns, they passed on the decrees that had been decided on by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the Gentile believers to obey.^[14] I think what the NET translators called a Corinthian slogan—All things are lawful for me^[15]—was the logical consequence of this teaching. I also think the Corinthians may have been the most sinful people (1 Corinthians 6:9-11 NET) to be called to that time—but called they were (Acts 18:9-11 NET):

The Lord said to Paul by a vision in the night, “Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent, because I am with you, and no one will assault you to harm you, because I have many people in this city” [Table]. So he stayed there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

According to Kyle Harper: “Prostitution [πορνεία; sex with “slaves, prostitutes, and concubines”] was considered a social necessity, an alternative to the violation of respectable women [μοιχεία], in the Roman Empire no less than in classical Greece.” But “πορνεία was not a common term before Judaism and Christianity infused it with new meaning.”^[16] “Πορνεία in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs functions,” Mr. Harper continued, “as a catchall vice for any sexual transgression….Reuben was guilty of πορνεία for sleeping with Bilhah, Rachel’s maid, because his father had been in the same bed….”^[17] The thought that Paul derived his understanding of πορνεία from a book of fiction sent me to bed for a time.

When I got back to work I realized that the language of popular fiction^[18] might well reflect the common word usage of a people and a time. I realized we are not told whether the man who had his father’s wife was a Jew or proselyte who might be familiar with a usage of πορνεία that would include incestum, or a pagan more familiar with πορνεία as sex with slaves, prostitutes or concubines. I don’t know whether Paul assumed his hearers understood the breadth of πορνεία that may have been common in Second Temple Judaism or taught it explicitly in Corinth. I know Paul wrote a sin list in his letter to the Galatians (5:19-21a NET):

NET

Parallel Greek

Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things.

φανερὰ δέ ἐστιν τὰ ἔργα τῆς σαρκός, ἅτινα ἐστιν πορνεία, ἀκαθαρσία, ἀσέλγεια, εἰδωλολατρία, φαρμακεία, ἔχθραι, ἔρις, ζῆλος, θυμοί, ἐριθεῖαι, διχοστασίαι, αἱρέσεις, φθόνοι, |φόνοι,| μέθαι, κῶμοι καὶ τὰ ὅμοια τούτοις

In the Textus Receptus this list begins with μοιχεία (adultery). But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, Jesus said, and these things defile a person. For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality (πορνεῖαι, another form of πορνεία), theft, false testimony, slander.^[19] And, For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality (πορνεῖαι, another form of πορνεία), theft, murder, adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, and folly.^[20]

Jesus’ Sin Lists in Greek
Matthew 5:19	Mark 7:21, 22
διαλογισμοὶ πονηροί, φόνοι, μοιχεῖαι, πορνεῖαι, κλοπαί, ψευδομαρτυρίαι, βλασφημίαι	διαλογισμοὶ οἱ κακοὶ ἐκπορεύονται, πορνεῖαι, κλοπαί, φόνοι, μοιχεῖαι, πλεονεξίαι, πονηρίαι, δόλος, ἀσέλγεια, ὀφθαλμὸς πονηρός, βλασφημία, ὑπερηφανία, ἀφροσύνη

These sin lists alter the landscape considerably. It is not possible for the words πορνείας^[21] (another form of πορνεία) or πορνείαν^[22] (another form of πορνεία) from James’ abbreviated version of the law to stand for every defilement that comes from the human heart, every work of the flesh. Frankly, I think all of this happened in space and time to push Paul, the human author of so much of the New Testament commentary on the Gospel, to abandon his allegiance to this decision of the Jerusalem Council and to hear better words and gain a better understanding. And I think these events are recorded in Scripture so that we would see how much better these words and this understanding actually are (Romans 7:7, 12; 3:19-24, 31 NET):

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”

So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For no one is declared righteous before him by the works of the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. But now apart from the law the righteousness of God (which is attested by the law and the prophets) has been disclosed – namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Do we then nullify the law through faith? Absolutely not! Instead we uphold the law.

Confronted with a Corinthian man who had his father’s wife, Paul turned to Satan for help. Confronted with pedophile priests, the Catholic Church turned to psychologists and psychiatrists.^[23] Spotlight, perhaps it is unnecessary to say, is not a movie about the amazing power of psychologists and psychiatrists to take away the sin of pedophile priests.

On the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away (αἴρων, a form of αἴρω) the sin of the world!”^[24]

For far too long I believed that meant forgiveness only. I didn’t believe that, 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.^[25] I didn’t believe that all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.^[26] I thought it was all up to me: my faith, my obedience, my love, my joy, my peace, my patience, my kindness, my goodness, my faithfulness, my gentleness, and my self-control.

Paul’s Religious Mind Revisited, Part 4

Back to Sexual Immorality Revisited, Part 2

Back to Sowing to the Flesh, Part 2

^[1] 1 Corinthians 12:31b (NET)

^[2] John 3:7b (NET)

^[3] Romans 3:22 (NET)

^[4] 1 Corinthians 5:1b (NET) Table

^[5] John 19:6b (ESV)

^[6] 1 Corinthians 5:6b (NET)

^[7] Romans 8:28b (NET)

^[8] Matthew 13:33 (NET)

^[9] Romans, Part 66; Romans, Part 68

^[10] http://www.justgivemethetruth.com/paul_was_a_deceiver.htm

^[11] Philippians 3:9 (NET)

^[12] Paul in Corinth; Romans, Part 2; Paul in Athens

^[13] 1 Corinthians 2:1, 2 (NET) Table

^[14] Acts 16:4 (NET) Table

^[15] 1 Corinthians 6:12a (NET)

^[16] Kyle Harper: “Porneia—The Making of a Christian Sexual Norm;” Journal of Biblical Literature 131, no. 2 (2012); p. 369; “For all the importance of prostitution in Greek and Roman societies, πορνεία was not a common word. Πορνεία occurs in only four classical authors (by contrast, the word occurs nearly four hundred times in Jewish and Christian literature before 200 c.e., and over eighteen hundred times between 200 and 600 c.e.).” (I cannot link to this article directly, but was able to download it at academia.edu.)

^[17] ibid, p. 372

^[18] What lover of the Old Testament Scriptures wouldn’t want to hear the patriarchs confess their sexual sins according to the law y^ehôvâh delivered at Sinai so many years after the patriarchs themselves died?

^[19] Matthew 15:18, 19 (NET)

^[20] Mark 7:21, 22 (NET)

^[21] Acts 15:20, 29 (NET)

^[22] Acts 21:25 (NET)

^[23] http://www.themediareport.com/2015/11/30/cardinal-law-spotlight-movie/ (I am not the “Dan” who commented on this article, by the way. I just discovered this site researching the current essay.)

^[24] John 1:29 (NET)

^[25] 1 John 3:9 (NET)

^[26] Romans 8:14 (NET)

Paul’s Religious Mind Revisited, Part 2

Posted on September 16, 2016 by admin

I’ll continue to contrast “Paul’s Regime” to “Jesus’ Regime.” Paul finally turned his attention to the man who had his father’s wife as follows.

Paul’s Regime

Jesus’ Regime

For even though I am absent physically, I am present in spirit. And I have already judged (κέκρικα, a form of κρίνω) the one who did this, just as though I were present. When you (ὑμῶν) gather together in the name of our Lord Jesus, and I am with you in spirit, along with the power of our Lord Jesus, turn this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

1 Corinthians 5:3-5 (NET) Table1 Table2

Furthermore, I will strike [Jezebel’s] followers with a deadly disease, and then all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts. I will repay each one of you what your deeds deserve.

Revelation 2:23 (NET)

The English translation of 1 Corinthians 5:3 might actually be clearer than the Greek. I think Paul may have written something like, “I have already decided^[1] as follows about what was done.” Considering what he had already decided the translators cut through all that: I have already judged the one who did this… Paul urged the believers in Corinth to turn this man over to Satan. [Addendum: January 25, 2024, see Addendum.]

The Greek word translated turn over is παραδοῦναι (a form of παραδίδωμι). Paul also handed Hymenaeus and Alexander over (παρέδωκα, another form of παραδίδωμι) to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.^[2] I assume that to turn or hand one over to Satan was the antithesis of commending one to the grace of God.

After their first missionary journey Paul and Barnabas sailed back to Antioch, where they had been commended (παραδεδομένοι, another form of παραδίδωμι) to the grace of God for the work they had now completed.^[3] Later, Paul chose Silas and set out, commended (παραδοθεὶς, another form of παραδίδωμι) to the grace of the Lord by the brothers and sisters^[4] for his second missionary journey after parting company with Barnabas over John Mark. So I assume that both, being commended to the grace of God and being turned, or handed, over to Satan, were matters of prayer. We’re not told how God responded to this prayer vis-à-vis the man who had his father’s wife. What is recorded in Paul’s letters are the changes in his own perspective.

Here in 1 Corinthians Paul turned a man who committed πορνεία, one of the works of the flesh (σαρκός, a form of σάρξ), over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh (σαρκός, a form of σάρξ): Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality (πορνεία), impurity, depravity, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice (πράσσοντες, a form of πράσσω) such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!^[5]

But is the destruction (ὄλεθρον, a form of ὄλεθρος) of the flesh a work of Satan (Romans 7:4-6 NET)?

So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh (σαρκί, another form of σάρξ), the sinful desires (ἁμαρτιῶν, a form of ἁμαρτία), aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the law, because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.

But I say, live by the Spirit, Paul wrote the Galatians, and you will not carry out the desires (ἐπιθυμίαν, a form of ἐπιθυμία) of the flesh (σαρκὸς, a form of σάρξ). For the flesh (σὰρξ) has desires (ἐπιθυμεῖ, a form of ἐπιθυμέω) that are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh (σαρκός, a form of σάρξ), for these are in opposition to each other, so that you cannot do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.^[6] The one thing I can say with certainty about the man who had his father’s wife is that he was not led by the Holy Spirit at the moment he chose to take her. His flesh had taken control.

Brothers and sisters, if a person is discovered in some sin (παραπτώματι, a form of παράπτωμα),^[7] you who are spiritual restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness.^[8]The spiritual (πνευματικοὶ, a form of πνευματικός) are those who live (περιπατεῖτε, a form of περιπατέω) by the Spirit (πνεύματι, a form of πνεῦμα). Paul’s teaching in his letters to the Romans and Galatians doesn’t explain, expound or even hint at any reliance on Satan for blessing—for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord—or cursing—to be taught not to blaspheme.

In the movie Miracles From Heaven Jennifer Garner completed her stunning transformation from Elektra through adoptive-mother-to-be Vanessa in Juno to Christy the Christian mother of three girls. There are spoilers here, and though Christy is based on an actual person Christy Beam, I am writing about a character in a film.

“No one here is going to hell,” Christy says to her three daughters. “Unless you girls get your clothes dirty. How many times have I told you not to play outside in your Sunday school dresses?” Then she yells to her husband in the field, “Hey Kevin, I have to tell you not to play outside before church, too?”

With these few deft lines we understand that Christy has succumbed to the primary occupational hazard of motherhood: She doesn’t merely inhabit a world of rules and religion, she is its architect and chief executive. When her middle daughter Anna is diagnosed with an incurable disease Christy is utterly lost. Concerned about the cost of traveling every six weeks from Texas to a specialist in Boston she argues with Kevin (Martin Henderson).

Christy: I need to know how we’re going to do it.

Kevin: Well, We’ll figure it out.

Christy: No, No. You can’t say that. I hate when you say that!

Kevin: Well, I’m sorry, babe, but I don’t have any answers right now.

Christy: I need an answer!…I cannot operate under the assumption that it’s all just gonna be okay!

Kevin: It’s called faith, Christy.

Christy: I don’t have faith about anything. I can’t even pray, Kevin. I’m sorry.

Kevin: No. I hear you. But I can’t help you with your faith.

If I hadn’t known someone exactly like him, Kevin would have seemed like the least believable character in the film. The man I knew grew up in the faith. Being led by the Spirit was as natural to him as breathing. The faith that is an aspect of the fruit of the Spirit seemed like his own. And he was just as tone deaf and incapable of explaining the Holy Spirit’s faith to someone for whom such faith was not natural as Kevin. He was also just as persistent and consistent an example of that faith as Kevin. Only his wife knew him intimately enough to perceive any wavering or inconsistency.

Christy talks with Pastor Scott (John Carroll Lynch):

Christy: Well, you could tell me why a loving God would let Annabel suffer the way she has.

Pastor Scott: I’m sorry. I don’t have an answer for that.

While it was dramatically necessary for Christy to discover her own answer, and Pastor Scott probably didn’t know specifics in her particular case, I want to explore a similar situation recorded in the New Testament.

Lord, if you had been here, Lazarus’ sister Martha said to Jesus, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will grant you.^[9] This sickness will not lead to death, Jesus had said when he heard that Lazarus was sick, but to God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.^[10] Lazarus has died, He told his disciples, and I am glad for your sake that I was not there, so that you may believe.^[11] Jesus put Martha and Mary (not to mention Lazarus), whom he loved (ἠγάπα, a form of ἀγαπάω), through sickness and death so that when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead his disciples may believe.

Though raising Lazarus from the dead was effective enough among the Ἰουδαίων that the chief priests planned to kill Lazarus too, for on account of him many of the Jewish people (Ἰουδαίων, a form of Ἰουδαῖος) from Jerusalem were going away and believing in Jesus,^[12] it failed in its primary purpose for Jesus’ disciples. Not only did they not wait expectantly for three days for Jesus to rise from the dead, they didn’t even believe it when someone told them it had happened.

Who were these infidels?

They were handpicked by Jesus Himself. They were purified, purged of the evil among them in classic Old Testament fashion: Judas killed himself after he confessed his παραδοὺς (another form of παραδίδωμι). But before the Holy Spirit was given on Pentecost each remained a natural human (ψυχικὸς…ἄνθρωπος):

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural (ψυχικὸς, a form of ψυχικός) man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.^[13]

Though Jesus’ display of power over death failed to persuade natural humans to faith and hope it continued to eloquently expound the theme He thought was sufficiently demonstrated in the Old Testament writings: You must all be born from above.^[14] To be born from above entails, includes and ultimately means to be led by the Holy Spirit: For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.^[15]

In Miracles from Heaven Anna (Kylie Rogers), writhing in pain, says to her mother Christy, “Don’t you understand that it never stops hurting. It never stops…I want to die…I want to go to heaven where there’s no pain…I’m sorry, Mommy. I don’t want to make you sad. I just want it to be over.”

This might have been the turning point of the story. If my daughter complained this way to me I would fall on my face confessing to anything and everything. But Anna’s doctor persuaded Christy that her daughter’s childlike faith was depression caused by prolonged illness.

When Anna fell and was trapped inside a rotten tree, however, Christy knelt and prayed the Lord’s prayer (Matthew 6:9-13 NKJV), not as a sing-song chant but, as a heartfelt expression of faith, not my will but yours be done.^[16] Indeed we felt as if the sentence of death had been passed against us, Paul wrote the Corinthians in a later letter, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.^[17]

No viewer of the film is forced to believe that God healed Anna when Christy learned to rely on the faith (πίστις) of the Holy Spirit. She clearly spells out an alternative to Anna’s specialist that is wholly compatible with progressive^[18] evolution: “So you’re telling me that when this baby girl fell 30 feet, she hit her head just right and it didn’t kill her and it didn’t paralyze her and instead it healed her?” If this explanation rings hollow, one may be hearing from the Spirit of God because a natural [human] does not accept the things of the Spirit of God.

Jesus’ Regime by contrast did not incite his followers to turn to Satan for remediation: Furthermore, I will strike her followers^[19] with a deadly disease, and then all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts. I will repay each one of you what your deeds deserve. Eventually Paul perceived the practical sense of this, too (Romans 12:17-21 NET):

Do not repay anyone evil for evil; consider what is good before all people. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all people. Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head [Table]. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Preferring Jesus’ Regime in Revelation 2:18-29 to Paul’s Regime in 1 Corinthians 5 ^[20] I have been brought full circle. This world governed by God’s wrath is the world I thought I lived in before I became an atheist. I didn’t expect to return here again. But this time I am led by the Holy Spirit. This time I believe that πορνεία has much more to do with the pagan worship practices of Exodus 32 and Numbers 25 than it does with two young people marrying, that is to say having sex, before receiving Church, State or even parental sanction. This time I expect to weather my ordeal without serious incident.

Studying the various forms of παραδίδωμι has deeply colored my understanding of these things. The table I constructed during that study is below.

παραδίδωμι	NET	Reference
Jesus’ Arrest, Prosecution and Crucifixion (66)
παραδεδώκεισαν	For [Pilate] knew that the chief priests *had handed* [Jesus] *over* because of envy.	Mark 15:10
παραδίδως	“Judas, *would you betray* the Son of Man with a kiss?”	Luke 22:48
παραδιδόναι	…Judas, one of the twelve, was going *to betray* him.	John 6:71
παραδιδόναι	But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was going *to betray* him)…	John 12:4
παραδιδόντα	For Jesus knew *the one who was going to betray* him.	John 13:11
παραδιδόντος	…the hand *of the one who betrays* me is with me on the table.	Luke 22:21
παραδίδοσθαι	The Son of Man is going *to be betrayed* into the hands of men.	Matthew 17:22
παραδίδοσθαι	…for the Son of Man is going *to be betrayed* into the hands of men.	Luke 9:44
παραδίδοται	…the Son of Man *will be handed over* to be crucified.	Matthew 26:2
	…woe to that man by whom the Son of Man *is betrayed*!	Matthew 26:24
	…the Son of Man *is betrayed* into the hands of sinners.	Matthew 26:45
	The Son of Man *will be betrayed* into the hands of men.	Mark 9:31
	…woe to that man by whom the Son of Man *is betrayed*!	Mark 14:21
	…the Son of Man *is betrayed* into the hands of sinners.	Mark 14:41
	…woe to that man by whom *he is betrayed*!	Luke 22:22
παραδιδοὺς	Judas, *the one who would betray* him, said, “Surely not I, Rabbi?”	Matthew 26:25
	Get up, let us go. Look! My *betrayer* is approaching!	Matthew 26:46
	Now the *betrayer* had given them a sign, saying, “The one I kiss is the man…	Matthew 26:48
	Now when Judas, *who had betrayed* him, saw that Jesus had been condemned…	Matthew 27:3
	Look! My *betrayer* is approaching!	Mark 14:42
	Now *the betrayer* had given them a sign…	Mark 14:44
	Now Judas, *the one who betrayed* him…	John 18:2
	Now Judas, *the one who betrayed* him…	John 18:5
	“Lord, who is *the one who is going to betray* you?”	John 21:20
παραδῷ	…Judas began looking for an opportunity to *betray* him.	Matthew 26:16
παραδῷ	…how *he might betray Jesus, handing* him *over* to them.	Luke 22:4
παραδώσει	I tell you the truth, one of you *will betray* me.	Matthew 26:21
	The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me *will betray* me.	Matthew 26:23
	I tell you the truth, one of you eating with me *will betray* me.	Mark 14:18
	I tell you the solemn truth, one of you *will betray* me.	John 13:21
παραδώσω	What will you give me *to betray* him into your hands?	Matthew 26:15
παραδώσων	…and who it was *who would betray* him.	John 6:64
παραδώσουσιν	…and *will turn* him *over* to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged severely and crucified.	Matthew 20:19
παραδώσουσιν	They will condemn him to death and *will turn* him *over* to the Gentiles.	Mark 10:33
παραδοῖ	…went to the chief priests to *betray* Jesus into their hands.	Mark 14:10
	So Judas began looking for an opportunity *to betray* him.	Mark 14:11
	…the devil had already put into the heart of Judas…that *he should betray* Jesus	John 13:2
παραδόντος	I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and *gave* himself for me.	Galatians 2:20
παραδοθῆναι	…that the Son of Man must *be delivered* into the hands of sinful men…	Luke 24:7
παραδοθήσεται	…the Son of Man *will be handed over* to the chief priests and the experts in the law.	Matthew 20:18
	…the Son of Man *will be handed over* to the chief priests and experts in the law.	Mark 10:33
	For *he will be handed over* to the Gentiles…	Luke 18:32
παραδοθῶ	…fighting to keep me *from being handed over* to the Jewish authorities.	John 18:36
παραδοῦναι	…so that *they could deliver* him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.	Luke 20:20
παραδοῦναι	So Judas agreed and began looking for an opportunity *to betray* Jesus…	Luke 22:6
παραδοὺς	…and Judas Iscariot, *who betrayed* him.	Matthew 10:4
	I have sinned *by betraying* innocent blood!	Matthew 27:4
	Therefore *the one who handed* me *over* to you is guilty of greater sin.	John 19:11
παρεδίδετο	…the Lord Jesus on the night in which *he was betrayed* took bread…	1 Corinthians 11:23
παρεδώκαμεν	If this man were not a criminal, *we would* not *have handed* him *over* to you.	John 18:30
παρέδωκαν	…led him away, and *handed him over* to Pilate…	Matthew 27:2
	For [Pilate] knew that *they had handed* [Jesus] *over* because of envy.	Matthew 27:18
	…led him away, and *handed him over* to Pilate.	Mark 15:1
	…our chief priests and rulers *handed* him *over* to be condemned to death…	Luke 24:20
	Your own people and your chief priests *handed* you *over* to me.	John 18:35
παρεδώκατε	…Jesus, whom you *handed over* and rejected…	Acts 3:13
παρέδωκεν	…*he handed him over* to be crucified.	Matthew 27:26
	…Judas Iscariot, who *betrayed* him.	Mark 3:19
	…*he handed him over* to be crucified.	Mark 15:15
	But *he handed* Jesus *over* to their will.	Luke 23:25
	Then [Pilate] *handed* him *over* to them to be crucified.	John 19:16
	Then he bowed his head *and gave up* his spirit.	John 19:30
	…he who did not spare his own Son, but *gave* him up for us all…	Romans 8:32
	…live in love, just as Christ also loved us and *gave* himself for us…	Ephesians 5:2
	…just as Christ loved the church and *gave* himself for her…	Ephesians 5:25
παρεδόθη	*He was given over* because of our transgressions…	Romans 4:25
Arrest, Prosecution and Persecution of Jesus’ Followers (19)
παραδιδόντες	When they arrest you *and hand you over* for trial…	Mark 13:11
παραδιδόντες	…they will seize you and persecute *you, handing you over* to the synagogues and prisons.	Luke 21:12
παραδιδοὺς	I persecuted this Way even to the point of death, tying up both men and women and *putting* them in prison…	Acts 22:4
Παραδώσει	Brother *will hand over* brother to death…	Matthew 10:21
	Brother *will hand over* brother to death…	Mark 13:12
παραδῶσιν	Whenever *they hand* you *over* for trial, do not worry…	Matthew 10:19
παραδώσουσιν	Beware of people, because *they will hand* you *over* to councils…	Matthew 10:17
	Then *they will hand* you *over* to be persecuted and will kill you.	Matthew 24:9
	…and *they will betray* one another and hate one another.	Matthew 24:10
	You *will be handed over* to councils and beaten in the synagogues.	Mark 13:9
	…and *will hand him* [i.e., Paul] *over* to the Gentiles.	Acts 21:11
παραδοθῆναι	Now after John *was imprisoned*…	Mark 1:14
παραδοθήσεσθε	*You will be betrayed* even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends…	Luke 21:16
παραδοὺς	…*handing him* [i.e., Peter] *over* to four squads of soldiers to guard him.	Acts 12:4
παρεδίδου	…[Saul] dragged off both men and women *and put* them in prison.	Acts 8:3
παρεδίδουν	…*they handed over* Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion…	Acts 27:1
παρέδωκεν	…the centurion *delivered* the prisoners to the captain of the guard… (NKJV)	Acts 28:16
παρεδόθη	…Jesus heard that John *had been imprisoned*…	Matthew 4:12
παρεδόθην	…*I was handed over* as a prisoner to the Romans.	Acts 28:17
Other Usages (35)
παραδεδωκόσι	…*who have risked* their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.	Acts 15:26
παραδεδομένοι	…Antioch, where [Paul and Barnabas] had been *commended* to the grace of God…	Acts 14:26
παραδέδοται	…and the glory that *goes along with it, for it* [i.e., this whole realm] *has been relinquished* to me, and I [i.e., the devil] can give it to anyone I wish.	Luke 4:6
παραδιδῷ	Then comes the end, when he [i.e., Christ] *hands over* the kingdom to God the Father…	1 Corinthians 15:24
παραδιδόμεθα	For we who are alive are constantly *being handed over* to death^[21] for Jesus’ sake…	2 Corinthians 4:11
παραδῷ	Reach agreement quickly with your accuser while on the way *to court, or he may hand* you *over* to the judge…	Matthew 5:25
παραδῷ	…and if *I give over* my body in order to boast, but do not have love…	1 Corinthians 13:3
παραδώσει	…and the judge *hand* you *over* to the officer…	Luke 12:58
παραδοῖ	And when the grain *is ripe*, he sends in the sickle because the harvest has come.	Mark 4:29
παραδοθεὶς	Paul chose Silas and set out, *commended* to the grace of the Lord by the brothers and sisters.	Acts 15:40
παραδοθείσῃ	…contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all *entrusted* to the saints.	Jude 1:3
παραδοθείσης	…the holy commandment *that had been delivered* to them.	2 Peter 2:21
παραδοῦναι	…*turn* this man *over* to Satan for the destruction of the flesh…	1 Corinthians 5:5
παρεδίδοσαν	…*they passed on* the decrees that had been decided on by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the Gentile believers to obey.	Acts 16:4
παρεδίδου	…he threatened no retaliation, but *committed himself to God* who judges justly.	1 Peter 2:23
παρέδωκα	…maintain the traditions just as I *passed them on* to you.	1 Corinthians 11:2
	For I received from the Lord what I also *passed on* to you…	1 Corinthians 11:23
	For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received…	1 Corinthians 15:3
	…whom I handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.	1 Timothy 1:20
παρέδωκαν	…*they have given* themselves *over* to indecency…	Ephesians 4:19
παρέδωκας	…Sir, *you entrusted* me with five talents…	Matthew 25:20
παρέδωκας	…Sir, *you entrusted* two talents to me…	Matthew 25:22
παρεδώκατε	Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that *you have handed down*.	Mark 7:13
παρέδωκεν	And in anger his lord *turned* him *over* to the prison guards…	Matthew 18:34
	…who summoned his slaves and *entrusted* his property to them.	Matthew 25:14
	…change the customs that Moses *handed down* to us.	Acts 6:14
	…*gave* them *over* to worship the host of heaven…	Acts 7:42
	Therefore God *gave* them *over* in the desires of their hearts to impurity…	Romans 1:24
	For this reason God *gave* them *over* to dishonorable passions.	Romans 1:26
	…just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God *gave* them *over* to a depraved mind…	Romans 1:28
	…*delivered* them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment… (NKJV)	2 Peter 2:4
παρέδοσαν	…*the accounts passed on* to us by those who were eyewitnesses…	Luke 1:2
παρεδόθη	All things *have been handed over* to me by my Father.	Mathew 11:27
παρεδόθη	All things *have been given* to me by my Father.	Luke 10:22
παρεδόθητε	…you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching *you were entrusted* to…	Romans 6:17

Paul’s Religious Mind Revisited, Part 3

Back to Romans, Part 83

Back to Paul’s Religious Mind Revisited, Part 4

^[1] When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided (κέκρικα, a form of κρίνω) to spend the winter there. (Titus 3:12 NET)

^[2] 1 Timothy 1:20 (NET)

^[3] Acts 14:26 (NET)

^[4] Acts 15:40 (NET) Table

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

^[6] Galatians 5:16-18 (NET)

^[7] In Paul’s letter to the Romans παραπτώματι was translated transgression, a violation of a specific command (Romans 5:15, 17; 11:11 NET). I wrote about the relationship between παράπτωμα and ἁμαρτία in Is Sin Less Than Sin? Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

^[8] Galatians 6:1a (NET)

^[9] John 11:21, 22 (NET)

^[10] John 11:4 (NET)

^[11] John 11:14b, 15a (NET)

^[12] John 12:10, 11 (NET)

^[13] 1 Corinthians 2:12-14 (NASB) Table

^[14] John 3:7b (NET)

^[15] Romans 8:14 (NET)

^[16] Luke 22:42b (NET)

^[17] 2 Corinthians 1:9 (NET)

^[18] I think most evolution/creation arguments are tangential because the actual issues are mindless vs. mindful creation and progressive vs. degenerative evolution.

^[19] Though it is not literal I think the NET translators were right to translate τέκνα (a form of τέκνον) followers here (Mark 10:24, Luke 13:34, John 1:12, John 8:39, John 11:52, Romans 8:16, Romans 8:17, Romans 9:7, Romans 9:8, Ephesians 5:8, Philippians 2:15, 1 John 3:1, 1 John 3:2, 1 John 3:10, 1 John 5:2).

^[20] I want to be very specific here because I think that Paul’s Regime in Galatians 6:1-5 is more of the faith of Jesus’ Regime in Revelation 2:18-29 and shows much more respect for the wrath of God.

^[21] If Paul meant this exclusively for apostles it would belong in the category above (Arrest, Prosecution and Persecution of Jesus’ Followers). But I take the Holy Spirit to mean that death to what controlled us. Though that death is a one time event, I need to be brought back to it continually—constantly being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake—because I am proud and slow to believe.

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)

Romans, Part 44

Posted on May 25, 2013 by admin

Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, Paul continued, by the mercies (οἰκτιρμῶν)^[1] of God…^[2] The Greek word οἰκτιρμῶν (a form of οἰκτιρμός), translated mercies, is the noun that corresponds to the verb translated compassion in, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion (οἰκτιρήσω, a form of οἰκτείρω)^[3] on whom I have compassion (οἰκτίρω, another form of οἰκτείρω).^[4] It was translated mercy again in Paul’s conclusion written to the Colossians: Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with a heart of mercy (οἰκτιρμοῦ, another form of οἰκτιρμός), kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if someone happens to have a complaint against anyone else. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also forgive others.^[5]

Jesus said, love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to ungrateful and evil people. Be merciful (οἰκτίρμονες, a form of οἰκτίρμων),^[6] just as your Father is merciful (οἰκτίρμων).^[7] The Greek word οἰκτίρμων is essentially the adjective of the noun οἰκτιρμός and the verb οἰκτείρω. Taken together these three passages give me some understanding of what it means to present [my body] as a sacrifice in Paul’s conclusion: Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God – which is your reasonable service.^[8]

It took me some time to get here. At first I thought the phrase by the mercies of God (διὰ τῶν οἰκτιρμῶν τοῦ θεοῦ) applied only to Paul’s exhortation. I thought that because of God’s mercies to me it was reasonable that I present my body as a sacrifice to Him. My religion had no rite or ritual for accomplishing this, but it did have a saying: Those who attend faithfully on Sunday morning love the church; those who attend faithfully Sunday morning and Sunday evening love the Pastor; but those who attend faithfully on Sunday and Wednesday evening prayer meeting love the Lord. I assumed that presenting my body as a sacrifice had something to do with attending church every time the doors were open and doing whatever the Pastor said: Obey your leaders and submit to them, the author of the letter to the Hebrews wrote, for they keep watch over your souls and will give an account for their work.^[9]

I might have continued trying to prove how much I loved God rather than being transformed by his love. But I continued studying the Bible and the Holy Spirit brought Scriptures to mind that disagreed with, or severely limited, the points my various Pastors made in their sermons. It was a difficult and confusing time. But eventually I began to see the Bible, not as a rule book, but as a way to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom [He] sent.^[10]

The Bible changed then from a discussion of many things into a discussion of primarily one issue from many perspectives, namely, this eternal life in Jesus Christ. In that light it was easier to recognize that the phrase by the mercies of God (διὰ τῶν οἰκτιρμῶν τοῦ θεοῦ) also described how to present my body as a sacrifice: διὰ (through) the mercies of God, sharing in his compassion, clothed with [his] heart of mercy, his kindness, his humility, his gentleness, and his patience…forgiving one another…Just as the Lord has forgiven [me], being merciful just as he is merciful.

Do not be conformed to this present world,^[11] Paul added more detail. I assume that this present world is equivalent to the works of the flesh:^[12] hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, and envying.^[13] I didn’t leave sexual immorality (πορνεία),^[14] impurity, depravity, idolatry, sorcery and murder^[15] out of this list because I think they are any less the works of the flesh. Given my background and upbringing they are the obvious works of the flesh while hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, and envying might seem virtuous if directed against sin or sinners or heretics or people who don’t accept my interpretation of the Bible.

The word translated envying for instance is φθόνοι (a form of φθόνος).^[16] Pilate knew that [Jesus’ accusers] had handed him over because of envy^[17] (φθόνον, another form of φθόνος). If I were writing myself as a character in a movie it would make perfect sense for that character to envy Ingmar Bergman, a creative genius, a talented and successful director of both theater and film. So much in his films seems like anti-religious agitprop. I have never heard that he repented or showed any signs of faith in Jesus. By all rights I, like Bess from Lars Von Trier’s “Breaking the Waves,” should say of Ingmar Bergman, “He will go to hell; everyone knows that.”

Yet when I search myself I find instead that I hope against hope for God’s mercy. I can’t find an explanation for it apart from the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control^[18] that floods into me and through me from the Holy Spirit. I am not as creative or talented or successful as Ingmar Bergman, but I have received a superabundance of mercy and grace while he suffered unspeakably from religious minds, his own as well as those of others. Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, Paul continued in Romans, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God – what is good and well-pleasing and perfect (τέλειον, a form of τέλειος).^[19]

Love never ends (πίπτει, a form of πίπτω),^[20] Paul wrote the Corinthians. According to the definitions listed in the NET online Bible this means that love never 1) descends from a higher place to a lower; love never 1a) falls, 1a1) is thrust down 1b) (metaph.) falls under judgment, or comes under condemnation; love never 2) descends from an erect to a prostrate position 2a) falls down 2a1) is prostrated, or falls prostrate;^[21] love never 2a2) is overcome by terror or astonishment or grief or under the attack of an evil spirit or of falling dead suddenly; love never 2a3) is dismembered like a corpse by decay 2a4) prostrates itself 2a5) renders homage or worship to one 2a6) falls out, falls from, perishes or is lost; love never 2a7) falls down, or falls into ruin 2b) is cast down from a state of prosperity 2b1) falls from a state of uprightness; love never 2b2) perishes, comes to an end, disappears, ceases; love never 2b3) loses authority, or no longer has force 2b4) is removed from power by death 2b5) fails of participating in, or misses a share in [Christ’s salvation because love (ἀγάπη) is his salvation and his righteousness in a word].

This was in contrast to prophecies, that will be set aside…tongues, that will cease…and knowledge, that will be set aside.^[22] For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when what is perfect (τέλειον, a form of τέλειος) comes, the partial will be set aside.^[23] Love not only transcends this coming perfection, it facilitates it according to John: whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has been perfected (τετελείωται, a form of τελειόω).^[24] By this we know that we are in him.^[25]

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ,^[26] Paul wrote the Ephesians. It was he who gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, that is, to build up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God – a mature (τέλειον, a form of τέλειος) person, attaining to the measure of Christ’s full stature.^[27] I have begun to wonder: if the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers aren’t encouraging me to be perfected in God’s love, are they acting as ambassadors for Christ^[28] or emissaries of the religious mind?

Paul wrote the Colossians, I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship from God – given to me for you – in order to complete (πληρῶσαι, a form of πληρόω; or, fulfill) the word of God, that is, the mystery that has been kept hidden from ages and generations, but has now been revealed to his saints. God wanted to make known to them the glorious riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim him by instructing and teaching all people with all wisdom so that we may present every person mature (τέλειον, a form of τέλειος; e.g., perfected in and by God’s love) in Christ.^[29]

When I consider the justice of God’s mercy in and through Christ I am reminded of Friedrich Nietzsche. Jesus said, Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.^[30] The soul cannot be killed with weaponry. But Friedrich Nietzsche came about as close to being a soul killer as I can imagine a human being becoming. Who can calculate his devastating impact on the souls of academics and the intelligentsia? But if I imagine him in torment in hell for all eternity, cursing his nonexistent god, I realize that I can imagine no greater destruction of the personality I know as Friedrich Nietzsche than to find him one day clothed and in his right mind,^[31] and sitting at the feet of Jesus.

Romans, Part 45

Back to Son of God – 1 John, Part 3

Back to The Day of the Lord, Part 6

^[2] Romans 12:1a (NET)

^[4] Romans 9:15 (NET)

^[5] Colossians 3:12, 13 (NET)

^[7] Luke 6:35, 36 (NET)

^[8] Romans 12:1 (NET)

^[9] Hebrews 13:17a (NET)

^[10] John 17:3 (NET)

^[11] Romans 12:2a (NET)

^[12] Galatians 5:19-21 (NET)

^[13] Galatians 5:20, 21a (NET)

^[15] Galatians 5:19-21 (NET)

^[17] Matthew 27:18 (NET)

^[18] Galatians 5:22, 23 (NET)

^[19] Romans 12:2 (NET)

^[20] 1 Corinthians 13:8a (NET)

^[21] At the end of the movie “The Lord of the Rings – The Return of the King” as the newly crowned king approached, the Hobbits—Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin—bowed. The king said, “My friends, you bow to no one.” Then he and all present knelt before them. In the context of the fruit of the Spirit love certainly does not fall prostrate before rules or laws: Against such things there is no law (Galatians 5:23b NET). On the contrary, Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:10 NET). The fear that I might love too much, be too joyful, too peaceful, too patient, too kind, too good, too faithful, too gentle, or too controlled by the Holy Spirit, that I should intervene and hold myself aloof from being engulfed, buoyed up and carried along by that living stream that makes glad the city of God, that I should draw back to some Aristotelian mean between the extremes, is not from God. In this sense then I understand “Love never falls prostrate” (or never “renders homage or worship”), not that Love is god, but that God is love.

^[22] 1 Corinthians 13:8b (NET)

^[23] 1 Corinthians 13:9, 10 (NET)

^[25] 1 John 2:5 (NET)

^[26] Ephesians 4:7 (NET)

^[27] Ephesians 4:11-13 (NET)

^[28] 2 Corinthians 5:20 (NET)

^[29] Colossians 1:25-28 (NET)

^[30] Matthew 10:28a (NET)

^[31] Luke 8:35 (NET)

Romans, Part 30

Posted on October 30, 2012 by admin

So then, brothers and sisters, Paul continued, we are under obligation (ὀφειλέται, a form of ὀφειλέτης),^[1] not to the flesh (σαρκὶ, a form of σάρξ),^[2] to live according to the flesh (σάρκα, another form of σάρξ)…^[3] The word translated obligation above is also found in Matthew’s version of the Lord’s prayer, and forgive us our debts (ὀφειλήματα, a form of ὀφείλημα),^[4] as we ourselves have forgiven our debtors (ὀφειλέταις, another form of ὀφειλέτης).^[5] This is a powerful concept, but first I want to focus on what the flesh is not.

The flesh as Paul used it is not the body. Be careful, he warned, not to allow anyone to captivate you through an empty, deceitful philosophy that is according to human traditions and the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.^[6] If you have died with Christ to the elemental spirits of the world, why do you submit to them as though you lived in the world? “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!” These are all destined to perish with use, founded as they are on human commands and teachings. Even though they have the appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship and false humility achieved by an unsparing treatment of the body (σώματος, a form of σῶμα)^[7] – a wisdom with no true value – they in reality result in fleshly (σαρκός, another form of σάρξ) indulgence (πλησμονὴν, a form of πλησμονή).^[8]

In other words, “I self-flagellate three times a day and only eat bread and water,” is the same pride and religious thinking that got us into this mess in the first place. It is the religious impulse of the flesh of Adam.

The flesh is not sexual desire. A husband should give to his wife her sexual rights (ὀφειλὴν, a form of ὀφειλή),^[9] and likewise a wife to her husband. It is not the wife who has the rights (ἐξουσιάζει, a form of ἐξουσιάζω)^[10] to her own body (σώματος, a form of σῶμα), but the husband. In the same way, it is not the husband who has the rights (ἐξουσιάζει, a form of ἐξουσιάζω) to his own body (σώματος, a form of σῶμα), but the wife. Do not deprive each other, except by mutual agreement for a specified time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer.^[11] While the believer in Christ is not obligated (ὀφειλέται, a form of ὀφειλέτης) or a debtor to the flesh, husband and wife are indebted (ὀφειλὴν, a form of ὀφειλή) to each other sexually.

Interestingly, neither the wife nor the husband possesses the ἐξουσιάζει (a form of ἐξουσιάζω; authority, power) over her or his own body. That belongs to the spouse. This is the same authority that Gentile kings lorded over their subjects as Jesus told his disciples, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in authority (ἐξουσιάζοντες, another form of ἐξουσιάζω) over them are called ‘benefactors.’ Not so with you; instead the one who is greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the one who serves.”^[12] It is the same control Paul would not allow anything to have over him: “All things are lawful for me” – but not everything is beneficial. “All things are lawful for me” – but I will not be controlled (ἐξουσιασθήσομαι, another form of ἐξουσιάζω) by anything.^[13] I think I’ll go the long way around and circle back to this.

While sex (and sexual desire) in and of itself is not the flesh, if I set my sights on another’s wife (or a prostitute) that is the flesh. (Or do you not know that anyone who is united [κολλώμενος, a form of κολλάω]^[14] with a prostitute [πόρνῃ, a form of πόρνη]^[15] is one body with her?^[16]) Here is where the power I spoke of earlier comes into play. If I believe that I delight in the law of God in my inner being,^[17] then the desire for another’s wife or a prostitute, which is clearly contrary to God’s law, is not my desire: Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me.^[18] It is like a distant early warning system, sounding the alarm which I is asserting control.

This distinction may not be so obvious for the young, the virginal, or the single. I should know. I’ve spent most of my adult life single. But I want to address that in a separate essay.

Now not everyone lumps the old man, flesh, sin personified, desire of the flesh and so on together as one thing. But I have read a lot of Nietzsche, and out of deference, I suppose, for the help he has been to me I try to keep what he would call “imaginary causes and effects”^[19] to a minimum. I can posit all of this sin and rebellious desire in an old man born of Adam (as well as the credited righteousness of God and the fruit of his Spirit in a new creation born from above in the image of Christ) without feeling that any of this is my imagination. And the quantum leap (there is no time or space between energy quanta) between the old and new I describes my experience with chilling accuracy, especially in outbursts of anger.^[20]

Even as I rant I wonder, “Who are you?” For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want – instead, I do what I hate.^[21] That’s how my father used to act! And there have been times when that brought me back from the brink. (But there have also been times when that did not bring me back from the brink and I reveled in the sensual pleasure of rage.)

The main theological objection to lumping the old man, flesh, sin personified, desire of the flesh and so on together is that our old man was crucified with^[22] Jesus. It is therefore dead (and presumably gone). I take the death of Adam as my key here. God said, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.^[23] Something died in Adam when he became knowledgeable of evil.

I heard you moving about in the orchard, Adam said to God, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid,^[24] yet Adam had been naked all along. The man and his wife were both naked, but they were not ashamed,^[25] not with God, not with each other, and not with the animals. In a similar sense something has died in me, too. The old man no longer has my absolute unquestioned allegiance as me. And that is all Paul said, 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.^[26] The entire lifetime of Adam was 930 years, and then he died.^[27] And in a similar way I await that ultimate condemnation of sin in the flesh,^[28] the death of this body.

I promised I would circle back via the long way. Why would Paul counsel Corinthian husbands and wives to treat each other sexually in ways that Jesus did not want his disciples to treat each other at all, and under a control that Paul himself would not allow anything to have over him? So, here goes.

If the flesh got the wild idea to seek out a prostitute I wouldn’t know where to begin to look for one. Add to that, I know me. If I had sex with a pretty young prostitute I would fall in love with a pretty young prostitute. About a decade after my first divorce it took several days for me to get the pretty nurse who administered a barium enema out of my mind. I can be a silly old fool, no doubt about it. But chasing a pretty young prostitute, saying, “I love you, I love you, let me take you away from all of this,” is a sillier old fool than I can be. I live in the Midwest. I am working class all the way. I grew up in a fundamentalist church. There is something unseemly about visiting a prostitute.

Though the Roman government had apparently put a damper on the sexual worship of goddesses (and gods) in other places, this practice still flourished in Corinth at the time Paul wrote. Visiting a temple prostitute was good and in some cases necessary for good fortune. Highly skilled sex slaves, both male πόρνοι (a form of πόρνος)^[29] and female πόρνης (a form of πόρνη), were readily available, and Paul counseled husbands and wives, because of this πορνείας (a form of πορνεία),^[30] to be that for each other. He never repented of it. He never gave it a different spin that I have found. So I assume that even that degree of sensual and sexual commitment between husband and wife was not living according to the flesh^[31] in Paul’s understanding of the term he appropriated to describe the situation of the one born of the flesh and of the Spirit.

I want to leave the pelvic sins (as I heard a clever wag call them) to ponder the wider scope of opposition of the flesh to the Spirit of God. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality (πορνεία), impurity, depravity, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things.^[32] There is a world of sin less than a hair’s breadth and a nanosecond away from me (there is no time or space between quantum states) at every moment of my life here in this body. But I say, Paul wrote the Galatians, live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.^[33] So then, brothers and sisters, Paul wrote the Romans, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh…^[34]

Romans, Part 31

Back to Young, Virginal, or Single

Back to Romans, Part 32

Back to Conclusion

Back to Sexual Immorality Revisited, Part 3

Back to Father, Forgive Them, Part 3

Back to The Day of the Lord, Part 6

^[3] Romans 8:12 (NET)

^[5] Matthew 6:12 (NET) Table

^[6] Colossians 2:8 (NET)

^[8] Colossians 2:20-23 (NET)

^[11] 1 Corinthians 7:3-5a (NET)

^[12] Luke 22:25, 26 (NET)

^[13] 1 Corinthians 6:12 (NET)

^[16] 1 Corinthians 6:16 (NET)

^[17] Romans 7:22 (NET)

^[18] Romans 7:20 (NET)

^[19] Friedrich Nietzsche: The Antichrist (part 2) http://praxeology.net/antichrist2.htm

^[20] Galatians 5:20 (NET)

^[21] Romans 7:15 (NET)

^[22] Romans 6:6 (NET)

^[23] Genesis 2:17 (NKJV)

^[24] Genesis 3:10 (NET)

^[25] Genesis 2:25 (NET)

^[26] Romans 6:6 (NET)

^[27] Genesis 5:5 (NET)

^[28] Romans 8:3 (NET)

^[31] Romans 8:12 (NET)

^[32] Galatians 5:19-21a (NET) There is no note explaining why, but adultery (μοιχεία) which heads this list in the KJV does not even appear in the Greek text from which the NET was translated. It does begin the list in the textus receptus (received text).

^[33] Galatians 5:16 (NET)

^[34] Romans 8:12 (NET)

Is Sin Less Than Sin? Part 2

Posted on June 24, 2012 by admin

I’ll continue the survey of Galatians to understand the relationship of sin (παράπτωμα) to sin (ἁμαρτία). Paul hinted at the attitude, activity and the content of the faith of those who were so quickly deserting (μετατίθεσθε, a form of μετατίθημι) the one who called [them] by the grace of Christ and [were] following a different gospel¹ in a series of questions (Galatians 3:1-5 NET).

You foolish Galatians! Who has cast a spell on you?² Before your eyes Jesus Christ was vividly portrayed as crucified!³ The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing (πίστεως, a form of πίστις) what you heard? Are you so foolish? Although you began with the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by human effort (σαρκὶ, a form of σάρξ)? Have you suffered so many things for nothing? – if indeed it was for nothing. Does God then give you the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law or by your believing (πίστεως, a form of πίστις) what you heard?

Here is the same information in a table:

Gospel

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are following a different gospel – not that there really is another gospel, but there are some who are disturbing you and wanting to distort the gospel of Christ.

Galatians 1:6, 7 (NET)

Before your eyes Jesus Christ was vividly portrayed as crucified!

Galatians 3:1 (NET)

Attitude

…you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law…

Galatians 3:2 (NET)

…you receive the Spirit…by believing (πίστεως, a form of πίστις) what you heard…

Galatians 3:2 (NET)

Activity

…you [are] now trying to finish by human effort (σαρκὶ, a form of σάρξ)…

Galatians 3:3 (NET)

…you began with the Spirit…

Galatians 3:3 (NET)

Faith

God then give[s] you the Spirit and work[s] miracles among you by your doing the works of the law…

Galatians 3:5 (NET)

God then give[s] you the Spirit and work[s] miracles among you by…your believing (πίστεως, a form of πίστις) what you heard.

Galatians 3:5 (NET)

If someone is as enamored with this different gospel (not that there really is another gospel) as I was, a question comes to mind: “Well, what am I supposed to do?” Paul answered that question like this (Galatians 5:16-18 NET Table):

But I say, live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh (σαρκὸς, another form of σάρξ). For the flesh (σάρξ) has desires that are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh (σαρκός, another form of σάρξ), for these are in opposition to each other, so that you cannot do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under (ὑπό) the law.

Paul then contrasted the capabilities of the flesh (σάρξ) to that of the Holy Spirit. I’ve put that contrast into a table similar to the one above.

Galatians 1:6, 7 (NET)

Before your eyes Jesus Christ was vividly portrayed as crucified!

Galatians 3:1 (NET)

Now the works of the flesh (σαρκός, another form of σάρξ) are obvious: sexual immorality (πορνεία), impurity, depravity, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things.

Galatians 5:19-21a (NET) Table

But the fruit of the Spirit is love (ἀγάπη), joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness (πίστις), gentleness, and self-control.

Galatians 5:22-23a (NET) Table

I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!

Galatians 5:21b (NET)

Against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:23b (NET)

It takes some faithfulness (πίστις) from the Holy Spirit to believe (πίστις) that He will supply all of this, especially in the face of an eruption of sin when the temptation is strongest to take back the reins, as it were. Paul dealt with that more thoroughly in Romans 6 and 7, but there is some insight here as well (Galatians 2:17-21 NET Table).

But if while seeking to be justified in Christ we ourselves have also been found to be sinners, is Christ then one who encourages sin? Absolutely not! But if I build up again those things I once destroyed, I demonstrate that I [old man]⁴ am one who breaks God’s law. For through the law I [old man] died to the law so that I [new man]⁵ may live to God. I [old man] have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I [old man] who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I [new man] now live in the body, I [new man] live because of the faithfulness (πίστει, another form of πίστις) of the Son of God, who loved me [new man] and gave himself for me [new man]. I [new man] do not set aside God’s grace, because if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing!

Paul continued this thought later (Galatians 5:2, 3 NET):

Listen! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you at all! And I testify again to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated (ὀφειλέτης) to obey (ποιῆσαι, a form of ποιέω) the whole law.

Here regarding the law James mirrored Paul (James 2:10 NET):

For the one who obeys⁶ (τηρήσῃ, a form of τηρέω) the whole law but fails⁷ (πταίσῃ, a form of πταίω) in one point has become guilty of all of it.

So the one who sets out to obey part of the law (you let yourselves be circumcised according to the law) is obligated to obey the whole, and the one who fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. One who believes these two statements are true searches diligently for another option. Paul continued (Galatians 5:4-6 NET):

You who are trying to be declared righteous by the law have been alienated from Christ;⁸ you have fallen away from grace! For through the Spirit, by faith, we wait expectantly for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision carries any weight – the only thing that matters is faith (πίστις) working (ἐνεργουμένη, a form of ἐνεργέω) through love (ἀγάπης, a form of ἀγάπη).

Both the faith and the love Paul mentioned above are aspects of the fruit of the Spirit, supplied by God to those who believe. Truth be told the working (ἐνεργουμένη, a form of ἐνεργέω) is from God also: continue working out (κατεργάζεσθε, a form of κατεργάζομαι) your salvation with awe and reverence, for the one bringing forth (ἐνεργῶν, another form of ἐνεργέω) in you both the desire (θέλειν, a form of θέλω) and the effort (ἐνεργεῖν, another form of ἐνεργέω) – for the sake of his good pleasure (εὐδοκίας, a form of εὐδοκία) – is God.⁹ As Jesus said, Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father is well pleased (εὐδόκησεν, a form of εὐδοκέω) to give you the kingdom.¹⁰

And just in case I think that Paul was a special case, that his crucifixion with Christ was a unique event (Galatians 5:24-6:1 NET Table):

Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also behave in accordance with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, being jealous of one another. Brothers and sisters, if a person is discovered in some sin (παραπτώματι, a form of παράπτωμα), you who are spiritual restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness. Pay close attention to yourselves, so that you are not tempted too.

This letter is about deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ, trying to be declared righteous by the law, being alienated from Christ, falling away from grace. In context then there is nothing to indicate that Paul shifted gears and began to write about some unspecified παράπτωμα that was of lesser consequence than ἁμαρτία.

Addendum: June 4, 2019
Tables comparing Galatians 3:1; James 2:10 and Galatians 5:4 in the NET and KJV follow.

Galatians 3:1 (NET)	Galatians 3:1 (KJV)
You foolish Galatians! Who has cast a spell on you? Before your eyes Jesus Christ was vividly portrayed as crucified!	O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
Ὦ ἀνόητοι Γαλάται, τίς ὑμᾶς ἐβάσκανεν, οἷς κατ᾿ ὀφθαλμοὺς Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς προεγράφη ἐσταυρωμένος	ω ανοητοι γαλαται τις υμας εβασκανεν τη αληθεια μη πειθεσθαι οις κατ οφθαλμους ιησους χριστος προεγραφη εν υμιν εσταυρωμενος	ω ανοητοι γαλαται τις υμας εβασκανεν τη αληθεια μη πειθεσθαι οις κατ οφθαλμους ιησους χριστος προεγραφη εν υμιν εσταυρωμενος

James 2:10 (NET)	James 2:10 (KJV)
For the one who obeys the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.	For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ὅστις γὰρ ὅλον τὸν νόμον τηρήσῃ πταίσῃ δὲ ἐν ἑνί, γέγονεν πάντων ἔνοχος	οστις γαρ ολον τον νομον τηρησει πταισει δε εν ενι γεγονεν παντων ενοχος	οστις γαρ ολον τον νομον τηρησει πταισει δε εν ενι γεγονεν παντων ενοχος

Galatians 5:4 (NET)	Galatians 5:4 (KJV)
You who are trying to be declared righteous by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace!	Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
κατηργήθητε ἀπὸ Χριστοῦ, οἵτινες ἐν νόμῳ δικαιοῦσθε, τῆς χάριτος ἐξεπέσατε	κατηργηθητε απο του χριστου οιτινες εν νομω δικαιουσθε της χαριτος εξεπεσατε	κατηργηθητε απο του χριστου οιτινες εν νομω δικαιουσθε της χαριτος εξεπεσατε

Is Sin Less Than Sin? Part 3

Back to Saul and Barnabas, Part 3

Back to The Will of God – Jesus, Part 1

Back to Fear – Genesis, Part 7

Back to Prayer

Back to Paul’s Religious Mind Revisited – Part 2

Back to My Reasons and My Reason, Part 4

Back to Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 7

Back to Is Sin Less Than Sin, Part 4

Back to Romans, Part 31

Back to Romans, Part 75

Back to My Deeds, Part 1

Back to Romans, Part 88

Back to Forgiven or Passed Over? Part 5

Back to A Shadow of the Good Things, Part 1

Back to A Shadow of the Good Things, Part 2

Back to The Book of Life, Part 3

¹ Galatians 1:6 (NET)

² The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had τη αληθεια μη πειθεσθαι (KJV: that ye should not obey the truth) here. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

³ The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had εν υμιν (KJV: among you) here. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

⁴ Romans 6:6, 7 (NET) We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.)

⁵ Colossians 3:9, 10 (NET) Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with its practices and have been clothed with the new man that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it.

⁶ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had τηρήσῃ here, aorist tense in the subjunctive mood, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had τηρησει (KJV: shall keep), future tense in the indicative mood.

⁷ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had πταίσῃ here, aorist tense in the subjunctive mood, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had πταισει (KJV: offend), future tense in the indicative mood.

⁸ The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had the article του preceding Christ. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

⁹ Philippians 2:12b, 13 (NET) Table

¹⁰ Luke 12:32 (NET)

The Gospel and the Religious Mind

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

Tag Archives: Galatians 5:19-21