Keep Yourselves From Idols, Part 1

Posted on February 5, 2024 by admin

I don’t worship statues, I thought, when I first encountered the end of John’s letter: Little children, keep yourselves¹ from idols.² It might be easier if I did, not necessarily the keeping part: Prostrating myself before some statue in some temple on a cold stone floor, naked, sounds kinky. I like it. But it would be easier to recognize when I was doing it.

I’ve been home a lot recently, able to attend church and Bible study. The Pastor’s sermon series was on Genesis and the Bible study was an in depth look and discussion. I became increasingly uncomfortable with where my mind was going, especially in the 3^rd chapter of Genesis. I had stopped treating it like the word of God and had begun to treat it like a Delphic Oracle that I could or should outsmart somehow.

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
Genesis 2:16, 17 (Tanakh)	Genesis 2:16, 17 (NET)	Genesis 2:16, 17 (NETS)	Genesis 2:16, 17 (English Elpenor)
And HaShem G-d commanded the man (הָֽאָדָ֖ם), saying: ‘Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; [Table]	Then the Lord God commanded the man (‘āḏām, האדם), “You may freely eat fruit from every tree of the orchard,	And the Lord God commanded Adam (τῷ Αδαμ), saying, “You shall eat for food of every tree that is in the orchard, [Table]	And the Lord God gave a charge to Adam (τῷ ᾿Αδὰμ), saying, Of every tree which is in the garden thou mayest freely eat,
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die’ [Table].	but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die.”	but of the tree for knowing good and evil, of it you shall not eat; on the day that you eat of it, you shall die by death” [Table].	but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil– of it ye shall not eat, but in whatsoever day ye eat of it, ye shall surely die.
Genesis 3:6 (Tanakh)	Genesis 3:6 (NET)	Genesis 3:6 (NETS)	Genesis 3:6 (English Elpenor)
And when the woman (הָֽאִשָּׁ֡ה) saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight (תַֽאֲוָה) to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired (וְנֶחְמָ֤ד) to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat [Table].	When the woman (‘iššâ, האשה) saw that the tree produced fruit that was good for food, was attractive (ta’ăvâ, תאוה) to the eye, and was desirable (ḥāmaḏ, ונחמד) for making one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.	And the woman (ἡ γυνὴ) saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasing (ἀρεστὸν) for the eyes to look at and it was beautiful (ὡραῗόν) to contemplate, and when she had taken of its fruit she ate, and she also gave some to her husband with her, and they ate [Table].	And the woman (ἡ γυνή) saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant (ἀρεστὸν) to the eyes to look upon and beautiful (ὡραῖόν) to contemplate, and having taken of its fruit she ate, and she gave to her husband also with her, and they ate.

I focused on the woman because that was where the text gives the most hope for understanding why this happened. The man’s motivations were more inscrutable or inanely mundane: “This is the food my wife gave me, so I ate it.”³ There are two different words for desire in the Masoretic text leading to the moment the woman took of its fruit and ate.⁴ A note (18) in the NET translated the Hebrew: “that good was the tree for food, and that desirable it was to the eyes, and desirable was the tree to make one wise.”

The rabbis who translated the Septuagint didn’t choose any forms of θέλω or θέλημα for these words. Rather, they chose ἀρεστὸν (a form of ἀρεστός) for תַֽאֲוָה (ta’ăvâ), and ὡραῖόν (a form of ὡραῖος) for וְנֶחְמָ֤ד (ḥāmaḏ). But who cares about the Septuagint? Let’s just go with it. This happened because the woman exercised her free will, even if the man just followed her lead.

Let me get naked and prostrate myself before free will to see if I can recognize that I am naked and prostrate before a man-made idol: The first thing that occurs to me is that free will must be evil, since it caused the woman to disobey God’s command. Well, I don’t like being naked and prostrate before something evil, so the first thing I’ll do is add free will to God’s word.

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
Genesis 1:27, 28 (Tanakh)	Genesis 1:27, 28 (NET)	Genesis 1:27, 28 (NETS)	Genesis 1:27, 28 (English Elpenor)
And G-d created man (הָֽאָדָם֙) in His own image, in the image of G-d created He him; male (זָכָ֥ר) and female (וּנְקֵבָ֖ה) created He them [Table].	God created humankind (‘āḏām, האדם) in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male (zāḵār, זכר) and female (nᵊqēḇâ, ונקבה) he created them.	And God made humankind (τὸν ἄνθρωπον); according to divine image he made it; male (ἄρσεν) and female (καὶ θῆλυ) he made them [Table].	And God made man (τὸν ἄνθρωπον), according to the image of God he made him, male (ἄρσεν) and female (καὶ θῆλυ) he made them.
And G-d blessed them; [and gave them free will] and G-d said unto them: ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth’ [Table].	God blessed them [and gave them free will] and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground.”	And God blessed them [and gave them free will], saying, “Increase, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky and all the cattle and all the earth and all the creeping things that creep upon the earth” [Table].	And God blessed them [and gave them free will], saying, Increase and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the seas and flying creatures of heaven, and all the cattle and all the earth, and all the reptiles that creep on the earth.

Now that free will has been given by God, it needs some power and purpose. Otherwise, why would I prostrate myself naked before it? Just kinky fun? No, it was not just that free will prompted the woman to disobey God, she might have obeyed God of her own free will. There’s no evidence for that in the text, but what good is free will if it is incapable of obedience?

So now, I can use my idol to judge God: If the woman’s God-given free will lacked the power, authority, whatever, to make it possible for her to have obeyed God, then God was unfair, vindictive, evil in a word. God is not evil. Therefore by free will human beings may choose righteousness and obedience. The woman might have rewritten the whole story if she had directed her free will toward righteousness and obedience rather than sin and disobedience.

About this time I recognized that I’d been here before.⁵

God promised Solomon a wise and discerning mind superior to that of anyone who has preceded or will succeed you¹—in the dream. But Solomon broke every law God gave the kings of Israel while wide-awake. Surely Solomon’s alleged wisdom was grossly overstated!

Okay, enough of this self-righteous snit. You notice what just happened. I’m all up in arms because the wise and discerning mind God allegedly gave Solomon was neither wise enough nor discerning enough to protect Solomon from falling afoul of the laws God gave the kings of Israel. I reasoned that God-given discernment at a minimum should have made the king wise enough to follow God’s rules for kings, or God-given discernment can’t be discernment given by God. It must have been only a dream.

There is a significant difference between the wise and discerning mind God gave to Solomon and the woman’s free will. The wise and discerning mind is stated explicitly:

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
1 Kings 3:11, 12 (Tanakh)	1 Kings 3:11, 12 (NET)	3 Reigns 3:11, 12 (NETS)	3 Kings 3:11, 12 (English Elpenor)
And God said unto [Solomon], Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment; [Table]	God said to him, “Because you asked for the ability to make wise judicial decisions, and not for long life, or riches, or vengeance on your enemies,	And the Lord said to him, “Because you requested this thing from me and did not request for yourself many days and did not request riches and did not request lives of your enemies but requested for yourself understanding to listen to judgment, [Table]	And the Lord said to him, Because thou hast asked this thing of me, and hast not asked for thyself long life, and hast not asked wealth, nor hast asked the lives of thine enemies, but hast asked for thyself understanding to hear judgment;
Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise (חָכָ֣ם) and an understanding (וְנָב֔וֹן) heart (לֵב); so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee [Table].	I grant your request and give you a wise (ḥāḵām, חכם) and discerning (bîn, ונבון) mind (lēḇ, לב) superior to that of anyone who has preceded or will succeed you.	behold, I have done according to your word; behold, I have given you a prudent (φρονίμην) and wise (καὶ σοφήν) heart (καρδίαν); like you there has not been before you, and after you there shall not arise similar to you [Table].	behold, I have done according to thy word: behold, I have given thee an understanding (φρονίμην) and wise (καὶ σοφήν) heart (καρδίαν): there has not been [any one] like thee before thee, and after thee there shall not arise one like thee.

On the other hand, the woman’s free will was an inference derived from two Hebrew words that can mean desire. Eventually, I had to come to terms with Solomon’s wealth and his God-given wise and discerning mind.⁶

[Solomon’s wealth] which is at least possible to measure, has been coupled in a promise with a wise and discerning mind¹ which is difficult to measure. Solomon’s wealth is hard to deny (whether I argue with the superlative degree of it or not)…

Is it possible that a wise and discerning mind given by God, would not be wise or discerning enough to prevent Solomon’s disobedience to God’s laws? That’s what the Bible seems to be saying here. And Solomon’s wealth is sort of the kicker to make that point.

God judged his creation very good.

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
Genesis 1:31a (Tanakh)	Genesis 1:31a (NET)	Genesis 1:31a (NETS)	Genesis 1:31a (English Elpenor)
And G-d saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very (מְאֹ֑ד) good (ט֖וֹב) [Table].	God saw all that he had made—and it was very (mᵊ’ōḏ, מאד) good (ṭôḇ, טוב)!	And God saw all the things that he had made, and see, they were exceedingly good (καλὰ λίαν) [Table].	And God saw all the things that he had made, and, behold, they were very good (καλὰ λίαν).

Is it possible that a creation (including the woman, the man and the serpent) judged very good (Tanakh, KJV, NET, English Elpenor) or exceedingly good (NETS) by God would not be good enough to prevent the woman’s, the man’s or the serpent’s disobedience to God’s one commandment? That’s what the Bible seems to be saying here.

We imagine that the woman, the man and the serpent knew God better than we do, that they saw Him as they conversed with Him. The Hebrew word מִפְּנֵי֙ (pānîm) does occur in the text, translated ἀπὸ προσώπου (Septuagint), from the presence (Tanakh, KJV, NETS), from (NET) and from the face (English Elpenor).

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
Genesis 3:8, 10 (Tanakh)	Genesis 3:8, 10 (NET)	Genesis 3:8, 10 (NETS)	Genesis 3:8, 10 (English Elpenor)
And they heard (וַיִּשְׁמְע֞וּ) the voice (ק֨וֹל) of HaShem G-d walking (מִתְהַלֵּ֥ךְ) in the garden (בַּגָּ֖ן) toward the cool (לְר֣וּחַ) of the day (הַיּ֑וֹם); and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence (מִפְּנֵי֙) of HaShem G-d amongst the trees of the garden [Table].	Then the man and his wife heard (šāmaʿ, וישמעו) the sound (qôl, קול) of the Lord God moving about (hālaḵ, מתהלך) in the orchard (gan, בגן) at the breezy time (rûaḥ, לרוח) of the day (yôm, היום), and they hid from (pānîm, מפני) the Lord God among the trees of the orchard.	And they heard (καὶ ἤκουσαν) the sound (τὴν φωνὴν) of the Lord God walking about (περιπατοῦντος) in the orchard (ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ) in the evening (τὸ δειλινόν), and both Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence (ἀπὸ προσώπου) of the Lord God in the midst of the timber of the orchard [Table].	And they heard (Καὶ ἤκουσαν) the voice (τῆς φωνῆς) of the Lord God walking (περιπατοῦντος) in the garden (ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ) in the afternoon (τὸ δειλινόν); and both Adam and his wife hid themselves from the face (ἀπὸ προσώπου) of the Lord God in the midst of the trees of the garden.
And [Adam] said: ‘I heard (שָׁמַ֖עְתִּי) Thy voice (קֹֽלְךָ֥) in the garden (בַּגָּ֑ן), and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself’ [Table].	The man replied, “I heard (šāmaʿ, שמעתי) you moving about (qôl, קלך) in the orchard (gan, בגן), and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”	And he said to him, “I heard (ἤκουσα) the sound of you (τὴν φωνήν σου) walking about (περιπατοῦντος) in the orchard (ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ), and I was afraid, because I am naked, and I hid myself” [Table].	And he said to him, I heard (ἤκουσα) thy voice (τῆς φωνῆς σου) as thou walkedst (περιπατοῦντος) in the garden (ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ), and I feared because I was naked and I hid myself.

A quick survey of the occurrences of מפני (pānîm) in the early chapters of Genesis, which I won’t undertake here, makes it difficult to believe that it was meant to imply that the woman, the man or the serpent literally saw God’s face. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.⁷ So, we imagine that they saw Jesus. Nude? The woman doesn’t strike me as one who would need to eat forbidden fruit to realize she was naked if she had already seen Jesus in shiny white clothes. All the text says is that they heard his words and knew that He responded to their words.

The Lord God’s voice…walking in the garden (Tanakh/KJV/English Elpenor) is a curious turn of phrase. I suppose it could be understood as “the voice of the Lord God, walking in the garden.” But it seems to explain the alternative translations: the sound of the Lord God moving about in the orchard (NET) and the sound of the Lord God walking about in the orchard (NETS).

The Hebrew words לְר֣וּחַ (rûaḥ) הַיּ֑וֹם (yôm), which I suppose would literally translate, “in” or “toward the spirit of the day,” were translated various ways: toward the cool of the day (Tanakh), in the cool of the day (KJV), at the breezy time of the day (NET), in the evening (NETS) and in the afternoon (English Elpenor). In the Tanakh on chabad.org it was understood as the direction the Lord’s voice walked: to the direction of the sun.⁸ And despite the fact that the rabbis who translated the Septuagint chose no form of πνεῦμα for לְר֣וּחַ (rûaḥ) here, I’m reminded of Jesus’ words to Nicodemus (John 3:5-8 ESV):

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit (πνεύματος), he cannot enter the kingdom of God [Table]. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit (πνεύματος) is spirit (πνεῦμα). Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind (πνεῦμα) blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound (τὴν φωνὴν αὐτοῦ), but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit (πνεύματος).”

Jesus’ comfort level with the interplay of spirit and wind calms me and encourages me to think that the woman, the man and the serpent communed with a voice in the wind or a voice in the Spirit. I assume then that the face or presence of the Lord was their perception of proximity to that voice. But the NET translation of לְר֣וּחַ (rûaḥ), at the breezy time, seems to be more of a hedge translation, taking no sides as it were whether God came to them calmly or furiously:

The expression is traditionally rendered “cool of the day,” because the Hebrew word רוּחַ (ruakh) can mean “wind.” U. Cassuto (Genesis: From Adam to Noah, 152-54) concludes after lengthy discussion that the expression refers to afternoon when it became hot and the sun was beginning to decline. J. J. Niehaus (God at Sinai [SOTBT], 155-57) offers a different interpretation of the phrase, relating יוֹם (yom, usually understood as “day”) to an Akkadian cognate umu (“storm”) and translates the phrase “in the wind of the storm.” If Niehaus is correct, then God is not pictured as taking an afternoon stroll through the orchard, but as coming in a powerful windstorm to confront the man and woman with their rebellion. In this case קוֹל יְהוָה (qol y^ehvah, “sound of the Lord”) may refer to God’s thunderous roar, which typically accompanies his appearance in the storm to do battle or render judgment (e.g., see Ps 29).

Though they knew Him in some sense, knowing God means more than hearing his voice and disobeying Him.

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
Psalm 9:10 (Tanakh/KJV)	Psalm 9:10 (NET)	Psalm 9:11 (NETS)	Psalm 9:11 (English Elpenor)
And they that know (יֽוֹדְעֵ֣י) thy name (שְׁמֶ֑ךָ) will put their trust (וְיִבְטְח֣וּ) in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.	Your loyal followers trust in you, [NET note 21: Heb “and the ones who know (yāḏaʿ, יודעי) your name (šēm, שמך) trust (bāṭaḥ, ויבטחו) in you”] for you, Lord, do not abandon those who seek your help.	And let those who know (γινώσκοντες) your name (τὸ ὄνομά σου) hope (ἐλπισάτωσαν) in you, because you did not forsake those who seek you, O Lord.	And let them that know (γινώσκοντες) thy name (τὸ ὄνομά σου) hope (ἐλπισάτωσαν) in thee: for thou, O Lord, hast not failed them that diligently seek thee.

The Hebrew word שְׁמֶ֑ךָ (šēm), translated thy name (Tanakh, KJV) and your name (NET), might have been translated your reputation, your fame or your glory. The Greek translation of שְׁמֶ֑ךָ (šēm) τὸ ὄνομά σου—your name (NETS) and thy name (English Elpenor)—might have been translated your reputation, your fame or news of you. The Hebrew word וְיִבְטְח֣וּ (bāṭaḥ), will put their trust (Tanakh, KJV) and trust (NET), was translated ἐλπισάτωσαν in the Septuagint, hope (BLB, Elpenor). But ἐλπισάτωσαν might have been translated have confident assurance, be confident or put trust.

A note on the root word ἐλπίζω in the Koine Greek Lexicon online reads:

Does not mean “to hope” in the sense of “longing for” or “wishing”; but of “confident assurance.”

The serpent trusted (Genesis 3:4, 5) his own partially true knowledge rather than God’s command. The woman trusted (Genesis 3:6) the serpent’s knowledge and her own desires rather than God’s command. The man trusted (Genesis 3:6) his wife rather than God’s command. Though I hadn’t seen it before, Paul may have written the best summation of what transpired in the garden (Romans 1:18-21 NET).

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, because what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes—his eternal⁹ power and divine nature—have been clearly seen because they are understood through what has been made (Genesis 1-2). So people are without excuse. For although they knew (γνόντες, a form of γινώσκω) God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts, and their senseless hearts were darkened [Table].

Paul also wrote (1 Corinthians 8:2, 3 NET):

If¹⁰ someone thinks he knows¹¹ something, he does not yet¹² know¹³ to the degree that he needs to know (γνῶναι, another form of γινώσκω). But if someone loves (ἀγαπᾷ, a form of ἀγαπάω) God, he is known (ἔγνωσται, another form of γινώσκω) by God.

Rather than inventing a category free will along with a lot of convoluted arguments, it seems to make more sense to stick with desire: the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit.¹⁴ The Greek word translated the desires was ἐπιθυμεῖ, an indicative form of the verb ἐπιθυμέω in the active voice and present tense. In other words, “the flesh desires against the Spirit.” Accepting the truth of this statement, even in the garden where everything was very good, cuts through a lot of unnecessary intellectual clutter.

So, the flesh desiring against the Spirit of God was the cause of sin, rather than its result, as James wrote (James 1:13-15 ESV):

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,”¹⁵ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire (τῆς ἰδίας ἐπιθυμίας). Then desire (ἡ ἐπιθυμία) when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

God cannot be tempted with evil. I take that to heart, for I can imagine an argument that God didn’t need to give free will to human beings in any explicit way, it was simply bequeathed as a part of his image. But if God cannot be tempted by evil, He doesn’t possess free will in any sense that is most meaningful to human beings. Apart from the ability to be tempted with evil, free will loses all its explanatory power, and most of its appeal, for human beings.

It is written in the prophets, Jesus said, ‘And they will all be taught (διδακτοὶ, a form of διδακτός) by God.’ Everyone who hears and learns from the Father comes to me.¹⁶ And that’s what God continued to do for the woman and the man in their time, and continues to do for any who read his words in the Bible any time. Paradise may be lost, but the Garden of Eden was only a shadow of the good things to come.¹⁷

Tables comparing Psalm 9:10 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET, and the Greek of Psalm 9:10 (9:11) in the Septuagint (BLB and Elpenor), and tables comparing 1 John 5:21; Romans 1:20; 1 Corinthians 8:2 and James 1:13 in the NET and KJV follow.

Psalm 9:10 (Tanakh)	Psalm 9:10 (KJV)	Psalm 9:10 (NET)
And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.	And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.	Your loyal followers trust in you, for you, Lord, do not abandon those who seek your help.

Psalm 9:10 (Septuagint BLB)	Psalm 9:11 (Septuagint Elpenor)
καὶ ἐλπισάτωσαν ἐπὶ σὲ οἱ γινώσκοντες τὸ ὄνομά σου ὅτι οὐκ ἐγκατέλιπες τοὺς ἐκζητοῦντάς σε κύριε	καὶ ἐλπισάτωσαν ἐπὶ σοὶ οἱ γινώσκοντες τὸ ὄνομά σου, ὅτι οὐκ ἐγκατέλιπες τοὺς ἐκζητοῦντάς σε, Κύριε
Psalm 9:11 (NETS)	Psalm 9:11 (English Elpenor)
And let those who know your name hope in you, because you did not forsake those who seek you, O Lord.	And let them that know thy name hope in thee: for thou, O Lord, hast not failed them that diligently seek thee.

1 John 5:21 (NET)	1 John 5:21 (KJV)
Little children, guard yourselves from idols.	Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

1 John 5:21 (NET Parallel Greek)	1 John 5:21 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	1 John 5:21 (Byzantine Majority Text)
Τεκνία, φυλάξατε ἑαυτὰ ἀπὸ τῶν εἰδώλων	τεκνια φυλαξατε εαυτους απο των ειδωλων αμην	τεκνια φυλαξατε εαυτα απο των ειδωλων αμην

Romans 1:20 (NET)	Romans 1:20 (KJV)
For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse.	For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Romans 1:20 (NET Parallel Greek)	Romans 1:20 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Romans 1:20 (Byzantine Majority Text)
τὰ γὰρ ἀόρατα αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ κτίσεως κόσμου τοῖς ποιήμασιν νοούμενα καθορᾶται, ἥ τε αἴ_διος αὐτοῦ δύναμις καὶ θειότης, εἰς τὸ εἶναι αὐτοὺς ἀναπολογήτους	τα γαρ αορατα αυτου απο κτισεως κοσμου τοις ποιημασιν νοουμενα καθοραται η τε αιδιος αυτου δυναμις και θειοτης εις το ειναι αυτους αναπολογητους	τα γαρ αορατα αυτου απο κτισεως κοσμου τοις ποιημασιν νοουμενα καθοραται η τε αιδιος αυτου δυναμις και θειοτης εις το ειναι αυτους αναπολογητους

1 Corinthians 8:2 (NET)	1 Corinthians 8:2 (KJV)
If someone thinks he knows something, he does not yet know to the degree that he needs to know.	And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.

1 Corinthians 8:2 (NET Parallel Greek)	1 Corinthians 8:2 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	1 Corinthians 8:2 (Byzantine Majority Text)
εἴ τις δοκεῖ ἐγνωκέναι τι, οὔπω ἔγνω καθὼς δεῖ γνῶναι	ει δε τις δοκει ειδεναι τι ουδεπω ουδεν εγνωκεν καθως δει γνωναι	ει δε τις δοκει ειδεναι τι ουδεπω ουδεν εγνωκεν καθως δει γνωναι

James 1:13 (NET)	James 1:13 (KJV)
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.	Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

James 1:13 (NET Parallel Greek)	James 1:13 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	James 1:13 (Byzantine Majority Text)
Μηδεὶς πειραζόμενος λεγέτω ὅτι ἀπο θεοῦ πειράζομαι· ὁ γὰρ θεὸς ἀπείραστος ἐστιν κακῶν, πειράζει δὲ αὐτὸς οὐδένα	μηδεις πειραζομενος λεγετω οτι απο του θεου πειραζομαι ο γαρ θεος απειραστος εστιν κακων πειραζει δε αυτος ουδενα	μηδεις πειραζομενος λεγετω οτι απο θεου πειραζομαι ο γαρ θεος απειραστος εστιν κακων πειραζει δε αυτος ουδενα

Keep Yourselves From Idols, Part 2

Back to Father, Son and Holy Spirit – Part 11

¹ The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text had the neuter reflexive pronoun ἑαυτὰ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus had the masculine εαυτους. A note in the Koine Greek Lexicon explained: “Although it is technically used of the 3rd person, it is also used for the 1st and 2nd person…”

² 1 John 5:21 (ESV) The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had αμην (KJV: Amen) here. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

³ Genesis 3:12 Table

⁴ Genesis 3:6b (ESV) Table

⁵ From Solomon’s Wealth, Part 4

⁶ From Solomon’s Wealth, Part 5

⁷ John 1:18 (ESV) Table

⁸ Rashi’s commentary reads: “to the direction of the sun: To that direction in which the sun sets, and this is the west, for toward evening, the sun is in the west, and they sinned in the tenth [hour]. — [from Gen. Rabbah 19:8, Sanh. 38B].”

⁹ In the NET parallel Greek text eternal was spelled αἴ_διος, and ἀΐδιος in the NA²⁸, Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text.

¹⁰ The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had δε (KJV: And) here. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

¹¹ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἐγνωκέναι here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ειδεναι (KJV: that he knoweth).

¹² The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had οὔπω here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ουδεπω ουδεν (KJV: nothing yet).

¹³ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἔγνω here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had εγνωκεν (KJV: he knoweth).

¹⁴ Galatians 5:17a (ESV) Table

¹⁵ The Stephanus Textus Receptus had the article του preceding God. The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text did not.

¹⁶ John 6:45 (NET) Table

¹⁷ Hebrews 10:1a (NET)

The Book of Life, Part 2

Posted on May 25, 2022 by admin

To the angel of the church in Sardis write the following: “This is the solemn pronouncement of the one who holds the seven¹ spirits of God and the seven stars: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a reputation² (ὄνομα) that you are alive, but in reality you are dead.³

This angel (ἀγγέλῳ) may be the human messenger of God to the Sardis Church. This message is addressed to a singular you: your (σου) deeds, you have (ἔχεις). It is probably most prudent for human messengers to assume it is addressed to them and for members of their congregations to assume it is addressed to them as individuals. It is worth noting that ὄνομα was used here in the sense of reputation, that for which one is known, falsely in this particular instance.

But⁴ you have (ἔχεις) a few individuals (ὀνόματα, a form of ὄνομα) in⁵ Sardis who have not stained their clothes, and they will walk with me dressed in white because they are worthy.⁶

Here, however, I would assume that you have (ἔχεις) referred to the church in Sardis as a singular collective. And here, also, ὀνόματα, a plural form of ὄνομα was translated individuals, names understood as persons. The pertinent verse for a consideration of the book of life follows (Revelation 3:5 NET).

The one who conquers (νικῶν) will be dressed like them⁷ [i.e., the names in Sardis who have not stained their clothes] in white clothing, and I will never erase his name (ὄνομα) from the book of life (τῆς βίβλου τῆς ζωῆς), but will declare⁸ his name (ὄνομα) before my Father and before his angels.

This is an encouraging promise: Jesus (Revelation 1:12-18) will never (οὐ μὴ) erase (ἐξαλείψω) [the] name [of t]he one who conquers…from the book of life. This is called the subjunctive of emphatic negation,⁹ though ἐξαλείψω in this particular occurrence is in the future tense and indicative mood. It harmonizes perfectly with the Lord’s wish…for all come to repentance.¹⁰ The implication, however, that one who does not conquer may not be so blessed, coupled with the statement—If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, that person was thrown into the lake of fire¹¹—leaves a different impression.

This is as good a place as any to point out that name (ὄνομα) is not found in Revelation 20:15 in the Greek texts [see Table below] but was added by the translators. If I consider the different usages of ὄνομα in the previous passage, I begin to wonder if Jesus will declare the personal name of the one who conquers…before my Father and before his angels, or the reputation of the one who conquers. Likewise, is it the personal name of the one who conquers He will never erase…from the book of life? Or is it the reputation of the one who conquers that He will never erase…from the book of life?

I have thought that the book of life lists the names of those who will not be thrown into the lake of fire. Perhaps it contains the true reputation or character of the one who conquers instead. If I limited myself to considering only Revelation 3:1-5, I would assume that the one who conquers completes his or her deeds in the sight of Jesus’¹² God,¹³ remembers what he or she has received and heard, obeys it, and repents,¹⁴ and doesn’t dribble food or drink on his or her clothing.

A little familiarity with Isaiah, however, persuades me that stained…clothes has more to do with sin than with sloppy eating or drinking (Isaiah 1:18 ESV Table):

Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ is fairly explicit about those whose place will be in the lake of fire (Revelation 21:8 NET):

But as for the¹⁵ cowards, unbelievers,¹⁶ detestable persons, murderers, the sexually immoral, and those who practice magic spells,¹⁷ idol worshipers, and all those who lie, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. That is the second¹⁸ death.¹⁹

So, I tend to add not being or doing these things to the list of requirements that defines the one who conquers. Without discounting any of these achievements, I recognize from many other statements in the Bible that the path to these achievements is not through my adherence to rules. That would be hypocrisy, the work of an actor.

I suspect that this sort of do-it-yourself religion was the reason Jesus told John to write to the angel of the church in Sardis,²⁰ I have not found your deeds complete (πεπληρωμένα, a form of πληρόω) in the sight of my God.²¹ Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish these things but to fulfill (πληρῶσαι, another form of πληρόω) them,²² Jesus promised.

The path to all of these achievements is through Jesus Christ (John 14:5-7 NET):

Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How²³ can we know the way?” Jesus replied, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you have known²⁴ me, you will know²⁵ my Father too. And from now on you do know him and have seen him.”

All of these achievements are the work of God through Our Lord Jesus Christ (John 3:3, 5-8 NET):

Jesus replied, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God [Table]…I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God [Table]. 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.”

When asked, “What should we do, brothers?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”²⁶

Paul wrote (Galatians 5:16-18 NET):

But I say, live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. For the flesh has desires that are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh, for these are in opposition to each other, so that you cannot do what you want [Table]. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

And again (Romans 8:1-4 NET):

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death [Table]. 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 (πληρωθῇ, another form of πληρόω) in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

I admit that here and now I think of the sin he condemned (κατέκρινεν, a form of κατακρίνω) in my flesh as imprisoned there. The coward and unbeliever imprisoned in my flesh don’t prevent me from trusting Jesus or receiving his faith in God’s word. The detestable person imprisoned in my flesh doesn’t prevent Him from sharing his holiness with me. The murderer imprisoned in my flesh is not free to go on a killing spree. The sexual predator imprisoned in my flesh is restrained from victimizing women, men, girls, boys and animals, or making a religious rite of victimizing them. The magical thinking idol worshiper imprisoned in my flesh cannot stop me from hearing the Word of God, nor can the liar imprisoned there dissuade me from the truth of his word.

Still, the ultimate destination of all this sin he condemned in my flesh is the lake of fire²⁷ along with Death and Hades,²⁸ the place of the dead. It’s a very hopeful thing that when Jesus raises me up at²⁹ the last day³⁰ I’ll no longer be burdened with all this sinful residue. While I can appreciate in a hypothetical sense that those who define themselves by, or take pride in, the sin he condemned in their flesh may not perceive things quite this way, I see no reason to despair over the persistence of human sinfulness while I trust in the persistence of the One who does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.³¹I’m willing to continue, expecting the book of life to be something more than a list of personal names (ὀνοματογραφία) of those who will not be thrown into the lake of fire.³²

Thus far the Greek words translated the book were τῇ βίβλῳ (Revelation 20:15) and τῆς βίβλου (Revelation 3:5), forms of βίβλος. Now I’ll consider an occurrence of τὸ βιβλίον (Revelation 17:8 NET).

The³³ beast you saw was, and is not, but is about to come up from the abyss and then go to destruction. The inhabitants of the earth—all those whose names³⁴ have not been written in (ἐπὶ) the book of life (τὸ βιβλίον τῆς ζωῆς) since the foundation of the world—will be astounded³⁵ when they see that³⁶ the beast was, and is not, but is to come.³⁷

The words all those appear to have been added by the translators. They have no counterpart in the Greek text. So, The inhabitants of the earth…whose names have not been written in the book of life since the foundation of the world—will be astounded. If I understand the singular τὸ ὄνομα (translated: names) as reputation or character, then I can assume it is the reputation or character of the one who conquers which has been written in the book of life since the foundation of the world and that those who do net yet possess this character, those who have not yet lived this reputation, those who have not yet received God’s salvation in Jesus Christ, will be astounded.

The alternative, that the names, τα ονοματα, are personal names implies that there are inhabitants of the earth for whom God never cared but predestined to be thrown into the lake of fire since the foundation of the world. Since that would make the Lord’s wish..for all to come to repentance³⁸ not merely sentimental but a bald-faced lie, I will continue to consider that it is the reputation or character of the one who conquers which has been written in the book of life since the foundation of the world.

I’ll pick this up in another essay. The table mentioned above follows:

A note (41) in the NET reads: “The word ‘name’ is not in the Greek text, but is implied.”

Revelation 20:15 (NET)	Revelation 20:15 (KJV)
If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, that person was thrown into the lake of fire.	And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
καὶ εἴ τις οὐχ εὑρέθη ἐν τῇ βίβλῳ τῆς ζωῆς γεγραμμένος, ἐβλήθη εἰς τὴν λίμνην τοῦ πυρός	και ει τις ουχ ευρεθη εν τη βιβλω της ζωης γεγραμμενος εβληθη εις την λιμνην του πυρος	και ει τις ουχ ευρεθη εν τω βιβλιω της ζωης γεγραμμενος εβληθη εις την λιμνην του πυρος

Tables comparing Revelation 3:1; 3:4; 3:5; 3:2; 3:3; 21:8; John 14:5; 14:7 and Revelation 17:8 in the NET and KJV follow.

Revelation 3:1 (NET)	Revelation 3:1 (KJV)
“To the angel of the church in Sardis write the following: “This is the solemn pronouncement of the one who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a reputation that you are alive, but in reality you are dead.	And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
Καὶ τῷ ἀγγέλῳ τῆς ἐν Σάρδεσιν ἐκκλησίας γράψον· Τάδε λέγει ὁ ἔχων τὰ ἑπτὰ πνεύματα τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τοὺς ἑπτὰ ἀστέρας· οἶδα σου τὰ ἔργα ὅτι ὄνομα ἔχεις ὅτι ζῇς, καὶ νεκρὸς εἶ	και τω αγγελω της εν σαρδεσιν εκκλησιας γραψον ταδε λεγει ο εχων τα πνευματα του θεου και τους επτα αστερας οιδα σου τα εργα οτι το ονομα εχεις οτι ζης και νεκρος ει	και τω αγγελω της εν σαρδεσιν εκκλησιας γραψον ταδε λεγει ο εχων τα επτα πνευματα του θεου και τους επτα αστερας οιδα σου τα εργα οτι ονομα εχεις οτι ζης και νεκρος ει

Revelation 3:4 (NET)	Revelation 3:4 (KJV)
But you have a few individuals in Sardis who have not stained their clothes, and they will walk with me dressed in white because they are worthy.	Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ἀλλὰ ἔχεις ὀλίγα ὀνόματα ἐν Σάρδεσιν ἃ οὐκ ἐμόλυναν τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτῶν, καὶ περιπατήσουσιν μετ᾿ ἐμοῦ ἐν λευκοῖς, ὅτι ἄξιοι εἰσιν	εχεις ολιγα ονοματα και εν σαρδεσιν α ουκ εμολυναν τα ιματια αυτων και περιπατησουσιν μετ εμου εν λευκοις οτι αξιοι εισιν	αλλ ολιγα εχεις ονοματα εν σαρδεσιν α ουκ εμολυναν τα ιματια αυτων και περιπατησουσιν μετ εμου εν λευκοις οτι αξιοι εισιν

Revelation 3:5 (NET)	Revelation 3:5 (KJV)
The one who conquers will be dressed like them in white clothing, and I will never erase his name from the book of life, but will declare his name before my Father and before his angels.	He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
Ὁ νικῶν οὕτως περιβαλεῖται ἐν ἱματίοις λευκοῖς καὶ οὐ μὴ ἐξαλείψω τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ἐκ τῆς βίβλου τῆς ζωῆς καὶ ὁμολογήσω τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ἐνώπιον τοῦ πατρός μου καὶ ἐνώπιον τῶν ἀγγέλων αὐτοῦ	ο νικων ουτος περιβαλειται εν ιματιοις λευκοις και ου μη εξαλειψω το ονομα αυτου εκ της βιβλου της ζωης και εξομολογησομαι το ονομα αυτου ενωπιον του πατρος μου και ενωπιον των αγγελων αυτου	ο νικων ουτος περιβαλειται εν ιματιοις λευκοις και ου μη εξαλειψω το ονομα αυτου εκ της βιβλου της ζωης και ομολογησω το ονομα αυτου ενωπιον του πατρος μου και ενωπιον των αγγελων αυτου

Revelation 3:2 (NET)	Revelation 3:2 (KJV)
Wake up then, and strengthen what remains that was about to die, because I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God.	Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
γίνου γρηγορῶν καὶ στήρισον τὰ λοιπὰ ἃ ἔμελλον ἀποθανεῖν, οὐ γὰρ εὕρηκα σου \|τὰ\| ἔργα πεπληρωμένα ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ μου	γινου γρηγορων και στηριξον τα λοιπα α μελλει αποθανειν ου γαρ ευρηκα σου τα εργα πεπληρωμενα ενωπιον του θεου	γινου γρηγορων και στηρισον τα λοιπα α εμελλες αποβαλλειν ου γαρ ευρηκα σου τα εργα πεπληρωμενα ενωπιον του θεου μου

Revelation 3:3 (NET)	Revelation 3:3 (KJV)
Therefore, remember what you received and heard, and obey it, and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will never know at what hour I will come against you.	Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
μνημόνευε οὖν πῶς εἴληφας καὶ ἤκουσας καὶ τήρει καὶ μετανόησον. ἐὰν οὖν μὴ γρηγορήσῃς, ἥξω ὡς κλέπτης, καὶ οὐ μὴ γνῷς ποίαν ὥραν ἥξω ἐπὶ σέ	μνημονευε ουν πως ειληφας και ηκουσας και τηρει και μετανοησον εαν ουν μη γρηγορησης ηξω επι σε ως κλεπτης και ου μη γνως ποιαν ωραν ηξω επι σε	μνημονευε ουν πως ειληφας και ηκουσας και τηρει και μετανοησον εαν ουν μη γρηγορησης ηξω επι σε ως κλεπτης και ου μη γνως ποιαν ωραν ηξω επι σε

Revelation 21:8 (NET)	Revelation 21:8 (KJV)
But as for the cowards, unbelievers, detestable persons, murderers, the sexually immoral, and those who practice magic spells, idol worshipers, and all those who lie, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. That is the second death.	But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
τοῖς δὲ δειλοῖς καὶ ἀπίστοις καὶ ἐβδελυγμένοις καὶ φονεῦσιν καὶ πόρνοις καὶ φαρμάκοις καὶ εἰδωλολάτραις καὶ πᾶσιν τοῖς ψευδέσιν τὸ μέρος αὐτῶν ἐν τῇ λίμνῃ τῇ καιομένῃ πυρὶ καὶ θείῳ, ὅ ἐστιν ὁ θάνατος ὁ δεύτερος	δειλοις δε και απιστοις και εβδελυγμενοις και φονευσιν και πορνοις και φαρμακευσιν και ειδωλολατραις και πασιν τοις ψευδεσιν το μερος αυτων εν τη λιμνη τη καιομενη πυρι και θειω ο εστιν δευτερος θανατος	τοις δε δειλοις και απιστοις και αμαρτωλοις και εβδελυγμενοις και φονευσιν και πορνοις και φαρμακοις και ειδωλολατραις και πασιν τοις ψευδεσιν το μερος αυτων εν τη λιμνη τη καιομενη πυρι και θειω ο εστιν ο θανατος ο δευτερος

John 14:5 (NET)	John 14:5 (KJV)
Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?”	Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
Λέγει αὐτῷ Θωμᾶς· κύριε, οὐκ οἴδαμεν ποῦ ὑπάγεις· πῶς \|δυνάμεθα\| τὴν ὁδὸν \|εἰδέναι\|	λεγει αυτω θωμας κυριε ουκ οιδαμεν που υπαγεις και πως δυναμεθα την οδον ειδεναι	λεγει αυτω θωμας κυριε ουκ οιδαμεν που υπαγεις και πως δυναμεθα την οδον ειδεναι

John 14:7 (NET)	John 14:7 (KJV)
If you have known me, you will know my Father too. And from now on you do know him and have seen him.”	If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
εἰ \|ἐγνώκατε\| με, καὶ τὸν πατέρα μου \|γνώσεσθε. καὶ\| ἀπ᾿ ἄρτι γινώσκετε αὐτὸν καὶ ἑωράκατε \|αὐτόν\|	ει εγνωκειτε με και τον πατερα μου εγνωκειτε αν και απ αρτι γινωσκετε αυτον και εωρακατε αυτον	ει εγνωκειτε με και τον πατερα μου εγνωκειτε αν και απ αρτι γινωσκετε αυτον και εωρακατε αυτον

Revelation 17:8 (NET)	Revelation 17:8 (KJV)
The beast you saw was, and is not, but is about to come up from the abyss and then go to destruction. The inhabitants of the earth—all those whose names have not been written in the book of life since the foundation of the world—will be astounded when they see that the beast was, and is not, but is to come.	The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
Τὸ θηρίον ὃ εἶδες ἦν καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν καὶ μέλλει ἀναβαίνειν ἐκ τῆς ἀβύσσου καὶ εἰς ἀπώλειαν ὑπάγει, καὶ θαυμασθήσονται οἱ κατοικοῦντες ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, ὧν οὐ γέγραπται τὸ ὄνομα ἐπὶ τὸ βιβλίον τῆς ζωῆς ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου, βλεπόντων τὸ θηρίον ὅτι ἦν καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν καὶ παρέσται	θηριον ο ειδες ην και ουκ εστιν και μελλει αναβαινειν εκ της αβυσσου και εις απωλειαν υπαγειν και θαυμασονται οι κατοικουντες επι της γης ων ου γεγραπται τα ονοματα επι το βιβλιον της ζωης απο καταβολης κοσμου βλεποντες το θηριον ο τι ην και ουκ εστιν καιπερ εστιν	το θηριον ο ειδες ην και ουκ εστιν και μελλει αναβαινειν εκ της αβυσσου και εις απωλειαν υπαγειν και θαυμασονται οι κατοικουντες επι της γης ων ου γεγραπται τα ονοματα επι το βιβλιον της ζωης απο καταβολης κοσμου βλεποντων οτι ην το θηριον και ουκ εστιν και παρεσται

The Book of Life, Part 3

Back to Who Am I? Part 16

¹ The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text had ἑπτὰ here. The Stephanus Textus Receptus did not.

² The Stephanus Textus Receptus had the article το preceding reputation (KJV: name). The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text did not.

³ Revelation 3:1 (NET)

⁴ The NET parallel Greek text had ἀλλὰ here, where the NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text had ἀλλ’. The Stephanus Textus Receptus had neither.

⁵ The Stephanus Textus Receptus had και (KJV: even) preceding in. The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text did not.

⁶ Revelation 3:4 (NET)

⁷ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had οὕτως here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ουτος (KJV: the same).

⁸ The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text had ὁμολογήσω here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus had εξομολογησομαι (KJV: I will confess).

⁹ Subjunctive of Emphatic Negation

a) This is a way to strongly deny that something will happen. It is the strongest way to negate something in Greek.

b) It is formed by using a double negative (ou mh) with an aorist subjunctive verb (or possibly future indicative). While ou plus the indicative denies a certainty, ou mh plus the subjunctive denies even the potentiality.

c) It is translated “certainly not” or “never”, with the English future tense

¹⁰ 2 Peter 3:9b (NET) Table

¹¹ Revelation 20:15 (NET)

¹² The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text had μου here. The Stephanus Textus Receptus did not (KJV: God).

¹³ Revelation 3:2b

¹⁴ Revelation 3:3a

¹⁵ The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text had the article τοῖς here. The Stephanus Textus Receptus did not.

¹⁶ The Byzantine Majority Text had και αμαρτωλοις (“and sinners”) following unbelievers. The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Stephanus Textus Receptus did not.

¹⁷ The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text had φαρμάκοις here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus had φαρμακευσιν (KJV: sorcerers).

¹⁸ The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text had the article ὁ preceding second. The Stephanus Textus Receptus did not.

¹⁹ The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text had the article ὁ preceding death. The Stephanus Textus Receptus did not.

²⁰ Revelation 3:1a (NET)

²¹ Revelation 3:2b (NET)

²² Matthew 5:17 (NET)

²³ The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had και (KJV: and) preceding how. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

²⁴ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἐγνώκατε here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had εγνωκειτε (KJV: ye had known).

²⁵ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had γνώσεσθε here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had εγνωκειτε αν (KJV: ye should have known).

²⁶ Acts 2:37b, 38 (NET) Table

²⁷ Revelation 21:8

²⁸ Revelation 20:14 Table

²⁹ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἐν here. The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text did not.

³⁰ John 6:40b (NET)

³¹ 2 Peter 3:9b (NET) Table

³² Revelation 20:15 (NET)

³³ The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text had the article Τὸ preceding beast. The Stephanus Textus Receptus did not.

³⁴ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had τὸ ὄνομα here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had τα ονοματα.

³⁵ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had θαυμασθήσονται here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had θαυμασονται (KJV: shall wonder).

³⁶ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ὅτι here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ο τι.

A note (23) in the NET reads: Some translations take the ὅτι (hoti) here as causal: “because he was, and is not, but is to come” (so NIV, NRSV), but it is much more likely that the subject of the ὅτι clause has been assimilated into the main clause: “when they see the beast, that he was…” = “when they see that the beast was” (so BDAG 732 s.v. ὅτι 1.f, where Rev 17:8 is listed).

³⁷ The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text had παρέσται here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus had καιπερ εστιν (KJV: and yet is).

³⁸ 2 Peter 3:9b (NET) Table

Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 9

Posted on October 9, 2017 by admin

I’ll continue to look at y^ehôvâh’s fearful pronouncement: I punish the sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons for the sin of the fathers who reject me…^[1] Two tables comparing/contrasting four partial verses follow. In the center columns the Hebrew words read from top to bottom, beside them are my best effort at a word-for-word translation, and then the NET translations are in the outer columns.

Exodus 20:5b Table			Deuteronomy 5:9b
…responding (פקד) to the transgression (עון) of fathers by dealing with children to the third and fourth generations of those who reject (לשׁנאי) me… Exodus 20:5b (NET)	visiting	פקד	פקד	visiting	…I punish (פקד) the sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons for the sin (עון) of the fathers who reject (לשׁנאי) me… Deuteronomy 5:9b (NET)
	the iniquity	עון	עון	the iniquity
	of fathers	אבת	אבות	of the fathers
	upon	על	על	upon
	sons	בנים	בנים	sons
	upon	על	ועל	and upon
	the third	שלשים	שלשים	the third
	and upon	ועל	ועל	and upon
	the fourth	רבעים	רבעים	the fourth
	who hate	לשׁנאי	לשׁנאי	who hate

Exodus 34:7b			Numbers 14:18b
…responding (פקד) to the transgression (עון) of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation. Exodus 34:7b (NET)	visiting	פקד	פקד	visiting	…visiting (פקד) the iniquity (עון) of the fathers on the children until the third and fourth generations. Numbers 14:18b (NET)
	the iniquity	עון	עון	the iniquity
	of the fathers	אבות	אבות	of the fathers
	upon	על	על	upon
	sons	בנים	בנים	sons
	and upon	ועל	על	upon
	sons(’)	בני
	sons	בנים
	upon	על
	the third	שלשים	שלשים	the third
	and upon	ועל	ועל	and upon
	the fourth	רבעים	רבעים	the fourth

There doesn’t seem to be anything about the Hebrew words themselves that would compel anyone to translate פקד (pâqad) I punish or עון (ʽâvôn) for the sin.^[2] In fact, forms of pâqad were only translated punish or punishment three other times in the NET prior to Deuteronomy 5:9. Two occur after Israel worshipped the golden calf. Moses said (Exodus 32:30-35 NET):

“You have committed a very serious sin, but now I will go up to the Lord – perhaps I can make atonement on behalf of your sin.”

So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has committed a very serious sin, and they have made for themselves gods of gold [Table]. But now, if you will forgive (nâsâh, תשׁא) their sin…, but if not, wipe me out from your book that you have written” [Table]. The Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me – that person I will wipe out of my book. So now go, lead the people to the place I have spoken to you about. See, my angel will go before you. But on the day that I punish (pâqad, פקדי; Tanakh: I visit), I will indeed punish (pâqad, ופקדתי; Tanakh: I will visit) them for their sin.”

And the Lord sent a plague (nâgaph, ויגף) on the people because they had made the calf – the one Aaron made.

I don’t have any quarrel with describing this plague^[3] as punishment, but it occurs in a particular context. Though Moses offered—wipe me out from your book that you have written—y^ehôvâh said, Whoever has sinned against me – that person I will wipe out of my book. Later in his address recorded in Deuteronomy Moses said: Fathers must not be put to death for what their children do, nor children for what their fathers do; each must be put to death for his own sin.^[4]

Rabbi Dr. Zev Farber in his article “Punishing Children for the Sins of their Parents,” on TheTorah online wrote about “the surprising claim” from Rabbi Yossi bar Chanina in the Babylonian Talmud “that in four cases the prophets overturned a decree Moses makes in the Torah.” Apparently Rabbi Yossi bar Chanina held that not only Deuteronomy 5:9 but Exodus 20:5 “makes a clear and strong claim that in at least one case—worshipping other gods or idols—God punishes the descendants of the sinner until the fourth generation.” Rabbi Farber took issue with one of the “four cases”:^[5]

The prophet Ezekiel, who was exiled to Babylon in 597, offers a torrent of arguments and rhetoric against the concept of punishing children for the sins of the parents. He does not frame it as an argument against the Torah…but rather he frames it as a response to a popular notion (Ezek 18).

Rabbi Yossi bar Chanina apparently did not accept that “God punishes the descendants of the sinner until the fourth generation” was an erroneous popular notion and so he pit Ezekiel against Moses and even y^ehôvâh Himself. This tenacious aspect of the religious mind to justify itself should be familiar to us. How many generations of English speaking followers of Jesus have believed that ἄνωθεν meant again, Nicodemus’ misunderstanding of Jesus’ words? How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time, can he?^[6] Jesus^[7] answered (John 3:5-8 NET):

“I tell you the solemn truth, 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 (ἄνωθεν).’ 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.”

I want to simplify the world to consider pâqad in the context of Adam and two of his sons Cain and Abel. First, for background, consider Paul’s understanding of their situation (Romans 5:12-14 NET Table):

So then, just as sin entered the world through one man [e.g., Adam] and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned – for before the law was given, sin was in the world, but there is no accounting for sin when there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam until Moses even over those who did not sin in the same way that Adam (who is a type of the coming one) transgressed.

And the Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) was pleased with Abel and his offering…^[8] But when Cain killed Abel it is apparently possible to argue by the Hebrew words of Deuteronomy 5:9 that y^ehôvâh punished Abel for Adam’s sin. It’s not an argument I want to make before the judgment seat of Christ. Then the Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”^[9] Cain lacked David’s knowledge of y^ehôvâh (Psalm 139:1-12 NET):

O Lord, you examine me and know. You know when I sit down and when I get up; even from far away you understand my motives. You carefully observe me when I travel or when I lie down to rest; you are aware of everything I do. Certainly my tongue does not frame a word without you, O Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה), being thoroughly aware of it. You squeeze me in from behind and in front; you place your hand on me. Your knowledge is beyond my comprehension; it is so far beyond me, I am unable to fathom it.

Where can I go to escape your spirit? Where can I flee to escape your presence? If I were to ascend to heaven, you would be there. If I were to sprawl out in Sheol, there you would be. If I were to fly away on the wings of the dawn, and settle down on the other side of the sea, even there your hand would guide me, your right hand would grab hold of me. If I were to say, “Certainly the darkness will cover me, and the light will turn to night all around me,” even the darkness is not too dark for you to see, and the night is as bright as day; darkness and light are the same to you.

Cain mistook y^ehôvâh’s question—Where is your brother Abel?—for ignorance of what he had done rather than as an opportunity to confess, and repent of, his rash act. We can only imagine how differently this scene might have played out if Cain had expressed his own shock and horror at what he had done in anger, anger directed primarily at y^ehôvâh’s rejection of his offering. But I don’t take that to mean that y^ehôvâh was ignorant that Cain murdered Abel: The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground!^[10] Nor do I take it to mean that David was disputing with Moses or imagining novel qualities of y^ehôvâh. I assume that y^ehôvâh is ever this knowledgeable and Cain was simply ignorant of it.

Cain wasn’t stupid. Consider his clever evasion to y^ehôvâh’s question, Where is your brother Abel: I don’t know! Am I my brother’s guardian?^[11] Apparently, he reasoned that his father had tripped himself up by being too forthright with y^ehôvâh: I heard you moving about in the orchard, Adam had answered y^ehôvâh’s question, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.^[12] As Cain understood it, the knowledge Adam let slip—I was naked—enabled y^ehôvâh to infer what his father had done: Who told you that you were naked? y^ehôvâh asked Adam. Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?^[13] But again, I don’t assume that y^ehôvâh had to infer what He already knew Adam had done simply because Cain didn’t know Him.

In a similar way I assume that the word of y^ehôvâh (יהוה) that came to Ezekiel is the same word of the same y^ehôvâh revealed to Moses and recorded in Deuteronomy 5:9. The erroneous popular notion—Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear (nâsâh, נשׁא) the iniquity (ʽâvôn, בעון) of the father?^[14]—that the son should or must die for the father’s sin (Ezekiel 18:20 Tanakh) was the misunderstanding of religious minds no matter how many famous rabbis espoused it. And so I take the translation of פקד (pâqad) as I punish in Deuteronomy 5:9 as a perpetuation of an erroneous popular notion of religious minds that was clearly corrected in Ezekiel 18.

I am not yet perfected in love. The first thing that comes to mind when things don’t go my way is that God is punishing me for something. Faith in y^ehôvâh comes from the fruit of his Spirit, along with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. If I think of verses like Deuteronomy 5:9 from the perspective of sons, grandsons and great grandsons, I will come to the same erroneous conclusion, what Rabbi Farber called Sour Grapes Theology:^[15]

The sour grapes theology paints the punishment of descendants as a harsh but necessary way of God dispensing justice. Full punishment of a sinner may include the punishment of his family.

I think it’s more productive to view Deuteronomy 5:9 from the perspective of iniquitous fathers, particularly iniquitous fathers who don’t want the horror of their iniquity visited upon their children. For [our earthly fathers] disciplined us for a little while as seemed good to them, but [God] does so for our benefit, that we may share his holiness.^[16] My children were not my biological offspring so I won’t even comment on passing on my iniquity via nature. But the iniquity I passed on to them via nurture was not merely a matter of my inept blundering.

As I think of it now I recall how often I passed on my perverse views of life, the way things “really” work. And I did so with as much or more conviction than anything I taught them about Christ and his righteousness. Add to that my own on-again-off-again righteousness—sometimes led by the Holy Spirit, sometimes not so much—and I have a truly horrifying picture of y^ehôvâh visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children,^[17] my children! And this, when I wanted what was best for them.

I find myself crying aloud with Cain’s words (if not his meaning): My iniquity (ʽâvôn, עוני) is too great to endure (nâsâh, מנשׁא)! What hope do I have but that which is to be found in the long name of y^ehôvâh? The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, keeping loyal love for thousands, [bearing] (nâsâh, נשׁא) iniquity (ʽâvôn, עון) and transgression and sin.^[18]

In a prophecy that reads so much like history unbelievers doubt its authenticity, y^ehôvâh spoke of disobedient (Leviticus 26:13-17) survivors (Leviticus 26:39, 40 Tanakh):

And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them. And they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their treachery which they committed against Me, and also that they have walked contrary unto Me.

Confession of one’s own iniquity is obvious. Confession of one’s fathers’ iniquity is necessary because we are far too likely to mistake our fathers’ iniquity for the way things are done, especially if those fathers were religious leaders of some note.

In the movie The Shack in a dream within a vision during a life-threatening coma Mack (Sam Worthington) spends a weekend in a cabin at a lake with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. His wife Nan (Radha Mitchell) calls God Papa, a bit too familiar for Mack’s taste at the beginning of the film.

Papa (Octavia Spencer) appears to Mack as the neighbor woman who, looking at young Mack’s bruised face, said, “Daddies aren’t supposed to do that to their kids. It ain’t love. You understand?” Papa explains to adult Mack, “After what you been through, I didn’t think you could handle a father right now.” But once Mack has God in his hands, so to speak, he has a lifetime of blame to unleash.

“You’re the almighty God, right?” he accuses Papa. “You know everything. You’re everywhere, all at once. And you have limitless power. Yet, somehow you let my little girl die. When she needed you most, you abandoned her.” Mack’s 7-year-old daughter Missy (Amélie Eve) was abducted by a serial killer. Nothing of her was ever found but her bloodstained dress. Still, Mack’s first salvo is mostly a ruse that doesn’t quite get to the heart of his issue with God.

That first night he reads himself to sleep with the Old Testament and dreams of Missy’s abduction, a dream within a dream within a vision in a coma. Missy calls out to him for rescue. The next morning at breakfast Mack moves one step closer to the real issue.

Mack: Everybody knows you punish the people who disappoint you.

Papa: Hmm. Nope. I don’t need to punish people. Sin is its own punishment.^[19] As difficult as it is for you to accept, I’m in the middle of everything you perceive to be a mess, workin’ for your good.

Later, after a stroll across the lake with Jesus (Aviv Alush), Mack meets Wisdom (Alice Braga) in a cave beneath a waterfall. She helps him take his first steps toward obeying Jesus’ command: Do not judge so that you will not be judged.^[20] Sitting with Wisdom, Mack approaches the heart of the matter.

Mack: You know, what I don’t understand is how God can love Missy and put her through so much horror. She was innocent.

Wisdom: I know.

Mack: Did he use her to punish me? ‘Cause that’s not fair. And she didn’t deserve it. My wife and my children didn’t deserve it. Now, I might. ‘Cause you know I’m…

Mack can never bring himself to confess that he murdered his father. Later that day Mack acknowledges being overly hard on God. Papa responds: “I can work incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies. But that doesn’t mean I orchestrate the tragedies.”

That evening Mack is taken to meet the abusive father he poisoned. Before he can say anything more than “Dad” his father says, “Mack, I’m so sorry for everything. I was blind and I couldn’t see you. I couldn’t see anyone.” Still, Mack can’t or won’t confess his murder, he only makes excuses. “Son, I forgive you,” his father continues. “You’ve become the father I could never be. And I’m so proud of you. Can you ever forgive me?”

In the movie Papa protested that she didn’t “orchestrate the tragedies.” Still, woven into the fabric of The Shack is a serial killer who came to a campground to abduct a little girl. His victim of opportunity was a murderer’s daughter. Papa in Mack’s dream in a vision in a coma in a movie may want to leave it to chance or fate or karma, but in Scripture visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children is as much a part of y^ehôvâh’s self-proclaimed name as forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.^[21] That’s as important in reality as it proved to be in The Shack.

The next morning Papa appears to Mack as a man (Graham Greene). “For what we have to do today you’re gonna need a father,” Papa explains. He wants Mack to forgive the man who murdered his daughter.

Mack: So, you just let him get away with it?

Papa: Nobody gets away with anything…I’m not asking you to excuse what he did. I’m asking you to trust me to do what’s right and to know what’s best.

Form of pâqad	Reference	KJV	NET
פקד	Exodus 34:7	…visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children…	…responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children…
	Exodus 38:21	…as it was counted, according to the commandment of Moses…	…which was counted by the order of Moses…
	Numbers 1:44	…which Moses and Aaron numbered…	…whom Moses and Aaron numbered…
	Numbers 3:15	Number the children of Levi after the…	Number the Levites by their clans and…
	Numbers 3:39	…which Moses and Aaron numbered at the commandment of the LORD…	…whom Moses and Aaron numbered by the word of the Lord…
	Numbers 3:40	Number all the firstborn of the males of the children of Israel…	Number all the firstborn males of the Israelites…
	Numbers 4:37	…which Moses and Aaron did number…	…whom Moses and Aaron numbered…
	Numbers 4:41	…whom Moses and Aaron did number…	…whom Moses and Aaron numbered…
	Numbers 4:45	…whom Moses and Aaron numbered…	…whom Moses and Aaron numbered…
	Numbers 4:46	…whom Moses and Aaron and the chief of Israel numbered…	…whom Moses, Aaron, and the leaders of Israel numbered…
	Numbers 4:49	According to the commandment of the LORD they were numbered…	According to the word of the Lord they were numbered…
	Numbers 14:18	…visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children…	…visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children…
	Deuteronomy 5:9	…visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children…	I punish the sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons for the sin of the fathers…
יפקד	Numbers 16:29	…or if they be visited after the visitation of all men…	…or if they share the fate^[22] of all men…
יפקד	Numbers 27:16	…set a man over the congregation…	…appoint a man over the community…
פקדי	Exodus 32:34	…nevertheless in the day when I visit…	But on the day that I punish…
פקדו	Numbers 26:63	…who numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moab…	…who numbered the Israelites in the plains of Moab…
פקדו	Numbers 26:64	…when they numbered the children of Israel…	…when they numbered the Israelites…
פקדיו	Numbers 1:22	…those that were numbered of them, according to the number of the names…	…all the males numbered of them twenty years old or older…
פקדיו	Numbers 26:54	…be given according to those that were numbered of him.	…given according to the number of people in it.
פקדיכם	Numbers 14:29	…and all that were numbered of you…	…all those of you who were numbered…
פקדיהם	Numbers 1:21	Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Reuben…	Those of them who were numbered from the tribe of Reuben were 46,500.
	Numbers 1:23	Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Simeon…	Those of them who were numbered from the tribe of Simeon were 59,300.
	Numbers 1:25	Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Gad…	Those of them who were numbered from the tribe of Gad were 45,650.
	Numbers 1:27	Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Judah…	Those of them who were numbered from the tribe of Judah were 74,600.
	Numbers 1:29	Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Issachar…	Those of them who were numbered from the tribe of Issachar were 54,400.
	Numbers 1:31	Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Zebulun…	Those of them who were numbered from the tribe of Zebulun were 57,400.
	Numbers 1:33	Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Ephraim…	Those of them who were numbered from the tribe of Ephraim were 40,500.
	Numbers 1:35	Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Manasseh…	Those of them who were numbered from the tribe of Manasseh were 32,200.
	Numbers 1:37	Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Benjamin…	Those of them who were numbered from the tribe of Benjamin were 35,400.
	Numbers 1:39	Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Dan…	Those of them who were numbered from the tribe of Dan were 62,700.
	Numbers 1:41	Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Asher…	Those of them who were numbered from the tribe of Asher were 41,500.
	Numbers 1:43	Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Naphtali…	Those of them who were numbered from the tribe of Naphtali were 53,400.
	Numbers 3:22	Those that were numbered of them, according to the number…	Those of them who were numbered, counting every male…
	Numbers 3:22	…even those that were numbered of them were seven thousand and five hundred.	Not translated
	Numbers 4:36	And those that were numbered of them by their families were…	…and those of them numbered by their families were 2,750.
	Numbers 4:40	Even those that were numbered of them, throughout their families…	…those of them numbered by their families, by their clans, were 2,630.
	Numbers 4:44	Even those that were numbered of them after their families…	…those of them numbered by their families were 3,200.
	Numbers 4:48	Even those that were numbered of them, were…	…those of them numbered were 8,580.
	Numbers 26:7	…and they that were numbered of them were…	…and those numbered of them were 43,730.
	Numbers 26:62	And those that were numbered of them were…	Those of them who were numbered were 23,000…
פקודי	Exodus 38:21	This is the sum of the tabernacle…	This is the inventory of the tabernacle…
	Exodus 38:25	And the silver of them that were numbered of the congregation…	The silver of those who were numbered of the community…
	Numbers 1:45	So were all those that were numbered of the children of Israel…	…who could serve in Israel’s army, were numbered…
	Numbers 2:32	These are those which were numbered of the children of Israel…	These are the Israelites, numbered according to their families.
	Numbers 2:32	…all those that were numbered of the camps…	All those numbered in the camps…
	Numbers 3:39	All that were numbered of the Levites…	All who were numbered of the Levites…
	Numbers 4:37	These were they that were numbered of the families of the Kohathites…	These were those numbered from the families of the Kohathites…
	Numbers 4:41	These are they that were numbered of the families of the sons of Gershon…	These were those numbered from the families of the Gershonites…
	Numbers 4:45	These be those that were numbered of the families of the sons of Merari…	These are those numbered from the families of the Merarites…
	Numbers 26:51	These were the numbered of the children of Israel…	These were those numbered of the Israelites, 601,730.
	Numbers 26:57	And these are they that were numbered of the Levites…	…Levites who were numbered according to their families…
	Numbers 26:63	These are they that were numbered by Moses…	These are those who were numbered by Moses…
	Numbers 31:14	…Moses was wroth with the officers of the host…	…Moses was furious with the officers of the army…
ויפקד	Numbers 3:16	Moses numbered them according to the word of the LORD…	Moses numbered them according to the word of the Lord…
	Numbers 3:42	And Moses numbered, as the LORD commanded him…	So Moses numbered all the firstborn males among the Israelites…
	Numbers 4:34	And Moses and Aaron and the chief of the congregation numbered…	…Moses and Aaron and the leaders of the community numbered…
ופקדיו	Numbers 2:6	And his host, and those that were numbered thereof…	Those numbered in his division are 54,400.
	Numbers 2:8	And his host, and those that were numbered thereof…	Those numbered in his division are 57,400.
	Numbers 2:11	And his host, and those that were numbered thereof…	Those numbered in his division are 46,500.
	Numbers 4:49	…thus were they numbered of him…	Thus were they numbered by him…
ויפקדם	Numbers 1:19	…so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai.	And so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai.
ופקדתי	Exodus 32:34	…I will visit their sin upon them.	…I will indeed punish them for their sin.
ופקדתם	Numbers 4:27	…and ye shall appoint unto them in charge…	You will assign them all their tasks…
ופקדיהם	Numbers 2:4	And his host, and those that were numbered of them…	Those numbered in his division are 74,600.
	Numbers 2:13	And his host, and those that were numbered of them…	Those numbered in his division are 59,300.
	Numbers 2:15	And his host, and those that were numbered of them…	Those numbered in his division are 45,650.
	Numbers 2:19	And his host, and those that were numbered of them…	Those numbered in his division are 40,500.
	Numbers 2:21	And his host, and those that were numbered of them…	Those numbered in his division are 32,200.
	Numbers 2:23	And his host, and those that were numbered of them…	Those numbered in his division are 35,400.
	Numbers 2:26	And his host, and those that were numbered of them…	Those numbered in his division are 62,700.
	Numbers 2:28	And his host, and those that were numbered of them…	Those numbered in his division are 41,500.
	Numbers 2:30	And his host, and those that were numbered of them…	Those numbered in his division are 53,400.
	Numbers 3:34	And those that were numbered of them, according to the number…	Those of them who were numbered, counting every male…
	Numbers 26:34	…Manasseh, and those that were numbered of them…	…Manasseh; those numbered of them were 52,700.
	Numbers 26:41	…and they that were numbered of them were…	…and according to those numbered of them, 45,600.
	Numbers 26:50	…and they that were numbered of them were…	…and those numbered of them were 45,400.
ואפקד	Leviticus 18:25	…therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it…	…and I have brought the punishment for its iniquity upon it…
והפקדתי	Leviticus 26:16	…I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague…	…I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever…
ופקודי	Numbers 4:38	And those that were numbered of the sons of Gershon…	Those numbered from the Gershonites…
ופקודי	Numbers 4:42	And those that were numbered of the families of the sons of Merari…	Those numbered from the families of the Merarites…
לפקדיהם	Exodus 30:12	…sum of the children of Israel after their number…	…census of the Israelites according to their number…
	Numbers 3:43	…of those that were numbered of them, were twenty and two thousand…	Not translated
	Numbers 26:18	…Gad according to those that were numbered of them…	…Gadites according to those numbered of them, 40,500.
	Numbers 26:22	…Judah according to those that were numbered of them…	…Judah according to those numbered of them, 76,500.
	Numbers 26:25	…Issachar according to those that were numbered of them…	…Issachar, according to those numbered of them, 64,300.
	Numbers 26:27	…Zebulunites according to those that were numbered of them…	…Zebulunites, according to those numbered of them, 60,500.
	Numbers 26:37	…Ephraim according to those that were numbered of them…	…Ephraimites, according to those numbered of them, 32,500.
	Numbers 26:43	…Shuhamites, according to those that were numbered of them…	…Shuhahites according to those numbered of them were 64,400.
	Numbers 26:47	…Asher according to those that were numbered of them…	…Asherites, according to those numbered of them, 53,400.
בפקד	Exodus 30:12	…ransom for his soul unto the LORD, when thou numberest them…	…ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them…
	Exodus 30:12	…that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them.	…there will be no plague among them when you number them.
	Numbers 31:49	…and there lacketh not one man of us.	…and not one is missing.
הפקד	Leviticus 6:4^[23]	…or that which was delivered him to keep…	…or the thing that he had held in trust…
תפקד	Numbers 1:49	…thou shalt not number the tribe of Levi…	…the tribe of Levi you must not number…
	Numbers 1:50	But thou shalt appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of testimony…	But appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony…
	Numbers 3:10	And thou shalt appoint Aaron and his sons…	So you are to appoint Aaron and his sons…
	Numbers 4:23	…until fifty years old shalt thou number them…	You must number them from thirty years old and upward…
	Numbers 4:29	…thou shalt number them after their families…	…you are to number them by their families…
הפקדים	Exodus 30:13	…every one that passeth among them that are numbered…	Everyone who crosses over to those who are numbered…
	Exodus 30:14	Every one that passeth among them that are numbered…	Everyone who crosses over to those numbered…
	Exodus 38:26	…for every one that went to be numbered…	…for everyone who crossed over to those numbered…
	Numbers 1:44	These are those that were numbered…	These were the men…
	Numbers 1:46	Even all they that were numbered were…	And all those numbered totaled 603,550.
	Numbers 2:9	All that were numbered in the camp of…	All those numbered of the camp of Judah…
	Numbers 2:16	All that were numbered in the camp of Reuben…	All those numbered of the camp of Reuben…
	Numbers 2:24	All that were numbered of the camp of Ephraim…	All those numbered of the camp of Ephraim…
	Numbers 2:31	All they that were numbered in the camp…	All those numbered of the camp of Dan…
	Numbers 4:46	All those that were numbered of the…	All who were numbered of the Levites…
	Numbers 7:2	…over them that were numbered…	…had been supervising the numbering.
תפקדו	Numbers 1:3	…thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies.	You and Aaron are to number all in Israel…
תפקדו	Numbers 4:32	…and by name ye shall reckon the instruments…	You are to assign by names the items…
תפקדם	Numbers 3:15	…a month old and upward shalt thou number…	…a month old and upward you are to number.
תפקדם	Numbers 4:30	…unto fifty years old shalt thou number them…	You must number them from thirty years…
הפקדים	Numbers 31:48	And the officers which were over thousands of the host…	Then the officers who were over the thousands of the army…
התפקדו	Numbers 1:47	…were not numbered among them.	…were not numbered among them.
	Numbers 2:33	But the Levites were not numbered among the children of Israel…	But the Levites were not numbered among the other Israelites…
	Numbers 26:62	…they were not numbered among the children of Israel…	…they were not numbered among the Israelites…
מפקודי	Numbers 26:64	…whom Moses and Aaron the priest numbered…	…a man among these who had been among those numbered by Moses…

Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 10

Back to Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 11

Back to To Make Holy, Part 4

Back to Father, Forgive Them – Part 4

Back to Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 12

Back to A Monotonous Cycle Revisited – Part 1

Back to Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 13

Back to Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 14

Back to A Monotonous Cycle Revisited, Part 3

Back to Christianity, Part 3

Back to Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Part 9

^[1] Deuteronomy 5:9b (NET)

^[2] I also notice that the qualifications לשׁנאי (translated: of those who reject me) and מצותי ולשמרי לאהבי (translated: those who love me and keep my commandments ) have vanished from occurrences after the end of the forty-day covenant. I won’t say more since they reappear in Moses’ history lesson (Deuteronomy 5:5-10).

^[3] Leviticus 26:14-17 may give some hint what this plague may have been.

^[4] Deuteronomy 24:16 (NET)

^[5] Rabbi Dr. Zev Farber, “Punishing Children for the Sins of their Parents,” TheTorah

^[6] John 3:4 (NET)

^[7] The Stephanus Textus Receptus had the article ο preceding Jesus. The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text did not.

^[8] Genesis 4:4b (NET) Table

^[9] Genesis 4:9a (NET)

^[10] Genesis 4:10b (NET) Table

^[11] Genesis 4:9b (NET)

^[12] Genesis 3:10 (NET)

^[13] Genesis 3:11 (NET)

^[14] Ezekiel 18:19a (Tanakh)

^[15] Rabbi Dr. Zev Farber, “Punishing Children for the Sins of their Parents,” TheTorah

^[16] Hebrews 12:10 (NET)

^[17] Deuteronomy 5:9 (Tanakh)

^[18] Exodus 34:6b, 7a (NET)

^[19] “Sin is its own punishment,” is practically the definition of ʽâvôn but that will have to wait for another essay.

^[20] Matthew 7:1 (NET)

^[21] Exodus 34:7 (KJV)

^[22] p^eqûddâh

^[23] According to NET online this is piqqâdôn rather than pâqad as it is listed in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance.

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)

Forgiven or Passed Over? Part 2

Posted on April 8, 2015 by admin

I studied ʽâbar through Genesis. Nothing so far justifies translating it forgiven in Nathan’s response to David’s confession—Yes, and the Lord has forgiven (ʽâbar, העביר; Septuagint: παρεβίβασεν) your sin.^[1] But ʽâbar kept some evocative company for anyone studying the Torah in Hebrew (Genesis 6:5-7, 11-13 NET).

But the Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) saw that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time. The Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) regretted that he had made humankind on the earth, and he was highly offended. So the Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) said, “I will wipe humankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth – everything from humankind to animals, including creatures that move on the ground and birds of the air, for I regret that I have made them.”

The earth was ruined in the sight of God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, האלהים); the earth was filled with violence. God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים) saw the earth, and indeed it was ruined, for all living creatures on the earth were sinful. So God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים) said to Noah, “I have decided that all living creatures must die, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. Now I am about to destroy them and the earth.

His chosen method of destruction was water: I am about to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy from under the sky all the living creatures that have the breath of life in them. Everything that is on the earth will die…^[2] The waters completely overwhelmed the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the waters.^[3] So [He] destroyed every living thing that was on the surface of the ground, including people, animals, creatures that creep along the ground, and birds of the sky. They were wiped off the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark survived. The waters prevailed over the earth for 150 days.^[4]

Then ʽâbar was the action of the wind that proceeded (if not caused) the recession of the waters of this destruction: But God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים) remembered Noah and all the wild animals and domestic animals that were with him in the ark. God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים) caused a wind to blow (ʽâbar, ויעבר; Septuagint: ἐπήγαγεν) over the earth and the waters receded.^[5]

The next occurrences of ʽâbar are found in the story of Abram/Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3 NET):

Now the Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) said to Abram, “Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household to the land that I will show you [Table]. Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, so that you will exemplify divine blessing [Table]. I will bless those who bless you, but the one who treats you lightly I must curse, and all the families of the earth will bless one another by your name” [Table].

So Abram left, just as the Lord had told him to do,^[6] and ʽâbar was what Abram did as he obeyed y^ehôvâh. Abram traveled (ʽâbar, ויעבר; Septuagint: διώδευσεν^[7]) through the land as far as the oak tree of Moreh at Shechem.^[8]

I am the Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה), He said to Abram still clearly within the word of the Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) that came to Abram in a vision,^[9] who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.^[10] O sovereign (ʼădônây, אדני) Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה), by what can I know that I am to possess it?^[11] Take for me a heifer, He answered, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.^[12]

I suppose it is possible that Abram took all these for him and then cut them in two and placed each half opposite the other^[13] outside of the vision of verses 1-9. Perhaps I am meant to take—When birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away^[14]—in precisely that mundane way. Then when the sun went down, Abram fell sound asleep, and great terror overwhelmed him^[15] and Abram had a second vision.

My problem with this interpretation is that as Abram slept nocturnal birds of prey came to feast upon the carcasses of the heifer, the goat, the ram, the dove and the pigeon he had protected all day for y^ehôvâh in the real world, even as Abram heard and saw something completely different in a dream. I am more inclined to take the text at face value and assume that Abram acted within the vision of Genesis 15:1 and that he was a dream within a vision deep in Genesis 15:13-16 (NET):

Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign country. They will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years [Table]. But I will execute judgment on the nation that they will serve. Afterward they will come out with many possessions [Table]. But as for you, you will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age [Table]. In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit [Table].

Then ʽâbar was the action of a smoking firepot with a flaming torch in a vision designed to overcome the doubts of Abram the believer:^[16] When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking firepot with a flaming torch passed (ʽâbar, עבר; Septuagint: διῆλθον) between the animal parts.^[17] It would have been disconcerting, to say the least, if Abram woke up the next morning to find the bones picked clean by nocturnal birds and other scavengers.

That day, the vision concluded, the Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) made a covenant with Abram: “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River [Table]– the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, [Table] Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, [Table] Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites [Table].”^[18]

This brings me to the beginning of the Parashat Vayera (פרשת וירא), Genesis 18:1-22:24. Ben Zion Katz, a pediatrician and self-proclaimed recreational Bible scholar, in an essay—“God’s Appearance to Abraham: Vision or Visit?”—posted on TheTorah.com contrasted “The Traditional Approach” to “A Peshat Reading” of Genesis 18. In the traditional approach Abraham interrupted a vision of God to entertain three guests. “This reading thus exemplifies the performance of two mitzvot – visiting the sick and welcoming guests.”

Even when I searched the Bible for mitzvot I was never quite this clever. I certainly recognized Abraham’s hospitality but had serious doubts and questions about Lot’s practice of the same with two of the same men. And I didn’t see “visiting the sick” here until I read Dr. Katz article: “God is ‘visiting’ Abraham (in a vision) because Abraham was recuperating from his circumcision.” As long as I searched the Bible for rules to obey I, like Nicodemus, didn’t see—I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God^[19]—as the take away message of the Old Testament.

I was taught that I must be born again. I was taught to mock Nicodemus’ dull-wittedness: How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time, can he?^[20] And, How can these things be?^[21] But I didn’t understand Jesus’ retort either (John 3:10-12 NET):

Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you don’t understand these things? I tell you the solemn truth, we speak about what we know and testify about what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony. If I have told you people about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

I was George McFly in the diner in “Back to the Future.” I felt as bullied by Jesus as he did by Biff Tannen. When Jesus turned his attention to Nicodemus, like Biff’s followers turned on Marty, I could feel like a winner for a moment, piling on Nicodemus. But only for a moment, for Jesus was soon back to bullying me as his words seemed at the time. God come to earth, mocking everyone who was not God.

The revolution came when I began to see Jesus as a baby and a child learning everything anew. He studied the Hebrew Bible, what I call the Old Testament, and from it through the Holy Spirit learned the solemn truth (John 3:5-8 NET):

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.

You must all be born from above, because no one is declared righteous before him by the works of the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.^[22] 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.^[23]

Dr. Katz continued:

Although clever and ethically uplifting, the traditional reading is not the peshat, the plain meaning of the text. The peshat reading, which is in consonance with modern literary analysis, is rather straightforward. In verse 1, we are given an introduction that God appeared to Abraham. That appearance then begins in verse 2, and of the 3 “people” Abraham sees, one is God personified while the other 2 are angels or messengers of God.

My lord (ʼâdôn, אדני), Abraham said, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass (ʽâbar, תעבר; Septuagint: παρέλθῃς^[24]) by and leave your servant.^[25] Here ʽâbar became the action that y^ehôvâh would take if He did not favor Abraham. Let a little water be brought so that you may all wash your feet and rest under the tree,^[26] Abraham continued. It sounds to me as if Abraham wished to honor his guests in a manner in keeping with the favor their consenting to be his guests implied. But in the “traditional” commentary Abraham was seen as a strict adherent 430 years before the law:

and bathe your feet: He thought that they were Arabs, who prostrate themselves to the dust of their feet, and he was strict not to allow any idolatry into his house. But Lot, who was not strict, mentioned lodging before washing, as it is said (below 19:2): “and lodge and bathe your feet.” – [from Gen. Rabbah 54:4]

And let me get a bit of food, Abraham continued, so that you may refresh yourselves since you have passed (ʽâbar, עברתם; Septuagint: ἐξεκλίνατε^[27]) by your servant’s home. After that you may (ʽâbar, תעברו; Septuagint: παρελεύσεσθε^[28]) be on your way.^[29] Here even the “traditional” commentary recognized the honor Abraham perceived:

because you have passed by: For I request this from you [i.e., to sustain your hearts] because you have passed by me [i.e., have stopped in my home] to honor me.

If y^ehôvâh consented not to ʽâbar by Abraham, Abraham’s hospitality would become the reason that y^ehôvâh ʽâbar Abraham’s tent. All right, y^ehôvâh and his two companions replied, you may do as you say.^[30]

After Sarah died Abraham negotiated with Ephron for a field with a cave to bury her body. It was a curious negotiation. As a wanderer in the promised land Abraham owned no property. As a respected prince Ephron was willing to give him the property, but Abraham insisted that he would pay full price. Here ʽâbar was according to the standard of that price: So Abraham agreed to Ephron’s price and weighed out for him the price that Ephron had quoted in the hearing of the sons of Heth – 400 pieces of silver, according to the standard (ʽâbar, עבר; Septuagint: δοκίμου) measurement at the time.^[31] The note in the NET reads: “Heb ‘passing for the merchant.’ The final clause affirms that the measurement of silver was according to the standards used by the merchants of the time.”

I’ll continue in the next essay.

Forgiven or Passed Over? Part 3

Back to Romans, Part 19

^[1] 2 Samuel 12:13b (NET) Table

^[2] Genesis 6:17 (NET)

^[3] Genesis 7:18 (NET)

^[4] Genesis 7:23, 24 (NET)

^[5] Genesis 8:1 (NET)

^[6] Genesis 12:4a (NET)

^[7] διώδευσεν, a form of διοδεύω

^[8] Genesis 12:6a (NET)

^[9] Genesis 15:1 (NET)

^[10] Genesis 15:7 (NET)

^[11] Genesis 15:8 (NET)

^[12] Genesis 15:9 (NET) Table

^[13] Genesis 15:10 (NET) Table

^[14] Genesis 15:11 (NET) Table

^[15] Genesis 15:12 (NET) Table

^[16] For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:3 NET, quoting Genesis 15:6 NKJV)

^[17] Genesis 15:17 (NET) Table

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

^[19] John 3:3 (NET) Table

^[20] John 3:4 (NET)

^[21] John 3:9 (NET)

^[22] Romans 3:20 (NET)

^[23] Romans 8:3, 4 (NET)

^[24] παρέλθῃς, a form of παρέρχομαι

^[25] Genesis 18:3 (NET)

^[26] Genesis 18:4 (NET)

^[27] ἐξεκλίνατε, a form of ἐκκλίνω

^[28] παρελεύσεσθε, another form of παρέρχομαι

^[29] Genesis 18:5a (NET)

^[30] Genesis 18:5b (NET)

^[31] Genesis 23:16 (NET)

The Gospel and the Religious Mind

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

Tag Archives: John 3:5-8

Keep Yourselves From Idols, Part 1

The Book of Life, Part 2

Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 9

Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 1

Forgiven or Passed Over? Part 2