The essay Jedidiah, Part 1 was written days before I began to compare Old Testament quotations in the New Testament to the Septuagint, and years before I checked all of the Masoretic text against the Septuagint.  I thought of Achan’s confession as the door or opportunity of/for hope promised in Hosea, and related it to John’s letter (1 John 1:5-2:2 NET Table):

Now this is the gospel (NET note 13) message (NET note 14) we have heard from him and announce to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.  If we say we have fellowship with him and yet keep on walking in the darkness, we are lying and not practicing the truth.  But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.  If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.  But if we confess (ὁμολογῶμεν, a form of ὁμολογέω) our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.  If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

(My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.)  But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous One, and he himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world.

Revisiting the essay to make Old Testament comparison tables I discovered that the Septuagint was a bit different.

As I began the word studies for this essay I heard a sermon (Hebrews 6:4-6 NET):

For it is impossible (Ἀδύνατον, a form of ἀδύνατος) in the case of those who have once been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, become partakers of the Holy Spirit, tasted the good word of God and the miracles of the coming age, and then have committed apostasy, to renew them again to repentance, since they are crucifying the Son of God for themselves all over again and holding him up to contempt.

The preacher wanted to comfort his hearers, persuading them they were not of this kind.  He described the kind of person the writer intended.  It was a fairly accurate description of my life, except that I can’t recall having tasted…the miracles of the coming age before I became an atheist.  I realized, especially in retrospect, that the Holy Spirit wanted to focus my attention on the fact that I had been renewed again to repentance, but I began to wonder if that renewal might be suspect.

I imagined standing before Jesus.  He determined that for the sake of the veracity of Hebrews 6:4-6 it would be best if I spent eternity in the lake of fire.  I was disappointed but willing that his word be true: Let God be proven true, and every human being shown up as a liar, just as it is written: “so that you will be justified in your words and will prevail^[1] when you are judged.”^[2]  That reaction, so uncharacteristic of the old human (παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον; Ephesians 4:22-24), calmed my suspicions about my renewed repentance for the moment.  I also recalled, but didn’t study, for God all things are possible.  I will consider it more thoroughly here (Matthew 19:23-26 NET):

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven!  Again I say, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of God.”  The^[3] disciples were greatly astonished when they heard this and said, “Then who can be saved?”  Jesus looked at them and replied, “This is impossible (ἀδύνατον, a form of ἀδύνατος) for mere humans, but for God all things are^[4] possible (δυνατά, a form of δυνατός).”

And again (Mark 10:27 NET):

Jesus^[5] looked at them and replied, “This is impossible (ἀδύνατον, a form of ἀδύνατος) for mere humans, but not for God;^[6] all things are^[7] possible (δυνατὰ, a form of δυνατός) for God.”

Though my main concern is the contrast between human ἀδύνατον and God’s δυνατὰ, I’ll consider the context here a moment.  My Dad told me the story of a small night gate in Jerusalem called “The Needle’s Eye,” but he never showed me any pictures of it.  The NET note (32) explained:

The eye of a needle refers to a sewing needle. (Although the story of a small gate in Jerusalem known as “The Needle’s Eye” has been widely circulated and may go back as far as the middle ages, there is no evidence that such a gate ever existed.) Jesus was saying rhetorically that it is impossible for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom, unless God (v. 26) intervenes.

The difficulty a camel would have passing through The Needle’s Eye—“stooped and…its baggage removed”—reinforces Jesus’ point about divesting oneself of (excess?) possessions (ὑπάρχοντα), while the fantastical image of a camel passing through the eye of a sewing needle distracts the rich (and anyone else) from taking Him seriously.  Others disagree.  But no one of means wants to hear, If you wish to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give the money to the^[8] poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.^[9]  Then come, follow me.^[10]

Anyway, I left on a road trip without studying the problem that nagged at me directly.  As I drove I began to think about the preacher who taught on Hebrews 6:4-6.  In another sermon he had made a fairly serious interpretation mistake, making his own point rather than that of the Scripture.  My mind began to argue against his right to confront me with Hebrews 6:4-6.  I turned on the radio to drown out my thoughts.  Aside from being unloving and unkind, ad hominem arguments aren’t an effective bolster to faith.

What little time I had for study I devoted to לפתח (pethach), translated διανοῖξαι (a form of διανοίγω) in the Septuagint (Table2 below).  I was a little embarrassed that it had just occurred to me to search forms of διανοίγω in the Septuagint to see what Hebrew words they translated in the Masoretic text.  I wanted to finish the table and move on.  The unattended challenge of Hebrews 6:4-6 continued to fester.

While the idea of spending eternity in the lake of fire was unpleasant, it was made bearable if I could face it with Jesus, sustained by his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  But I define the lake of fire as the place where the omnipresent God is not.  If Jesus ripped his Holy Spirit from me, though I wouldn’t be left with anything I care very much about, I realized in a long sleepless night that I really didn’t want to spend eternity there.  I began to question the nature and validity of my renewed repentance again.

In the morning it all seemed like a trick to get me frustrated or angry so I would run off, abandon Jesus and live in sin.  Heaven or hell aside, I want to be done with sin.  It’s not good for me or anyone around me.  I began to wonder if my renewed repentance was part of God’s eternal punishment for crucifying the Son of God for [myself] all over again and holding him up to contempt: He gave me this brief taste of eternal life only to snatch his Spirit away at the most inopportune moment.

I deserve it, no question about that, but it doesn’t sound like God to me (John 3:16-18 NET):

For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his^[11] one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his^[12] Son into the world to condemn (κρίνῃ, a form of κρίνω) the world, but that the world should be saved through him.  The one who believes in him is not condemned (κρίνεται, another form of κρίνω).  The one who does not believe has been condemned (κέκριται, another form of κρίνω) already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

To think of God’s love (ἠγάπησεν, a form of ἀγαπάω) as primarily a feeling,^[13] a kind of affection for the world, confuses the Scripture.  God’s feeling for the world is very clear from the beginning, in the Masoretic text (Table3 below) at least:^[14] The Lord regretted that he had made humankind on the earth, and he was highly offended.^[15]  Unlike the Billy Joel song God doesn’t pretend to “want you just the way you are.”^[16]

For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  He delivered us [who have faith in Christ Jesus] from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves (ἀγάπης, a form of ἀγάπη), in whom we have redemption,^[17] the forgiveness of sins.^[18]  For this is the way God loved the world: those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image (εἰκόνος, a form of εἰκών) of his Son,^[19] that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.^[20]  “Sit at my right hand,” He promised the Son he loves, “until I put your enemies under your feet”’?^[21]  All of this is the grace of God received through faith, the faith (πίστις) that is an aspect of the fruit of his Holy Spirit; it is not from works, so that no one can boast.^[22]

Jesus is the way God loved the world, not because of a positive emotion but because God is love (ἀγάπη).^[23]  God (ἀγάπη) is patient, God (ἀγάπη) is kind, He is not envious.  God (ἀγάπη) does not brag, He is not puffed up.  He is not rude, He is not self-serving, He is not easily angered or resentful.  He is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth.  He bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  He (ἀγάπη) never ends.^[24]  For this is the way God loved—and demonstrated his joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control^[25] to—the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 

I had a week between work assignments.  It was more convenient to drive to my mother’s house than all the way back to my own home.  On the drive I began to wonder: if Jesus snatched his Spirit from me, would the new human (καινὸν ἄνθρωπον; Ephesians 4:22-24) cling to his Holy Spirit and bid the chaff of the old human godspeed and good riddance into the lake of fire?  I finally decided that this obsession with Jesus snatching his Holy Spirit from me needed to be confronted directly.  I planned to look into ἀδύνατον, the Greek word translated impossible in Hebrews 6:4, during the week I spent with my mother.

For God achieved what the law could not (ἀδύνατον, a form of ἀδύνατος) do, Paul wrote believers in Rome, because it was weakened (ἠσθένει, a form of ἀσθενέω) 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.^[26]

In the same way God wanted to demonstrate more clearly to the heirs of the promise that his purpose was unchangeable, and so he intervened with an oath, so that we who have found refuge in him may find strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us through two unchangeable things, since it is impossible (ἀδύνατον, a form of ἀδύνατος) for God to lie.^[27]

This proved to be the dull spot in my sword of the Spirit.  I was uncertain whether the infinitive ἀνακαινίζειν (to renew) was impossible for God as well as for human beings.  That’s why I had difficulty resting even as the Holy Spirit drew me back to the fact that I had been renewed to repentance.  But the writer of Hebrews was not shy about stating explicitly that something was impossible for God when the Holy Spirit meant that something was impossible for God.  What is impossible (ἀδύνατα, another form of ἀδύνατος) for mere humans, Jesus said according to Luke’s Gospel narrative, is possible (δυνατὰ, a form of δυνατός) for God.^[28]

I’ll quote the final occurrences of ἀδύνατον for completeness: For it is impossible (ἀδύνατον, a form of ἀδύνατος) for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.^[29]  Now without faith it is impossible (ἀδύνατον, a form of ἀδύνατος) to please him, for the one who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.^[30]

It would have been much easier to have taken the few moments this study required in the first place rather than face a week of nagging uncertainty.  I’ll trust that this essay will serve as a preface to the word studies to come in A Door of Hope.

Tables comparing Hosea 2:15 and Genesis 6:6 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET; and tables comparing Hosea 2:15 (2:17) and Genesis 6:6 in the Septuagint (BLB and Elpenor) follow.  Following those are tables comparing Romans 3:4; Matthew 19:25, 26; 19:21; Mark 10:27; John 3:16, 17; Colossians 1:14 and 1 Corinthians 13:8 in the NET and KJV.