Romans, Part 75

Live in harmony (φρονοῦντες, a form of φρονέω) with one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly.  Do not be conceited.[1]  I can’t find live or harmony in the Greek here, τὸ αὐτὸ εἰς ἀλλήλους φρονοῦντες.  The phrase translated do not be haughty is μὴ τὰ ὑψηλὰ φρονοῦντες (literally, “no lofty thought” or “no high-mindedness”).  I would translate the first sentence, “Think of one another” or “Consider one another, not generalities, but specifics,” the down and dirty, nitty-gritty of another’s life and outlook.  For by the grace given to me, Paul already wrote, I say to every one of you not to think more highly (ὑπερφρονεῖν, a form of ὑπερφρονεώ) of yourself than you ought to think (φρονεῖν, another form of φρονέω) but to think (φρονεῖν, another form of φρονέω) with sober discernment (σωφρονεῖν, a form of σωφρονέω), as God has distributed to each of you a measure of faith.[2]

Paul prayed, and I assume believed, that God would give his readers this thinking (φρονεῖν, another form of φρονέω) of one another, translated unity below:  For everything that was written in former times was written for our instruction, so that through endurance (ὑπομονῆς, a form of ὑπομονή) and through encouragement (παρακλήσεως, a form of παράκλησις) of the scriptures we may have hope.  Now may the God of endurance (ὑπομονῆς, a form of ὑπομονή) and comfort (παρακλήσεως, a form of παράκλησις) give you unity with one another (τὸ αὐτὸ φρονεῖν ἐν ἀλλήλοις) in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.[3]

Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.  So Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him: “God forbid, Lord!  This must not happen to you!”  But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!  You are a stumbling block to me, because you are not setting your mind (φρονεῖς, another form of φρονέω) on God’s interests, but on man’s.”[4]  Mark’s Gospel informs that Jesus spoke this way to Peter after turning and looking at his disciples.[5]

Then Jesus said to his disciples, Matthew’s Gospel continued, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”[6] This his disciples were already doing in the most literal way imaginable, but in their thinking they walked according to the flesh.  The Holy Spirit had not yet been given.  As Paul wrote the Romans, those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped (φρονοῦσιν, another form of φρονέω) by the things of the flesh[7]

The Holy Spirit transforms our thinking: but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit,[8] Paul continued.  Keep thinking (φρονεῖτε, another form of φρονέω) about things above, not things on the earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.[9]  I thank my God every time I remember you, Paul wrote believers in Philippi.  I always pray with joy in my every prayer for all of you because of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.  For I am sure of this very thing, that the one who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.  For it is right for me to think (φρονεῖν, another form of φρονέω) this about all of you, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel all of you became partners in God’s grace together with me.[10]

Paul expounded on this Holy Spirit thinking in his letter to the Philippians (2:1-13; 3:18-21 NET):

Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort provided by love, any fellowship in the Spirit, any affection or mercy, complete my joy and be of the same mind (φρονῆτε, another form of φρονέω), by having the same love, being united in spirit, and having one purpose (φρονοῦντες, a form of φρονέω).  Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself.  Each of you should be concerned not only about your own interests, but about the interests of others as well.  You should have the same attitude (φρονεῖτε, another form of φρονέω) toward one another that Christ Jesus had, who though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature.  He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross!  As a result God exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow – in heaven and on earth and under the earth – and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord [e.g., yehôvâh] to the glory of God the Father.   So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed (ὑπηκούσατε, a form of ὑπακούω), not only in my presence but even more in my absence, continue working out your salvation with awe and reverence,  for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort – for the sake of his good pleasure – is God.

For many live, about whom I have often told you, and now, with tears, I tell you that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.  Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, they exult in their shame, and they think (φρονοῦντες, a form of φρονέω) about earthly things.  But our citizenship is in heaven – and we also await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform these humble bodies of ours into the likeness of his glorious body by means of that power by which he is able to subject all things to himself.

Paul stressed that this thinking is not something we accomplish in the flesh.  He trusted God to accomplish it through his Spirit (Philippians 3:4b-15 NET):

If someone thinks (δοκεῖ, a form of δοκέω) he has good reasons to put confidence in human credentials (σαρκί, a form of σάρξ), I have more: I was circumcised on the eighth day, from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews.  I lived according to the law as a Pharisee.  In my zeal for God I persecuted the church.  According to the righteousness stipulated in the law I was blameless.  But these assets I have come to regard as liabilities because of Christ.  More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things – indeed, I regard them as dung! – that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness – a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness.  My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.  Not that I have already attained this – that is, I have not already been perfected – but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me.  Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this.  Instead I am single-minded [ἓν δέ; “but one” or “one moreover”]: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, with this goal in mind (σκοπὸν, a form of σκοπός), I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  Therefore let those of us who are “perfect” embrace this point of view (φρονῶμεν, another form of φρονέω).  If you think (φρονεῖτε, another form of φρονέω) otherwise, God will reveal to you the error of your ways.

In Galatians Paul was concerned specifically about Gentile believers accepting circumcision as necessary or beneficial, but I think we can hear his words in this context as well, if we were to turn this thinking from the Holy Spirit into a human program to “live in harmony” (Galatians 5:4-10a NET Table):

You who are trying to be declared righteous by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace!  For through the Spirit, by faith, we wait expectantly for the hope of righteousness.  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision carries any weight – the only thing that matters is faith working through love.  You were running well; who prevented you from obeying (πείθεσθαι, a form of πείθω) the truth?  This persuasion (πεισμονὴ) does not come from the one who calls you!  A little yeast makes the whole batch of dough rise!  I am confident (πέποιθα, another form of πείθω) in the Lord that you will accept (φρονήσετε, another form of φρονέω) no other view.[11]

Thinking of one another implies a mutual concern: I have great joy in the Lord because now at last you have again expressed your concern (φρονεῖν, another form of φρονέω) for me. (Now I know you were concerned [ἐφρονεῖτε, another form of φρονέω] before but had no opportunity to do anything.)[12]  And it implies some tolerance for one another’s quirks: One person regards (κρίνει, a form of κρίνω) one day holier than other days, and another regards (κρίνει, a form of κρίνω) them all alike.  Each must be fully convinced (πληροφορείσθω, a form of πληροφορέω) in his own mind.  The one who observes (φρονῶν, another form of φρονέω) the day does (φρονεῖ, another form of φρονέω) it for the Lord.[13]

While I don’t doubt that this thinking from the Holy Spirit will result in something like harmony or unity or agreement eventually, I’m not entirely comfortable when forms of φρονέω are translated agree: I appeal to Euodia and to Syntyche to agree (φρονεῖν, another form of φρονέω) in the Lord;[14] and, Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice, set things right, be encouraged, agree (φρονεῖτε, another form of φρονέω) with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.[15]  I don’t believe that the Holy Spirit meant some form of group-think or committee work.

The Jerusalem council agreed unanimously to send a letter to the Gentiles which read: For it seemed best to the Holy Spirit and to us not to place any greater burden (βάρος) on you than these necessary rules.[16]  James’ abbreviated version of the law followed.  It took individual believers not some corporate entity to set this error aright: For this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments.  And his commandments do not weigh (βαρεῖαι, a form of βαρύς) us down, because everyone who has been fathered by God conquers the world.[17]

I would like to think that μὴ γίνεσθε φρόνιμοι παρ᾿ ἑαυτοῖς (literally, “not become wise from himself, herself or themselves”) meant to become wise through the Holy Spirit.  But Paul used φρόνιμοι (a form of φρόνιμος) facetiously three other times (Romans 11:25, 1 Corinthians 4:10 and 2 Corinthians 11:19 NET).  Do not be conceited may be an adequate translation.  Only Jesus used φρόνιμοι seriously (Mathew 10:16-20 NET):

I am sending you out like sheep surrounded by wolves, so be wise (φρόνιμοι , a form of φρόνιμος) as serpents and innocent as doves.  Beware of people, because they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues.  And you will be brought before governors and kings because of me, as a witness to them and the Gentiles.  Whenever they hand you over for trial, do not worry about how to speak or what to say, for what you should say will be given to you at that time [Table].  For it is not you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

Romans, Part 76

Back to Romans, Part 80

Back to Romans, Part 83

[1] Romans 12:16 (NET)

[2] Romans 12:3 (NET)

[3] Romans 15:4-6 (NET)

[4] Matthew 16:21-23 (NET)

[5] Mark 8:33 (NET)

[6] Matthew 16:24 (NET)

[7] Romans 8:5a (NET)

[8] Romans 8:5b (NET)

[9] Colossians 3:2, 3 (NET)

[10] Philippians 1:3-7 (NET)

[11] NET note 11: “Grk ‘that you will think nothing otherwise.’”

[12] Philippians 4:10 (NET)

[13] Romans 14:5, 6a (NET)

[14] Philippians 4:2 (NET)

[15] 2 Corinthians 13:11 (NET)

[16] Acts 15:28 (NET) Table

[17] 1 John 5:3, 4 (NET)

My Reasons and My Reason, Part 2

I took my mother to see “Saving Mr. Banks” after Christmas.  We enjoyed it.  It was a well-done adult Disney movie.  (I wouldn’t recommend it for children.)  We’re both interested in the creative process so a movie about making a movie didn’t seem too masturbatory.  It was interesting to consider how P.L. Travers’ reservations about Walt Disney making “Mary Poppins” impacted the final project.  And it was enlightening to me that the “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” ending was born not of an idyllic childhood but of a troubled and conflicted relationship with fathers, both Disney’s and Travers’.

My mother and I hadn’t seen a movie together in a theater since “The Sound of Music.”  We almost didn’t see that.  She read a blurb in the paper that indicated it was about a “young prostitute.”  Later she read another that described Maria as a “young postulant” and chided herself for misreading the word.  Knowing my mother and her voracious reading habits, I doubt she mistook “postulant” for “prostitute.”  I suspect a typo in the first blurb.

We recalled how we had seen “Mary Poppins” at a matinee together with my younger brother and sister in the summer of 1965.  We liked it so much we stayed to watch it again.  We forgot about (and I missed) my ballgame that evening.  That was not easy to live down with my teammates.  Missing a game for “Goldfinger,” maybe, but “Mary Poppins” was definitely not cool.  I wasn’t permitted to see movies like “Goldfinger.”  I didn’t tell my teammates how I spent my time viewing the movie the second time.  Almost fifty years later I didn’t tell my mother either.

I was young enough that I still couldn’t predict a storyline.  The first time through I thought the movie was ending when Bert and Mary and Jane and Michael looked out over the city after climbing the stairs made of smoke.  All movies ended too soon to my childish mind.  I did feel the pathos of Mr. Banks’ situation and rejoice at his redemption once I saw it.  I just had no idea that it was coming.  Of course, “Saving Mr. Banks” informed me that his redemption was a late idea anyway.

What troubled me the second time through the film was Mary Poppins’ righteous indignation over the children’s concern that she had been “sacked.”  I didn’t know what “sacked” meant, but could glean from the context that it had something to do with losing her job.  But her reaction seemed too over-the-top for something so trifling.  (I was eleven.)  Before the movie ended the second time, I had satisfied myself with a definition for “sacked” that included Mary Poppins, naked, tied spread-eagle between the pillars in the entry foyer of the Banks’ home, and soundly whipped by Mr. Banks with a buggy whip.  That seemed sufficient to justify her reaction.

I laughed rather inappropriately a decade or so later watching the “The Story of O,” when the door at the top of the stairs opened to reveal the scene I had imagined as a child.  O had recreated it with the maid to educate a young man who wanted to rescue her from her slavery.  He gazed from her sweaty beaten body to the inexplicable look of her face.  The disheveled maid regarded him as an unwelcome intruder.  Obviously, she would resume beating O the moment he left.  This “harsh reality” was just too much for O’s would-be rescuer, so he fled.

I thought I might be dragged off in handcuffs from the Fine Arts Theater for watching “The Story of O.”  I thought maybe I deserved to be arrested and charged with something for enjoying it so much.  And I felt like that every time I saw it.  I saw it three different times with three different male friends.  But I was the only one who got it.  I knew something at twenty-two I didn’t know at eleven.  I didn’t want to beat O, necessarily, I wanted to be her.  We shared an intimate secret by then courtesy of my highschool girlfriend; namely, that we could be whipped into a euphoric state of submission.

O was the fictional creation of French author Anne Desclos, a.k.a. Dominique Aury, a.k.a. Pauline Réage.  She wrote it for her married lover, twenty-three years her senior.  “I wrote it alone, for him, to interest him, to please him, to occupy him….I wasn’t young, I wasn’t pretty, it was necessary to find other weapons…The physical side wasn’t enough.  The weapons, alas, were in the head….You’re always looking for ways to make it go on….The story of Scheherazade,[1] more or less.”[2]  Histoire d’O, its title in French, was first published in 1954.[3]

“The author said later,” according to Carmela Ciuraru,[4] “that Story of O, written when she was forty-seven, was based on her own fantasies…Some twenty years after the book came out, she admitted that her own joys and sorrows had informed it, but she had no idea just how much, and did not care to analyze anything.  ‘Story of O is a fairy tale for another world,’ she said, ‘a world where some part of me lived for a long time, a world that no longer exists except between the covers of a book.’”  Earlier, she had quoted the author, “‘By my makeup and temperament I wasn’t really prey to physical desires…Everything happened in my head.’”[5]

Ms. Ciuraru also quoted Susan Sontag, “the first major writer to recognize the novel’s merit and to defend it as a significant literary work….In her 1969 essay ‘The Pornographic Imagination,’ Sontag…compared sexual obsession (as expressed by Réage) with religious obsession: two sides of the same coin.  ‘Religion is probably, after sex, the second oldest resource which human beings have available to them for blowing their minds,’ she wrote.”

I can’t help but see the relationship to πορνεία[6] here as Ms. Ciuraru continued to highlight Sontag’s contribution:  “In her disciplined effort toward transcendence, O is not unlike a zealot giving herself to God.  O’s devotion to the task at hand takes the form of what might be described as spiritual fervor.  She loses herself entirely…”[7]  Then she connected this kind of πορνεία to death.

“If O is willing to sustain her devotion all the way through to her own destruction, so be it.  She wants to be ‘possessed, utterly possessed, to the point of death,’ to the point that her body and mind are no longer her responsibility.”[8]  I’ve not read the book, and this particular concept of possession was not clear to me from the movie I saw almost forty years ago.  One of the friends who saw it with me had a more filmic eye than mine and recognized the genre as horror, a monster movie.  Then I saw it as a tale of a damsel in distress who became a monster.

As O questioned whether her master could or would endure for her what she had endured for him, she branded him with an ‘O’ from a hot cigarette holder.  (She had been branded for him earlier in the film.)  She was both dominant and submissive, top and bottom, and I would be hard-pressed to decide if she was more masochistic or sadistic by my own understanding of the terms (fig. 4).

fig. 4

fig. 4

But in the above description—“She wants to be ‘possessed, utterly possessed, to the point of death,’ to the point that her body and mind are no longer her responsibility”—I perceive some insight from “The Story of O” into πορνεία as an ancient religion of the flesh, primarily as ironic contrast to being led by the Spirit.

Writing to the Corinthians about ancient Israel at Sinai, Paul said, God was not pleased with most of them, for they were cut down in the wilderness.  These things happened as examples for us, so that we will not crave evil things as they did.  So do not be idolaters, as some of them were.  As it is written,The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”  And let us not be immoral (πορνεύωμεν, a form of πορνεύω),[9] as some of them were (ἐπόρνευσαν, a form of πορνεύω), and twenty-three thousand died in a single day.[10]  Paul was fairly explicit here that the Israelites’ play to celebrate the golden calf was πορνεία, the noun which signifies what those who engage in πορνεύω do.

In college, the second time after I gave up writing “The Tripartite Rationality Index,” I read “The Sacred Fire, the story of sex in religion”, by B.Z. Goldberg[11] (the pen name of Benjamin Waife).  Goldberg, a journalist and managing editor of the Yiddish “the Day…found time to research in the field of psychology of religion” as he wrote a daily column on foreign affairs.  Of Baal, he wrote:

Baal was the one great abstract god of antiquity.[12] 

On the summit of every hill and under every green tree Baal is worshipped—the god whom people knew long before they had heard of Jehovah, the divinity whom they loved long after they had learned of the one and true God.[13] 

Baal was the greatest god of all, but what was Baal? How could one fathom this infinite mystery? Primitive man, limited in his thinking and circumscribed in his imagery, sought a concrete form for the mightiest of the gods. So he looked into the mirror of life and in the image of what he saw therein he created his Baal.[14]

The consummation, if you will, of this man-made religion, according to Goldberg, is “in the union of the sexes.”[15]

The songs grow wilder, the contortions of the bodies more frenzied, while the drum and the flute fill the air with passionate tones that steal into the hungry hearts of dancer and worshipper. The dances break up in chaotic revelry. Priestess and worshipper join in the merry-making. Tired, drunk, half-swooning, the dancer is still conscious of one thing: somebody will touch her navel—she must follow—but the coin; he must first give her a coin, the coin that is sacred to Baal. As she is trying to seat herself, hardly able to stand upon her feet, a worshipper touches her. She rises as if awakened from sleep. She follows him blindly into a tent, where both priestess and worshipper consummate the final crying prayer to Baal, the prayer of love.[16]

The instructor who employed me as a TA was a neo-pagan, a witch in his own words, who worshipped Celtic Baal.  The ligature marks on his wrists after a Samhain[17] celebration alerted me that πορνεία might be kinkier than Goldberg let on.  I didn’t call it πορνεία yet.  I only saw the relationship to ancient Israelite religion in the Old Testament.

O as a slave was naked.  When worshippers “entered the most sacred chamber and faced the statue of Baal, they would have to present themselves naked before their god.”[18]  (“Only a few laymen ever entered this vestibule, the holy of holies of the great god.”)[19]  Though the translations are disputed by the translators of the NET, the sight Moses witnessed according to the King James translators was that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies).[20]  Or as John Nelson Darby (known as the father of Dispensationalism[21]) translated the verse: And Moses saw the people how they were stripped; for Aaron had stripped them to [their] shame before their adversaries.[22]

So in contradistinction to the nakedness of πορνεία as a religion of the flesh, God said, And you must not go up by steps to my altar, so that your nakedness is not exposed.[23]  Beyond that He told Moses to make undergarments for the priests to cover their naked bodies; they must cover from the waist to the thighs.[24]  Consider Leviticus 18:6-18 (NKJV) in this context:

None of you shall approach anyone who is near of kin to him, to uncover his nakedness: I am the Lord [Table].
The nakedness of your father or the nakedness of your mother you shall not uncover. She is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness [Table].
The nakedness of your father’s wife you shall not uncover; it is your father’s nakedness. [Table]
The nakedness of your sister, the daughter of your father, or the daughter of your mother, whether born at home or elsewhere, their nakedness you shall not uncover [Table].
The nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, their nakedness you shall not uncover; for theirs is your own nakedness [Table].
The nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, begotten by your father—she is your sister—you shall not uncover her nakedness [Table].
You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is near of kin to your father [Table].
You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister, for she is near of kin to your mother [Table].
You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother. You shall not approach his wife; she is your aunt [Table].
You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law—she is your son’s wife—you shall not uncover her nakedness [Table].
You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness [Table].
You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, nor shall you take her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter, to uncover her nakedness. They are near of kin to her. It is wickedness [Table].
Nor shall you take a woman as a rival to her sister, to uncover her nakedness while the other is alive [Table].

The note in the NET claimed that to uncover nakedness “is clearly euphemistic for sexual intercourse,” and the translators translated the phrase have sexual intercourse.  They may be correct.  Consider, Nor shall you take a woman as a rival to her sister, to uncover her nakedness while the other is alive.  But the more literal translation seems pointedly addressed to familial Baal worship.

For the submissive masochist, however, nudity is the preferred state of being.  Even the humiliation of nakedness is a pleasure.  The wrath of Godrevealed from heaven,[25] as Paul described it was, God gave [those who exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles[26]] over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves.[27] Even in wrath there is mercy.

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, the writer of the letter to the Hebrews wrote, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart.  And no creature is hidden from God, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account.[28]  The truth of this image, being naked and accountable to God, that so horrifies my religious mind, is warm, familiar and comforting to my masochism.


[2] “The Story of the Story of O,” Carmela Ciuraru, Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics http://www.guernicamag.com/features/ciuraru_6_15_11/

[5] “The Story of the Story of O,” Carmela Ciuraru, Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics  http://www.guernicamag.com/features/ciuraru_6_15_11/

[7] “The Story of the Story of O,” Carmela Ciuraru, Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics http://www.guernicamag.com/features/ciuraru_6_15_11/

[8] “The Story of the Story of O,” Carmela Ciuraru, Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics http://www.guernicamag.com/features/ciuraru_6_15_11/

[10] 1 Corinthians 10:5-8 (NET)

[12] “The Sacred Fire, the story of sex in religion”, B.Z. Goldberg, (1930) Book II, Chapter I, p. 145  http://www.sacred-texts.com/sex/tsf/tsf08.htm

[13] “The Sacred Fire, the story of sex in religion”, B.Z. Goldberg, (1930) Book II, Chapter I, p. 144  http://www.sacred-texts.com/sex/tsf/tsf08.htm

[14] “The Sacred Fire, the story of sex in religion”, B.Z. Goldberg, (1930) Book II, Chapter I, p. 145  http://www.sacred-texts.com/sex/tsf/tsf08.htm

[15] “The Sacred Fire, the story of sex in religion”, B.Z. Goldberg, (1930) Book II, Chapter I, p. 147  http://www.sacred-texts.com/sex/tsf/tsf08.htm

[16] “The Sacred Fire, the story of sex in religion”, B.Z. Goldberg, (1930) Book II, Chapter IV, p. 158  http://www.sacred-texts.com/sex/tsf/tsf08.htm

[18] “The Sacred Fire, the story of sex in religion”, B.Z. Goldberg, (1930) Book II, Chapter III, p. 152  http://www.sacred-texts.com/sex/tsf/tsf08.htm

[19] “The Sacred Fire, the story of sex in religion”, B.Z. Goldberg, (1930) Book II, Chapter IV, p. 154  http://www.sacred-texts.com/sex/tsf/tsf08.htm

[20] Exodus 32:25 (KJV)

[21] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEGe8EzygwM  In this YouTube clip a preacher condemned Darby to hell “according to the Bible” for modern biblical scholarship (deleting or changing words from the KJV).  The verses cited in his sermon (1 John 5:7; Acts 8:37; Luke 2:33; Colossians 1:14) are annotated in the NET.  Anyone can decide whether the arguments are valid or not.  I’m only concerned when changes are made without including the argument in a footnote.  I suppose my point here is that Darby and the translators of the KJV were in closer agreement with each other than with the translators of the NET.

[22] Exodus 32:25 (DNT)

[23] Exodus 20:26 (NET)

[24] Exodus 28:42 (NET)

[25] Romans 1:18 (NET)

[26] Romans 1:23 (NET)

[27] Romans 1:24 (NET) Table

[28] Hebrews 4:12, 13 (NET)

My Reasons and My Reason, Part 1

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived!  The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners, practicing homosexuals, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive, and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God.[1]

In an earlier essay I wrote that I didn’t want my quotation of Paul’s listing of the unrighteous (ἄδικοι, a form of ἄδικος)[2] “to come down disproportionately hard on those who favor the ‘Side A’ position discussed on the Gay Christian Network website.[3]  My reasons can wait for another essay.”  This is that essay, or more likely the beginning of a series of essays.  As I think about it now I see my personal reasons falling under two distinct yet related headings: 1) my attempt to find some meaning for πορνεία apart from the “whatever you want” imprecision of sexual immorality; and, 2) I am a masochist.

I’ve already written some about πορνεία, so I’ll begin here with what I mean by masochism.  I didn’t use the term sado-masochism deliberately, though my earliest thoughts on the subject started there.  I thought Sadism and Masochism were a continuum associated with dominance and submission respectively (fig. 1).

fig. 1

fig. 1

In college I read the commentary included in an edition of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’sVenus in Furs.”[4]  It was a while ago, my notes are gone, so I can’t credit the woman (I think it was a woman) who wrote the commentary.  One thing she said resonated with me, something to the effect that a sadist would never be satisfied with a willing masochist.  She began to distinguish Sadism from Masochism as she included dominance and submission within both categories.  My graphical representation changed immediately (fig. 2).

fig. 2

fig. 2

I’ve stuck with this graphical representation as I tried to figure out what was on the other axis, what distinguished sadism from masochism.  What I came up with is still a bit elusive even to me.  I call it Self and Other, but I don’t necessarily mean selfishness and altruism (fig. 3).

fig. 3

fig. 3

Lisa, the dominatrix in “Exit to Eden,”[5] as she mused on the airplane about slaves in a slave market was totally wrapped up in the experience of the submissive.  Her mission in life was to give them the submissive experience they craved.  It excited her.  She was a masochist as I understand it, a dominant masochist.

“I am in awe of the courage that it must take to submit with willingness and grace,” wrote Lady N in an essay[6] posted online titled Why I Love Male Submissives.  “It inspires me to strive for greatness within myself, so that I may remain completely worthy of such a gift.  Simultaneously humbled and enobled by pain and passion, he becomes a rare and beautiful creature that defies any simple description.”  She, too, is a dominant masochist.

Conversely, the “pain slut[7] who latches on to a dominant and berates and humiliates them in order to provoke them to the level of desired violence is a submissive sadist in my opinion.  And a second look at even the opening reverie of “Venus in Furs” causes me to suspect that Severin,[8] Sacher-Masoch’s alter-ego, was never a masochist at all, but a submissive sadist who became in the end a dominant one.  But this makes the terms submissive and dominant seem too masochist-centric to be of much use in describing Sadism.  Perhaps I should close the loop and describe the “pain slut” as a bottom who tongue-lashes a top to incite the top to lash the bottom’s bottom harder and faster (fig. 4).

fig. 4

fig. 4

Sexuality to the non-Sadist and non-Masochist is about pleasure and honor.  They assume that a “sado-masochist” likes pain and humiliation instead of, or confuses them for, pleasure and honor.  I’ve read things online from both dominants/tops and submissives/bottoms that seem to support that point of view.  But I don’t have any difficulty distinguishing between pleasure, pain, honor and humiliation.  I would say (in theory at least) that they are interesting and unique flavors that are enjoyable to combine in different recipes with one’s spouse, willing spouse, that is (I am a masochist).

It is apparent to me that what I call masochism may be nothing more than something called sado-masochism filtered through the fruit of the Holy Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control).[9]  But I’m going to continue as if my masochism has its own existence, something like I have been describing.  I must face then that it may be nothing more than the fruit of being one of those given over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves.[10]  Consider Lady N’s ode to male submissives again:

He is John Barleycorn, consort and sacrifice.  He is brutally degraded and taken for the most profane of uses, and thus a god worthy of worship and reverence.  Crucified in leather, his flesh is violated and sanctified, celebrated and decorated by the bright blood roses of our passion.  His body is the altar at which I worship.  It is the sacred paradox, and it is the deepest truth and the greatest beauty that I can know in this life.

I am the respectful penitent and the savage goddess, and the scourge rises and falls to glorify as much as to humble.  I am as deeply reverent as I am merciless to the sacrifice.  Dea gratias[11] [“thanks be to God (Deo) Goddess (Dea)”], forever and ever, amen.

The sheer intensity of taking a consenting submissive and making him hurt and cry and suffer for me, the power and passion that is as hot and raw as the living hearts the Aztecs once tore from the chest of a willing sacrifice, that is what feeds me and fuels the flames of my desire.

Lady N’s reference to John Barleycorn probably has less to do with Jack London’s novel[12] than it does with this quote from Raven Kaldera on Pagan BDSM:[13] “There’s one other point to make that is uniquely pagan in worldview.  Each spirit that gets called into a man-made object is a tiny reflection, a snapshot, a splinter, an avatar of a much greater spirit…When someone takes on the archetype of the Owned Slave, they allow into themselves a piece of the greater spirit that is All That Is Sacrificed That We May Live. This Spirit has many faces and names — the Sacred King, John Barleycorn, Iphigenia, Persephone, the Sacrificed Maiden, the Prey Animal, the Bull God and Goat God, Lugh, Baldur, the Corn Dollie, the Wicker Man, and so forth.”  Here my masochism and my understanding of πορνεία seem to intersect.

The shape of my masochism was pretty much established by about nine or ten years of age, the fourth grade.  I truly don’t remember what I was thinking, believing or doing that might have made me a fool in God’s eyes who exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.[14]  And the idea—that the wrath of God [was] revealed from heaven against all [the] ungodliness and unrighteousness[15] of the nine-year-old (or younger) boy that I was—causes me to recoil some.  And that recoil has made it difficult for me to fully embrace my masochism as God’s wrath: Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves.[16]

It gives me some cause, however, beyond the fruit of Christ’s Spirit, to be patient with those whose homosexual desires are so deeply rooted in their childhoods that it seems like an integral part of who they are as human beings.


[1] 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10 (NET) Table

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

[10] Romans 1:24 (NET)

[14] Romans 1:23 (NET)

[15] Romans 1:18 (NET)

[16] Romans 1:24 (NET) Table

Romans, Part 45

For by the grace (χάριτος, a form of χάρις) given to me, Paul continued describing the will of God – what is good and well-pleasing and perfect,1 I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you a measure of faith.2  To offset my own tendency to think that sober discernment is necessary because God has distributed a niggardly measure of faith (μέτρον πίστεως) to me, I want to look at two other occurrences of χάριτος.  The first described the words Jesus read from the scroll of Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4:18, 19 NET):

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and the regaining of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed [Table], to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

After Jesus returned the scroll to the attendant and sat down, he added, Today this scripture has been fulfilled even as you heard it being read.3  Luke wrote, All were speaking well of him, and were amazed at the gracious (χάριτος, a form of χάρις) words coming out of his mouth.4  So proclaiming 1) good news to the poor, 2) release to the captives, 3) the regaining of sight to the blind, 4) setting free those who are oppressed, and 5) the year of the Lord’s favor were called gracious (χάριτος) words.5  There was nothing niggardly about it.

For if, by the transgression of the one man, Paul wrote the first time he used χάριτος in his letter to the Romans, death reigned through the one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace (χάριτος, a form of χάρις) and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ!6  Sober discernment entails all of these facts without implying a niggardly measure of faith, but the realization that any of the recipients of this χάριτος is one person among many.  For just as in (ἐν) one (ἑνὶ, a form of εἷς) body we have many members, Paul continued, and not all the members serve the same function, so we who are many are one (ἓν, another form of εἷς) body in (ἐν) Christ, and individually7 we are members who belong to one (εἷς) another.8

I think sober discernment was equivalent for Paul to walking worthily of the calling with which [we] have been called, as he wrote the Ephesians, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love [Table], making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.9  For here, too, a description of oneness followed (Ephesians 4:4-7 NET).

There is one (῞Εν) body and one (ἓν) Spirit, just as you too were called to (ἐν) the one (μιᾷ, yet another form of εἷς) hope of your calling, one (εἷς) Lord, one (μία) faith, one (ἓν) baptism, one (εἷς) God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in (ἐν) all [Table].  But to each one (Ἑνὶ, still another form of εἷς) of us grace (χάρις) was given according to the measure (μέτρον) of the gift of Christ.

And we have different gifts (χαρίσματα, a form of χάρισμα) according to the grace given to us, Paul continued to describe the diversity of this oneness in Romans, a theme he revisited often:

The Diversity of Oneness

And we have different gifts (χαρίσματα) according to the grace given to us. If the gift is prophecy (προφητείαν, a form of προφητεία), that individual must use it in proportion to his faith.  If it is service, he must serve; if it is teaching, he must teach; if it is exhortation, he must exhort; if it is contributing, he must do so with sincerity; if it is leadership, he must do so with diligence; if it is showing mercy, he must do so with cheerfulness.

Romans 12:6-8 (NET)

It was he who gave some as apostles, some as prophets (προφήτας, a form of προφήτης), some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, that is, to build up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God – a mature person, attaining to the measure of Christ’s full stature.

Ephesians 4:11-13 (NET)

Now there are different gifts (χαρισμάτων, another form of χάρισμα), but the same Spirit.  And there are different ministries, but the same Lord.  And there are different results, but the same God who produces all of them in everyone [Table].  To each person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the benefit of all.  For one person is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, and another the message of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts (χαρίσματα) of healing by the one Spirit, to another performance of miracles, to another prophecy (προφητεία), and to another discernment of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues [Table].  It is one and the same Spirit, distributing as he decides to each person, who produces all these things.

1 Corinthians 12:4-11 (NET)

I want to consider these different10 gifts (χαρίσματα) individually.   If the gift is prophecy (προφητείαν), that individual must use it in proportion to his faith.11  I am assuming that in proportion (ἀναλογίαν, a form of ἀναλογία) to his faith relates back to that measure (μέτρον) of faith God has distributed to each.  In the law the Lord said to Moses (Deuteronomy 18:18-20 NET):

I will raise up a prophet like you for them from among their fellow Israelites.  I will put my words in his mouth and he will speak to them whatever I command [Table].  I will personally hold responsible anyone who then pays no attention to the words that prophet speaks in my name [Table].  But if any prophet presumes to speak anything in my name that I have not authorized him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die.

Now if you say to yourselves, the Lord continued, “How can we tell that a message is not from the Lord (yᵊhōvâ, יְהוָה)?” – whenever a prophet speaks in my name and the prediction is not fulfilled, then I have not spoken it; the prophet has presumed to speak it, so you need not fear (gûr, תָגוּר; Septuagint: ἀφέξεσθε, a form of ἀπέχω) him.12  But a fulfilled prediction alone was not sufficient to declare one a prophet of yᵊhōvâ, יְהוָה (Deuteronomy 13:1-5 NET):

Suppose a prophet or one who foretells by dreams should appear among you and show you a sign or wonder, and the sign or wonder should come to pass concerning what he said to you, namely, “Let us follow other gods” – gods whom you have not previously known – “and let us serve them.”  You must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer, for the Lord your God will be testing you to see if you love him with all your mind and being.  You must follow the Lord your God and revere only him; and you must observe his commandments, obey him, serve him, and remain loyal to him.  As for that prophet or dreamer, he must be executed because he encouraged rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, redeeming you from that place of slavery, and because he has tried to entice you from the way the Lord your God has commanded you to go.  In this way you must purge out evil from within.

The prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah (apparently a false prophet), From earliest times, the prophets who preceded you and me invariably prophesied war, disaster, and plagues against many countries and great kingdoms.  So if a prophet prophesied peace and prosperity, it was only known that the Lord truly sent him when what he prophesied came true.13  In this light I can begin to appreciate the proportion of Jesus’ faith when He read those gracious words—The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor; He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and the regaining of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor—and added, Today this scripture has been fulfilled even as you heard it being read.

And so Paul wrote, If the gift is prophecy (προφητείαν), that individual must use it in proportion to his faithAnd if I have prophecy (προφητείαν), he wrote the Corinthians, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.14  I can’t tell if this was a hypothetical consideration to highlight the preeminence of love, or an actual concern.  It is difficult to imagine an individual who received so many of the different gifts15 (Διαιρέσεις δὲ χαρισμάτων) of the Spirit, not shared by all (For one person is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom16…to another prophecy [προφητεία]17…), and yet did not have the love that is given by the same Spirit to all believers.  If such a monstrosity is actually possible it would seem to be someone with a religious mind believing something other than the word of the Lord to quench the love that is the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Love never ends, Paul continued to contrast love and prophecy in Corinthians.  But if there are prophecies (προφητεῖαι, another form of προφητεία), they will be set aside18when what is perfect comes19  Pursue love, he wrote, and be eager for the spiritual gifts (πνευματικά, a form of πνευματικός), especially that you may prophesy (προφητεύητε, a form of προφητεύω).20  Then he contrasted prophesying to one speaking in a tongue.

Tongues

Prophecy

For the one speaking in a tongue does not speak to people but to God, for no one understands; he is speaking mysteries by the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 14:2 (NET)

But the one who prophesies (προφητεύων, another form of προφητεύω) speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement, and consolation.

1 Corinthians 14:3 (NET)

The one who speaks in a tongue builds himself up…

1 Corinthians 14:4a (NET)

…but the one who prophesies (προφητεύων, another form of προφητεύω) builds up the church.

1 Corinthians 14:4b (NET)

I wish you all spoke in tongues…

1 Corinthians 14:5a (NET) Table

…but even more that you would prophesy (προφητεύητε, a form of προφητεύω).

1 Corinthians 14:5b (NET) Table

…unless he interprets so that the church may be strengthened.

1 Corinthians 14:5d (NET) Table

The one who prophesies (προφητεύων, another form of προφητεύω) is greater than the one who speaks in tongues…

1 Corinthians 14:5c (NET) Table

Since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, Paul concluded, seek to abound in order to strengthen the church.  So then,21 one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret.22  And, I thank God23 that I speak24 in tongues more than all of you, but25 in the church I want to speak five words with my mind26 to instruct others, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue.27  Then he quoted the Old Testament prophecy concerning tongues: By people with strange tongues and by the lips of strangers28 I will speak to this people, yet not even in this way will they listen to me29  So then, tongues, he concluded, are a signfor unbelieversProphecy (προφητεία), however, isfor believers.30

So if the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and unbelievers or uninformed people enter, will they not say that you have lost your minds?31  In other words, the Old Testament prophecy holds true: unbelievers hearing strange tongues will not listen to the Lord.  Rather, they say, you have lost your mindsBut if all prophesy (προφητεύωσιν, another form of προφητεύω), and an unbeliever or uninformed person enters, he will be convicted by all, he will be called to account by all.  The32 secrets of his heart are disclosed33  So prophecy is for believers, their rightful occupation that brings an unbeliever or uninformed person to faith and repentance, and in this way he will fall down with his face to the ground and worship God, declaring, “God is really among you.”34

Still, It was [Jesus] who gavesome [not all] as prophets (προφήτας, another form of προφήτης) …to equip the saints for the work of ministry, that is, to build up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God – a mature person, attaining to the measure of Christ’s full stature.35  And God has placed in the church[Table]…second prophets (προφήτας, another form of προφήτης)…Not all are prophets (προφῆται, another form of προφήτης), are they?36  No, because we have different gifts (χαρίσματα, a form of χάρισμα) according to the grace given to us.37  For just as in one body we have many members, and not all the members serve the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually we are members who belong to one another.38

 

Addendum (7/18/2015): Jim Searcy has published that the Septuagint is a hoax written by Origen and Eusebius 200 hundred years after Christ.  “In fact, the Septuagint ‘quotes’ from the New Testament and not vice versa…”  His contention is that the “King James Version is the infallible Word of God.”  So, I’ll re-examine the quotations above with the KJV.

My thoughts on Luke 4:18, 19 are too long to append to this essay.  This addendum is found as Study: Luke 4:18-19.

 

Addendum: May 24, 2026
According to a note (71) in the NET Jesus read from Isaiah 61:1, 2a and Isaiah 58:6 in Luke 4:18, 19. The following tables compare the Greek of that reading with the Septuagint.

Luke 4:18, 19 (NET Parallel Greek)

Isaiah 61:1, 2a (Septuagint BLB) Table

Isaiah 61:1, 2a (Septuagint Elpenor)

πνεῦμα κυρίου ἐπ᾿ ἐμὲ οὗ εἵνεκεν ἔχρισεν με εὐαγγελίσασθαι πτωχοῖς, ἀπέσταλκεν με, κηρύξαι αἰχμαλώτοις ἄφεσιν καὶ τυφλοῖς ἀνάβλεψιν, ἀποστεῖλαι τεθραυσμένους ἐν ἀφέσει, (19) κηρύξαι ἐνιαυτὸν κυρίου δεκτόν πνεῦμα κυρίου ἐπ᾽ ἐμέ οὗ εἵνεκεν ἔχρισέν με εὐαγγελίσασθαι πτωχοῖς ἀπέσταλκέν με ἰάσασθαι τοὺς συντετριμμένους τῇ καρδίᾳ κηρύξαι αἰχμαλώτοις ἄφεσιν καὶ τυφλοῖς ἀνάβλεψιν [Table] (2a) καλέσαι ἐνιαυτὸν κυρίου δεκτὸν [Table] ΠΝΕΥΜΑ Κυρίου ἐπ᾿ ἐμέ, οὗ εἵνεκεν ἔχρισέ με· εὐαγγελίσασθαι πτωχοῖς ἀπέσταλκέ με, ἰάσασθαι τοὺς συντετριμένους τὴν καρδίαν, κηρύξαι αἰχμαλώτοις ἄφεσιν καὶ τυφλοῖς ἀνάβλεψιν (2a) καλέσαι ἐνιαυτὸν Κυρίου δεκτὸν

Luke 4:18, 19 (NET)

Isaiah 61:1, 2a (NETS)

Isaiah 61:1, 2a (English Elpenor)

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and the regaining of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, (19) to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, (2a) to summon the acceptable year of the Lord The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me; he has sent me to preach glad tidings to the poor, to heal the broken in heart, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind; (2a) to declare the acceptable year of the Lord

The scroll Jesus read in the synagogue was not written in Greek, nor did Luke simply hear about Jesus reading a scroll in a synagogue and turn to the Septuagint to fill in a blank space in his Gospel narrative. I’m reasonably convinced that this is not a Greek translation of a transcript of an electromagnetic or digital recording of Jesus reading a scroll in Hebrew in a synagogue, but the implications for inspiration here are quite compelling.

Luke 4:18b (NET Parallel Greek)

Isaiah 58:6b (Septuagint BLB)

Isaiah 58:6b (Septuagint Elpenor)

ἀποστεῖλαι τεθραυσμένους ἐν ἀφέσει ἀπόστελλε τεθραυσμένους ἐν ἀφέσει ἀπόστελλε τεθραυσμένους ἐν ἀφέσει

Luke 4:18b (NET)

Isaiah 58:6b (NETS)

Isaiah 58:6b (English Elpenor)

to set free those who are oppressed, let the oppressed go free set the bruised free

Jesus could read from anywhere in the scroll He chose to read when his purpose was to reveal fulfilled prophecy as far as I’m concerned. What surprises me is that He could insert one line from the Lord’s fast into the middle of the passage about the Lord’s anointing of the Messiah without stirring up any comment or question.

According to a note (10) in the NET Paul quoted from Isaiah 28:11, 12 in 1 Corinthians 14:21. The following table compares the Greek of that quotation with the Septuagint.

1 Corinthians 14:21b (NET Parallel Greek)

Isaiah 28:11, 12 (Septuagint BLB)

Isaiah 28:11, 12 (Septuagint Elpenor)

ἐν ἑτερογλώσσοις καὶ ἐν χείλεσιν ἑτέρων λαλήσω τῷ λαῷ τούτῳ καὶ οὐδ᾿ οὕτως εἰσακούσονται μου διὰ φαυλισμὸν χειλέων διὰ γλώσσης ἑτέρας ὅτι λαλήσουσιν τῷ λαῷ τούτῳ [Table] (12) λέγοντες αὐτῷ τοῦτο τὸ ἀνάπαυμα τῷ πεινῶντι καὶ τοῦτο τὸ σύντριμμα καὶ οὐκ ἠθέλησαν ἀκούειν [Table] διὰ φαυλισμὸν χειλέων διὰ γλώσσης ἑτέρας, ὅτι λαλήσουσι τῷ λαῷ τούτῳ (12) λέγοντες αὐτῷ· τοῦτο τὸ ἀνάπαυμα τῷ πεινῶντι καὶ τοῦτο τὸ σύντριμμα, καὶ οὐκ ἠθέλησαν ἀκούειν

1 Corinthians 14:21b (NET)

Isaiah 28:11, 12 (NETS)

Isaiah 28:11, 12 (English Elpenor)

By people with strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people, yet not even in this way will they listen to me because of contempt from lips, through a different tongue, because they will speak to this people, (12) saying to them, “This is the rest for the hungry, and this is the destruction”; yet they would not hear. by reason of the contemptuous [words] of the lips, by means of another language: for they shall speak to this people, saying to them, (12) This is the rest to him that is hungry, and this is the calamity: but they would not hear.

Both of these passages practically beg for a word-for-word consideration in Hebrew and Greek, but I won’t undertake that here now.

Tables comparing Isaiah 58:6; Deuteronomy 18:20; 18:21; 18:22; 13:1 (13:2); 13:2 (13:3); 13:3 (13:4); 13:4 (13:5); 13:5 (13:6); Jeremiah 28:8 and 28:9 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET, and comparing the Greek of Isaiah 58:6; Deuteronomy 18:20; 18:21; 18:22; 13:1 (13:2); 13:2 (13:3); 13:3 (13:4); 13:4 (13:5); 13:5 (13:6); Jeremiah 28:8 (35:8) and 28:9 (35:9) in the Septuagint (BLB and Elpenor), and tables comparing Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 14:13; 14:18, 19; 14:21 and 14:25 in the NET and KJV follow.

Isaiah 58:6 (Tanakh)

Isaiah 58:6 (KJV)

Isaiah 58:6 (NET)

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? No, this is the kind of fast I want: I want you to remove the sinful chains, to tear away the ropes of the burdensome yoke, to set free the oppressed, and to break every burdensome yoke.

Isaiah 58:6 (Septuagint BLB)

Isaiah 58:6 (Septuagint Elpenor)

οὐχὶ τοιαύτην νηστείαν ἐγὼ ἐξελεξάμην λέγει κύριος ἀλλὰ λῦε πάντα σύνδεσμον ἀδικίας διάλυε στραγγαλιὰς βιαίων συναλλαγμάτων ἀπόστελλε τεθραυσμένους ἐν ἀφέσει καὶ πᾶσαν συγγραφὴν ἄδικον διάσπα οὐχὶ τοιαύτην νηστείαν ἐγὼ ἐξελεξάμην, λέγει Κύριος, ἀλλὰ λύε πάντα σύνδεσμον ἀδικίας, διάλυε στραγγαλιὰς βιαίων συναλλαγμάτων, ἀπόστελλε τεθραυσμένους ἐν ἀφέσει καὶ πᾶσαν συγγραφὴν ἄδικον διάσπα

Isaiah 58:6 (NETS)

Isaiah 58:6 (English Elpenor)

I have not chosen such a fast, says the Lord; rather loose every bond of injustice; undo the knots of contracts made by force; let the oppressed go free, and tear up every unjust note. I have not chosen such a fast, saith the Lord; but do thou loose every burden of iniquity, do thou untie the knots of hard bargains, set the bruised free, and cancel every unjust account.

Deuteronomy 18:20 (Tanakh)

Deuteronomy 18:20 (KJV)

Deuteronomy 18:20 (NET)

But the prophet, that shall speak a word presumptuously in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. “But if any prophet presumes to speak anything in my name that I have not authorized him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die.

Deuteronomy 18:20 (Septuagint BLB)

Deuteronomy 18:20 (Septuagint Elpenor)

πλὴν ὁ προφήτης ὃς ἂν ἀσεβήσῃ λαλῆσαι ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματί μου ῥῆμα ὃ οὐ προσέταξα λαλῆσαι καὶ ὃς ἂν λαλήσῃ ἐπ᾽ ὀνόματι θεῶν ἑτέρων ἀποθανεῖται ὁ προφήτης ἐκεῖνος πλὴν ὁ προφήτης, ὃς ἂν ἀσεβήσῃ λαλῆσαι ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματί μου ρῆμα, ὃ οὐ προσέταξα λαλῆσαι, καὶ ὃς ἂν λαλήσῃ ἐν ὀνόματι θεῶν ἑτέρων, ἀποθανεῖται ὁ προφήτης ἐκεῖνος

Deuteronomy 18:20 (NETS)

Deuteronomy 18:20 (English Elpenor)

But the prophet who acts impiously by speaking a word in my name that I have not ordered to speak and who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.” But the prophet whosoever shall impiously speak in my name a word which I have not commanded him to speak, and whosoever shall speak in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.

Deuteronomy 18:21 (Tanakh)

Deuteronomy 18:21 (KJV)

Deuteronomy 18:21 (NET)

And if thou say in thy heart: ‘How shall we know the word which HaShem hath not spoken?’ And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken? Now if you say to yourselves, ‘How can we tell that a message is not from the Lord?’—

Deuteronomy 18:21 (Septuagint BLB)

Deuteronomy 18:21 (Septuagint Elpenor)

ἐὰν δὲ εἴπῃς ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ σου πῶς γνωσόμεθα τὸ ῥῆμα ὃ οὐκ ἐλάλησεν κύριος ἐὰν δὲ εἴπῃς ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ σου· πῶς γνωσόμεθα τὸ ρῆμα, ὃ οὐκ ἐλάλησε Κύριος

Deuteronomy 18:21 (NETS)

Deuteronomy 18:21 (English Elpenor)

But if you say in your heart, “How will we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?” But if thou shalt say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?

Deuteronomy 18:22 (Tanakh)

Deuteronomy 18:22 (KJV)

Deuteronomy 18:22 (NET)

When a prophet speaketh in the name of HaShem, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which HaShem hath not spoken; the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously, thou shalt not be afraid of him. When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him. whenever a prophet speaks in my name and the prediction is not fulfilled, then I have not spoken it; the prophet has presumed to speak it, so you need not fear him.”

Deuteronomy 18:22 (Septuagint BLB)

Deuteronomy 18:22 (Septuagint Elpenor)

ὅσα ἐὰν λαλήσῃ ὁ προφήτης ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι κυρίου καὶ μὴ γένηται τὸ ῥῆμα καὶ μὴ συμβῇ τοῦτο τὸ ῥῆμα ὃ οὐκ ἐλάλησεν κύριος ἐν ἀσεβείᾳ ἐλάλησεν ὁ προφήτης ἐκεῖνος οὐκ ἀφέξεσθε αὐτοῦ ὅσα ἐὰν λαλήσῃ ὁ προφήτης ἐκεῖνος τῷ ὀνόματι Κυρίου, καὶ μὴ γένηται καὶ μὴ συμβῇ, τοῦτο τὸ ρῆμα ὃ οὐκ ἐλάλησε Κύριος· ἐν ἀσεβείᾳ ἐλάλησεν ὁ προφήτης ἐκεῖνος, οὐκ ἐφέξεσθε αὐτοῦ

Deuteronomy 18:22 (NETS)

Deuteronomy 18:22 (English Elpenor)

whatever the prophet might speak in the name of the Lord but the thing does not take place and does not happen, this is the word that the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken it in impiety; you shall not spare him. Whatsoever words that prophet shall speak in the name of the Lord, and they shall not come true, and not come to pass, this [is] the thing which the Lord has not spoken; that prophet has spoken wickedly: ye shall not spare him.

Deuteronomy 13:2 (Tanakh)

Deuteronomy 13:1 (KJV)

Deuteronomy 13:1 (NET)

If there arise in the midst of thee a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams–and he give thee a sign or a wonder, If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, Suppose a prophet or one who foretells by dreams should appear among you and show you a sign or wonder,

Deuteronomy 13:1 (Septuagint BLB)

Deuteronomy 13:2 (Septuagint Elpenor)

ἐὰν δὲ ἀναστῇ ἐν σοὶ προφήτης ἢ ἐνυπνιαζόμενος ἐνύπνιον καὶ δῷ σοι σημεῖον ἢ τέρας ἐὰν δὲ ἀναστῇ ἐν σοὶ προφήτης ἢ ἐνυπνιαζόμενος τὸ ἐνύπνιον καὶ δῷ σοι σημεῖον ἢ τέρας

Deuteronomy 13:1 (NETS)

Deuteronomy 13:2 (English Elpenor)

Now if a prophet or one who divines by a dream should appear among you and give you a sign or a wonder, And if there arise within thee a prophet, or one who dreams a dream, and he gives thee a sign or a wonder,

Deuteronomy 13:3 (Tanakh)

Deuteronomy 13:2 (KJV)

Deuteronomy 13:2 (NET)

and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spoke unto thee–saying: ‘Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them’; And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; and the sign or wonder should come to pass concerning what he said to you, namely, “Let us follow other gods”—gods whom you have not previously known—“and let us serve them.”

Deuteronomy 13:2 (Septuagint BLB)

Deuteronomy 13:3 (Septuagint Elpenor)

καὶ ἔλθῃ τὸ σημεῖον ἢ τὸ τέρας ὃ ἐλάλησεν πρὸς σὲ λέγων πορευθῶμεν καὶ λατρεύσωμεν θεοῖς ἑτέροις οὓς οὐκ οἴδατε καὶ ἔλθῃ τὸ σημεῖον ἢ τὸ τέρας, ὃ ἐλάλησε πρός σε λέγων· πορευθῶμεν καὶ λατρεύσωμεν θεοῖς ἑτέροις, οὓς οὐκ οἴδατε

Deuteronomy 13:2 (NETS)

Deuteronomy 13:3 (English Elpenor)

and the sign or wonder should come about, which he spoke to you, saying: “Let us go and serve other gods (whom you have not known),” and the sign or the wonder come to pass which he spoke to thee, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye know not;

Deuteronomy 13:4 (Tanakh)

Deuteronomy 13:3 (KJV)

Deuteronomy 13:3 (NET)

thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or unto that dreamer of dreams; for HaShem your G-d putteth you to proof, to know whether ye do love HaShem your G-d with all your heart and with all your soul. Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer, for the Lord your God will be testing you to see if you love him with all your mind and being.

Deuteronomy 13:3 (Septuagint BLB)

Deuteronomy 13:4 (Septuagint Elpenor)

οὐκ ἀκούσεσθε τῶν λόγων τοῦ προφήτου ἐκείνου ἢ τοῦ ἐνυπνιαζομένου τὸ ἐνύπνιον ἐκεῖνο ὅτι πειράζει κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὑμᾶς εἰδέναι εἰ ἀγαπᾶτε κύριον τὸν θεὸν ὑμῶν ἐξ ὅλης τῆς καρδίας ὑμῶν καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ψυχῆς ὑμῶν οὐκ ἀκούσεσθε τῶν λόγων τοῦ προφήτου ἐκείνου ἢ τοῦ ἐνυπνιαζομένου τὸ ἐνύπνιον ἐκεῖνο, ὅτι πειράζει Κύριος ὁ Θεός σου ὑμᾶς εἰδέναι, εἰ ἀγαπᾶτε τὸν Θεὸν ὑμῶν ἐξ ὅλης τῆς καρδίας ὑμῶν καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ψυχῆς ὑμῶν

Deuteronomy 13:3 (NETS)

Deuteronomy 13:4 (English Elpenor)

you shall not hear the words of that prophet or diviner by that dream, for the Lord God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with the whole of your heart and with the whole of your soul. ye shall not hearken to the words of that prophet, or the dreamer of that dream, because the Lord thy God tries you, to know whether ye love your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Deuteronomy 13:5 (Tanakh)

Deuteronomy 13:4 (KJV)

Deuteronomy 13:4 (NET)

After HaShem your G-d shall ye walk, and Him shall ye fear, and His commandments shall ye keep, and unto His voice shall ye hearken, and Him shall ye serve, and unto Him shall ye cleave. Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. You must follow the Lord your God and revere only him; and you must observe his commandments, obey him, serve him, and remain loyal to him.

Deuteronomy 13:4 (Septuagint BLB)

Deuteronomy 13:5 (Septuagint Elpenor)

ὀπίσω κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ ὑμῶν πορεύεσθε καὶ αὐτὸν φοβηθήσεσθε καὶ τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ φυλάξεσθε καὶ τῆς φωνῆς αὐτοῦ ἀκούσεσθε καὶ αὐτῷ προστεθήσεσθε ὀπίσω Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ ὑμῶν πορεύσεσθε καὶ τοῦτον φοβηθήσεσθε καὶ τῆς φωνῆς αὐτοῦ ἀκούσεσθε καὶ αὐτῷ προστεθήσεσθε

Deuteronomy 13:4 (NETS)

Deuteronomy 13:5 (English Elpenor)

Go after the Lord your God, and him you shall fear, and his commandments you shall keep, and his voice you shall hear, and to him you shall be joined. Ye shall follow the Lord your God, and fear him, and ye shall hear his voice, and attach yourselves to him.

Deuteronomy 13:6 (Tanakh)

Deuteronomy 13:5 (KJV)

Deuteronomy 13:5 (NET)

And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken perversion against HaShem your G-d, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of bondage, to draw thee aside out of the way which HaShem thy G-d commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put away the evil from the midst of thee. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee. As for that prophet or dreamer, he must be executed because he encouraged rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, redeeming you from that place of slavery, and because he has tried to entice you from the way the Lord your God has commanded you to go. In this way you must purge evil from among you.

Deuteronomy 13:5 (Septuagint BLB)

Deuteronomy 13:6 (Septuagint Elpenor)

καὶ ὁ προφήτης ἐκεῖνος ἢ ὁ τὸ ἐνύπνιον ἐνυπνιαζόμενος ἐκεῖνος ἀποθανεῖται ἐλάλησεν γὰρ πλανῆσαί σε ἀπὸ κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ σου τοῦ ἐξαγαγόντος σε ἐκ γῆς Αἰγύπτου τοῦ λυτρωσαμένου σε ἐκ τῆς δουλείας ἐξῶσαί σε ἐκ τῆς ὁδοῦ ἧς ἐνετείλατό σοι κύριος ὁ θεός σου πορεύεσθαι ἐν αὐτῇ καὶ ἀφανιεῖς τὸν πονηρὸν ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν καὶ ὁ προφήτης ἐκεῖνος ἢ ὁ τὸ ἐνύπνιον ἐνυπνιαζόμενος ἐκεῖνος ἀποθανεῖται· ἐλάλησε γὰρ πλανῆσαί σε ἀπὸ Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ σου τοῦ ἐξαγαγόντος σε ἐκ γῆς Αἰγύπτου, τοῦ λυτρωσαμένου σε ἐκ τῆς δουλείας, ἐξῶσαί σε ἀπὸ τῆς ὁδοῦ, ἧς ἐνετείλατό σοι Κύριος ὁ Θεός σου πορεύεσθαι ἐν αὐτῇ· καὶ ἀφανιεῖς τὸ πονηρὸν ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν

Deuteronomy 13:5 (NETS)

Deuteronomy 13:6 (English Elpenor)

And that prophet or that diviner by dream shall die, for he spoke to lead you astray from the Lord your God—who brought you out of the land of Egypt, who redeemed you from slavery—to thrust you from the way that the Lord your God commanded you to go upon it. And you shall eliminate the evil one from yourselves. And that prophet or that dreamer of a dream, shall die; for he has spoken to make thee err from the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, who redeemed thee from bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in: so shalt thou abolish the evil from among you.

Jeremiah 28:8 (Tanakh)

Jeremiah 28:8 (KJV)

Jeremiah 28:8 (NET)

The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence. The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence. From earliest times, the prophets who preceded you and me invariably prophesied war, disaster, and plagues against many countries and great kingdoms.

Jeremiah 28:8 (Septuagint BLB)

Jeremiah 35:8 (Septuagint Elpenor)

οἱ προφῆται οἱ γεγονότες πρότεροί μου καὶ πρότεροι ὑμῶν ἀπὸ τοῦ αἰῶνος καὶ ἐπροφήτευσαν ἐπὶ γῆς πολλῆς καὶ ἐπὶ βασιλείας μεγάλας εἰς πόλεμον οἱ προφῆται οἱ γεγονότες πρότεροί μου καὶ πρότεροι ὑμῶν ἀπὸ τοῦ αἰῶνος καὶ ἐπροφήτευσαν ἐπὶ γῆς πολλῆς καὶ ἐπὶ βασιλείας μεγάλας εἰς πόλεμον

Jeremiah 35:8 (NETS)

Jeremiah 35:8 (English Elpenor)

The prophets who preceded me and preceded you from ancient times also prophesied with reference to much land and great kingdoms for war. The prophets that were before me and before you of old, also prophesied over much country, and against great kingdoms, concerning war.

Jeremiah 28:9 (Tanakh)

Jeremiah 28:9 (KJV)

Jeremiah 28:9 (NET)

The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him. The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him. So if a prophet prophesied peace and prosperity, it was only known that the Lord truly sent him when what he prophesied came true.”

Jeremiah 28:9 (Septuagint BLB)

Jeremiah 35:9 (Septuagint Elpenor)

ὁ προφήτης ὁ προφητεύσας εἰς εἰρήνην ἐλθόντος τοῦ λόγου γνώσονται τὸν προφήτην ὃν ἀπέστειλεν αὐτοῖς κύριος ἐν πίστει ὁ προφήτης ὁ προφητεύσας εἰς εἰρήνην, ἐλθόντος τοῦ λόγου γνώσονται τὸν προφήτην, ὃν ἀπέστειλεν αὐτοῖς Κύριος ἐν πίστει

Jeremiah 35:9 (NETS)

Jeremiah 35:9 (English Elpenor)

As for the prophet who prophesied for peace—when the matter came to pass, they would know the prophet, him whom the Lord had sent in faithfulness.” [As for] the prophet that has prophesied for peace, when the word has come [to pass], they shall know the prophet whom the Lord has sent them in truth.

Romans 12:5 (NET)

Romans 12:5 (KJV)

so we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually we are members who belong to one another. So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

Romans 12:5 (NET Parallel Greek)

Romans 12:5 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)

Romans 12:5 (Byzantine Majority Text)

οὕτως οἱ πολλοὶ ἓν σῶμα ἐσμεν ἐν Χριστῷ, τὸ δὲ καθ᾿ εἷς ἀλλήλων μέλη ουτως οι πολλοι εν σωμα εσμεν εν χριστω ο δε καθ εις αλληλων μελη ουτως οι πολλοι εν σωμα εσμεν εν χριστω ο δε καθ εις αλληλων μελη

1 Corinthians 14:13 (NET)

1 Corinthians 14:13 (KJV)

So then, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret.

1 Corinthians 14:13 (NET Parallel Greek)

1 Corinthians 14:13 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)

1 Corinthians 14:13 (Byzantine Majority Text)

Διὸ ὁ λαλῶν γλώσσῃ προσευχέσθω ἵνα διερμηνεύῃ διοπερ ο λαλων γλωσση προσευχεσθω ινα διερμηνευη διοπερ ο λαλων γλωσση προσευχεσθω ινα διερμηνευη

1 Corinthians 14:18, 19 (NET)

1 Corinthians 14:18, 19 (KJV)

I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you, I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:

1 Corinthians 14:18 (NET Parallel Greek)

1 Corinthians 14:18 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)

1 Corinthians 14:18 (Byzantine Majority Text)

Εὐχαριστῶ τῷ θεῷ, πάντων ὑμῶν μᾶλλον γλώσσαις λαλῶ ευχαριστω τω θεω μου παντων υμων μαλλον γλωσσαις λαλων ευχαριστω τω θεω μου παντων υμων μαλλον γλωσσαις λαλων
but in the church I want to speak five words with my mind to instruct others, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue. Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.

1 Corinthians 14:19 (NET Parallel Greek)

1 Corinthians 14:19 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)

1 Corinthians 14:19 (Byzantine Majority Text)

ἀλλὰ ἐν ἐκκλησίᾳ θέλω πέντε λόγους τῷ νοί_ μου λαλῆσαι, ἵνα καὶ ἄλλους κατηχήσω, ἢ μυρίους λόγους ἐν γλώσσῃ αλλ εν εκκλησια θελω πεντε λογους δια του νοος μου λαλησαι ινα και αλλους κατηχησω η μυριους λογους εν γλωσση αλλ εν εκκλησια θελω πεντε λογους δια του νοος μου λαλησαι ινα και αλλους κατηχησω η μυριους λογους εν γλωσση

1 Corinthians 14:21 (NET)

1 Corinthians 14:21 (KJV)

It is written in the law: “By people with strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people, yet not even in this way will they listen to me,” says the Lord. In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord.

1 Corinthians 14:21 (NET Parallel Greek)

1 Corinthians 14:21 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)

1 Corinthians 14:21 (Byzantine Majority Text)

ἐν τῷ νόμῳ γέγραπται ὅτι ἐν ἑτερογλώσσοις καὶ ἐν χείλεσιν ἑτέρων λαλήσω τῷ λαῷ τούτῳ καὶ οὐδ᾿ οὕτως εἰσακούσονται μου, λέγει κύριος εν τω νομω γεγραπται οτι εν ετερογλωσσοις και εν χειλεσιν ετεροις λαλησω τω λαω τουτω και ουδ ουτως εισακουσονται μου λεγει κυριος εν τω νομω γεγραπται οτι εν ετερογλωσσοις και εν χειλεσιν ετεροις λαλησω τω λαω τουτω και ουδ ουτως εισακουσονται μου λεγει κυριος

1 Corinthians 14:25 (NET)

1 Corinthians 14:25 (KJV)

The secrets of his heart are disclosed, and in this way he will fall down with his face to the ground and worship God, declaring, “God is really among you.” And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.

1 Corinthians 14:25 (NET Parallel Greek)

1 Corinthians 14:25 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)

1 Corinthians 14:25 (Byzantine Majority Text)

τὰ κρυπτὰ τῆς καρδίας αὐτοῦ φανερὰ γίνεται, καὶ οὕτως πεσὼν ἐπὶ πρόσωπον προσκυνήσει τῷ θεῷ ἀπαγγέλλων ὅτι ὄντως ὁ θεὸς ἐν ὑμῖν ἐστιν και ουτως τα κρυπτα της καρδιας αυτου φανερα γινεται και ουτως πεσων επι προσωπον προσκυνησει τω θεω απαγγελλων οτι ο θεος οντως εν υμιν εστιν και ουτως τα κρυπτα της καρδιας αυτου φανερα γινεται και ουτως πεσων επι προσωπον προσκυνησει τω θεω απαγγελλων οτι ο θεος οντως εν υμιν εστιν

1 Romans 12:2b (NET) Table

2 Romans 12:3 (NET)

3 Luke 4:21 (NET)

4 Luke 4:22a (NET) Table

5 Luke 4:22 (NET) Table

6 Romans 5:17 (NET)

7 The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had the neuter article τὸ preceding individually, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had the masculine article ο.

8 Romans 12:4, 5 (NET)

9 Ephesians 4:1-3 (NET)

10 κατὰ τὴν χάριν τὴν δοθεῖσαν ἡμῖν διάφορα (literally, “according to the grace given to us differently”) Romans 12:6 (NET) [Addendum 5/21/2026: διάφορα is a noun, “difference, distinction, diversity, variety,” or an adjective, διάφορα, rather than an adverb. It still seems to me that the “difference, distinction, diversity, variety” indicated is us rather than grace or different gifts, referring back to χαρίσματα. In 1 Corinthians 12:4a (NET) Διαιρέσεις δὲ χαρισμάτων εἰσίν was translated Now there are different gifts.]

11 Romans 12:6b (NET)

12 Deuteronomy 18:21, 22 (NET)

13 Jeremiah 28:8, 9 (NET)

14 1 Corinthians 13:2 (NET) Table

15 1 Corinthians 12:4 (NET)

16 1 Corinthians 12:8 (NET)

17 1 Corinthians 12:10 (NET) Table

18 1 Corinthians 13:8 (NET) Table

19 1 Corinthians 13:10 (NET) Table

20 1 Corinthians 14:1 (NET)

21 The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had the conjunction Διὸ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had διοπερ (KJV: Wherefore).

22 1 Corinthians 14:12b, 13 (NET)

23 The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had the genitive pronoun μου (KJV: my) here. The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 did not.

24 The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had the 1st person singular verb λαλῶ here, a form of λαλέω in the active voice and present tense, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had the nominative present participle λαλων.

25 The NET parallel Greek text had the conjunction ἀλλὰ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus, Byzantine Majority Text and NA28 had ἀλλ’

26 The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had τῷ νοί μου here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had δια του νοος μου (KJV: with my understanding).

27 1 Corinthians 14:18, 19 (NET)

28 The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had the adjective ἑτέρων here, a form of ἕτερος in the genitive case, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had the dative form ετεροις (KJV: other).

29 1 Corinthians 14:21 (NET)

30 1 Corinthians 14:22 (NET)

31 1 Corinthians 14:23 (NET)

32 The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had και ουτως (KJV: And thus) beginning this clause. The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 did not.

33 1 Corinthians 14:24, 25a (NET)

34 1 Corinthians 14:25b (NET)

35 Ephesians 4:11-13 (NET)

36 1 Corinthians 12:28, 29 (NET)

37 Romans 12:6a (NET)

38 Romans 12:4, 5 (NET)

Romans, Part 40

So I ask, Paul continued, God has not rejected his people, has he?  Absolutely not!  For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.  God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew (προέγνω, a form of προγινώσκω)!1  The word προέγνω leads me directly back to Romans 8:28-30 (NET):

And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose, because those whom he foreknew (προέγνω, a form of προγινώσκω) he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.  And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.

Do you not know (οἴδατε, a form of εἴδω; literally see) what the scripture says about Elijah, Paul continued, how he pleads (ἐντυγχάνει, a form of ἐντυγχάνω) with God against Israel?2  “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they3 have demolished your altars; I alone am left and they are seeking my life!4  To plead against is certainly a valid translation.  But to fully appreciate Paul’s sarcasm I think I must revisit the other two times he used ἐντυγχάνει in Romans, as well as the story when the Lord determined that Elisha would replace Elijah as prophet.

The Spirit helps us in our weakness, Paul wrote, for we do not know how we should pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings [Table].  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes (ἐντυγχάνει, a form of ἐντυγχάνω) on behalf of the saints according to God’s will [Table].5  And, Who will bring any charge against God’s elect?  It is God who justifies.  Who is the one who will condemn?  Christ is the one who died (and more than that, he was raised), who is at the right hand of God, and who also is interceding (ἐντυγχάνει, a form of ἐντυγχάνω) for us.6  So I begin to see the contrast that Elijah sounded more like an accuser than an intercessor, Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left and they are seeking my life!

The Lord strengthened and helped Elijah flee from Jezebel for forty days.  But after he had spent the night in a cave at Horeb, the Lord spoke to him, “Why are you here, Elijah?”7  I have been absolutely loyal to the Lord, the sovereign God, Elijah answered, even though the Israelites have abandoned the agreement they made with you, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword.  I alone am left and now they want to take my life.8

After a demonstration where Elijah saw that the Lord was not in a mighty wind, an earthquake, or a fire, but a soft whisper,9 He gave him another chance to answer the same question, Why are you here, Elijah?10  But Elijah gave exactly the same answer.  So Elijah’s prophetic ministry was close to its end, at least for the time being.  Go back the way you came and then head for the Desert of Damascus, the Lord told him. Go and anoint Hazael king over Syria.  You must anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to take your place as prophet.11

He doesn’t seem to be angry with Elijah.  The Lord simply recognized that Elijah had reached the end of that measure of faith He had distributed to him: For by the grace given to me, Paul wrote the Romans, I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you a measure of faith.12

Elijah thought he had performed the ultimate empirical test before all Israel, proving once and for all, The Lord is the true God!13  He didn’t understand that, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,14 the soft whisper rather than the cacophony of wind, earthquake or fire.  But the Lord said to him, I still have left in Israel seven thousand followers who have not bowed their knees to Baal or kissed the images of him.15

But what was the divine response to [Elijah]? Paul continued in Romans, “I have kept for myself seven thousand people who have not bent the knee to Baal.”  So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen (ἐκλογὴν, a form of ἐκλογή) by grace.  And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.16  Earlier Paul wrote, when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our ancestor Isaac – even before they were born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose in election [ἐκλογὴν, a form of ἐκλογή] would stand, not by works but by his calling [καλοῦντος, a form of καλέω]) – it was said to her,The older will serve the younger [Table],” just as it is written:Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”17

The word translated calling above, καλοῦντος in Greek, is a form of καλέω, as is ἐκάλεσεν translated called in, And those he predestined, he also called (ἐκάλεσεν, another form of καλέω); and those he called (ἐκάλεσεν, another form of καλέω), he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.18  And Paul described God as the One who makes the dead alive and summons (καλοῦντος, a form of καλέω) the things that do not yet exist as though they already do.19

What then? Paul continued.  Israel failed to obtain what20 it was diligently seeking, but the elect (ἐκλογὴ; i.e., ἐκλογὴν χάριτος, those chosen by grace) obtained it.  The rest were hardened, as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, to this very day” [Table comparing quote to Septuagint]  And David21 says, “Let their table become a snare and trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; let their eyes be darkened so that they may not see, and make their backs bend continually.”22

But why?  Why would God do this to his chosen people?  For this is what the Lord has commanded us, Paul and Barnabas said in Pisidian Antioch, “I have appointed you to be a light for the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.23  And to the Romans Paul wrote, I ask then, they did not stumble into an irrevocable fall, did they?  Absolutely not!  But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel jealous.24

Even in Acts Luke made it plain, When the Gentiles [in Pisidian Antioch] heard this, they began to rejoice and praise the word of the Lord, and all who had been appointed (τεταγμένοι, a form of τάσσω) for eternal life believed.25  This knowledge that God calls people to salvation “in a certain order” should fill one with hope.  Now if [Israel’s] transgression means riches for the world, Paul continued, and their defeat means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full restoration (πλήρωμα) bring?26

No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, Jesus said, because the patch (πλήρωμα, or filling) will pull away from the garment and the tear will be worse.  And no one pours new wine into old wineskins; otherwise27 the skins burst and the wine is spilled out and the skins are destroyed.28  Instead they put new wine into new wineskins and both29 are preserved.30  This was Jesus’ answer to a question asked by John the Baptist’s disciples, why Jesus’ disciples did not adhere to their religious norms, and those of the Pharisees.

 

Addendum: November 14, 2025
According to a note (1) in the NET, Paul quoted from 1 Kings 19:10, 14 in Romans 11:3. The following tables compare the Greek of that quotation with the Septuagint.

Romans 11:3 (NET Parallel Greek)

1 Kings 19:10b (Septuagint BLB)

3 Kings 19:10b (Septuagint Elpenor)

τοὺς προφήτας σου ἀπέκτειναν, τὰ θυσιαστήρια σου κατέσκαψαν, καγὼ ὑπελείφθην μόνος καὶ ζητοῦσιν τὴν ψυχήν μου τὰ θυσιαστήριά σου κατέσκαψαν καὶ τοὺς προφήτας σου ἀπέκτειναν ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ καὶ ὑπολέλειμμαι ἐγὼ μονώτατος καὶ ζητοῦσι τὴν ψυχήν μου τὰ θυσιαστήριά σου κατέσκαψαν καὶ τοὺς προφήτας σου ἀπέκτειναν ἐν ρομφαίᾳ, καὶ ὑπολέλειμμαι ἐγὼ μονώτατος, καὶ ζητοῦσι τὴν ψυχήν μου

Romans 11:3 (NET)

3 Reigns 19:10b (NETS)

3 Kings 19:10b (English Elpenor)

they have killed your prophets; they have demolished your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life! they threw down your altars and killed your prophets with a sword, and I alone am a remnant, and they are seeking my life they have digged down thine altars, and have slain thy prophets with the sword; and I only am left alone, and they seek my life

Romans 11:3 (NET Parallel Greek)

1 Kings 19:14b (Septuagint BLB)

3 Kings 19:14b (Septuagint Elpenor)

τοὺς προφήτας σου ἀπέκτειναν, τὰ θυσιαστήρια σου κατέσκαψαν, καγὼ ὑπελείφθην μόνος καὶ ζητοῦσιν τὴν ψυχήν μου τὰ θυσιαστήριά σου καθεῖλαν καὶ τοὺς προφήτας σου ἀπέκτειναν ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ καὶ ὑπολέλειμμαι ἐγὼ μονώτατος καὶ ζητοῦσι τὴν ψυχήν μου καὶ τὰ θυσιαστήριά σου καθεῖλαν καὶ τοὺς προφήτας σου ἀπέκτειναν ἐν ρομφαίᾳ, καὶ ὑπολέλειμμαι ἐγὼ μονώτατος, καὶ ζητοῦσι τὴν ψυχήν μου

Romans 11:3 (NET)

3 Reigns 19:14b (NETS)

3 Kings 19:14b (English Elpenor)

they have killed your prophets; they have demolished your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life! they tore down your altars and killed your prophets with a sword, and I alone am a remnant, and they are seeking my life and they have overthrown thine altars, and have slain thy prophets with the sword! and I am left entirely alone, and they seek my life

According to a note (4) in the NET, Paul quoted from 1 Kings 19:18 in Romans 11:4. The following table compares the Greek of that quotation with the Septuagint.

Romans 11:4b (NET Parallel Greek)

1 Kings 19:10b (Septuagint BLB)

3 Kings 19:10b (Septuagint Elpenor)

Κατέλιπονἑπτακισχιλίους ἄνδρας, οἵτινες οὐκ ἔκαμψαν γόνυ τῇ Βάαλ Καταλείψειςἑπτὰ χιλιάδας ἀνδρῶν πάντα γόνατα οὐκ ὤκλασαν γόνυ τῷ Βααλ Καταλείψειςἑπτὰ χιλιάδας ἀνδρῶν, πάντα γόνατα, οὐκ ὤκλασαν γόνυ τῷ Βάαλ

Romans 11:4b (NET)

3 Reigns 19:10b (NETS)

3 Kings 19:10b (English Elpenor)

I have kept…7,000 people who have not bent the knee to Baal you will leave seven thousand men…all the knees that did not bow a knee to Baal thou shalt leave…seven thousand men, all the knees which had not bowed themselves to Baal

According to a note (7) in the NET, Paul quoted from Psalm 69:22, 23 in Romans 11:9b, 10. The following tables compare the Greek of that quotation with the Septuagint.

Romans 11:9b (NET Parallel Greek)

Psalm 69:22 (Septuagint BLB)

Psalm 68:23 (Septuagint Elpenor)

γενηθήτω ἡ τράπεζα αὐτῶν εἰς παγίδα καὶ εἰς θήραν καὶ εἰς σκάνδαλον καὶ εἰς ἀνταπόδομα αὐτοῖς γενηθήτω ἡ τράπεζα αὐτῶν ἐνώπιον αὐτῶν εἰς παγίδα καὶ εἰς ἀνταπόδοσιν καὶ εἰς σκάνδαλον γενηθήτω ἡ τράπεζα αὐτῶν ἐνώπιον αὐτῶν εἰς παγίδα καὶ εἰς ἀνταπόδοσιν καὶ εἰς σκάνδαλον

Romans 11:9b (NET)

Psalm 68:23 (NETS)

Psalm 68:23 (English Elpenor)

Let their table become a snare and trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; Let their table become a trap before them, and a retribution and a stumbling block. Let their table before them be for a snare, and for a recompense, and for a stumbling-block.

Romans 11:10 (NET Parallel Greek)

Psalm 69:23 (Septuagint BLB) Table

Psalm 68:24 (Septuagint Elpenor)

σκοτισθήτωσαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ αὐτῶν τοῦ μὴ βλέπειν καὶ τὸν νῶτον αὐτῶν διὰ παντὸς σύγκαμψον σκοτισθήτωσαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ αὐτῶν τοῦ μὴ βλέπειν καὶ τὸν νῶτον αὐτῶν διὰ παντὸς σύγκαμψον σκοτισθήτωσαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ αὐτῶν τοῦ μὴ βλέπειν, καὶ τὸν νῶτον αὐτῶν διαπαντὸς σύγκαμψον

Romans 11:10 (NET)

Psalm 68:24 (NETS)

Psalm 68:24 (English Elpenor)

let their eyes be darkened so that they may not see, and make their backs bend continually. Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their back permanently. Let their eyes be darkened that they should not see; and bow down their back continually.

Tables comparing 1 Kings 19:10; 19:14; 19:9; 19:12; 19:13; 19:15; 19:16; 19:18; Psalm 69:22 and 69:23 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET, and comparing the Greek of 1 Kings (3 Reigns, 3 Kings) 19:10; 19:14; 19:9; 19:12; 19:13; 19:15; 19:16; 19:18; Psalm 69:22 (68:23) and 69:23 (68:24) in the Septuagint (BLB and Elpenor), and tables comparing Romans 11:2; 11:3; 11:6; 11:7; 11:9, 10 and Matthew 9:17 in the KJV and NET follow.

1 Kings 19:10 (Tanakh)

1 Kings 19:10 (KJV)

1 Kings 19:10 (NET)

And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. He answered, “I have been absolutely loyal to the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, even though the Israelites have abandoned the covenant they made with you, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left and now they want to take my life.”

1 Kings 19:10 (Septuagint BLB)

3 Kings 19:10 (Septuagint Elpenor)

καὶ εἶπεν Ηλιου ζηλῶν ἐζήλωκα τῷ κυρίῳ παντοκράτορι ὅτι ἐγκατέλιπόν σε οἱ υἱοὶ Ισραηλ τὰ θυσιαστήριά σου κατέσκαψαν καὶ τοὺς προφήτας σου ἀπέκτειναν ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ καὶ ὑπολέλειμμαι ἐγὼ μονώτατος καὶ ζητοῦσι τὴν ψυχήν μου λαβεῖν αὐτήν καὶ εἶπεν ᾿Ηλιού· ζηλῶν ἐζήλωκα τῷ Κυρίῳ παντοκράτορι, ὅτι ἐγκατέλιπόν σε οἱ υἱοὶ ᾿Ισραήλ· τὰ θυσιαστήριά σου κατέσκαψαν καὶ τοὺς προφήτας σου ἀπέκτειναν ἐν ρομφαίᾳ, καὶ ὑπολέλειμμαι ἐγὼ μονώτατος, καὶ ζητοῦσι τὴν ψυχήν μου λαβεῖν αὐτήν

3 Reigns 19:10 (NETS)

3 Kings 19:10 (English Elpenor)

And Eliou said, “Being zealous, I have been zealous for the Lord Almighty, for the sons of Israel forsook you; they threw down your altars and killed your prophets with a sword, and I alone am a remnant, and they are seeking my life, to take it.” And Eliu said, I have been very jealous for the Lord Almighty, because the children of Israel have forsaken thee: they have digged down thine altars, and have slain thy prophets with the sword; and I only am left alone, and they seek my life to take it.

1 Kings 19:14 (Tanakh)

1 Kings 19:14 (KJV)

1 Kings 19:14 (NET)

And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. He answered, “I have been absolutely loyal to the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, even though the Israelites have abandoned the covenant they made with you, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left and now they want to take my life.”

1 Kings 19:14 (Septuagint BLB)

3 Kings 19:14 (Septuagint Elpenor)

καὶ εἶπεν Ηλιου ζηλῶν ἐζήλωκα τῷ κυρίῳ παντοκράτορι ὅτι ἐγκατέλιπον τὴν διαθήκην σου οἱ υἱοὶ Ισραηλ τὰ θυσιαστήριά σου καθεῖλαν καὶ τοὺς προφήτας σου ἀπέκτειναν ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ καὶ ὑπολέλειμμαι ἐγὼ μονώτατος καὶ ζητοῦσι τὴν ψυχήν μου λαβεῖν αὐτήν καὶ εἶπεν ᾿Ηλιού· ζηλῶν ἐζήλωκα τῷ Κυρίῳ παντοκράτορι, ὅτι ἐγκατέλιπον τὴν διαθήκην σου οἱ υἱοὶ ᾿Ισραήλ· καὶ τὰ θυσιαστήριά σου καθεῖλαν καὶ τοὺς προφήτας σου ἀπέκτειναν ἐν ρομφαίᾳ, καὶ ὑπολέλειμμαι ἐγὼ μονώτατος, καὶ ζητοῦσι τὴν ψυχήν μου λαβεῖν αὐτήν

3 Reigns 19:14 (NETS)

3 Kings 19:14 (English Elpenor)

And Eliou said, “Being zealous, I have been zealous for the Lord Almighty, for the sons of Israel forsook your covenant; they tore down your altars and killed your prophets with a sword, and I alone am a remnant, and they are seeking my life, to take it.” And Eliu said, I have been very jealous for the Lord Almighty; for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, and they have overthrown thine altars, and have slain thy prophets with the sword! and I am left entirely alone, and they seek my life to take it.

1 Kings 19:9 (Tanakh)

1 Kings 19:9 (KJV)

1 Kings 19:9 (NET)

And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? He went into a cave there and spent the night. Suddenly the Lord’s message came to him, “Why are you here, Elijah?”

1 Kings 19:9 (Septuagint BLB)

3 Kings 19:9 (Septuagint Elpenor)

καὶ εἰσῆλθεν ἐκεῖ εἰς τὸ σπήλαιον καὶ κατέλυσεν ἐκεῖ καὶ ἰδοὺ ῥῆμα κυρίου πρὸς αὐτὸν καὶ εἶπεν τί σὺ ἐνταῦθα Ηλιου καὶ εἰσῆλθεν ἐκεῖ εἰς τὸ σπήλαιον καὶ κατέλυσεν ἐκεῖ· καὶ ἰδοὺ ρῆμα Κυρίου πρὸς αὐτὸν καὶ εἶπε· τί σὺ ἐνταῦθα, ᾿Ηλιού

3 Reigns 19:9 (NETS)

3 Kings 19:9 (English Elpenor)

And he entered into a cave and lodged there. And behold, a word of the Lord came to him and said, “Why are you here, Eliou?” And he entered there into a cave, and rested there; and, behold, the word of the Lord [came] to him, and he said, What [doest] thou here, Eliu?

1 Kings 19:12 (Tanakh)

1 Kings 19:12 (KJV)

1 Kings 19:12 (NET)

And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. After the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire, there was a soft whisper.

1 Kings 19:12 (Septuagint BLB)

3 Kings 19:12 (Septuagint Elpenor)

καὶ μετὰ τὸν συσσεισμὸν πῦρ οὐκ ἐν τῷ πυρὶ κύριος καὶ μετὰ τὸ πῦρ φωνὴ αὔρας λεπτῆς κἀκεῖ κύριος καὶ μετὰ τὸν συσσειμὸν πῦρ, οὐκ ἐν τῷ πυρὶ Κύριος· καὶ μετὰ τὸ πῦρ φωνὴ αὔρας λεπτῆς, κἀκεῖ Κύριος

3 Reigns 19:12 (NETS)

3 Kings 19:12 (English Elpenor)

and after the seismic upheaval a fire; the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire the sound of a light breeze, and the Lord was there. and after the earthquake a fire; [but] the Lord [was] not in the fire: and after the fire the voice of a gentle breeze.

1 Kings 19:13 (Tanakh)

1 Kings 19:13 (KJV)

1 Kings 19:13 (NET)

And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? When Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his robe and went out and stood at the entrance to the cave. Suddenly a voice asked him, “Why are you here, Elijah?”

1 Kings 19:13 (Septuagint BLB)

3 Kings 19:13 (Septuagint Elpenor)

καὶ ἐγένετο ὡς ἤκουσεν Ηλιου καὶ ἐπεκάλυψεν τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ μηλωτῇ ἑαυτοῦ καὶ ἐξῆλθεν καὶ ἔστη ὑπὸ τὸ σπήλαιον καὶ ἰδοὺ πρὸς αὐτὸν φωνὴ καὶ εἶπεν τί σὺ ἐνταῦθα Ηλιου καὶ ἐγένετο ὡς ἤκουσεν ᾿Ηλιού, καὶ ἐπεκάλυψε τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ μηλωτῇ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐξῆλθε καὶ ἔστη ὑπὸ σπήλαιον· καὶ ἰδοὺ πρὸς αὐτὸν φωνὴ καὶ εἶπε· τί σὺ ἐνταῦθα ᾿Ηλιού

3 Reigns 19:13 (NETS)

3 Kings 19:13 (English Elpenor)

And it happened, when Eliou heard it, that he wrapped his face in his hairy mantle and went out and stood by the cave, and behold, there came a voice to him, and it said, “Why are you here, Eliou?” And it came to pass when Eliu heard, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went forth and stood in the cave: and, behold, a voice [came] to him and said, What [doest] thou here, Eliu?

1 Kings 19:15 (Tanakh)

1 Kings 19:15 (KJV)

1 Kings 19:15 (NET)

And the LORD said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus: and when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria: And the LORD said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus: and when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria: The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came and then head for the wilderness of Damascus. Go and anoint Hazael king over Syria.

1 Kings 19:15 (Septuagint BLB)

3 Kings 19:15 (Septuagint Elpenor)

καὶ εἶπεν κύριος πρὸς αὐτόν πορεύου ἀνάστρεφε εἰς τὴν ὁδόν σου καὶ ἥξεις εἰς τὴν ὁδὸν ἐρήμου Δαμασκοῦ καὶ χρίσεις τὸν Αζαηλ εἰς βασιλέα τῆς Συρίας καὶ εἶπε Κύριος πρὸς αὐτόν· πορεύου, ἀνάστρεφε εἰς τὴν ὁδόν σου καὶ ἥξεις εἰς τὴν ὁδὸν ἐρήμου Δαμασκοῦ καὶ ἥξεις καὶ χρίσεις τὸν ᾿Αζαὴλ εἰς βασιλέα τῆς Συρίας

3 Reigns 19:15 (NETS)

3 Kings 19:15 (English Elpenor)

And the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way, and you will come to the way of the wilderness of Damascus, and you shall anoint Hazael as king of Syria, And the Lord said to him, Go, return, and thou shalt come into the way of the wilderness of Damascus: and thou shalt go and anoint Azael to be king over Syria.

1 Kings 19:16 (Tanakh)

1 Kings 19:16 (KJV)

1 Kings 19:16 (NET)

And Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel: and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. And Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel: and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. You must anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to take your place as prophet.

1 Kings 19:16 (Septuagint BLB)

3 Kings 19:16 (Septuagint Elpenor)

καὶ τὸν Ιου υἱὸν Ναμεσσι χρίσεις εἰς βασιλέα ἐπὶ Ισραηλ καὶ τὸν Ελισαιε υἱὸν Σαφατ ἀπὸ Αβελμαουλα χρίσεις εἰς προφήτην ἀντὶ σοῦ καὶ τὸν ᾿Ιοὺ υἱὸν Ναμεσσὶ χρίσεις εἰς βασιλέα ἐπὶ ᾿Ισραήλ· καὶ τὸν ῾Ελισαιὲ υἱὸν Σαφὰτ χρίσεις εἰς προφήτην ἀντὶ σοῦ

3 Reigns 19:16 (NETS)

3 Kings 19:16 (English Elpenor)

and you shall anoint Iou son of Namessi as king over Israel, and you shall anoint Elisaie son of Saphat from Abelmaoula as prophet in your stead. And Ju the son of Namessi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel; and Elisaie the son of Saphat shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room.

1 Kings 19:18 (Tanakh)

1 Kings 19:18 (KJV)

1 Kings 19:18 (NET)

Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. I still have left in Israel 7,000 followers who have not bowed their knees to Baal or kissed the images of him.”

1 Kings 19:18 (Septuagint BLB)

3 Kings 19:18 (Septuagint Elpenor)

καὶ καταλείψεις ἐν Ισραηλ ἑπτὰ χιλιάδας ἀνδρῶν πάντα γόνατα ἃ οὐκ ὤκλασαν γόνυ τῷ Βααλ καὶ πᾶν στόμα ὃ οὐ προσεκύνησεν αὐτῷ καὶ καταλείψεις ἐν ᾿Ισραὴλ ἑπτὰ χιλιάδας ἀνδρῶν, πάντα γόνατα, ἃ οὐκ ὤκλασαν γόνυ τῷ Βάαλ, καὶ πᾶν στόμα, ὃ οὐ προσεκύνησεν αὐτῷ

3 Reigns 19:18 (NETS)

3 Kings 19:18 (English Elpenor)

And you will leave seven thousand men in Israel, all the knees that did not bow a knee to Baal and every mouth that did not do obeisance to him.” And thou shalt leave in Israel seven thousand men, all the knees which had not bowed themselves to Baal, and every mouth which had not worshipped him.

Psalm 69:22 (Tanakh)

Psalm 69:22 (KJV)

Psalm 69:22 (NET)

Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap. Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap. May their dining table become a trap before them. May it be a snare for that group of friends.

Psalm 69:22 (Septuagint BLB)

Psalm 68:23 (Septuagint Elpenor)

γενηθήτω ἡ τράπεζα αὐτῶν ἐνώπιον αὐτῶν εἰς παγίδα καὶ εἰς ἀνταπόδοσιν καὶ εἰς σκάνδαλον γενηθήτω ἡ τράπεζα αὐτῶν ἐνώπιον αὐτῶν εἰς παγίδα καὶ εἰς ἀνταπόδοσιν καὶ εἰς σκάνδαλον

Psalm 68:23 (NETS)

Psalm 68:23 (English Elpenor)

Let their table become a trap before them, and a retribution and a stumbling block. Let their table before them be for a snare, and for a recompense, and for a stumbling-block.

Psalm 69:23 (Tanakh)

Psalm 69:23 (KJV)

Psalm 69:23 (NET)

Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake. Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake. May their eyes be blinded. Make them shake violently.

Psalm 69:23 (Septuagint BLB)

Psalm 68:24 (Septuagint Elpenor)

σκοτισθήτωσαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ αὐτῶν τοῦ μὴ βλέπειν καὶ τὸν νῶτον αὐτῶν διὰ παντὸς σύγκαμψον σκοτισθήτωσαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ αὐτῶν τοῦ μὴ βλέπειν, καὶ τὸν νῶτον αὐτῶν διαπαντὸς σύγκαμψον

Psalm 68:24 (NETS)

Psalm 68:24 (English Elpenor)

Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their back permanently. Let their eyes be darkened that they should not see; and bow down their back continually.

Romans 11:2 (NET)

Romans 11:2 (KJV)

God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew! Do you not know what the scripture says about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,

Romans 11:2 (NET Parallel Greek)

Romans 11:2 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)

Romans 11:2 (Byzantine Majority Text)

οὐκ ἀπώσατο ὁ θεὸς τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ ὃν προέγνω. ἢ οὐκ οἴδατε ἐν Ἠλίᾳ τί λέγει ἡ γραφή, ὡς ἐντυγχάνει τῷ θεῷ κατὰ τοῦ Ἰσραήλ ουκ απωσατο ο θεος τον λαον αυτου ον προεγνω η ουκ οιδατε εν ηλια τι λεγει η γραφη ως εντυγχανει τω θεω κατα του ισραηλ λεγων ουκ απωσατο ο θεος τον λαον αυτου ον προεγνω η ουκ οιδατε εν ηλια τι λεγει η γραφη ως εντυγχανει τω θεω κατα του ισραηλ λεγων

Romans 11:3 (NET)

Romans 11:3 (KJV)

“Lord, they have killed your prophets; they have demolished your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life!” Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.

Romans 11:3 (NET Parallel Greek)

Romans 11:3 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)

Romans 11:3 (Byzantine Majority Text)

κύριε, τοὺς προφήτας σου ἀπέκτειναν, τὰ θυσιαστήρια σου κατέσκαψαν, καγὼ ὑπελείφθην μόνος καὶ ζητοῦσιν τὴν ψυχήν μου κυριε τους προφητας σου απεκτειναν και τα θυσιαστηρια σου κατεσκαψαν καγω υπελειφθην μονος και ζητουσιν την ψυχην μου κυριε τους προφητας σου απεκτειναν και τα θυσιαστηρια σου κατεσκαψαν καγω υπελειφθην μονος και ζητουσιν την ψυχην μου

Romans 11:6 (NET)

Romans 11:6 (KJV)

And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.

Romans 11:6 (NET Parallel Greek)

Romans 11:6 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)

Romans 11:6 (Byzantine Majority Text)

εἰ δὲ χάριτι, οὐκέτι ἐξ ἔργων, ἐπεὶ ἡ χάρις οὐκέτι γίνεται χάρις ει δε χαριτι ουκετι εξ εργων επει η χαρις ουκετι γινεται χαρις ει δε εξ εργων ουκετι εστιν χαρις επει το εργον ουκετι εστιν εργον ει δε χαριτι ουκετι εξ εργων επει η χαρις ουκετι γινεται χαρις ει δε εξ εργων ουκετι εστιν χαρις επει το εργον ουκετι εστιν εργον

Romans 11:7 (NET)

Romans 11:7 (KJV)

What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was diligently seeking, but the elect obtained it. The rest were hardened, What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded

Romans 11:7 (NET Parallel Greek)

Romans 11:7 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)

Romans 11:7 (Byzantine Majority Text)

Τί οὖν; ὃ ἐπιζητεῖ Ἰσραήλ, τοῦτο οὐκ ἐπέτυχεν, ἡ δὲ ἐκλογὴ ἐπέτυχεν· οἱ δὲ λοιποὶ ἐπωρώθησαν τι ουν ο επιζητει ισραηλ τουτου ουκ επετυχεν η δε εκλογη επετυχεν οι δε λοιποι επωρωθησαν τι ουν ο επιζητει ισραηλ τουτο ουκ επετυχεν η δε εκλογη επετυχεν οι δε λοιποι επωρωθησαν

Romans 11:9, 10 (NET)

Romans 11:9, 10 (KJV)

And David says, “Let their table become a snare and trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:

Romans 11:9 (NET Parallel Greek)

Romans 11:9 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)

Romans 11:9 (Byzantine Majority Text)

καὶ Δαυὶδ λέγει· γενηθήτω ἡ τράπεζα αὐτῶν εἰς παγίδα καὶ εἰς θήραν καὶ εἰς σκάνδαλον καὶ εἰς ἀνταπόδομα αὐτοῖς και δαβιδ λεγει γενηθητω η τραπεζα αυτων εις παγιδα και εις θηραν και εις σκανδαλον και εις ανταποδομα αυτοις και δαυιδ λεγει γενηθητω η τραπεζα αυτων εις παγιδα και εις θηραν και εις σκανδαλον και εις ανταποδομα αυτοις
let their eyes be darkened so that they may not see, and make their backs bend continually.” Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway.

Romans 11:10 (NET Parallel Greek)

Romans 11:10 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)

Romans 11:10 (Byzantine Majority Text)

σκοτισθήτωσαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ αὐτῶν τοῦ μὴ βλέπειν καὶ τὸν νῶτον αὐτῶν διὰ παντὸς σύγκαμψον σκοτισθητωσαν οι οφθαλμοι αυτων του μη βλεπειν και τον νωτον αυτων διαπαντος συγκαμψον σκοτισθητωσαν οι οφθαλμοι αυτων του μη βλεπειν και τον νωτον αυτων διαπαντος συγκαμψον

Matthew 9:17 (NET)

Matthew 9:17 (KJV)

And no one pours new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the skins burst and the wine is spilled out and the skins are destroyed. Instead they put new wine into new wineskins and both are preserved.” Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.

Matthew 9:17 (NET Parallel Greek)

Matthew 9:17 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)

Matthew 9:17 (Byzantine Majority Text)

οὐδὲ βάλλουσιν οἶνον νέον εἰς ἀσκοὺς παλαιούς· εἰ δὲ μή γε, ρήγνυνται οἱ ἀσκοὶ καὶ ὁ οἶνος ἐκχεῖται καὶ οἱ ἀσκοὶ ἀπόλλυνται· ἀλλὰ βάλλουσιν οἶνον νέον εἰς ἀσκοὺς καινούς, καὶ ἀμφότεροι συντηροῦνται ουδε βαλλουσιν οινον νεον εις ασκους παλαιους ει δε μηγε ρηγνυνται οι ασκοι και ο οινος εκχειται και οι ασκοι απολουνται αλλα βαλλουσιν οινον νεον εις ασκους καινους και αμφοτερα συντηρουνται ουδε βαλλουσιν οινον νεον εις ασκους παλαιους ει δε μηγε ρηγνυνται οι ασκοι και ο οινος εκχειται και οι ασκοι απολουνται αλλα βαλλουσιν οινον νεον εις ασκους καινους και αμφοτεροι συντηρουνται

1 Romans 11:1, 2a (NET)

2 The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had λεγων (KJV: saying) here. The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 did not.

3 The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had the conjunction και (KJV: and) beginning this clause. The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 did not.

4 Romans 11:2b, 3 (NET)

5 Romans 8:26, 27 (NET)

6 Romans 8:33, 34 (NET) Table

7 1 Kings 19:9 (NET)

8 1 Kings 19:10 (NET)

9 1 Kings 19:12 (NET)

10 1 Kings 19:13 (NET)

11 1 Kings 19:15, 16 (NET)

12 Romans 12:3 (NET)

13 1 Kings 18:39 (NET) Table

14 Romans 10:17 (NKJV) Table

15 1 Kings 19:18 (NET)

16 Romans 11:4-6 (NET) The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ει δε εξ εργων ουκετι εστιν χαρις επει το εργον ουκετι εστιν εργον (KJV: But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work) here. The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 did not.

17 Romans 9:10-13 (NET) Table comparing the Greek of Paul’s quotation to that of the Septuagint.

18 Romans 8:30 (NET)

19 Romans 4:17b (NET)

22 Romans 11:7-10 (NET) The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had διὰ παντὸς here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had διαπαντος (KJV: alway).

23 Acts 13:47 (NET)

24 Romans 11:11 (NET)

25 Acts 13:48 (NET) Table

26 Romans 11:12 (NET)

28 The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had ἀπόλλυνται here, a form of the verbs ἀπόλλυμι, ἀπόλλω, ἀπολλύω in the present tense, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had απολουνται (KJV: perish) in the future tense.

29 The NET parallel Greek text, NA28 and Byzantine Majority Text had ἀμφότεροι here, the masculine form of the adjective ἀμφότερος in the present tense, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus had the neuter form αμφοτερα.

30 Matthew 9:16, 17 (NET)

Romans, Part 4

There is something important to remember about ἀσέβεια (ungodliness).  If it is not overcome in people by the Spirit of God, the word of God, faith in the Lord Jesus, being born from above—it simply continues to function.  That sounds so simple.  But those plagued with ἀσέβεια, even after experiencing God’s wrath, don’t understand what they have experienced.  They don’t realize they’ve been given over in the desires (ἐπιθυμίαις, a form of ἐπιθυμία) of their hearts to impurity (ἀκαθαρσίαν, a form of ἀκαθαρσία), to dishonor (ἀτιμάζεσθαι, a form of ἀτιμάζω) their bodies (σώματα, a form of σῶμα) among themselves1 because they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.2  On the contrary, the religious minded among them in particular assume that this new demon worship with its cultic sexual practices is good and righteous.

Now here is where it gets confusing.  Religious minded people plagued with ἀσέβεια invent rules governing the proper ways to worship demons, and the correct methods to engage in cultic sexual practices.  And they teach their good and evil to the next generation.

Unrighteous Worship

The Wrath of God Revealed from Heaven

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped (ἐσεβάσθησαν, a form of σεβάζομαι) and served (ἐλάτρευσαν, a form of λατρεύω) the creation (κτίσει, a form of κτίσις) rather than the Creator (κτίσαντα, a form of κτίζω), who is blessed forever!  Amen.

Romans 1:25 NET

For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable (ἀτιμίας, a form of ἀτιμία) passions (πάθη, a form of πάθος).  For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones (παρὰ φύσιν, φύσιν is a form of φύσις), and likewise the men3 also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions (ὀρέξει, a form of ὄρεξις) for one another.  Men committed (κατεργαζόμενοι, a form of κατεργάζομαι) shameless acts (ἀσχημοσύνην, ἀσχημοσύνη) with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Romans 1:26, 27 NET

So one generation worshiped God as if He were a created thing.  And the next generation, or so, worshiped created things instead of God.  For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable (ἀτιμίας, a form of ἀτιμία) passions (πάθη, a form of πάθος).4  Here again ἀτιμία, like ἀτιμάζω and ἄτιμος, is a negation of τιμή.  I assume then that this is not the way to know how to possess my own body in holiness and honor (τιμῇ, a form of τιμή), but is more likely the lustful (ἐπιθυμίας, another form of ἐπιθυμία) passion (πάθει, another form of πάθος) like the Gentiles who do not know (εἰδότα, a form of εἴδω) God.5
The Greek word ἐσεβάσθησαν (a form of σεβάζομαι) translated worshiped in Romans 1:25 (NET) is only used here.  I imagine Paul and the Holy Spirit chose it because it comes from σέβομαι (a form of σέβω; to worship, honour, revere) like the negations ἀσεβής and ἀσέβεια (ungodliness).  The first occurrence in the New Testament of a form of λατρεύω, translated served (ἐλάτρευσαν) in Romans 1:25 (NET), is in Matthew 4:8-10 (NET).

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their grandeur.  And he said6 to him, “I will give you all these things if you throw yourself to the ground and worship (προσκυνήσῃς, a form of προσκυνέω) me.”  Then Jesus said to him, “Go away, Satan!7 For it is written: ‘You are to worship (προσκυνήσεις, another form of προσκυνέω) the Lord your God and serve (λατρεύσεις, another form of λατρεύω) only him.’”

I’m always impressed when things work out like this in a word study, that the first occurrence of the word pretty much says it all.  I take it for granted that the Holy Spirit knew λατρεύω would lead here.  But I often wonder if the human author, Paul in this case, knew it as well.

He might have used δουλεύω in Romans 1:25.  That would have led to, No one can serve (δουλεύειν, a form of δουλεύω) two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve (δουλεύειν, a form of δουλεύω) God and money.8  But that is not anywhere near as appropriate to his theme as Jesus quoting the law to Satan.  If he had used διακονία I would have found, But Martha was distracted with all the preparations (διακονίαν, a form of διακονία) she had to make, so she came up to him and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work alone?  Tell her to help me.”9  If Paul had used διακονέω, Then the devil left him, and angels came and began ministering (διηκόνουν, a form of διακονέω) to his needs,10  I would have at least been led to the end of the same story as λατρεύσεις (a form of λατρεύω).

In this instance I do think Paul was very aware of the law Jesus quoted, even if he did not have access yet to Matthew’s (or Luke’s) Gospel.  The word λατρεύσεις (λατρεύω) is used in the passage Jesus quoted (Deuteronomy 6:13) in the Septuagint.  And Paul certainly had λατρεύω on his mind.  For God, whom I serve (λατρεύω) in my spirit by preaching the gospel of his Son,11 is how Paul described his own service earlier in the same chapter.

The Greek word κτίσει (a form of κτίσις), translated creation in Romans 1:25 (NET), leads just as profoundly to Mark 10:6-8a (NET).  But from the beginning of creation (κτίσεως, another form of κτίσις) he12 made them male (ἄρσεν, a form of ἄῤῥην) and female (θῆλυ, a form of θῆλυς).  For this reason a man will leave his father and mother,13 and the two will become one flesh.  So when men exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation (κτίσει, a form of κτίσις) rather than the Creator14 God gave them over to dishonorable passions;15 namely, Men (ἄρσενες, another form of αρσην) committed shameless acts with men (ἄρσεσιν, another form of αρσην).16

What about the women?  I don’t know.  I can’t tell if they were seeking out other women or anal intercourse with men.  Both options seem to fit the symmetry of the language.  Both are equally against natural germination (παρὰ φύσιν, φύσιν is a form of φύσις).  The latter accords better with a “sprung bum,”17 which I assume is what Paul meant by the due penalty for their error.  But does this penalty only apply to men?  Again, I don’t know the answer.

These are sensitive issues and I want to continue in a more personal way in another essay.

 

Addendum: May 17, 2020
A note (17) in the NET indicated that Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:13 in Matthew 4:10.  First, here is a comparison of English translations from the Masoretic text and the Septuagint.

Masoretic Text

Septuagint
Deuteronomy 6:13 (Tanakh) Deuteronomy 6:13 (NET) Deuteronomy 6:13 (NETS)

Deuteronomy 6:13 (Elpenor English)

Thou shalt fear HaShem thy G-d; and Him shalt thou serve, and by His name shalt thou swear. You must revere the Lord your God, serve him, and take oaths using only his name. The Lord your God you shall fear, and him you shall serve, and to him you shall cling, and by his name you shall swear. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve; and thou shalt cleave to him, and by his name thou shalt swear.

The clause and thou shalt cleave to him (καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν κολληθήσῃ) was added to the Septuagint or deleted from the Masoretic text.  Here is a comparison of the Greek from Matthew’s Gospel narrative to that of the Septuagint.

Matthew 4:10b (NET Parallel Greek)

Deuteronomy 6:13a (Septuagint BLB)

Deuteronomy 6:13a (Septuagint Elpenor)

κύριον τὸν θεόν σου προσκυνήσεις καὶ αὐτῷ μόνῳ λατρεύσεις κύριον τὸν θεόν σου φοβηθήσῃ καὶ αὐτῷ λατρεύσεις Κύριον τὸν Θεόν σου φοβηθήσῃ καὶ αὐτῷ μόνῳ λατρεύσεις

Matthew 4:10b (NET)

Deuteronomy 6:13a (NETS)

Deuteronomy 6:13a (English Elpenor)

You are to worship the Lord your God and serve only him. The Lord your God you shall fear, and him you shall serve Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve

It didn’t sit quite right with me that Jesus changed fear (φοβηθήσῃ, a form of φοβέω) to worship (προσκυνήσεις, a form of προσκυνέω) in a quotation simply because Satan had said, throw yourself to the ground and worship (προσκυνήσῃς, another form of προσκυνέω) me.  So I searched προσκυνήσεις in the Septuagint.

Masoretic Text

Septuagint
Exodus 20:5 (Tanakh) Exodus 20:5 (NET) Exodus 20:5 (NETS)

Exodus 20:5 (Elpenor English)

thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor serve them; for I HaShem thy G-d am a jealous G-d, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children to the third and fourth generations of those who reject me, You shall not do obeisance (προσκυνήσεις) to them, nor are you to serve them, for I am the Lord your God, a jealous god, repaying sins of fathers upon children up to the third and fourth generation to those who hate me, Thou shalt not bow down (προσκυνήσεις) to them, nor serve them; for I am the Lord thy God, a jealous God, recompensing the sins of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generation to them that hate me,

Exodus 23:24 (Tanakh)

Exodus 23:24 (NET) Exodus 23:24 (NETS)

Exodus 23:24 (English Elpenor)

Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their doings; but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and break in pieces their pillars. “You must not bow down to their gods; you must not serve them or do according to their practices. Instead you must completely overthrow them and smash their standing stones to pieces. You shall not do obeisance (προσκυνήσεις) to their gods nor serve them.  You shall not act according to their practices, but with demolition shall demolish and by smashing shall smash their steles. Thou shalt not worship (προσκυνήσεις) their gods, nor serve them: thou shalt not do according to their works, but shalt utterly destroy them, and break to pieces their pillars.

Deuteronomy 5:9 (Tanakh) Table

Deuteronomy 5:9 (NET) Deuteronomy 5:9 (NETS) Table

Deuteronomy 5:9 (English Elpenor)

Thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor serve them; for I HaShem thy G-d am a jealous G-d, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate Me, You must not worship or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.  I punish the sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons for the sin of the fathers who reject me, You shall not do obeisance (προσκυνήσεις) to them, nor are you to serve them, because I am the Lord your God, a jealous god, repaying the sins of fathers upon children to the third and fourth generation to those who hate me, Thou shalt not bow down (προσκυνήσεις) to them, nor shalt thou serve them; for I am the Lord thy God, a jealous God, visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation to them that hate me,

Deuteronomy 26:10 (Tanakh)

Deuteronomy 26:10 (NET) Deuteronomy 26:10 (NETS)

Deuteronomy 26:10 (English Elpenor)

And now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the land, which Thou, O HaShem, hast given me.’  And thou shalt set it down before HaShem thy G-d, and worship before HaShem thy G-d. So now, look!  I have brought the first of the ground’s produce that you, Lord, have given me.”  Then you must set it down before the Lord your God and worship before him. And now look, I have brought the first fruit of the produce of the land that you, O Lord, have given me, a land flowing with milk and honey.”  And you shall leave them before the Lord your God and do obeisance (προσκυνήσεις) before the Lord your God. And now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruits of the land, which thou gavest me, O Lord, a land flowing with milk and honey: and thou shalt leave it before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt worship (προσκυνήσεις) before the Lord thy God;

Psalm 81:9 (Tanakh)

Psalm 81:9 (NET) Psalm 80:10 (NETS)

Psalm 80:10 (English Elpenor)

There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god. There must be no other god among you.  You must not worship a foreign god. There shall be no recent god among you, nor shall you do obeisance (προσκυνήσεις) to a foreign god. there shall be no new god in thee; neither shalt thou worship (προσκυνήσεις) a strange god.

Alluding to this synopsis of the law He had given Israel to protect them from Satan’s laws and religions, Jesus assured Satan with his own word that He would not submit to deceit as so many of his people had done.

A table comparing the Greek of Jesus’ quotation from Genesis in the NET with that of the Septuagint follows.

Mark 10:7, 8a (NET Parallel Greek)

Genesis 2:24 (Septuagint BLB)

Genesis 2:24 (Septuagint Elpenor)

ἕνεκεν τούτου καταλείψει ἄνθρωπος τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν μητέρα καὶ ἔσονται οἱ δύο εἰς σάρκα μίαν ἕνεκεν τούτου καταλείψει ἄνθρωπος τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν μητέρα αὐτοῦ καὶ προσκολληθήσεται πρὸς τὴν γυναῗκα αὐτοῦ καὶ ἔσονται οἱ δύο εἰς σάρκα μίαν ἕνεκεν τούτου καταλείψει ἄνθρωπος τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν μητέρα καὶ προσκολληθήσεται πρὸς τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἔσονται οἱ δύο εἰς σάρκα μίαν

Mark 10:7, 8a (NET)

Genesis 2:24 (NETS)

Genesis 2:24 (English Elpenor)

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother, and the two will become one flesh. Therefore a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

A table comparing the Greek of Jesus’ quotation from Genesis in the Stephanus Textus Receptus with that of the Septuagint follows.

Mark 10:7, 8a (Stephanus Textus Receptus)

Genesis 2:24 (Septuagint BLB)

Genesis 2:24 (Septuagint Elpenor)

ενεκεν τουτου καταλειψει ανθρωπος τον πατερα αυτου και την μητερα και προσκολληθησεται προς την γυναικα αυτου και εσονται οι δυο εις σαρκα μιαν ἕνεκεν τούτου καταλείψει ἄνθρωπος τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν μητέρα αὐτοῦ καὶ προσκολληθήσεται πρὸς τὴν γυναῗκα αὐτοῦ καὶ ἔσονται οἱ δύο εἰς σάρκα μίαν ἕνεκεν τούτου καταλείψει ἄνθρωπος τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν μητέρα καὶ προσκολληθήσεται πρὸς τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἔσονται οἱ δύο εἰς σάρκα μίαν

Mark 10:7, 8a (KJV)

Genesis 2:24 (NETS)

Genesis 2:24 (English Elpenor)

For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: Therefore a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

Tables comparing Deuteronomy 6:13; Exodus 20:5; 23:24; Deuteronomy 26:10; Psalm 81:9 and Genesis 2:24 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET, and tables comparing Deuteronomy 6:13; Exodus 20:5; 23:24; Deuteronomy 26:10; Psalm 81:9 (80:10) and Genesis 2:24 in the Septuagint (BLB and Elpenor) follow.  Then tables comparing Romans 1:27; Matthew 4:9, 10; 6:24 and Mark 10:6, 7 in the NET and KJV follow those.

Deuteronomy 6:13 (Tanakh)

Deuteronomy 6:13 (KJV)

Deuteronomy 6:13 (NET)

Thou shalt fear HaShem thy G-d; and Him shalt thou serve, and by His name shalt thou swear. Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. You must revere the Lord your God, serve him, and take oaths using only his name.

Deuteronomy 6:13 (Septuagint BLB)

Deuteronomy 6:13 (Septuagint Elpenor)

κύριον τὸν θεόν σου φοβηθήσῃ καὶ αὐτῷ λατρεύσεις καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν κολληθήσῃ καὶ τῷ ὀνόματι αὐτοῦ ὀμῇ Κύριον τὸν Θεόν σου φοβηθήσῃ καὶ αὐτῷ μόνῳ λατρεύσεις καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν κολληθήσῃ καὶ ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι αὐτοῦ ὀμῇ

Deuteronomy 6:13 (NETS)

Deuteronomy 6:13 (English Elpenor)

The Lord your God you shall fear, and him you shall serve, and to him you shall cling, and by his name you shall swear. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve; and thou shalt cleave to him, and by his name thou shalt swear.

Exodus 20:5 (Tanakh)

Exodus 20:5 (KJV)

Exodus 20:5 (NET)

thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor serve them; for I HaShem thy G-d am a jealous G-d, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children to the third and fourth generations of those who reject me,

Exodus 20:5 (Septuagint BLB)

Exodus 20:5 (Septuagint Elpenor)

οὐ προσκυνήσεις αὐτοῗς οὐδὲ μὴ λατρεύσῃς αὐτοῗς ἐγὼ γάρ εἰμι κύριος ὁ θεός σου θεὸς ζηλωτὴς ἀποδιδοὺς ἁμαρτίας πατέρων ἐπὶ τέκνα ἕως τρίτης καὶ τετάρτης γενεᾶς τοῗς μισοῦσίν με οὐ προσκυνήσεις αὐτοῖς, οὐδὲ μὴ λατρεύσεις αὐτοῖς· ἐγὼ γάρ εἰμι Κύριος ὁ Θεός σου, Θεὸς ζηλωτής, ἀποδιδοὺς ἁμαρτίας πατέρων ἐπὶ τέκνα, ἕως τρίτης καὶ τετάρτης γενεᾶς τοῖς μισοῦσί με

Exodus 20:5 (NETS)

Exodus 20:5 (English Elpenor)

You shall not do obeisance to them, nor are you to serve them, for I am the Lord your God, a jealous god, repaying sins of fathers upon children up to the third and fourth generation to those who hate me, Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor serve them; for I am the Lord thy God, a jealous God, recompensing the sins of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generation to them that hate me,

Exodus 23:24 (Tanakh)

Exodus 23:24 (KJV)

Exodus 23:24 (NET)

Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their doings; but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and break in pieces their pillars. Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images. “You must not bow down to their gods; you must not serve them or do according to their practices. Instead you must completely overthrow them and smash their standing stones to pieces.

Exodus 23:24 (Septuagint BLB)

Exodus 23:24 (Septuagint Elpenor)

οὐ προσκυνήσεις τοῗς θεοῗς αὐτῶν οὐδὲ μὴ λατρεύσῃς αὐτοῗς οὐ ποιήσεις κατὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτῶν ἀλλὰ καθαιρέσει καθελεῗς καὶ συντρίβων συντρίψεις τὰς στήλας αὐτῶν οὐ προσκυνήσεις τοῖς θεοῖς αὐτῶν, οὐ δὲ μὴ λατρεύσῃς αὐτοῖς· οὐ ποιήσεις κατὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτῶν, ἀλλὰ καθαιρέσει καθελεῖς καὶ συντρίβων συντρίψεις τὰς στήλας αὐτῶν

Exodus 23:24 (NETS)

Exodus 23:24 (English Elpenor)

You shall not do obeisance to their gods nor serve them.  You shall not act according to their practices, but with demolition shall demolish and by smashing shall smash their steles. Thou shalt not worship their gods, nor serve them: thou shalt not do according to their works, but shalt utterly destroy them, and break to pieces their pillars.

Deuteronomy 26:10 (Tanakh)

Deuteronomy 26:10 (KJV)

Deuteronomy 26:10 (NET)

And now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the land, which Thou, O HaShem, hast given me.’  And thou shalt set it down before HaShem thy G-d, and worship before HaShem thy G-d. And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O LORD, hast given me.  And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God: So now, look!  I have brought the first of the ground’s produce that you, Lord, have given me.”  Then you must set it down before the Lord your God and worship before him.

Deuteronomy 26:10 (Septuagint BLB)

Deuteronomy 26:10 (Septuagint Elpenor)

καὶ νῦν ἰδοὺ ἐνήνοχα τὴν ἀπαρχὴν τῶν γενημάτων τῆς γῆς ἧς ἔδωκάς μοι κύριε γῆν ῥέουσαν γάλα καὶ μέλι καὶ ἀφήσεις αὐτὰ ἀπέναντι κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ σου καὶ προσκυνήσεις ἐκεῗ ἔναντι κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ σου καὶ νῦν ἰδοὺ ἐνήνοχα τὴν ἀπαρχὴν τῶν γενημάτων τῆς γῆς, ἧς ἔδωκάς μοι, Κύριε, γῆν ρέουσαν γάλα καὶ μέλι. καὶ ἀφήσεις αὐτὰ ἀπέναντι Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ σου καὶ προσκυνήσεις ἔναντι Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ σου

Deuteronomy 26:10 (NETS)

Deuteronomy 26:10 (English Elpenor)

And now look, I have brought the first fruit of the produce of the land that you, O Lord, have given me, a land flowing with milk and honey.”  And you shall leave them before the Lord your God and do obeisance before the Lord your God. And now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruits of the land, which thou gavest me, O Lord, a land flowing with milk and honey: and thou shalt leave it before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt worship before the Lord thy God;

Psalm 81:9 (Tanakh)

Psalm 81:9 (KJV)

Psalm 81:9 (NET)

There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god. There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god. There must be no other god among you.  You must not worship a foreign god.

Psalm 81:9 (Septuagint BLB)

Psalm 80:10 (Septuagint Elpenor)

οὐκ ἔσται ἐν σοὶ θεὸς πρόσφατος οὐδὲ προσκυνήσεις θεῷ ἀλλοτρίῳ οὐκ ἔσται ἐν σοὶ Θεὸς πρόσφατος, οὐδὲ προσκυνήσεις Θεῷ ἀλλοτρίῳ

Psalm 80:10 (NETS)

Psalm 80:10 (English Elpenor)

There shall be no recent god among you, nor shall you do obeisance to a foreign god. there shall be no new god in thee; neither shalt thou worship a strange god.

Genesis 2:24 (Tanakh)

Genesis 2:24 (KJV)

Genesis 2:24 (NET)

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. That is why a man leaves his father and mother and unites with his wife, and they become one family.

Genesis 2:24 (Septuagint BLB)

Genesis 2:24 (Septuagint Elpenor)

ἕνεκεν τούτου καταλείψει ἄνθρωπος τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν μητέρα αὐτοῦ καὶ προσκολληθήσεται πρὸς τὴν γυναῗκα αὐτοῦ καὶ ἔσονται οἱ δύο εἰς σάρκα μίαν ἕνεκεν τούτου καταλείψει ἄνθρωπος τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν μητέρα καὶ προσκολληθήσεται πρὸς τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἔσονται οἱ δύο εἰς σάρκα μίαν

Genesis 2:24 (NETS)

Genesis 2:24 (English Elpenor)

Therefore a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

Romans 1:27 (NET)

Romans 1:27 (KJV)

and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions for one another.  Men committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.

NET Parallel Greek

Stephanus Textus Receptus

Byzantine Majority Text

ὁμοίως τε καὶ οἱ ἄρσενες ἀφέντες τὴν φυσικὴν χρῆσιν τῆς θηλείας ἐξεκαύθησαν ἐν τῇ ὀρέξει αὐτῶν εἰς ἀλλήλους, ἄρσενες ἐν ἄρσεσιν τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην κατεργαζόμενοι καὶ τὴν ἀντιμισθίαν ἣν ἔδει τῆς πλάνης αὐτῶν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἀπολαμβάνοντες ομοιως τε και οι αρρενες αφεντες την φυσικην χρησιν της θηλειας εξεκαυθησαν εν τη ορεξει αυτων εις αλληλους αρσενες εν αρσεσιν την ασχημοσυνην κατεργαζομενοι και την αντιμισθιαν ην εδει της πλανης αυτων εν εαυτοις απολαμβανοντες ομοιως τε και οι αρρενες αφεντες την φυσικην χρησιν της θηλειας εξεκαυθησαν εν τη ορεξει αυτων εις αλληλους αρσενες εν αρσεσιν την ασχημοσυνην κατεργαζομενοι και την αντιμισθιαν ην εδει της πλανης αυτων εν εαυτοις απολαμβανοντες

Matthew 4:9, 10 (NET)

Matthew 4:9, 10 (KJV)

And he said to him, “I will give you all these things if you throw yourself to the ground and worship me.” And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

NET Parallel Greek

Stephanus Textus Receptus

Byzantine Majority Text

καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· ταῦτα σοι πάντα δώσω, ἐὰν πεσὼν προσκυνήσῃς μοι και λεγει αυτω ταυτα παντα σοι δωσω εαν πεσων προσκυνησης μοι και λεγει αυτω ταυτα παντα σοι δωσω εαν πεσων προσκυνησης μοι
Then Jesus said to him, “Go away, Satan!  For it is written: ‘You are to worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’” Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

NET Parallel Greek

Stephanus Textus Receptus

Byzantine Majority Text

τότε λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· ὕπαγε, σατανᾶ· γέγραπται γάρ· κύριον τὸν θεόν σου προσκυνήσεις καὶ αὐτῷ μόνῳ λατρεύσεις τοτε λεγει αυτω ο ιησους υπαγε σατανα γεγραπται γαρ κυριον τον θεον σου προσκυνησεις και αυτω μονω λατρευσεις τοτε λεγει αυτω ο ιησους υπαγε οπισω μου σατανα γεγραπται γαρ κυριον τον θεον σου προσκυνησεις και αυτω μονω λατρευσεις

Matthew 6:24 (NET)

Matthew 6:24 (KJV)

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and money. No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.  Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

NET Parallel Greek

Stephanus Textus Receptus

Byzantine Majority Text

Οὐδεὶς δύναται δυσὶ κυρίοις δουλεύειν· ἢ γὰρ τὸν ἕνα μισήσει καὶ τὸν ἕτερον ἀγαπήσει, ἢ ἑνὸς ἀνθέξεται καὶ τοῦ ἑτέρου καταφρονήσει. οὐ δύνασθε θεῷ δουλεύειν καὶ μαμωνᾷ ουδεις δυναται δυσι κυριοις δουλευειν η γαρ τον ενα μισησει και τον ετερον αγαπησει η ενος ανθεξεται και του ετερου καταφρονησει ου δυνασθε θεω δουλευειν και μαμμωνα ουδεις δυναται δυσιν κυριοις δουλευειν η γαρ τον ενα μισησει και τον ετερον αγαπησει η ενος ανθεξεται και του ετερου καταφρονησει ου δυνασθε θεω δουλευειν και μαμωνα

Mark 10:6, 7 (NET)

Mark 10:6, 7 (KJV)

But from the beginning of creation he made them male and female. But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.

NET Parallel Greek

Stephanus Textus Receptus

Byzantine Majority Text

ἀπὸ δὲ ἀρχῆς κτίσεως ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ ἐποίησεν |αὐτούς| απο δε αρχης κτισεως αρσεν και θηλυ εποιησεν αυτους ο θεος απο δε αρχης κτισεως αρσεν και θηλυ εποιησεν αυτους ο θεος
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife;

NET Parallel Greek

Stephanus Textus Receptus

Byzantine Majority Text

ἕνεκεν τούτου καταλείψει ἄνθρωπος τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν μητέρα ενεκεν τουτου καταλειψει ανθρωπος τον πατερα αυτου και την μητερα και προσκολληθησεται προς την γυναικα αυτου ενεκεν τουτου καταλειψει ανθρωπος τον πατερα αυτου και την μητερα και προσκολληθησεται προς την γυναικα αυτου

1 Romans 1:24 (NET) Table

2 Romans 1:23 (NET)

4 Romans 1:26a (NET)

6 The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had εἶπεν here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had λεγει (KJV: saith).

7 The Byzantine Majority Text had οπισω μου (“behind me”) here.  The NET parallel Greek text, NA28 and Stephanus Textus Receptus did not.

8 Matthew 6:24 (NET) The NET parallel Greek text, NA28 and Byzantine Majority Text had μαμωνᾷ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus had μαμμωνα (KJV: mammon).

9 Luke 10:40 (NET)

10 Matthew 4:11 (NET)

11 Romans 1:9 (NET)

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

13 The Stephanus Textus Receptus, Byzantine Majority Text and NA28 had καὶ προσκολληθήσεται πρὸς τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ (KJV: and cleave to his wife) here.  The NET parallel Greek text did not.

14 Romans 1:25 (NET)

15 Romans 1:26 (NET)

16 Romans 1:27 (NET) ἄρσενες ἐν ἄρσεσιν (literally, “men in men”)

17 See the dialogue between Right and Wrong Logic from Clouds, translated by Moses Hadas, from The Complete Plays of Aristophanes, Bantam Book 1962, pp. 130, 131  In response to Wrong Logic’s argument that the gods did it, Right Logic replied: But what if your backside’s singed and rammed with the adulterer’s rod?  How will your argument then prevail to void the stretching of your bum?  Wrong Logic answered: And what’s the harm of a bottom stretched?  Tell me even one.  Wrong Logic proceeded to persuade Right Logic that the societal advantages of being a catamite to established men far outweighed the inconvenience of a sprung bum.