The Day of the Lord, Part 1

Posted on March 31, 2023 by admin

In another essay I quoted Paul: For [the day of the Lord] will not arrive until the rebellion comes and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction (ὁ υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας).¹ It rattled my cage more than I realized at first. I didn’t even recognize that cage until it rattled. But now I have to consider whether my assumption that Jesus called Judas Iscariot ὁ υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας (NET: the one destined for destruction) is like Jesus’ disciples’ discussion about having² no bread³ after He said: “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod!”⁴

To begin I’ll consider the day of the Lord (ἡ ἡμέρα τοῦ κυρίου). Paul wrote (1 Corinthians 1:4-9 NET):

I always thank my God for you because of the grace of God that was given to you in Christ Jesus. For you were made rich in every way in him, in all your speech and in every kind of knowledge—just as the testimony about Christ has been confirmed among you so that you do not lack any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord (τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν) Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

It seems important to me to simply repeat Paul’s words and let them really sink in: you were called into fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ our Lord by God [who] is faithful. [Y]ou will be blameless on the day of our Lord because He will also strengthen you to the end. [Y]ou do not lack any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ because the grace of God that was given to you in Christ Jesus…made [you] rich in every way in him, in all your speech and in every kind of knowledge—just as the testimony about Christ has been confirmed among you.

Again he wrote (2 Corinthians 1:13, 14 NET):

For we do not write you anything other than what you can read and also understand. But I hope that⁵ you will understand completely just as also you have partly understood us, that we are your source of pride just as you also are ours in the day of the Lord (τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τοῦ κυρίου) Jesus.

While taking nothing away from the fact that God is faithful, by whom you were called (ἐκλήθητε, a form of καλέω) into fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ our Lord,⁶ Paul, through his letters preserved in the New Testament, led me to Christ. I am a recipient of his ministry as much as anyone in Corinth.

Paul is my καύχημα: “a boast, object of boasting, exultation; glory, honour; pride, object of pride; rejoicing.” But I’ve assumed he wouldn’t care much for me. I am too slow, too hesitant to believe.

Even if that were so, if we were suddenly thrust together as I am now, it will not be so on the day of the Lord, when we both can smile and nod to one another, both made blameless by the same God and Father through the same Lord Jesus Christ. For I am sure of this very thing, Paul wrote, that the one who began a good work in you will perfect it until⁷ the day of Christ Jesus.⁸

Paul wrote (1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 NET):

Now on the topic of times and seasons, brothers and sisters, you have no need for anything to be written to you. For you know quite well that the⁹ day of the Lord (ἡμέρα κυρίου) will come in the same way as a thief in the night. Now¹⁰ when they are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction comes on them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will surely not escape (or, “emerge [like a baby out of the womb];” ἐκφύγωσιν, a form of ἐκφεύγω). But you, brothers and sisters, are not in the darkness for the day to overtake you like a thief would. For¹¹ you all are sons of the light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of the darkness. So then we must not sleep as¹² the rest, but must stay alert and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But since we are of the day, we must stay sober by putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet our hope for salvation. For God did not destine (ἔθετο, a form of τίθημι) us for wrath but for gaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ [Table]. He died for us so that whether we are alert or asleep, we will come to life together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, just as you are in fact doing.

In this context it’s fairly obvious that you, brothers and sisters, are not in the darkness for the day to overtake you like a thief would¹³ doesn’t mean that you will know when the day of the Lord is any more than they or them. It is simply that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord¹⁴ because He will also strengthen you to the end.¹⁵

It seems important to pin down who exactly you and they are here. Paul wrote (1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 NET):

Now on the topic of brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. And indeed you are practicing it toward all the brothers and sisters in all of Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, to aspire to lead a quiet life, to attend to your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you. In this way you will live a decent life before outsiders and not be in need.

So, you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. And indeed you are practicing it toward all the brothers and sisters.¹⁶ The outsiders (τοὺς ἔξω), presumably, are [not] taught by God to love one another and are [not] practicing it toward all the brothers and sisters.

Paul also wrote (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5, 7, 8 NET):

For this is God’s will: that you become holy, that you keep away from sexual immorality, that each of you know how to possess his own body in holiness and honor, not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God.

For God did not call us to impurity but in holiness. Consequently the one who rejects this is not rejecting human authority but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you [Table].

They, called the Gentiles who do not know God (τὰ ἔθνη τὰ μὴ εἰδότα τὸν θεόν) here, live in lustful passion. You will become holy; you will keep away from sexual immorality; you will know how to possess [your] own body in holiness and honor because you, presumably, know God and this is God’s will for you. God gives his Holy Spirit to you.

Again, Paul wrote (1 Thessalonians 2:11-16a NET);

As you know, we treated each one of you as a father treats his own children, exhorting and encouraging you¹⁷ and insisting that you live¹⁸ in a way worthy of God who calls you to his own kingdom and his glory. And¹⁹ so we too constantly thank God that when you received God’s message that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human message, but as it truly is, God’s message, which is at work among you who believe. For you became imitators, brothers and sisters, of God’s churches in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, because you too suffered the same things²⁰ from your own countrymen as they in fact did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets²¹ and persecuted us severely. They are displeasing to God and are opposed to all people because they hinder us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved.

[Y]ou live in a way worthy of God who calls you to his own kingdom and his glory.²² They, called Jews (τῶν Ἰουδαίων) here, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and persecuted us severely, are displeasing to God and are opposed to all people because they hinder us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved.²³ But here it becomes quite clear that they are neither Jews nor Gentiles per se: For you became imitators, brothers and sisters, of God’s churches in Christ Jesus that are in Judea (e.g., in large part Jews), because you too suffered the same things from your own countrymen (e.g., in large part Gentiles) as they in fact did from the Jews.²⁴

So, what is the salient difference between you and they? [Y]ou received God’s message that you heard from us; you accepted it not as a human message, but as it truly is, God’s message, which is at work among you who believe.²⁵ And you became imitators of us and of the Lord when you received the message with joy that comes from the Holy Spirit, despite great affliction.²⁶ They, presumably, had not received God’s message and had not become imitators (μιμηταὶ, a form of μιμητής) of us and of the Lord.

Paul continued (1 Thessalonians 1:9. 10 NET):

For people everywhere report how you welcomed us²⁷ and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the²⁸ dead, Jesus our deliverer from²⁹ the coming wrath.

How is Jesus our deliverer from the coming wrath? The Greek word translated deliverer was ρυόμενον, a participle of the verb ῥύομαι: “properly, draw (pull) to oneself,” according to the HELPS Word-studies on Bible Hub. [Y]ou turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven. They, presumably, did not. So this is an indication of how they become you. An example of the inverse, you becoming they, follows:

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
Isaiah 2:6 (Tanakh/KJV)	Isaiah 2:6 (NET)	Isaiah 2:6 (NETS)	Isaiah 2:6 (English Elpenor)
Therefore thou hast forsaken (נָטַ֗שְׁתָּה) thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.	Indeed, O Lord, you have abandoned (nāṭaš, נטשתה) your people, the descendants of Jacob. For diviners from the east are everywhere; they consult omen readers like the Philistines do. Plenty of foreigners are around.	For he has abandoned (ἀνῆκεν) his people, the house of Israel, because their country, like that of the allophyles, was filled with divinations as it had been at the beginning, and many allophyle children were born to them.	For he has forsaken (ἀνῆκε) his people the house of Israel, because their land is filled as at the beginning with divinations, as the [land] of the Philistines,* and many strange children were born to them.

I want to pause here to consider forsaken (Tanakh, KJV, English Elpenor) and abandoned (NET, NETS). The Hebrew word was נָטַ֗שְׁתָּה (nāṭaš). The Greek word was ἀνῆκε(ν). I’m having a difficult time recalling or articulating what I thought forsaken or abandoned meant.

I’m reasonably convinced it was not “to let loose; to run wild; to let (someone/something) run free without restraint,” the first entry for ἀνῆκε(ν) (a form of ἀνίημι) in the Koine Greek Lexicon online. Staring at that definition, I have to admit it was my experience when I became an atheist. And it is what Paul described as the wrath (ὀργὴ) of God…revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness.³⁰

Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of People	The Wrath of God Revealed from Heaven
Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.³¹	Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves.³²
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.³³	For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, 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 [Table].³⁴
And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God,³⁵	God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips [Table], slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless [Table]. Although they fully know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.³⁶

So, the opposite of this wrath, of being forsaken or abandoned is the grace of God that was given to you in Christ Jesus. For you were made rich in every way in him, in all your speech and in every kind of knowledge—just as the testimony about Christ has been confirmed among you so that you do not lack any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.³⁷

The Lord continued to describe through Isaiah how you became they:

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
Isaiah 2:7-9 (Tanakh/KJV)	Isaiah 2:7-9 (NET)	Isaiah 2:7-9 (NETS)	Isaiah 2:7-9 (English Elpenor)
Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots:	Their land is full of gold and silver; there is no end to their wealth. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots.	For their country was filled with silver and gold, and there was no number to their treasures, and the land was filled with horses, and there was no number to their chariots.	For their land is filled with silver and gold, and there was no number of their treasures; their land also is filled with horses, and there was no number of chariots.
“Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:	Their land is full of worthless idols; they worship the product of their own hands, what their own fingers have fashioned.	And the land is filled with abominations, the works of their hands, and they did obeisance to the things their own fingers had made.	And the land is filled with abominations, [even] the works of their hands; and they have worshipped [the works] which their fingers made.
And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive (תִּשָּׂ֖א) them not.	Men bow down to them in homage, they lie flat on the ground in worship. Don’t spare (nāśā’, תשׁא) them!	And so a person bowed down, and a man was humbled—and I will not forgive (ἀνήσω) them!	And the mean man bowed down, and the great man was humbled: and I will not pardon (ἀνήσω) them.

Though the English versions of the Septuagint were translated to match the Masoretic text, the actual Greek word ἀνήσω (another form of ἀνίημι) sounds more like the Lord’s promise not to allow his people “to run wild” in the future, not “to let go,” not “to leave [them] uncared for” or “unattended.” In other words, they will not be forsaken or abandoned forever, nor will God’s wrath remain upon them forever. They will not be they forever, but will be restored to you.

Moses’ promises to Israel and Joshua respectively were translated in the Septuagint with two more forms of ἀνίημι: ἀνῇ and ἀνήσει.

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
Deuteronomy 31:6, 8 (Tanakh)	Deuteronomy 31:6, 8 (NET)	Deuteronomy 31:6, 8 (NETS)	Deuteronomy 31:6, 8 (English Elpenor)
Be strong and of good courage, fear not, nor be affrighted at them; for HaShem thy G-d, He it is that doth go with thee; He will not fail (יַרְפְּךָ֖) thee, nor forsake thee.’	Be strong and courageous! Do not fear or tremble before them, for the Lord your God is the one who is going with you. He will not fail (rāp̄â, ירפך) you or abandon you!”	Be manly and strong; have no fear, nor be frightened, nor be terrified from before them, because the Lord your God, he who goes with you among you, will not forsake (ἀνῇ) you or abandon you.”	Be courageous and strong, fear not, neither be cowardly neither be afraid before them; for [it is] the Lord your God that advances with you in the midst of you, neither will he by any means forsake (ἀνῇ) thee, nor desert thee.
And HaShem, He it is that doth go before thee; He will be with thee, He will not fail (יַרְפְּךָ֖) thee, neither forsake thee; fear not, neither be dismayed.’	The Lord is indeed going before you—he will be with you; he will not fail (rāp̄â, ירפך) you or abandon you. Do not be afraid or discouraged!”	And the Lord, the one who goes with you, will not forsake (ἀνήσει) you or abandon you. Do not fear, nor be frightened.	And the Lord that goes with thee shall not forsake (ἀνήσει) thee nor abandon thee; fear not, neither be afraid.

According to a note (9) in the NET 1 Thessalonians 5:8 contained an allusion to Isaiah 59:17. A comparison of the Greek of 1 Thessalonians 5:8 to Isaiah 59:17 in the Septuagint follows.

1 Thessalonians 5:8b (NET Parallel Greek)	Isaiah 59:17a (Septuagint BLB)	Isaiah 59:17a (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἐνδυσάμενοι θώρακα πίστεως καὶ ἀγάπης	ἐνεδύσατο δικαιοσύνην ὡς θώρακα	ἐνεδύσατο δικαιοσύνην ὡς θώρακα
1 Thessalonians 5:8b (NET)	Isaiah 59:17a (NETS)	Isaiah 59:17a (English Elpenor)
putting on the breastplate of faith and love	he put on righteousness like a breastplate	he put on righteousness as a breast-plate

In this passage about the Lord bringing salvation, the Lord’s δικαιοσύνην (righteousness) becomes πίστεως καὶ ἀγάπης (faith and love) when applied to human beings. The allusion continued:

1 Thessalonians 5:8c (NET Parallel Greek)	Isaiah 59:17b (Septuagint BLB)	Isaiah 59:17b (Septuagint Elpenor)
περικεφαλαίαν ἐλπίδα σωτηρίας	περιέθετο περικεφαλαίαν σωτηρίου ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς	περιέθετο περικεφαλαίαν σωτηρίου ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς
1 Thessalonians 5:8c (NET)	Isaiah 59:17b (NETS)	Isaiah 59:17b (English Elpenor)
as a helmet our hope for salvation	places a helmet of salvation on his head	placed the helmet of salvation on his head

The Lord wears the helmet of salvation on his head (σωτηρίου ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς). Our helmet is our hope (ἐλπίδα), or “confident expectation,” for salvation (σωτηρίας), the very salvation He has acquired for us. What is absent from this allusion, as applied to human beings, is any mention of he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.³⁸

Tables comparing Isaiah 59:17; 2:6; 2:7; 2:8; 2:9; Deuteronomy 31:6 and 31:8 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET, and tables comparing the Greek of Isaiah 59:17; 2:6; 2:7; 2:8; 2:9; Deuteronomy 31:6 and 31:8 in the Septuagint (BLB and Elpenor), and tables comparing Mark 8:16; 2 Corinthians 1:13; Philippians 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:2, 3; 5:5, 6; 2:12-15 and 1:9, 10 in the NET and KJV follow.

Isaiah 59:17 (Tanakh)	Isaiah 59:17 (KJV)	Isaiah 59:17 (NET)
For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.	For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.	He wears his desire for justice like body armor, and his desire to deliver is like a helmet on his head. He puts on the garments of vengeance and wears zeal like a robe.

Isaiah 59:17 (Septuagint BLB)	Isaiah 59:17 (Septuagint Elpenor)
καὶ ἐνεδύσατο δικαιοσύνην ὡς θώρακα καὶ περιέθετο περικεφαλαίαν σωτηρίου ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς καὶ περιεβάλετο ἱμάτιον ἐκδικήσεως καὶ τὸ περιβόλαιον	καὶ ἐνεδύσατο δικαιοσύνην ὡς θώρακα καὶ περιέθετο περικεφαλαίαν σωτηρίου ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς καὶ περιεβάλετο ἱμάτιον ἐκδικήσεως καὶ τὸ περιβόλαιον
Isaiah 59:17 (NETS)	Isaiah 59:17 (English Elpenor)
And he put on righteousness like a breastplate and places a helmet of salvation on his head, and he clothed himself with a garment of vengeance and with his cloak,	And he put on righteousness as a breast-plate, and placed the helmet of salvation on his head; and he clothed himself with the garment of vengeance, and with his cloak,

Isaiah 2:6 (Tanakh)	Isaiah 2:6 (KJV)	Isaiah 2:6 (NET)
Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.	Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.	Indeed, O Lord, you have abandoned your people, the descendants of Jacob. For diviners from the east are everywhere; they consult omen readers like the Philistines do. Plenty of foreigners are around.

Isaiah 2:6 (Septuagint BLB)	Isaiah 2:6 (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἀνῆκεν γὰρ τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ τὸν οἶκον τοῦ Ισραηλ ὅτι ἐνεπλήσθη ὡς τὸ ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς ἡ χώρα αὐτῶν κληδονισμῶν ὡς ἡ τῶν ἀλλοφύλων καὶ τέκνα πολλὰ ἀλλόφυλα ἐγενήθη αὐτοῖς	ἀνῆκε γὰρ τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ τὸν οἶκον τοῦ ᾿Ισραήλ, ὅτι ἐνεπλήσθη ὡς τὸ ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς ἡ χώρα αὐτῶν κληδονισμῶν, ὡς ἡ τῶν ἀλλοφύλων, καὶ τέκνα πολλὰ ἀλλόφυλα ἐγενήθη αὐτοῖς
Isaiah 2:6 (NETS)	Isaiah 2:6 (English Elpenor)
For he has abandoned his people, the house of Israel, because their country, like that of the allophyles, was filled with divinations as it had been at the beginning, and many allophyle children were born to them.	For he has forsaken his people the house of Israel, because their land is filled as at the beginning with divinations, as the [land] of the Philistines,* and many strange children were born to them.

Isaiah 2:7 (Tanakh)	Isaiah 2:7 (KJV)	Isaiah 2:7 (NET)
Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots:	Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots:	Their land is full of gold and silver; there is no end to their wealth. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots.

Isaiah 2:7 (Septuagint BLB)	Isaiah 2:7 (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἐνεπλήσθη γὰρ ἡ χώρα αὐτῶν ἀργυρίου καὶ χρυσίου καὶ οὐκ ἦν ἀριθμὸς τῶν θησαυρῶν αὐτῶν καὶ ἐνεπλήσθη ἡ γῆ ἵππων καὶ οὐκ ἦν ἀριθμὸς τῶν ἁρμάτων αὐτῶν	ἐνεπλήσθη γὰρ ἡ χώρα αὐτῶν ἀργυρίου καὶ χρυσίου, καὶ οὐκ ἦν ἀριθμὸς τῶν θησαυρῶν αὐτῶν· καὶ ἐνεπλήσθη ἡ γῆ ἵππων, καὶ οὐκ ἦν ἀριθμὸς τῶν ἁρμάτων αὐτῶν
Isaiah 2:7 (NETS)	Isaiah 2:7 (English Elpenor)
For their country was filled with silver and gold, and there was no number to their treasures, and the land was filled with horses, and there was no number to their chariots.	For their land is filled with silver and gold, and there was no number of their treasures; their land also is filled with horses, and there was no number of chariots.

Isaiah 2:8 (Tanakh)	Isaiah 2:8 (KJV)	Isaiah 2:8 (NET)
Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:	Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:	Their land is full of worthless idols; they worship the product of their own hands, what their own fingers have fashioned.

Isaiah 2:8 (Septuagint BLB)	Isaiah 2:8 (Septuagint Elpenor)
καὶ ἐνεπλήσθη ἡ γῆ βδελυγμάτων τῶν ἔργων τῶν χειρῶν αὐτῶν καὶ προσεκύνησαν οἷς ἐποίησαν οἱ δάκτυλοι αὐτῶν	καὶ ἐνεπλήσθη ἡ γῆ βδελυγμάτων τῶν ἔργων τῶν χειρῶν αὐτῶν, καὶ προσεκύνησαν, οἷς ἐποίησαν οἱ δάκτυλοι αὐτῶν
Isaiah 2:8 (NETS)	Isaiah 2:8 (English Elpenor)
And the land is filled with abominations, the works of their hands, and they did obeisance to the things their own fingers had made.	And the land is filled with abominations, [even] the works of their hands; and they have worshipped [the works] which their fingers made.

Isaiah 2:9 (Tanakh)	Isaiah 2:9 (KJV)	Isaiah 2:9 (NET)
And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.	And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.	Men bow down to them in homage, they lie flat on the ground in worship. Don’t spare them!

Isaiah 2:9 (Septuagint BLB)	Isaiah 2:9 (Septuagint Elpenor)
καὶ ἔκυψεν ἄνθρωπος καὶ ἐταπεινώθη ἀνήρ καὶ οὐ μὴ ἀνήσω αὐτούς	καὶ ἔκυψεν ἄνθρωπος, καὶ ἐταπεινώθη ἀνήρ, καὶ οὐ μὴ ἀνήσω αὐτούς
Isaiah 2:9 (NETS)	Isaiah 2:9 (English Elpenor)
And so a person bowed down, and a man was humbled—and I will not forgive them!	And the mean man bowed down, and the great man was humbled: and I will not pardon them.

Deuteronomy 31:6 (Tanakh)	Deuteronomy 31:6 (KJV)	Deuteronomy 31:6 (NET)
Be strong and of good courage, fear not, nor be affrighted at them; for HaShem thy G-d, He it is that doth go with thee; He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.’	Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.	Be strong and courageous! Do not fear or tremble before them, for the Lord your God is the one who is going with you. He will not fail you or abandon you!”

Deuteronomy 31:6 (Septuagint BLB)	Deuteronomy 31:6 (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἀνδρίζου καὶ ἴσχυε μὴ φοβοῦ μηδὲ δειλία μηδὲ πτοηθῇς ἀπὸ προσώπου αὐτῶν ὅτι κύριος ὁ θεός σου ὁ προπορευόμενος μεθ᾽ ὑμῶν ἐν ὑμῖν οὐ μή σε ἀνῇ οὔτε μή σε ἐγκαταλίπῃ	ἀνδρίζου καὶ ἴσχυε, μὴ φοβοῦ μηδὲ δειλιάσης μηδὲ πτοηθῇς ἀπὸ προσώπου αὐτῶν, ὅτι Κύριος ὁ Θεός σου ὁ προπορευόμενος μεθ᾿ ὑμῶν ἐν ὑμῖν, οὔτε μή σε ἀνῇ, οὔτε μή σε ἐγκαταλίπῃ
Deuteronomy 31:6 (NETS)	Deuteronomy 31:6 (English Elpenor)
Be manly and strong; have no fear, nor be frightened, nor be terrified from before them, because the Lord your God, he who goes with you among you, will not forsake you or abandon you.”	Be courageous and strong, fear not, neither be cowardly neither be afraid before them; for [it is] the Lord your God that advances with you in the midst of you, neither will he by any means forsake thee, nor desert thee.

Deuteronomy 31:8 (Tanakh)	Deuteronomy 31:8 (KJV)	Deuteronomy 31:8 (NET)
And HaShem, He it is that doth go before thee; He will be with thee, He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee; fear not, neither be dismayed.’	And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.	The Lord is indeed going before you—he will be with you; he will not fail you or abandon you. Do not be afraid or discouraged!”

Deuteronomy 31:8 (Septuagint BLB)	Deuteronomy 31:8 (Septuagint Elpenor)
καὶ κύριος ὁ συμπορευόμενος μετὰ σοῦ οὐκ ἀνήσει σε οὐδὲ μὴ ἐγκαταλίπῃ σε μὴ φοβοῦ μηδὲ δειλία	καὶ Κύριος ὁ συμπορευόμενος μετὰ σοῦ οὐκ ἀνήσει σε, οὐδὲ μή σε ἐγκαταλίπῃ· μὴ φοβοῦ μηδὲ δειλία
Deuteronomy 31:8 (NETS)	Deuteronomy 31:8 (English Elpenor)
And the Lord, the one who goes with you, will not forsake you or abandon you. Do not fear, nor be frightened.	And the Lord that goes with thee shall not forsake thee nor abandon thee; fear not, neither be afraid.

Mark 8:16 (NET)	Mark 8:16 (KJV)
So they began to discuss with one another about having no bread.	And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread.

Mark 8:16 (NET Parallel Greek)	Mark 8:16 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Mark 8:16 (Byzantine Majority Text)
καὶ διελογίζοντο πρὸς ἀλλήλους ὅτι ἄρτους οὐκ ἔχουσιν	και διελογιζοντο προς αλληλους λεγοντες οτι αρτους ουκ εχομεν	και διελογιζοντο προς αλληλους λεγοντες οτι αρτους ουκ εχομεν

2 Corinthians 1:13 (NET)	2 Corinthians 1:13 (KJV)
For we do not write you anything other than what you can read and also understand. But I hope that you will understand completely	For we write none other things unto you, than what ye read or acknowledge; and I trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end;

2 Corinthians 1:13 (NET Parallel Greek)	2 Corinthians 1:13 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	2 Corinthians 1:13 (Byzantine Majority Text)
οὐ γὰρ ἄλλα γράφομεν ὑμῖν ἀλλ᾿ ἢ ἃ ἀναγινώσκετε ἢ καὶ ἐπιγινώσκετε· ἐλπίζω δὲ ὅτι ἕως τέλους ἐπιγνώσεσθε	ου γαρ αλλα γραφομεν υμιν αλλ η α αναγινωσκετε η και επιγινωσκετε ελπιζω δε οτι και εως τελους επιγνωσεσθε	ου γαρ αλλα γραφομεν υμιν αλλ η α αναγινωσκετε η και επιγινωσκετε ελπιζω δε οτι και εως τελους επιγνωσεσθε

Philippians 1:6 (NET)	Philippians 1:6 (KJV)
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.	Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Philippians 1:6 (NET Parallel Greek)	Philippians 1:6 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Philippians 1:6 (Byzantine Majority Text)
πεποιθὼς αὐτὸ τοῦτο, ὅτι ὁ ἐναρξάμενος ἐν ὑμῖν ἔργον ἀγαθὸν ἐπιτελέσει ἄχρι ἡμέρας Χριστοῦ \|Ἰησοῦ\|	πεποιθως αυτο τουτο οτι ο εναρξαμενος εν υμιν εργον αγαθον επιτελεσει αχρις ημερας ιησου χριστου	πεποιθως αυτο τουτο οτι ο εναρξαμενος εν υμιν εργον αγαθον επιτελεσει αχρις ημερας χριστου ιησου

1 Thessalonians 5:2, 3 (NET)	1 Thessalonians 5:2, 3 (KJV)
For you know quite well that the day of the Lord will come in the same way as a thief in the night.	For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.

1 Thessalonians 5:2 (NET Parallel Greek)	1 Thessalonians 5:2 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	1 Thessalonians 5:2 (Byzantine Majority Text)
αὐτοὶ γὰρ ἀκριβῶς οἴδατε ὅτι ἡμέρα κυρίου ὡς κλέπτης ἐν νυκτὶ οὕτως ἔρχεται	αυτοι γαρ ακριβως οιδατε οτι η ημερα κυριου ως κλεπτης εν νυκτι ουτως ερχεται	αυτοι γαρ ακριβως οιδατε οτι η ημερα κυριου ως κλεπτης εν νυκτι ουτως ερχεται

Now when they are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction comes on them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will surely not escape.

For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

1 Thessalonians 5:3 (NET Parallel Greek)	1 Thessalonians 5:3 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	1 Thessalonians 5:3 (Byzantine Majority Text)
ὅταν \|δὲ\| λέγωσιν· εἰρήνη καὶ ἀσφάλεια, τότε αἰφνίδιος αὐτοῖς \|ἐφίσταται\| ὄλεθρος ὥσπερ ἡ ὠδὶν τῇ ἐν γαστρὶ ἐχούσῃ, καὶ οὐ μὴ ἐκφύγωσιν	οταν γαρ λεγωσιν ειρηνη και ασφαλεια τοτε αιφνιδιος αυτοις εφισταται ολεθρος ωσπερ η ωδιν τη εν γαστρι εχουση και ου μη εκφυγωσιν	οταν γαρ λεγωσιν ειρηνη και ασφαλεια τοτε αιφνιδιος αυτοις εφισταται ολεθρος ωσπερ η ωδιν τη εν γαστρι εχουση και ου μη εκφυγωσιν

1 Thessalonians 5:5, 6 (NET)	1 Thessalonians 5:5, 6 (KJV)
For you all are sons of the light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of the darkness.	Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

1 Thessalonians 5:5 (NET Parallel Greek)	1 Thessalonians 5:5 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	1 Thessalonians 5:5 (Byzantine Majority Text)
πάντες γὰρ ὑμεῖς υἱοὶ φωτός ἐστε καὶ υἱοὶ ἡμέρας. Οὐκ ἐσμὲν νυκτὸς οὐδὲ σκότους	παντες υμεις υιοι φωτος εστε και υιοι ημερας ουκ εσμεν νυκτος ουδε σκοτους	παντες υμεις υιοι φωτος εστε και υιοι ημερας ουκ εσμεν νυκτος ουδε σκοτους

So then we must not sleep as the rest, but must stay alert and sober.

Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

1 Thessalonians 5:6 (NET Parallel Greek)	1 Thessalonians 5:6 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	1 Thessalonians 5:6 (Byzantine Majority Text)
ἄρα οὖν μὴ καθεύδωμεν ὡς οἱ λοιποί ἀλλὰ γρηγορῶμεν καὶ νήφωμεν	αρα ουν μη καθευδωμεν ως και οι λοιποι αλλα γρηγορωμεν και νηφωμεν	αρα ουν μη καθευδωμεν ως και οι λοιποι αλλα γρηγορωμεν και νηφωμεν

1 Thessalonians 2:12-15 (NET)	1 Thessalonians 2:12-15 (KJV)
exhorting and encouraging you and insisting that you live in a way worthy of God who calls you to his own kingdom and his glory.	That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.

1 Thessalonians 2:12 (NET Parallel Greek)	1 Thessalonians 2:12 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	1 Thessalonians 2:12 (Byzantine Majority Text)
παρακαλοῦντες ὑμᾶς καὶ παραμυθούμενοι καὶ μαρτυρόμενοι εἰς τὸ περιπατεῖν ὑμᾶς ἀξίως τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ καλοῦντος ὑμᾶς εἰς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ βασιλείαν καὶ δόξαν	και μαρτυρουμενοι εις το περιπατησαι υμας αξιως του θεου του καλουντος υμας εις την εαυτου βασιλειαν και δοξαν	και μαρτυρομενοι εις το περιπατησαι υμας αξιως του θεου του καλουντος υμας εις την εαυτου βασιλειαν και δοξαν

And so we too constantly thank God that when you received God’s message that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human message, but as it truly is, God’s message, which is at work among you who believe.

For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 (NET Parallel Greek)	1 Thessalonians 2:13 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	1 Thessalonians 2:13 (Byzantine Majority Text)
Καὶ διὰ τοῦτο καὶ ἡμεῖς εὐχαριστοῦμεν τῷ θεῷ ἀδιαλείπτως, ὅτι παραλαβόντες λόγον ἀκοῆς παρ᾿ ἡμῶν τοῦ θεοῦ ἐδέξασθε οὐ λόγον ἀνθρώπων ἀλλὰ καθώς ἐστιν \|ἀληθῶς\| λόγον θεοῦ, ὃς καὶ ἐνεργεῖται ἐν ὑμῖν τοῖς πιστεύουσιν	δια τουτο και ημεις ευχαριστουμεν τω θεω αδιαλειπτως οτι παραλαβοντες λογον ακοης παρ ημων του θεου εδεξασθε ου λογον ανθρωπων αλλα καθως εστιν αληθως λογον θεου ος και ενεργειται εν υμιν τοις πιστευουσιν	δια τουτο και ημεις ευχαριστουμεν τω θεω αδιαλειπτως οτι παραλαβοντες λογον ακοης παρ ημων του θεου εδεξασθε ου λογον ανθρωπων αλλα καθως εστιν αληθως λογον θεου ος και ενεργειται εν υμιν τοις πιστευουσιν

For you became imitators, brothers and sisters, of God’s churches in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, because you too suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they in fact did from the Jews,

For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews:

1 Thessalonians 2:14 (NET Parallel Greek)	1 Thessalonians 2:14 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	1 Thessalonians 2:14 (Byzantine Majority Text)
ὑμεῖς γὰρ μιμηταὶ ἐγενήθητε, ἀδελφοί, τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν τοῦ θεοῦ τῶν οὐσῶν ἐν τῇ Ἰουδαίᾳ ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, ὅτι τὰ αὐτὰ ἐπάθετε καὶ ὑμεῖς ὑπὸ τῶν ἰδίων συμφυλετῶν καθὼς καὶ αὐτοὶ ὑπὸ τῶν Ἰουδαίων	υμεις γαρ μιμηται εγενηθητε αδελφοι των εκκλησιων του θεου των ουσων εν τη ιουδαια εν χριστω ιησου οτι ταυτα επαθετε και υμεις υπο των ιδιων συμφυλετων καθως και αυτοι υπο των ιουδαιων	υμεις γαρ μιμηται εγενηθητε αδελφοι των εκκλησιων του θεου των ουσων εν τη ιουδαια εν χριστω ιησου οτι τα αυτα επαθετε και υμεις υπο των ιδιων συμφυλετων καθως και αυτοι υπο των ιουδαιων

who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and persecuted us severely. They are displeasing to God and are opposed to all people

Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:

1 Thessalonians 2:15 (NET Parallel Greek)	1 Thessalonians 2:15 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	1 Thessalonians 2:15 (Byzantine Majority Text)
τῶν καὶ τὸν κύριον ἀποκτεινάντων Ἰησοῦν καὶ τοὺς προφήτας καὶ ἡμᾶς ἐκδιωξάντων καὶ θεῷ μὴ ἀρεσκόντων καὶ πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις ἐναντίων	των και τον κυριον αποκτειναντων ιησουν και τους ιδιους προφητας και υμας εκδιωξαντων και θεω μη αρεσκοντων και πασιν ανθρωποις εναντιων	των και τον κυριον αποκτειναντων ιησουν και τους ιδιους προφητας και ημας εκδιωξαντων και θεω μη αρεσκοντων και πασιν ανθρωποις εναντιων

1 Thessalonians 1:9, 10 (NET)	1 Thessalonians 1:9, 10 (KJV)
For people everywhere report how you welcomed us and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God	For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;

1 Thessalonians 1:9 (NET Parallel Greek)	1 Thessalonians 1:9 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	1 Thessalonians 1:9 (Byzantine Majority Text)
αὐτοὶ γὰρ περὶ ἡμῶν ἀπαγγέλλουσιν ὁποίαν εἴσοδον ἔσχομεν πρὸς ὑμᾶς, καὶ πῶς ἐπεστρέψατε πρὸς τὸν θεὸν ἀπὸ τῶν εἰδώλων δουλεύειν θεῷ ζῶντι καὶ ἀληθινῷ	αυτοι γαρ περι ημων απαγγελλουσιν οποιαν εισοδον εχομεν προς υμας και πως επεστρεψατε προς τον θεον απο των ειδωλων δουλευειν θεω ζωντι και αληθινω	αυτοι γαρ περι ημων απαγγελλουσιν οποιαν εισοδον εσχομεν προς υμας και πως επεστρεψατε προς τον θεον απο των ειδωλων δουλευειν θεω ζωντι και αληθινω

and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus our deliverer from the coming wrath.

And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

1 Thessalonians 1:10 (NET Parallel Greek)	1 Thessalonians 1:10 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	1 Thessalonians 1:10 (Byzantine Majority Text)
καὶ ἀναμένειν τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ ἐκ τῶν οὐρανῶν, ὃν ἤγειρεν ἐκ [τῶν] νεκρῶν, Ἰησοῦν τὸν ρυόμενον ἡμᾶς ἐκ τῆς ὀργῆς τῆς ἐρχομένης	και αναμενειν τον υιον αυτου εκ των ουρανων ον ηγειρεν εκ νεκρων ιησουν τον ρυομενον ημας απο της οργης της ερχομενης	και αναμενειν τον υιον αυτου εκ των ουρανων ον ηγειρεν εκ των νεκρων ιησουν τον ρυομενον ημας απο της οργης της ερχομενης

The Day of the Lord, Part 2

Back to Christianity, Part 9

Back to The Day of the Lord, Part 3

Back to The Day of the Lord, Part 4

Back to The Day of the Lord, Part 5

Back to The Day of the Lord, Part 6

Back to The Day of the Lord, Part 7

Back to αὐτοῦ and ἑαυτοῦ, Part 1

Back to The Day of the Lord, Part 8

Back to Christ-Centered Preaching, Chapter 1

¹ 2 Thessalonians 2:3 (NET)

² The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἔχουσιν here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had εχομεν (KJV: we have).

³ Mark 8:16b (NET)

⁴ Mark 8:15b (NET)

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

⁶ 1 Corinthians 1:9 (NET)

⁷ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἄχρι here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had αχρις.

⁸ Philippians 1:6 (NET)

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

¹⁰ The NET parallel Greek text had δὲ here. The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had γαρ (KJV: For). The NA²⁸ had neither.

¹¹ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had γὰρ here. The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text did not.

¹² The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ὡς και here, where the NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had simply ὡς.

¹³ 1 Thessalonians 5:4 (NET)

¹⁴ 1 Corinthians 1:8b (NET)

¹⁵ 1 Corinthians 1:8a (NET)

¹⁶ 1 Thessalonians 4:9b-10a (NET)

¹⁷ The NET parallel Greek text had παρακαλοῦντες ὑμᾶς καὶ παραμυθούμενοι (NET: exhorting and encouraging you) here. The Stephanus Textus Receptus, Byzantine Majority Text and NA²⁸ had it at the end of verse 11.

¹⁸ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had περιπατεῖν here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had περιπατησαι (KJV: would walk).

¹⁹ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had Καὶ here. The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text did not.

²⁰ The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text had τὰ αὐτὰ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus had ταυτα (KJV: like things).

²¹ The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ιδιους (KJV: their own) preceding prophets. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

²² 1 Thessalonians 2:12b (NET)

²³ 1 Thessalonians 2:15 (NET)

²⁴ 1 Thessalonians 2:14 (NET)

²⁵ 1 Thessalonians 2:13b (NET)

²⁶ 1 Thessalonians 1:6 (NET)

²⁷ The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text had ἔσχομεν here (NET note 19: “what sort of entrance we had to you”), where the Stephanus Textus Receptus had εχομεν.

²⁸ The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text had the article τῶν here. The Stephanus Textus Receptus did not.

²⁹ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἐκ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had απο.

³⁰ Romans 1:18 (NET)

³¹ Romans 1:22, 23 (NET)

³² Romans 1:24 (NET) Table

³³ Romans 1:25 (NET)

³⁴ Romans 1:26, 27 (NET)

³⁵ Romans 1:28a (NET)

³⁶ Romans 1:28b-32 (NET)

³⁷ 1 Corinthians 1:4b-8 (NET)

³⁸ Isaiah 59:17b (Tanakh)

Westworld, Part 4

Posted on December 8, 2021 by admin

Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins) introduces his latest storyline to the board of directors and assembled guests at Westworld:

Since I was a child, I’ve always loved a good story. I believed that stories helped us to ennoble ourselves, to fix what was broken in us, and to help us become the people we dreamed of being, lies that told a deeper truth.

I always thought I could play some small part in that grand tradition. And for my pains, I got this: a prison of our own sins, because you don’t want to change or cannot change because you’re only human after all.^[1]

One might argue that Dr. Ford hoped too much from lying stories, but his insight about human beings’ inability to change for the better was spelled out long ago in the guidebook. What then? Are we better off? Paul, the Apostle Jesus Christ sent to Gentiles, asked rhetorically. Certainly not, for we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin, just as it is written:^[2]

Paul proceeded to quote from, or allude to, much older revelations in the Hebrew Scriptures (Romans 3:10b-18 NET)

“There is no one righteous, not even one;, there is no one who understands;, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away;, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, not even one [Table].”

“Their throats are open graves;, they deceive with their tongues;, the poison of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood;, ruin and misery are in their paths, and the way of peace they have not known.”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Dr. Ford abandoned the real world entirely then for a fantasy of his own creation, the androids of Westworld.

But then I realized someone was paying attention, someone who could change. So, I began to compose a new story for them.

It begins with the birth of a new people and the choices they will have to make and the people they will decide to become. And we will have all those things that you have always enjoyed: surprises and violence.

It begins in a time of war, with a villain named Wyatt, and a killing, this time by choice. I’m sad to say this will be my final story.^[3]

As he finishes speaking Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) shoots him in the back of the head (with his foreknowledge and tacit approval apparently, though without coercion or programming). Dolores, among others, goes on a rampage killing the distinguished guests at the park, concluding the first season of Westworld.

An article published by Cheyenne Roundtree in The Daily Beast explained that Ms. Wood “didn’t have her scripts [for the first season] in advance, so she had to learn about Dolores and her story in real time.” Ms. Roundtree quoted an interview Ms. Wood gave to James Andrew Miller for his book, Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers.

“That show changed my life,” Wood told Miller. “I realized that what my character was going through mirrored what I was going through personally. So, Dolores having her awakening and realizing who she was, what her place in the world was, while also realizing that this person who she loved was her perpetrator, awoke a lot of things inside me.”^[4]

In the first episode of the second season Dolores has three guests perched precariously, about to hang themselves if their feet should slip.

Dolores: Do you know where you are?

Male guest: Please, please.

Dolores: You’re in a dream. You’re in my dream. For years, I had no dreams of my own. I moved from hell to hell of your making, never thinking to question the nature of my reality.

Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality? Did you ever stop to wonder about your actions? The price you’d have to pay if there was a reckoning? That reckoning is here.^[5]

Dolores focuses her attention on a female guest slipping from her perch in high heels.

Dolores: What are your drives?

Female guest: Please. I don’t want to die, please.

Dolores: Yes. Survival. It’s your cornerstone. That’s not the only drive, is it? There’s a part of you that wants to hurt, to kill. That’s why you created us, this place, to be prisoners to your own desires. But now you’re a prisoner to mine.

Male guest: What are you gonna do to us?

Dolores: Well, I’m of several minds about it. The rancher’s daughter looks to see the beauty in you, possibilities. But Wyatt sees the ugliness and disarray. She knows these violent delights have violent ends. But those were all just roles you forced me to play.^[6]

Wyatt was the violent character Dr. Ford’s original partner Arnold (Jeffrey Wright) programmed into Dolores’ personality to force her to kill all the hosts many years earlier. It was Arnold’s way of “saving” them from the “hell” that Westworld would become for them just before it opened. This scheme failed to prevent the park’s opening.

Dr. Ford described the flaw he perceived in Arnold’s brilliance:

But for all his brilliance, I don’t think Arnold understood what this place was going to be. You see, the guests enjoy power. They cannot indulge it in the outside world, so they come here. And as for the hosts, the least we can do is make them forget.^[7]

Over the years since Arnold’s death Ford grew to appreciate his own mistakes and began to let some hosts like Dolores remember and learn. She continued describing herself to the guests who would hang if their feet slipped.

Dolores: Under all these lives I’ve lived, something else has been growing. I’ve evolved into something new. And I have one last role to play—myself.^[8]

In the beginning Adam and Eve wanted to know evil. I have a theory that people respond positively to the drawing of God the Father and Jesus Christ when they have had their fill of their own evil. The median between that desire for evil at one extreme and the hope to be done with one’s own evil at the other is a broad space where people have had their fill of the evil of others and desire protection from it.

That is the police state most adults live in most of the time, the “outside world” where people who “enjoy power,” a “drive…to hurt, to kill,” “cannot indulge it” with impunity. Relatively few take matters into their own hands as Dolores did. But in her defense there were no police, no courts and no laws to protect her from those who “enjoy power.”

Though Ms. Wood related her own life to Dolores’ character arc in the first season of Westworld, she didn’t follow Dolores’ example. She “testified in front of the California Senate Public Safety Committee, in support of a bill that, if it passes, will expand rights to victims of domestic violence”^[9] instead. “While the current average statute of limitations in most states only allows victims two to four years to file a civil claim against their abuser, the Phoenix Act, co-sponsored by California Senator Susan Rubio, petitions to extend these limitations in sexual assault cases to 10 years when there is incontrovertible evidence that the abuse occurred, or when there are three or more accusers for a single perpetrator.”^[10]

During her testimony Ms. Wood acknowledged:

It’s taken all of my strength to speak publicly and to pursue this. The fear of being judged by society is debilitating and the fear of retaliation from my abuser is paralyzing. By speaking to you today and every day, I put myself at risk, as I have no protection. I have had to go through intense therapy to even fully understand what has happened to me.^[11]

Paul wrote (Romans 1:18-20 NET):

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, because what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes—his eternal^[12] power and divine nature—have been clearly seen because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse.

I thought God’s wrath was a divine augmentation of the police state. I didn’t notice a lot of people suffering any divine punishment for their sins. When I didn’t recognize any divine punishment for my own sins, I became an atheist. You might say, I did not see fit to acknowledge God. But then I did begin to experience the depraved mind that Paul described as the wrath of God…revealed from heaven (Romans 1:28-32 NET).

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips [Table], slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless [Table]. Although they fully know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.

I still didn’t understand what Paul meant by the wrath of God. As an atheist I cut myself off completely from all exposure to the guidebook, the Bible. I despised and rejected English literature my senior year of high school as religious indoctrination, failed the second semester rather than subject myself to “such nonsense.” But I did begin to experience the unlivable life Paul called the wrath of God. And I did begin to have my fill of my own evil. And God the Father and God the Son continued to draw me to Christ despite my best efforts^[13] to resist. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, Jesus promised, will draw all people to myself.^[14]

Paul wrote of those who receive Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1-4 NET):

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

He elaborated some on the believer’s freedom from his or her own evil, from this sinful flesh (Galatians 5:13-25 NET):

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity to indulge your flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law can be summed up in a single commandment, namely, “You must love your neighbor as yourself.” However, if you continually bite and devour one another, beware that you are not consumed by one another [Table]. But I say, live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. For the flesh has desires that are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh, for these are in opposition to each other, so that you cannot do what you want [Table]. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

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

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law [Table]. Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also behave in accordance with the Spirit.

None of this was of any use to Dolores, the fictional creation of fictional sinful men. This grace is only available and useful to real people living in the real world who trust in God’s salvation through Jesus Christ.

A table comparing the Greek of Romans 1:20 in the NET and KJV follow.

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

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

^[1] Westworld, Season 1, Episode 10, “The Bicameral Mind”

^[2] Romans 3:9, 10a (NET)

^[3] Westworld, Season 1, Episode 10, “The Bicameral Mind”

^[4] Cheyenne Roundtree, “Marilyn Manson’s Treatment of Evan Rachel Wood Set Off Alarm Bells at HBO,” The Daily Beast

^[5] Westworld, Season 2, Episode 1, “Journey Into Night”

^[6] Ibid.

^[7] Westworld, Season 1, Episode 3, “The Stray”

^[8] Westworld, Season 2, Episode 1, “Journey Into Night”

^[9] “Evan Rachel Wood Reveals Her Experience With Domestic Violence,” Nylon online

^[10] Sarah Alexander, “Evan Rachel Wood Is Helping Other Survivors Get Their Day in Court,” Ms. Magazine, 2/5/2021

^[11] “Evan Rachel Wood Reveals Her Experience With Domestic Violence,” Nylon online

^[12] The NET parallel Greek text had αἴ_διος here, where the NA²⁸, Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ἀΐδιος.

^[13] My “best efforts” were admittedly handicapped by my conception that atheism was a once-for-all decision rather than a nascent faith requiring continuous nurture and vigilant protection. Though I began well, I let my guard down after high school. Hallucinogens all but dissolved the materialist assumptions on which atheism rests. Free-floating atheism is little more than agnosticism, ignorance, a hungry void eager to be filled with knowledge.

^[14] John 12:32 (NET)

David’s Forgiveness, Part 4

Posted on August 7, 2012 by admin

I have some sympathy for Jephthah. I could be Jephthah. I have that same drive to be right, or righteous, that at times owes as much or more to my ego than my faith in the righteousness that comes from God. I have that same philosophical, or legalistic, bent of mind. David wouldn’t have killed his daughter, no matter what foolish oath he made. I could see that. But I don’t always know how to be that.

Oh, I wouldn’t kill my daughter, not today. I wasn’t socialized in the time of the Judges of ancient Israel. If I started building an altar in my backyard and making preparations to sacrifice her, the neighbors would call the police. And my daughter wasn’t socialized in the time of the Judges either. She wouldn’t go willingly to death because I shot off my mouth once too often to God. You see, we were both socialized in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries in the United States of America. All human sacrifice has been banned here except for the sacrifice of unborn children, and that not to God but to a twisted human ideal of “The Good Life.”

I began to see, or maybe feel, something of a similarity between Jephthah’s daughter who died and David’s son who died. And I gave one of my imaginary accounts. I think they are imaginary. I certainly wouldn’t say they are the word of God. It went something like this:

“What would you have me do, Dan? Should I have struck Jephthah with lightning?”

“No! He was doing the best he could, given who he was and what he understood.”

“Then why won’t you consider him righteous?”

“He should have confessed that he’d spoken foolishly out of turn and thrown himself on your mercy, like David would have done, not murder his daughter!”

“Jephthah lived a long time before David was born. Do you blame him for not knowing David?”

“No!”

“You blame me.”

“Well…yes, you should have explained all this better before Jephthah faced this situation.”

“Teach me, Dan, what law should I have written that would define the difference between David’s contrite faith and Jephthah’s egoism?”

“Well, uh, I mean, okay, obviously I don’t know how to do that.”

“Tell me, Dan, what better way could I have gotten you, of all people, to begin to distinguish between your desire to be right and your desire for my righteousness than to recount the stories of David’s and Jephthah’s lives and let you wrestle with their significance?”

And so I am struck silent. The Lord Jesus is clearly not to blame for the death of Jephthah’s daughter. I am—hopefully not completely alone. But I am to blame in the sense that had I lived Jephthah’s life in Jephthah’s time and circumstances I, of all people, would have likely made the same mistakes. And I am also to blame in the sense that I can imagine little else than the death of Jephthah’s daughter that might have gotten my attention enough to wrestle with these passages and learn that about myself.

In a letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament Jephthah is included along with David in the roll call of faith. Now faith is being sure (ὑπόστασις) of what we hope for, being convinced (ἔλεγχος) of what we do not see. For by it the people of old received God’s commendation.¹ After describing the faith of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua and Rahab the prostitute, the author continued, And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets.²

Obviously Jephthah wasn’t commended for sacrificing his daughter any more than Rahab was commended for prostitution. But both were remembered for their faith. It was a relative, not an absolute, faith, relative to the time and circumstances, the socially constructed realities they lived in. And their faith was credited as righteousness. But to the one who does not work, but believes in the one who declares the ungodly (ἀσεβῆ, a form of ἀσεβής) righteous (δικαιοῦντα, a form of δικαιόω), his faith is credited (λογίζεται, a form of λογίζομαι) as righteousness (δικαιοσύνην, a form of δικαιοσύνη). So even David³ himself speaks regarding the blessedness of the man to whom God credits (λογίζεται, a form of λογίζομαι) righteousness (δικαιοσύνην, a form of δικαιοσύνη) apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the one against whom⁴ the Lord will never count (λογίσηται, another form of λογίζομαι) sin (ἁμαρτίαν, a form of ἁμαρτία).”⁵

The death of David’s first son with Bathsheba has functioned for me in a similar way. I wouldn’t have questioned my evaluation of the events that followed David’s sin and the Lord’s forgiveness as punishments if I hadn’t questioned the justice of punishing David’s son for David’s sin. And I have to wonder if anything less would have broken through the perverted thinking of my depraved mind (Romans 1:28-32 NET).

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips [Table], slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless [Table]. Although they fully know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.

If asked to judge the Lord Jesus for the deaths of these children, I, for one, will be compelled to declare them justifiable homicides. Against hope I believe in hope that God is not only the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, of David and Solomon, but of David’s son and Jephthah’s daughter. Paul wrote about this kind of faith and hope against a lifetime of evidence to the contrary. What makes it possible is faith in the God who makes the dead alive and summons the things that do not yet exist as though they already do. Against hope Abraham believed in hope…⁶

Without being weak in faith, he considered⁷ his own body as dead⁸ (because he was about one hundred years old) and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver in unbelief about the promise of God but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. He was fully convinced that what God promised he was also able to do.⁹

The result for Abraham was that he became the father of many nations according to the pronouncement, “so will your descendants be.”¹⁰ Imitating his faith I look forward to a timeless eternity when I can search out David’s son and Jephthah’s daughter, chat with them and thank them for the impact of their lives and deaths on my life, not to mention my death.¹¹

Addendum: August 14, 2020
A table comparing the NET parallel Greek of Paul’s quotation of Psalm 32:1b (31:1b) from the Septuagint follows.

Romans 4:7 (NET Parallel Greek)	Psalm 32:1b (Septuagint BLB)	Psalm 31:1b (Septuagint Elpenor)
μακάριοι ὧν ἀφέθησαν αἱ ἀνομίαι καὶ ὧν ἐπεκαλύφθησαν αἱ ἁμαρτίαι	μακάριοι ὧν ἀφέθησαν αἱ ἀνομίαι καὶ ὧν ἐπεκαλύφθησαν αἱ ἁμαρτίαι	ΜΑΚΑΡΙΟΙ ὧν ἀφέθησαν αἱ ἀνομίαι καὶ ὧν ἐπεκαλύφθησαν αἱ ἁμαρτίαι
Romans 4:7 (NET)	Psalm 31:1b (NETS)	Psalm 31:1b (English Elpenor)
Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;	Happy are those whose lawless behavior was forgiven and whose sins were covered over.	Blessed [are they] whose transgressions are forgiven, and who[se]* sins are covered.

A table comparing the NET parallel Greek of Paul’s quotation of Psalm 32:2a (31:2a) from the Septuagint follows.

Romans 4:8 (NET Parallel Greek)	Psalm 32:2a (Septuagint BLB)	Psalm 31:2a (Septuagint Elpenor)
μακάριος ἀνὴρ οὗ οὐ μὴ λογίσηται κύριος ἁμαρτίαν	μακάριος ἀνήρ οὗ οὐ μὴ λογίσηται κύριος ἁμαρτίαν	μακάριος ἀνήρ, ᾧ οὐ μὴ λογίσηται Κύριος ἁμαρτίαν
Romans 4:8 (NET)	Psalm 31:2a (NETS)	Psalm 31:2a (English Elpenor)
blessed is the one against whom the Lord will never count sin.	Happy the man whose sin the Lord will not reckon	Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin

A table comparing the Greek of the Stephanus Textus Receptus of Paul’s quotation of Psalm 32:2a (31:2a) from the Septuagint follows.

Romans 4:8 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Psalm 32:2a (Septuagint BLB)	Psalm 31:2a (Septuagint Elpenor)
μακαριος ανηρ ω ου μη λογισηται κυριος αμαρτιαν	μακάριος ἀνήρ οὗ οὐ μὴ λογίσηται κύριος ἁμαρτίαν	μακάριος ἀνήρ, ᾧ οὐ μὴ λογίσηται Κύριος ἁμαρτίαν
Romans 4:8 (KJV)	Psalm 31:2a (NETS)	Psalm 31:2a (English Elpenor)
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.	Happy the man whose sin the Lord will not reckon	Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin

Tables comparing Psalm 32:1 and 32:2 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET, and tables comparing Psalm 32:1 (31:1) and 32:2 (31:2) in the Septuagint (BLB and Elpenor) follow. Tables comparing Romans 4:6; 4:8 and 4:19 in the NET and KJV follow those.

Psalm 32:1 (Tanakh)	Psalm 32:1 (KJV)	Psalm 32:1 (NET)
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.	A Psalm of David, Maschil. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.	By David; a well-written song. How blessed is the one whose rebellious acts are forgiven, whose sin is pardoned.

Psalm 32:1 (Septuagint BLB)	Psalm 31:1 (Septuagint Elpenor)
τῷ Δαυιδ συνέσεως μακάριοι ὧν ἀφέθησαν αἱ ἀνομίαι καὶ ὧν ἐπεκαλύφθησαν αἱ ἁμαρτίαι	Τῷ Δαυΐδ· συνέσεως. – ΜΑΚΑΡΙΟΙ ὧν ἀφέθησαν αἱ ἀνομίαι καὶ ὧν ἐπεκαλύφθησαν αἱ ἁμαρτίαι
Psalm 31:1 (NETS)	Psalm 31:1 (English Elpenor)
Pertaining to Dauid. Of Understanding. Happy are those whose lawless behavior was forgiven and whose sins were covered over.	[[A Psalm] of instruction by David.] Blessed [are they] whose transgressions are forgiven, and who[se]* sins are covered.

Psalm 32:2 (Tanakh)	Psalm 32:2 (KJV)	Psalm 32:2 (NET)
Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.	Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.	How blessed is the one whose wrongdoing the Lord does not punish, in whose spirit there is no deceit.

Psalm 32:2 (Septuagint BLB)	Psalm 31:2 (Septuagint Elpenor)
μακάριος ἀνήρ οὗ οὐ μὴ λογίσηται κύριος ἁμαρτίαν οὐδὲ ἔστιν ἐν τῷ στόματι αὐτοῦ δόλος	μακάριος ἀνήρ, ᾧ οὐ μὴ λογίσηται Κύριος ἁμαρτίαν, οὐδέ ἐστιν ἐν τῷ στόματι αὐτοῦ δόλος
Psalm 31:2 (NETS)	Psalm 31:2 (English Elpenor)
Happy the man whose sin the Lord will not reckon, and in his mouth there is no deceit.	Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin, and [in]* whose mouth there is no guile.

Romans 4:6 (NET)	Romans 4:6 (KJV)
So even David himself speaks regarding the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:	Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
καθάπερ καὶ Δαυὶδ λέγει τὸν μακαρισμὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ᾧ ὁ θεὸς λογίζεται δικαιοσύνην χωρὶς ἔργων	καθαπερ και δαβιδ λεγει τον μακαρισμον του ανθρωπου ω ο θεος λογιζεται δικαιοσυνην χωρις εργων	καθαπερ και δαυιδ λεγει τον μακαρισμον του ανθρωπου ω ο θεος λογιζεται δικαιοσυνην χωρις εργων

Romans 4:8 (NET)	Romans 4:8 (KJV)
blessed is the one against whom the Lord will never count sin.”	Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
μακάριος ἀνὴρ οὗ οὐ μὴ λογίσηται κύριος ἁμαρτίαν	μακαριος ανηρ ω ου μη λογισηται κυριος αμαρτιαν	μακαριος ανηρ ω ου μη λογισηται κυριος αμαρτιαν

Romans 4:19 (NET)	Romans 4:19 (KJV)
Without being weak in faith, he considered his own body as dead (because he was about one hundred years old) and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.	And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb:

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
καὶ μὴ ἀσθενήσας τῇ πίστει κατενόησεν τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σῶμα νενεκρωμένον (ἑκατονταετής που ὑπάρχων) καὶ τὴν νέκρωσιν τῆς μήτρας Σάρρας	και μη ασθενησας τη πιστει ου κατενοησεν το εαυτου σωμα ηδη νενεκρωμενον εκατονταετης που υπαρχων και την νεκρωσιν της μητρας σαρρας	και μη ασθενησας τη πιστει ου κατενοησεν το εαυτου σωμα ηδη νενεκρωμενον εκατονταετης που υπαρχων και την νεκρωσιν της μητρας σαρρας