Christianity, Part 11

Posted on September 30, 2023 by admin

There are 3 occurrences of πάντας in 1 Corinthians [see Table below], the Greek word translated all people in: And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people (πάντας, a form of πᾶς) to myself.¹ The first occurrence will take some time (1 Corinthians 7:7 ESV):

I wish² that all (πάντας ἀνθρώπους) were as I myself am. But³ each has his own gift from God, one⁴ of one kind and one⁵ of another.

Here πάντας was clearly limited by ἀνθρώπους (KJV: all men). Paul did not wish that all porcupines were as I myself am. I admit when I first read it I considered even all men limited to “very few men” because I heard the second clause as “But most of you aren’t as spiritual as I am.” Yet here πάντας ἀνθρώπους was translated all, everyone in the NET, which has the advantage of eliminating porcupines and other non-humans. And now I no longer think that everyone is wrong, misleading or a poor translation.

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote,⁶ Paul began this particular explanation, but what was written wasn’t recorded. Perhaps that’s because it seems fairly obvious that the question involved whether certain people at a certain place and time should or could marry, depending on whether the writers were doing the forbidding, being forbidden or both. Or perhaps it was because the Holy Spirit regarded Paul’s answer as more universally applicable than the questions as written. Paul continued (1 Corinthians 7:1b ESV)

“It is good for a man not to have sexual relations (ἅπτεσθαι) with a woman” [Table].

The Greek word translated good here was καλὸν (a form of καλός), the “beautiful good,” rather than ἀγαθόν (a form of ἀγαθός). I wrote about the “beautiful good” in another essay. So, why did Paul write, It is good (a beautiful good) for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman?

According to Britannica online, “The philosophical and religious ideals of celibacy in the Classical world strongly influenced subsequent practices of celibacy and monasticism in Christianity.”⁷ Was Paul persuaded that pagan celibacy was the highest form of self-righteousness? Probably not.

As I studied, I wondered why Paul chose ἅπτεσθαι, “to touch,” rather than λαμβάνεσθαι, a present middle/passive infinitive form of λαμβάνω, “to take.” And I also wondered why γυναικὸς (ESV: woman), a form of γυνή in the genitive case, was chosen rather than γυνήν in the accusative case or even γυνῇ in the dative. I typed the latter question into a search engine and Barnes’ Notes on the Bible directed me to the story of Abraham, Sarah and Abimelech.

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
Genesis 20:2-6 (Tanakh)	Genesis 20:2-6 (NET)	Genesis 20:2-6 (NETS)	Genesis 20:2-6 (English Elpenor)
And Abraham said of Sarah his wife (אִשְׁתּ֖וֹ): ‘She is my sister.’ And Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took (וַיִּקַּ֖ח) Sarah.	Abraham said about his wife (‘iššâ, אשתו) Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent for Sarah and took (lāqaḥ, ויקח) her.	And Abraam said of his wife (τῆς γυναικὸς αὐτοῦ) Sarra, “She is my sister,” lest perhaps the men of the city kill him on her account. Then Abimelech king of Gerara sent and took (ἔλαβεν) Sarra.	And Abraam said concerning Sarrha his wife (τῆς γυναικὸς αὐτοῦ), She is my sister, for he feared to say, She is my wife, lest at any time the men of the city should kill him for her sake. So Abimelech king of Gerara sent and took (ἔλαβε) Sarrha.
But G-d came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him: ‘Behold, thou shalt die, because of the woman (הָֽאִשָּׁ֣ה) whom thou hast taken (לָקַ֔חְתָּ); for she is a man’s (בָּֽעַל) wife (בְּעֻ֥לַת)’ [Table].	But God appeared to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman (‘iššâ, האשה) you have taken (lāqaḥ, לקחת), for she is someone else’s (baʿal, בעל) wife (bāʿal, בעלת).”	And God came in to Abimelech in his sleep during the night and said, “Look, you are about to die by reason of the woman (τῆς γυναικός) whom you have taken (ἔλαβες), whereas she is married (συνῳκηκυῗα) to a man (ἀνδρί)” [Table].	And God came to Abimelech by night in sleep, and said, Behold, thou diest for the woman (τῆς γυναικός), whom thou hast taken (ἔλαβες), whereas she has lived (συνῳκηυῖα) with a husband (ἀνδρί).
Now Abimelech had not come near (קָרַ֖ב) her; and he said: ‘L-rd, wilt Thou slay even a righteous nation?	Now Abimelech had not gone near (qāraḇ, קרב) her. He said, “Lord, would you really slaughter an innocent nation?	Now Abimelech had not touched (ἥψατο) her, and he said, “Lord, will you destroy an unwitting and righteous nation?	But Abimelech had not touched (ἥψατο) her, and he said, Lord, wilt thou destroy an ignorantly [sinning] and just nation?
Said he not himself unto me: She is my sister? and she, even she herself said: He is my brother. In the simplicity of my heart and the innocency of my hands have I done this.’	Did Abraham not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ I have done this with a clear conscience and with innocent hands!”	Did not he himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said to me, ‘He is my brother’. I did this with a pure heart and righteousness of hands.”	Did not he himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said to me, ‘He is my brother’. I did this with a pure heart and righteousness of hands.”
And G-d said unto him in the dream: ‘Yea, I know that in the simplicity of thy heart thou hast done this, and I also withheld thee from sinning against Me. Therefore suffered I thee not to touch (לִנְגֹּ֥עַ) her.	Then in the dream God replied to him, “Yes, I know that you have done this with a clear conscience. That is why I have kept you from sinning against me and why I did not allow you to touch (nāḡaʿ, לנגע) her.	Then God said to him during his sleep, “I too knew that you did this with a pure heart, and I was the one who spared you so that you did not sin in regard to me. Therefore I did not allow you to touch (ἅψασθαι) her.	And God said to him in sleep, Yea, I knew that thou didst this with a pure heart, and I spared thee, so that thou shouldest not sin against me, therefore I suffered thee not to touch (ἅψασθαι) her.

Abimelech took (וַיִּקַּ֖ח) Sarah. In the Septuagint the Greek word translated took was ἔλαβε(ν) (a form of λαμβάνω). Abimelech had every intention of making Sarah one of his wives but he had not come near (קָרַ֖ב) her,⁸ he had not touched (ἥψατο, a form of ἅπτω in the middle voice) her.⁹ The Greek word translated sexual relations (ἅπτεσθαι) in 1 Corinthians 7:1b (ESV) was an infinitive form of ἅπτω also in the middle voice. I did not allow you to touch her,¹⁰ God told Abimelech in a dream. The Greek word translated to touch here was ἅψασθαι, another infinitive form of ἅπτω in the middle voice.

The Greek word γυναικὸς (a form of γυνή) was in the genitive case because whether translated wife¹¹ or woman,¹² she is married (συνῳκηκυῗα) to a man (ἀνδρί),¹³ or she has lived (συνῳκηυῖα) with a husband (ἀνδρί).¹⁴ A note (5) in the NET explained that the Hebrew was literally: “and she is owned by an owner.” Though this concept has been misunderstood as abusive authority, I think the Holy Spirit understands it as a man’s responsibility for his wife.

Consider an owner’s responsibility, written in the law, for an ox or bull:

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
Exodus 21:28, 29 (Tanakh)	Exodus 21:28, 29 (NET)	Exodus 21:28, 29 (NETS)	Exodus 21:28, 29 (English Elpenor)
And if an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die, the ox shall be surely stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner (וּבַ֥עַל) of the ox shall be quit.	“If an ox gores a man or a woman so that either dies, then the ox must surely be stoned and its flesh must not be eaten, but the owner (baʿal, ובעל) of the ox will be acquitted.	Now if a bull gores a man or a woman and he dies, the bull shall be stoned with stones, and its meat shall not be eaten, but the owner (κύριος) of the bull shall not be liable.	And if a bull gore a man or woman and they die, the bull shall be stoned with stones, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner (κύριος) of the bull shall be clear.
But if the ox was wont to gore in time past, and warning hath been given to its owner (בִּבְעָלָיו֙), and he hath not kept it in, but it hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and its owner (בְּעָלָ֖יו) also shall be put to death.	But if the ox had the habit of goring, and its owner (baʿal, בבעליו) was warned but he did not take the necessary precautions, and then it killed a man or a woman, the ox must be stoned and the man (baʿal, בעליו) must be put to death.	But if the bull was prone to gore before yesterday and before the third day and they warn its owner (κυρίῳ) and he does not restrain it and it kills a man or a woman, the bull shall be stoned, and its owner (κύριος) shall die as well.	But if the bull should have been given to goring in former time, and men should have told his owner (κυρίῳ), and he have not removed him, but he should have slain a man or woman, the bull shall be stoned, and his owner (κύριος) shall die also.

Husbands, love your¹⁵ wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, Paul wrote, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself [Table].¹⁶ The Greek words translated should here are ὀφείλουσιν [καὶ], and love is ἀγαπᾶν, an infinitive form of ἀγαπάω in the present tense: In the same way husbands owe also to love their wives as their own bodies.

Yes, I am asking myself at this very moment if I took ownership of, if I accepted the responsibility for, my wife’s spiritual well-being while we were married. No, I’m not at all happy with the answer. “Find’em, feel’em, fuck’em and forget’em,” was the guiding maxim of the 4F club. It was something I learned in elementary school, not part of the official curriculum but handed down from a classmate’s older brother. And though I scoffed at it in my youth as morally beneath me, in my old age I reckon I’ve lived more nearly in compliance to that odious maxim than to any semblance of Christ-likeness. A feminist is not a godly husband: See to that¹⁷ yourself,¹⁸ was too often my attitude as I was preoccupied with more worldly concerns.

It seems like I understand Paul’s insight in 1 Corinthians 7:1b better, at least grasp its generality better, if I don’t even try to translate his word string into a fluent English sentence: καλὸν ἀνθρώπῳ γυναικὸς μὴ ἅπτεσθαι, “beautiful man wife not to touch.” That beauty is obvious in the story of Abraham, Sarah and Abimelech, when a man does not touch another man’s wife. The beauty of God’s intervention to spare both Sarah and Abimelech is beyond compare. I’ll return to that later. Paul described the beauty of a man not touching his own wife for an agreed upon period of time a few verses after this, and the beauty of not taking a wife at all in some verses after that (1 Corinthians 7:28-35 ESV):

But if you do marry,¹⁹ you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that. This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world²⁰ as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.

I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please²¹ the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please²² his wife, and his interests are divided.²³ And the unmarried or betrothed woman²⁴ is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body²⁵ and spirit.²⁶ But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please²⁷ her husband. I say this for your own benefit,²⁸ not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion²⁹ to the Lord.

I’ve discounted this entire chapter way too much: the appointed time has grown very short spoke to me of the return of Christ. I couldn’t calculate how Paul might have amended his words if he had known that I would still be waiting in the fall of 2023, and so I failed to pay enough attention to what is actually written here. Now, as I approach my seventieth birthday my appointed time has grown very short and my attention is more focused, perhaps, than in the past. There are things to consider about συνεσταλμένος, the Greek word translated very short, a participle of the verb συστέλλω in the perfect tense. But for the moment I’d rather consider and address something else.

Paul’s assumptions about the beautiful preoccupations of an unmarried man and an unmarried or betrothed woman were not made regarding those who are born of the flesh of Adam only. His words are folly to those who are perishing.³⁰ That which is born of the flesh is flesh,³¹ Jesus explained to Nicodemus. “None is righteous,” Paul wrote of those born only of the flesh of Adam, “no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one [Table]. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”³²

In this letter Paul addressed those who were born, not only of the flesh of Adam but, from above as well, by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 1:4-9 ESV):

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge—even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you—so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

I say: “I’ve lived more nearly in compliance to that odious [4F club] maxim than to any semblance of Christ-likeness.” But Paul wrote that, our Lord Jesus Christ…will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.³³ The Greek word translated will sustain was βεβαιώσει, a 3^rd person singular form of βεβαιόω in the future tense, active voice and indicative mood: “to establish, strengthen, stabilize, make firm, confirm, secure, warrant, make good.” The word translated you was the plural ὑμᾶς, so I assume Paul meant individuals rather than the Corinthian church as a singular collective.

Everything I’m complaining about in my self-assessment happened after I said a sinner’s prayer to Jesus. Some of it after I returned from atheism. What hurts the most is the more recent events in my forties and fifties when I thought I was doing better. At the very time when 1 Corinthians 7 and Ephesians 5 should have been my daily meditation, I ignored them and became anxious about worldly things, how to please [my] wife,³⁴ and I should’ve known better—but, clearly, I didn’t. During this study, as my failure to understand the love owed to my wife was brought to my attention (how many years after the fact?), I moaned, “Why don’t You just kill me, and be done with it?”

That wouldn’t really accomplish anything from God’s perspective: for all live to him.³⁵ So I suck it up and appropriate Paul’s words as my own, finding hope and comfort (even fellowship) in them (1 Timothy 1:15, 16 ESV):

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life [Table].

I left a sermon on the first chapter of 1 Peter recently, disgruntled. Peter is not my favorite writer, though my Pastor is beginning to help overcome that antipathy in me. The text was: Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.³⁶ I left the worship service that afternoon mumbling something about, “pie in the sky bye and bye.” It took me a day or so to put my disgruntled feelings into words.

But when I finally expressed myself honestly…

No, thank you. I’ll put my hope fully on the grace that is brought to me new every morning, the fruit of Your Spirit: Your love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

…the Lord’s answer was immediate:

Why do you hope for what you already see?

There wasn’t much left for me to say:

Duh, because I’m an idiot?

And so He corrected my misunderstanding.

Any time I compare myself to Jesus, I come up short. And the appointed time has grown very short³⁷ for that gap to be closed before I see Him face to face. Here is real hope: to set [my] hope fully on the grace that will be brought to [me] at the revelation of Jesus Christ. For now, I keep following Him through the Scripture, all too aware that those who have suffered the most from this gap are those whom I have loved and continue to love (e.g., because I do it so poorly).

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

Occurrences of πάντας in 1 Corinthians
Reference	NET Parallel Greek	ESV
1 Corinthians 7:7	θέλω δὲ πάντας ἀνθρώπους εἶναι ὡς καὶ ἐμαυτόν	I wish that all were as I myself am.
1 Corinthians 14:5	θέλω δὲ πάντας ὑμᾶς λαλεῖν γλώσσαις	Now I want you all to speak in tongues,
1 Corinthians 15:25	ἄχρι οὗ θῇ πάντας τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ὑπὸ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ	until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

Tables comparing Genesis 20:2; 20:4; 20:5; 20:6; Exodus 21:28 and 21:29 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET, and tables comparing the Greek of Genesis 20:2; 20:4; 20:5; 20:6; Exodus 21:28 and 21:29 in the Septuagint (BLB and Elpenor), and tables comparing 1 Corinthians 7:7; Ephesians 5:25; Matthew 27:4; 1 Corinthians 7:28 and 7:31-35 in the NET and KJV follow.

Genesis 20:2 (Tanakh)	Genesis 20:2 (KJV)	Genesis 20:2 (NET)
And Abraham said of Sarah his wife: ‘She is my sister.’ And Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.	And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.	Abraham said about his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent for Sarah and took her.

Genesis 20:2 (Septuagint BLB)	Genesis 20:2 (Septuagint Elpenor)
εἶπεν δὲ Αβρααμ περὶ Σαρρας τῆς γυναικὸς αὐτοῦ ὅτι ἀδελφή μού ἐστιν ἐφοβήθη γὰρ εἰπεῖν ὅτι γυνή μού ἐστιν μήποτε ἀποκτείνωσιν αὐτὸν οἱ ἄνδρες τῆς πόλεως δι᾽ αὐτήν ἀπέστειλεν δὲ Αβιμελεχ βασιλεὺς Γεραρων καὶ ἔλαβεν τὴν Σαρραν	εἶπε δὲ ῾Αβραὰμ περὶ Σάρρας τῆς γυναικὸς αὐτοῦ, ὅτι ἀδελφή μου ἐστίν· ἐφοβήθη γὰρ εἰπεῖν ὅτι γυνή μου ἐστί, μή ποτε ἀποκτείνωσιν αὐτὸν οἱ ἄνδρες τῆς πόλεως δι᾿ αὐτήν. ἀπέστειλε δὲ ᾿Αβιμέλεχ, βασιλεὺς Γεράρων, καὶ ἔλαβε τὴν Σάρραν
Genesis 20:2 (NETS)	Genesis 20:2 (English Elpenor)
And Abraam said of his wife Sarra, “She is my sister,” lest perhaps the men of the city kill him on her account. Then Abimelech king of Gerara sent and took Sarra.	And Abraam said concerning Sarrha his wife, She is my sister, for he feared to say, She is my wife, lest at any time the men of the city should kill him for her sake. So Abimelech king of Gerara sent and took Sarrha.

Genesis 20:4 (Tanakh)	Genesis 20:4 (KJV)	Genesis 20:4 (NET)
Now Abimelech had not come near her; and he said: ‘L-rd, wilt Thou slay even a righteous nation?	But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?	Now Abimelech had not gone near her. He said, “Lord, would you really slaughter an innocent nation?

Genesis 20:4 (Septuagint BLB)	Genesis 20:4 (Septuagint Elpenor)
Αβιμελεχ δὲ οὐχ ἥψατο αὐτῆς καὶ εἶπεν κύριε ἔθνος ἀγνοοῦν καὶ δίκαιον ἀπολεῖς	᾿Αβιμέλεχ δὲ οὐχ ἥψατο αὐτῆς καὶ εἶπε· Κύριε, ἔθνος ἀγνοοῦν καὶ δίκαιον ἀπολεῖς
Genesis 20:4 (NETS)	Genesis 20:4 (English Elpenor)
Now Abimelech had not touched her, and he said, “Lord, will you destroy an unwitting and righteous nation?	But Abimelech had not touched her, and he said, Lord, wilt thou destroy an ignorantly [sinning] and just nation?

Genesis 20:5 (Tanakh)	Genesis 20:5 (KJV)	Genesis 20:5 (NET)
Said he not himself unto me: She is my sister? and she, even she herself said: He is my brother. In the simplicity of my heart and the innocency of my hands have I done this.’	Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.	Did Abraham not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ I have done this with a clear conscience and with innocent hands!”

Genesis 20:5 (Septuagint BLB)	Genesis 20:5 (Septuagint Elpenor)
οὐκ αὐτός μοι εἶπεν ἀδελφή μού ἐστιν καὶ αὐτή μοι εἶπεν ἀδελφός μού ἐστιν ἐν καθαρᾷ καρδίᾳ καὶ ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ χειρῶν ἐποίησα τοῦτο	οὐκ αὐτός μοι εἶπεν, ἀδελφή μου ἐστί; καὶ αὕτη μοι εἶπεν, ἀδελφός μου ἐστίν; ἐν καθαρᾷ καρδίᾳ καὶ ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ χειρῶν ἐποίησα τοῦτο
Genesis 20:5 (NETS)	Genesis 20:5 (English Elpenor)
Did not he himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said to me, ‘He is my brother’. I did this with a pure heart and righteousness of hands.”	Said he not to me, She is my sister, and said she not to me, He is my brother? with a pure heart and in the righteousness of my hands have I done this.

Genesis 20:6 (Tanakh)	Genesis 20:6 (KJV)	Genesis 20:6 (NET)
And G-d said unto him in the dream: ‘Yea, I know that in the simplicity of thy heart thou hast done this, and I also withheld thee from sinning against Me. Therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.	And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.	Then in the dream God replied to him, “Yes, I know that you have done this with a clear conscience. That is why I have kept you from sinning against me and why I did not allow you to touch her.

Genesis 20:6 (Septuagint BLB)	Genesis 20:6 (Septuagint Elpenor)
εἶπεν δὲ αὐτῷ ὁ θεὸς καθ᾽ ὕπνον κἀγὼ ἔγνων ὅτι ἐν καθαρᾷ καρδίᾳ ἐποίησας τοῦτο καὶ ἐφεισάμην ἐγώ σου τοῦ μὴ ἁμαρτεῖν σε εἰς ἐμέ ἕνεκεν τούτου οὐκ ἀφῆκά σε ἅψασθαι αὐτῆς	λίγο εἶπε δὲ αὐτῷ ὁ Θεὸς καθ᾿ ὕπνον· κἀγὼ ἔγνων ὅτι ἐν καθαρᾷ καρδίᾳ ἐποίησας τοῦτο, καὶ ἐφεισάμην σου τοῦ μὴ ἁμαρτεῖν σε εἰς ἐμέ· ἕνεκα τούτου οὐκ ἀφῆκά σε ἅψασθαι αὐτῆς
Genesis 20:6 (NETS)	Genesis 20:6 (English Elpenor)
Then God said to him during his sleep, “I too knew that you did this with a pure heart, and I was the one who spared you so that you did not sin in regard to me. Therefore I did not allow you to touch her.	And God said to him in sleep, Yea, I knew that thou didst this with a pure heart, and I spared thee, so that thou shouldest not sin against me, therefore I suffered thee not to touch her.

Exodus 21:28 (Tanakh)	Exodus 21:28 (KJV)	Exodus 21:28 (NET)
And if an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die, the ox shall be surely stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit.	If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die: then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit.	“If an ox gores a man or a woman so that either dies, then the ox must surely be stoned and its flesh must not be eaten, but the owner of the ox will be acquitted.

Exodus 21:28 (Septuagint BLB)	Exodus 21:28 (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἐὰν δὲ κερατίσῃ ταῦρος ἄνδρα ἢ γυναῖκα καὶ ἀποθάνῃ λίθοις λιθοβοληθήσεται ὁ ταῦρος καὶ οὐ βρωθήσεται τὰ κρέα αὐτοῦ ὁ δὲ κύριος τοῦ ταύρου ἀθῷος ἔσται	᾿Εὰν δὲ κερατίσῃ ταῦρος ἄνδρα ἢ γυναῖκα καὶ ἀποθάνῃ, λίθοις λιθοβοληθήσεται ὁ ταῦρος, καὶ οὐ βρωθήσεται τὰ κρέα αὐτοῦ· ὁ δὲ κύριος τοῦ ταύρου ἀθῷος ἔσται
Exodus 21:28 (NETS)	Exodus 21:28 (English Elpenor)
Now if a bull gores a man or a woman and he dies, the bull shall be stoned with stones, and its meat shall not be eaten, but the owner of the bull shall not be liable.	And if a bull gore a man or woman and they die, the bull shall be stoned with stones, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the bull shall be clear.

Exodus 21:29 (Tanakh)	Exodus 21:29 (KJV)	Exodus 21:29 (NET)
But if the ox was wont to gore in time past, and warning hath been given to its owner, and he hath not kept it in, but it hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death.	But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death.	But if the ox had the habit of goring, and its owner was warned but he did not take the necessary precautions, and then it killed a man or a woman, the ox must be stoned and the man must be put to death.

Exodus 21:29 (Septuagint BLB)	Exodus 21:29 (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἐὰν δὲ ὁ ταῦρος κερατιστὴς ᾖ πρὸ τῆς ἐχθὲς καὶ πρὸ τῆς τρίτης καὶ διαμαρτύρωνται τῷ κυρίῳ αὐτοῦ καὶ μὴ ἀφανίσῃ αὐτόν ἀνέλῃ δὲ ἄνδρα ἢ γυναῖκα ὁ ταῦρος λιθοβοληθήσεται καὶ ὁ κύριος αὐτοῦ προσαποθανεῖται	ἐὰν δὲ ὁ ταῦρος κερατιστὴς ᾖ πρὸ τῆς χθὲς καὶ πρὸ τῆς τρίτης, καὶ διαμαρτύρωνται τῷ κυρίῳ αὐτοῦ, καὶ μὴ ἀφανίσῃ αὐτόν, ἀνέλῃ δὲ ἄνδρα ἢ γυναῖκα, ὁ ταῦρος λιθοβοληθήσεται καὶ ὁ κύριος αὐτοῦ προσαποθανεῖται
Exodus 21:29 (NETS)	Exodus 21:29 (English Elpenor)
But if the bull was prone to gore before yesterday and before the third day and they warn its owner and he does not restrain it and it kills a man or a woman, the bull shall be stoned, and its owner shall die as well.	But if the bull should have been given to goring in former time, and men should have told his owner, and he have not removed him, but he should have slain a man or woman, the bull shall be stoned, and his owner shall die also.

1 Corinthians 7:7 (NET)	1 Corinthians 7:7 (KJV)
I wish that everyone was as I am. But each has his own gift from God, one this way, another that.	For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.

1 Corinthians 7:7 (NET Parallel Greek)	1 Corinthians 7:7 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	1 Corinthians 7:7 (Byzantine Majority Text)
θέλω δὲ πάντας ἀνθρώπους εἶναι ὡς καὶ ἐμαυτόν· ἀλλὰ ἕκαστος ἴδιον ἔχει χάρισμα ἐκ θεοῦ, ὁ μὲν οὕτως, ὁ δὲ οὕτως	θελω γαρ παντας ανθρωπους ειναι ως και εμαυτον αλλ εκαστος ιδιον χαρισμα εχει εκ θεου ος μεν ουτως ος δε ουτως	θελω γαρ παντας ανθρωπους ειναι ως και εμαυτον αλλ εκαστος ιδιον χαρισμα εχει εκ θεου ος μεν ουτως ος δε ουτως

Ephesians 5:25 (NET)	Ephesians 5:25 (KJV)
Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her	Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

Ephesians 5:25 (NET Parallel Greek)	Ephesians 5:25 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Ephesians 5:25 (Byzantine Majority Text)
Οἱ ἄνδρες, ἀγαπᾶτε τὰς γυναῖκας, καθὼς καὶ ὁ Χριστὸς ἠγάπησεν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν καὶ ἑαυτὸν παρέδωκεν ὑπὲρ αὐτῆς	οι ανδρες αγαπατε τας γυναικας εαυτων καθως και ο χριστος ηγαπησεν την εκκλησιαν και εαυτον παρεδωκεν υπερ αυτης	οι ανδρες αγαπατε τας γυναικας εαυτων καθως και ο χριστος ηγαπησεν την εκκλησιαν και εαυτον παρεδωκεν υπερ αυτης

Matthew 27:4 (NET)	Matthew 27:4 (KJV)
saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood!” But they said, “What is that to us? You take care of it yourself!”	Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.

Matthew 27:4 (NET Parallel Greek)	Matthew 27:4 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Matthew 27:4 (Byzantine Majority Text)
λέγων· ἥμαρτον παραδοὺς αἷμα \|ἀθῷον\|. οἱ δὲ εἶπαν· τί πρὸς ἡμᾶς; σὺ ὄψῃ	λεγων ημαρτον παραδους αιμα αθωον οι δε ειπον τι προς ημας συ οψει	λεγων ημαρτον παραδους αιμα αθωον οι δε ειπον τι προς ημας συ οψει

1 Corinthians 7:28 (NET)	1 Corinthians 7:28 (KJV)
But if you marry, you have not sinned. And if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face difficult circumstances, and I am trying to spare you such problems.	But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you.

1 Corinthians 7:28 (NET Parallel Greek)	1 Corinthians 7:28 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	1 Corinthians 7:28 (Byzantine Majority Text)
ἐὰν δὲ καὶ γαμήσῃς, οὐχ ἥμαρτες, καὶ ἐὰν γήμῃ \|ἡ\| παρθένος, οὐχ ἥμαρτεν· θλῖψιν δὲ τῇ σαρκὶ ἕξουσιν οἱ τοιοῦτοι, ἐγὼ δὲ ὑμῶν φείδομαι	εαν δε και γημης ουχ ημαρτες και εαν γημη η παρθενος ουχ ημαρτεν θλιψιν δε τη σαρκι εξουσιν οι τοιουτοι εγω δε υμων φειδομαι	εαν δε και γημης ουχ ημαρτες και εαν γημη η παρθενος ουχ ημαρτεν θλιψιν δε τη σαρκι εξουσιν οι τοιουτοι εγω δε υμων φειδομαι

1 Corinthians 7:31-35 (NET)	1 Corinthians 7:31-35 (KJV)
those who use the world as though they were not using it to the full. For the present shape of this world is passing away.	And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.

1 Corinthians 7:31 (NET Parallel Greek)	1 Corinthians 7:31 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	1 Corinthians 7:31 (Byzantine Majority Text)
καὶ οἱ χρώμενοι τὸν κόσμον ὡς μὴ καταχρώμενοι· παράγει γὰρ τὸ σχῆμα τοῦ κόσμου τούτου	και οι χρωμενοι τω κοσμω τουτω ως μη καταχρωμενοι παραγει γαρ το σχημα του κοσμου τουτου	και οι χρωμενοι τω κοσμω τουτω ως μη καταχρωμενοι παραγει γαρ το σχημα του κοσμου τουτου

And I want you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.

But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:

1 Corinthians 7:32 (NET Parallel Greek)	1 Corinthians 7:32 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	1 Corinthians 7:32 (Byzantine Majority Text)
Θέλω δὲ ὑμᾶς ἀμερίμνους εἶναι. ὁ ἄγαμος μεριμνᾷ τὰ τοῦ κυρίου, πῶς ἀρέσῃ τῷ κυρίῳ·	θελω δε υμας αμεριμνους ειναι ο αγαμος μεριμνα τα του κυριου πως αρεσει τω κυριω	θελω δε υμας αμεριμνους ειναι ο αγαμος μεριμνα τα του κυριου πως αρεσει τω κυριω

But a married man is concerned about the things of the world, how to please his wife,

But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.

1 Corinthians 7:33 (NET Parallel Greek)	1 Corinthians 7:33 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	1 Corinthians 7:33 (Byzantine Majority Text)
ὁ δὲ γαμήσας μεριμνᾷ τὰ τοῦ κόσμου, πῶς ἀρέσῃ τῇ γυναικί	ο δε γαμησας μεριμνα τα του κοσμου πως αρεσει τη γυναικι	ο δε γαμησας μεριμνα τα του κοσμου πως αρεσει τη γυναικι

and he is divided. An unmarried woman or a virgin is concerned about the things of the Lord, to be holy both in body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the things of the world, how to please her husband.

There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

1 Corinthians 7:34 (NET Parallel Greek)	1 Corinthians 7:34 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	1 Corinthians 7:34 (Byzantine Majority Text)
καὶ μεμέρισται. καὶ ἡ γυνὴ ἡ ἄγαμος καὶ ἡ παρθένος μεριμνᾷ τὰ τοῦ κυρίου, ἵνα ᾖ ἁγία \|καὶ\| τῷ σώματι καὶ τῷ πνεύματι· ἡ δὲ γαμήσασα μεριμνᾷ τὰ τοῦ κόσμου, πῶς ἀρέσῃ τῷ ἀνδρί	μεμερισται η γυνη και η παρθενος η αγαμος μεριμνα τα του κυριου ινα η αγια και σωματι και πνευματι η δε γαμησασα μεριμνα τα του κοσμου πως αρεσει τω ανδρι	μεμερισται και η γυνη και η παρθενος η αγαμος μεριμνα τα του κυριου ινα η αγια και σωματι και πνευματι η δε γαμησασα μεριμνα τα του κοσμου πως αρεσει τω ανδρι

I am saying this for your benefit, not to place a limitation on you, but so that without distraction you may give notable and constant service to the Lord.

And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction.

1 Corinthians 7:35 (NET Parallel Greek)	1 Corinthians 7:35 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	1 Corinthians 7:35 (Byzantine Majority Text)
τοῦτο δὲ πρὸς τὸ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν σύμφορον λέγω, οὐχ ἵνα βρόχον ὑμῖν ἐπιβάλω ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὸ εὔσχημον καὶ εὐπάρεδρον τῷ κυρίῳ ἀπερισπάστως	τουτο δε προς το υμων αυτων συμφερον λεγω ουχ ινα βροχον υμιν επιβαλω αλλα προς το ευσχημον και ευπροσεδρον τω κυριω απερισπαστως	τουτο δε προς το υμων αυτων συμφερον λεγω ουχ ινα βροχον υμιν επιβαλω αλλα προς το ευσχημον και ευπροσεδρον τω κυριω απερισπαστως

Christianity, Part 12

Back to Christianity, Part 13

¹ John 12:32 (ESV)

² The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had δὲ (not translated in the NET) near the beginning of this clause, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had γαρ (KJV: For).

³ The NET parallel Greek text had the conjunction ἀλλὰ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus, Byzantine Majority Text and NA²⁸ had ἀλλ᾽.

⁴ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had the article ὁ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had the relative pronoun ος.

⁵ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had the article ὁ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had the relative pronoun ος.

⁶ 1 Corinthians 7:1a (ESV) Table

⁷ “Pagan religions of the ancient Mediterranean,” celibacy, Britannica

⁸ Genesis 20:4 (Tanakh)

⁹ Genesis 20:4 (NETS, English Elpenor)

¹⁰ Genesis 20:6 (NETS)

¹¹ Genesis 20:2 (NETS, English Elpenor)

¹² Genesis 20:3 (NETS, English Elpenor) Table

¹³ Genesis 20:3b (NETS) Table

¹⁴ Genesis 20:3b (English Elpenor) Table

¹⁵ The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had εαυτων here. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

¹⁶ Ephesians 5:25-28 (ESV)

¹⁷ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ὄψῃ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had οψει (KJV: see…to that).

¹⁸ Matthew 27:4b (NASB)

¹⁹ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had γαμήσῃς here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had γημης (KJV: thou marry).

²⁰ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had τὸν κόσμον here in the accusative case, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had τω κοσμω τουτω (KJV: this world) in the dative case.

²¹ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἀρέσῃ here in the subjunctive mood and aorist tense, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had αρεσει (KJV: he may please) in the indicative mood and future tense.

²² The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἀρέσῃ here in the subjunctive mood and aorist tense, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had αρεσει (KJV: he may please) in the indicative mood and future tense.

²³ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had καὶ μεμέρισται (NET: and he is divided) here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had simply μεμερισται (KJV: There is difference also between).

²⁴ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had καὶ ἡ γυνὴ ἡ ἄγαμος καὶ ἡ παρθένος (NET: An unmarried woman or a virgin) here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had η γυνη και η παρθενος η αγαμος (KJV: a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman).

²⁵ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had the article τῷ preceding body. The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text did not.

²⁶ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had the article τῷ preceding spirit. The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text did not.

²⁷ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἀρέσῃ here in the subjunctive mood and aorist tense, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had αρεσει (KJV: she may please) in the indicative mood and future tense.

²⁸ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had the noun σύμφορον here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had συμφερον (KJV: profit), a participle of the verb συμφέρω.

²⁹ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had εὐπάρεδρον here, a form of εὐπάρεδρος, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ευπροσεδρον (KJV: that ye may attend upon), a form of εὐπρόσεδρος.

³⁰ 1 Corinthians 1:18b (ESV)

³¹ John 3:6a (ESV)

³² Romans 3:10b-18 (ESV)

³³ 1 Corinthians 1:7b, 8 (ESV)

³⁴ 1 Corinthians 7:33b (ESV)

³⁵ Luke 20:38b (ESV)

³⁶ 1 Peter 1:13 (ESV)

³⁷ 1 Corinthians 7:29a (ESV)

Christianity, Part 1

Posted on November 9, 2022 by admin

It’s not possible to “distinguish the mind of Christ from the ordinary religious mind” without broaching the subject of Christianity, yet I’ve hesitated to do so directly. Recently, however, I quoted For God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all¹ with no comment whatsoever. I didn’t need to comment. I’ve studied the Greek enough now that I no longer pay any attention to the English translation.

Later, I had to go back and link show mercy to them all to a discussion of “the subjunctive mood…in a purpose or result clause” in Greek. While I appreciate that the Greek word is ἐλεήσῃ (“he may show”) not ἐλεήσει (“he will show”), the meaning is that He will show mercy to all. Or, if I want to be more mindful of the aorist tense, it looks to a moment when God will have shown mercy to all as an actual, factual moment in time.

In English, however, he may show mercy to them all means: 1) that God has permission to show mercy to them all; or something equally meaningless, 2) He might show mercy to them all or He might not. So I began to wonder: What is the point of translating the New Testament from Greek into English for the benefit and approval of those who already know the Greek, rather than for the enlightenment and edification of those who do not?

I recalled another instance where the NET translators did render aorist subjunctive verbs as if they were future indicative verbs: every knee will bow (κάμψῃ)…and every tongue confess (ἐξομολογήσηται), rather than every knee [may] bow…and every tongue [may] confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Romans 11:32 (NET Parallel Greek)	Philippians 2:9-11 (NET Parallel Greek)
συνέκλεισεν γὰρ ὁ θεὸς τοὺς πάντας εἰς ἀπείθειαν, ἵνα τοὺς πάντας ἐλεήσῃ	διὸ καὶ ὁ θεὸς αὐτὸν ὑπερύψωσεν καὶ ἐχαρίσατο αὐτῷ τὸ ὄνομα τὸ ὑπὲρ πᾶν ὄνομα, ἵνα ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι Ἰησοῦ πᾶν γόνυ κάμψῃ ἐπουρανίων καὶ ἐπιγείων καὶ καταχθονίων καὶ πᾶσα γλῶσσα ἐξομολογήσηται ὅτι κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς εἰς δόξαν θεοῦ πατρός
Romans 11:32 (NET)	Philippians 2:9-11 (NET)
For God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all.	As a result God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow—in heaven and on earth and under the earth—and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Now both of these passages seem to be describing essentially the same thing. I can even hear the former as a cause of the latter. But I remember when I understood the latter as a demonstration of brute force, much like when Voldemort forced Harry Potter to bow before he attempted to murder him in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Divorced from its context the idea that God will show mercy to all hardly seems controversial. But in context the mercy shown to all is nothing less than salvation: So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.²

Jesus said (John 15:7-11 ESV):

If you abide (μείνητε, a form of μένω) in me, and my words abide (μείνῃ, another form of μένω) in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples [Table]. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide (μείνατε, another form of μένω) in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide (μενεῖτε, another form of μένω) in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide (μένω) in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be³ in you, and that your joy may be full.

It would be wonderful if Christianity were synonymous with abiding in Christ and his words abiding in us, but Christianity means many other things. Comedian Bill Burr had a church quip that became an internet meme and can elicit at least a chuckle even from churchgoers:

God’s everywhere, but I gotta go down to (church) to see him? And he’s mad at me down there, and I owe you money?

To the ordinary religious mind the lands and buildings, the administrative hierarchies and religious rituals, the rules and regulations of Christianity may seem more real and tangible than abiding in Christ and his words abiding in us. For my purposes in these essays abiding in Christ and his words abiding in us is the real and tangible while all other aspects of Christianity are human abstractions, peripheral, when they are not inimical, to abiding in Christ and his words abiding in us.

Fair or not Paul gets a lot of the blame or a lot of the credit for Christianity. So his letter to the Romans seems like a good place to start (Romans 2:1-16 ESV):

Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things [Romans 1:18-32]. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed [Table].

He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury [Table]. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality [Table].

For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified [Table]. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law [Table]. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

I want to focus a moment, acknowledging that this might should be thought of as a continuation of Paul’s rhetorical question, another thing his reader might not be knowing: Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance [b]ut because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed?⁴

Who has this hard and impenitent heart? Those who are in the flesh cannot please God,⁵ Paul wrote. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again,’⁶ Jesus told Nicodemus. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.⁷

Paul explained why [t]hose who are in the flesh cannot please God: For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.⁸ He had already come to the following conclusion about himself: So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.⁹

With this as background I want to turn my attention to Jesus’ words about that day when, according to [Paul’s] gospel (εὐαγγέλιον), God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.¹⁰ He said (Matthew 25:31-46 ESV):

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people (αὐτοὺς, a form of αὐτός; literally: themselves) one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats [Table]. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me’ [Table]. Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ [Table] And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ [Table] Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

So, what kind of people are all the nations gathered before the throne of the Son of Man? My religious mind has imagined that they are the righteous on Jesus’ right and the wicked on his left. The trouble with that idea is that There is no one righteous.¹¹ I turn again to Paul (Romans 3:10-18 ESV):

“None is righteous, no, not one [Table]; no one understands; no one seeks for God [Table]. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” [Table] [Table]. “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips” [Table]. “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness” [Table]. “Their feet are swift to shed blood [Table]; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known” [Table]. “There is no fear of God before their eyes” [Table].

If none is righteous, who could or should receive this amazing grace of Jesus? Jesus said that his Father made that decision: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws (ἑλκύσῃ, a form of ἑλκύω) him.¹² So now I can imagine that some of the people gathered before the throne of the Son of Man are those God the Father chose not to draw to Jesus, while others are those He chose to draw. And those He chose to draw would be more like Paul: I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.¹³

Of course, Jesus promised that after He died as the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world,¹⁴ He will draw all…to [Himself]: And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.¹⁵ So now, if Jesus’ words abide in me I am compelled to imagine that everyone gathered before the throne of the Son of Man has been drawn to Jesus, that everyone standing there is more like Paul: I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.¹⁶

Jesus had already hinted at this outcome: It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—¹⁷ But here, my Christianity wants to argue and debate. So here I must decide Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen (ἀκούειν, a form of ἀκούω) to [my Christianity] rather than to God.¹⁸

A table comparing John 15:11 in the NET and KJV follows:

John 15:11 (NET)	John 15:11 (KJV)
I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete.	These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

NET Parallel Greek Text	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
Ταῦτα λελάληκα ὑμῖν ἵνα ἡ χαρὰ ἡ ἐμὴ ἐν ὑμῖν ᾖ καὶ ἡ χαρὰ ὑμῶν πληρωθῇ	ταυτα λελαληκα υμιν ινα η χαρα η εμη εν υμιν μεινη και η χαρα υμων πληρωθη	ταυτα λελαληκα υμιν ινα η χαρα η εμη εν υμιν μεινη και η χαρα υμων πληρωθη

Christianity, Part 2

Back to Wonders and False Wonders, Part 3

Back to A Shadow of the Good Things, Part 10

¹ Romans 11:32 (NET)

² Romans 9:16 (ESV) Table

³ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ᾖ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had μεινη (KJV: might remain).

⁴ Romans 2:4, 5 (ESV) Table

⁵ Romans 8:8 (ESV)

⁶ John 3:7 (ESV)

⁷ John 3:6 (ESV)

⁸ Romans 8:7 (ESV)

⁹ Romans 7:25b (ESV) Table

¹⁰ Romans 2:16 (ESV)

¹¹ Romans 3:10a (NET)

¹² John 6:44a (ESV) Table

¹³ Romans 7:25b (ESV)

¹⁴ 1 John 2:2 (NET)

¹⁵ John 12:32 (ESV)

¹⁶ Romans 7:25b (ESV)

¹⁷ John 6:45 (ESV) Table

¹⁸ Acts 4:19b (ESV)

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)

Atonement, Part 3

Posted on August 19, 2018 by admin

I’ll continue to consider y^ehôvâh’s (יהוה) instruction to Moses: They^[1] are to eat those things by which atonement (kâphar, כפר; Septuagint: ἡγιάσθησαν, a form of ἁγιάζω) was made to consecrate and to set them apart, but no one else may eat them, for they are holy.^[2]

The Hebrew word translated to consecrate was למלא (mâlêʼ). In the Septuagint למלא (mâlêʼ) was translated τελειῶσαι τὰς χεῖρας, “validate their hands” in an English translation of the Septuagint (NETS). And τελειῶσαι (a form of τελειόω) was translated to perfect in: For the law possesses a shadow of the good things to come but not the reality itself, and is therefore completely unable, by the same sacrifices offered continually, year after year, to perfect those who come to worship.^[3]

There isn’t a lot of wiggle room in the meaning of τελειῶσαι here. If the sacrifices had perfected those who came to worship, the sacrifices would have ceased to be offered long before the temple was destroyed: For otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers would have been purified once for all and so have no further consciousness of sin?^[4] John wrote (1 John 1:5-2:6 NET):

Now this is the gospel message^[5] we have heard from him and announce to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him and yet keep on walking in the darkness, we are lying and not practicing the truth. But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus^[6] his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. (My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.) But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One, and he himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world.

Now by this we know that we have come to know God: if we keep (τηρῶμεν, a form of τηρέω) his commandments. The one who says “I have come to know God” and yet does not keep (τηρῶν, another form of τηρέω) his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in such a person. But whoever obeys (τηρῇ, another form of τηρέω) his word, truly in this person the love of God has been perfected (τετελείωται, another form of τελειόω). By this we know that we are in him. The one who says he resides in God ought (ὀφείλει,^[7] a form of ὀφείλω) himself to walk^[8] just as Jesus walked.

If I fall back on my own strength the obligation to walk just as Jesus walked will fill me first with fear, then defensiveness, anger and eventually a pervasive desire to “chuck this whole religion thing.” So I plan to be very gentle with myself. I want to keep foremost in my mind the two points from the previous essay: 1) By his will we have been made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all;^[9] and, 2) he will in fact do this:^[10] …make you completely holy and…[keep] your spirit and soul and body…entirely blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.^[11]

If I’m honest my fear stems from my offended pride when I fail to walk just as Jesus walked in my own strength. So I want to consider that pride. Aaron and his sons^[12] were commanded to eat those things by which atonement was made to consecrate and to set them apart. No one else could eat them, for they are holy. For the moment it doesn’t really matter whether they meant the things by which atonement was made or Aaron and his sons or all of the above. In any case Aaron and his sons were distinguished from everyone else in Israel by this holiness. But how proud could they be about that?

Exodus 29:4-9 (NET)	Leviticus 8:6-13 (NET)
You are to present Aaron and his sons at the entrance of the tent of meeting. You are to wash them with water…	So Moses brought Aaron and his sons forward and washed them with water.
…and take the garments and clothe Aaron with the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod, and the breastpiece; you are to fasten the ephod on him by using the skillfully woven waistband.	Then he put the tunic on Aaron, wrapped the sash around him, and clothed him with the robe. Next he put the ephod on him and placed on him the decorated band of the ephod, and fastened the ephod closely to him with the band.
Exodus 28:30	He then set the breastpiece on him and put the Urim and Thummim into the breastpiece.
You are to put the turban on his head and put the holy diadem on the turban.	Finally, he set the turban on his head and attached the gold plate, the holy diadem, to the front of the turban just as the Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) had commanded Moses.
Exodus 30:22-33	Then Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and everything in it, and so consecrated (qâdash, ויקדש; Septuagint: ἡγίασεν, another form of ἁγιάζω) them.
Exodus 30:22-33	Next he sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times and so anointed the altar, all its vessels, and the wash basin and its stand to consecrate (qâdash, לקדשם; Septuagint: ἡγίασεν, another form of ἁγιάζω) them.
You are to take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him.	He then poured some of the anointing oil on the head of Aaron and anointed him to consecrate (qâdash, לקדשו; Septuagint: ἡγίασεν, another form of ἁγιάζω) him.
You are to present his sons and clothe them with tunics…	Moses also brought forward Aaron’s sons, clothed them with tunics, wrapped sashes around them, and wrapped headbands on them just as the Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) had commanded Moses.
…and wrap the sashes around Aaron and his sons and put headbands on them, and so the ministry of priesthood will belong to them by a perpetual ordinance. Thus you are to consecrate (mâlêʼ, ומלאת: Septuagint: τελειώσεις,^[13] another form of τελειόω) Aaron and his sons.

Aaron and his sons were distinguished in holiness because they stood there while Moses performed y^ehôvâh’s prescribed rituals to them and around them. Now to the one who works, Paul wrote believers in Rome, his pay is not credited due to grace but due to obligation (ὀφείλημα) [Table]. But to the one who does not work, but believes in the one who declares the ungodly righteous, his faith is credited as righteousness.^[14] The Pharisees on the other hand said, None of the rulers or the Pharisees have believed in [Jesus], have they? But this rabble who do not know the law are accursed!^[15]

This is very interesting in this context. The priests were made holy by atonement rituals prescribed by y^ehôvâh. The only holiness the Pharisees could legitimately^[16] claim was atonement made by priests performing rituals prescribed by y^ehôvâh. Yet they distinguished themselves from the rabble^[17] (ὄχλος) here, not by these rituals, but by knowledge of the law. To seek out some other distinction was a tacit acknowledgement that the law was completely unable, by the same sacrifices offered continually, year after year, to perfect those who come to worship. So in a sense they were on the right track as it pertained to recognizing a need.

I don’t intend to minimize the value of knowing the law as a means to knowing the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom [He] sent.^[18] As the Psalmist wrote (Psalm 119:33-40 Tanakh):

Teach me, O LORD (y^ehôvâh,יהוה), the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end.

Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.

Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.

Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.

Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.

Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear.

Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments are good.

Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness.

But to claim knowledge of the law as a means of distinction, rendering one more holy than one who does not know it, is to not know the law: For all who rely on doing the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not keep on doing everything written in the book of the law.”^[19] Cursed be he that confirmeth not the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say: Amen.^[20] For all who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.^[21]

Cursed in the phrase Cursed is everyone was ἐπικατάρατος in Greek. The Greek word translated accursed in this rabble who do not know the law are accursed was ἐπάρατοι (a form of ἐπικατάρατος). In other words, those who know the law are as accursed as those who do not because… (Romans 3:10-18 NET):

…just as it is written: “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.”^[22]

“Their throats are open graves, they deceive with their tongues, the poison of asps is under their lips.”^[23]

“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”^[24]

“Their feet are swift to shed blood, ruin and misery are in their paths, and the way of peace they have not known.”^[25]

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”^[26]

So how proud should I, a Gentile, be, recognizing that: 1) by [Israel’s] transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel jealous;^[27] 2) They were broken off because of their unbelief, but [I] stand by faith; Do not be arrogant, but fear; For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare [me];^[28] 3) [I] have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One, and he himself is the atoning sacrifice for [my] sins, and not only for [my] sins but also for the whole world;^[29] and, 4) Jesus Christ the righteous One promised, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself”^[30]?

It is past time that I give up my pride, quit trying to distinguish myself from others by some holiness I have achieved rather than received, and start gathering with Jesus rather than scattering (Matthew 12:30-32). So then, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.^[31] Just as you were formerly disobedient to God, but have now received mercy due to their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all.^[32]

The righteous never expected to keep the law in his or her own strength but in the power and presence of God (Psalm 51 Tanakh):

Have mercy upon me, O God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים), according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions (Table).

Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin (Table).

For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me (Table).

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest (Table).

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me [Table] (Genesis 5:1-5; Romans 5:12-21).

Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים); and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me (Table).

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit (Table).

Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים), thou God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהי) of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

O Lord (ʼădônây, אדני), open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים) are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים), thou wilt not despise.

Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

A table comparing the NET and KJV translation of 1 John 1:5-2:6 follows. I broke the table whenever the NET parallel Greek text differed from the Stephanus Textus Receptus or the Byzantine Majority Text.

1 John 1:5-2:6 (NET)	1 John 1:5-2:6 (KJV)
Now this is the gospel message we have heard from him and announce to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.	This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
Καὶ ἔστιν αὕτη ἡ ἀγγελία ἣν ἀκηκόαμεν ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀναγγέλλομεν ὑμῖν, ὅτι ὁ θεὸς φῶς ἐστιν καὶ σκοτία \|ἐν αὐτῷ\| οὐκ ἔστιν οὐδεμία	και αυτη εστιν η επαγγελια ην ακηκοαμεν απ αυτου και αναγγελλομεν υμιν οτι ο θεος φως εστιν και σκοτια εν αυτω ουκ εστιν ουδεμια	και εστιν αυτη η αγγελια ην ακηκοαμεν απ αυτου και αναγγελλομεν υμιν οτι ο θεος φως εστιν και σκοτια εν αυτω ουκ εστιν ουδεμια

If we say we have fellowship with him and yet keep on walking in the darkness, we are lying and not practicing the truth.	If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.	But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ἐὰν δὲ ἐν τῷ φωτὶ περιπατῶμεν ὡς αὐτός ἐστιν ἐν τῷ φωτί, κοινωνίαν ἔχομεν μετ᾿ ἀλλήλων καὶ τὸ αἷμα Ἰησοῦ τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ καθαρίζει ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ πάσης ἁμαρτίας	εαν δε εν τω φωτι περιπατωμεν ως αυτος εστιν εν τω φωτι κοινωνιαν εχομεν μετ αλληλων και το αιμα ιησου χριστου του υιου αυτου καθαριζει ημας απο πασης αμαρτιας	εαν δε εν τω φωτι περιπατωμεν ως αυτος εστιν εν τω φωτι κοινωνιαν εχομεν μετ αλληλων και το αιμα ιησου χριστου του υιου αυτου καθαριζει ημας απο πασης αμαρτιας

If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.	If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.	If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.	If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
(My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.) But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One,	My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
and he himself is the atoning sacrifice (ἱλασμός) for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world.	And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
Now by this we know that we have come to know God: if we keep his commandments.	And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
The one who says “I have come to know God” and yet does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in such a person.	He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
But whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in him.	But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
The one who says he resides in God ought himself to walk just as Jesus walked.	He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

Atonement, Part 4

Back to Atonement, Part 6

Back to Everyone Fathered by God Does Not Sin

Back to My Deeds, Part 2

Back to Atonement, Part 1

Back to Son of God – 1 John, Part 1

Back to Atonement, Part 8

Back to Atonement, Part 10

Back to A Door of Hope, Part 1

^[1] Aaron and his sons (Exodus 28:43 NET)

^[2] Exodus 29:33 (NET)

^[3] Hebrews 10:1 (NET)

^[4] Hebrews 10:2 (NET)

^[5] In the NET parallel Greek text and the Byzantine Majority Text the word translated gospel message was ἀγγελία while it was επαγγελια in the Stephanus Textus Receptus.

^[6] The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had the word χριστου here, while the NET parallel Greek text did not.

^[7] https://greekdoc.github.io/lexicon/of.html#ofeilw

^[8] The Greek verbs translated walk and walked were περιπατεῖν and περιεπάτησεν respectively. Both are forms of περιπατέω. By simply tracking select forms of περιπατέω I found that Paul and the Holy Spirit left a fairly detailed description of what it means to walk just as Jesus walked: περιπατῆσαι, Colossians 1:9-14; περιπατήσωμεν, Romans 6:1-4; περιπατήσωμεν, Ephesians 2:4-10; περιπατῆτε, 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12; περιπατεῖτε, Ephesians 5:1-21, Colossians 2:6-23, Colossians 4:2-6; περιπατεῖν (also περιπατεῖτε), 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8; περιπατείτω, 1 Corinthians 7:17-24; περιπατοῦμεν, 2 Corinthians 5:1-10; περιπατοῦσιν, Romans 8:1-17. Perhaps most to the point is Galatians 5:16. But I say, live (περιπατεῖτε) by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.

^[9] Hebrews 10:10 (NET)

^[10] 1 Thessalonians 5:24b (NET)

^[11] 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NET)

^[12] Exodus 28:43 (NET)

^[13] τελειώσεις τὰς χεῖρας, “validate the hands” (NETS)

^[14] Romans 4:4, 5 (NET)

^[15] John 7:48, 49 (NET)

^[16] from Pharisees: “Emergence of the Pharisees”
After defeating the Seleucid forces, Judas Maccabaeus’s nephew John Hyrcanus established a new monarchy in the form of the priestly Hasmonean dynasty in 152 BCE, thus establishing priests as political as well as religious authorities. Although the Hasmoneans were considered heroes for resisting the Seleucids, their reign lacked the legitimacy conferred by descent from the Davidic dynasty of the First Temple era.^[16]
The Pharisee (“separatist”) party emerged largely out of the group of scribes and sages…
Sadducees rejected the Pharisaic tenet of an Oral Torah. In their personal lives this often meant an excessively stringent lifestyle from a Jewish perspective, as they did away with the oral tradition, and in turn the Pharisaic understanding of the Torah, creating two Jewish understandings of the Torah. An example of this differing approach is the interpretation of, “an eye in place of an eye”. The Pharisaic understanding was that the value of an eye was to be paid by the perpetrator.^[20] In the Sadducees’ view the words were given a more literal interpretation, in which the offender’s eye would be removed.^[21] From the point of view of the Pharisees, the Sadducees wished to change the Jewish understanding of the Torah, to a Greek understanding of the Torah. The Pharisees preserved the Pharisaical oral law in the form of the Talmud. They would become the foundation of Rabbinic Judaism…
“The Hasmonean period”
After the death of John Hyrcanus his younger son Alexander Jannaeus made himself king and openly sided with the Sadducees by adopting their rites in the Temple. His actions caused a riot in the Temple and led to a brief civil war that ended with a bloody repression of the Pharisees. However, on his deathbed Jannaeus advised his widow, Salome Alexandra, to seek reconciliation with the Pharisees.
“The Roman period”
According to Josephus, the Pharisees appeared before Pompey asking him to interfere and restore the old priesthood while abolishing the royalty of the Hasmoneans altogether (“Ant.” xiv. 3, § 2). Pharisees also opened Jerusalem’s gates to the Romans, and actively supported them against the Sadducean faction.^[26] When the Romans finally broke the entrance to the Jerusalem’s Temple, the Pharisees killed the priests who were officiating the Temple services on Saturday.^[27] They regarded Pompey’s defilement of the Temple in Jerusalem as a divine punishment of Sadducean misrule.

^[17] In John 7:40 ὄχλου (a form of ὄχλος; translated of the crowd) was used without any pejorative connotation. The translators may have added more emphasis to the distinction than the Pharisees actually intended. The point still stands that they distinguished themselves from the crowd, not by y^ehôvâh’s prescribed rituals, but by their own knowledge of the law.

^[18] John 17:3b (NET)

^[19] Galatians 3:10 (NET)

^[20] Deuteronomy 27:26 (Tanakh)

^[21] Romans 2:12 (NET)

^[22] The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one (Psalm 14:1-3 Tanakh).

^[23] For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue (Psalm 5:9 Tanakh). They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. Selah (Psalm 140:3 Tanakh).

^[24] His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity (Psalm 10:7 Tanakh).

^[25] Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace (Isaiah 59:7, 8 Tanakh).

^[26] The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes (Psalm 36:1 Tanakh).

^[27] Romans 11:11b (NET)

^[28] Romans 11:20, 21 (NET)

^[29] 1 John 2:1b, 2 (NET)

^[30] John 12:32 (NET)

^[31] Romans 9:16 (NET) Table

^[32] Romans 11:30-32 (NET)

Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 2

Posted on December 23, 2016 by admin

Instruct these people as follows, y^ehôvâh had said to Moses: ‘You are about to cross the border of your relatives the descendants of Esau [Jacob’s brother], who inhabit Seir. They will be afraid (yârêʼ, וייראו; Septuagint: φοβηθήσονται, afraid) of you, so watch yourselves carefully.’^[1]

The rabbis who translated the Septuagint understood the last phrase, καὶ εὐλαβηθήσονται ὑμᾶς σφόδρα (“and they will be very cautious,” of you; i.e., of Israel). Either works in context. The origin of this fear was the destruction of the Egyptians in the Red Sea: The nations will hear, Moses and the Israelites sang to y^ehôvâh. Israel by contrast overflowed with confidence (Exodus 15:13 NET):

By your loyal love you will lead the people whom you have redeemed; you will guide them by your strength to your holy dwelling place.

The Hebrew word translated By your loyal love was chêsêd (בחסדך). Below is a table of forms of chêsêd and their translations in Genesis to the giving of the law.

chêsêd	Hebrew	KJV	NET	Tanakh	Septuagint
Genesis 19:19	חסדך	mercy	kindness	mercy	δικαιοσύνην
Genesis 20:13	חסדך	kindness	loyalty	kindness	δικαιοσύνην
Genesis 21:23	כחסד	kindness	loyalty	kindness	δικαιοσύνην
Genesis 24:12	חסד	kindness	Be faithful	kindness	ἔλεος
Genesis 24:14	חסד	kindness	you have been faithful	kindness	ἔλεος
Genesis 24:27	חסדו	mercy	faithful	mercy	δικαιοσύνην
Genesis 24:49	חסד	kindly	faithful	kindly	ἔλεος^[2]
Genesis 32:10	החסדים	mercies	faithful	mercies	δικαιοσύνης
Genesis 39:21	חסד	mercy	kindness	kindness	ἔλεος
Genesis 40:14	חסד	kindness	kindness	kindness	ἔλεος
Genesis 47:29	חסד	kindly	kindness	kindly	ἐλεημοσύνην
Exodus 15:13	בחסדך	mercy	By your loyal love	in Thy love	δικαιοσύνῃ
Exodus 20:6	חסד	mercy	covenant faithfulness	mercy	ἔλεος

This equation of mercy, kindness, faithfulness, loyalty and loyal love with δικαιοσύνῃ, righteousness, is a profound lesson in itself for one who neglected what is more important in the law – justice, mercy, and faithfulness: the righteousness (δικαιοσύνη) of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith, just as it is written, “The righteous (δίκαιος) by faith will live.”^[3] Paul quoted Habakkuk 2:4. The Tanakh reads, Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just (tsaddı̂yq, וצדיק) shall live by his faith. The Septuagint translated into English reads, “If it draws back, my soul is not pleased in it, But the just shall live by my faith.” The first part was translated, if he shrinks back, I take no pleasure in him^[4] in the New Testament.

NET

Parallel Greek

Septuagint

if he shrinks back, I take no pleasure in him.

Hebrews 10:38b

ἐὰν ὑποστείληται, οὐκ εὐδοκεῖ ἡ ψυχή μου ἐν αὐτῷ

Hebrews 10:38b

ἐὰν ὑποστείληται οὐκ εὐδοκεῖ ἡ ψυχή μου ἐν αὐτῷ

Habakkuk 2:4a Table

The righteous by faith will live

Romans 1:17b

ὁ δὲ δίκαιος ἐκ πίστεως ζήσεται

Romans 1:17b

ὁ δὲ δίκαιος ἐκ πίστεώς μου ζήσεται

Habakkuk 2:4b

The nations will hear and tremble,^[5] the song Moses and the Israelites sang continued. The Hebrew word translated tremble was râgaz (ירגזון). As Joseph sent his brothers back to Canaan to bring their father and their families to Egypt, He said to them, “As you travel don’t be overcome with fear.”^[6] The Hebrew word translated be overcome with fear was also râgaz (תרגזו) but a footnote (31) acknowledged:

The verb means “stir up.” Some understand the Hebrew verb רָגָז (ragaz, “to stir up”) as a reference to quarreling (see Prov 29:9, where it has this connotation), but in Exod 15:14 and other passages it means “to fear.” This might refer to a fear of robbers, but more likely it is an assuring word that they need not be fearful about returning to Egypt. They might have thought that once Jacob was in Egypt, Joseph would take his revenge on them.

The rabbis who translated the Septuagint did not agree. They chose ὀργίζεσθε (a form of ὀργίζω) in Genesis 45:24. Be angry (ὀργίζεσθε) and do not sin,^[7] Paul quoted the Psalm^[8] in his letter to the Ephesians.

NET

Parallel Greek

Septuagint

Be angry and do not sin…

Ephesians 4:26a

ὀργίζεσθε καὶ μὴ ἁμαρτάνετε

Ephesians 4:26a

ὀργίζεσθε καὶ μὴ ἁμαρτάνετε

Psalm 4:4a

And in Exodus 15:14 they chose ὠργίσθησαν (another form of ὀργίζω). The nations were enraged^[9] (τὰ ἔθνη ὠργίσθησαν) is nearer the rabbis’ understanding in the Septuagint ἤκουσαν ἔθνη καὶ ὠργίσθησαν.

The song continued, anguish will seize the inhabitants of Philistia.^[10] The Hebrew word translated anguish was chı̂yl (חיל). It was translated pain (בחילה) in Job 6:10 and writhing (חיל) like a woman in childbirth in Psalm 48:6. That is what the translators of the Septuagint picked up on with ὠδῖνες (a form of ὠδίν): Now when they are saying, “There is peace and security,” Paul wrote believers in Thessalonica, then sudden destruction comes on them, like labor pains (ὠδὶν) on a pregnant woman, and they will surely not escape.^[11]

Then the chiefs of Edom will be terrified,^[12] Moses’ song continued. The Hebrew word translated terrified was bâhal (נבהלו). It was also translated terrified (נבהל) in 1 Samuel 28:21, but they were dumbfounded (נבהלו) in Genesis 45:3 and panicked (ויבהל) in Judges 20:41. That hasty confused state of mind seemed to be what the rabbis responded to in the Septuagint with ἔσπευσαν (a form of σπεύδω). Hurry (σπεῦσον, another form of σπεύδω), Jesus said to Saul [Paul] in a vision, and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.^[13]

The song continued, trembling will seize the leaders of Moab.^[14] Here the Hebrew word translated trembling was raʽad (רעד). It was translated shake uncontrollably (רעדה) in Psalm 48:6 and panic (רעדה) in Isaiah 33:14. It was translated τρόμος in the Septuagint. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went out and ran from [Jesus’] tomb, for terror (τρόμος) and bewilderment had seized them.^[15]

Moses and the people sang, and the inhabitants of Canaan will shake.^[16] The Hebrew word translated will shake was mûg (נמגו). It was translated are cringing (נמגו) in Joshua 2:9 and seemed to melt (נמוג) in 1 Samuel 14:16. This was the sense the rabbis understood in the Septuagint: “all those inhabiting Canaan melted away” (ἐτάκησαν, a form of τήκω), whether by death, defection or fleeing as refugees. Peter prophesied, the heavens will be burned up and dissolve, and the celestial bodies will melt away (τήκεται, another form of τήκω) in a blaze!^[17]

Fear and dread will fall on them; by the greatness of your arm they will be as still as stone until your people pass by, O Lord, until the people whom you have bought pass by.^[18] In the Septuagint this was understood as a request for more supernatural fear and trembling: “May fear and trembling fall upon them.”^[19] The Hebrew word translated fear (ʼêymâh, אימתה) was translated my terror in y^ehôvâh’s promise: I will send my terror (ʼêymâh, אימתי) before you, and I will destroy all the people whom you encounter.^[20] This terror was associated with an angel: For my angel will go before you and bring you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I will destroy them completely.^[21] Fear was φόβος in the Septuagint. And Zechariah, visibly shaken when he saw the angel, was seized with fear (φόβος).^[22] The Hebrew word translated dread was pachad (ופחד), which was translated τρόμος in the Septuagint.

There was a lot of anger, pain, panic, trembling and defection among the people who heard about the Egyptians drowned in the Red Sea. There was fear and dread of supernatural origin besides. The fear (yirʼâh, יראת; Septuagint: φόβος) of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.^[23] I heard that often with no trace of irony. Apparently the NET translators heard it the same way for they went a step farther and translated yirʼâh to obey: To obey the Lord is the fundamental principle for wise living.^[24]

An oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked, David penned, There is no fear (pachad, פחד; Septuagint: φόβος) of God before his eyes.^[25] I didn’t hear this simply as a factual diagnosis but as a prescription for more fear. I don’t think I’m entirely alone in this. I had a pastor once who took No Fear sportswear as a personal insult. Perhaps he was considering the quotation credited to Albert Camus: “Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear.”

I didn’t find the context for this quote online so I’m just guessing, but I suppose that Camus didn’t know many French citizens who became committed NAZIs during the occupation out of fear, only resistance fighters and collaborators. We see the same phenomenon in the Old Testament if we will see it: some rebelled against God, others adopted a hypocritical religiosity. What is born of the flesh is flesh^[26] and the works of the flesh^[27] erupt eventually through the hypocritical veneer of any religion (Romans 3:10-18 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.”

“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.”

This is the diagnosis. The prescription is given in Jesus’ summary of Israel’s history: You must all be born from above,^[28] not more fear but more God, the righteousness (δικαιοσύνη) of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe,^[29] more of our daily bread, more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and Holy Spirit control, not pumped up artificially by some virtue of mine like some little engine that could, but flowing freely and continuously from those rivers of living water,^[30] his Holy Spirit. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.^[31]

If I may assume that y^ehôvâh’s instruction, how to behave^[32] in Edom, implies y^ehôvâh’s intent that Israel pass through Edom, then the result of all of this anger, pain, panic, trembling, defection, fear and dread was exactly what one believing Jesus’ summary of Israel’s history would expect: Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border.^[33] Edom said to [Israel], “You will not pass through me, or I will come out against you with the sword.”^[34] Fear (φόβος), John explained, has to do with punishment.^[35]

Though fear did not supply Esau’s descendants with enough faith in y^ehôvâh to allow Israel to cross through their land of Edom, it kept them from attacking Israel and being destroyed by y^ehôvâh. Fear can produce collaborators. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom if the collaborators don’t settle down to live in it (1 John 4:15-19). In that case they may have been better off as resistance fighters (Revelation 3:14-22).

Back to Who Am I? Part 4

Back to Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 5

^[1] Deuteronomy 2:4 (NET)

^[2] Here ʼemeth (ואמת) was translated δικαιοσύνην.

^[3] Romans 1:17 (NET)

^[4] Hebrews 10:38b (NET)

^[5] Exodus 15:14a (NET) Also in the Tanakh, tremble

^[6] Genesis 45:24b (NET) In the Tanakh, fall not out

^[7] Ephesians 4:26a (NET)

^[8] Psalm 4:4 Also râgaz (רגזו) in Hebrew, translated Stand in awe in the Tanakh and Tremble with fear in the NET.

^[9] Revelation 11:18 (NET)

^[10] Exodus 15:14b (NET)

^[11] 1 Thessalonians 5:3 (NET)

^[12] Exodus 15:15a (NET)

^[13] Acts 22:18b (NET) Table

^[14] Exodus 15:15b (NET)

^[15] Mark 16:8a (NET)

^[16] Exodus 15:15c (NET)

^[17] 2 Peter 3:12b (NET)

^[18] Exodus 15:16 (NET)

^[19] Exodus 16:16a (NETS)

^[20] Exodus 23:27a (NET)

^[21] Exodus 23:23 (NET)

^[22] Luke 1:12 (NET)

^[23] Psalm 111:10a (NKJV)

^[24] Psalm 111.10a (NET)

^[25] Psalm 36:1 (NKJV)

^[26] John 3:6a (NET)

^[27] Galatians 5:19-21 (NET)

^[28] John 3:7b (NET)

^[29] Romans 3:22a (NET)

^[30] John 7:37-39 (NET)

^[31] Romans 8:14 (NET)

^[32] Deuteronomy 2:4-7 (NET)

^[33] Numbers 20;21a (NET)

^[34] Numbers 20:18 (NET)

^[35] 1 John 4:18b (NET)

Romans, Part 68

Posted on January 10, 2016 by admin

This will conclude my consideration of Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer^[1] as a description of love rather than as rules to obey. I’ll continue with the aftermath of the war between Israel and Benjamin.

So the people came to Bethel and sat there before God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, האלהים) until evening, weeping loudly and uncontrollably.^[2] They had a foretaste of eternal life, not pie in the sky by and by nor tears without end but an amazing opportunity to know y^ehôvâh intimately. The brotherhood had joined together to purge evil from Israel. The Benjaminites joined together to withstand them. The brotherhood prevailed, then they mourned the loss of so many of their brother Benjaminites.

They said, “Why, O Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהי) of Israel, has this happened in Israel?”^[3] They regretted (nâcham, וינחמו) what had happened to their brother Benjamin. They acknowledged their part in it, saying, Today we cut off an entire tribe from Israel!^[4] The text acknowledged y^ehôvâh’s complicity: And the people grieved (nâcham, נחם) for Benjamin, because the Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) had made a void in the tribes of Israel.^[5] But they missed their moment to know Him. I know this because Phinehas didn’t preach on the text: Then the Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) relented (nâcham, וינחם) over the evil (raʽ, הרעה [H7451]) that he had said he would do to his people.^[6]

Israel missed this eternal moment (as I’ve missed my own so often) because they treated it, not as a glorious insight and revelation to be savored but, as a problem to be solved. How can we find wives for those who are left?^[7] Why was that a problem? The Israelites had taken an oath in Mizpah, saying, “Not one of us will allow his daughter to marry a Benjaminite.”^[8] “After all, we took an oath in the Lord’s name,” the victorious brotherhood admitted, “not to give them our daughters as wives.” So they asked, “Who from all the Israelite tribes did not assemble before the Lord at Mizpah?”^[9]

The victorious brotherhood’s focus was not on eternal life, knowing y^ehôvâh, but on justifying themselves before y^ehôvâh: This is what the Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) has commanded [Table]: If a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath of binding obligation on himself, he must not break his word, but must do whatever he has promised [Table].^[10] They had made two thoughtless oaths at Mizpah: They had made a solemn oath that whoever did not assemble before the Lord at Mizpah must certainly be executed.^[11] So from the beginning there was no real hope that the incident at Gibeah would be settled as a police matter: The Benjaminites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah,^[12] but apparently did not attend.

And I, before I realized that I had the timing of events reversed, would have laid all that happened next on Jephthah. I thought he was the brotherhood’s inspiration, a kind of butterfly effect, rather than someone overwhelmed by a massive wave of popular precedent. That popular precedent might have become, if not the image of knowing y^ehôvâh, the image and meaning of obeying Him, if not for the precious words appended to its retelling: Each man did what he considered to be right.^[13]

Now it just so happened no one from Jabesh Gilead had come to the gathering. When they took roll call, they noticed none of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead were there.^[14] Jabesh Gilead was east of the Jordan River in the land that Phineas had insinuated might be tainted. I’ve written elsewhere about the cost of acknowledging a thoughtless oath. But the victorious brotherhood had “good” reason not to confess the thoughtless oath that “justified” exterminating the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead, namely, their other thoughtless oath not to give their daughters as wives to the surviving Benjaminites (Judges 21:10, 11a NET):

So the assembly sent 12,000 capable warriors against Jabesh Gilead. They commanded them, “Go and kill with your swords the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead, including the women and little children (ṭaph, והטף; Septuagint: the translators seem to have edited out the part about killing children). Do this: exterminate every male, as well as every woman who has had sexual relations with a male. But spare the lives of any virgins.”

They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young girls (naʽărâh, נערה; Septuagint: νεάνιδας) who were virgins (b^ethûlâh, בתולה; Septuagint: παρθένους)…^[15] The Benjaminites returned at that time, and the Israelites gave to them the women they had spared from Jabesh Gilead. But there were not enough to go around.^[16]

So, they commanded the Benjaminites, “Go hide in the vineyards, and keep your eyes open. When you see the daughters of Shiloh coming out to dance in the celebration, jump out from the vineyards. Each one of you, catch yourself a wife from among the daughters of Shiloh and then go home to the land of Benjamin.^[17] The Benjaminites did as instructed. They abducted two hundred of the dancing girls to be their wives.^[18] Then the brotherhood disbanded, after having become as great a menace (to more women) as the children of Belial they exterminated.

“There is no one righteous, not even one, Paul gathered the judgments of y^ehôvâh on the wicked and unbelieving scattered primarily throughout the Psalms of David (also Isaiah) and applied them to all, “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.”

“Their throats are open graves, they deceive with their tongues (See Septuagint comparison below), 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 (See Septuagint comparison below).”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”^[19]

How can I rejoice (χαίροντες, a form of χαίρω) in hope here? And I don’t mean simply in the face of ancient history. For all our laws, all our police and all our courts, our “justice” is ultimately as puerile as theirs was. It seems more like a time to endure (ὑπομένοντες, a form of ὑπομένω) in suffering than to rejoice in hope, but that is my point.

The same love which endures (ὑπομένει, another form of ὑπομένω) all things,^[20] does not rejoice (χαίρει, another form of χαίρω) in iniquity (ἀδικίᾳ, a form of ἀδικία), but rejoices (συγχαίρει, a form of συγχαίρω) in the truth (ἀληθείᾳ, a form of ἀλήθεια);^[21] love is the true justice which does no wrong to a neighbor in the first place; it is the fulfillment of the law,^[22] rather than some vain effort to stuff the toothpaste back in the tube after injustice (ἀδικίᾳ, a form of ἀδικία) has prevailed. And this love without hypocrisy, The love unfeigned, is what I think Paul continued to describe: Rejoice in hope (ἐλπίδι, a form of ἐλπίς), endure (ὑπομένοντες, a form of ὑπομένω) in suffering (θλίψει, a form of θλίψις), persist in prayer.^[23]

Now may the God of hope (ἐλπίδος, another form of ἐλπίς) fill (πληρώσαι, a form of πληρόω) you with all joy (χαρᾶς, a form of χαρά) and peace (εἰρήνης, a form of εἰρήνη) as you believe in him, Paul wrote his benediction to the Romans, so that you may abound in hope (ἐλπίδι, a form of ἐλπίς) by the power (δυνάμει, a form of δύναμις) of the Holy Spirit.^[24] And by his power and the continuous infusion of his joy (χαρὰ) and his peace (εἰρήνη) [not to mention the other aspects of the fruit of the Spirit^[25]], the apostles, after they had been beaten, left the council rejoicing (χαίροντες, a form of χαίρω) because they had been considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name^[26] (e.g., Ἰησοῦ, a form of Ἰησοῦς, understood as y^ehôvâh).

So is this χαρὰ from the Holy Spirit like some kind of drug that overcomes reality? On the contrary, it is an aspect of the truth (ἀλήθεια) that overcomes the injustice (ἀδικίᾳ, a form of ἀδικία) that masquerades as reality. Set them apart in the truth (ἀληθείᾳ, a form of ἀλήθεια), Jesus prayed to his Father, your word is truth (ἀλήθεια).^[27] We understand in some sense that we are not to focus on the manmade muck we see around us. We are keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith instead. For the joy (χαρᾶς, a form of χαρά) set out for him he endured (ὑπέμεινεν, another form of ὑπομένω) the cross…^[28] And the one who endures (ὑπομείνας, another form of ὑπομένω) to the end (τέλος) will be saved.^[29]

As I considered all this I read an article in MSN News online:^[30]

An Islamic State Jihadist killed his mother in a public square in the Syrian city of Raqa who begged him to leave the organization, a monitor said Friday. Ali Saqr, 20, had reported his mother, Lina, to IS authorities in Raqa because “she tried to persuade him to leave IS and flee the city,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Authorities subsequently arrested the woman and accused her of apostasy, the monitoring group said. On Wednesday, she was shot to death by her son “in front of hundreds of people close to the mail service building in Raqa city,” the Observatory added.

Ali Saqr is a comtemporary example of Jephthah or any of the brotherhood who judged and condemned the Benjaminites in Gibeah. He cannot go home to consider what he has done. He has been judged and condemned by Superpowers who care nothing for him. If the entry to hell is marked by the words—Abandon all hope, ye who enter here—then the entry to our synagogues and churches should read—y^ehôvâh relented over the evil that he had said he would do to his people—and the churches can add his most profound words—Follow Me!

Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice (καυχώμεθα, a form of καυχάομαι) in the hope (ἐλπίδι, a form of ἐλπίς) of God’s glory. Not only this, but we also rejoice (καυχώμεθα, a form of καυχάομαι) in sufferings (θλίψεσιν, another form of θλίψις), knowing that suffering (θλῖψις, another form of θλίψις) produces endurance (ὑπομονὴν, a form of ὑπομονή), and endurance (ὑπομονὴ), character, and character, hope (ἐλπίδα, another form of ἐλπίς) . And hope (ἐλπὶς) does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.^[31]

“Repent,” Peter said, “and each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.” With many other words he testified and exhorted them saying, “Save yourselves from this perverse generation!” So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added. They were devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.^[32]

It seems fitting to end this essay with Paul’s instruction to Timothy on prayer (1 Timothy 2:1-6 NET):

First of all, then, I urge that requests, prayers, intercessions, and thanks be offered on behalf of all people, even for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. Such prayer for all is good and welcomed before God our Savior, since he wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one intermediary between God and humanity, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself as a ransom for all, revealing God’s purpose at his appointed time.

Below are two tables comparing Old Testament quotations in Paul’s letter to the Romans to the Septuagint.

Romans 3:13 (NET)

Romans 3:13 (Greek Text)

Psalms 5:9b; 140:3b (Septuagint)

Their throats are open graves,

they deceive with their tongues,

τάφος ἀνεῳγμένος ὁ λάρυγξ αὐτῶν, ταῖς γλώσσαις αὐτῶν ἐδολιοῦσαν,

τάφος ἀνεῳγμένος ὁ λάρυγξ αὐτῶν ταῖς γλώσσαις αὐτῶν ἐδολιοῦσαν

the poison of asps is under their lips.

ἰὸς ἀσπίδων ὑπὸ τὰ χείλη αὐτῶν

ἰὸς ἀσπίδων ὑπὸ τὰ χείλη αὐτῶν διάψαλμα

Romans 3:15-17 (NET)	Romans 3:15-17 (Greek Text)	Isaiah 59:7a, 7c, 8a (Septuagint)
*Their feet are swift to shed blood*,	ὀξεῖς οἱ πόδες αὐτῶν ἐκχέαι αἷμα,	οἱ δὲ πόδες αὐτῶν ἐπὶ πονηρίαν τρέχουσιν ταχινοὶ ἐκχέαι αἷμα
*ruin and misery are in their paths*,	σύντριμμα καὶ ταλαιπωρία ἐν ταῖς ὁδοῖς αὐτῶν,	σύντριμμα καὶ ταλαιπωρία ἐν ταῖς ὁδοῖς αὐτῶν
*and the way of peace they have not known*.	καὶ ὁδὸν εἰρήνης οὐκ ἔγνωσαν (a form of γινώσκω).	καὶ ὁδὸν εἰρήνης οὐκ οἴδασιν (a form of εἴδω).

Romans, Part 69

Back to Paul’s Religious Mind Revisited, Part 3

Back to To Make Holy, Part 1

^[1] Romans 12:12 (NET)

^[2] Judges 21:2 (NET)

^[3] Judges 21:3a (NET)

^[4] Judges 21:6 (NET)

^[5] Judges 21:15 (NKJV)

^[6] Exodus 32:14 (NET)

^[7] Judges 21:7a (NET)

^[8] Judges 21:1 (NET)

^[9] Judges 21:7b, 8a (NET)

^[10] Numbers 30:1b, 2 (NET)

^[11] Judges 21:5b (NET)

^[12] Judges 20:3a (NET)

^[13] Judges 21:25b (NET)

^[14] Judges 21:8b, 9 (NET)

^[15] Judges 21:12a (NET)

^[16] Judges 21:14 (NET)

^[17] Judges 21:20, 21 (NET)

^[18] Judges 21:23a (NET)

^[19] Romans 3:10b-18 (NET)

^[20] 1 Corinthians 13:7d (NET)

^[21] 1 Corinthians 13:6 (NKJV)

^[22] Romans 13:10 (NET)

^[23] Romans 12:12 (NET)

^[24] Romans 15:13 (NET)

^[25] Galatians 5:22, 23 (NET)

^[26] Acts 5:41 (NET) Table

^[27] John 17:17 (NET)

^[28] Hebrews 12:2a (NET)

^[29] Mark 13:13b (NET) I assume that this endurance is achieved by the patience (μακροθυμία) that is another aspect of the fruit of the Spirit not some act of will or human effort.

^[30] “Syria jihadist ‘kills mother’ after she asked him to leave IS”

^[31] Romans 5:1-5 (NET)

^[32] Acts 2:38-42 (NET) Table1; Table2

Romans, Part 14

Posted on August 24, 2012 by admin

But if our (ἡμῶν) unrighteousness demonstrates (συνίστησιν, a form of συνιστάω) the righteousness of God, Paul continued, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is he? (I am speaking in human terms.)¹ This is similar, though not identical, to a concern Paul addressed later in his letter to the Romans (Romans 9:22-24 NET):

But what if God, willing to demonstrate (ἐνδείξασθαι, a form of ἐνδείκνυμι) his wrath and to make known (γνωρίσαι, a form of γνωρίζω) his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath prepared for destruction? And what if he is willing to make known (γνωρίσῃ, another form of γνωρίζω) the wealth of his glory on the objects of mercy that he has prepared beforehand for glory – even us, whom he has called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

In the latter example there is no question about God’s righteousness when inflicting wrath, but these two are joined in my opinion as some of the implications of faith comes by hearing (ἀκοῆς, a form of ἀκοή), and hearing comes by God (or Christ) uttering, “hear,” that Paul worked through in this letter. Paul’s differentiation of the objects of wrath from the objects of mercy, whom [God] has called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles, and the caveat in Romans 3:5—I am speaking in human terms—leads me to the conclusion that our unrighteousness is an example of Paul identifying with every human being from Romans 3:4 (NET),² in particular those who have not yet been told to “hear.”

And I seriously question the translation of συνίστησιν (a form of συνιστάω) as demonstrates here. It seems to me the translators are trying to make the question as obtuse as possible. To demonstrate is to “clearly show the existence or truth of (something) by giving proof or evidence,” or to “give a practical exhibition and explanation of” something. Clearly the unrighteousness of those who have no faith because they do not hear the message of Christ because He has not yet uttered “hear” to them will never show the existence or truth of the righteousness of God by giving proof or evidence. Neither will their unrighteousness give a practical exhibition and explanation of God’s righteousness.

In the King James translation the word commend was used for συνίστησιν. One of the definitions of commend is to “present as suitable for approval or acceptance.” Now, the unrighteousness of those who have no faith because they do not hear the message of Christ because He has not yet uttered “hear” to them might very well commend the righteousness of God if the two are presented side by side for comparison and contrast. So then I have a real question: If the unrighteousness of those who have no faith because they do not hear the message of Christ because He has not yet uttered “hear” to them commends the righteousness of God, is God unrighteous when he inflicts wrath on them?

Absolutely not! Paul said unequivocally. For otherwise how could God judge (κρινεῖ, a form of κρίνω) the world?³ Paul already stated that there is no partiality⁴ with God. For all who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.⁵ None of that changes because the hearing that is so crucial to faith in Christ comes from God rather than from some special insight or intelligence or virtue in those who hear and believe the message.

For if by my lie, Paul continued, the truth of God enhances (ἐπερίσσευσεν, a form of περισσεύω) his glory (δόξαν, a form of δόξα), why am I still actually being judged (κρίνομαι, another form of κρίνω ) as a sinner?⁶ I think it is safe to assume that Paul was still speaking in human terms.⁷ But I want to entertain the question. After all, one of the reasons Paul gave for the wrath of God in the first chapter of Romans was they did not glorify (ἐδόξασαν, a form of δοξάζω) him as God.⁸ And here is God’s glory (δόξαν, a form of δόξα) being enhanced by the truth of God in juxtaposition to the lie of one who has no faith because he does not hear the message of Christ because He has not yet uttered “hear.”

I criticize the NET translators often without any standing to do so. So I want to make a point of saying I think they have it exactly right here. It is the truth of God which enhances his glory, not the lie. The answer is in the question. The one who has no faith because he does not hear the message of Christ because He has not yet uttered “hear,” is judged as a sinner precisely because of the truth of God, for sinner he is.

Paul was laying the groundwork for a statement that occurs later in his letter to the Romans: But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. For if the many died through the transgression of the one man, how much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ multiply (ἐπερίσσευσεν, a form of περισσεύω) to the many!⁹ The fact that God is gracious does not alter the fact that the one who has no faith because he does not hear the message of Christ because He has not yet uttered “hear,” is a sinner. And it certainly doesn’t mean that sinning is a good way to enhance (ἐπερίσσευσεν) or multiply (ἐπερίσσευσεν) the grace of God.

And why not say, Paul continued, “Let us do evil so that good may come of it”? – as some who slander us allege that we say.¹⁰ Paul switched roles abruptly here, from identifying with those who have no faith because they do not hear the message of Christ because He has not yet uttered “hear,” to those who have faith because they hear the message of Christ because He has uttered “hear.”

Apparently there were Jews, slanderers or blasphemers of the believers in Christ, who alleged that the Gospel message was, Let us do evil so that good may come of it. The Jewish leaders assumed that Jesus was not of God because He healed on the Sabbath and called God his Father.¹¹ A disciple is not greater than his teacher, Jesus said, nor a slave greater than his master. It is enough for the disciple to become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house ‘Beelzebul,’ how much more will they defame the members of his household!¹² Paul answered those slanderers or blasphemers curtly but factually, Their condemnation is deserved!¹³

What then? Are we better than they?¹⁴ I quoted from the New King James translation for a reason. I believe Paul was saying, “What then? Are we, who have faith because we hear the message of Christ because He has uttered ‘hear,’ better than they whose condemnation is deserved?” The NET renders it, What then? Are we better off?¹⁵ It may seem nitpicky but I would say, “Yes, those who have faith because they hear the message of Christ because He has uttered ‘hear’ are much better off than those whose condemnation is deserved, because they won’t receive the condemnation they also deserve.” But are they better, holding themselves before those whose condemnation is deserved? Certainly not, for we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin…¹⁶

Now, some translations¹⁷ that use better off, also assume that Paul was identifying with Jews here and add that to the text: Does it mean that we Jews are better off than the Gentiles?¹⁸ In that case, better and better off are essentially equivalent. But then the slanderers or blasphemers would have been Gentiles who accused Jews of preaching “Let us do evil so that good may come of it.” Granted Paul did write Jews and Greeks, but I assume that to be a literary way of saying all (or, no one) like the Old Testament quotations that follow (Romans 3:10-18 NET):

…just as it is written: “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.”

Addendum: March 24, 2021
A table comparing Romans 2:11 in the NET and KJV follows.

Romans 2:11 (NET)	Romans 2:11 (KJV)
For there is no partiality with God.	For there is no respect of persons with God.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
οὐ γάρ ἐστιν προσωπολημψία παρὰ τῷ θεῷ	ου γαρ εστιν προσωποληψια παρα τω θεω	ου γαρ εστιν προσωποληψια παρα τω θεω

Paul’s OT Quotes – Romans 3:10-18

Romans, Part 15

Back to Romans, Part 9

Back to A Shadow of the Good Things, Part 2

Back to The Lost Son of Perdition, Part 2

¹ Romans 3:5 (NET)

² …every human being shown up as a liar… Table

³ Romans 3:6 (NET)

⁴ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had προσωπολημψία here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had προσωποληψια (KJV: respect of persons).

⁵ Romans 2:11, 12 (NET)

⁶ Romans 3:7 (NET)

⁷ Romans 3:5 (NET)

⁸ Romans 1:21 (NET) Table

⁹ Romans 5:15 (NET)

¹⁰ Romans 3:8 (NET)

¹¹ John 5:18 (NET)

¹² Matthew 10:24, 25 (NET)

¹³ Romans 3:8 (NET)

¹⁴ Romans 3:9a (NKJV)

¹⁵ Romans 3:9a (NET)

¹⁶ Romans 3:9b (NET)

¹⁷ The New American Bible is interesting in that the translators recognized the problem of better off and addressed it in the verse by changing the answer: Well, then, are we better off? Not entirely, for we have already brought the charge against Jews and Greeks alike that they are all under the domination of sin… Romans 3:9 (NAB)

¹⁸ Romans 3:9 (CEV)

The Gospel and the Religious Mind

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

Tag Archives: Romans 3:10-18