αὐτοῦ and ἑαυτοῦ, Part 2

Posted on May 22, 2024 by admin

This is a continuation of a survey of the occurrences of αὐτοῦ and ἑαυτοῦ in the New Testament (see table below), particularly when associated with an article and noun in the accusative case. In another essay I understood τὴν παρθένον αὐτοῦ (ESV: his betrothed)¹ differently from τὴν ἑαυτοῦ παρθένον (ESV: her as his betrothed and his betrothed respectively).² It is not the customary way these phrases have been translated into English. I’ll pick up where I left off, considering the 12 occurrences of ἑαυτοῦ in Luke, 7 of which were associated with an accusative phrase [Table].

Jesus said (Luke 14:26-33 ESV):

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own (ἑαυτοῦ) father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even³ his own (ἑαυτοῦ) life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever⁴ does not bear his own⁵ (ἑαυτοῦ) cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to⁶ complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet⁷ him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not,⁸ while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has (πᾶσιν τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ ὑπάρχουσιν) cannot be my disciple.

This section, titled “The Cost of Discipleship” in the ESV, further demonstrates Jesus’ saying: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.⁹ The phrase, and does not hate his own father,¹⁰ was καὶ οὐ μισεῖ τὸν πατέρα ἑαυτοῦ in Greek. This is the first time I’m seeing ἑαυτοῦ following the accusative phrase τὸν πατέρα. I assume that ἑαυτοῦ is implied throughout this list: “the father of himself and the mother of himself and the wife of himself and the children of himself and the brothers of himself and the sisters of himself.”

I would consider that interpretation virtually certain if the next occurrence were την εαυτου ψυχην, his own life,¹¹ as it is in the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text. In the NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸, however, the word order was τὴν ψυχὴν ἑαυτοῦ again. I suppose I should hold onto this idea as an intuition rather than an interpretation that is “virtually certain.”

Or, perhaps, I shouldn’t be so fussy about the placement of ἑαυτοῦ relative to the noun. I was taking την εαυτου ψυχην as a reference to “the of himself life” as opposed to “the of God life” one possesses as a believer in Christ. And so, τὴν ψυχὴν ἑαυτοῦ was merely “the life of himself” as opposed to “the death of himself.” But as I struggle to spell it out, it seems more like a distinction without a difference.

In the next occurrence—Whoever does not bear his own cross¹²—ἑαυτοῦ followed the accusative phrase again in the NET parallel Greek and NA²⁸: τὸν σταυρὸν ἑαυτοῦ. It was τον σταυρὸν αυτου in the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text. According to an entry on Wikipedia:

Novum Testamentum Graece (The New Testament in Greek) is a critical edition of the New Testament in its original Koine Greek, forming the basis of most modern Bible translations and biblical criticism. It is also known as the Nestle–Aland edition after its most influential editors, Eberhard Nestle and Kurt Aland. The text, edited by the Institute for New Testament Textual Research, is currently in its 28th edition, abbreviated NA28.

The title is sometimes applied to the United Bible Societies (UBS) edition, which contains the same text (its fifth edition, “UBS5”, contains the text from NA28). The UBS edition is aimed at translators and so focuses on variants that are important for the meaning whereas the NA includes more variants.

The release of a 29th edition is expected in 2025.^[1]

Methodology

The Greek text as presented is what biblical scholars refer to as the “critical text”. The critical text is an eclectic text compiled by a committee that compares readings from a large number of manuscripts in order to determine which reading is most likely to be closest to the original. They use a number of factors to help determine probable readings, such as the date of the witness (earlier is usually better), the geographical distribution of a reading, and the likelihood of accidental or intentional corruptions.

In other words, NA²⁸ is a current scholarly best guess. The parallel Greek text in the NET is essentially NA²⁷. So, any agreement between the two indicates a modicum of stability of a particular editorial committee’s best guess.¹³ When the NA²⁸ agrees with the Stephanus Textus Receptus and/or Byzantine Majority Text and differs from the NET parallel Greek, I take that to mean a change in the best guess between the two editions of the critical text.

The final occurrence of εαυτου in this passage was the same in all four Greek texts: πᾶσιν τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ ὑπάρχουσιν, all that he has.¹⁴ An example of Jesus’ hate for his mother and brothers follows (Luke 8:19-21 ESV):

Then his mother and his brothers came¹⁵ to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. And¹⁶ he was told,¹⁷ “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.” But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”¹⁸

This chapter begins: Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God.¹⁹ His mother and brothers may have traveled some distance to see Him. His words probably stung them a bit. On the other hand, I would assume that those listening to Him would have understood if He had jumped up immediately to greet his mother and brothers, perhaps they even expected it. His gracious words perfectly illustrate his meaning regarding discipleship, and demonstrate his own single-minded devotion to God his Father and to those who hear the word of God and do it.

Matthew and Mark recorded a similar occasion, both followed by the same event:

Matthew 12:46-13:2 (ESV)	Mark 3:31-4:1 (ESV)
While he was still²⁰ speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him.²¹	And²² his mother and his brothers²³ came, and standing²⁴ outside they sent to him and called²⁵ him.
	And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said²⁶ to him, “Your mother and your brothers²⁷ are outside, seeking you.”
But he replied to the man who told²⁸ him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?”	And he answered²⁹ them,³⁰ “Who are my mother and my brothers?” [Table]
	And looking about at those who sat around him,
And stretching out his hand toward his disciples,
he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”	he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”
That same day³¹ Jesus went out of³² the house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat³³ and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach.	Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large³⁴ crowd gathered³⁵ about him, so that he got into a boat³⁶ and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was³⁷ beside the sea on the land.

I bring it up to revisit the setup to the arrival of Jesus’ mother and his brothers in more current translations of Mark (Mark 3:20, 21 ESV):

Then he went³⁸ home, and the³⁹ crowd gathered again, so that they could not even⁴⁰ eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”

The Greek words translated home were εἰς οἶκον. The translation into an house (KJV) is more literal. The root οἶκος can mean home, but I still might translate it: “into a home.” I’m not privy to the reasons the translators of the ESV, NASB, NASB 1995, NASB 1977, Legacy Standard Bible, Holman Christian Standard Bible, Contemporary English Version, God’s Word Translation, Good News Translation, International Standard Version, Majority Standard Bible, New American Bible and the NET chose home here.

Even if Mark meant home, I understand why he didn’t write εἰς τόν οἶκον αὐτοῦ (Luke 1:23): “into his house” or “his home.”

Matthew 8:19, 20 (ESV)	Luke 9:57, 58 (ESV)
And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”	As⁴¹ they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”⁴² And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

The Greek words translated his family were οἱ παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ; literally “those from beside him.” The word translated heard this was ἀκούσαντες, a participle of ἀκούω: So, “those from beside him hearing.” Hearing what? The context seems clear that they were hearing what Jesus was doing, probably what He was saying, but more to the immediate point: hearing where He was at a particular moment in time because they went out (ἐξῆλθον, a form of ἐξέρχομαι). For what purpose? to seize him (κρατῆσαι αὐτόν) Why? for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”⁴³

I didn’t question this translation at the time: The identity of οἱ παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ seemed confirmed when his mother and his brothers showed up standing outside.⁴⁴ And home seemed like a reasonable assumption for εἰς οἶκον since they knew where to find Him. Brad Gray, the Founder of Walking The Text online, did a really interesting video—“From Nazareth to Capernaum” | Jesus In Galilee Pt 1 | EP168—about Jesus’ move to Capernaum. In it he described the distance from Nazareth to Capernaum as about 22 miles, a day’s journey on foot.

Subsequently, I’ve heard that some are offended by the idea that Mary, in particular, thought her Son was out of his mind. One proposed solution was to take οἱ παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ absolutely literally as some present in the house with Jesus. This is interesting because it would probably mean that αὐτοῦ should be understood as an adverb rather than as a personal pronoun. But if they were already present with Jesus, why did they leave to seize him, never to return in Mark’s Gospel narrative?

I suggest looking more closely at the words translated He is out of his mind: ὅτι ἐξέστη, an active form of ἐξίστημι: “to drive out of his senses; to amaze, astonish; to take by surprise, startle; to confound, be dismayed, be distraught; to change, displace; to become separated from (something), lose (something); to lose one’s mind, go insane, faint away.” Jesus was not doing or saying the things his mother and brothers expected Him to do or say.

We’re not told exactly what each person thought He should do or say. Mary’s concern for instance, may have been exactly what Mark and the Holy Spirit expressed: the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat.⁴⁵ It’s not that hard to imagine a mother concerned that her firstborn is burning himself out at a furious pace, especially if she feels some responsibility for pushing Him out the door into this ministry (John 2:1-11).

The next occurrence was: την εαυτου ψυχην in the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text, or τὴν ψυχὴν ἑαυτοῦ in the NET parallel Greek and NA²⁸, his own life, from If anyone comes to me and does not hate…even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.⁴⁶ This hatred of “the of himself life” or “the soul of himself” was best expressed in Jesus’ prayer in the garden.

Matthew 26:38, 39 (ESV)	Mark 14:34-36 (ESV)	Luke 22:41, 42 (ESV)
Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” [Table].	And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.” And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him [Table]. And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”	And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” [Table].

Paul shared his insights into this hatred as well (Romans 6:3, 4 ESV; Galatians 2:20, 21 NET):

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (ζωῆς, a form of ζωή).

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside God’s grace, because if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing!

The next occurrence was: τὸν σταυρὸν ἑαυτοῦ in the NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸, or τον σταυρὸν αυτου in the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text: his own cross (ESV) from Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.⁴⁷ In another essay I wrote: “To take up [my] cross is to join Jesus distrusting my own desires and saying to God, not my will but yours be done.” Here, in this context I’m thinking of it somewhat differently, perhaps more generally, as pursuing the ministry the Lord gives one in the grace He provides. Given that, I find it difficult to distinguish between ἑαυτοῦ, “the cross of himself,” and αυτου, “his cross.”

The final occurrence I’ll consider in this essay was: πᾶσιν τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ ὑπάρχουσιν, all that he has, from So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.⁴⁸ I tend to understand πᾶσιν τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ ὑπάρχουσιν as “all that of himself there is.” If I were to think of it in terms of things, it would be those things that have him. The Greek word translated renounce was ἀποτάσσεται, a middle passive form of ἀποτάσσω: “to renounce, give up; to say goodbye, bid farewell, forsake, take leave, send away” (middle voice); “to be detached, be appointed” (passive voice). So, “to renounce, bid farewell, forsake, be detached from all that of himself there is.”

Matthew 22:36b-40 (ESV)	Mark 12:29b-31 (ESV)	Luke 10:27, 28 (ESV)
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment [Table]. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” [Table]	“The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one [Table]. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’ [Table]. The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” [Table].	“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all⁴⁹ your soul⁵⁰ and with all⁵¹ your strength⁵² and with all⁵³ your mind,⁵⁴ and your neighbor as yourself.” And [Jesus] said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

“Who then can be saved?” Jesus’ astonished disciples asked in a slightly different context. But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”⁵⁵ [F]or it is God who works in you, Paul wrote, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.⁵⁶

I’ll continue with this in another essay. The tables mentioned above follow.

	αὐτοῦ Occurrences		ἑαυτοῦ Occurrences
	Total	Accusative Phrase	Total	Accusative Phrase
New Testament	1428	136	47	21
Matthew	267	90	2	0
Mark	163	46	0	0
Luke	249	72	12	6

Occurrences of αὐτοῦ preceding or following a phrase in the accusative case in Luke
Reference	NET Parallel Greek	ESV
Luke 1:13	καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰωάννην	and you shall call his name John.
Luke 1:23	ἀπῆλθεν εἰς τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ	he went to his home.
Luke 1:31	καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦν	and you shall call his name Jesus.
Luke 1:49	καὶ ἅγιον τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ	and holy is his name.
Luke 1:58	ὅτι ἐμεγάλυνεν κύριος τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ μετ᾿ αὐτῆς	that the Lord had shown great mercy to her
Luke 1:64	ἀνεῴχθη δὲ τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ παραχρῆμα	And immediately his mouth was opened
Luke 2:21	καὶ ἐκλήθη τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦς	he was called Jesus
Luke 2:34	καὶ εἶπεν πρὸς Μαριὰμ τὴν μητέρα αὐτοῦ	and said to Mary his mother
Luke 3:4	εὐθείας ποιεῖτε τὰς τρίβους αὐτοῦ	make his paths straight.
Luke 3:17	διακαθᾶραι τὴν ἅλωνα αὐτοῦ	to clear his threshing floor
Luke 3:17	καὶ συναγαγεῖν τὸν σῖτον εἰς τὴν ἀποθήκην αὐτοῦ	and to gather the wheat into his barn
Luke 5:25	ἀπῆλθεν εἰς τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ δοξάζων τὸν θεόν	<and went home, glorifying God
Luke 5:30	πρὸς τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ	at his disciples
Luke 6:13	προσεφώνησεν τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ	he called his disciples
Luke 6:14	καὶ Ἀνδρέαν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ	and Andrew his brother
Luke 6:20	Καὶ αὐτὸς ἐπάρας τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτοῦ	And he lifted up his eyes
Luke 6:20	εἰς τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ ἔλεγεν	on his disciples, and said:
Luke 6:45	ἐκ γὰρ περισσεύματος καρδίας λαλεῖ τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ	for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks
Luke 7:1	Ἐπειδὴ ἐπλήρωσεν πάντα τὰ ρήματα αὐτοῦ	After he had finished all his sayings
Luke 7:3	ἐλθὼν διασώσῃ τὸν δοῦλον αὐτοῦ	to come and heal his servant
Luke 7:16	καὶ ὅτι ἐπεσκέψατο ὁ θεὸς τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ	and “God has visited his people!”
Luke 7:38	καὶ στᾶσα ὀπίσω παρὰ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ	and standing behind him at his feet
	βρέχειν τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ	to wet his feet
	καὶ κατεφίλει τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ	and kissed his feet
Luke 8:5	ἐξῆλθεν ὁ σπείρων τοῦ σπεῖραι τὸν σπόρον αὐτοῦ	A sower went out to sow his seed.
Luke 8:41	παρεκάλει αὐτὸν εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ	he implored him to come to his house
Luke 9:14	εἶπεν δὲ πρὸς τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ	And he said to his disciples
Luke 9:23	καὶ ἀράτω τὸν σταυρὸν αὐτοῦ	and take up his cross
Luke 9:24	ὃς γὰρ ἂν θέλῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ σῶσαι	For whoever would save his life
Luke 9:24	ὃς δ᾿ ἂν ἀπολέσῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ	but whoever loses his life
Luke 9:31	ἔλεγον τὴν ἔξοδον αὐτοῦ	and spoke of his departure
Luke 9:32	εἶδον τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ	they saw his glory
Luke 9:43	εἶπεν πρὸς τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ	Jesus said to his disciples
Luke 10:2	ἐργάτας ἐκβάλῃ εἰς τὸν θερισμὸν αὐτοῦ	to send out laborers into his harvest
Luke 10:34	καὶ προσελθὼν κατέδησεν τὰ τραύματα αὐτοῦ	He went to him and bound up his wounds
Luke 10:39	ἤκουεν τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ	and listened to his teaching
Luke 11:1	καθὼς καὶ Ἰωάννης ἐδίδαξεν τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ	as John taught his disciples
Luke 11:8	διὰ τὸ εἶναι φίλον αὐτοῦ	because he is his friend
Luke 11:8	διά γε τὴν ἀναίδειαν αὐτοῦ	yet because of his impudence
Luke 11:22	τὴν πανοπλίαν αὐτοῦ αἴρει	he takes away his armor
Luke 11:22	καὶ τὰ σκῦλα αὐτοῦ διαδίδωσιν	and divides his spoil
Luke 12:1	ἤρξατο λέγειν πρὸς τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ πρῶτον	he began to say to his disciples first
Luke 12:22	Εἶπεν δὲ πρὸς τοὺς μαθητὰς [αὐτοῦ]	And he said to his disciples
Luke 12:25	δύναται ἐπὶ τὴν ἡλικίαν αὐτοῦ προσθεῖναι πῆχυν	can add a single hour to his span of life
Luke 12:31	πλὴν ζητεῖτε τὴν βασιλείαν αὐτοῦ	Instead, seek his kingdom
Luke 12:39	οὐκ \|ἂν\| ἀφῆκεν διορυχθῆναι τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ	he would not have left his house to be broken into
Luke 12:46	καὶ τὸ μέρος αὐτοῦ μετὰ τῶν ἀπίστων θήσει	and put him with the unfaithful
Luke 12:47	ἢ ποιήσας πρὸς τὸ θέλημα αὐτοῦ	or act according to his will
Luke 13:15	ἕκαστος ὑμῶν τῷ σαββάτῳ οὐ λύει τὸν βοῦν αὐτοῦ	Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox
Luke 14:17	ἀπέστειλεν τὸν δοῦλον αὐτοῦ	he sent his servant
Luke 15:5	ἐπιτίθησιν ἐπὶ τοὺς ὤμους αὐτοῦ χαίρων	he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
Luke 15:13	καὶ ἐκεῖ διεσκόρπισεν τὴν οὐσίαν αὐτοῦ	and there he squandered his property
Luke 15:15	καὶ ἔπεμψεν αὐτὸν εἰς τοὺς ἀγροὺς αὐτοῦ	who sent him into his fields
Luke 15:20	καὶ δραμὼν ἐπέπεσεν ἐπὶ τὸν τράχηλον αὐτοῦ	and ran and embraced him
Luke 15:22	εἶπεν δὲ ὁ πατὴρ πρὸς τοὺς δούλους αὐτοῦ	But the father said to his servants
Luke 15:22	καὶ δότε δακτύλιον εἰς τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ	and put a ring on his hand
Luke 16:1	διασκορπίζων τὰ ὑπάρχοντα αὐτοῦ	was wasting his possessions
Luke 16:18	Πᾶς ὁ ἀπολύων τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ	Everyone who divorces his wife
Luke 16:20	πρὸς τὸν πυλῶνα αὐτοῦ	at his gate
Luke 16:21	ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ κύνες ἐρχόμενοι ἐπέλειχον τὰ ἕλκη αὐτοῦ	Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.
Luke 16:23	καὶ ἐν τῷ ᾅδῃ ἐπάρας τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτοῦ	and in Hades…he lifted up his eyes
Luke 17:2	εἰ λίθος μυλικὸς περίκειται περὶ τὸν τράχηλον αὐτοῦ	if a millstone were hung around his neck
Luke 17:16	καὶ ἔπεσεν ἐπὶ πρόσωπον παρὰ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ	and ohe fell on his face at Jesus’ feet
Luke 17:33	ὃς ἐὰν ζητήσῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ περιποιήσασθαι	Whoever seeks to preserve his life
Luke 18:13	ἀλλ᾿ ἔτυπτεν τὸ στῆθος \|αὐτοῦ\|	but beat his breast
Luke 18:14	κατέβη οὗτος δεδικαιωμένος εἰς τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ	this man went down to his house
Luke 22:36	καὶ ὁ μὴ ἔχων πωλησάτω τὸ ἱμάτιον αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀγορασάτω μάχαιραν	And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.
Luke 22:50	καὶ ἀφεῖλεν τὸ οὖς αὐτοῦ τὸ δεξιόν	and cut off his right ear
Luke 23:34	διαμεριζόμενοι δὲ τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτοῦ ἔβαλον \|κλήρους\|	And they cast lots to divide his garments.
Luke 23:55	καὶ ὡς ἐτέθη τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ	and how his body was laid
Luke 24:23	καὶ μὴ εὑροῦσαι τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ	and when they did not find his body
Luke 24:26	καὶ εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ	and enter into his glory
Luke 24:50	καὶ ἐπάρας τὰς χεῖρας αὐτοῦ	and lifting up his hands

Occurrences of ἑαυτοῦ in a phrase in the accusative case
Reference	NET Parallel Greek	ESV
Luke 2:3	εἰς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ πόλιν	to his own town
Luke 11:21	φυλάσσῃ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ αὐλήν	guards his own palace
Luke 14:26	μισεῖ τὸν πατέρα ἑαυτοῦ	hate his own father
Luke 14:26	καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ἑαυτοῦ	And…his own life
Luke 14:27	βαστάζει τὸν σταυρὸν ἑαυτοῦ	bear his own cross
Luke 15:20	ἦλθεν πρὸς τὸν πατέρα ἑαυτοῦ	came to his father
Luke 24:27	τὰ περὶ ἑαυτοῦ	the things concerning himself
Romans 4:19	κατενόησεν τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σῶμα	he considered his own body
Romans 5:8	συνίστησιν δὲ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἀγάπην	But…shows his love
Romans 8:3	τὸν ἑαυτοῦ υἱὸν πέμψας	sending his own Son
1 Corinthians 7:2	ἕκαστος τὴν ἑαυτοῦ γυναῖκα ἐχέτω	each man should have his own wife
1 Corinthians 7:37	τηρεῖν τὴν ἑαυτοῦ παρθένον	to keep her as his betrothed
1 Corinthians 7:38	ὁ γαμίζων τὴν ἑαυτοῦ παρθένον	he who marries his betrothed
1 Corinthians 10:24	μηδεὶς τὸ ἑαυτοῦ ζητείτω	Let no one seek his own good
1 Corinthians 10:29	συνείδησιν δὲ λέγω οὐχὶ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ	I do not mean your conscience
Ephesians 5:28	ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὴν ἑαυτοῦ γυναῖκα ἑαυτὸν ἀγαπᾷ	He who loves his wife loves himself.
Ephesians 5:29	Οὐδεὶς γάρ ποτε τὴν ἑαυτοῦ σάρκα ἐμίσησεν	For no one ever hated his own flesh
Ephesians 5:33	ἕκαστος τὴν ἑαυτοῦ γυναῖκα οὕτως ἀγαπάτω ὡς ἑαυτόν	let each one of you love his wife as himself
1 Thessalonians 2:12	τοῦ καλοῦντος ὑμᾶς εἰς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ βασιλείαν	who calls you into his own kingdom
1 Thessalonians 4:4	εἰδέναι ἕκαστον ὑμῶν τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σκεῦος κτᾶσθαι ἐν ἁγιασμῷ	that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness
Revelation 10:7	ὡς εὐηγγέλισεν τοὺς ἑαυτοῦ δούλους τοὺς προφήτας	just as he announced to his servants the prophets

Tables comparing Luke 14:26-28; 14:31, 32; 8:19-21; Matthew 13:1, 2; Mark 4:1; Matthew 12:46; 12:48; Mark 3:31, 32; 3:20; Luke 9:57 and 10:27 in the NET and KJV follow.

Luke 14:26-28 (NET)	Luke 14:26-28 (KJV)
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.	If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

Luke 14:26 (NET Parallel Greek)	Luke 14:26 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Luke 14:26 (Byzantine Majority Text)
εἴ τις ἔρχεται πρός με καὶ οὐ μισεῖ τὸν πατέρα ἑαυτοῦ καὶ τὴν μητέρα καὶ τὴν γυναῖκα καὶ τὰ τέκνα καὶ τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς καὶ τὰς ἀδελφὰς ἔτι τε καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ἑαυτοῦ, οὐ δύναται εἶναι μου μαθητής	ει τις ερχεται προς με και ου μισει τον πατερα εαυτου και την μητερα και την γυναικα και τα τεκνα και τους αδελφους και τας αδελφας ετι δε και την εαυτου ψυχην ου δυναται μου μαθητης ειναι	ει τις ερχεται προς με και ου μισει τον πατερα αυτου και την μητερα και την γυναικα και τα τεκνα και τους αδελφους και τας αδελφας ετι δε και την εαυτου ψυχην ου δυναται μου μαθητης ειναι

Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

Luke 14:27 (NET Parallel Greek)	Luke 14:27 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Luke 14:27 (Byzantine Majority Text)
ὅστις οὐ βαστάζει τὸν σταυρὸν ἑαυτοῦ καὶ ἔρχεται ὀπίσω μου, οὐ δύναται εἶναι μου μαθητής	και οστις ου βασταζει τον σταυρον αυτου και ερχεται οπισω μου ου δυναται μου ειναι μαθητης	και οστις ου βασταζει τον σταυρον αυτου και ερχεται οπισω μου ου δυναται ειναι μου μαθητης

For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t sit down first and compute the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?

For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?

Luke 14:28 (NET Parallel Greek)	Luke 14:28 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Luke 14:28 (Byzantine Majority Text)
Τίς γὰρ ἐξ ὑμῶν θέλων πύργον οἰκοδομῆσαι οὐχὶ πρῶτον καθίσας ψηφίζει τὴν δαπάνην, εἰ ἔχει εἰς ἀπαρτισμόν	τις γαρ εξ υμων θελων πυργον οικοδομησαι ουχι πρωτον καθισας ψηφιζει την δαπανην ει εχει τα προς απαρτισμον	τις γαρ εξ υμων ο θελων πυργον οικοδομησαι ουχι πρωτον καθισας ψηφιζει την δαπανην ει εχει τα εις απαρτισμον

Luke 14:31, 32 (NET)	Luke 14:31, 32 (KJV)
Or what king, going out to confront another king in battle, will not sit down first and determine whether he is able with 10,000 to oppose the one coming against him with 20,000?	Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?

Luke 14:31 (NET Parallel Greek)	Luke 14:31 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Luke 14:31 (Byzantine Majority Text)
Η τίς βασιλεὺς πορευόμενος ἑτέρῳ βασιλεῖ συμβαλεῖν εἰς πόλεμον οὐχὶ καθίσας πρῶτον βουλεύσεται εἰ δυνατός ἐστιν ἐν δέκα χιλιάσιν ὑπαντῆσαι τῷ μετὰ εἴκοσι χιλιάδων ἐρχομένῳ ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν	η τις βασιλευς πορευομενος συμβαλειν ετερω βασιλει εις πολεμον ουχι καθισας πρωτον βουλευεται ει δυνατος εστιν εν δεκα χιλιασιν απαντησαι τω μετα εικοσι χιλιαδων ερχομενω επ αυτον	η τις βασιλευς πορευομενος συμβαλειν ετερω βασιλει εις πολεμον ουχι καθισας πρωτον βουλευεται ει δυνατος εστιν εν δεκα χιλιασιν απαντησαι τω μετα εικοσι χιλιαδων ερχομενω επ αυτον

If he cannot succeed, he will send a representative while the other is still a long way off and ask for terms of peace.

Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.

Luke 14:32 (NET Parallel Greek)	Luke 14:32 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Luke 14:32 (Byzantine Majority Text)
εἰ δὲ μή γε, ἔτι αὐτοῦ πόρρω ὄντος πρεσβείαν ἀποστείλας ἐρωτᾷ \|τὰ\| πρὸς εἰρήνην	ει δε μηγε ετι αυτου πορρω οντος πρεσβειαν αποστειλας ερωτα τα προς ειρηνην	ει δε μηγε ετι πορρω αυτου οντος πρεσβειαν αποστειλας ερωτα τα προς ειρηνην

Luke 8:19-21 (NET)	Luke 8:19-21 (KJV)
Now Jesus’ mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not get near him because of the crowd.	Then came to him his mother and his brethren, and could not come at him for the press.

Luke 8:19 (NET Parallel Greek)	Luke 8:19 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Luke 8:19 (Byzantine Majority Text)
Παρεγένετο δὲ πρὸς αὐτὸν ἡ μήτηρ καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ οὐκ ἠδύναντο συντυχεῖν αὐτῷ διὰ τὸν ὄχλον	παρεγενοντο δε προς αυτον η μητηρ και οι αδελφοι αυτου και ουκ ηδυναντο συντυχειν αυτω δια τον οχλον	παρεγενοντο δε προς αυτον η μητηρ και οι αδελφοι αυτου και ουκ ηδυναντο συντυχειν αυτω δια τον οχλον

So he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.”

And it was told him by certain which said, Thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to see thee.

Luke 8:20 (NET Parallel Greek)	Luke 8:20 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Luke 8:20 (Byzantine Majority Text)
ἀπηγγέλη δὲ αὐτῷ· ἡ μήτηρ σου καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοί σου ἑστήκασιν ἔξω ἰδεῖν θέλοντες σε	και απηγγελη αυτω λεγοντων η μητηρ σου και οι αδελφοι σου εστηκασιν εξω ιδειν σε θελοντες	και απηγγελη αυτω λεγοντων η μητηρ σου και οι αδελφοι σου εστηκασιν εξω ιδειν σε θελοντες

But he replied to them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”

And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it.

Luke 8:21 (NET Parallel Greek)	Luke 8:21 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Luke 8:21 (Byzantine Majority Text)
ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτούς· μήτηρ μου καὶ ἀδελφοί μου οὗτοι εἰσιν οἱ τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ ἀκούοντες καὶ ποιοῦντες	ο δε αποκριθεις ειπεν προς αυτους μητηρ μου και αδελφοι μου ουτοι εισιν οι τον λογον του θεου ακουοντες και ποιουντες αυτον	ο δε αποκριθεις ειπεν προς αυτους μητηρ μου και αδελφοι μου ουτοι εισιν οι τον λογον του θεου ακουοντες και ποιουντες αυτον

Matthew 13:1, 2 (NET)	Matthew 13:1, 2 (KJV)
On that day after Jesus went out of the house, he sat by the lake.	The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side.

Matthew 13:1 (NET Parallel Greek)	Matthew 13:1 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Matthew 13:1 (Byzantine Majority Text)
Ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ ἐξελθὼν ὁ Ἰησοῦς τῆς οἰκίας ἐκάθητο παρὰ τὴν θάλασσαν	εν δε τη ημερα εκεινη εξελθων ο ιησους απο της οικιας εκαθητο παρα την θαλασσαν	εν δε τη ημερα εκεινη εξελθων ο ιησους απο της οικιας εκαθητο παρα την θαλασσαν

And such a large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat to sit while the whole crowd stood on the shore.

And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

Matthew 13:2 (NET Parallel Greek)	Matthew 13:2 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Matthew 13:2 (Byzantine Majority Text)
καὶ συνήχθησαν πρὸς αὐτὸν ὄχλοι πολλοί, ὥστε αὐτὸν εἰς πλοῖον ἐμβάντα καθῆσθαι, καὶ πᾶς ὁ ὄχλος ἐπὶ τὸν αἰγιαλὸν εἱστήκει	και συνηχθησαν προς αυτον οχλοι πολλοι ωστε αυτον εις το πλοιον εμβαντα καθησθαι και πας ο οχλος επι τον αιγιαλον ειστηκει	και συνηχθησαν προς αυτον οχλοι πολλοι ωστε αυτον εις το πλοιον εμβαντα καθησθαι και πας ο οχλος επι τον αιγιαλον ειστηκει

Mark 4:1 (NET)	Mark 4:1 (KJV)
Again he began to teach by the lake. Such a large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there while the whole crowd was on the shore by the lake.	And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land.

Mark 4:1 (NET Parallel Greek)	Mark 4:1 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Mark 4:1 (Byzantine Majority Text)
Καὶ πάλιν ἤρξατο διδάσκειν παρὰ τὴν θάλασσαν· καὶ συνάγεται πρὸς αὐτὸν ὄχλος πλεῖστος, ὥστε αὐτὸν εἰς πλοῖον ἐμβάντα καθῆσθαι ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ, καὶ πᾶς ὁ ὄχλος πρὸς τὴν θάλασσαν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ἦσαν	και παλιν ηρξατο διδασκειν παρα την θαλασσαν και συνηχθη προς αυτον οχλος πολυς ωστε αυτον εμβαντα εις το πλοιον καθησθαι εν τη θαλασση και πας ο οχλος προς την θαλασσαν επι της γης ην	και παλιν ηρξατο διδασκειν παρα την θαλασσαν και συνηχθη προς αυτον οχλος πολυς ωστε αυτον εμβαντα εις το πλοιον καθησθαι εν τη θαλασση και πας ο οχλος προς την θαλασσαν επι της γης ην

Matthew 12:46 (NET)	Matthew 12:46 (KJV)
While Jesus was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and brothers came and stood outside, asking to speak to him.	While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him.

Matthew 12:46 (NET Parallel Greek)	Matthew 12:46 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Matthew 12:46 (Byzantine Majority Text)
Ἔτι αὐτοῦ λαλοῦντος τοῖς ὄχλοις ἰδοὺ ἡ μήτηρ καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ αὐτοῦ εἱστήκεισαν ἔξω ζητοῦντες αὐτῷ λαλῆσαι	ετι δε αυτου λαλουντος τοις οχλοις ιδου η μητηρ και οι αδελφοι αυτου ειστηκεισαν εξω ζητουντες αυτω λαλησαι	ετι δε αυτου λαλουντος τοις οχλοις ιδου η μητηρ και οι αδελφοι αυτου ειστηκεισαν εξω ζητουντες αυτω λαλησαι

Matthew 12:48 (NET)	Matthew 12:48 (KJV)
To the one who had said this, Jesus replied, “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?”	But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?

Matthew 12:48 (NET Parallel Greek)	Matthew 12:48 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Matthew 12:48 (Byzantine Majority Text)
ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν τῷ λέγοντι αὐτῷ· τίς ἐστιν ἡ μήτηρ μου καὶ τίνες εἰσὶν οἱ ἀδελφοί μου	ο δε αποκριθεις ειπεν τω ειποντι αυτω τις εστιν η μητηρ μου και τινες εισιν οι αδελφοι μου	ο δε αποκριθεις ειπεν τω ειποντι αυτω τις εστιν η μητηρ μου και τινες εισιν οι αδελφοι μου

Mark 3:31, 32 (NET)	Mark 3:31, 32 (KJV)
Then Jesus’ mother and his brothers came. Standing outside, they sent word to him, to summon him.	There came then his brethren and his mother, and, standing without, sent unto him, calling him.

Mark 3:31 (NET Parallel Greek)	Mark 3:31 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Mark 3:31 (Byzantine Majority Text)
Καὶ \|ἔρχεται\| ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἔξω στήκοντες ἀπέστειλαν πρὸς αὐτὸν καλοῦντες αὐτόν	ερχονται ουν οι αδελφοι και η μητηρ αυτου και εξω εστωτες απεστειλαν προς αυτον φωνουντες αυτον	ερχονται ουν οι αδελφοι και η μητηρ αυτου και εξω εστωτες απεστειλαν προς αυτον φωνουντες αυτον

A crowd was sitting around him and they said to him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you.”

And the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee.

Mark 3:32 (NET Parallel Greek)	Mark 3:32 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Mark 3:32 (Byzantine Majority Text)
καὶ ἐκάθητο περὶ αὐτὸν ὄχλος, καὶ λέγουσιν αὐτῷ· ἰδοὺ ἡ μήτηρ σου καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοί σου [καὶ αἱ ἀδελφαί σου] ἔξω ζητοῦσιν σε	και εκαθητο οχλος περι αυτον ειπον δε αυτω ιδου η μητηρ σου και οι αδελφοι σου εξω ζητουσιν σε	και εκαθητο οχλος περι αυτον ειπον δε αυτω ιδου η μητηρ σου και οι αδελφοι σου και αι αδελφαι σου εξω ζητουσιν σε

Mark 3:20 (NET)	Mark 3:19b, 20 (KJV)
Now Jesus went home, and a crowd gathered so that they were not able to eat.	and they went into an house. (20) And the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread.

Mark 3:20 (NET Parallel Greek)	Mark 3:19b, 20 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Mark 3:19b, 20 (Byzantine Majority Text)
Καὶ ἔρχεται εἰς οἶκον· καὶ συνέρχεται πάλιν [ὁ] ὄχλος, ὥστε μὴ δύνασθαι αὐτοὺς μηδὲ ἄρτον φαγεῖν	και ερχονται εις οικον (20) και συνερχεται παλιν οχλος ωστε μη δυνασθαι αυτους μητε αρτον φαγειν	και ερχονται εις οικον (20) και συνερχεται παλιν οχλος ωστε μη δυνασθαι αυτους μητε αρτον φαγειν

Luke 9:57 (NET)	Luke 9:57 (KJV)
As they were walking along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”	And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.

Luke 9:57 (NET Parallel Greek)	Luke 9:57 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Luke 9:57 (Byzantine Majority Text)
Καὶ πορευομένων αὐτῶν ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ εἶπεν τις πρὸς αὐτόν· ἀκολουθήσω σοι ὅπου ἐὰν ἀπέρχῃ	εγενετο δε πορευομενων αυτων εν τη οδω ειπεν τις προς αυτον ακολουθησω σοι οπου αν απερχη κυριε	εγενετο δε πορευομενων αυτων εν τη οδω ειπεν τις προς αυτον ακολουθησω σοι οπου αν απερχη κυριε

Luke 10:27 (NET)	Luke 10:27 (KJV)
The expert answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”	And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

Luke 10:27 (NET Parallel Greek)	Luke 10:27 (Stephanus Textus Receptus)	Luke 10:27 (Byzantine Majority Text)
ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν· ἀγαπήσεις κύριον τὸν θεόν σου ἐξ ὅλης [τῆς] καρδίας σου καὶ ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ ψυχῇ σου καὶ ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ ἰσχύϊ σου καὶ ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ διανοίᾳ σου, καὶ τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτόν	ο δε αποκριθεις ειπεν αγαπησεις κυριον τον θεον σου εξ ολης της καρδιας σου και εξ ολης της ψυχης σου και εξ ολης της ισχυος σου και εξ ολης της διανοιας σου και τον πλησιον σου ως σεαυτον	ο δε αποκριθεις ειπεν αγαπησεις κυριον τον θεον σου εξ ολης της καρδιας σου και εξ ολης της ψυχης σου και εξ ολης της ισχυος σου και εξ ολης της διανοιας σου και τον πλησιον σου ως σεαυτον

Back to Keep Yourselves From Idols, Part 2

Back to Luke 8:22-56

¹ 1 Corinthians 7:36 (ESV)

² 1 Corinthians 7:37, 38 (ESV) Table

³ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἔτι τε καὶ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ἔτι δε καὶ (KJV: yea, and).

⁴ The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had και (KJV: And) at the beginning of this clause. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

⁵ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἑαυτοῦ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had αυτου (KJV: his).

⁶ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had εἰς here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus had τα προς and the Byzantine Majority Text had τα εις.

⁷ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ὑπαντῆσαι (NET: to oppose) here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had απαντησαι (KJV: to meet).

⁸ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had εἰ δὲ μή γε (NET: If he cannot succeed) here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ει δε μηγε (KJV: Or else).

⁹ John 6:44a (ESV) Table

¹⁰ Luke 14:26a (ESV)

¹¹ Luke 14:26b (ESV)

¹² Luke 14:27a (ESV)

¹³ While there is some hint of criticism of this methodology in Novum Testamentum Graece on Wikipedia, I found a short 2019 article, “Plans for the NA29 and UBS6,” on Evangelical Textual Criticism online. It is interesting in a gossipy sort of way, particularly in the comments.

¹⁴ Luke 14:33b (ESV)

¹⁵ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had Παρεγένετο here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had παρεγενοντο.

¹⁶ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had δὲ (NET: So) here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had και (KJV: And).

¹⁷ The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had λεγοντων (KJV: by certain which said). The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

¹⁸ The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had αυτον here. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

¹⁹ Luke 8:1a (ESV)

²⁰ The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ετι δε (KJV: While…yet) here, where the NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had simply Ἔτι (NET: While…still).

²¹ The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸, Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had [εἶπεν δέ τις αὐτῷ· ἰδοὺ ἡ μήτηρ σου καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοί σου ἔξω ἑστήκασιν ζητοῦντες σοι λαλῆσαι] (NET: Someone told him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside wanting to speak to you.”) here. The ESV did not.

²² The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had Καὶ |ἔρχεται| (NET: Then…came) here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ερχονται ουν (KJV: There came then).

²³ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had αὐτοῦ following brothers. The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text did not.

²⁴ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had στήκοντες here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had εστωτες.

²⁵ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had καλοῦντες (NET: to summon) here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had φωνουντες (KJV: calling).

²⁶ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had καὶ λέγουσιν here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ειπον δε.

²⁷ The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text had [καὶ αἱ ἀδελφαί σου] (“and your sisters,” not translated in the NET or ESV). The Stephanus Textus Receptus did not.

²⁸ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had λέγοντι (NET: had said) here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ειποντι (KJV: that told).

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

³⁰ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had λέγει (NET: and said) here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had λεγων (KJV: saying).

³¹ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had Ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ (NET: On that day) here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had εν δε τη ημερα εκεινη (KJV: The same day).

³² The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had απο here. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

³³ The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had the article το preceding boat (KJV: ship). The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

³⁴ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had πλεῖστος (NET: Such a large) here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had πολυς (KJV: a great).

³⁵ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had συνάγεται here in the present tense, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had συνηχθη (KJV: there was gathered) in the aorist tense.

³⁶ The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had the article το preceding boat (KJV: ship). The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

³⁷ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἦσαν here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ην.

³⁸ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἔρχεται here, a singular 3^rd person form of ἔρχομαι, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had a plural form ερχονται (KJV: they went).

³⁹ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had the article ὁ preceding crowd. The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text did not.

⁴⁰ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had μηδὲ (not translated in the NET) here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had μητε (KJV: so much as).

⁴¹ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had Καὶ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had εγενετο δε (KJV: And it came to pass).

⁴² The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had κυριε (KJV: Lord) here. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

⁴³ Mark 3:21b (ESV)

⁴⁴ Mark 3:31a (ESV)

⁴⁵ Mark 3:20b (ESV)

⁴⁶ Luke 14:26 (ESV)

⁴⁷ Luke 14:27 (ESV)

⁴⁸ Luke 14:33 (ESV)

⁴⁹ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἐν ὅλῃ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had εξ ολης.

⁵⁰ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had τῇ ψυχῇ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had της ψυχης.

⁵¹ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἐν ὅλῃ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had εξ ολης.

⁵² The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had τῇ ἰσχύϊ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had της ισχυος.

⁵³ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἐν ὅλῃ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had εξ ολης.

⁵⁴ The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had τῇ διανοίᾳ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had της διανοιας.

⁵⁵ Matthew 19:25b, 26 (ESV) Table

⁵⁶ Philippians 2:13 (ESV) Table

Nothing True, Part 5

Posted on November 21, 2023 by admin

Eliphaz continued his response to Job’s lament:

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
Job 4:9 (Tanakh/KJV)	Job 4:9 (NET)	Job 4:9 (NETS)	Job 4:9 (English Elpenor)
By the blast (מִנִּשְׁמַ֣ת) of God they perish, and by the breath (וּמֵר֖וּחַ) of his nostrils are they consumed.	By the breath (nᵊšāmâ, מנשמת) of God they perish, and by the blast (rûaḥ, ומרוח) of his anger they are consumed.	By the command (ἀπὸ προστάγματος) of the Lord they will perish, and by the breath (ἀπὸ δὲ πνεύματος) of his anger they will disappear.	They shall perish by the command (ἀπὸ προστάγματος) of the Lord, and shall be utterly consumed by the breath (ἀπὸ δὲ πνεύματος) of his wrath.

In another essay I came to a draw, more or less, considering whether there was “nothing true” in Eliphaz’s argument. But here he spoke specifically about the Lord, and I admit what he said sounds similar to other descriptions in the Old Testament. So, I’ll pause here to consider some of those other descriptions, to see if I can understand why God was angered by Eliphaz’s words.

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
Isaiah 30:33 (Tanakh/KJV)	Isaiah 30:33 (NET)	Isaiah 30:33 (NETS)	Isaiah 30:33 (English Elpenor)
For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath (נִשְׁמַ֚ת) of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.	For the burial place¹ is already prepared; it has been made deep and wide for the king. The firewood is piled high on it. The Lord’s breath (nᵊšāmâ, נשמת), like a stream flowing with brimstone, will ignite it.	for you will be deceived before those days; was it also for you to reign that it was made ready with a deep trench, wood piled, fire and wood in abundance? The wrath (ὁ θυμὸς) of the Lord is like a ravine burning with brimstone.	For thou shalt be required before [thy] time: has it been prepared for thee also to reign? nay, God has [prepared for thee] a deep trench, wood piled, fire and much wood: the wrath (ὁ θυμὸς) of the Lord [shall be] as a trench kindled with sulphur.

Here, in the Masoretic text God is imagined as a fire-breathing dragon, lighting the funeral pyre of the king of Assyria and, presumably, the army that oppressed (and punished) the northern kingdom of Israel (2 Kings 15:17-18:12). Assyria then moved on to threaten the southern kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 18:13-19:37), angering God (2 Kings 19:34) with blasphemy. But Isaiah comforted Hezekiah king of Judah:

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
2 Kings 19:7 (Tanakh)	2 Kings 19:7 (NET)	4 Reigns 19:7 (NETS)	4 Kings 19:7 (English Elpenor)
Behold, I will put a spirit (ר֔וּחַ) in him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.’	Look, I will take control of his mind (rûaḥ, רוח); he will receive a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down with a sword in his own land.”’”	Behold, I myself am putting a spirit (πνεῦμα) in him, and he shall hear a message and return to his own land, and I will strike him down by a sword in his own land’.”	Behold, I send a blast (πνεῦμα) upon him, and he shall hear a report, and shall return to his own land; and I will overthrow him with the sword in his own land.

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
Isaiah 37:7 (Tanakh/KJV)	Isaiah 37:7 (NET)	Isaiah 37:7 (NETS)	Isaiah 37:7 (English Elpenor)
Behold, I will send a blast (ר֔וּחַ) upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.	Look, I will take control of his mind (rûaḥ, רוח); he will receive a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down with a sword in his own land.”’”	Look, I will put a spirit (πνεῦμα) in him, and when he hears a report, he will return to his country, and he will fall by the dagger in his own land’.”	Behold, I [will] send a blast (πνεῦμα) upon him, and he shall hear a report, and return to his own country, and he shall fall by the sword in his own land.

Eliphaz spoke of more ordinary sinners who were not an immediate threat to the lives of those God intended to protect. Was Eliphaz justified appropriating such imagery of God for that purpose? Was he justified using such imagery against Job?

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
Job 1:19 (Tanakh/KJV) Table	Job 1:19 (NET)	Job 1:19 (NETS) Table	Job 1:19 (English Elpenor)
And, behold, there came a great wind (ר֨וּחַ) from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.	and suddenly a great wind (rûaḥ, רוח) swept across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they died! And I—only I alone—escaped to tell you!”	suddenly a great wind (πνεῦμα) came from the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and the house fell on your children, and they died, but I alone escaped, and I came to tell you.”	suddenly a great wind (πνεῦμα) came on from the desert, and caught the four corners of the house, and the house fell upon thy children, and they are dead; and I have escaped alone, and am come to tell thee.

It seems as if Eliphaz found an open wound in Job’s heart and ground his heel into it. Two verses follow from the song of David (2 Samuel 22, Psalm 18), the Lord’s anointed king and a soldier, praising God for rescuing him (and his men) in combat.

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
2 Samuel 22:16 (Tanakh) Table	2 Samuel 22:16 (NET)	2 Samuel 22:16 (NETS) Table	2 Samuel 22:16 (English Elpenor)
And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were laid bare by the rebuke of HaShem, at the blast (מִנִּשְׁמַ֖ת) of the breath (ר֥וּחַ) of His nostrils.	The depths of the sea were exposed; the inner regions of the world were uncovered by the Lord’s battle cry, by the powerful (nᵊšāmâ, מנשמת) breath (rûaḥ, רוח) from his nose.	And emissions of sea were seen, and foundations of the world were laid bare by the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast (ἀπὸ πνοῆς) of the breath (πνεύματος) of his anger.	And the channels of the sea were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered, at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast (ἀπὸ πνοῆς) of the breath (πνεύματος) of his anger.

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
Psalm 18:15 (Tanakh/KJV) Table	Psalm 18:15 (NET)	Psalm 17:16 (NETS) Table	Psalm 17:16 (English Elpenor)
Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast (מִ֜נִּשְׁמַ֗ת) of the breath (ר֣וּחַ) of thy nostrils.	The depths of the sea were exposed; the inner regions of the world were uncovered by your battle cry, Lord, by the powerful (nᵊšāmâ, מנשמת) breath (rûaḥ, רוח) from your nose.	And the springs of the waters appeared, and the foundations of the world were uncovered at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast (ἀπὸ ἐμπνεύσεως) of the breath (πνεύματος) of your wrath.	And the springs of waters appeared, and the foundations of the world were exposed, at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blasting (ἀπὸ ἐμπνεύσεως) of the breath (πνεύματος) of thy wrath.

Here again, the violent imagery of God is used to praise Him for his rescue from dire and immediate threat, rather than to threaten ordinary sinners who were no immediate threat. What follows is from a song of Moses, celebrating God’s rescue from impending destruction when Israel crossed the Red Sea.

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
Exodus 15:8 -10 (Tanakh)	Exodus 15:8 -10 (NET)	Exodus 15:8 -10 (NETS)	Exodus 15:8 -10 (English Elpenor)
And with the blast (וּבְר֤וּחַ) of Thy nostrils the waters were piled up–the floods stood upright as a heap; the deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea.	By the blast (rûaḥ, וברוח) of your nostrils the waters were piled up, the flowing water stood upright like a heap, and the deep waters were solidified in the heart of the sea.	And through the breath (καὶ διὰ πνεύματος) of your wrath the water separated; the waters were congealed like a wall; the waves were congealed in the midst of the sea.	And by the breath (καὶ διὰ πνεύματος) of thine anger the water parted asunder; the waters were congealed as a wall, the waves were congealed in the midst of the sea.
The enemy said: ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.’	The enemy said, ‘I will chase, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my desire will be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword, my hand will destroy them.’	The enemy said, ‘In pursuit I will overtake; I will divide spoil; I will destroy with my dagger; my hand shall dominate’.	The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoils; I will satisfy my soul, I will destroy with my sword, my hand shall have dominion.
Thou didst blow with Thy wind (בְרֽוּחֲךָ֖), the sea covered them; they sank as lead in the mighty waters.	But you blew with your breath (rûaḥ, ברוחך), and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.	You sent your breath (τὸ πνεῦμά σου); the sea covered them; they sank like lead in violent water.	Thou sentest forth thy wind (τὸ πνεῦμά σου), the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty water.

In this same song the Lord was called a man (אִ֣ישׁ) of war (מִלְחָמָ֑ה) in the Masoretic text. The rabbis who translated the Septuagint understood this as συντρίβων (a form of συντρίβω) πολέμους (a form of πόλεμος), or they translated a word other than אִ֣ישׁ they found here in an older Hebrew manuscript.

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
Exodus 15:3 (Tanakh)	Exodus 15:3 (NET)	Exodus 15:3 (NETS)	Exodus 15:3 (English Elpenor)
HaShem is a man (אִ֣ישׁ) of war (מִלְחָמָ֑ה), HaShem is His name.	The Lord is a warrior [NET note 10: Heb “man (‘îš, איש) of war (milḥāmâ, מלחמה)”]—the Lord is his name.	The Lord, when he shatters wars (συντρίβων πολέμους), the Lord is his name.	The Lord bringing wars to nought (συντρίβων πολέμους), the Lord [is] his name.

In the verse that follows Isaiah praised the Lord, but the rabbis who translated the Septuagint didn’t understand ר֥וּחַ (rûaḥ) in quite the way English translators understand it now:

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
Isaiah 25:4 (Tanakh/KJV)	Isaiah 25:4 (NET)	Isaiah 25:4 (NETS)	Isaiah 25:4 (English Elpenor)
For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast (ר֥וּחַ) of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.	For you are a protector for the poor, a protector for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the rainstorm, a shade from the heat. Though the breath (rûaḥ, רוח) of tyrants is like a winter rainstorm,	For you have become a helper to every humble city and a shelter to those who are dispirited because of poverty; you will rescue them from evil persons—a shelter for the thirsty and breath (καὶ πνεῦμα) for ill-treated persons,	For thou hast been a helper to every lowly city, and a shelter to them that were disheartened by reason of poverty: thou shalt deliver them from wicked men: [thou hast been] a shelter of them that thirst, and a refreshing air (καὶ πνεῦμα) to injured men.

And finally, Isaiah’s prophecy of Jesus follows:

Masoretic Text		Septuagint
Isaiah 11:1-4 (Tanakh/KJV)	Isaiah 11:1-4 (NET)	Isaiah 11:1-4 (NETS)	Isaiah 11:1-4 (English Elpenor)
And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse (Matthew 1:1-16), and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:	A shoot will grow out of Jesse’s root stock (Luke 3:23-28), a bud will sprout from his roots.	And a rod shall come out of the root of Iessai, and a blossom shall come up out of his root.	And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a blossom shall come up from [his] root:
And the spirit (ר֣וּחַ) of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit (ר֧וּחַ) of wisdom and understanding, the spirit (ר֚וּחַ) of counsel and might, the spirit (ר֥וּחַ) of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;	The Lord’s Spirit (rûaḥ, רוח) will rest on him—a Spirit (rûaḥ, רוח) that gives extraordinary wisdom, a Spirit (rûaḥ, רוח) that provides the ability to execute plans, a Spirit (rûaḥ, רוח) that produces absolute loyalty to the Lord.	And the spirit (πνεῦμα) of God shall rest on him, the spirit (πνεῦμα) of wisdom and understanding, the spirit (πνεῦμα) of counsel and might, the spirit (πνεῦμα) of knowledge and godliness.	and the Spirit (πνεῦμα) of God shall rest upon him, the spirit (πνεῦμα) of wisdom and understanding, the spirit (πνεῦμα) of counsel and strength, the spirit (πνεῦμα) of knowledge and godliness shall fill him;
And shall make him of quick understanding (וַֽהֲרִיח֖וֹ) in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:	He will take delight (rîaḥ, והריחו) in obeying the Lord. He will not judge by mere appearances or make decisions on the basis of hearsay.	The spirit (πνεῦμα) of the fear of God will fill him. He shall not judge on the basis of repute or convict on the basis of report,	the spirit (πνεῦμα) of the fear of God. He shall not judge according to appearance, nor reprove according to report:
But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth: with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath (וּבְר֥וּחַ) of his lips shall he slay the wicked.	He will treat the poor fairly and make right decisions for the downtrodden of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and order the wicked to be executed [NET note 14: Heb “and by the breath (וברוח) of his lips he will kill the wicked”].	but he shall administer justice to a humble one and convict the humble ones of the earth, and he shall strike the earth with the word of his mouth, and with breath (καὶ ἐν πνεύματι) through his lips he shall do away with the impious.	but he shall judge the cause of the lowly, and shall reprove the lowly of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the word of his mouth, and with the breath (καὶ ἐν πνεύματι) of his lips shall he destroy the ungodly one.

Viewed through an Old Testament lens alone this could be the most relevant passage to justify Eliphaz’s usage of violent imagery against ordinary sinners including Job. Knowing Jesus, however, the image of bloodied corpses lying on a battlefield does not come immediately to mind here. It reminds one instead of that death of which the redeemed partake in Christ (Romans 6:3, 4; Galatians 2:20 NET):

Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Regardless, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.² I’ll pick this up in another essay.

Tables comparing Job 4:9; Isaiah 30:33; 2 Kings 19:7; Isaiah 37:7; Exodus 15:8; 15:9; 15:10; 15:3; Isaiah 25:4; 11:1; 11:2; 11:3 and 11:4 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET, and tables comparing the Greek of Job 4:9; Isaiah 30:33; 2 Kings (4 Reigns, 4 Kings) 19:7; Isaiah 37;7; Exodus 15:8; 15:9; 15:10; 15:3; Isaiah 25:4; 11:1; 11:2; 11:3 and 11:4 in the Septuagint (BLB and Elpenor) follow.

Job 4:9 (Tanakh)	Job 4:9 (KJV)	Job 4:9 (NET)
By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.	By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.	By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.

Job 4:9 (Septuagint BLB)	Job 4:9 (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἀπὸ προστάγματος κυρίου ἀπολοῦνται ἀπὸ δὲ πνεύματος ὀργῆς αὐτοῦ ἀφανισθήσονται	ἀπὸ προστάγματος Κυρίου ἀπολοῦνται, ἀπὸ δὲ πνεύματος ὀργῆς αὐτοῦ ἀφανισθήσονται
Job 4:9 (NETS)	Job 4:9 (English Elpenor)
By the command of the Lord they will perish, and by the breath of his anger they will disappear.	They shall perish by the command of the Lord, and shall be utterly consumed by the breath of his wrath.

Isaiah 30:33 (Tanakh)	Isaiah 30:33 (KJV)	Isaiah 30:33 (NET)
For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.	For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.	For the burial place is already prepared; it has been made deep and wide for the king. The firewood is piled high on it. The Lord’s breath, like a stream flowing with brimstone, will ignite it.

Isaiah 30:33 (Septuagint BLB)	Isaiah 30:33 (Septuagint Elpenor)
σὺ γὰρ πρὸ ἡμερῶν ἀπαιτηθήσῃ μὴ καὶ σοὶ ἡτοιμάσθη βασιλεύειν φάραγγα βαθεῖαν ξύλα κείμενα πῦρ καὶ ξύλα πολλά ὁ θυμὸς κυρίου ὡς φάραγξ ὑπὸ θείου καιομένη	σὺ γὰρ πρὸ ἡμερῶν ἀπαιτηθήσῃ· μὴ καὶ σοὶ ἡτοιμάσθη βασιλεύειν, φάραγγα βαθεῖαν. ξύλα κείμενα, πῦρ καὶ ξύλα πολλά; ὁ θυμὸς Κυρίου ὡς φάραγξ ὑπὸ θείου καιομένη
Isaiah 30:33 (NETS)	Isaiah 30:33 (English Elpenor)
for you will be deceived before those days; was it also for you to reign that it was made ready with a deep trench, wood piled, fire and wood in abundance? The wrath of the Lord is like a ravine burning with brimstone.	For thou shalt be required before [thy] time: has it been prepared for thee also to reign? nay, God has [prepared for thee] a deep trench, wood piled, fire and much wood: the wrath of the Lord [shall be] as a trench kindled with sulphur.

2 Kings 19:7 (Tanakh)	2 Kings 19:7 (KJV)	2 Kings 19:7 (NET)
Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.’	Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.	Look, I will take control of his mind; he will receive a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down with a sword in his own land.”’”

2 Kings 19:7 (Septuagint BLB)	4 Kings 19:7 (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ δίδωμι ἐν αὐτῷ πνεῦμα καὶ ἀκούσεται ἀγγελίαν καὶ ἀποστραφήσεται εἰς τὴν γῆν αὐτοῦ καὶ καταβαλῶ αὐτὸν ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ ἐν τῇ γῇ αὐτοῦ	ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ δίδωμι ἐν αὐτῷ πνεῦμα, καὶ ἀκούσεται ἀγγελίαν καὶ ἀποστραφήσεται εἰς τὴν γῆν αὐτοῦ, καὶ καταβαλῶ αὐτὸν ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ ἐν τῇ γῇ αὐτοῦ
4 Reigns 19:7 (NETS)	4 Kings 19:7 (English Elpenor)
Behold, I myself am putting a spirit in him, and he shall hear a message and return to his own land, and I will strike him down by a sword in his own land’.”	Behold, I send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a report, and shall return to his own land; and I will overthrow him with the sword in his own land.

Isaiah 37:7 (Tanakh)	Isaiah 37:7 (KJV)	Isaiah 37:7 (NET)
Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.	Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.	Look, I will take control of his mind; he will receive a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down with a sword in his own land.”’”

Isaiah 37:7 (Septuagint BLB)	Isaiah 37:7 (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἐμβαλῶ εἰς αὐτὸν πνεῦμα καὶ ἀκούσας ἀγγελίαν ἀποστραφήσεται εἰς τὴν χώραν αὐτοῦ καὶ πεσεῖται μαχαίρᾳ ἐν τῇ γῇ αὐτοῦ	ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἐμβάλλω εἰς αὐτὸν πνεῦμα, καὶ ἀκούσας ἀγγελίαν ἀποστραφήσεται εἰς τὴν χώραν αὐτοῦ καὶ πεσεῖται μαχαίρᾳ ἐν τῇ γῇ αὐτοῦ
Isaiah 37:7 (NETS)	Isaiah 37:7 (English Elpenor)
Look, I will put a spirit in him, and when he hears a report, he will return to his country, and he will fall by the dagger in his own land’.”	Behold, I [will] send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a report, and return to his own country, and he shall fall by the sword in his own land.

Exodus 15:8 (Tanakh)	Exodus 15:8 (KJV)	Exodus 15:8 (NET)
And with the blast of Thy nostrils the waters were piled up–the floods stood upright as a heap; the deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea.	And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.	By the blast of your nostrils the waters were piled up, the flowing water stood upright like a heap, and the deep waters were solidified in the heart of the sea.

Exodus 15:8 (Septuagint BLB)	Exodus 15:8 (Septuagint Elpenor)
καὶ διὰ πνεύματος τοῦ θυμοῦ σου διέστη τὸ ὕδωρ ἐπάγη ὡσεὶ τεῖχος τὰ ὕδατα ἐπάγη τὰ κύματα ἐν μέσῳ τῆς θαλάσσης	καὶ διὰ πνεύματος τοῦ θυμοῦ σου διέστη τὸ ὕδωρ· ἐπάγη ὡσεὶ τεῖχος τὰ ὕδατα, ἐπάγη τὰ κύματα ἐν μέσῳ τῆς θαλάσσης
Exodus 15:8 (NETS)	Exodus 15:8 (English Elpenor)
And through the breath of your wrath the water separated; the waters were congealed like a wall; the waves were congealed in the midst of the sea.	And by the breath of thine anger the water parted asunder; the waters were congealed as a wall, the waves were congealed in the midst of the sea.

Exodus 15:9 (Tanakh)	Exodus 15:9 (KJV)	Exodus 15:9 (NET)
The enemy said: ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.’	The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.	The enemy said, ‘I will chase, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my desire will be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword, my hand will destroy them.’

Exodus 15:9 (Septuagint BLB)	Exodus 15:9 (Septuagint Elpenor)
εἶπεν ὁ ἐχθρός διώξας καταλήμψομαι μεριῶ σκῦλα ἐμπλήσω ψυχήν μου ἀνελῶ τῇ μαχαίρῃ μου κυριεύσει ἡ χείρ μου	εἶπεν ὁ ἐχθρός, διώξας καταλήψομαι, μεριῶ σκῦλα, ἐμπλήσω ψυχήν μου, ἀνελῶ τῇ μαχαίρᾳ μου, κυριεύσει ἡ χείρ μου
Exodus 15:9 (NETS)	Exodus 15:9 (English Elpenor)
The enemy said, ‘In pursuit I will overtake; I will divide spoil; I will destroy with my dagger; my hand shall dominate’.	The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoils; I will satisfy my soul, I will destroy with my sword, my hand shall have dominion.

Exodus 15:10 (Tanakh)	Exodus 15:10 (KJV)	Exodus 15:10 (NET)
Thou didst blow with Thy wind, the sea covered them; they sank as lead in the mighty waters.	Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters.	But you blew with your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.

Exodus 15:10 (Septuagint BLB)	Exodus 15:10 (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἀπέστειλας τὸ πνεῦμά σου ἐκάλυψεν αὐτοὺς θάλασσα ἔδυσαν ὡσεὶ μόλιβος ἐν ὕδατι σφοδρῷ	ἀπέστειλας τὸ πνεῦμά σου, ἐκάλυψεν αὐτοὺς θάλασσα· ἔδυσαν ὡσεὶ μόλιβος ἐν ὕδατι σφοδρῷ
Exodus 15:10 (NETS)	Exodus 15:10 (English Elpenor)
You sent your breath; the sea covered them; they sank like lead in violent water.	Thou sentest forth thy wind, the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty water.

Exodus 15:3 (Tanakh)	Exodus 15:3 (KJV)	Exodus 15:3 (NET)
HaShem is a man of war, HaShem is His name.	The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.	The Lord is a warrior—the Lord is his name.

Exodus 15:3 (Septuagint BLB)	Exodus 15:3 (Septuagint Elpenor)
κύριος συντρίβων πολέμους κύριος ὄνομα αὐτῷ	Κύριος συντρίβων πολέμους, Κύριος ὄνομα αὐτῷ
Exodus 15:3 (NETS)	Exodus 15:3 (English Elpenor)
The Lord, when he shatters wars, the Lord is his name.	The Lord bringing wars to nought, the Lord [is] his name.

Isaiah 25:4 (Tanakh)	Isaiah 25:4 (KJV)	Isaiah 25:4 (NET)
For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.	For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.	For you are a protector for the poor, a protector for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the rainstorm, a shade from the heat. Though the breath of tyrants is like a winter rainstorm,

Isaiah 25:4 (Septuagint BLB)	Isaiah 25:4 (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἐγένου γὰρ πάσῃ πόλει ταπεινῇ βοηθὸς καὶ τοῖς ἀθυμήσασιν διὰ ἔνδειαν σκέπη ἀπὸ ἀνθρώπων πονηρῶν ῥύσῃ αὐτούς σκέπη διψώντων καὶ πνεῦμα ἀνθρώπων ἀδικουμένων	ἐγένου γὰρ πάσῃ πόλει ταπεινῇ βοηθὸς καὶ τοῖς ἀθυμήσασι δι᾿ ἔνδειαν σκέπη, ἀπὸ ἀνθρώπων πονηρῶν ῥύσῃ αὐτούς, σκέπη διψώντων καὶ πνεῦμα ἀνθρώπων ἀδικουμένων
Isaiah 25:4 (NETS)	Isaiah 25:4 (English Elpenor)
For you have become a helper to every humble city and a shelter to those who are dispirited because of poverty; you will rescue them from evil persons—a shelter for the thirsty and breath for ill-treated persons,	For thou hast been a helper to every lowly city, and a shelter to them that were disheartened by reason of poverty: thou shalt deliver them from wicked men: [thou hast been] a shelter of them that thirst, and a refreshing air to injured men.

Isaiah 11:1 (Tanakh)	Isaiah 11:1 (KJV)	Isaiah 11:1 (NET)
And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:	And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:	A shoot will grow out of Jesse’s root stock, a bud will sprout from his roots.

Isaiah 11:1 (Septuagint BLB)	Isaiah 11:1 (Septuagint Elpenor)
καὶ ἐξελεύσεται ῥάβδος ἐκ τῆς ῥίζης Ιεσσαι καὶ ἄνθος ἐκ τῆς ῥίζης ἀναβήσεται	ΚΑΙ ἐξελεύσεται ῥάβδος ἐκ τῆς ρίζης ᾿Ιεσσαί, καὶ ἄνθος ἐκ τῆς ρίζης ἀναβήσεται
Isaiah 11:1 (NETS)	Isaiah 11:1 (English Elpenor)
And a rod shall come out of the root of Iessai, and a blossom shall come up out of his root.	And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a blossom shall come up from [his] root:

Isaiah 11:2 (Tanakh)	Isaiah 11:2 (KJV)	Isaiah 11:2 (NET)
And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;	And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;	The Lord’s Spirit will rest on him—a Spirit that gives extraordinary wisdom, a Spirit that provides the ability to execute plans, a Spirit that produces absolute loyalty to the Lord.

Isaiah 11:2 (Septuagint BLB)	Isaiah 11:2 (Septuagint Elpenor)
καὶ ἀναπαύσεται ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν πνεῦμα τοῦ θεοῦ πνεῦμα σοφίας καὶ συνέσεως πνεῦμα βουλῆς καὶ ἰσχύος πνεῦμα γνώσεως καὶ εὐσεβείας	καὶ ἀναπαύσεται ἐπ᾿ αὐτὸν πνεῦμα τοῦ Θεοῦ, πνεῦμα σοφίας καὶ συνέσεως, πνεῦμα βουλῆς καὶ ἰσχύος, πνεῦμα γνώσεως καὶ εὐσεβείας
Isaiah 11:2 (NETS)	Isaiah 11:2 (English Elpenor)
And the spirit of God shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and godliness.	and the Spirit of God shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and godliness shall fill him;

Isaiah 11:3 (Tanakh)	Isaiah 11:3 (KJV)	Isaiah 11:3 (NET)
And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:	And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:	He will take delight in obeying the Lord. He will not judge by mere appearances or make decisions on the basis of hearsay.

Isaiah 11:3 (Septuagint BLB)	Isaiah 11:3 (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἐμπλήσει αὐτὸν πνεῦμα φόβου θεοῦ οὐ κατὰ τὴν δόξαν κρινεῖ οὐδὲ κατὰ τὴν λαλιὰν ἐλέγξει	ἐμπλήσει αὐτὸν πνεῦμα φόβου Θεοῦ. οὐ κατὰ τὴν δόξαν κρινεῖ οὐδὲ κατὰ τὴν λαλιὰν ἐλέγξει
Isaiah 11:3 (NETS)	Isaiah 11:3 (English Elpenor)
The spirit of the fear of God will fill him. He shall not judge on the basis of repute or convict on the basis of report,	the spirit of the fear of God. He shall not judge according to appearance, nor reprove according to report:

Isaiah 11:4 (Tanakh)	Isaiah 11:4 (KJV)	Isaiah 11:4 (NET)
But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth: with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.	But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.	He will treat the poor fairly and make right decisions for the downtrodden of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and order the wicked to be executed.

Isaiah 11:4 (Septuagint BLB)	Isaiah 11:4 (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἀλλὰ κρινεῖ ταπεινῷ κρίσιν καὶ ἐλέγξει τοὺς ταπεινοὺς τῆς γῆς καὶ πατάξει γῆν τῷ λόγῳ τοῦ στόματος αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐν πνεύματι διὰ χειλέων ἀνελεῖ ἀσεβῆ	ἀλλὰ κρινεῖ ταπεινῷ κρίσιν καὶ ἐλέγξει τοὺς ταπεινοὺς τῆς γῆς· καὶ πατάξει γῆν τῷ λόγῳ τοῦ στόματος αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐν πνεύματι διὰ χειλέων ἀνελεῖ ἀσεβῆ
Isaiah 11:4 (NETS)	Isaiah 11:4 (English Elpenor)
but he shall administer justice to a humble one and convict the humble ones of the earth, and he shall strike the earth with the word of his mouth, and with breath through his lips he shall do away with the impious.	but he shall judge the cause of the lowly, and shall reprove the lowly of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the word of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he destroy the ungodly one.

Nothing True, Part 6

¹ See NET note 76 and Commentaries on BibleHub on Isaiah 30:33.

² Job 42:7b (Tanakh, KJV) Table

A Shadow of the Good Things, Part 1

Posted on June 24, 2019 by admin

Revisiting Is Sin Less Than Sin, Part 2 to make tables of quotations that differed in the NET parallel Greek, Stephanus Textus Receptus or Byzantine Majority Text I learned that there is some question whether τη αληθεια μη πειθεσθαι (KJV: that ye should not obey the truth) was original to Galatians 3:1 (Table). I want to consider that possibility here.

On the surface given my particular fetish it’s a slam dunk. I hear obey the truth as “obey the law.” The law is clear (Table1 and Table2 below): And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin [i.e., of the new-born man-child] shall be circumcised.^[1] But Paul wrote adult, presumably Gentile, believers in Galatia: Listen! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you at all!^[2] In English it is obvious that someone added that ye should not obey the truth to obfuscate Paul’s actual point. In Greek it’s not so obvious.

Had the translators chosen any other English words for πειθεσθαι, the passive infinitive form of πείθω, it wouldn’t have triggered my works religion fetish (Galatians 3:1 KJV Table)

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not [be persuaded of, be convinced of, come to believe, believe, trust, follow, rely on] the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?

Any of these translations would have persuaded me that truth would refer to Paul’s teaching about Christ in his letter to the Galatians rather than to law. The only (or only other) occurrence of πείθεσθαι in the New Testament was, And if we put bits into the mouths of horses to get them to obey (πείθεσθαι, a form of πείθω) us, then we guide their entire bodies.^[3] Here πείθεσθαι was translated to obey in the NET and may obey in the KJV (Table3 below). I wanted to focus on Paul’s usage of other forms of πείθω elsewhere, but realized that I had better consider all other occurrences. The following table is in alphabetical order.

Reference	Form of πείθω	NET	KJV
Matthew 27:20	ἔπεισαν	…the elders persuaded the crowds…	…elders persuaded the multitude…
Acts 5:40	ἐπείσθησαν	He convinced them…	And to him they agreed…
Acts 17:4	ἐπείσθησαν	Some of them were persuaded…	And some of them believed…
Acts 18:4	ἔπειθεν	…attempting to persuade them.	…and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.
Acts 27:11	ἐπείθετο	…the centurion was more convinced by the captain…	…the centurion believed the master…
Acts 13:43	ἔπειθον	…were persuading them to continue in the grace of God.	…persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.
Acts 5:36	ἐπείθοντο	…all who followed him were dispersed…	…as many as obeyed him, were scattered…
Acts 5:37		…all who followed him were scattered.	…as many as obeyed him, were dispersed.
Acts 28:24		Some were convinced by what he said…	And some believed the things which were spoken…

This is a good place to break this table since ἐπείθοντο, another passive form of πείθω, was translated both obeyed and believed in different contexts in the KJV, and the latter was contrasted to ἠπίστουν, a form of ἀπιστέω (NET: refused to believe; KJV: believed not). Peter and the apostles had already escaped from prison once (Acts 5:17-21). They were arrested again (Acts 5:27-32 NET):

When they had brought them, they stood them before the council, and the high priest questioned them, saying, “We^[4] gave you strict orders not to teach in this name. Look, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood on us!” But Peter^[5] and the apostles replied,^[6] “We must obey (πειθαρχεῖν, a form of πειθαρχέω) God rather than people. The God of our forefathers raised up Jesus, whom you seized and killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give^[7] repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses^[8] of these events, and so is the Holy^[9] Spirit whom God has given to those who obey (πειθαρχοῦσιν, another form of πειθαρχέω) him.”

Both πειθαρχέω and πειθαρχοῦσιν are active verbs, compound words that include πείθω. At any other time it might have freaked me out to consider that God has given the Holy Spirit to those who obey Jesus. But I’ve paused here because Gamaliel helped me wrap my head around what has troubled me. I’ll get to that soon. Those who obey Jesus reminds me of what Peter said at Pentecost, Repent, and each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.^[10]

Peter didn’t think the active imperative verb μετανοήσατε (a form of μετανοέω), to repent, or the passive imperative verb βαπτισθήτω (a form of βαπτίζω), be baptized, were works that could taint the gift (δωρεὰν, a form of δωρεά) of the Holy Spirit. This is the deed (ἔργον) God requires, Jesus said, to believe (πιστεύητε, a form of πιστεύω) in the one whom he sent.^[11] I assume that to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ is the practical demonstration of to believe in the one whom he sent, in the sense that James described: Show me your faith (πίστιν, a form of πίστις) without^[12] works^[13] (ἔργων, a form of ἔργον) and I will show you faith^[14] (πίστιν, a form of πίστις) by my works (ἔργων, a form of ἔργον).^[15]

The NET definition of βαπτίζω includes the following slightly more complicated explanation:

Not to be confused with 911, bapto. The clearest example that shows the meaning of baptizo is a text from the Greek poet and physician Nicander, who lived about 200 B.C. It is a recipe for making pickles and is helpful because it uses both words. Nicander says that in order to make a pickle, the vegetable should first be ‘dipped’ (bapto) into boiling water and then ‘baptised’ (baptizo) in the vinegar solution. Both verbs concern the immersing of vegetables in a solution. But the first is temporary. The second, the act of baptising the vegetable, produces a permanent change. When used in the New Testament, this word more often refers to our union and identification with Christ than to our water baptism. e.g. Mr 16:16. ‘He that believes and is baptised shall be saved’. Christ is saying that mere intellectual assent is not enough. There must be a union with him, a real change, like the vegetable to the pickle! (Bible Study Magazine, James Montgomery Boice, May 1989).

So those who accepted [Peter’s] message, Luke continued his narrative of Pentecost, were baptized (ἐβαπτίσθησαν, another form of βαπτίζω), and that day about three thousand people were added.^[16] So I assume these three thousand people were joined in life-changing union with Christ. I’m uncertain whether Mr. Boice would have assumed that they had also been dipped in water.

John the Baptist contrasted his ministry to that of Jesus as follows (Matthew 3:11-17 NET):

“I baptize (βαπτίζω) you with water, for repentance (μετάνοιαν, a form of μετάνοια), but the one coming after me is more powerful than I am – I am not worthy to carry his sandals! He will baptize (βαπτίσει, another form of βαπτίζω) you with the Holy Spirit and fire.^[17] His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clean out his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the storehouse, but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire!”

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John to be baptized (βαπτισθῆναι, another form of βαπτίζω) by him in the Jordan River. But John^[18] tried to prevent him, saying, “I need to be baptized (βαπτισθῆναι, another form of βαπτίζω) by you, and yet you come to me?” So Jesus replied to him, “Let it happen now, for it is right for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John yielded to him. After^[19] Jesus was baptized (βαπτισθεὶς, another form of βαπτίζω), just as he was coming up out of the water, the heavens opened^[20] and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my one dear Son; in him I take great delight.”

Since I don’t believe that this was Jesus’ first encounter with the Holy Spirit (Psalm 22:9, 10), I assume He went out of his way, much to John’s consternation, to demonstrate a linkage between water baptism for repentance and the receiving of the Holy Spirit. It was not a rule: “no one can receive the Holy Spirit apart from water baptism.” While Peter was still speaking [to the Gentiles who had summoned him], the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard the message.^[21] Then Peter^[22] said (Acts 10:46b-48a NET Table):

“No one can withhold the water for these people to be baptized (βαπτισθῆναι, another form of βαπτίζω), who have received the Holy Spirit just as^[23] we did, can he?” So he gave orders to have them baptized (βαπτισθῆναι, another form of βαπτίζω) in the name of Jesus Christ.^[24]

Submitting to baptism is something a new believer can do to demonstrate faith and repentance, to begin to follow Jesus. Let it happen now, Jesus comforted John, for it is right for us to fulfill all righteousness.^[25] Jesus was baptized in the muddy brown Jordan River rather than an over-sized bathtub or a small swimming pool. As He disappeared under the water and then rose again, glistening in the sunlight, He presented a beautiful image of Paul’s teaching to believers in Rome (Romans 6:3, 4 NET):

Or do you not know that as many as were baptized (ἐβαπτίσθημεν, another form of βαπτίζω) into Christ Jesus were baptized (ἐβαπτίσθημεν, another form of βαπτίζω) into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism (βαπτίσματος, a form of βάπτισμα) into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.

Much as I like Mr. Boice’s imagery, my initial investigations are yielding a negative result, since Jesus, Cornelius and (I assume) no believers in Rome were drowned in the waters of baptism. John the Baptist/Matthew, Peter/Luke and Paul have not demonstrated so technical a usage of forms of βαπτίζω versus forms of βάπτω as is found in Nicander’s pickle recipe thus far. I won’t pursue an exhaustive search here, since I’ve already interrupted an exhaustive search of forms of πείθω to listen to Gamaliel.

When the council and the high priest heard Peter and the apostles say, we are witnesses of these events, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him,^[26] they became furious and wanted^[27] to execute them. But a Pharisee whose name was Gamaliel, a teacher of the law who was respected by all the people, stood up in the council and ordered the^[28] men^[29] to be put outside for a short time.^[30] Gamaliel addressed the Council (Acts 5:35b-39 NET):

“Men of Israel, pay close attention to what you are about to do to these men. For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and about^[31] four hundred men joined^[32] him. He was killed, and all who followed (ἐπείθοντο, another form of πείθω; KJV: obeyed) him were dispersed and nothing came of it. After him Judas the Galilean arose in the days of the census, and incited people^[33] to follow him in revolt. He too was killed, and all who followed (ἐπείθοντο, another form of πείθω; KJV: obeyed) him were scattered. So in this case I say to you, stay away from these men and leave them alone,^[34] because if this plan or this undertaking originates with people, it will come to nothing, but if it is from God, you will not be able to stop them,^[35] or you may even be found fighting against God.” He convinced (ἐπείσθησαν, another form of πείθω) them…

Given that ἐπείθοντο and ἐπείσθησαν are both passive 3^rd person plural forms of πείθω, the KJV translation—And to him they agreed^[36]—is a more accurate translation of the Greek than the more active He convinced them^[37] in the NET. Also ἐπείσθησαν might have been translated obeyed, the same way ἐπείθοντο was in the KJV, since the council did not carry out its desire or counsel to execute the apostles. Gamaliel held no gun to their heads. Rather, they were persuaded by his history lesson.

What stood out in sharp enough relief for me to finally perceive it this time was the fact that all who followed or obeyed Theudas did so in their own strength. Theudas was powerless to give them his spirit, much less the Holy Spirit of God. Likewise, all who followed or obeyed Judas the Galilean did so in their own strength. He was unable to fill them with a love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control that could sustain them. Theudas and Judas the Galilean left their followers to their own devices. After they were killed their followers were dispersed (διελύθησαν) and scattered (διεσκορπίσθησαν).

Here I can distinguish the true Christ from the false. The true Christ fulfills the promise of the Lord (ʼădônây, אֲדֹנָ֣י) God (y^ehôvih, יֱהֹוִ֔ה): And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.^[38] And this, not by obeying rules: 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.^[39] Paul described it this way (Romans 7:4-6 NET):

So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful desires, aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the law, because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.

It bears mentioning here that I have never spoken in tongues or performed a miraculous sign. I am about as mundane a muggle as you will ever meet. And still by the continuous infusion of the fruit of Christ’s Holy Spirit I am being renewed in the spirit of [my] mind, and [putting] on the new man who has been created in God’s image – in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth.^[40]

Pope Francis made the news recently approving a change to the English translation of the Lord’s Prayer. It’s not the first time I’ve heard this translation questioned, and I mostly frequent Protestant circles. The Lord knows He will not tempt me to sin, but I didn’t.

As I began to let go of the only way of righteousness I had ever known—forcing myself to obey the rules, norms and standards of righteousness handed down to me by God, governments, parents and teachers—to rely instead upon the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control^[41] of his Holy Spirit, that does no wrong to a neighbor^[42] and is therefore the fulfillment (Romans 8:3, 4) of God’s law, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe,^[43] I was scared. And unfortunately when I was going through the worst of it I didn’t pray the Lord’s prayer very often.

I thought it was a model prayer to be imitated rather than an actual prayer to be prayed. But now I pray daily, not just for myself but for all, from the Pope to the homeless man who blessed me at the stoplight for the last of my cash: “and lead us…(pause a beat)… not into temptation but deliver us from the evil.” Praying that daily (or more often) really helps when the Holy Spirit leads in a direction my religious mind doesn’t want to go. I sensed, especially, the love, kindness and gentleness of the Holy Spirit welling up within me before I let Him affect me, at least before I welcomed and appreciated his affect in me. I quenched the Spirit because I thought I was supposed to be tougher than that. Against such things [i.e., the fruit of the Spirit] there is no law.^[44]

If I make a mistake and head off in a direction contrary to the Spirit’s leading, if while seeking to be justified in Christ [I myself] have also been found to be^[45] a sinner, well, the Lord’s prayer has that covered, too: “Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven (or, as we forgive) our debtors…for Yours (i.e., God’s, not mine) is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. I do believe You” (see Table15 below).

A table comparing Leviticus 12:3 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET follows. Following that is a table comparing Leviticus 12:3 in the Septuagint (BLB and Elpenor). Following that are tables comparing James 3:3; Acts 27:11; 13:43; 5:28, 29; 5:31, 32; James 2:18; Matthew 3:11; 3:14; 3:16; Acts 10:47, 48; 5:33, 34; 5:36-40 and Matthew 6:13 in the NET and KJV.

Leviticus 12:3 (Tanakh)	Leviticus 12:3 (KJV)	Leviticus 12:3 (NET)
And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.	And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.	On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin must be circumcised.

Leviticus 12:3 (Septuagint BLB)	Leviticus 12:3 (Septuagint Elpenor)
καὶ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ὀγδόῃ περιτεμεῗ τὴν σάρκα τῆς ἀκροβυστίας αὐτοῦ	καὶ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ὀγδόῃ περιτεμεῖ τὴν σάρκα τῆς ἀκροβυστίας αὐτοῦ
Leviticus 12:3 (NETS)	Leviticus 12:3 (English Elpenor)
And on the eighth day she shall circumcise the flesh of his foreskin.	And on the eighth day she shall circumcise the flesh of his foreskin.

James 3:3 (NET)	James 3:3 (KJV)
And if we put bits into the mouths of horses to get them to obey us, then we guide their entire bodies.	Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
εἰ δὲ τῶν ἵππων τοὺς χαλινοὺς εἰς τὰ στόματα βάλλομεν εἰς τὸ πείθεσθαι αὐτοὺς ἡμῖν, καὶ ὅλον τὸ σῶμα αὐτῶν μετάγομεν	ιδου των ιππων τους χαλινους εις τα στοματα βαλλομεν προς το πειθεσθαι αυτους ημιν και ολον το σωμα αυτων μεταγομεν	ιδε των ιππων τους χαλινους εις τα στοματα βαλλομεν προς το πειθεσθαι αυτους ημιν και ολον το σωμα αυτων μεταγομεν

Acts 27:11 (NET)	Acts 27:11 (KJV)
But the centurion was more convinced by the captain and the ship’s owner than by what Paul said.	Nevertheless the centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship, more than those things which were spoken by Paul.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ὁ δὲ ἑκατοντάρχης τῷ κυβερνήτῃ καὶ τῷ ναυκλήρῳ μᾶλλον ἐπείθετο ἢ τοῖς ὑπὸ Παύλου λεγομένοις	ο δε εκατονταρχος τω κυβερνητη και τω ναυκληρω επειθετο μαλλον η τοις υπο του παυλου λεγομενοις	ο δε εκατονταρχης τω κυβερνητη και τω ναυκληρω επειθετο μαλλον η τοις υπο του παυλου λεγομενοις

Acts 13:43 (NET)	Acts 13:43 (KJV)
When the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who were speaking with them and were persuading them to continue in the grace of God.	Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
λυθείσης δὲ τῆς συναγωγῆς ἠκολούθησαν πολλοὶ τῶν Ἰουδαίων καὶ τῶν σεβομένων προσηλύτων τῷ Παύλῳ καὶ τῷ Βαρναβᾷ, οἵτινες προσλαλοῦντες αὐτοῖς ἔπειθον αὐτοὺς προσμένειν τῇ χάριτι τοῦ θεοῦ	λυθεισης δε της συναγωγης ηκολουθησαν πολλοι των ιουδαιων και των σεβομενων προσηλυτων τω παυλω και τω βαρναβα οιτινες προσλαλουντες αυτοις επειθον αυτους επιμενειν τη χαριτι του θεου	λυθεισης δε της συναγωγης ηκολουθησαν πολλοι των ιουδαιων και των σεβομενων προσηλυτων τω παυλω και τω βαρναβα οιτινες προσλαλουντες επειθον αυτους επιμενειν τη χαριτι του θεου

Acts 5:28, 29 (NET)	Acts 5:28, 29 (KJV)
saying, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name. Look, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood on us!”	Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
λέγων· παραγγελίᾳ παρηγγείλαμεν ὑμῖν μὴ διδάσκειν ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι τούτῳ, καὶ ἰδοὺ πεπληρώκατε τὴν Ἰερουσαλὴμ τῆς διδαχῆς ὑμῶν καὶ βούλεσθε ἐπαγαγεῖν ἐφ᾿ ἡμᾶς τὸ αἷμα τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τούτου	λεγων ου παραγγελια παρηγγειλαμεν υμιν μη διδασκειν επι τω ονοματι τουτω και ιδου πεπληρωκατε την ιερουσαλημ της διδαχης υμων και βουλεσθε επαγαγειν εφ ημας το αιμα του ανθρωπου τουτου	λεγων ου παραγγελια παρηγγειλαμεν υμιν μη διδασκειν επι τω ονοματι τουτω και ιδου πεπληρωκατε την ιερουσαλημ της διδαχης υμων και βουλεσθε επαγαγειν εφ ημας το αιμα του ανθρωπου τουτου

But Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than people.

Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ Πέτρος καὶ οἱ ἀπόστολοι εἶπαν· πειθαρχεῖν δεῖ θεῷ μᾶλλον ἢ ἀνθρώποις	αποκριθεις δε ο πετρος και οι αποστολοι ειπον πειθαρχειν δει θεω μαλλον η ανθρωποις	αποκριθεις δε πετρος και οι αποστολοι ειπον πειθαρχειν δει θεω μαλλον η ανθρωποις

Acts 5:31, 32 (NET)	Acts 5:31, 32 (KJV)
God exalted him to his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.	Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
τοῦτον ὁ θεὸς ἀρχηγὸν καὶ σωτῆρα ὕψωσεν τῇ δεξιᾷ αὐτοῦ [τοῦ] δοῦναι μετάνοιαν τῷ Ἰσραὴλ καὶ ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν	τουτον ο θεος αρχηγον και σωτηρα υψωσεν τη δεξια αυτου δουναι μετανοιαν τω ισραηλ και αφεσιν αμαρτιων	τουτον ο θεος αρχηγον και σωτηρα υψωσεν τη δεξια αυτου δουναι μετανοιαν τω ισραηλ και αφεσιν αμαρτιων

And we are witnesses of these events, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”

And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐσμεν μάρτυρες τῶν ρημάτων τούτων καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ὃ ἔδωκεν ὁ θεὸς τοῖς πειθαρχοῦσιν αὐτῷ	και ημεις εσμεν αυτου μαρτυρες των ρηματων τουτων και το πνευμα δε το αγιον ο εδωκεν ο θεος τοις πειθαρχουσιν αυτω	και ημεις εσμεν αυτου μαρτυρες των ρηματων τουτων και το πνευμα δε το αγιον ο εδωκεν ο θεος τοις πειθαρχουσιν αυτω

James 2:18 (NET)	James 2:18 (KJV)
But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith without works and I will show you faith by my works.	Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
Ἀλλ᾿ ἐρεῖ τις· σὺ πίστιν ἔχεις, καγὼ ἔργα ἔχω· δεῖξον μοι τὴν πίστιν σου χωρὶς τῶν ἔργων, καγώ σοι δείξω ἐκ τῶν ἔργων μου τὴν πίστιν	αλλ ερει τις συ πιστιν εχεις καγω εργα εχω δειξον μοι την πιστιν σου εκ των εργων σου καγω δειξω σοι εκ των εργων μου την πιστιν μου	αλλ ερει τις συ πιστιν εχεις καγω εργα εχω δειξον μοι την πιστιν σου εκ των εργων σου καγω δειξω σοι εκ των εργων μου την πιστιν μου

Matthew 3:11 (NET)	Matthew 3:11 (KJV)
“I baptize you with water, for repentance, but the one coming after me is more powerful than I am – I am not worthy to carry his sandals! He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.	I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
Ἐγὼ μὲν ὑμᾶς βαπτίζω ἐν ὕδατι εἰς μετάνοιαν, ὁ δὲ ὀπίσω μου ἐρχόμενος ἰσχυρότερος μού ἐστιν, οὗ οὐκ εἰμὶ ἱκανὸς τὰ ὑποδήματα βαστάσαι· αὐτὸς ὑμᾶς βαπτίσει ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ καὶ πυρί	εγω μεν βαπτιζω υμας εν υδατι εις μετανοιαν ο δε οπισω μου ερχομενος ισχυροτερος μου εστιν ου ουκ ειμι ικανος τα υποδηματα βαστασαι αυτος υμας βαπτισει εν πνευματι αγιω και πυρι	εγω μεν βαπτιζω υμας εν υδατι εις μετανοιαν ο δε οπισω μου ερχομενος ισχυροτερος μου εστιν ου ουκ ειμι ικανος τα υποδηματα βαστασαι αυτος υμας βαπτισει εν πνευματι αγιω

Matthew 3:14 (NET)	Matthew 3:14 (KJV)
But John tried to prevent him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?”	But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ὁ δὲ διεκώλυεν αὐτὸν λέγων· ἐγὼ χρείαν ἔχω ὑπὸ σοῦ βαπτισθῆναι, καὶ σὺ ἔρχῃ πρός με	ο δε ιωαννης διεκωλυεν αυτον λεγων εγω χρειαν εχω υπο σου βαπτισθηναι και συ ερχη προς με	ο δε ιωαννης διεκωλυεν αυτον λεγων εγω χρειαν εχω υπο σου βαπτισθηναι και συ ερχη προς με

Matthew 3:16 (NET)	Matthew 3:16 (KJV)
After Jesus was baptized, just as he was coming up out of the water, the heavens opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him.	And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
βαπτισθεὶς δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς εὐθὺς ἀνέβη ἀπὸ τοῦ ὕδατος· καὶ ἰδοὺ ἠνεῴχθησαν οἱ οὐρανοί, καὶ εἶδεν [τὸ] πνεῦμα [τοῦ] θεοῦ καταβαῖνον ὡσεὶ περιστερὰν [καὶ] ἐρχόμενον ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν	και βαπτισθεις ο ιησους ανεβη ευθυς απο του υδατος και ιδου ανεωχθησαν αυτω οι ουρανοι και ειδεν το πνευμα του θεου καταβαινον ωσει περιστεραν και ερχομενον επ αυτον	και βαπτισθεις ο ιησους ανεβη ευθυς απο του υδατος και ιδου ανεωχθησαν αυτω οι ουρανοι και ειδεν το πνευμα του θεου καταβαινον ωσει περιστεραν και ερχομενον επ αυτον

Acts 10:47, 48 (NET)	Acts 10:47, 48 (KJV)
“No one can withhold the water for these people to be baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?”	Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
μήτι τὸ ὕδωρ δύναται κωλῦσαι τις τοῦ μὴ βαπτισθῆναι τούτους, οἵτινες τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἔλαβον ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς	μητι το υδωρ κωλυσαι δυναται τις του μη βαπτισθηναι τουτους οιτινες το πνευμα το αγιον ελαβον καθως και ημεις	μητι το υδωρ κωλυσαι δυναται τις του μη βαπτισθηναι τουτους οιτινες το πνευμα το αγιον ελαβον καθως και ημεις

So he gave orders to have them baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay for several days.

And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
προσέταξεν δὲ αὐτοὺς ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ βαπτισθῆναι. τότε ἠρώτησαν αὐτὸν ἐπιμεῖναι ἡμέρας τινάς	προσεταξεν τε αυτους βαπτισθηναι εν τω ονοματι του κυριου τοτε ηρωτησαν αυτον επιμειναι ημερας τινας	προσεταξεν τε αυτους βαπτισθηναι εν τω ονοματι του κυριου τοτε ηρωτησαν αυτον επιμειναι ημερας τινας

Acts 5:33, 34 (NET)	Acts 5:33, 34 (KJV)
Now when they heard this, they became furious and wanted to execute them.	When they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
Οἱ δὲ ἀκούσαντες διεπρίοντο καὶ ἐβούλοντο ἀνελεῖν αὐτούς	οι δε ακουσαντες διεπριοντο και εβουλευοντο ανελειν αυτους	οι δε ακουοντες διεπριοντο και εβουλευοντο ανελειν αυτους

But a Pharisee whose name was Gamaliel, a teacher of the law who was respected by all the people, stood up in the council and ordered the men to be put outside for a short time.

Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space;

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ἀναστὰς δέ τις ἐν τῷ συνεδρίῳ Φαρισαῖος ὀνόματι Γαμαλιήλ, νομοδιδάσκαλος τίμιος παντὶ τῷ λαῷ, ἐκέλευσεν ἔξω βραχὺ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ποιῆσαι	αναστας δε τις εν τω συνεδριω φαρισαιος ονοματι γαμαλιηλ νομοδιδασκαλος τιμιος παντι τω λαω εκελευσεν εξω βραχυ τι τους αποστολους ποιησαι	αναστας δε τις εν τω συνεδριω φαρισαιος ονοματι γαμαλιηλ νομοδιδασκαλος τιμιος παντι τω λαω εκελευσεν εξω βραχυ τι τους αποστολους ποιησαι

Acts 5:36-40 (NET)	Acts 5:36-40 (KJV)
For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and nothing came of it.	For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and brought to nought.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
πρὸ γὰρ τούτων τῶν ἡμερῶν ἀνέστη Θευδᾶς λέγων εἶναι τινα ἑαυτόν, ᾧ προσεκλίθη ἀνδρῶν ἀριθμὸς ὡς τετρακοσίων· ὃς ἀνῃρέθη, καὶ πάντες ὅσοι ἐπείθοντο αὐτῷ διελύθησαν καὶ ἐγένοντο εἰς οὐδέν	προ γαρ τουτων των ημερων ανεστη θευδας λεγων ειναι τινα εαυτον ω προσεκολληθη αριθμος ανδρων ωσει τετρακοσιων ος ανηρεθη και παντες οσοι επειθοντο αυτω διελυθησαν και εγενοντο εις ουδεν	προ γαρ τουτων των ημερων ανεστη θευδας λεγων ειναι τινα εαυτον ω προσεκληθη αριθμος ανδρων ωσει τετρακοσιων ος ανηρεθη και παντες οσοι επειθοντο αυτω διελυθησαν και εγενοντο εις ουδεν

After him Judas the Galilean arose in the days of the census, and incited people to follow him in revolt. He too was killed, and all who followed him were scattered.

After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
μετὰ τοῦτον ἀνέστη Ἰούδας ὁ Γαλιλαῖος ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις τῆς ἀπογραφῆς καὶ ἀπέστησεν λαὸν ὀπίσω αὐτοῦ· κακεῖνος ἀπώλετο καὶ πάντες ὅσοι ἐπείθοντο αὐτῷ διεσκορπίσθησαν	μετα τουτον ανεστη ιουδας ο γαλιλαιος εν ταις ημεραις της απογραφης και απεστησεν λαον ικανον οπισω αυτου κακεινος απωλετο και παντες οσοι επειθοντο αυτω διεσκορπισθησαν	μετα τουτον ανεστη ιουδας ο γαλιλαιος εν ταις ημεραις της απογραφης και απεστησεν λαον ικανον οπισω αυτου κακεινος απωλετο και παντες οσοι επειθοντο αυτω διεσκορπισθησαν

So in this case I say to you, stay away from these men and leave them alone, because if this plan or this undertaking originates with people, it will come to nothing,

And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought:

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
καὶ \|τὰ\| νῦν λέγω ὑμῖν, ἀπόστητε ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων τούτων καὶ ἄφετε αὐτούς· ὅτι ἐὰν ᾖ ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἡ βουλὴ αὕτη ἢ τὸ ἔργον τοῦτο, καταλυθήσεται	και τα νυν λεγω υμιν αποστητε απο των ανθρωπων τουτων και εασατε αυτους οτι εαν η εξ ανθρωπων η βουλη αυτη η το εργον τουτο καταλυθησεται	και τα νυν λεγω υμιν αποστητε απο των ανθρωπων τουτων και εασατε αυτους οτι εαν η εξ ανθρωπων η βουλη η το εργον τουτο καταλυθησεται

but if it is from God, you will not be able to stop them, or you may even be found fighting against God.” He convinced them,

But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
εἰ δὲ ἐκ θεοῦ ἐστιν, οὐ δυνήσεσθε καταλῦσαι αὐτούς, μήποτε καὶ θεομάχοι εὑρεθῆτε. ἐπείσθησαν δὲ αὐτῷ	ει δε εκ θεου εστιν ου δυνασθε καταλυσαι αυτο μηποτε και θεομαχοι ευρεθητε	ει δε εκ θεου εστιν ου δυνασθε καταλυσαι αυτο μηποτε και θεομαχοι ευρεθητε

and they summoned the apostles and had them beaten. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and released them.

And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ἐπείσθησαν δὲ αὐτῷ καὶ προσκαλεσάμενοι τοὺς ἀποστόλους δείραντες παρήγγειλαν μὴ λαλεῖν ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ Ἰησοῦ καὶ ἀπέλυσαν	επεισθησαν δε αυτω και προσκαλεσαμενοι τους αποστολους δειραντες παρηγγειλαν μη λαλειν επι τω ονοματι του ιησου και απελυσαν αυτους	επεισθησαν δε αυτω και προσκαλεσαμενοι τους αποστολους δειραντες παρηγγειλαν μη λαλειν επι τω ονοματι του ιησου και απελυσαν αυτους

Matthew 6:13 (NET)	Matthew 6:13 (KJV)
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.	And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν, ἀλλὰ ρῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ	και μη εισενεγκης ημας εις πειρασμον αλλα ρυσαι ημας απο του πονηρου οτι σου εστιν η βασιλεια και η δυναμις και η δοξα εις τους αιωνας αμην	και μη εισενεγκης ημας εις πειρασμον αλλα ρυσαι ημας απο του πονηρου οτι σου εστιν η βασιλεια και η δυναμις και η δοξα εις τους αιωνας αμην

A Shadow of the Good Things, Part 2

Back to To Make Holy, Part 7

Back to Saul and Barnabas, Part 3

Back to Peter’s First Gospel Proclamation Revisited, Part 2

Back to A Shadow of the Good Things, Part 3

Back to A Shadow of the Good Things, Part 5

Back to A Monotonous Cycle Revisited, Part 4

Back to Psalm 22, Part 6

Back to David’s Forgiveness, Part 10

Back to Funeral, Part 3

Back to Psalm 22, Part 11

Back to Christianity, Part 5

Back to Christianity, Part 7

Back to Christ-Centered Preaching, Chapter 3

Back to Christ-Centered Preaching, Chapter 4, Part 1

Back to Christ-Centered Preaching, Chapter 4, Part 3

Back to Matthew 8:23-34

Back to Exploration, Part 1

^[1] Leviticus 12:3 (Tanakh)

^[2] Galatians 5:2 (NET)

^[3] James 3:3 (NET)

^[4] The Stephanus Textus Receptus, Byzantine Majority Text and NA²⁸ began this clause with ου (KJV: Did not we). The NET parallel Greek text did not.

^[5] The Stephanus Textus Receptus had the article ο preceding Peter. The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Byzantine Majority Text did not.

^[6] The NET parallel Greek and NA²⁸ had εἶπαν here (not translated in the NET), where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ειπον (KJV: and said).

^[7] The NET parallel Greek and NA²⁸ had the article τοῦ preceding give. The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text did not.

^[8] The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had αυτου (KJV: his) preceding witnesses. The NET parallel Greek and NA²⁸ did not.

^[9] The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had δε (KJV: also) preceding Holy. The NET parallel Greek and NA²⁸ did not.

^[10] Acts 2:38 (NET) Table

^[11] John 6:29 (NET) Table

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

^[13] The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had σου following works (KJV: thy works). The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

^[14] The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had μου following faith (KJV: my faith). The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

^[15] James 2:18b (NET)

^[16] Acts 2:41 (NET) Table

^[17] The NET parallel Greek text, NA²⁸ and Stephanus Textus Receptus had καὶ πυρί (NET: and fire) here. The Byzantine Majority Text did not.

^[18] The Stephanus Textus Receptus, Byzantine Majority Text and NA²⁸ had ιωαννης (John) here. The NET parallel Greek text did not.

^[19] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had δὲ (not translated in the NET) here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had και (KJV: And).

^[20] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἠνεῴχθησαν here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ανεωχθησαν. The Stephanus Textus Receptus, Byzantine Majority Text and NA²⁸ had αυτω (KJV: unto him) following opened. The NET parallel Greek text did not.

^[21] Acts 10:44 (NET)

^[22] The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had the article ο preceding Peter. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

^[23] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ὡς here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had καθως (KJV: as well as).

^[24] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had του κυριου (KJV: the Lord).

^[25] Matthew 3:15 (NET)

^[26] Acts 5:32 (NET)

^[27] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἐβούλοντο here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had εβουλευοντο (KJV: took counsel).

^[28] The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had τι preceding the. The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

^[29] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἀνθρώπους here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had αποστολους (KJV: apostles).

^[30] Acts 5:33b, 34 (NET)

^[31] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἀριθμὸς ὡς here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had simply αριθμος.

^[32] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had προσεκλίθη here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus had προσεκολληθη and the Byzantine Majority Text had προσεκληθη.

^[33] The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ικανον following people (KJV: much people). The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ did not.

^[34] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had ἄφετε here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had εασατε (KJV: let them alone)

^[35] The NET parallel Greek text and NA²⁸ had the plural masculine pronoun αὐτούς here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had the singular neuter pronoun αυτο (KJV: it).

^[36] Acts 5:40a (KJV)

^[37] Acts 5:39b (NET)

^[38] Ezekiel 36:27 (Tanakh) Table

^[39] Hebrews 10:1 (NET) Table

^[40] Ephesians 4:23, 24 (NET)

^[41] Glatians 5:22b-23a (NET) Table

^[42] Romans 13:10 (NET) I’m confident to make this substitution. Paul’s description of love (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a) is not a description of human emotion. It is at the very least a description of the fruit of the Spirit.

^[43] Romans 3:22a (NET) Table

^[44] Galatians 5:23b (NET)

^[45] Galatians 2:17a (NET)

To Make Holy, Part 3

Posted on November 2, 2017 by admin

When I began to study the Bible I thought Paul wrote Hebrews.^[1] The more I studied, the more I began to know Paul’s other writings, the more I began to suspect that Paul did not write Hebrews. Someone who knew Paul and his writings must have written it. But I thought that Romans was the literary parent and Hebrews the literary child until Andrew Schlafly’s entry on Conservapedia—“Mystery: Did Jesus Write the Epistle to the Hebrews?”—flipped me out of the rut I was in.

It’s probably more prudent to say that the Holy Spirit flipped me out of my rut with Mr. Schlafly’s writing, but I want to be sure to share my gratitude with him since I reject his main point: “Jesus spent 40 days on Earth between the Resurrection and the Ascension, and it is implausible that He did not continue His ministry in an effective way. Writing (or distributing) an Epistle is most plausible activity, given what had transpired.”^[2] After God spoke long ago in various portions and in various ways to our ancestors through the prophets, the writer of Hebrews began, in these last days he has spoken to us in a son…^[3]

The words to us aren’t an artifact of translating Greek to English. It is ἡμῖν penned by the author. Did Jesus write that God spoke to Jesus in a son? The Son [who] is the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, and [who] sustains all things by his powerful word?^[4] The writer of Hebrews continued, so when he had accomplished cleansing for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.^[5] Did Jesus write that He was on earth writing Hebrews and sitting at the right hand of the Majesty on high simultaneously? Or did He mean that He was someone distinct from this mysterious Son? “Sit on my right” the Septuagint reads. The author of Hebrews changed κάθου (a form of κάθημαι; second person present tense) to ἐκάθισεν (a form of καθίζω; third person past tense).

All in all it seems simpler to conclude that Jesus did not write Hebrews personally and that it was written after his ascension (Acts 1:9-11). But what has grabbed me and won’t let go is Mr. Schlafly’s insight: “this sermon appears identical to the sermon given by Jesus on the road to Emmaus…”^[6] I have carped at Cleopas and the other disciple^[7] almost every time I’ve read their story, “Don’t tell me how you felt. Who cares how you felt!? Tell me what He said!” I was utterly unable to hear Hebrews as Jesus’ teaching on the Emmaus road because I was stuck thinking it was a late development dependent upon Paul’s theology in Romans.

This “Epistle was written before any physical persecution of the disciples: ‘In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.’ (12:4) Stephen was martyred around A.D. 37, merely a few years after the Crucifixion of Jesus, so this Epistle was written before then.”^[8] Was Hebrews one of the scrolls or parchments Paul prized? Was it the literary parent of Romans?

I’ll approach the next occurrence of ἁγιάσῃ (a form of ἁγιάζω) with this possibility in mind, not hearing the scratching of Jesus’ pen perhaps, but listening for the teaching that was foremost in his mind during the forty days between his resurrection and ascension (Hebrews 13:9-16 NET):

Do not be carried away by all sorts of strange teachings. For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not ritual meals, which have never benefited those who participated in them. We have an altar that those who serve in the tabernacle have no right to eat from. For the bodies of those animals whose blood the high priest brings into the sanctuary as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore, to sanctify (ἁγιάσῃ, a form of ἁγιάζω) the people by his own blood, Jesus also suffered outside the camp (πύλης; literally, gate). We must go out to him, then, outside the camp, bearing the abuse he experienced. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come (Revelation 21:9-27). Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, acknowledging his name. And do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for God is pleased with such sacrifices.

To sanctify the people by his own blood, Jesus also suffered outside the camp. We must go out to him, then, outside (ἔξω) the camp (παρεμβολῆς, a form of παρεμβολή)… The anonymous author of “Sacrifice Outside the Camp” concluded: “So just as Christ went outside the camp, the readers are also to go outside the camp and thus bear reproach by abandoning the established fellowship and ordinances of Judaism.” That’s what I thought, too. In fact, I thought that would be the point of this essay when I thought Hebrews was a late development from the mind of some unknown disciple. Considering Hebrews as Jesus’ teaching during the forty days between his resurrection and ascension pushes me harder.

I assume that going out to Jesus, outside the camp, is a result of being sanctified by his own blood as opposed to its cause, though the NET translation (We must go out) of ἐξερχώμεθα (a form of ἐξέρχομαι; KJV: Let us go forth) sounds more like a prerequisite. Are we to go outside the Israelite camp only to join the Roman Catholic camp, the Greek Orthodox camp, the Lutheran camp, the Baptist camp, the Presbyterian camp, the Pentecostal camp or the name-your-favorite-religion camp? It got me thinking about y^ehôvâh.

He wasn’t a big fan of law or religion, at least it wasn’t his first choice. Yet, when he got down to it He spent a good deal of verbiage establishing a legal/religious category called outside (chûts, מחוץ) the camp (machăneh, למחנה), ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς in the Septuagint. It caused me to wonder if going outside the camp (see table below) meant anything more than trading in one legal/religious system for another.

I thought outside the camp was equivalent to not the camp. But outside the camp was as much a part of the Israelite camp as the Holy of Holies. It moved with Israel in total (or in part with its army). It was a place of execution (Leviticus 24:14, 23; Numbers 15:36). Or do you not know, Paul wrote the Romans, that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.^[9]

It was a place for the unclean (Leviticus 13:46; 14:3), including every leper, everyone who has a discharge (Deuteronomy 23:10), and whoever becomes defiled by a corpse^[10] (Numbers 5:3, 4). Those who are well don’t need a physician, Jesus answered the Pharisees, but those who are sick do. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.^[11]

Latrines were there outside the camp (Deuteronomy 23:12). If someone thinks he has good reasons to put confidence in human credentials (σαρκί, a form of σάρξ), I have more, Paul wrote believers in Philippi: I was circumcised on the eighth day, from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. I lived according to the law as a Pharisee. In my zeal for God I persecuted the church. According to the righteousness stipulated in the law I was blameless. But these assets I have come to regard as liabilities because of Christ. More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things – indeed, I regard them as dung! – that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness – a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness. My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.^[12]

The bodies of Nadab and Abihu were carried off there (Leviticus 10:4, 5). In him you also were circumcised, Paul wrote the Colossians, not, however, with a circumcision performed by human hands, but by the removal of the fleshly body, that is, through the circumcision done by Christ. Having been buried with him in baptism, you also have been raised with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead. And even though you were dead in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he nevertheless made you alive with him, having forgiven all your transgressions. He has destroyed what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.^[13]

But it was not a lawless place (Leviticus 17:3-5 NET).

Blood guilt will be accounted to any man from the house of Israel who slaughters an ox or a lamb or a goat inside the camp or outside the camp, but has not brought it to the entrance of the Meeting Tent to present it as an offering to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord. He has shed blood, so that man will be cut off from the midst of his people. This is so that the Israelites will bring their sacrifices that they are sacrificing in the open field to the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent to the priest and sacrifice them there as peace offering sacrifices to the Lord.

Do we then nullify the law through faith? Absolutely not! Instead we uphold the law.^[14] 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.^[15] Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet,” (and if there is any other commandment) are summed up in this, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.^[16]

It was a place of purification. The red heifer was slaughtered outside the camp (Numbers 19:3) and its ashes were kept there (Numbers 19:9). They must be kept for the community of the Israelites for use in the water of purification – it is a purification for sin.^[17] It was a way station for soldiers returning from battle (Numbers 31:19), the spoils of war (Numbers 31:11-13) and Rahab, her father, mother, brothers, and all who belonged to her^[18] (Joshua 6:23). Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, her father’s family, and all who belonged to her. She lives in Israel (NET note 46 Heb “in the midst of Israel”) to this very day because she hid the messengers Joshua sent to spy on Jericho.^[19]

For the grace of God has appeared, Paul wrote Titus, bringing salvation to all people. It trains us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, as we wait for the happy fulfillment of our hope in the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He gave himself for us to set us free from every kind of lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are truly his, who are eager to do good.^[20]

It was above all else the place where the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, the way a person speaks to a friend^[21] and where Joshua lived (Exodus 33:7-11 NET):

Moses took the tent and pitched it outside the camp, at a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. Anyone seeking the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting that was outside the camp.

And when Moses went out to the tent, all the people would get up and stand at the entrance to their tents and watch Moses until he entered the tent. And whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. When all the people would see the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people, each one at the entrance of his own tent, would rise and worship. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, the way a person speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his servant, Joshua son of Nun, a young man, did not leave the tent.

Just as the Father has loved me, Jesus said, I have also loved you; remain in my love. If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete. My commandment is this – to love one another just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this – that one lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because the slave does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have revealed to you everything I heard from my Father. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that remains, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. This I command you – to love one another.^[22]

More than a geographical location or an institutional affiliation to go to Jesus outside the camp seems like a state of the believing heart and mind. The Spirit is the one who gives life, Jesus said, human nature is of no help! The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.^[23] To go to Jesus outside the camp is integrally associated with sanctification, but doesn’t appear to be something one does once, rather continually, maybe even progressively until like Joshua one resides there permanently. Jesus said (John 14:23-26 NET):

If anyone loves me, he will obey (τηρήσει, a form of τηρέω) my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him. The person who does not love me does not obey (τηρεῖ, another form of τηρέω) my words. And the word you hear (ἀκούετε, a form of ἀκούω) is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me. I have spoken these things while staying with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and will cause you to remember everything I said to you.

Reference	NET	Hebrew – outside	Hebrew – the camp	Septuagint
Exodus 29:14	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Exodus 33:7	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Exodus 33:7	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Leviticus 4:12	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Leviticus 4:21	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Leviticus 6:11	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Leviticus 8:17	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Leviticus 9:11	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Leviticus 10:4	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Leviticus 10:5	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Leviticus 13:46	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Leviticus 14:3	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Leviticus 16:27	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Leviticus 17:3	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Leviticus 24:14	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Leviticus 24:23	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Numbers 5:3	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Numbers 5:4	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Numbers 15:35	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	Both are in verse 36
Numbers 15:36	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Numbers 19:3	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Numbers 19:9	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Numbers 31:13	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Numbers 31:19	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Deuteronomy 23:10	he must leave the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Deuteronomy 23:12	outside the camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Joshua 6:23	outside the…camp	מחוץ	למחנה	ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς

To Make Holy, Part 4

Back to Romans, Part 89

Back to Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 12

Back to Atonement, Part 6

Back to Atonement, Part 7

Back to Atonement, Part 8

Back to Atonement, Part 10

Back to Hannah’s Prayer, Part 4

Back to Father, Forgive Them – Part 6

Back to A Shadow of the Good Things, Part 4

Back to Isaiah 53:10-12, Part 1

Back to Psalm 22, Part 8

Back to Romans, Part 16

Back to A Shadow of the Good Things, Part 7

^[1] “As early as the second century, this treatise, which is of great rhetorical power and force in its admonition to faithful pilgrimage under Christ’s leadership, bore the title ‘To the Hebrews.’ It was assumed to be directed to Jewish Christians. Usually Hebrews was attached in Greek manuscripts to the collection of letters by Paul… As early as the end of the second century, the church of Alexandria in Egypt accepted Hebrews as a letter of Paul, and that became the view commonly held in the East. Pauline authorship was contested in the West into the fourth century, but then accepted. In the sixteenth century, doubts about that position were again raised, and the modern consensus is that the letter was not written by Paul.” THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS

^[2] Andrew Schlafly, “Mystery: Did Jesus Write the Epistle to the Hebrews?,” Conservapedia

^[3] Hebrews 1:1, 2a (NET)

^[4] Hebrews 1:3a (NET)

^[5] Hebrews 1:3b (NET)

^[6] Andrew Schlafly, “Mystery: Did Jesus Write the Epistle to the Hebrews?,” Conservapedia

^[7] His wife, my mother speculates, as do others. “Would Cleopas leave her in Jerusalem?”

^[8] Andrew Schlafly, “Mystery: Did Jesus Write the Epistle to the Hebrews?,” Conservapedia

^[9] Romans 6:3, 4 (NET)

^[10] Numbers 5:2 (NET)

^[11] Luke 5:31, 32 (NET)

^[12] Philippians 3:4b-11 (NET)

^[13] Colossians 2:11-14 (NET)

^[14] Romans 3:31 (NET)

^[15] Romans 8:3, 4 (NET)

^[16] Romans 13:8-10 (NET)

^[17] Numbers 19:9b (NET)

^[18] Joshua 6:23a (NET)

^[19] Joshua 6:25 (NET)

^[20] Titus 2:11-14 (NET)

^[21] Exodus 33:11a (NET)

^[22] John 15:9-17 (NET)

^[23] John 6:63 (NET)

Romans, Part 73

Posted on April 17, 2016 by admin

I’ll continue to consider the dark side of Contribute (κοινωνοῦντες, a form of κοινωνέω) to the needs of the saints, pursue hospitality;^[1] namely (2 John 1:9-11 NET):

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not remain in the teaching of Christ does not have God. The one who remains in this teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house and do not give him any greeting, because the person who gives him a greeting shares (κοινωνεῖ, another form of κοινωνέω) in his evil deeds.

I turn here to Love the Lord your God…with all your mind (διανοίας, a form of διάνοια).^[2] Jesus didn’t say anything negative about the Pharisees’ or the law experts’ διανοίας. He opened his disciples’ νοῦν, implying that they were closed formerly: Then he opened their minds (νοῦν, a form of νοῦς) so they could understand (συνιέναι, a form of συνίημι) the scriptures…^[3] If I had known this when I began this study would I have called it something other than the religious mind? Probably not. I’m a Gentile with a philosophical bent to my mind. Paul had something to say about that even if Jesus did not.

Though Pharisees and law experts might not have considered a Gentile mind religious, I’m using the term to mean all human efforts to satisfy (or, replace) a god or God (y^ehôvâh). Even atheists can have religious minds as I use the term. In fact my religious mind eventually undermined my atheism. When I wanted to consider myself good again I invented “more realistic” rules than y^ehôvâh’s to obey. I failed to obey them. So I made “even more realistic” rules. Eventually my standards were so low even I realized they were unworkable. And I still wasn’t keeping them!

So I say this, and insist in the Lord, Paul wrote the church at Ephesus, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking (νοὸς, another form of νοῦς). They are darkened in their understanding (διανοίᾳ, another form of διάνοια), being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance (ἄγνοιαν, a form of ἄγνοια) that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts.^[4] So, loving y^ehôvâh with all your mind is equivalent to loving Him with all of one’s understanding.

The solution, by the way, to futile thinking was: You were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside the old (παλαιὸν, a form of παλαιός) man (ἄνθρωπον, a form of ἄνθρωπος) who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your mind (νοὸς, another form of νοῦς), and to put on the new man who has been created in God’s image – in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth.^[5] The old man we are to lay aside is our old (παλαιὸς) man (ἄνθρωπος) [that] was crucified with [Christ] so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.^[6] Again, sharing in his death and resurrection through faith in Jesus proves to be an important aspect of the Gospel (Romans 6:3, 4 NET).

Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.

And you were at one time strangers and enemies in your minds (διανοίᾳ, another form of διάνοια) as expressed through your evil deeds,^[7] Paul wrote Gentiles in Colossae. The Greek words translated evil deeds here are τοῖς ἔργοις τοῖς πονηροῖς (a form of πονηρός). In reference to Gentiles I have no doubt that Paul had sins in view, but even as an atheist my works were “full of labours, annoyances, and hardships.” And although you were dead in your transgressions and sins, Paul wrote Gentiles in Ephesus, in which you formerly lived according to this world’s present path, according to the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience (ἀπειθείας, a form of ἀπείθεια), among whom all of us [even a former Pharisee] also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind (διανοιῶν, another form of διάνοια), and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest…^[8]

But God, Paul continued as he introduced the solution to this problem. But first I want to consider y^ehôvâh’s promise of a new covenant. For this is the covenant that I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds (διάνοιαν, another form of διάνοια) and I will inscribe them on their hearts (καρδίας, a form of καρδία). And I will be their God and they will be my people.^[9] And again, This is the covenant that I will establish with them after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws on their hearts (καρδίας, a form of καρδία) and I will inscribe them on their minds (διάνοιαν, another form of διάνοια)…^[10]

This is a quotation from Jeremiah 31:33. The Greek texts are compared below.

NET

Parallel Greek

NETS

Septuagint

For this is the covenant that I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and I will inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God and they will be my people.

Hebrews 8:10

ὅτι αὕτη ἡ διαθήκη, ἣν διαθήσομαι τῷ οἴκῳ Ἰσραὴλ μετὰ τὰς ἡμέρας ἐκείνας, λέγει κύριος· διδοὺς νόμους μου εἰς τὴν διάνοιαν αὐτῶν καὶ ἐπὶ καρδίας αὐτῶν ἐπιγράψω αὐτούς, καὶ ἔσομαι αὐτοῖς εἰς θεόν, καὶ αὐτοὶ ἔσονται μοι εἰς λαόν

Hebrews 8:10

…because this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, quoth the Lord. Giving I will give my laws in their mind, and I will write them on their hearts, and I will become a god to them, and they shall become a people to me.

Ieremias 38:33 (31:33)

ὅτι αὕτη ἡ διαθήκη ἣν διαθήσομαι τῷ οἴκῳ Ισραηλ μετὰ τὰς ἡμέρας ἐκείνας φησὶν κύριος διδοὺς δώσω νόμους μου εἰς τὴν διάνοιαν αὐτῶν καὶ ἐπὶ καρδίας αὐτῶν γράψω αὐτούς καὶ ἔσομαι αὐτοῖς εἰς θεόν καὶ αὐτοὶ ἔσονταί μοι εἰς λαόν

Jeremiah 31:33

And there will be no need at all for each one to teach his countryman or each one to teach his brother saying, ‘Know (γνῶθι, a form of γινώσκω) the Lord,’ since they will all know (εἰδήσουσιν, a form of εἴδω; e.g., to know by seeing) me, from the least to the greatest,^[11] the first passage continued. The Greek texts are compared below:

NET

Parallel Greek

NETS

Septuagint

And there will be no need at all for each one to teach his countryman or each one to teach his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ since they will all know me, from the least to the greatest.

Hebrews 8:11

καὶ οὐ μὴ διδάξωσιν ἕκαστος τὸν πολίτην αὐτοῦ καὶ ἕκαστος τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ λέγων· γνῶθι τὸν κύριον, ὅτι πάντες εἰδήσουσιν με ἀπὸ μικροῦ ἕως μεγάλου αὐτῶν

Hebrews 8:11

And they shall not teach, each his fellow citizen and each his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” because they shall all know me, from their small even to their great…

Ieremias 38:34a (31:34a)

καὶ οὐ μὴ διδάξωσιν ἕκαστος τὸν πολίτην αὐτοῦ καὶ ἕκαστος τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ λέγων γνῶθι τὸν κύριον ὅτι πάντες εἰδήσουσίν με ἀπὸ μικροῦ αὐτῶν καὶ ἕως μεγάλου αὐτῶν

Jeremiah 31:34a

And this knowing is eternal life according to Jesus: Now this is eternal life – that they know (γινώσκωσιν, another form of γινώσκω) you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.^[12] And we know (οἴδαμεν, another form of εἴδω) that the Son of God has come and has given us insight (διάνοιαν, another form of διάνοια) to know him who is true, John wrote, and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This one is the true God and eternal life.^[13] The gift the Son of God has given here is διάνοιαν, the mind, understanding or insight with which we love y^ehôvâh. Diminishing the scope of this gift to a place in heaven while turning back to the futility of [our former] thinking to work our own works of righteousness in our own strength demeans both Jesus and eternal life.

But God, being rich in mercy, Paul continued writing Gentiles in Ephesus, because of his great love with which he loved us, even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved! –and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them.^[14]

Love the Lord your God…with all your strength (ἰσχύος, a form of ἰσχύς).^[15] I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul wrote Gentiles at Ephesus, the Father of glory, may give you spiritual wisdom and revelation in your growing knowledge (ἐπιγνώσει, a form of ἐπίγνωσις) of him, – since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened – so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the incomparable greatness of his power toward us who believe, as displayed in the exercise of his immense (ἰσχύος, a form of ἰσχύς) strength.^[16] Finally, he added, be strengthened in the Lord and in the strength (ἰσχύος, a form of ἰσχύς) of his power.^[17]

To attempt to function on our own away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength (ἰσχύος, a form of ἰσχύς) was Paul’s description of eternal destruction: They will undergo the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength…^[18] Whoever speaks, Peter wrote, let it be with God’s words. Whoever serves, do so with the strength (ἰσχύος, a form of ἰσχύς) that God supplies, so that in everything God will be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.^[19] If we believe Him his ἰσχύος is our ἰσχύος, the ἰσχύος with which we love y^ehôvâh.

This^[20] is the teaching of Christ as presented in the New Testament as opposed to the teaching of the religious mind. Is it the teaching your teachers bring to you? If not the person who gives him a greeting shares in his evil deeds, according to John. I would be very wary of supporting that teacher financially. This gives us a context for Paul’s admonition (Galatians 6:6-10 NET)

Now the one who receives instruction in the word must share (Κοινωνείτω, another form of κοινωνέω) all good things (ἀγαθοῖς, a form of ἀγαθός) with the one who teaches it. Do not be deceived. God will not be made a fool. For a person will reap what he sows, because the person who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So we must not grow weary in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us do good (ἀγαθὸν, another form of ἀγαθός) to all people, and especially to those who belong to the family of faith.

The teaching of Christ sows to the Spirit. The teaching of the religious mind sows to [our] own flesh. Money is not the only, or even the primary, good thing to share with the teacher of the word, the one who remains in the teaching of Christ. “No servant can serve two masters,” Jesus said, “for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” The Pharisees [e.g., the New Testament epitome of those with religious minds] (who loved money) heard all this and ridiculed him.^[21]

And need is the key to help make a determination what to contribute or share in. The primary needs of all believers are: 1) the need to be baptized by Jesus in the Holy Spirit; 2) to believe that his Father knows our needs before we ask Him, and that He is willing to supply our needs; and 3) to accept that our most pressing need is to sit at Jesus’ feet, to listen and to live by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

But whoever has the world’s possessions and sees his fellow Christian in need (χρείαν, a form of χρεία), John wrote, and shuts off his compassion against him, how can the love of God reside in such a person?^[22] Make every effort to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way, Paul wrote Titus, make sure they have what they need (ἵνα μηδὲν αὐτοῖς λείπῃ; so that nothing or no one of theirs is left behind). Here is another way that our people can learn to engage in good works to meet pressing needs (χρείας, another form of χρεία) and so not be unfruitful.^[23]

My purpose was not to minimize these more obvious aspects of contributing to the needs of the saints, but to highlight how much broader this contributing, or sharing in, actually is in the New Testament. I’ll conclude this with Peter’s contribution to the needs of the saints as something which we all share with one another (1 Peter 4:12-14 NET):

Dear friends, do not be astonished that a trial by fire is occurring among you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice (χαίρετε, a form of χαίρω) in the degree that you have shared (κοινωνεῖτε, another form of κοινωνέω) in the sufferings (παθήμασιν, a form of πάθημα) of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice (ἀγαλλιώμενοι, a form of ἀγαλλιάω) and be glad (χαρῆτε, another form of χαίρω). If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory, who is the Spirit of God, rests on you.

Do not neglect hospitality (φιλοξενίας , a form of φιλονεξία), because through it some have entertained angels without knowing it.^[24] This is the only other occurrence of a form of φιλονεξία in the New Testament. But I hope I have been persuasive that when Paul wrote pursue hospitality (φιλοξενίαν, another form of φιλονεξία) he did not intend to pen a “law of Paul,” a rule to be obeyed, something to pursue (διώκοντες, a form of διώκω) in one’s own strength. His intent was that this “love to strangers” would flow naturally (e.g., supernaturally) from the Spirit of God through the believer and out into the world, one of the good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them.^[25]

Romans, Part 74

Back to Who Am I? Part 8

Back to Christianity, Part 10

^[1] Romans 12:13 (NET)

^[2] Mark 12:30a (NET)

^[3] Luke 24:45 (NET)

^[4] Ephesians 4:17, 18 (NET) Table

^[5] Ephesians 4:22-24 (NET)

^[6] Romans 6:6 (NET)

^[7] Colossians 1:21 (NET)

^[8] Ephesians 2:1-3 (NET) Table

^[9] Hebrews 8:10 (NET)

^[10] Hebrews 10:16 (NET)

^[11] Hebrews 8:11 (NET)

^[12] John 17:3 (NET)

^[13] 1 John 5:20 (NET)

^[14] Ephesians 2:4-10 (NET)

^[15] Mark 12:30a (NET)

^[16] Ephesians 1:17-19 (NET)

^[17] Ephesians 6:10 (NET)

^[18] 2 Thessalonians 1:9 (NET)

^[19] 1 Peter 4:11 (NET)

^[20] I am considering Romans, Part 71 and Romans, Part 72 here as well, not as an exhaustive study but as a fairly thorough study of the teaching of Christ on the issue of contributing.

^[21] Luke 16:13, 14 (NET)

^[22] 1 John 3:17 (NET)

^[23] Titus 3:13, 14 (NET)

^[24] Hebrews 13:2 (NET)

^[25] Ephesians 2:10b (NET)

Condemnation or Judgment? – Part 12

Posted on April 3, 2016 by admin

I am considering a pastor’s advice offered in another blog as an example of confusing directions and as a case in point: If wicked (râshâʽ, לרשע) sinners (raʽ, רע) are those who refuse to stop trusting in human beings, whether others or themselves, we all qualify. And this journey to discover just who these sinners are was prompted by my bias that—He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked^[1] (râshâʽ, רשע)—prophesies Jesus’ return to earth to preach the Gospel effectively (as opposed to executing people for a thousand years).

The pastor’s advice was essentially a to-do list: refuse, consider the consequences, focus on God and ignore the lies of the enemy, avoid/run, and accountability. I considered the first two in the previous essay and will pick up again here.

Focus on God and ignore the lies of the enemy
Find fulfillment in your first love and ignore the enemy’s temptation towards the satisfaction of the flesh.

I have no quarrel with this if it is by the Holy Spirit. This should be item number one on the list. I, however, found a way to attempt this in the flesh. My Dad could calculate how much I cost him to the penny, even a scuff mark on the floor. I had already cost Jesus his life. I didn’t want to cost Him anything more. I thought my emotions in response to his sacrifice should motivate me to live a sinless life. (I don’t think I even considered righteousness at the time or anything beyond not sinning.) So, I didn’t believe Paul’s words in the sixth chapter of Romans were true, but merely hyperbole to affect my emotions, to motivate ME to action, not something I should believe to be saved (Romans 6:3, 4 NET):

Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.

That new life (ἐν καινότητι ζωῆς περιπατήσωμεν; walk in newness of life [ESV]) is here and now: Now this is eternal life – that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.^[2] For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death,^[3] Paul continued; that is if we believe that we have been buried with him through baptism into death, then and only then we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection.^[4]

We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.^[5] Should I deny this because of my behavior? No, I believe until it changes my behavior. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.^[6] Paul continued (Romans 6:11-14 NET):

So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires, and do not present your members to sin as instruments to be used for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments to be used for righteousness. For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace.

But if I attempt to find fulfillment in laws or rules or procedures, even the pastor’s to-do list, I have fallen away from grace and committed a superπορνεία. And that is essentially the context of the concept first [e.g., foremost as opposed to first in temporal order] love: But I have this against you, Jesus said to the church at Ephesus, You have departed from your first love!^[7]

[Addendum 8/16/16: The words translated you and your are singular. Though the letters were intended to be read by the churches the content is addressed primarily to the angel of each individual church. I found a pdf online with color codes highlighting when the pronouns and verbs are singular and plural. The commentary to the right of this pdf assumes that angel meant human pastor, which I also assumed until very recently. I haven’t thought through the implications yet of angel as a higher order being in this particular context. I don’t know whether a plural church might be addressed with singular pronouns and verbs. My understanding of the message to/about the church in Ephesus which follows was predicated on a false assumption that the pronouns and verbs were plural.]

I know your works as well as your labor and steadfast endurance, He had said previously, and that you cannot tolerate evil. You have even put to the test those who refer to themselves as apostles (but are not), and have discovered that they are false. I am also aware that you have persisted steadfastly, endured much for the sake of my name, and have not grown weary.^[8]

The Ephesian church was a successful church. Am I wrong to imagine that they had developed offices and procedures, filled with officers operating under strict protocols? That they had constructed this self-sustaining church with their own hands? But what happens when the love which is the fulfillment (πλήρωμα) of the law^[9] becomes an office, a ministry, a subdivision of the Church rather than the fruit of the Spirit empowering every individual believer? Therefore, remember from what high state you have fallen and repent, Jesus continued. Do the deeds you did at the first [e.g., first in temporal order since knowing Christ]; if not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place – that is, if you do not repent.^[10] In other words, their first (πρῶτα, a form of πρῶτος) deeds when they were more faithful and less successfully sophisticated were their foremost (πρώτην, another form of πρῶτος) in Jesus’ eyes.

What was that high state? I take Paul’s prayer as my starting point (Ephesians 3:14-19 NET):

I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on the earth is named. I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit (πνεύματος, a form of πνεῦμα) in the inner person, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, because you have been rooted and grounded in love, you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled up (πληρωθῆτε, another form of πληρόω) to all the fullness (πλήρωμα) of God.

I don’t have much to say about ignoring “the enemy’s temptation toward the satisfaction of the flesh.” Satan is finite. I doubt that many of us merit his personal attention. I was confronted by what I assume was a demon once. I don’t recall what it said. I said something like, “Jesus wouldn’t like it if I did that.” It growled and left. No, I wasn’t frightened in the moment, but the memory of it bothered me for weeks. That’s probably why I don’t remember what it said.

So submit to God, James wrote. But resist the devil and he will flee from you.^[11] I’ve never found resisting the devil particularly helpful since temptation usually comes from my own desires: But each one is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires.^[12] Though I didn’t always think so, I now assume that the sin in my flesh (Romans 7:15-20) and the evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander that come out of my heart function apart from the inspiration or activation of demons, evil spirits or devils. Believing the Gospel is far more fruitful as it pertains to sin and righteousness. Perhaps I am being very slow and dense. Believing the Gospel is probably the best way to submit to God which is in turn the most powerful way to resist the devil relative to any frontal assault I might mount on my own.

Nathan’s response to David, however, has been particularly helpful with sexual temptation (2 Samuel 12:1-4 NET):

So the Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) sent Nathan to David. When he came to David, Nathan said, “There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor (Table). The rich man had a great many flocks and herds (Table). But the poor man had nothing except for a little lamb he had acquired. He raised it, and it grew up alongside him and his children. It used to eat his food, drink from his cup, and sleep in his arms. It was just like a daughter to him (Table).

“When a traveler arrived at the rich man’s home, he did not want to use one of his own sheep or cattle to feed the traveler who had come to visit him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and cooked it for the man who had come to visit him (Table).”

Here there is no mention of resisting the devil or the “lies of the enemy.” After David committed adultery with Uriah’s wife, Nathan as y^ehôvâh’s prophet pictured sexual desire as a hungry traveler who should be shown hospitality with that which is one’s own as opposed to that belonging to another.

Avoid/Run
Keep yourself out of a situation that may cause you to fall. If tempted, run while it’s still light.

Flee sexual immorality (πορνείαν, a form of πορνεία),^[13] Paul wrote the Corinthians. I’ve written elsewhere what I think about πορνεία, that it can mean adultery. I think the “sin of premarital sex,” however, has more to do with middle-class values than y^ehôvâh’s law. It is unfortunate, to say the least, that the meaning of πορνεία was stretched to free young men primarily (when they repent of their “sins of premarital sex”) from their marital obligations to pursue their educations and higher earning potentials.

I expect Jesus to speak to us as He spoke to other religious people (Mark 7:6-9 NET):

“Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites [e.g., actors], as it is written: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.’ Having no regard for the command of God, you hold fast to human tradition.” He also said to them, “You neatly reject the commandment of God in order to set up your tradition.”

Be that as it may if temptation is external to the one being tempted, leaving is good advice. If you find that you only lust in your heart during or after your visit to a strip club, stop going to strip clubs. I think that coincides well with flee πορνείαν if Paul meant sexualized pagan worship: Don’t go to church there.

I won’t eat at Hooter’s, not because I lust after the young waitresses. I stared a nude woman dead in the eyes when I needed to talk to her on set. But put a clothed woman in front of me with great cleavage and my eyes wander away from hers, even away from her lips (and I do a lot more lip reading as I age). Well, they don’t mind, a friend told me. I do. An old man like me staring at young women’s cleavage is embarrassing and not worth the effort it takes not to do it. I get my chicken wings to go (and, yes, I tip my waitress).

Music was the big thing for me. I consider myself a recovering musician. For years I played nothing but hymns and tried to compose a non-sensual music. I didn’t know how to do that so I wrote music to accompany Scripture. The only thing that changed was the calendar-age of the women I gave goose bumps when I played. Eventually I gave it up and have been relieved not to have music in my head all the time. This is not to say that playing or composing music is inherently evil. I am considering only my hyper-sensual relationship to music. Frank Zappa described it best. Who knows, maybe it was his relationship, too.

I would like to highlight two rather obvious limits to fleeing and to the meaning of πορνεία. If anyone thinks he is acting inappropriately toward his virgin, if she is past the bloom of youth and it seems necessary, he should do what he wishes; he does not sin. Let them marry.^[14] The Greek word translated thinks he is acting inappropriately is ἀσχημονεῖν (a form of ἀσχημονέω). To what manner of inappropriateness does ἀσχημονεῖν refer? It comes from ἀσχήμων, which Paul used obliquely for the penis or vagina a little later in this letter: and those members we consider less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our unpresentable members (ἀσχήμονα, a form of ἀσχήμων) are clothed with dignity…^[15]

Love, by the way, does not act inappropriately: It is not rude (ἀσχημονεῖ, another form of ἀσχημονέω).^[16] So we have behavior between a man and his woman that is not sin: Let them marry. And it is not love either. Again, I will make my appeal for fuck and fucking. They are very evocative words in the English language, distinguished and distinguishable from love, if we abandon our religious pretensions in favor of accurate verbal communication.

Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp.^[17] I remember vividly the moment I stared at this verse and realized it wasn’t describing some otherworldly event. Jesus hiked up his skirt, hoofed it and outran the old men who wanted to stone Him. And I imagine young John was huffing it out right beside Him. As they lost their pursuers around a corner, leaned against a wall to catch their breath and laughed together, the Son of God became human to me.

Perhaps Simon the Pharisee expected Jesus to hike up his skirt and hoof it, if He were a prophet. Had Jesus fled from Mary we would have a very different story to consider. Maybe it would be more to our liking; that’s difficult to say.

I’ll conclude this in another essay.

Condemnation or Judgment? – Part 13

Back to The Angels Will Gather

Back to Paul’s Religious Mind Revisited – Part 1

^[1] Isaiah 11:4b (NIV)

^[2] John 17:3 (NET)

^[3] Romans 6:5a (NET)

^[4] Romans 6:5b (NET)

^[5] Romans 6:6 (NET)

^[6] Romans 6:8 (NET)

^[7] Revelation 2:4 (NET)

^[8] Revelation 2:2, 3 (NET)

^[9] Romans 13:10b (NET)

^[10] Revelation 2:5 (NET)

^[11] James 4:7 (NET)

^[12] James 1:14 (NET)

^[13] 1 Corinthians 6:18a (NET)

^[14] 1 Corinthians 7:36 (NET)

^[15] 1 Corinthians 12:23 (NET)

^[16] 1 Corinthians 13:5a (NET)

^[17] John 10:39 (NASB)

Condemnation or Judgment? – Part 7

Posted on June 10, 2014 by admin

The third assumption I found in Richard Wayne Garganta’s attempt to eliminate “hell talk” from the Bible was: 3) Punishment is not merely consequential but effectual in purging or purifying sin. I’ve selected a quote from “Bible Threatenings Explained”^[1] that led me to consider this assumption as a major precursor of his views on hell:

What God is determined to destroy in the sinner is that which makes him a sinner. Christ said He came to utterly destroy evil – the works of the devil. He said he came to save the world, not to destroy men. God proceeds towards the wayward as a good parent must, to eradicate the evil by punishment.

While I must agree that God has proceeded “to eradicate the evil by punishment,” I am not convinced that He believes, or the Bible teaches, that punishment is the method that will “destroy in the sinner…that which makes him a sinner” or “utterly destroy evil.”

Before the flood the Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made humankind on the earth, and he was highly offended. So the Lord said, “I will wipe humankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth – everything from humankind to animals, including creatures that move on the ground and birds of the air, for I regret that I have made them.”^[2] The earth was ruined in the sight of God; the earth was filled with violence. God saw the earth, and indeed it was ruined, for all living creatures on the earth were sinful.^[3]

Death by drowning is a kind of ultimate punishment. I suppose it was effective for a time at purging wickedness, evil, violence and sinfulness from the earth, until Noah cursed Canaan for Ham’s witness(?)—Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness^[4]—gossip(?)—Ham told his two brothers who were outside^[5]—mockery, maybe? Let’s be frank, wasn’t it Ham’s revelation of the frayed dirty edges of Noah’s righteousness that angered Noah? Hadn’t Noah exposed himself, literally in a drunken stupor and figuratively when he cursed Ham’s son? I should probably say figuratively in a drunken stupor and literally when he cursed Canaan, to keep the metaphor and reality straight.

My difficulty with Mr. Garganta’s third assumption is more personal and idiosyncratic to the path of righteousness I’m on than the others. As the Holy Spirit convinced me that the Bible as a book of rules would never satisfy my God-given hunger and thirst for righteousness I needed a new understanding of Paul’s assurance: Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the person dedicated to God may be capable and equipped for every good work.^[6] One fruitful way of viewing the Bible is as a narrative of the tidal movement from human responsibility to God’s grace.

The highwater mark of human responsibility

The highwater mark of God’s grace

Is it not true, God asked the murderer Cain, that if you do what is right, you will be fine? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. It desires to dominate you, but you must subdue it.

Genesis 4:7 (NET)

I have been crucified with Christ, wrote the murderer Saul transformed as Paul the Apostle, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20 (NET)

Cain killed his brother in a jealous rage. If it weren’t so tragic, the image of God telling this murderer to subdue the sin that desires to dominate him is laughable.

Saul tried to cover his motives with law and religion, but Paul eventually recognized it as the very same jealous rage.^[7]

I don’t get the impression that Cain expected God to bless that jealous rage as righteousness. Saul did, superficially at least. Something in Jesus’ words must have rung true somewhere deep within Saul, since we have the writings of Paul the Apostle, and not Saul the blind Inquisitor who withstood the “temptation” of the “demon” disguised as an angel of light on the road to Damascus. Saul the blind Inquisitor was crucified with Christ there, or later in the desert.^[8] Paul himself related this death to baptism: Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.^[9]

I will suggest that the most distance covered from human responsibility to the grace of God in the shortest amount of time is most evident in the two covenants ^[10] separated by forty days ^[11] and the incident with the golden calf.^[12] But I don’t think I would ever have recognized that movement apart from Paul’s writings and the Holy Spirit’s leading and guidance. Here I want to consider that movement as revealed in the writings of the prophet Hosea and relate it to the assumption that punishment is/was effective at purging or purifying sin rather than merely a consequence of that sin.

[The people of the northern kingdom of Israel] consult their wooden idols, the Lord spoke through Hosea, and their diviner’s staff answers with an oracle. The wind of prostitution (zânûn) blows them astray; they commit spiritual (tachath) adultery (zânâh) against their God [Table]. They sacrifice (zâbach) on the mountaintops, and burn offerings on the hills; they sacrifice under (tachath) oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is so pleasant. As a result, your daughters have become cult prostitutes (zânâh), and your daughters-in-law commit adultery (nâʼaph) [Table]. I will not punish (pâqad) your daughters when they commit prostitution (zânâh), nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery (nâʼaph). For the men consort with harlots (zânâh), they sacrifice (zâbach) with temple prostitutes (q^edêshâh).^[13]

Ephraim [another name for the northern kingdom of Israel] has attached himself to idols, the Lord continued. Do not go near him [Table]! They consume their alcohol, then engage in cult prostitution (zânâh); they dearly love their shameful (qâlôn) behavior [Table].^[14] I assume that this was πορνεία (that zâbach was used facetiously, they offered sexual intercourse to God under shade trees with q^edêshâh). And I assume that this was essentially what was going on in the church at Pergamum: But I have a few things against you, Jesus said: You have some people there who follow the teaching of Balaam, who instructed Balak to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality (πορνεῦσαι, a form of πορνεύω).^[15] It is clearly what was going on with the Moabite women after Balaam prophesied for, rather than against, Israel (Numbers 25:1-3 NET):

When Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality (zânâh) with the daughters of Moab. These women invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods; then the people ate and bowed down to their gods. When Israel joined themselves to Baal-peor, the anger of the Lord flared up against Israel.

The “Children of God” called it flirty fishing.^[16]

I also assume this kind of πορνεία was practiced in the church at Thyatira: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, Jesus said, who calls herself a prophetess, and by her teaching deceives my servants to commit sexual immorality (πορνεῦσαι, a form of πορνεύω) and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent, but she is not willing to repent of her sexual immorality (πορνείας, a form of πορνεία). Look! I am throwing her onto a bed of violent illness, and those who commit adultery (μοιχεύοντας, a form of μοιχεύω) with her into terrible suffering, unless they repent of her deeds. Furthermore, I will strike her followers with a deadly disease, and then all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts. I will repay each one of you what your deeds deserve.^[17]

This is essentially the same punishment He brought upon Israel when they joined themselves to Baal-peor—Those that died in the plague were 24,000^[18]—unless plague here is a euphemism for the men arrested and hanged ^[19] (not to mention skewered ^[20]). But to the northern kingdom of Israel, He said, I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a young lion to the house of Judah. I myself will tear them to pieces, then I will carry them off, and no one will be able to rescue them! Then I will return again to my lair until they have suffered their punishment (ʼâsham).^[21] Then they will seek me; in their distress they will earnestly seek me.^[22]

He continued to prophesy what Israel would say after they were punished (Hosea 6:1-3 NET):

Come on! Let’s return to the Lord! He himself has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us! He has injured us, but he will bandage our wounds! He will restore us in a very short time; he will heal us in a little while, so that we may live in his presence. So let us acknowledge him! Let us seek to acknowledge the Lord! He will come to our rescue as certainly as the appearance of the dawn, as certainly as the winter rain comes, as certainly as the spring rain that waters the land.

If I stopped here punishment would appear to be overwhelmingly effective at purging or purifying evil. The Lord didn’t stop here so neither will I (Hosea 6:4 NET):

What am I going to do with you, O Ephraim? What am I going to do with you, O Judah? For your faithfulness is as fleeting as the morning mist; it disappears as quickly as dawn’s dew!

There is a refrain in Deuteronomy: In this way you must purge (bâʽar) out evil from within.^[23] In this way you will purge (bâʽar) evil from among you.^[24] …in this way you will purge (bâʽar) evil from Israel.^[25] …in this way you will purge (bâʽar) evil from among you.^[26] All refer to capital punishment, stoning primarily. If that is all that Mr. Garganta meant by his assertion that “God proceeds…to eradicate the evil by punishment,” I concede the point. But it seems clear that the survivors of punishment of lesser consequence than death, or those who merely fear punishment, are encouraged to hypocrisy by such punishment and fear. They become actors, not poets or doers of the law. They are devoid of the love that fulfills the law. The Lord’s judgment was swift and severe (Hosea 6:5 NET):

Therefore, I will certainly cut you into pieces at the hands of the prophets; I will certainly kill you in fulfillment of my oracles of judgment; for my judgment will come forth like the light of the dawn.

The time of judgment is about to arrive, the Lord promised through Hosea. The time of retribution is imminent! Let Israel know! The prophet is considered a fool – the inspired man is viewed as a madman – because of the multitude of your sins and your intense animosity.^[27] And it happened to them as He promised. But there is still hope for them (Hosea 11:8, 9 NET):

How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I surrender you, O Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? I have had a change of heart! All my tender compassions are aroused [Table]! I cannot carry out my fierce anger! I cannot totally destroy Ephraim! Because I am God, and not man – the Holy One among you – I will not come in wrath!

This sounds like grace, God’s unilateral decision, not something effected in any way by the punishment of death the inhabitants of the northern kingdom of Israel suffered. It seems to me then that the failure of punishment to purge wickedness, evil, violence and sinfulness in the living is part of the justification for God’s unilateral grace: Let God be proven true, and every human being shown up as a liar, just as it is written: “so that you will be justified in your words and will prevail when you are judged.”^[28]

As I worked on this essay my daughter suffered a stroke. That is definitely things not going my way. When I had the chance to consider if God was punishing her, me, or us for something, praying that her sins have more to do with me and mine than hers, making no real sense, just a jumble of thoughts…take it out on me not her…the Holy Spirit brought Scripture to my mind: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.”^[29]

I don’t take Him to mean that this man and his parents lived lives of sinless perfection. I don’t even take Him to mean necessarily that the parents’ sins in this case had no causal relationship to their son’s blindness. I take Him to mean that He wanted his disciples to concern themselves with the revelation of the works of God rather than establishing blame.

Condemnation or Judgment? – Part 8

Back to Romans, Part 70

Back to Condemnation or Judgment? – Part 16

Back to Paul’s Religious Mind Revisited – Part 2

Back to Forgiven or Passed Over? Part 4

Back to Forgiven or Passed Over? Part 6

Back to A Monotonous Cycle Revisited, Part 2

^[1] Richard Wayne Garganta, “Bible Threats Explained”

^[2] Genesis 6:5-7 (NET)

^[3] Genesis 6:11, 12 (NET)

^[4] Genesis 9:22a (NET)

^[5] Genesis 9:22b (NET)

^[6] 2 Timothy 3:16, 17 (NET) Table1

^[7] Acts 9:1; 26:9-11; Romans 10:19; 11:11, 14; 1 Timothy 1:13 In the past I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent man (ISVNT). The NET translators chose arrogant for ὑβριστήν, but acknowledged in a note that they might have chosen violent or cruel.

^[8] Galatians 1:17 (NET)

^[9] Romans 6:3, 4 (NET)

^[10] The Two Covenants: The second “covenant,” however, is much more like a unilateral declaration, a promise, than a contract between two parties. Why then was the law given? It was added because of transgressions, until the arrival of the descendant [Jesus the Son of God] to whom the promise had been made. It was administered through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary is not for one party alone, but God is one [Father and Son]. Is the law therefore opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that was able to give life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But the scripture imprisoned everything and everyone under sin so that the promise could be given – because of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ – to those who believe. Galatians 3:19-22 (NET)

^[11] Exodus 24:18 (NET)

^[12] Exodus 32 (NET)

^[13] Hosea 4:12-14a (NET)

^[14] Hosea 4:17, 18 (NET)

^[15] Revelation 2:14 (NET)

^[16] xFamily.org, “Flirty Fishing”

^[17] Revelation 2:20-23 (NET)

^[18] Numbers 25:9 (NET)

^[19] Numbers 25:4, 5 (NET)

^[20] Numbers 25:6-8 (NET)

^[21] NET note: “The verb יֶאְשְׁמוּ (ye’sh^emu, Qal imperfect 3rd person masculine plural from אָשַׁם, ’asham, ‘to be guilty’) means ‘to bear their punishment’ (Ps 34:22-23; Prov 30:10; Isa 24:6; Jer 2:3; Hos 5:15; 10:2; 14:1; Zech 11:5; Ezek 6:6; BDB 79 s.v. אָשַׁם 3). Many English versions translate this as ‘admit their guilt’ (NIV, NLT) or ‘acknowledge their guilt’ (NASB, NRSV), but cf. NAB ‘pay for their guilt’ and TEV ‘have suffered enough for their sins.’”

^[22] Hosea 5:14, 15 (NET)

^[23] Deuteronomy 13:5 (NET)

^[24] Deuteronomy 17:7; 22:21 (NET)

^[25] Deuteronomy 22:22 (NET)

^[26] Deuteronomy 22:24 (NET)

^[27] Hosea 9:7 (NET)

^[28] Romans 3:4 (NET)

^[29] John 9:2, 3 (NKJV)

My Reasons and My Reason, Part 3

Posted on March 19, 2014 by admin

“I was really hoping that I could, um, move back in here for a while,” Linda probed her mother.

“Here?” her mother asked.

“Yeah.”

“No, you know that’s not possible.”

“Why not?” Linda asked.

“How would it look for a married woman to move in with her parents apart from her husband?”

“He hits me, Ma.”

“I can’t say I’m surprised,” her mother sighed. “What did you do?”

“What do you mean, what’d I do?”

“What did you do to make him angry? He didn’t just hit you out of the blue.”

Linda fought off her instinctive reaction to her mother’s judgment as she searched for a diplomatic answer to keep the conversation going. “I guess I didn’t do what he wanted me to,” she said finally.

“You took a vow, a very serious vow.”

“Can’t I just stay, like, a few days, Ma, please?”

“And then what? You gonna get a divorce? What do you think we are, Protestant?”

“Ma, you just don’t understand.”

“Linda, I was…I was 18 years old when I had your sister. Unmarried…and all alone…before I met your father. I’d suffered long and hard. How dare you come here and tell me I don’t understand. I understand. Now, God gave you a husband…who provides for you. And you…Look at me. Go home to Chuck. Be a good wife. Listen to him, and obey him.”

Linda’s mother thought she was sending her daughter home to be a particular kind of submissive masochist,^[1] Mrs. Chuck Traynor (or a “normal” woman, accepting his “implicit” right to hit her as she learned to “submit to his stronger will,” all while she took no pleasure in it whatsoever). She assumed that Chuck was, what I am calling, a dominant masochist (fig. 4), someone with Linda’s best interests at heart.

fig. 4

She knew what a handful Linda could be. She had no way of knowing that Chuck was much closer to a sadistic top than a dominant masochist. And she certainly had no way to know that she was sending her daughter out to become Linda Lovelace of “Deep Throat” fame.

This scene from “Lovelace,”^[2] affected me deeply. Linda’s mother, written by Andy Bellin and played compassionately by Sharon Stone, is compellingly authentic. Though her how-would-it-look line sounds crassly self-serving today, it was the effective meaning of one of the “laws of Paul” in the seventies: Abstain from all appearance of evil.^[3] Her refusal even to “appear” to support divorce by allowing her daughter to return struck home. We didn’t drink, dance or smoke to prove how much better we were than Catholics. At least that’s what I learned, which is not the same as saying that is what I was taught. (It should be obvious by now that I learned many things I wasn’t necessarily taught.)

Linda, played by Amanda Seyfried, was lying to her mother. Her line, “He hits me, Ma,” though objectively true wasn’t the reason she showed up at her mother’s door. But I understand completely why she didn’t say, “He pimps me out for money, Ma,” to the woman who became so righteously indignant when the tie-strap of Linda’s swim top was undone to avoid tan lines. And I honestly don’t know how her mother would have responded if Linda had told her the truth.

I didn’t see this film because I was interested in Linda Lovelace, but because Amanda Seyfried chose to play her. (And now I’ll have to pay more attention to Sharon Stone.) I’ll follow any actor who gives me aesthetic moments like the mother-daughter confrontation in “Mamma Mia,” especially one who can go toe-to-toe with Meryl Streep. Sophie, the daughter played by Ms. Seyfried, was troubled about the mess she had made inviting three possible fathers to her wedding. Her mother, played by Ms. Streep, thought (hoped) she didn’t want to marry. Poor Linda Lovelace thought “Deep Throat” might be her stepping stone to becoming Amanda Seyfried (or, Meryl Streep).

I’ve never seen “Deep Throat” or anything else Linda Lovelace has done. Clips I’ve seen in documentaries, and now recreations in “Lovelace,” don’t recommend the film to me. I’ve never read her book Ordeal.^[4] I do recall sneering and scoffing when I heard about it. The mother-daughter scene in “Lovelace” made me question, why? The only answer I came up with is that I had seen pictures of Ms. Lovelace smiling. I supposed she took some pleasure in sex and public attention. Thinking and writing about my own masochism I had to repent of that sneering and scoffing.

Part of me (perhaps the submissive masochistic part) would like to tell a different story, a story about an innocent boy who rescued a stash of porn from a dumpster, hid it in the woods, read it, returned again and again to look at its pictures, and became corrupted. That’s a story I could sell to my fundamentalist Christian friends. And it’s based, at least, on a true story. It’s just not mine. It was another boy’s story when he brought that stash of porn to me and asked me to keep it away from him. He lived next door while I worked on “The Tripartite Rationality Index.”^[5]

It was summer. I had no air conditioning, not even a fan. I stayed up late until the apartment cooled down enough that I could sleep. This boy came over and sat with me at night while his mother was out, or even if she was occupied at home. She wasn’t exactly a prostitute. She got all dressed up, went out to a bar or club, picked up a man, brought him home and lived with him as long as he paid the bills. “You should marry her,” the boy said to me more than once. “She’s pretty.” She was pretty, especially when she went out to hunt. I didn’t marry her. I only talked to her once, long enough to convince her I wasn’t a child molester.

I didn’t have access to porn as a child; I was quarantined. I use that word because of a story my mother told me recently on a different topic. After I was born she spent many lonely days in the hospital at Christmastime. She heard about another woman whose baby was born in the car on the way to the hospital. She asked a nurse if she could visit that woman and see her baby. The nurse told her that neither was in the general hospital population, having given birth (and being born) in such unsanitary conditions. Though it seemed harsh to my mother at the time, it became her rationale for hell, God “quarantining” the righteous from the evil.

My mother was twenty-two-years-old. She had just given birth to her first child. And this was the authoritative word of medical science. Suddenly my childhood made sense to me. I was quarantined, not to keep me in hell, but to protect her “innocent” baby from the evil world. It was 1953; discrimination was still a matter of good taste. The problem was, the porn was already in me. And I am truly sorry that I infected the pristine female world she constructed for me with my dirty male mind and desires. (I know a Freudian would have a field day with that, but I’m being as sincere as I know how to be.)

My mother, however, was not alone in her germ theory of sin, sin as an infection from without. “I feel dead inside, no, something worse than death,” reads an excerpt from nineteen-year-old Hannah’s diary, the main character in the film October Baby. “I am still a child, a child trying to find a place in this world. I have so many unanswered questions, questions I feel but can’t even begin to speak because there are no words to express them. Something is missing. Why, God, do I feel unwanted? Why do I feel I have no right to exist? Why do I spend more time wanting to end my life than live it?”

Knowing that this was a Christian film, a pretty girl who didn’t have a boyfriend, take drugs or drink or smoke and yet felt as Hannah did, seemed to recall Paul’s letter to the Romans (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.

“Hannah, I believe that what you’re feeling is normal and is even expected,” wasn’t counsel from her Baptist minister, but from her doctor. For it was not sin that caused her to feel as if the sentence of death had been passed against^[6] her, rather it was a quasi-mystical intuition that she was a failed abortion, the truth her parents had hidden from her. They hadn’t even told her she was adopted. Once I got over that hump, it was an okay movie about a young woman dealing with an extraordinarily painful reality. And Rachel Hendrix as Hannah is a delight to watch. When the filmmaker’s finished the pro-life-message-film their financial backers paid for, Hannah, back where she started, visited a Catholic priest.

“I can’t figure out how to let go of the fact that I feel hatred for myself and others,” she told him. Another secret she had learned along the way was that she was a twin. Her elder brother was more damaged in the botched abortion and died three months after their birth. “And I feel guilty,” Hannah continued her confession. “Part of me feels like he should be alive and I shouldn’t. I wonder if he would have been a better person than me, what he would have been like. I just hate myself for feeling this way.”

So Hannah came very close to actually confessing the sin in her flesh.^[7] The priest told her about Jesus’ forgiveness, and her ability through Him to forgive others. And I should probably remember that a Christian film is intended for Christians as an audience. I’ve already written that most Christians I know don’t see themselves as “great sinners who were forgiven much and were called by God to forgive lesser sinners than themselves.”^[8] And who am I to see things so differently? For who concedes [me] any superiority? What do [I] have that [I] did not receive?^[9]

In the previous essay I quoted, “If O is willing to sustain her devotion all the way through to her own destruction, so be it. She wants to be ‘possessed, utterly possessed, to the point of death,’ to the point that her body and mind are no longer her responsibility.”^[10] To my religious mind this would have sounded (and sounds) absurd. I kept my own masochism from my first wife as a shameful secret as I resolved to follow God as Moses instructed Israel (Deuteronomy 30:15-19 NET).

Look! I have set before you today life and prosperity on the one hand, and death and disaster on the other. What I am commanding you today is to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to obey his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances. Then you will live and become numerous and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are about to possess. However, if you turn aside and do not obey, but are lured away to worship and serve other gods, I declare to you this very day that you will certainly perish! You will not extend your time in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess. Today I invoke heaven and earth as a witness against you that I have set life and death, blessing and curse, before you. Therefore choose life so that you and your descendants may live!

Preoccupied with my attempt to obey him in my own strength, I didn’t hear, I also call on you to love the Lord your God…and be loyal to him, for he gives you life and enables you to live continually…^[11] So I did not love the Lord my God, walk in his ways, or obey his commandments, statutes and ordinances. And my first wife divorced me for my religion. “I don’t want to read the Bible,” she exclaimed. “Everyone who reads the Bible turns out like you!” That’s when I began to feel as if the sentence of death had been passed against^[12] me. And that’s when I began to hear, and perhaps began to choose, death instead.

For if we are out of our minds, Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, since we have concluded this, that Christ died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised.^[13]

I began to perceive in Scripture a diminished responsibility for righteousness for one led by the Spirit: For who concedes you any superiority? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as though you did not?^[14] I have been crucified with Christ, Paul wrote the Galatians, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.^[15]

I sat silently in an adult Sunday school class as a woman was reprimanded for quoting this verse, because she hadn’t earned the right to say it by her own works of righteousness as Paul had done. And I was the one who had whispered it in her ear the night before as a possible path of righteousness. I never expected her to shout it from the rooftops in Sunday school!

But Paul wrote, I do not set aside God’s grace, because if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing!^[16] Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.^[17] How may we live a new life? …through the glory of the Father…just as Christ was raised from the dead.

I began, tentatively at first, to perceive a diminished responsibility for sin for those led by the Spirit: Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me.^[18] But my religious mind (and not mine only) thinks this is a cop out. It confuses confessing sins with taking responsibility for them, though it knows full well that if we deliberately keep on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins is left for us, but only a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume God’s enemies.^[19]

“‘What does a Christian seek,’” Carmela Ciuraru quoted the author of Histoire d’O in her article ‘The Story of the Story of O,’ “‘but to lose himself in God,’ Aury, a devout atheist, once said. ‘To be killed by someone you love strikes me as the epitome of ecstasy.’”^[20] While it is still somewhat difficult for me to grasp exactly what Dominique Aury meant, I agree that to be killed by, or through, Someone I love and yet live by and through Him is the epitome of ecstasy.

I know these things because I have received them from his Spirit. But it is impossible for me to determine or to gainsay how much I feel these things through my masochism. And if my masochism is the wrath of God revealed from heaven, that is truly amazing, that the wrath of God…revealed from heaven against all [my] ungodliness and unrighteousness^[21] is also an aid in my enlightenment to, and salvation from, that very ungodliness and unrighteousness.

So, do I whip myself into a euphoric state of submission to obey God?

It’s a fair question, given what I’ve written. The primary meaning of the Greek word translated subdue is “to beat black and blue, to smite so as to cause bruises and livid spots” in Paul’s confession: Instead I subdue (ὑπωπιάζω)^[22] my body and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others I myself will not be disqualified.^[23] Frankly, I have no idea if I should take this literally, nor do I care. Paul also wrote (Colossians 2:20-23 NET):

If you have died with Christ to the elemental spirits of the world, why do you submit (δογματίζεσθε, a form of δογματίζω)^[24] to them as though you lived in the world? “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!” These are all destined to perish with use, founded as they are on human commands and teachings. Even though they have the appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship and false humility achieved by an unsparing treatment of the body – a wisdom with no true value – they in reality result in fleshly indulgence.

I have pondered this question idly from time to time: if Paul engaged in self-flagellation as a spiritual exercise before he wrote to the Romans and the Colossians, did he continue it as a fleshly indulgence after realizing it had no true value spiritually? But I don’t know the answer to either component of that question, or even how to know how to search out an answer. I suppose I could consider it the thorn in Paul’s flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7b NET):

Therefore, so that I would not become arrogant, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to trouble me – so that I would not become arrogant.

My elderly Pastor thought that thorn was failing eye sight, my Catholic friend thinks it was masturbation and Bishop Spong ^[25] thinks it was latent homosexuality. I feel a little ridiculous pronouncing it self-flagellation, though I’m intrigued by the possibilities for self-acceptance the Holy Spirit created by being non-specific here (e.g., Paul could have said precisely what he meant). I’ll probably wait and ask Paul.

But no, I don’t whip myself into a euphoric state of submission to obey God. I believe (I believe; help my unbelief!^[26]) the death He has given me in Christ Jesus and the fruit of his Spirit. I have whipped myself at times as a lonely fleshly indulgence.

My Reasons and My Reason, Part 4

Back to Condemnation or Judgment? – Part 9

^[1] http://www.herwoodshed.com/library/where.html

^[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovelace_(film)

^[3] 1 Thessalonians 5:22 (KJV) It might still be what Paul meant. Though the NET translation is—Stay away from every form (εἴδους, a form of εἶδος) of evil—the Greek word εἴδους was also used in 2 Corinthians 5:6, 7 (NET): Therefore we are always full of courage, and we know that as long as we are alive here on earth we are absent from the Lord – for we live by faith, not by sight (εἴδους).

^[4] http://www.amazon.com/Ordeal-Linda-Lovelace/dp/0806527749

^[5] https://religiousmind.net/2012/07/27/davids-forgiveness-part-2/

^[6] 2 Corinthians 1:9 (NET)

^[7] Romans 7:18 (NET)

^[8] https://religiousmind.net/2014/01/03/torture-part-2/

^[9] 1 Corinthians 4:7a (NET)

^[10] “The Story of the Story of O,” Carmela Ciuraru, Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics

^[11] Deuteronomy 30:20 (NET)

^[12] 2 Corinthians 1:9 (NET)

^[13] 2 Corinthians 5:13-15 (NET)

^[14] 1 Corinthians 4:7 (NET)

^[15] Galatians 2:20 (NET)

^[16] Galatians 2:21 (NET)

^[17] Romans 6:3, 4 (NET)

^[18] Romans 7:20 (NET)

^[19] Hebrews 10:26, 27 (NET)

^[20] “The Story of the Story of O,” Carmela Ciuraru, Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics http://www.guernicamag.com/features/ciuraru_6_15_11/

^[21] Romans 1:18 (NET)

^[23] 1 Corinthians 9:27 (NET)

^[25] http://www.gayheroes.com/paul.htm

^[26] Mark 9:24 (NET)

The Gospel and the Religious Mind

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

Tag Archives: Romans 6:3-4