Tag Archives: Romans 9:16

Torture, Part 4

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Suspecting that my antipathy (and objections) to Jonathan Edwards’ contention that God is the Superlative Torturer are rooted in my personal history, I need to revisit the long name of God for perspective.

The Long Name of God
The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, keeping loyal love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

Exodus 34:6, 7a (NET)

 But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.

Exodus 34:7b (NET)

Intellectually, I can see that the things I’ve been looking into in Revelation fall under the heading of not leaving the guilty unpunished.  Rationally, I can see that this long name is an accurate description of who God is, one unified God.  But I don’t know the One who by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation, not experientially.  I deserve to know Him that way.  I’ve earned the right, so to speak.  But I don’t know Him like that.  I know the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, keeping loyal love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

Asaph[1] apparently knew God as the One who by no means leaves the guilty unpunished.  I suffer all day long, he wrote, and am punished every morning.[2]  Of course he acknowledged that he felt that way when: my feet almost slipped; my feet almost slid out from under me (Table).  For I envied those who are proud, as I observed the prosperity of the wicked (Table).[3]  And I most felt like Asaph as “a philosophical and legalistic young man fighting my way back from atheism,”[4] obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.[5]

I don’t think I was particularly obsessed with money.  I was giving money and continually amazed that I always had enough.  I wanted some fame or power or prestige or position, and thought that “obeying” God by striving to keep the law, or the love that is the fulfillment of the law[6] as if Paul’s definition were a list of laws, was a means to that end.  I was “punished” constantly then.  But all I really meant by God’s “punishment,” or his “blessing” for that matter, was how things worked out according to my hopes, my dreams, my plans or my schemes.  When things went my way I was “blessed,” and I was “punished” when they didn’t.

This wasn’t always the case, however.  Though I didn’t think in these terms then, at seventeen He who by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation was the One I worshiped and loved as much as it is possible to love such a One.  Punishment is the currency of childhood.  It’s how one pays for what he wants.  I didn’t actually know this God in any experiential way.  I believed in Him.  He made sense to me.  I claimed to believe in Jesus’ salvation.  And I suppose I did to some degree, but that was heaven.  Heaven was as far away as Disneyland.  And my family couldn’t afford Disneyland either.

I don’t recall knowing the long name of God, but I knew the Ten Commandments: I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me [Table], but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments [Table].[7]  I had no clue that the ones who loved Him and kept his commandments were the ones He had shown mercy.  If you had told me it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy,[8] I wouldn’t have believed you, not by seventeen.  I “knew” I didn’t love God enough or keep his commandments enough to “earn” his mercy.  That’s why I trusted Jesus for a place in heaven rather than in hell.  But as for the rest of it, I “knew” I would pay in punishment.

At seventeen I don’t think I knew the law that reads, If a man entices a virgin who is not betrothed, and lies with her, he shall surely pay the bride-price for her to be his wife.  If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money according to the bride-price of virgins.[9]  I would be hard-pressed to confirm that anyone I knew had ever heard of this law.  We believed in the sin of premarital sex.  I knew the law about rape (Deuteronomy 22:28, 29 NKJV).

If a man finds a young woman who is a virgin, who is not betrothed, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are found out [Table], then the man who lay with her shall give to the young woman’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife because he has humbled her; he shall not be permitted to divorce her all his days [Table].

This law was impossible to avoid.  I read it on different occasions in anti-God and antinomian polemics.  I even checked the reference in the Bible to see if it was true; that is, that it was actually in the Bible as the polemicists claimed.  One might argue that I should have inferred the former law from the latter.  I can’t disagree.  I wrote[10] that I had a “philosophical bent of mind.”  While true, it doesn’t mean that I was any good necessarily at doing philosophy.  I was embarrassed and frustrated by this law.  Why did God force women to marry their rapists?!  But neither my embarrassment nor my frustration raised a single question in my mind regarding the validity of the sin of premarital sex.  I believed in the sin of premarital sex with all my heart, the laws of God notwithstanding.

Such was the state of my “faith” when my highschool girlfriend and I fucked[11] for the first time.  I don’t use the term fucked to be insulting, demeaning or derogatory but in the hope of finding a word in English that will carry the weight of eros in Greek.  Sexual intercourse is about inserting an erect penis into a vagina and thrusting and relaxing to stimulate the nerves in the head of the penis and the clitoris until an explosive pleasure sensation called an orgasm is achieved.  What I mean by fuck, fucked or fucking has everything to do with sexual intercourse, and nothing to do with it except as an entry portal or an ongoing celebration of a wondrous and unimaginable relationship with another person of the opposite sex, a relationship that artists have spent their lifetimes attempting to capture, celebrate or recreate in music, dance, art, sculpture, poetry and drama.

Before we fucked, my girlfriend and I were two teenagers too shy to remove our underwear as we crawled under the covers.  Afterward in the bath together a Bible verse came to mind, And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.[12]  I felt like I understood that verse for the first time.  But it didn’t dissuade me that I would be punished for the sin of premarital sex.

I had some very specific punishments in mind.  Pregnancy was top of that list.  Obviously children were God’s primary punishment for fucking.  My Dad had warned me to watch out for women who would trick me into caring for their children.[13]  Protestants were a little wishy-washy on the sin of birth control as a way to avoid God’s punishment for fucking, but Catholics were strong and on target on this issue.  My girlfriend and I were well-versed in the “Brave New World”[14] and had our Malthusian drill[15] down pat.  We never fucked without at least one method of contraception, and often two.  The idea that a couple might become so impassioned they forgot their Malthusian drill was inconceivable to us.

Venereal disease was number two on God’s list of punishments for fucking.  But we were both virgins when we started fucking.  I had the desire to expand this fucking relationship to others, until I actually tried to initiate it.  Though I didn’t know the law about seducing virgins intellectually, I felt that law written in my heart when I attempted to fuck another virgin.  “I returned to [my girlfriend] quite contrite actually, confessed my sin and asked for her hand in a much more traditional marriage.”[16]  But even that didn’t alert me that I might not be punished for the sin of premarital sex.  I really don’t think I recognized my aversion to committing adultery as God’s law written in my heart anyway.  I probably just thought it was my idea, or that I “loved” my first girlfriend more.

Finally, death was the punishment I thought most likely for the sin of premarital sex, given that we had outsmarted God twice before.  I didn’t think God would, or maybe could, kill me outright.  Miracles, God breaking the laws of science, were kind of a sketchy issue in my thinking at the time.  But Vietnam was a very real possibility.  And it would be quite easy for Him to kill me there.  When the draft lottery all but guaranteed that I would never be drafted, I still didn’t suspect that God had no intention of punishing me for the sin of premarital sex.

One more opportunity comes to mind.  Every time we fucked in my girlfriend’s bedroom she put three albums on the stereo: Every Picture Tells a Story,[17] Rod Stewart; Who’s Next,[18] The Who; and Aqualung,[19] Jethro Tull.  I tolerated Rod Stewart because I loved her.  Secretly, I called the album “Every Picture Tells a Story Donut,” after the repeated line in the title track.  Who’s Next became more important after she left me for someone else.  Aqualung made a deep and immediate impression.

The song “Wind-Up” spoke particularly to me.  I learned years later that the only required subject in English public schools was the Bible.  That explained why British progressive rock was obsessed with biblical themes.  It also made more sense to me why Ian Anderson[20] left school with “their God tucked underneath my arm.”[21]

So I left there in the morning
with their God tucked underneath my arm —
their half-assed smiles and the book of rules.
So I asked this God a question
and by way of firm reply,
He said — I’m not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays.
So to my old headmaster (and to anyone who cares):
before I’m through I’d like to say my prayers —
I don’t believe you:
you had the whole damn thing all wrong —
He’s not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays.

Looking back now, I clearly had everything “all wrong.”  I remember entertaining the notion that God was trying to communicate to me through the words of this song.  I even went back to the Bible to see if I could find what I had gotten “all wrong.”  But the Bible said the same thing to me it always said: “God’ll getcha if you don’t watch out!”  I decided that there was no way anyone who looked like Ian Anderson could possibly know anything that could stand up to two thousand years of Christian theology (no matter how catchy the tune).  And there was no way I was going to get out of being punished for the sin of premarital sex.

Nothing could persuade me otherwise.  Even when I wasn’t punished for the sin of premarital sex, nothing clicked, no light bulbs went off.  Instead, I felt rationally obligated to become an atheist because God would have punished me for the sin of premarital sex.

[2] Psalm 73:14 (NET) Table

[3] Psalm 73:2, 3 (NET)

[5] 1 Timothy 6:4b, 5 (NKJV)

[6] Romans 13:10b (NET)

[7] Exodus 20:5b, 6 (NKJV)

[8] Romans 9:16 (NET) Table

[9] Exodus 22:16, 17 (NKJV)

[12] Genesis 2:25 (NKJV)

Fear – Exodus, Part 4

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Here I continue to see the Lord cultivating the fear that is a conviction to act in accordance with his word in Israel.  It happened at midnight – the Lord attacked all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the prison, and all the firstborn of the cattle.[1]  But the plague of the firstborn did not touch the Israelites who heard the word of the Lord and marked their doors with the blood of the Passover lamb: For the Lord will pass through to strike Egypt, and when he sees the blood on the top of the doorframe and the two side posts, then the Lord will pass over the door, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.[2]

Pharaoh got up in the night, along with all his servants and all Egypt, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no house in which there was not someone dead.  Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, “Get up, get out from among my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, serve the Lord as you have requested!  Also, take your flocks and your herds, just as you have requested, and leave.  But bless me also.”[3]

And so the descendents of Israel (and others) left Egypt:  There were about 600,000 men on foot, plus their dependants.  A mixed multitude also went up with them, and flocks and herds – a very large number of cattle.[4]  A note in the NET reads: “The ‘mixed multitude’ (עֵרֶב רַב, ’erev rav) refers to a great ‘swarm’ (see a possible cognate in 8:21[17]) of folk who joined the Israelites, people who were impressed by the defeat of Egypt, who came to faith, or who just wanted to escape Egypt (maybe slaves or descendants of the Hyksos). The expression prepares for later references to riffraff who came along.”

In this context of cultivating a fear of the Lord that is a conviction to act in accordance with his word I begin to see a purpose for hardening Pharaoh’s heart (Exodus 14:1-4 NET).

The Lord spoke to Moses: “Tell the Israelites that they must turn and camp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea; you are to camp by the sea before Baal Zephon opposite it.  Pharaoh will think regarding the Israelites, ‘They are wandering around confused in the land – the desert has closed in on them.’  I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will chase after them.  I will gain honor because of Pharaoh and because of all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.”  So this is what they did.

It happened as the Lord promised Moses (Exodus 14:5-7 NET):

When it was reported to the king of Egypt that the people had fled, the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people, and the king and his servants said, “What in the world have we done?  For we have released the people of Israel from serving us!”  Then he prepared his chariots and took his army with him.  He took six hundred select chariots, and all the rest of the chariots of Egypt, and officers on all of them.

If I am correct in seeing this fear that is a conviction to act in accordance with the word of the Lord as the functional equivalent in the Old Testament of the fruit of the Spirit,[5] the desire and the effort brought forth by God for the sake of his good pleasure,[6]  because it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy,[7]  and the love of God[8] that is the fulfillment of the law,[9] then the contemporary Gentile response to the events of Exodus is telling.  It is a clear revelation of the ασεβεια[10] in human hearts, the ungodliness (ἀσέβειαν, a form of ἀσέβεια) and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness;[11] namely, the learned consensus that the Exodus didn’t happen as described in the Bible.  It is difficult to believe that God would do such things for anyone (the descendents of Israel), let alone for everyone (For God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all.[12]).

But orchestrating the events to cultivate such a fear could have the opposite effect, creating a fear that caused Israel to flee, in their hearts if not with their feet (Exodus 14:10-12 NET).

When Pharaoh got closer, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians marching after them, and they were terrified (yârêʼ).[13]  The Israelites cried out to the Lord, and they said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the desert?  What in the world have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?  Isn’t this what we told you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians, because it is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!’”

The rabbis who translated the Septuagint used ἐφοβήθησαν (a form of φοβέω)[14] here.  The next occurrence of ἐφοβήθησαν in the New Testament is in Matthew’s Gospel when Christ, our Passover lamb, [was] sacrificed.[15]  Now from noon until three, darkness came over all the land.  At about three o’clock Jesus shouted [the opening line of Psalm 22] with a loud voice…“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”[16]  Apparently some bystanders didn’t know Aramaic (the language of Judah’s Babylonian/Persian captors and didn’t recognize the Psalm in that ancient tongue: Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani? [8/19/2017: For a different take on this see, DID THE MESSIAH SPEAK ARAMAIC OR HEBREW? (PART 2) BY E.A.KNAPP]).  They said, This man is calling for Elijah[17] (e.g., Eli, Eli—My God, My God).  Leave him alone!  Let’s see if Elijah will come to save him.[18]

Then Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit.  Just then the temple curtain was torn in two, from top to bottom.  The earth shook and the rocks were split apart.  And tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had died were raised….Now when the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and what took place, they were extremely terrified (ἐφοβήθησαν, a form of φοβέω) and said, “Truly this one was God’s Son!”[19]

I doubt that the Centurion and his companions on Golgotha saw the curtain that separated the holy place from the most holy place ripped, though they may have seen or at least heard the commotion afterward.  I assume they witnessed the earthquake and the tombs opening.  Whether they saw any of the dead come out of their tombs depends on how limiting verse 53 is meant to be taken, They came out of the tombs after his resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.[20]  I’m not sure I can make that kind of determination based only on ἐκ,[21] which can mean out of or away from.  But whatever they saw and heard frightened them like the Israelites were frightened when they looked up, and there were the Egyptians marching after them.

But Moses, who was privy to God’s plan, said, Do not fear (yârêʼ)!  Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord that he will provide for you today; for the Egyptians that you see today you will never, ever see again.[22]  The word translated fear above was θαρσεῖτε (a form of θαρσέω)[23] in the Septuagint.  When Jesus’ disciples saw him walking on the water they were terrified and said, “It’s a ghost!” and cried out with fear.  But immediately Jesus spoke to them: “Have courage (θαρσεῖτε)!  It is I.  Do not be afraid.”[24]

Israel crossed the sea on dry ground.  The Egyptians were drowned when they attempted to follow.  When Israel saw the great power that the Lord had exercised over the Egyptians, they feared (yârêʼ) the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.[25]  And so, for the moment, God had successfully cultivated that combination of faith and fear that is the functional equivalent of: if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved,[26] and the fruit of the Spirit,[27] the desire and the effort brought forth by God for the sake of his good pleasure,[28]  because it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy,[29]  and the love of God[30] that is the fulfillment of the law.[31]

[1] Exodus 12:29 (NET)

[2] Exodus 12:23 (NET)

[3] Exodus 12:30-32 (NET)

[4] Exodus 12:37b, 38 (NET)

[6] Philippians 2:13 (NET)

[7] Romans 9:16 (NET) Table

[11] Romans 1:18 (NET)

[12] Romans 11:32 (NET)

[15] 1 Corinthians 5:7b (NET) Table

[16] Matthew 27:45, 46 (NET) Table

[17] Matthew 27:47 (NET)

[18] Matthew 27:49 (NET)

[19] Matthew 27:50-52, 54 (NET)

[20] Matthew 27:53 (NET)

[22] Exodus 14:13 (NET)

[24] Matthew 14:26, 27 (NET)

[25] Exodus 14:31 (NET) There are no more occurrences of ἐφοβήθη (the word the rabbis chose in the Septuagint) in the New Testament.

[26] Romans 10:9 (NET)

[28] Philippians 2:13 (NET)

[29] Romans 9:16 (NET)

Romans, Part 43

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So I ask, Paul began the eleventh chapter of Romans, God has not rejected his people, has he?[1] referring to his fellow countrymen.[2]  In regard to the gospel they are enemies for your sake, he concluded finally, but in regard to election they are dearly loved for the sake of the fathers.  For the gifts (χαρίσματα, a form of χάρισμα) and the call (κλῆσις) of God are irrevocable (ἀμεταμέλητα, a form of ἀμεταμέλητος[5]  Just as you were formerly disobedient (ἠπειθήσατε, a form of ἀπειθέω) to God, but have now received mercy (ἠλεήθητε, a form of ἐλεέω) due to their disobedience (ἀπειθείᾳ, a form of ἀπείθεια), so they too have now been disobedient (ἠπείθησαν, another form of ἀπειθέω) in order that, by the mercy (ἐλέει, a form of ἔλεος) shown to you, they too may now receive mercy (ἐλεηθῶσιν, another form of ἐλεέω).  For God has consigned (συνέκλεισεν, a form of συγκλείω) all people to disobedience (ἀπείθειαν, another form of ἀπείθεια) so that he may show mercy (ἐλεήσῃ, another form of ἐλεέω) to them all.[11]

A note in the NET acknowledged that them “has been supplied for stylistic reasons.”  The original Greek reads simply, “to all.”  I don’t want to get involved in a “universal salvation” argument.  It seems to go nowhere.  After throwing Scripture around and philosophical opinions about free will the argument devolves into something like, “Well, I could never believe in a god who sent (or, would not send) anyone to hell.”  I know I will trust Him as long as He pours his faithfulness (πίστις) into me through his Spirit,[13] whether He sends or does not send people to hell or not.  I do want to consider some of the things about God’s mercy that Paul outlined in Romans 9-11 in a table below.

What Jesus’ obedience, death and resurrection means to his Father, according to Paul

OLD TESTAMENT

Jesus’ obedience, death and resurrection

NEW TESTAMENT
For [God] says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

Romans 9:15 (NET)

 Just as you were formerly disobedient to God, but have now received mercy due to their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy.

Romans 11:30, 31 (NET)
God has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden.

Romans 9:18 (NET)

 So then, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.

Romans 9:16 (NET) Table

 For God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to…all.

Romans 11:32 (NET)

It may be arbitrary on my part to place—God has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden—exclusively under the Old Covenant, if that is seen as a limit to God’s choosing.  My point is simply its logical relationship to I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.  Paul’s conclusion—So then, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy—serves then as the logical and justificatory bridge to his New Covenant argument concluding that, God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to…all.

The word translated consigned is συνέκλεισεν (a form of συγκλείω) in Greek.  Paul used it again when he wrote the Galatians, the scripture imprisoned (συνέκλεισεν) everything and everyone under sin so that the promise could be given – because of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ – to those who believe.[15]  Another form of the same word is found in Luke’s account of the calling of Peter, James and John: When they had done this [e.g., obeyed Jesus by lowering their nets where he instructed them to lower them], they caught (συνέκλεισαν, another form of συγκλείω) so many fish that their nets started to tear.[16]  It is an interesting image, all of us, all humanity, caught in his net.  For God has consigned all people to disobedience…[17]  Like fearful fish we flail frantically to escape from the One who whispers, Stop your striving and recognize that I am God.[18]  For God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all.[19]

I also want to consider the Old Testament precedent for Paul’s reasoning in Romans 11:30 and 31: The word of the Lord came to me, Ezekiel the prophet wrote.  “Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her abominable practices…”[20]

Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite [Table].  Your older sister was Samaria, who lived north of you with her daughters, and your younger sister, who lived south of you, was Sodom with her daughters [Table].  Have you not copied their behavior and practiced their abominable deeds?  In a short time you became even more depraved in all your conduct than they were [Table]!  As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, your sister Sodom and her daughters never behaved as wickedly as you and your daughters have behaved [Table].[21]

You have made your sisters appear righteous with all the abominable things you have done [Table], the Lord continued.  So now, bear your disgrace, because you have given your sisters reason to justify their behavior.  Because the sins you have committed were more abominable than those of your sisters; they have become more righteous than you [Table].[22]  I will restore their fortunes, the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters, and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters [Table]…[23]

Like Samaria or Sodom, Paul wrote Gentile believers, that senseless nation[24] chosen for salvation, Just as you were formerly disobedient to God, but have now received mercy due to [Israel’s] disobedience,[25] because, by [Israel’s] transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel jealous.[26]  The fortunes of Sodom and her daughters, and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters will be restored (along with your [Jerusalem’s] fortunes among them) [Table], so that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you have done in consoling them [Table].  As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters will be restored to their former status, Samaria and her daughters will be restored to their former status, and you and your daughters will be restored to your former status [Table].[27]

So, Paul continued, they [Israel] too have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy.[28]  I will deal with you according to what you have done when you despised your oath by breaking your covenant, the Lord said to Jerusalem through Ezekiel.  Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish a lasting covenant with you.[29]  I will establish my covenant with you, the Lord continued, and then you will know that I am the Lord.  Then you will remember, be ashamed, and remain silent when I make atonement for all you have done, declares the sovereign Lord.[30]

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! Paul continued.  How unsearchable are his judgments and how fathomless his ways!  For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?  Or who has first given to God, that God needs to repay him?  For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be glory forever!  Amen.[31]

It causes me to wonder.  I assume that all in—he may show mercy to…all[32]—refers to human beings, those born of Adam.  But if senseless Gentiles, chosen for salvation to make Israel jealous, reject the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness – a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness to pursue their own righteousness derived[33] from a select subset of the law and their own religious rules, will that open Christ’s salvation to demons and fallen angels?  Will senseless Gentiles be resurrected to bear [their] disgrace and be ashamed of all [they] have done in consoling demons and fallen angels?  Will the administration of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ really mean all things? – the things in heaven as well as the things on earth[34]?

[1] Romans 11:1a (NET)

[2] Romans 9:3 (NET)

[5] Romans 11:28, 29 (NET)

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

[15] Galatians 3:22 (NET)

[16] Luke 5:6 (NET)

[17] Romans 11:32a (NET)

[18] Psalm 46:10a (NET)

[19] Romans 11:32 (NET)

[20] Ezekiel 16:1, 2 (NET)

[21] Ezekiel 16:45b-48 (NET)

[22] Ezekiel 16:51b, 52a (NET)

[23] Ezekiel 16:53a (NET)

[24] Romans 10:19 (NET)

[25] Romans 11:30 (NET)

[26] Romans 11:11b (NET)

[27] Ezekiel 16:53-55 (NET)

[28] Romans 11:31 (NET)

[29] Ezekiel 16:59, 60 (NET)

[30] Ezekiel 16:62, 63 (NET)

[31] Romans 11:33-36 (NET)

[32] Romans 11:32b (NET)

[33] Philippians 3:9 (NET)

[34] Ephesians 1:10 (NET)

Fear – Exodus, Part 3

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The Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning, stand before Pharaoh, and tell him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews: “Release my people so that they may serve me!”’”[1]  This is the seventh plague on Egypt.  You are still exalting yourself against my people by not releasing them, the Lord continued.  I am going to cause very severe hail to rain down about this time tomorrow, such hail as has never occurred in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.  So now, send instructions to gather your livestock and all your possessions in the fields to a safe place.  Every person or animal caught in the field and not brought into the house – the hail will come down on them, and they will die![2]

Those of Pharaoh’s servants who feared (yârêʼ)[3] the word of the Lord hurried to bring their servants and livestock into the houses, but those who did not take the word of the Lord seriously left their servants and their cattle in the field.[4]  The rabbis who translated the Septuagint used φοβούμενος (a form of φοβέω).[5]  Jesus told a parable about a judge who neither feared (φοβούμενος) God nor respected people.[6]  But even this judge could be persuaded by a widow’s persistence.  I will give her justice, the judge said, or in the end she will wear me out by her unending pleas.[7]  But even after six other plagues happened as prophesied by Moses there were still those who did not take the word of the Lord seriously.  The rabbis used προσέσχεν[8] (hold to), they did not hold to the word of the Lord.

It caused me to consider that those who did not take the word of the Lord seriously were actually hardened.  The judge did not fear God but could be persuaded by his own inconvenience.  To lose one’s animals and slaves is a major inconvenience.  Six out of six plagues would seemingly convince one that the seventh was possible if not likely.  Reason alone would persuade one to take precautions at least at the time of day prophesied simply to avoid the greater inconvenience of losing everything.  But only those who feared the word of the Lord acted rationally.  It gave me the impression that the others believed (though did not fear) that the word was the Lord’s, and acted contrary to his word because it was his word.  They were hardened.

The hail struck everything in the open fields, both people and animals, throughout all the land of Egypt.  The hail struck everything that grows in the field, and it broke all the trees of the field to pieces.  Only in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived, was there no hail.  So Pharaoh sent and summoned Moses and Aaron and said to them, “I have sinned this time!  The Lord is righteous, and I and my people are guilty.  Pray to the Lord, for the mighty thunderings and hail are too much!  I will release you and you will stay no longer.”[9]

Moses promised to pray that the hail cease.  But as for you, He said to Pharaoh, and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear (yârêʼ) the Lord God.[10]  In the Septuagint the rabbis used πεφόβησθε,[11] (afraid).  This form was not used in the New Testament.

When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder ceased, he sinned again: both he and his servants hardened their hearts.  So Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, and he did not release the Israelites, as the Lord had predicted through Moses.[12]  Pharaoh certainly believed the word was the Lord’s as a fact, but he did not fear that word.  Here I begin to grasp the fear of the Lord as something that is combined with factual acceptance to become New Testament faith, as opposed to dead faith or faith alone.

This fear is obviously not a flight of terror but a conviction to act in accordance with the word (Septuagint: ῥῆμα) of the Lord.  In New Testament terms it would be equivalent to the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort – for the sake of his good pleasure – is God.[13]  And this is because it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.[14]  In a similar sense the New Testament meaning of the fear of the Lord is equivalent to the love of God: Now by this we know that we have come to know God: if we keep his commandments.  The one who says “I have come to know God” and yet does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in such a person.  But whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has been perfected.[15]

Luke used the phrase fear of the Lord in this association with the encouragement of the Holy Spirit: Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria experienced peace and thus was strengthened.   Living[16] in the fear of the Lord and in the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, the church increased in numbers.[17]  At first glance Paul seemed to use fear of the Lord in a more fearful sense: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be paid back according to what he has done while in the body, whether good or evil.  Therefore, because we know the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade people…[18]

If I expand the context, however, Paul spoke first of faith: For we know that if our earthly house, the tent we live in, is dismantled, we have a building from God, a house not built by human hands, that is eternal in the heavens.[19]  While the natural person clings to this earthly tent for dear life we groan while we are in this tent, since we are weighed down, because we do not want to be unclothed, but clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.[20]  Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose, Paul continued (including by the way appearing before the judgment seat of Christ) is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.[21]  So is any of this a cause to be fearful?

Paul continued (2 Corinthians 5:6-9 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.  Thus we are full of courage and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.  So then whether we are alive or away, we make it our ambition to please him.

And what is this ambition to please him but the fear of the Lord?  Therefore, because we know the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade people, but we are well known to God, and I hope we are well known to your consciences too.[22]  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.[23]

And all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation.  In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s trespasses against them, and he has given us the message of reconciliation.  Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His plea through us.  We plead with you on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God!”  God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.[24]

So before Christ was crucified, rose again, ascended to heaven and the Holy Spirit was given to provide this love, this desire and this effort, the Lord cultivated fear to motivate his people:  The Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, in order to display these signs of mine before him, and in order that in the hearing of your son and your grandson you may tell how I made fools of the Egyptians and about my signs that I displayed among them, so that you may know that I am the Lord.”[25]  Perhaps more to the point was Moses’ response to Israel’s fear when God spoke the law at Sinai: Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you so that you do not sin.[26]

[1] Exodus 9:13 (NET)

[2] Exodus 9:17-19 (NET)

[4] Exodus 9:20, 21 (NET)

[6] Luke 18:2 (NET)

[7] Luke 18:5 (NET)

[9] Exodus 9:25-28 (NET)

[10] Exodus 9:30 (NET)

[12] Exodus 9:34, 35 (NET)

[13] Philippians 2:13 (NET)

[14] Romans 9:16 (NET)

[15] 1 John 2:3-5a (NET)

[16] The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had the singular πορευομένη here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had the plural πορευομεναι (KJV: walking).

[17] Acts 9:31 (NET) [Table] The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had the singular ἐπληθύνετο here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had the plural επληθυνοντο (KJV: were multiplied).

[18] 2 Corinthians 5:10, 11 (NET)

[19] 2 Corinthians 5:1 (NET)

[20] 2 Corinthians 5:4 (NET)

[21] 2 Corinthians 5:5 (NET)

[22] 2 Corinthians 5:11 (NET)

[23] 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15 (NET)

[24] 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 (NET)

[25] Exodus 10:1, 2 (NET)

[26] Exodus 20:20 (NET)

Fear – Genesis, Part 5

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I think I am safe using the word fear to describe Jacob’s prognostication that Simeon and Levi…had brought ruin on him by making him a foul odor among the inhabitants of the land, that the Canaanites and the Perizzites…would join forces against him and attack him, and both he and his family would be destroyed![1]  It was not a prophecy; it did not come to pass.  It was a rational appraisal of the likely response of men born of Adam (then Noah).  And it was a righteous expectation of the law God gave Noah and his sons after the flood (Genesis 9:5, 6 NET).

For your lifeblood I will surely exact punishment, from every living creature I will exact punishment.  From each person I will exact punishment for the life of the individual since the man was his relative.  Whoever sheds human blood, by other humans must his blood be shed; for in God’s image God has made humankind.

Simeon and Levi had perpetrated the kind of violence that brought the flood in the first place (Genesis 6:11-13 NET).

The earth was ruined in the sight of God; the earth was filled with violence.[2]  God saw the earth, and indeed it was ruined, for all living creatures on the earth were sinful.  So God said to Noah, “I have decided that all living creatures must die, for the earth is filled with violence because of them.  Now I am about to destroy them and the earth.”

It is a fearful thing to contemplate a God with the power and the will for such destruction (Genesis 6:5-7 NET).

But 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.”

But if I take the Lord’s reasons and offense seriously, his relative tolerance of human evil after the flood is just as fearful a thing if in a different way (Genesis 8:21, 22 NET).

I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, even though the inclination of their minds is evil from childhood on.  I will never again destroy everything that lives, as I have just done.  While the earth continues to exist, planting time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.

And thus the law: Whoever sheds human blood, by other humans must his blood be shed.[3]

Though Simeon’s and Levi’s die hard antics seem more like justice for Dinah to my religious mind (compared to David’s inaction regarding Tamar, or Jacob’s silence), the most likely outcome for Dinah did not look good.  Both the evil of men and the righteousness of God’s law conspired to catch her up in the violent retribution due Simeon and Levi, or she might have become like one of the slave women her brothers took from Shechem.  But Jacob, Dinah, Simeon, Levi and all of their family found favor (or, grace) in the sight of the Lord.[4]

I have appropriated what the Bible said about Noah to Jacob, Dinah, Simeon, Levi and all of their family.  This would have been unthinkable to my religious mind.  It assumed that Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord because Noah was a godly man; he was blameless among his contemporaries.  He walked with God.[5]  Now I am more and more convinced that my religious mind had the cart before the horse.  Noah was a godly man, blameless among his contemporaries, and walked with God because Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord.  In that light it is not much of a stretch to see the similarity here.

Then God said to Jacob, “Go up at once to Bethel and live there.  Make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”[6]  This was God’s solution despite the fact that Simeon and Levi at least (and perhaps at most) should have died according to his own law.  I am not accusing God of wrongdoing.  He never bound Himself to law when it came to showing favor or mercy.  I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy,[7] He said to Moses.  And when Paul analyzed the Gospel that my religious mind was so intent on converting to a new law, he reiterated that point and added, So then, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.[8]

So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have among you.  Purify yourselves and change your clothes.  Let us go up at once to Bethel.  Then I will make an altar there to God, who responded to me in my time of distress and has been with me wherever I went.”[9]

When I see it in this context the Gospel of Jesus Christ mitigates my fear concerning God’s “tolerance” of human evil after the flood.  The Gospel does not belong, and is perverted and misunderstood, in the world created by religious minds.  Where it belongs, where it becomes the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe[10] is in the real world of human sin.  I was surprised, given my religious prejudices, that Abel Ferrara and Zoë Lund had walked this ground before me in the movie she wrote and he directed “Bad Lieutenant” (1992), starring Harvey Keitel in the title role.

Bad LT was not merely a bad cop, he was a hardcore sinner, without natural affection.  Bad LT’s decadence was so demoralizing I cried out loud, “Why am I watching this?”  About that time one of the ‘B’ stories came to the forefront when Bad LT overheard a nun’s confession.

The nun had been raped on the altar in her church.  She seemed to react like any other woman might react while being raped.  She was a bit less modest in the examination room than I might have expected, but nothing so extreme that I did anything but note the fact.  Her confession, however, was totally unexpected.  A curious thing happens when someone actually believes she has been forgiven by the Sovereign God and that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.[11]

“Those boys,” she said, “those sad raging boys.  They came to me as the needy do.  And like many of the needy they were rude.  Like all the needy they took.  And like all the needy they needed.  Father, I knew them.  They learn in our school and they play in our school yard and they are good boys….Jesus turned water to wine.  I ought to have turned bitter semen into fertile sperm, hatred to love, and maybe to have saved their souls.  [Bad LT exited then and did not hear the rest of her confession.]  They did not love me, but I ought to have loved them, for Jesus loved those who were vile to Him.  And never again shall I encounter two boys whose prayer was more poignant, more legible, more anguished.”

Later Bad LT came to speak to the nun as she prayed, first prostrate then on her knees, in church.  “Listen to me, Sister,” he said, “listen to me good.  The other cops will just put these guys through the system.  They’re juveniles.  They’ll walk.  But I’ll beat the system and do justice, real justice for you.”

“I have already forgiven them,” she replied.

“Come on, Lady.  These guys put out cigarette butts on your – Get with the program.  How could you—how could you forgive these motherfu—these, these guys?  Excuse me.  How could you?  Deep down inside don’t you want them to pay for what they did to you?  Don’t you want this crime avenged?”

“I’ve forgiven them.”

“But – do you have the right?  You’re not the only woman in the world.  You’re not even the only nun. You’re forgiveness will leave blood in its wake.  What if these guys do this to other nuns?  Other virgins? Old women who’ll die from the shock?  Do you have the right to let these boys go free?  Can you bear the burden, Sister?”

“Talk to Jesus,” she said.  “Pray.  You do believe in God, don’t you? that Jesus Christ died for your sins?”

The nun left Bad LT alone in the church.  He moaned and cried out from the floor.  Then he had a vision of Jesus.  First, he blamed Jesus for His perceived absence in Bad LT’s wretched life.  But eventually he begged for forgiveness and direction.  Suddenly Bad LT became the repentant thief on the cross.  Like the thief he had only hours to live.  Unlike the thief he was free to do one more thing.  His choice, to pass on some of the mercy the Lord and the nun had shown him, was at least as interesting as David’s choices concerning his sons Amnon and Absalom.

Jacob’s household and all who were with him gave Jacob all the foreign gods that were in their possession and the rings that were in their ears.  Jacob buried them under the oak near Shechem and they started on their journey.  The surrounding cities were afraid (chittâh;[12] Septuagint: φόβος[13]) of God, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.[14]  The note in the NET reads: “Heb ‘and the fear of God was upon the cities which were round about them.’ The expression ‘fear of God’ apparently refers (1) to a fear of God (objective genitive; God is the object of their fear). (2) But it could mean ‘fear from God,’ that is, fear which God placed in them (cf. NRSV “a terror from God”). Another option (3) is that the divine name is used as a superlative here, referring to ‘tremendous fear’ (cf. NEB ‘were panic-stricken’; NASB ‘a great terror’).”

[1] Genesis 34:30 (NET)

[2] A note in the NET reads: “The Hebrew word translated “violence” refers elsewhere to a broad range of crimes, including unjust treatment (Gen 16:5; Amos 3:10), injurious legal testimony (Deut 19:16), deadly assault (Gen 49:5), murder (Judg 9:24), and rape (Jer 13:22).”

[3] Genesis 9:6 (NET)

[4] A paraphrase of Genesis 6:8 (NET)

[5] Genesis 6:8, 9 (NET)

[6] Genesis 35:1 (NET)

[7] Exodus 33:19b (NET) Table

[8] Romans 9:16 (NET)

[9] Genesis 35:2, 3 (NET)

[10] Romans 3:22 (NET)

[11] Romans 8:28 (NET)

[14] Genesis 35:4, 5 (NET)

Justice, Vengeance and Punishment

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Then Jesus told them a parable to show them they should always pray and not lose heart.[1]  It is a story about a persistent widow nagging an unrighteous judge for justice.  Finally the unrighteous judge thought to himself, Though I neither fear God nor have regard for people, yet because this widow keeps on bothering me, I will give her justice, or in the end she will wear me out by her unending pleas.[2]  Won’t God give justice to his chosen ones, Jesus asked, who cry out to him day and night?  Will he delay long to help them?  I tell you, he will give them justice speedily.[3]

Those who pursued a law of righteousness[4] expected justice.  They hoped for the overthrow of the Roman government, and that Gentiles would be dealt with by God according to their alignment with Jewish tradition and the law of God.  That’s not exactly how things went down.  It causes me to wonder what I—one who does not work, but believes in the one who declares the ungodly righteous[5]— should expect of justice.  What should I always pray and not lose heart about in this regard?

The word justice in the rhetorical question Won’t God give justice to his chosen ones, and its answer he will give them justice speedily, is ἐκδίκησιν (a form of ἐκδίκησις)[6] in Greek.  In a very strong way that should not be discounted this promise was fulfilled less than forty years later.  But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, Jesus said, then know that its desolation has come near.  Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.  Those who are inside the city must depart.  Those who are out in the country must not enter it, because these are days of vengeance (ἐκδικήσεως, another form of ἐκδίκησις), to fulfill all that is written.[7]

It is not lost on me that the justice Israel hoped for the Romans was also the vengeance they received from them in 70 A.D.  I bear that in mind when I read Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10 NET).

For it is right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to you who are being afflicted to give rest together with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.  With flaming fire he will mete out punishment (ἐκδίκησιν, a form of ἐκδίκησις) on those who do not know (εἰδόσιν, a form of εἴδω)[8] God and do not obey (ὑπακούουσιν, a form of ὑπακούω)[9] the gospel of our Lord Jesus.  They will undergo the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength, when he comes to be glorified among his saints and admired on that day among all who have believed – and you did in fact believe our testimony.

The penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength is not the justice I hope for those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.  For Paul also wrote: Do not avenge (ἐκδικοῦντες, a form of ἐκδικέω)[10] yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, for it is written, “Vengeance (ἐκδίκησις) is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.[11]  There is always the hope that the Lord’s vengeance (justice) will be more merciful than mine might have been.  I and all the Gentiles who have been called to faith rather than dealt with according to law or Jewish tradition are the proof.  Rather, Paul continued, if your enemy is hungry,  feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head.  Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.[12]

There is a troubling passage in Revelation:  Now when the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been violently killed because of the word of God and because of the testimony they had given.  They cried out with a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Master, holy and true, before you judge (κρίνεις, a form of κρίνω)[13] those who live on the earth and avenge (ἐκδικεῖς, a form of ἐκδικέω) our blood?”[14]  And this was after the four horsemen were sent out to conquer,[15] to take peace from the earth, so that people would butcher one another,[16] cause famine—A quart of wheat will cost a day’s pay and three quarts of barley will cost a day’s pay,[17] and kill a fourth of the population of the earth by disease, and by the wild animals of the earth.[18]

I didn’t know what to make of it.  Was it a revelation of some decadent time when Christ’s witnesses are of such inferior quality to Peter and Paul?  Was it a revelation behind the veil, so to speak, into what Peter and Paul are actually like?  Was it what I am meant to become?  I thought such bloodlust was at least part of what the Lord’s love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control[19] was saving me from.  But the explanation of the fifth seal continued.

Each of them was given a long white robe and they were told to rest for a little longer, until the full number was reached of both their fellow servants and their brothers who were going to be killed just as they had been.[20]  Obviously the death of a fourth of the earth’s population was not what God considered vengeance (or, justice) for those who had been violently killed because of the word of God and because of the testimony they had given.[21]  I kept reading to see what He considered justice (Revelation 16:4-7 NET).

Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and the springs of water, and they turned into blood.  Now I heard the angel of the waters saying: “You are just (δίκαιος)[22] – the one who is and who was, the Holy One – because you have passed these judgments (ἔκρινας, another form of κρίνω), because they poured out the blood of your saints and prophets, so you have given them blood to drink.  They got what they deserved (ἄξιοι, a form of ἄξιος)!”[23]  Then I heard the altar reply, “Yes, Lord God, the All-Powerful, your judgments are true and just (δίκαιαι, a form of δίκαιος)!”

I can live with that.  It sounds like the Lord I am beginning to know and love.  And if I think He valued his witnesses too cheaply I am reminded of the purpose of our calling: As it is written, “For your sake we encounter death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[24]  As for the other seals, trumpets and bowls, even the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength, I’m not in a position to judge what is deserved, what weight is sufficient to balance the scale of offense to God afflicted, by unrepentant sinners.  I trust that He is just and merciful.  And the justice I nag Him about is the mercy upon which all repentance depends: So then, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.[25]  Freely you received, Jesus said, freely give.[26]

[1] Luke 18:1 (NET)

[2] Luke 18:4, 5 (NET)

[3] Luke 18:7, 8a (NET)

[4] Romans 9:31 (NET)

[5] Romans 4:5 (NET)

[7] Luke 21:20-22 (NET)

[11] Romans 12:19 (NET)

[12] Romans 12:20, 21 (NET) Table

[14] Revelation 6:9, 10 (NET)

[16] Revelation 6:4 (NET)

[17] Revelation 6:6 (NET)

[18] Revelation 6:8 (NET)

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

[20] Revelation 6:11 (NET)

[21] Revelation 6:9 (NET)

[24] Romans 8:36 (NET) Table

[25] Romans 9:16 (NET)

[26] Matthew 10:8b (NET)

Romans, Part 36

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What shall we say then? Paul continued, that the Gentiles who did not pursue (διώκοντα, a form of διώκω)[1] righteousness (δικαιοσύνην, a form of δικαιοσύνη)[2] obtained it (δικαιοσύνην, a form of δικαιοσύνη), that is, a righteousness (δικαιοσύνην, a form of δικαιοσύνη) that is by faith, but Israel even though pursuing (διώκων, another form of διώκω) a law of righteousness (δικαιοσύνης, another form of δικαιοσύνη) did not attain it.[3]  In other words, people who really worked at achieving righteousness by pursuing God’s law did not attain that righteousness, while people who did not pursue righteousness at all did attain it.

Isolated from any context, this sounds extraordinarily unfair.  But this decision was made so far beyond any judgment of mine regarding what is fair, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.[4]

When Rebekah had conceived children by one man, Paul had written earlier, our ancestor Isaac – even before they were born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose in election would stand, not by works [ἔργων, a form of ἔργον][5] but by his calling [καλοῦντος, a form of καλέω][6]) – it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger,” just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”[7]  Complaining about this is about as productive as complaining about who my parents were.  But just as God knows my parents and my upbringing, what advantages or debilities that afforded me, He knows who has received mercy and who He has hardened: God has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens (σκληρύνει, a form of σκληρύνω)[8] whom he chooses to harden.[9]

Why not? Paul continued.  Why didn’t Israel attain the righteousness they pursued by law?  Because they pursued it not by faith but (as if it were possible) by works (ἔργων, a form of ἔργον).[10]  Paul wasn’t writing about faith alone, dead faith that produces no works: So also faith, if it does not have works (ἔργα, another form of ἔργον), is dead being by itself.[11]  Instead he wrote of deeds that have been done in God through faith in His credited righteousness: For everyone who does evil deeds (φαῦλα, a form of φαῦλος),[12] Jesus said, hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds (ἔργα, another form of ἔργον) will not be exposed.  But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds (ἔργα, another form of ἔργον) have been done in God.[13]

Israel did not attain righteousness because they pursued it by dead works, if you will, apart from faith in the righteousness that comes from God:  For ignoring the righteousness (δικαιοσύνην, a form of δικαιοσύνη) that comes from God, Paul wrote early in the next chapter, and seeking instead to establish their own righteousness, (δικαιοσύνην, a form of δικαιοσύνη) they did not submit to God’s righteousness (δικαιοσύνῃ, another form of δικαιοσύνη).[14]

One more point of clarification before moving on:  The Gentiles who did not pursue (διώκοντα, a form of διώκω) righteousness (δικαιοσύνην, a form of δικαιοσύνη) before Paul preached the Gospel to them, did pursue it afterward, but not a law of righteousness (except those he wrote to at Galatia and Colossae in order to correct that very error).  Paul’s instructions to the young Gospel preacher Timothy are helpful here: pursue (δίωκε, another form of διώκω) righteousness (δικαιοσύνη, a form of δικαιοσύνη) (e.g., the righteousness that comes from God), godliness, faithfulness (πίστιν, a form of πίστις),[15] love (ἀγάπην, a form of ἀγάπη),[16] endurance,[17] and gentleness (πραϋπαθίαν, a form of πρᾳότης);[18] and again, pursue (δίωκε, another form of διώκω) righteousness (δικαιοσύνην, a form of δικαιοσύνη), faithfulness (πίστιν, a form of πίστις), love (ἀγάπην, a form of ἀγάπη), and peace (εἰρήνην, a form of εἰρήνη),[19] in company with others who call on the Lord from a pure heart.[20]  I note again how much of this flows directly from the Holy Spirit: the fruit of the Spirit is love (ἀγάπη), joy, peace (εἰρήνη), patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness (πίστις), gentleness (πραΰτης, a form of πραΰτης), and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.[21]

They stumbled over the stumbling stone, Paul wrote of those who pursued a law of righteousness, just as it is written, “Look, I am laying in Zion a stone that will cause people to stumble and a rock that will make them fall, yet the one who believes in him will not be put to shame.”[22]  I think it is worthwhile to unpack this a bit.  The first phrase is very reminiscent of Isaiah 28:16.

#

Paul (NET)

Blue Letter Bible (Septuagint)

NET Bible (Greek parallel text)

1

 Look, I am laying in Zion a stone…

Romans 9:33

 ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἐμβαλῶ[23] εἰς τὰ θεμέλια[24] Σιων λίθον

Isaiah 28:16

 ἰδοὺ τίθημι[25] ἐν Σιὼν λίθον

Romans 9:33

Look, I am laying a stone in Zion, Isaiah wrote, an approved stone, set in place as a precious cornerstone for the foundation…I will make justice the measuring line, fairness the plumb line…[26]  The rabbis who translated the Septuagint chose ἐγὼ ἐμβαλῶ (I throw) a stone, which is quite evocative of Moses and the stone tablets of the law: When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became extremely angry.  He threw the tablets from his hands and broke them to pieces at the bottom of the mountain.[27]  Paul did not believe that the cornerstone for the foundation (θεμέλια) stone (λίθον, a form of λίθος) of Zion was the law.  He chose the word τίθημι (I will lay) instead.

For no one can lay (θεῖναι, a form of τίθημι) any foundation (θεμέλιον, another form of θεμέλιος) other than what is being laid, Paul wrote the Corinthians, which is Jesus Christ.[28]  And Jesus said, I am the good shepherd.  I know my own and my own know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down (τίθημι) my life for the sheep…This is why the Father loves me – because I lay down (τίθημι) my life, so that I may take it back again.  No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down (τίθημι) of my own free will. I have the authority to lay it down (θεῖναι, a form of τίθημι), and I have the authority to take it back again.[29]

Then Paul alluded to Isaiah 8:14—a stone that will cause people to stumble and a rock that will make them fall—but he didn’t quote from the Septuagint.  Indeed this is what the Lord told me, Isaiah wrote.  He took hold of me firmly and warned me not to act like these people (Isaiah 8:11-16 NET):

“Do not say, ‘Conspiracy,’ every time these people say the word.  Don’t be afraid of what scares them; don’t be terrified.  You must recognize the authority of the Lord who commands armies.  He is the one you must respect; he is the one you must fear.  He will become a sanctuary, but a stone that makes a person trip, and a rock that makes one stumble – to the two houses of Israel.  He will become a trap and a snare to the residents of Jerusalem.  Many will stumble over the stone and the rock, and will fall and be seriously injured, and will be ensnared and captured.”  Tie up the scroll as legal evidence, seal the official record of God’s instructions and give it to my followers.

So Paul equated the stone the Lord would lay and the stone He would become to Jacob (the two houses of Israel).  Did the translators of the Septuagint make this connection?  It’s hard to say.  They amended the text apparently to read, “and you shall not come against him as against a stumbling-stone, neither as against the falling of a rock.”[30]

Finally Paul concluded with, yet the one who believes in him will not be put to shame, which is quite similar to the end of Isaiah 28:16 in the Septuagint.

#

Paul (NET)

Blue Letter Bible (Septuagint)

NET Bible (Greek parallel text)

2

 …yet the one who believes in him will not be put to shame

Romans 9:33

 καὶ ὁ πιστεύων ἐπ᾽ αὐτῷ οὐ μὴ καταισχυνθῇ[31]

Isaiah 28:16

 καὶ ὁ πιστεύων ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ οὐ καταισχυνθήσεται

Romans 9:33

The differences here are subtle.  The Septuagint “uses the stronger negation, οὐ μὴ, whereas the NT uses the more normal weaker negation of merely, ‘οὐ’.”[32]  The words καταισχυνθῇ and καταισχυνθήσεται are different forms of the same verb.  “Thus, the difference here is only in regards to the mood and tense of the verb, having the aorist form and subjunctive mood in the LXX [Septuagint] and the future form and indicative mood in the NT.  In the end since the subjunctive can be said to represent the verbal action (or state) as uncertain but probable (GGBB, 461), both Greek texts look forward to a future pleasant fulfillment for those who trust in him.  While the LXX’s subjunctive may be a bit weaker in force, do not forget the strong οὐ μὴ which precedes the subjunctive, thus putting away any doubt as to its completion.  Both Greek texts follow the MT equally as well, and the sense is not changed by this variation.”[33]

 

Addendum (6/20/2015): Jim Searcy has published that the Septuagint is a hoax written by Origen and Eusebius 200 hundred years after Christ.  “In fact, the Septuagint ‘quotes’ from the New Testament and not vice versa…”  His contention is that the “King James Version is the infallible Word of God.”  So, I’ll re-examine the quotations above with the KJV.

#

Paul (KJV)

KJV

NET Bible (Greek parallel text)

1

 Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone…

Romans 9:33

 Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone…

Isaiah 28:16

 ἰδοὺ τίθημι ἐν Σιὼν λίθον προσκόμματος

Romans 9:33

I’ll leave it to others to reason why Origen or Eusebius changed τίθημι (I lay) to ἐμβαλῶ (I throw) in their false Septuagint rather than copying Paul here.

#

Paul (KJV)

KJV

NET Bible (Greek parallel text)

2

 …and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

Romans 9:33

 …he that believeth shall not make haste.

Isaiah 28:16

 καὶ ὁ πιστεύων ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ οὐ καταισχυνθήσεται

Romans 9:33

The KJV here is similar to the NET: The one who maintains his faith will not panic.[34] If the original Hebrew read make haste or panic rather than be ashamed (καταισχυνθήσεται), I leave it to Mr Searcy or others to understand why Paul changed it and why Origen or Eusebius almost (καταισχυνθῇ) but not quite copied Paul.

Romans, Part 37

Paul’s OT Quotes – Romans 9:25-33

Back to Justice, Vengeance and Punishment

Back to Fear – Exodus, Part 3

Back to Romans, Part 43

[3] Romans 9:30, 31 (NET)

[4] Romans 9:16 (NET)

[7] Romans 9:10-12 (NET)

[9] Romans 9:18 (NET)

[10] Romans 9:32a (NET)

[11] James 2:17 (NET)

[13] John 3:20, 21 (NET)

[14] Romans 10:3 (NET)

[18] 1 Timothy 6:11b (NET)

[20] 2 Timothy 2:22 (NET)

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

[22] Romans 9:32b, 33 (NET)

[24] Suddenly a great earthquake occurred, so that the foundations (θεμέλια, a form of θεμέλιος) of the prison were shaken (Acts 16:26 NET).

[26] Isaiah 28:16a, 17a (NET)

[27] Exodus 32:19 (NET)

[28] 1 Corinthians 3:11 (NET)

[29] John 10:14, 15, 17, 18a (NET)

[34] Isaiah 28:16b (NET)

Romans, Part 35

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After the crescendo of faith and victory in Christ at the end of chapter eight, Paul’s abrupt admission at the beginning of chapter nine is disconcerting.  I am telling the truth in Christ (I am not lying!), for my conscience assures me in the Holy Spirit – I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.[1]  But the sense of his great sorrow and unceasing anguish comes with its cause.  For I could wish that I myself were accursed – cut off from Christ – for the sake of my people, my fellow countrymen, who are Israelites.[2]  This has become more personal to me as I reflect on the fundamentalist Christians who are my people by birth.

To them, Paul continued writing about the descendants of Israel, belong the adoption as sons, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.  To them belong the patriarchs, and from them, by human descent, came the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever!  Amen.[3]  While this is objectively true of Israel I grew up feeling it subjectively, that fundamentalist Christians were the true heirs of it all.  It is not as though the word of God had failed,[4] Paul continued.  What does it mean for the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe[5] when the people for whom it was prepared rejected the Gospel of Christ?

This sounds, even to my ear, like a harsh judgment of the fundamentalist Christians I call my people.  But I am taking the absence of internet chatter regarding the movie “Courageous” as anecdotal evidence.  I only found one comment from a Lutheran theologian criticizing “Courageous” for being too synergistic (not monergistic enough).  I had to look it up, too, so I won’t choose up sides and argue theological jargon.  It makes me feel a little too much like a Gentile living in the futility of [my] thinking.[6]

I will simply say that the character Adam in the movie sought to have his own righteousness derived from his own reading of the Bible as a list of rules he resolved (or, swore an oath) to keep.  Then he became a stumblingblock to others as they followed him in his defection from Christ’s righteousness.  This is clearly part of the dung[7] Paul had rejected of his past life as a Pharisee.  And the silence on the internet is deafening when compared to the outrage over the movie “End of the Spear,” when a gay Christian was hired to portray a missionary and his son.

As I have written before I didn’t see this either as I watched the movie.  We fundamentalist Christians are so accustomed to being tossed back and forth by waves of the latest spiritual fad, and carried about by every wind of teaching by the trickery of people who craftily carry out their deceitful schemes,[8] and so dissatisfied with the lives we lead by faith alone[9] that Adam’s neo-Phariseeism seems completely right and natural to us.  We are they who maintain the outward appearance of religion but…have repudiated its power,[10] the power he exercised in Christ when he raised him from the dead,[11] the righteousness that comes from his Spirit, his love, his joy, his peace, his patience, his kindness, his goodness, his faithfulness, his gentleness, and his self-control.[12]

For not all those who are descended from Israel are truly Israel,[13] Paul began to explain how the word of God had not failed, nor are all the children Abraham’s true descendants; rather “through Isaac will your descendants be counted.”[14]  This seemed like an ad hoc argument to me, since all the descendants of Israel (Jacob) were also descendents of Isaac his father.  But then Paul reiterated the point he had made over and over in Romans, This means it is not the children of the flesh (σαρκὸς, a form of σάρξ)[15] who are the children of God; rather, the children of promise (ἐπαγγελίας, a form of ἐπαγγελία)[16] are counted (λογίζεται, a form of λογίζομαι)[17] as descendants.[18]  This is the same distinction Paul made between those born only of the flesh and those born of the flesh and of the Spirit,[19] and those who live according to the flesh and those who live according the Spirit.[20]

And look, I am sending you what my Father promised[21] (ἐπαγγελίαν, another form of ἐπαγγελία), the resurrected Jesus told the children of promise (all descended from Israel) just before He was taken up into heaven.[22]  While [Jesus] was with them, Luke reiterated in Acts, he declared, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait there for what my Father promised (ἐπαγγελίαν, another form of ἐπαγγελία), which you heard about from me.  For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”[23]  This Jesus God raised up, and we are all witnesses of it, Peter declared in his first sermon on Pentecost.  So then, exalted to the right hand of God, and having received the promise (ἐπαγγελίαν, another form of ἐπαγγελία) of the Holy Spirit from the Father, he has poured out what you both see and hear.[24]

For this is what the promise (ἐπαγγελίας, a form of ἐπαγγελία) declared: Paul continued.  “About a year from now I will return and Sarah will have a son.”[25]  Not only that, but when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our ancestor Isaac – even before they were born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose in election would stand, not by works but by his calling) – it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger,” just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”[26]  This kind of talk rubs those born only of the flesh of Adam, those who are content with their own works, the wrong way.  Paul knew that.

What shall we say then? Paul continued.  Is there injustice with God?[27]  In other words, by what right did God distinguish between Esau and Jacob before they were born or had done anything good or bad?  Too often, I have missed the point here, rationalizing that God knew what Esau and Jacob would do before they were born.  But Paul said, Absolutely not!  For he says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”[28]  Even as He gave Moses the law that defined sin, God reserved for Himself the right to have mercy and compassion on any He chose to have mercy and compassion.  So then, Paul concluded, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.[29]

For the scripture says to Pharaoh: Paul continued to make his point doubly strong and doubly clear by declaring its inverse.  “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may demonstrate my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”  So then, God has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden.[30]  Again, such talk infuriates one depending on his own works for glory, honor and salvation.  You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault?  For who has ever resisted his will?”[31]  But Paul didn’t back down (Romans 9:20-29 NET).

But who indeed are you – a mere human being – to talk back to God?  Does what is molded say to the molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special use and another for ordinary use?  But what if God, willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath prepared for destruction?  And what if he is willing to make known the wealth of his glory on the objects of mercy that he has prepared beforehand for glory – even us, whom he has called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?  As he also says in Hosea: “I will call those who were not my people, ‘My people,’ and I will call her who was unloved, ‘My beloved.’”  “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”  And Isaiah cries out on behalf of Israel, “Though the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved, for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth completely and quickly.”  Just as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of armies had not left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have resembled Gomorrah.”

Now if one reads the passage above, and suspects that he or she has been hardened by God into an object of wrath, and begins to fear rather than to mock, take heart.  You have begun to hear the word of the Lord.  He is calling you.  And the righteous prayer that justifies is near you, on your lips.  God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am![32]

[1] Romans 9:1, 2 (NET)

[2] Romans 9:3, 4a (NET) Table

[3] Romans 9:4b, 5 (NET)

[4] Romans 9:6a (NET)

[5] Romans 3:22 (NET)

[8] Ephesians 4:14 (NET)

[9] James 2:14-26 (NET)

[10] 2 Timothy 3:5 (NET)

[11] Ephesians 1:20 (NET)

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

[13] Romans 9:6b (NET)

[14] Romans 9:7 (NET)

[18] Romans 9:8 (NET)

[21] Luke 24:49a (NET) Table

[22] Luke 24:51 (NET)

[23] Acts 1:4, 5 (NET)

[24] Acts 2:32, 33 (NET) Table

[26] Romans 9:9-13 (NET)

[27] Romans 9:14a (NET)

[28] Romans 9:14b, 15 (NET)

[29] Romans 9:16 (NET)

[30] Romans 9:17, 18 (NET)

[31] Romans 9:19 (NET)

[32] Luke 18:13, 14 (NET); Religious and Righteous Prayer

Saul and Barnabas, Part 3

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After Paul finished speaking people asked him to speak again the next Sabbath day, and many of the Jews and God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas1 and spoke with them more that same day.  On the next Sabbath almost the whole city assembled together to hear the word of the Lord.2  But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy (ζήλου, a form of ζῆλος), and they began to contradict (ἀντέλεγον, a form of ἀντίλεγω) what Paul was saying by reviling him.3  Paul was uniquely qualified to face such jealousy or zeal, both by his past as a zealous persecutor of the church and his present strengthened by the Holy Spirit.  For I am jealous (ζηλῶ, a form of ζηλόω) for you with godly jealousy (ζήλῳ, another form of ζῆλος), because I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ,4 Paul wrote the Corinthians.

Paul wrote about this kind of zeal (what I am calling the religious mind) in Romans 10:1-4 (NET):

Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God on behalf of my fellow Israelites is5 for their salvation.  For I can testify that they are zealous (ζῆλον, another form of ζῆλος) for God, but their zeal is not in line with the truth (ἐπίγνωσιν, a form of ἐπίγνωσις).  For ignoring (ἀγνοοῦντες, a form of ἀγνοέω) the righteousness (δικαιοσύνην, a form of δικαιοσύνη) that comes from God, and seeking instead to establish their own righteousness (δικαιοσύνην, a form of δικαιοσύνη), they did not submit (ὑπετάγησαν, a form of ὑποτάσσω) to God’s righteousness (δικαιοσύνῃ, another form of δικαιοσύνη).  For Christ is the end (τέλος) of the law, with the result that there is righteousness (δικαιοσύνην, a form of δικαιοσύνη) for everyone who believes (πιστεύοντι, a form of πιστεύω).

I note that where Paul wrote knowledge or full discernment (ἐπίγνωσις) the translators of the NET chose truth, and where Paul wrote not knowing (ἀγνοέω) the translators selected ignoring.  I suspect that the translators would defend their choices by the text that follows (Romans 10:18-21 NET):

But I ask, have they [the zealous Israelites] not heard?  Yes, they have: Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.  But again I ask, didn’t Israel understand (ἔγνω, a form of γινώσκω)?  First Moses6 says, “I will make you jealous (παραζηλώσω, a form of παραζηλόω) by those who are not a nation; with7 a senseless nation I will provoke you to anger.”  And Isaiah is even bold enough to say, “I was found by8 those who did not seek me; I became well known to those who did not ask for me.”  But about Israel he says, “All day long I held out my hands to this disobedient (ἀπειθοῦντα, a form of ἀπειθέω) and stubborn (ἀντιλέγοντα, another form of ἀντίλεγω) people!”

When zealous Jews confronted Paul and began to contradict (ἀντέλεγον, a form of ἀντίλεγω) him in Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:46, 47 NET):

Both9 Paul and Barnabas replied10 courageously, “It was necessary to speak the word of God to you first.  Since11 you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we are turning to the Gentiles.  For this is what the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have appointed you to be a light for the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

The net effect of the NET translators’ word choices in Romans 10:2 and 3 is to make the zealous Israelites appear more culpable.  I think the translators’ religious minds chose those words, because if the zealous Israelites are more culpable for their lack of faith perhaps we foolish and senseless Gentiles are more justified by it.  For the translators know very well that the salvation we foolish and senseless Gentiles enjoy was actually intended for the zealous Israelites (Romans 9:1-5 NET).

I am telling the truth in Christ (I am not lying!), for my conscience assures me in the Holy Spirit – I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.  For I could wish12 that I myself were accursed – cut off from Christ – for the sake of my people, my fellow countrymen, who are Israelites.  To them belong the adoption as sons, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.  To them belong the patriarchs, and from them, by human descent, came the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever!  Amen.

Though my faith in Jesus Christ justifies me (declares, and will in time make, me righteous) it is not, and will never be, a work that justifies my salvation.  It is not my faith in the sense that it originated within me.  It is only my faith in the sense that God gave it to me through his Spirit to honor his Son Jesus the Christ or Messiah.  My love that fulfills the law is not my love in the sense that it originated within me.  My love is only mine in the sense that God gives it to me to share with others, an aspect of the fruit of his Spirit, to honor his son Jesus the Christ or Messiah.  On and on I can go with the list in Galatians 5:22 and 23, the fruit of the Spirit.  Even my desire and my effort are not mine in the sense that they originated within me, for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort – for the sake of his good pleasure – is God.13

Why would God give all this to me?  I can think of no better reasons than these, 1) to fulfill his prophecy to zealous Israelites through Moses, I will make you jealous by those who are not a nation; with a senseless nation I will provoke you to anger; and 2) to fulfill his prophecy through Isaiah, I was found by those who did not seek me; I became well known to those who did not ask for me.

Do you fear that God has not or will not do the same for you?  Is it something you want?  My suggestion would be to try a righteous (as opposed to a religious) prayer, because it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.14

 

Addendum: November 23, 2019
As I made the tables for this essay and considered Paul’s prayer (δέησις) for τῶν ἀδελφῶν μου τῶν συγγενῶν μου κατὰ σάρκα  (NET: my people, my fellow countrymen) εἰς σωτηρίαν (literally: “into” or “unto salvation”), I was reminded of Jesus’ promise (John 15:7 NET):

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask15 whatever you want, and it will be done for you.

His reason was a powerful one: My Father is honored by this, that you bear much fruit and show that you are16 my disciples.17

Paul quoted from the following verses:

Romans 10:18b (NETParallel Greek) Psalm 19:4a (Septuagint BLB)

Psalm 18:5 (Septuagint Elpenor)
εἰς πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν ἐξῆλθεν ὁ φθόγγος αὐτῶν καὶ εἰς τὰ πέρατα τῆς οἰκουμένης τὰ ρήματα αὐτῶν εἰς πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν ἐξῆλθεν ὁ φθόγγος αὐτῶν καὶ εἰς τὰ πέρατα τῆς οἰκουμένης τὰ ῥήματα αὐτῶν εἰς πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν ἐξῆλθεν ὁ φθόγγος αὐτῶν καὶ εἰς τὰ πέρατα τῆς οἰκουμένης τὰ ῥήματα αὐτῶν

Romans 10:18b (NET)

 Psalm 18:5a (NETS)

Psalm 18:5 (English Elpenor)
Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. Their sound went out to all the earth, and to the ends of the world their utterances. Their voice is gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.

Romans 10:19b (NETParallel Greek)

 Deuteronomy 32:21b (Septuagint BLB)

Deuteronomy 32:21b (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἐγὼ παραζηλώσω ὑμᾶς ἐπ᾿ οὐκ ἔθνει, ἐπ᾿ ἔθνει ἀσυνέτῳ παροργιῶ ὑμᾶς κἀγὼ παραζηλώσω αὐτοὺς ἐπ᾽ οὐκ ἔθνει ἐπ᾽ ἔθνει ἀσυνέτῳ παροργιῶ αὐτούς κἀγὼ παραζηλώσω αὐτοὺς ἐπ᾿ οὐκ ἔθνει, ἐπὶ ἔθνει ἀσυνέτῳ παροργιῶ αὐτούς

Romans 10:19b (NET)

 Deuteronomy 32:21b (NETS)

Deuteronomy 32:21b (English Elpenor)
I will make you jealous by those who are not a nation; with a senseless nation I will provoke you to anger. So I will make them jealous with what is no nation, provoke them with a nation lacking understanding. and I will provoke them to jealousy with them that are no nation, I will anger them with a nation void of understanding.

Romans 10:20b (NETParallel Greek)

 Isaiah 65:1a (Septuagint BLB)

Isaiah 65:1a (Septuagint Elpenor)
εὑρέθην [ἐν] τοῖς ἐμὲ μὴ ζητοῦσιν, ἐμφανὴς ἐγενόμην τοῖς ἐμὲ μὴ ἐπερωτῶσιν ἐμφανὴς ἐγενόμην τοῗς ἐμὲ μὴ ζητοῦσιν εὑρέθην τοῗς ἐμὲ μὴ ἐπερωτῶσιν ΕΜΦΑΝΗΣ ἐγενήθην τοῖς ἐμὲ μὴ ἐπερωτῶσιν, εὑρέθην τοῖς ἐμὲ μὴ ζητοῦσιν

Romans 10:20b (NET)

 Isaiah 65:1a (NETS)

Isaiah 65:1a (English Elpenor)
I was found by those who did not seek me; I became well known to those who did not ask for me. I became visible to those who were not seeking me; I was found by those who were not inquiring about me. I became manifest to them that asked not for me; I was found of them that sought me not:

Romans 10:21b (NETParallel Greek)

 Isaiah 65:2a (Septuagint BLB)

Isaiah 65:2a (Septuagint Elpenor)
ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν ἐξεπέτασα τὰς χεῖρας μου πρὸς λαὸν ἀπειθοῦντα καὶ ἀντιλέγοντα ἐξεπέτασα τὰς χεῗράς μου ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν πρὸς λαὸν ἀπειθοῦντα καὶ ἀντιλέγοντα ἐξεπέτασα τὰς χεῖράς μου ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν πρὸς λαὸν ἀπειθοῦντα καὶ ἀντιλέγοντα

Romans 10:21b (NET)

 Isaiah 65:2a (NETS)

Isaiah 65:2a (English Elpenor)
All day long I held out my hands to this disobedient and stubborn people! I stretched out my hands all day long to a disobedient and contrary people, I have stretched forth my hands all day to a disobedient and gainsaying people,

Tables comparing Psalm 19:4; Deuteronomy 32:21; Isaiah 65:1 and 65:2 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET, and tables comparing Psalm 19:4 (18:5); Deuteronomy 32:21; Isaiah 65:1 and 65:2 in the Greek of in the Septuagint (BLB and Elpenor), and tables of Acts 13:44, 45; Romans 10:1; 10:19, 20; Acts 13:46; Romans 9:3 and John 15:7, 8 comparing the NET and KJV follow.

Psalm 19:4 (Tanakh) Psalm 19:4 (KJV) Psalm 19:4 (NET)
Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.  In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.  In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Yet its voice echoes throughout the earth; its words carry to the distant horizon.  In the sky he has pitched a tent for the sun.
Psalm 19:4 (Septuagint BLB) Psalm 18:5, 6a (Septuagint Elpenor)
εἰς πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν ἐξῆλθεν ὁ φθόγγος αὐτῶν καὶ εἰς τὰ πέρατα τῆς οἰκουμένης τὰ ῥήματα αὐτῶν ἐν τῷ ἡλίῳ ἔθετο τὸ σκήνωμα αὐτοῦ εἰς πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν ἐξῆλθεν ὁ φθόγγος αὐτῶν καὶ εἰς τὰ πέρατα τῆς οἰκουμένης τὰ ῥήματα αὐτῶν (18:6a) ἐν τῷ ἡλίῳ ἔθετο τὸ σκήνωμα αὐτοῦ
Psalm 18:5 (NETS) Psalm 18:5, 6a (English Elpenor)
Their sound went out to all the earth, and to the ends of the world their utterances.  In the sun he pitched his covert, Their voice is gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. (18:6a) In the sun he has set his tabernacle;
Deuteronomy 32:21 (Tanakh) Deuteronomy 32:21 (KJV) Deuteronomy 32:21 (NET)
They have roused Me to jealousy with a no-god; they have provoked Me with their vanities; and I will rouse them to jealousy with a no-people; I will provoke them with a vile nation. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. They have made me jealous with false gods, enraging me with their worthless gods; so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, with a nation slow to learn I will enrage them.
Deuteronomy 32:21 (Septuagint BLB) Deuteronomy 32:21 (Septuagint Elpenor)
αὐτοὶ παρεζήλωσάν με ἐπ᾽ οὐ θεῷ παρώργισάν με ἐν τοῗς εἰδώλοις αὐτῶν κἀγὼ παραζηλώσω αὐτοὺς ἐπ᾽ οὐκ ἔθνει ἐπ᾽ ἔθνει ἀσυνέτῳ παροργιῶ αὐτούς αὐτοὶ παρεζήλωσάν με ἐπ᾿ οὐ Θεῷ, παρώξυνάν με ἐν τοῖς εἰδώλοις αὐτῶν· κἀγὼ παραζηλώσω αὐτοὺς ἐπ᾿ οὐκ ἔθνει, ἐπὶ ἔθνει ἀσυνέτῳ παροργιῶ αὐτούς
Deuteronomy 32:21 (NETS) Deuteronomy 32:21 (English Elpenor)
They made me jealous with what is no god, provoked me with their idols.  So I will make them jealous with what is no nation, provoke them with a nation lacking understanding. They have provoked me to jealousy with [that which is] not God, they have exasperated me with their idols; and I will provoke them to jealousy with them that are no nation, I will anger them with a nation void of understanding.
Isaiah 65:1 (Tanakh) Isaiah 65:1 (KJV) Isaiah 65:1 (NET)
I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name. I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name. “I made myself available to those who did not ask for me; I appeared to those who did not look for me.  I said, ‘Here I am! Here I am!’ to a nation that did not invoke my name.
Isaiah 65:1 (Septuagint BLB) Isaiah 65:1 (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἐμφανὴς ἐγενόμην τοῗς ἐμὲ μὴ ζητοῦσιν εὑρέθην τοῗς ἐμὲ μὴ ἐπερωτῶσιν εἶπα ἰδού εἰμι τῷ ἔθνει οἳ οὐκ ἐκάλεσάν μου τὸ ὄνομα ΕΜΦΑΝΗΣ ἐγενήθην τοῖς ἐμὲ μὴ ἐπερωτῶσιν, εὑρέθην τοῖς ἐμὲ μὴ ζητοῦσιν. εἶπα· ἰδού εἰμι τῷ ἔθνει, οἳ οὐκ ἐκάλεσάν μου τὸ ὄνομα
Isaiah 65:1 (NETS) Isaiah 65:1 (English Elpenor)
I became visible to those who were not seeking me; I was found by those who were not inquiring about me.  I said, “Here I am,” to the nation that did not call my name. I became manifest to them that asked not for me; I was found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold, I am [here], to a nation, who called not on my name.
Isaiah 65:2 (Tanakh) Isaiah 65:2 (KJV) Isaiah 65:2 (NET)
I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts; I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts; I spread out my hands all day long to my rebellious people, who lived in a way that is morally unacceptable, and who did what they desired.
Isaiah 65:2 (Septuagint BLB) Isaiah 65:2 (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἐξεπέτασα τὰς χεῗράς μου ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν πρὸς λαὸν ἀπειθοῦντα καὶ ἀντιλέγοντα οἳ οὐκ ἐπορεύθησαν ὁδῷ ἀληθινῇ ἀλλ᾽ ὀπίσω τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν αὐτῶν ἐξεπέτασα τὰς χεῖράς μου ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν πρὸς λαὸν ἀπειθοῦντα καὶ ἀντιλέγοντα, οἳ οὐκ ἐπορεύθησαν ὁδῷ ἀληθινῇ, ἀλλ᾿ ὀπίσω τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν αὐτῶν
Isaiah 65:2 (NETS) Isaiah 65:2 (English Elpenor)
I stretched out my hands all day long to a disobedient and contrary people, who did not walk in a true way but after their own sins. I have stretched forth my hands all day to a disobedient and gainsaying people, to them that walked in a way that was not good, but after their sins.
Acts 13:44, 45 (NET) Acts 13:44, 45 (KJV)
On the next Sabbath almost the whole city assembled together to hear the word of the Lord. And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.
NET Parallel Greek Stephanus Textus Receptus Byzantine Majority Text
Τῷ δὲ ἐρχομένῳ σαββάτῳ σχεδὸν πᾶσα ἡ πόλις συνήχθη ἀκοῦσαι τὸν λόγον τοῦ |κυρίου| τω δε ερχομενω σαββατω σχεδον πασα η πολις συνηχθη ακουσαι τον λογον του θεου τω τε ερχομενω σαββατω σχεδον πασα η πολις συνηχθη ακουσαι τον λογον του θεου
But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy, and they began to contradict what Paul was saying by reviling him. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.
NET Parallel Greek Stephanus Textus Receptus Byzantine Majority Text
ἰδόντες δὲ οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι τοὺς ὄχλους ἐπλήσθησαν ζήλου καὶ ἀντέλεγον τοῖς ὑπὸ Παύλου λαλουμένοις βλασφημοῦντες ιδοντες δε οι ιουδαιοι τους οχλους επλησθησαν ζηλου και αντελεγον τοις υπο του παυλου λεγομενοις αντιλεγοντες και βλασφημουντες ιδοντες δε οι ιουδαιοι τους οχλους επλησθησαν ζηλου και αντελεγον τοις υπο του παυλου λεγομενοις αντιλεγοντες και βλασφημουντες
Romans 10:1 (NET) Romans 10:1 (KJV)
Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God on behalf of my fellow Israelites is for their salvation. Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
NET Parallel Greek Stephanus Textus Receptus Byzantine Majority Text
Ἀδελφοί, ἡ μὲν εὐδοκία τῆς ἐμῆς καρδίας καὶ ἡ δέησις πρὸς τὸν θεὸν ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν εἰς σωτηρίαν αδελφοι η μεν ευδοκια της εμης καρδιας και η δεησις η προς τον θεον υπερ του ισραηλ εστιν εις σωτηριαν αδελφοι η μεν ευδοκια της εμης καρδιας και η δεησις η προς τον θεον υπερ του ισραηλ εστιν εις σωτηριαν
Romans 10:19, 20 (NET) Romans 10:19, 20 (KJV)
But again I ask, didn’t Israel understand?  First Moses says, “I will make you jealous by those who are not a nation; with a senseless nation I will provoke you to anger.” But I say, Did not Israel know?  First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.
NET Parallel Greek Stephanus Textus Receptus Byzantine Majority Text
ἀλλὰ λέγω, μὴ Ἰσραὴλ οὐκ ἔγνω; πρῶτος Μωϋσῆς λέγει· ἐγὼ παραζηλώσω ὑμᾶς ἐπ᾿ οὐκ ἔθνει, ἐπ᾿ ἔθνει ἀσυνέτῳ παροργιῶ ὑμᾶς αλλα λεγω μη ουκ εγνω ισραηλ πρωτος μωσης λεγει εγω παραζηλωσω υμας επ ουκ εθνει επι εθνει ασυνετω παροργιω υμας αλλα λεγω μη ουκ εγνω ισραηλ πρωτος μωυσης λεγει εγω παραζηλωσω υμας επ ουκ εθνει επι εθνει ασυνετω παροργιω υμας
And Isaiah is even bold enough to say, “I was found by those who did not seek me; I became well known to those who did not ask for me.” But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.
NET Parallel Greek Stephanus Textus Receptus Byzantine Majority Text
Ἠσαΐας δὲ ἀποτολμᾷ καὶ λέγει· εὑρέθην [ἐν] τοῖς ἐμὲ μὴ ζητοῦσιν, ἐμφανὴς ἐγενόμην τοῖς ἐμὲ μὴ ἐπερωτῶσιν ησαιας δε αποτολμα και λεγει ευρεθην τοις εμε μη ζητουσιν εμφανης εγενομην τοις εμε μη επερωτωσιν ησαιας δε αποτολμα και λεγει ευρεθην τοις εμε μη ζητουσιν εμφανης εγενομην τοις εμε μη επερωτωσιν
Acts 13:46 (NET) Acts 13:46 (KJV)
Both Paul and Barnabas replied courageously, “It was necessary to speak the word of God to you first.  Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we are turning to the Gentiles. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.
NET Parallel Greek Stephanus Textus Receptus Byzantine Majority Text
παρρησιασάμενοι τε ὁ Παῦλος καὶ ὁ Βαρναβᾶς εἶπαν· ὑμῖν ἦν ἀναγκαῖον πρῶτον λαληθῆναι τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ· ἐπειδὴ ἀπωθεῖσθε αὐτὸν καὶ οὐκ ἀξίους κρίνετε ἑαυτοὺς τῆς αἰωνίου ζωῆς, ἰδοὺ στρεφόμεθα εἰς τὰ ἔθνη παρρησιασαμενοι δε ο παυλος και ο βαρναβας ειπον υμιν ην αναγκαιον πρωτον λαληθηναι τον λογον του θεου επειδη δε απωθεισθε αυτον και ουκ αξιους κρινετε εαυτους της αιωνιου ζωης ιδου στρεφομεθα εις τα εθνη παρρησιασαμενοι δε ο παυλος και ο βαρναβας ειπον υμιν ην αναγκαιον πρωτον λαληθηναι τον λογον του θεου επειδη δε απωθεισθε αυτον και ουκ αξιους κρινετε εαυτους της αιωνιου ζωης ιδου στρεφομεθα εις τα εθνη
Romans 9:3 (NET) Romans 9:3 (KJV)
For I could wish that I myself were accursed—cut off from Christ—for the sake of my people, my fellow countrymen, For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
NET Parallel Greek Stephanus Textus Receptus Byzantine Majority Text
ἠυχόμην γὰρ ἀνάθεμα εἶναι αὐτὸς ἐγὼ ἀπὸ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀδελφῶν μου τῶν συγγενῶν μου κατὰ σάρκα ηυχομην γαρ αυτος εγω αναθεμα ειναι απο του χριστου υπερ των αδελφων μου των συγγενων μου κατα σαρκα ευχομην γαρ αυτος εγω αναθεμα ειναι απο του χριστου υπερ των αδελφων μου των συγγενων μου κατα σαρκα
John 15:7, 8 (NET) John 15:7, 8 (KJV)
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
NET Parallel Greek Stephanus Textus Receptus Byzantine Majority Text
ἐὰν μείνητε ἐν ἐμοὶ καὶ τὰ ρήματα μου ἐν ὑμῖν μείνῃ, ὃ ἐὰν θέλητε αἰτήσασθε, καὶ γενήσεται ὑμῖν εαν μεινητε εν εμοι και τα ρηματα μου εν υμιν μεινη ο εαν θελητε αιτησεσθε και γενησεται υμιν εαν μεινητε εν εμοι και τα ρηματα μου εν υμιν μεινη ο εαν θελητε αιτησεσθε και γενησεται υμιν
My Father is honored by this, that you bear much fruit and show that you are my disciples. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
NET Parallel Greek Stephanus Textus Receptus Byzantine Majority Text
ἐν τούτῳ ἐδοξάσθη ὁ πατήρ μου, ἵνα καρπὸν πολὺν φέρητε καὶ γένησθε ἐμοὶ μαθηταί εν τουτω εδοξασθη ο πατηρ μου ινα καρπον πολυν φερητε και γενησεσθε εμοι μαθηται εν τουτω εδοξασθη ο πατηρ μου ινα καρπον πολυν φερητε και γενησεσθε εμοι μαθηται

 

1 Acts 13:43 (NET) Table

2 The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had κυρίου here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had θεου (KJV: God).

3 Acts 13:44, 45 (NET) The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had βλασφημοῦντες here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had αντιλεγοντες και βλασφημουντες (KJV: contradicting and blaspheming).

4 2 Corinthians 11:2 (NET)

5 The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had αὐτῶν here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had του ισραηλ εστιν (KJV: Israel is).

7 The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had ἐπ᾿ here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had επι (KJV: by).

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

10 The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had εἶπαν here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had ειπον (KJV: and said).

11 The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had δε (KJV: but) here.  The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 did not.

13 Philippians 2:13 (NET) Table Footnote

14 Romans 9:16 (NET) Table Footnote

17 John 15:8 (NET)