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<h2>Who Is The Only True God According to Jesus?</h2>
<h3><span style="font-size: x-large; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Introduction to John 17:3</span></strong></span></h3>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Jesus in <a href="http://bible.cc/john/17-3.htm">John 17:3</a> says, as we explore below, that the Father "is the<strong><em> only true God</em></strong>." &nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul has few quotes of Jesus, but this is one of them: "for us there is but one God, the Father." (<a href="http://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/8-6.htm">1 Cor. 8:6</a>.)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">As an introduction to this topic, I wish to emphasize that a correct Christology says Jesus is Divine due to the indwelling presence of the Father in Jesus. (<a href="http://bible.cc/john/14-10.htm">John 14:10</a>)("Father..dwells in me.") </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">While I dearly love Jesus, and worship / do homage to him as King-Messiah appointed over me, a correct Christology must reject as violative of the First Commandment to say Jesus alone is God-the-Son or simply "God." See our article "<a href="/books/gospel-of-john/208-exaltation-that-turns-idolatrous.html">Exaltation that turns Idolatrous</a>."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">And while Apostle John in John 1:1,<a href="http://biblos.com/john/1-14.htm">14</a>, says the "Logos [was] made flesh" Jesus is <strong>not</strong> the Logos. As Jesus in <a href="http://biblos.com/john/14-24.htm">14:24</a>, says the "<strong><em>Logos</em></strong> you hear is<em><strong> not mine</strong></em>, but the Father's who sent me." This is why Jesus says in John <a href="http://bible.cc/john/5-30.htm">5:30</a>: </span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><em>I can of my own self do nothing</em></strong>: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek <strong><em>not my own will</em></strong>, but the will of the Father who has sent me.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Jesus clearly directs us always to worship God as the Father, and that apart from God-the-Father, Jesus is powerless. Hence, the familiar claim there exists a "God-the-Son" who is not "God-the-Father" (and not "God-the-Holy-Spirit") is contradicted by Jesus.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The misunderstanding that Jesus is God apart from the Father's indwelling presence comes from a mistranslation of John 1:14. In John ch.1, we read that the Logos, translated as the Word, is God. In verse 14, we are told the Logos comes to "dwell" (shekinei in Greek) in flesh and was the "monogenes." It meant "one and only" (God) became flesh. However, this was mistranslated as "only begotten," which made us think Logos must be the begotten son Jesus, rather than the ONE AND ONLY GOD. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">However, "begotten" in the translation was wrong on two scores: (a) God is eternal and in no sense can be begotten, which should have been a hint that the translation of <em>monogenes</em> was wrong; and (b) "monogenes" we now know (through better scholarship) meant "one of a kind," or "unique," and not "only begotten." See our webpage on "<a href="/books/gospel-of-john/253-one-and-only-issue-in-john-114.html">The One and Only Issue in John 1:14</a>." </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The ONE AND ONLY GOD, the LOGOS came to DWELL, says John, in flesh. (John 1:14.) The word for dwell is <em>shekeinei</em> --- a Greek transliterated form of the Hebrew word that means <em>divinity dwelling</em>. It is this attribute of the LOGOS in Jesus which gives us the right to call Jesus DIVINE. Why? Because in Judaism when God dwelled in the Temple at Jerusalem, His Shekinah (Dwelling Presence) was there, and Jews call this "Divinity Abiding" or "Divine." See our article "<a href="/books/gospel-of-john/189-correct-christology.html">Correct Christology</a>" for more discussion.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Hence, with this preface, one can see we need a slight, but substantially important, adjustment in how we hold Jesus in our hearts -- as the King Messiah appointed by Yahweh over us. To obey Jesus properly, we must see He points us to follow and love and adore Yahweh, the Father, always as "the only true God," as we shall now see.</span></p>
<h3><span style="color: #0000ff; font-size: x-large;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">John 17:3 - Jesus Says Father is "Only True God"</span></strong></span></h3>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Jesus in John <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+17&amp;version=KJV">17:1-3</a> states:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup>1</sup>These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said,<em><strong> Father,</strong></em> the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup>2</sup>As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup>3</sup>And this is life eternal, that they might know <em><strong>thee the only true God</strong></em>, and<strong><em> Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent</em></strong>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The Geneva Study Bible admits what this says:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">(b) He calls the <strong><em>Father the only true God</em></strong> (<a href="http://bible.cc/john/17-3.htm">GSB at John 17:3</a>.)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The oldest discovered sermon in Christianity from the 2d century used the words of John 17:1-3 to make the same point:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">To the<strong><em> only God invisible, the Father of truth</em></strong>, who <strong>sent forth unto us the Savio</strong><strong>r</strong> and prince of immortality, through whom He also made manifest unto us the truth and the heavenly light. To Him be the glory for ever and ever. (Cobern, <em>New Archaelogical Discoveries and their Bearing on the New Testament</em> (1917) at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=l5pJAAAAYAAJ&amp;dq=didache%20virgin%20birth%20account&amp;pg=PA277#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false">277</a>.)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">However, the Geneva Study Bible (GSB) reads more into John 17:3. The GSB tries to say the "Father, the only true God" does not exclude the Holy Spirit and Jesus as also God independent of the Father being God:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">(b) He <strong><em>calls the Father the only true God</em></strong> in order to set him against all false gods, and<em><strong> to include himself and the Holy Spirit</strong></em>, for he immediately joins the knowledge of the Father and the knowledge of himself together, and according to his accustomed manner sets forth the whole Godhead in the person of the Father. So is the Father alone said to be King, immortal, wise, dwelling in light which no man can attain unto, and invisible; Ro 16:27; 1Ti 1:17.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">This is just gobbly-gook after the important admission. Nothing like this ("immediately joins knowledge of the father and knowledge of himself together") exists in the passage. Rather, mention of the "only true God" as the "Father" is set apart from Jesus Christ rather than including as God our Lord Jesus (<em>i.e.</em>,&nbsp;our master Jesus whom God spoke from heaven twice that we should obey) as "God."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">As one author puts it, "Jesus did not identify himself as the only true God" in this passage. (Patrick Navas, <em>Divine Truth or Human Tradition?</em> (Author House, 2006) at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=KYktt_ZiTGcC&amp;lpg=PA151&amp;dq=john%2017%3A3%20%22only%20true%20god%22&amp;pg=PA151#v=onepage&amp;q=john%2017:3%20%22only%20true%20god%22&amp;f=false">151</a>.) Navas points out that but for extra-biblical tradition, the Father as "the only true God" would be a "definitional statement" of true Christianity -- "Jesus taught he was<strong><em> sent by the only true God</em></strong>." <em>Id. </em>And in this statement the "only true God" is a reference to a specific being -- the Father, and not a "first person" among three. Navas concludes correctly:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">John 17:3...is a presentation of essential Christian doctrine in its <em>purest</em> and <em>fullest</em> and <em>clearest</em> expression--from the very mouth of the Lord and founder of the Christian faith. <em>Id.</em></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Moreover, the words of Jesus do not merely call the Father the "only God" but affirm the Father <strong><em>is</em></strong> "the only true God." This rules out any other than the Father, distinct from the Son or the claimed distinct person of the Holy Spirit.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The correct Christology is that the <strong><em>Father dwelled in Jesus</em></strong> -- in a unique and special way so that whatever Jesus said or did was an exact replication of what the Father was saying or doing. See John 14. See our article "<a href="/books/gospel-of-john/189-correct-christology.html">The Correct Christology</a>." This did not make the man Jesus God Himself apart from the Father indwelling Him. Rather, Jesus was Divine as the<em><strong> presence of God</strong></em> (which was in Jesus) was known as "Divinity" or "Shekinah" just as resided at the Temple in Jerusalem. It now resided fully in Jesus, <strong><em>rendering Him Divine</em></strong>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Consistent with this is the fact the Apostles make numerous references to God using Jesus as a Servant whom <strong>God (not simply 'the Father')</strong> glorified. These Bible quotes below exclude the later 381 AD notion that Jesus Himself apart from the Father was God. The Apostles spoke thus:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth,&nbsp;<strong>a Man attested by God</strong> to you by miracles, wonders, and signs&nbsp;<strong>which God did through Him</strong> in your midst, as you yourselves also know” (Acts 2:22)</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that&nbsp;<strong>God has made this Jesus</strong>, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” (Acts 2:36)</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,&nbsp;<strong>the God of our fathers, glorified</strong> <strong>His Servant Jesus</strong>, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. (Acts 3:13)</span></p>
<h2><span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;">Jesus Also Identified The Father As His God</span></strong></span></h2>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Jesus said to one of the women who found Him after the resurrection, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to <strong><em>My Father</em></strong>; but go to&nbsp;<strong>My brethren</strong> and say to them, ‘I am ascending to<strong> My Father and your Father, </strong>and to<strong> My God and your God.</strong>’” (<a href="http://biblehub.com/john/20-17.htm">John 20:17</a>)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Furthermore, Jesus said He was not the Father. Jesus says in <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+8%3A14-18&amp;version=NIV">John 8:14-18</a> that He and the Father constitute TWO distinct witnesses. If Jesus were the Father whom Jesus said in John 17:3 was the "<strong><em>only</em></strong> true God," then Jesus' statement would not add up to two beings, as Jesus says they constitute in <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+8%3A14-18&amp;version=NIV">8:14-18</a>, but one being. Since Jesus said they are two witnesses, they are not ONE in the intrinsic sense of being.</span></p>
<h2><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">What About John 10:30-The Father And I are One?</span></strong></span></h2>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Then what about John 10:30, "the Father and I are one"? What does it mean?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The Father and Jesus are one in the same sense we are one with Jesus, because next Jesus says in the same prayer that He prays<strong><em> His disciples and Himself would be ONE </em></strong>even as 'we' (Father and Jesus) are one.<em><strong> </strong></em></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><em><strong>If</strong></em> Jesus' prayer was answered by the Father and ONENESS meant organic being,<strong><em> then </em></strong>each of us <em>is</em> or <em>would become</em> God. This is because if the Father and Jesus are organically ONE being because Jesus said they are "ONE" in John 10:30, and thus each are indivisibly God, then this must be true for us too if God answered Jesus' prayer that we and Jesus be one. That is, if we are now one with Jesus if God answered Jesus' prayer for ourselves and Himself to be one, then we are logically the same ONE with the Father as Jesus is, and if we contend that Jesus's "ONENESS" with the Father means God-hood, we too would become indivisibly God.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Hence, this is an absurd reading. In other words, if you wish to absurdly claim you are GOD, you can defend this by saying Jesus' statement means Jesus was God when Jesus says "I and the Father are one." Because Jesus prayed that we-followers and Jesus would be "one" with Jesus just as Jesus is one with the Father. But this is heresy and absurd. Obviously what Jesus meant is <strong><em>He was one in mind and spirit with the Father just as Jesus prayed we would be one in mind and spirit with Himself</em></strong>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">But if you contend this statement "I and the Father are one" represents Jesus was organically part of the being of God and hence was God, then you must address the absurd heresy that this would mean that if God answers Jesus prayer we will become God too. Do you really think this is what Jesus means about us being one with Him? If not, then you know this is not what Jesus meant by saying "I and the Father are one."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Instead, if Jesus meant He enjoyed a ONENESS of mind and spirit with the Father, proven by how Jesus replicated everything the Father did and said to Him, Jesus was praying to the Father that we too would be so one in mind and spirit of Jesus, rather than affirming we too become God.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, we share a oneness as much with Jesus, if this prayer of Jesus is answered in our individual cases, as Jesus shared with the Father. But this sharing with Jesus does not make us able to say "I am God."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">I trust each of us do not share the Mormon heresy that we are all little gods, and thus I trust we all reject that John 10:30 says the Father and Son are intrinsically persons in one God-head, any more than our oneness with Christ could make each of us identical to being God.</span></p>
<h2><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Other References to the Father As God Alone</span></strong></span></h2>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Compare Jude 4 to Jesus' words in John 17:3 ("father...only true God"):</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the<em><strong> only Lord God</strong></em>, and <strong>our Lord Jesus Christ</strong>. (Jude <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jude+1:4&amp;version=KJV">4</a>.)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Notice, this speaks of the Lord-God and distinctly our "Lord-Jesus Christ." God set Jesus over us as Lord. But being Lord is not synonymous with being God. Lord is an old word, but it simply meant 'Master.'</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">John elsewhere spoke the same way that Jesus is distinct from "His God and Father":</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood [i.e., Jesus],&nbsp;<strong>and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father</strong>, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 1:5b–6)</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul likewise repeatedly identifies the One God as the Father:</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism;&nbsp;<strong>one</strong> <strong>God and Father of all</strong>, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. (Ephesians 4:4–6)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">yet for us&nbsp;<strong>there is one God, the Father</strong>, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. (1 Corinthians 8:6)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify&nbsp;<strong>the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.</strong> (Romans 15:5–6)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Blessed be&nbsp;<strong>the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ</strong>, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, (2 Corinthians 1:3)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong>The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ</strong>, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. (2 Corinthians 11:31)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">that&nbsp;<strong>the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father</strong> of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him (Ephesians 1:17)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">We give thanks to&nbsp;<strong>the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ</strong>, praying always for you, (Colossians 1:3)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">&nbsp;</span></p>
</blockquote>
<h2><strong><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;">Godhead Explanation is Backwards</span></strong></h2>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The concept that there are multiple persons in the God-head is backwards. Rather, there are<strong><em> multiple persons in the Man Jesus</em></strong> -- Jesus and the Father dwelling in Jesus. So Jesus is DIVINE by the DIVINE presence in HIM. Jesus is not God-the-Son co-existing since eternity as a separate and distinct person of independent MIND and WILL from God-the-Father. That would be the heresy of<em><strong> polytheism</strong></em> even though it is excused by many as accepting a "plurality" in the essence of God. That is a nice word for the<strong><em> same thing as polytheism</em></strong>. We need to accept what Jesus said: the Father "dwells in me." (John 14:24.) See our article, "<a href="/books/gospel-of-john/189-correct-christology.html">The Correct Christology</a>" &nbsp;We need to reject polytheism even if many delude themselves they do not defend polytheism in their incorrect Christologies.</span></p>
<h2><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Counter-Arguments on John 17:3</span></strong></span></h2>
<h3><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #993366;">1. Supposedly 'Just A Single Verse' Rebuttal</span></strong></h3>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The Christian Apologetics ministry has a <a href="http://carm.org/religious-movements/jehovahs-witnesses/john-173-only-true-god">web page</a> on John 17:3. They say one should not rely upon one verse to deny the trinity doctrine by which it means the Roman Catholic version of the Trinity Doctrine from 381 AD adopted into Protestantism <em>i.e.</em>,&nbsp;three distinct persons of independent mind exist in the one being of God. (The correct trinity doctrine was set forth by the first proponent of the trinity, Tertullian, in the 200s that Jesus was indwelled by the Father, and that Jesus was not God but divine due to the indwelling presence of God and His spirit. See our webpage on the <a href="/books/gospel-of-john/189-correct-christology.html">Correct Christology</a>.)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The argument based upon John 17:3 is not the only proof of the same point that the Father is the only one true God. There are many references similar to John 17:3 which describe the Father as the only God or as the God of Jesus, which conforms to the Father being the only true God: Acts 2:22, 23; 3:13; John 20:17 ("my God and your God"); Jude 4; Rev. 1:5-6; Eph. 4:4-6 ("<strong><em>one God and Father</em></strong> of all"); 1 Cor. 8:6 ("<strong><em>one God, the Father</em></strong>"); 2 Cor. 11:31; Eph. 1:17; Col. 1:3.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The Christian Apologetics webpage does not address any of this supporting evidence to what John 17:3 signifies, including the two instances of identical statements to what Jesus said in John 17:3.</span></p>
<h3><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #993366;">2. 'Jesus is God' and 'Eternal Son' Rebuttal</span></strong></h3>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="color: #000000; font-weight: normal;">The second argument is that the context of John 17:3 was "Jesus was speaking as a man to his God." Christian Apologetics then says "remember </span><span style="color: #000000; font-weight: normal;"><strong><em>Jesus is</em></strong></span><span style="color: #000000; font-weight: normal;"> both </span><span style="color: #000000; font-weight: normal;"><strong><em>God</em></strong></span><span style="color: #000000; font-weight: normal;"> and man, second person of the Trinity (John 1:1, 14.)"</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In other words, Christian Apologetics argues "<strong><em>Jesus is...God</em></strong>" from John 1:1, 14, and they believe this can be reconciled with Jesus' words which say the "<em><strong>Father</strong></em>...is the <em><strong>ONLY true God</strong></em>." (John 17:3.)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">However, Christian Apologetics does not follow through, and show us how to reconcile these two propositions. The only way they are true simultaneously is if <strong><em>Jesus is the Father</em></strong>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">And this is close to the truth that the Father fully indwelled Jesus (John 14:24), and that is all that John 1:1 and 14 says. (For our discussion of those passages, see "<a href="/books/gospel-of-john/189-correct-christology.html">Correct Christology</a>.")</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">But Roman Catholic doctrine (which we Protestants adopted) does not teach this truth. Instead, it teaches that Jesus was God-the-Son, and was the eternal son. This RCC doctrine was made a Protestant doctrine when Servetus was burned at the stake by Calvin's Geneva in 1553.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">So not suprisingly, Christian Apologetics then simply asserts this Roman Catholic Doctrine as the proper understanding of John 17:3 even though this RCC doctrine of Jesus as an eternal son has utterly no scriptural support. We read in this Christian Apologetics site:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">[John 17:3]&nbsp;reflects the sonship of Jesus. The Father and the Son have a unique relationship. Jesus is<strong><em> the eternal Son</em></strong>. The terms Father and Son denote a relationship which is why God is called the God of the Son in&nbsp;<a target="_blank" data-version="NASB" data-reference="2 Cor. 11.31" class="lbsBibleRef" href="http://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/2%20Cor.%2011.31">2 Cor. 11:31</a>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">There is nothing about John 17:3 that reflects the son as eternal and thus as God. Instead, John 17:3 reflects that the Father is the "only true God." In fact, to say Jesus' God was the Father excludes the proposition that Jesus, the Son, exists eternally as God Himself too unless we are polytheists.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Furthermore, these explanations are childish non-sense. A begotten son is not "eternal" and thus the claim of eternal sonship for a begotten son and giving that same being independent god-hood leads to dangerous idolatry, just as Tertullian warned in the 200s. ("<a href="/books/gospel-of-john/255-idolatry-worshipping-a-man.html">Risk of Idolatry in W</a>orshipping a Man.") We must stop letting&nbsp;Roman Catholic tradition from the 300s guide us into errors and absurdities such as the 'eternal son' doctrine which nowhere appears in Scripture.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Rather, what John 1:1, 14 and John 17:3 say when properly reconciled is what Jesus explained in John 14:24. Jesus was fully indwelled by the Word / LOGOS sent by the Father. It is this attribute that gives Jesus DIVINITY, and reconciles all the passages.</span></p>
<h3><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #993366;">3.John 10:30 'Oneness' Rebuttal</span></strong></h3>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">I dealt with this verse above. But because Christian Apologetics mentions it and lays out the argument in such absurd degrees to rebut John 17:3, it is useful to hear how the argument is actually defended. In John 10:30, Jesus says "the Father and I are one." From this, Christian Apologetics argues:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> So, in one sense <em><strong>Jesus is in the Father</strong></em> and if the Father is the only true God, then Jesus is the True God. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">But to say Jesus and the Father are one is not the same as saying Jesus is God. Rather, Jesus explains the Father fully dwells in Himself. (John 14:24) That creates a unity. It does not logically follow that "Jesus is the Father" or that "Jesus is the true God."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Otherwise, we are all God too for Jesus prayed to the Father that his disciples be "one" with Jesus "even as we [Father and Jesus] are one." The notion of "oneness" in John 10:30 thus cannot imply that Jesus is God unless we wish to say we are God too because we must believe God answered (or would answer) Jesus' prayer that we are "one" with Jesus.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, while we have many reasons to regard Jesus as Divine due to the divine presence in Him, it is <strong><em>idolatrous to take it too far</em></strong>, and raise a man to God-hood. That was the polytheistic direction Rome wanted to go in the 300s, but it is non-Scriptural besides dangerous. It actually is contrary to the first proponent of the trinity -- Tertullian's -- understanding of the trinity in the 200s.</span></p>
<h3><span style="color: #993366; font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">4. 1 John 5:20 - Rebuttal Arguing It Says Jesus is God</span></h3>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Christian Apologetics cites 1 John 5:20, and says "Jesus is called the only true God" in that verse. However, this is false both in English and Greek. As typically translated in English, it reads:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup>20</sup> We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know <strong><em>him</em></strong> who is true. And we are in<strong><em> him</em></strong> who is true by being in <strong><em>his</em></strong> Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. (NIV)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Trinitarians insist the "most natural referent" of "the true God" is Jesus. (Eric Snow, <em>A Zeal for God</em> at&nbsp;<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=MX7OxoX5XHoC&amp;lpg=PA641&amp;dq=1%20john%205%3A20%20unitarian&amp;pg=PA641#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false">641</a>.) However, as rendered by the NIV, this is untrue. It is also untrue as a matter of Greek grammar -- "the true God" is a reference to the Father:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Nevertheless, 'the most natural reference'&nbsp;(Westcott) is to <em>him that is true</em>. In this way the three references to 'the true' are to the same Person, the<em><strong> Fathe</strong></em><strong><em>r</em></strong>.... " <em>(The Epistles of John, An Introduction and Commentary</em> by Rev.J.R.W.Stott (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, Tyndale Press, London, 1964) at 195, 196.)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In agreement by examining the Greek is Winer's <em>Grammar of the New Testament Greek</em> (trans. W.F. Moulton)(1870) at 195. Winer explains that the <em>houtos</em> that begins 5:20b translated "he is" is a referent to the nearest <em>psychological</em> equivalent, that is the "Father" who is identified in 5:20a. This <em>althinos&nbsp;theos</em> in 5:20b is thus to be equated to the <em>father</em> in 5:20a because it is a "constant and exclusive epithet for the father." <em>Id. </em>(Quoted in Michael A. Barber, <em>Should Christians Abandon the Trinity? </em>(Universal Publishers, 2006)&nbsp;at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=u5hkIwXJVxoC&amp;lpg=PA44&amp;dq=john%2017%3A3%20%22only%20true%20god%22&amp;pg=PA44#v=onepage&amp;q=john%2017:3%20%22only%20true%20god%22&amp;f=false">44</a>.)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Even if one does not like to listen to experts, one does not need a scholar's advice to see this by reading the context of 20a and 20b. "The true God" is not referring to Jesus. Rather, the "<strong>his</strong> Son" in the preceding verse uses "his" to mean the "father." The preceding verse keeps the father in view again saying "<strong><em>him</em></strong> who is true" -- a second reference to the father. And thus the next sentence -- the one at issue -- is simply<strong><em> still speaking of the Father </em></strong>when John says "he is the true God and eternal life" -- another &nbsp;reference to the<strong><em> same 'he,' 'him' and the one who is 'true' in the preceding sentence</em></strong>: the Father. And of course, John refers to Jesus as the "Son of God," not God in the preceding sentence, so it would be a shock to now call this Son God. (For more on the case that "God" refers to the Father in 1 John 5:20, see Murray J. Harris, <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=nbw3PwAACAAJ&amp;dq=harris+jesus+as+god&amp;hl=en&amp;ei=-S_MTc3GC4P2tgOJ8MXJBg&amp;sa=X&amp;oi=book_result&amp;ct=result&amp;resnum=1&amp;ved=0CDwQ6AEwAA">Jesus as God</a> (2008) at 239-53.)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Another way of saying this is to observe the parallelism between 20a and 20b.&nbsp;Douglas Rustad in&nbsp;<em>Is the Jesus God? </em>at&nbsp;<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=jEyAqXnoYeoC&amp;lpg=PA179&amp;dq=%221%20john%205%3A20%22%20greek&amp;pg=PA179#v=onepage&amp;q=%221%20john%205:20%22%20greek&amp;f=false">179</a> argues:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"Thus, 'the true God' (second sentence) is related to 'him who is true' (first sentence), and 'eternal life' (second sentence) is related to 'his Son Jesus Christ."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Another view by a trinitarian actually argues on one hand 20b<em> althinos theos</em> refers to Jesus, but then "admits" <em>althinos theos</em> means here "the true OF God," not the "true God." Henkel in 1830 read 20b as&nbsp;"<strong><em>this is the true of God</em></strong> and eternal life." He point blank says that in Greek it does not say this is the "true God." Then he tries to argue it still supports trinitarianism because the 'true' of God means co-substantial with the 'Father' of the preceding sentence. See David Henkel,&nbsp;<em>A treatise on the person and incarnation of Jesus Christ</em> (1830) at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=_vcTAAAAYAAJ&amp;dq=1%20john%205%3A20%20unitarian&amp;pg=PA74#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false">74</a>. But that does not logically follow. That is doctrine overlaid on a verse that Henkel translates as Jesus is the "true (one) of God." Thus, even if we accepted the reference in 5:20b were about Jesus and not the Father, Henkel, a trinitarian, translates this to not say "true God," but the "true of God." The important lesson from Henkel is that in Greek it does not necessarily say "He is the true God" in reference to Jesus even if it were referring to Jesus.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, both in English and Greek grammar this does not talk about Jesus as God. As Jesus says in John 17:3, the "only true God" is the Father. John in 1 John 5:20 merely repeats what Jesus said in 17:3.</span></p>
<h3><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #993366;">5. 'Glory &nbsp;Jesus &nbsp;Shares with the Father' Argument</span></strong></h3>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Another clever argument which relies upon faulty semantics involves the issue about the glory God gives Jesus. But it is described fallasciously as the glory Jesus "shares" with the Father to create a semantical proof when Isaiah 42:8 is introduced. Stephen Ray in<em> St. John's Gospel</em> (Ignatius Press, 2002) at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=sRAcER113wUC&amp;lpg=PA305&amp;dq=john%2017%3A3%20only%20true%20god&amp;pg=PA305#v=onepage&amp;q=john%2017:3%20only%20true%20god&amp;f=false">302</a> argues that if God will not share his glory with another per Isaiah 42:8, &nbsp;then what glory did Jesus claim to have shared if Jesus was not God? The only verse he cites that pertains is John 17:24 which reads:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see <strong><em>my glory</em></strong>, the <strong><em>glory you have given me</em></strong> because you loved me <strong><em>before the creation of the world.</em></strong>" (John 17:24.)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In that verse, however, Jesus says God<em><strong> gave Jesus glory</strong></em>. It was not God's glory transferred to Jesus or shared with Jesus. By the way, the Greek word <em>doxa</em> is simple in meaning, and causes no mistake in the nature of 'glory':</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><em>honor, renown, glory splendor</em></strong> (<a href="http://strongsnumbers.com/greek/1391.htm">#1391</a>)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">So isn't it possible for God to give Jesus honor and renown that are distinctly belonging to Jesus? If so, God has not given His own honor and glory to Jesus or "shared" it with Jesus, but<strong><em> given Jesus His own honor and glory</em></strong>. In fact, in the quote of John 17:24, Jesus refers to it as "<strong><em>my</em></strong> glory," or "My doxa" = "my honor." So that perfectly makes sense, and destroys Ray's argument.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Moreover, the Original Testament is perfectly consistent. In Daniel <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel%207:14&amp;version=KJV">7:14</a>, the Son of Man will return on clouds of glory:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">And there was <em><strong>given him</strong></em> dominion, and <em><strong>glory,</strong></em> and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">So is there any conflict when God says in Isaiah<a href="http://bible.cc/isaiah/42-8.htm"> 42:8</a> "I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not<strong><em> give my glory to another</em></strong> or my praise to idols"?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">No, because God permits or gives glory (honor) to the Son of Man. It is not "my glory" of God by definition, putting Daniel and Isaiah together. The honor God gives makes it belong to Jesus distinctly as the Son of Man.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">So now listen to Ray's argument, and you can see how it fallasciously misleads by implying God 'shared' His glory with Jesus rather than gave Jesus a glory of Jesus' own:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">What glory did Jesus<strong><em> share with God's glory</em></strong> before the world began? (Gen. 1:26, John 1:2, 17:24; Phil. 2:5-7) Jesus asks to be glorified with God. [Note: Not 'as God.'] Can God share his glory with another? (Isaiah 42:8, 42:11.) If Jesus shares God's glory, what does this say about Jesus? Jesus shares the Father's glory -- it is a clear claim of deity." <em>Id.</em>, at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=sRAcER113wUC&amp;lpg=PA305&amp;dq=john%2017%3A3%20only%20true%20god&amp;pg=PA305#v=onepage&amp;q=john%2017:3%20only%20true%20god&amp;f=false">305</a>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The argument is based upon a faulty assumption that the Bible says God<strong><em> shared </em></strong>His glory with Jesus.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Does John 1:2 help? It speaks nothing about glory. It is just an old favorite for the post-381 AD version of the trinity. To repeat, John 1:2 says the LOGOS is God, but it never says Jesus is the LOGOS. That is tradition which says that. It is NOT IN THE BIBLE! More important, Jesus says "<strong><em>the Logos is not mine but the Father's</em></strong>" in John <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%2014:24&amp;version=NIV">14:24</a>. Logos in 14:24 is the <em><strong>same noun singular</strong></em> as used in John <a href="http://biblos.com/john/1-2.htm">1:2</a>, contrary to how the NIV renders <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%2014:24&amp;version=NIV">14:24</a> ("these Word<strong><em>s are</em></strong> not mine")&nbsp;to make one believe Jesus is not speaking of the same <em>Logos</em> as is spoken about in John 1:2.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Rather, the Word, LOGOS, which is God (John 1:1), was made "flesh" (Jesus) and "dwelled among us"(John <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%201:14&amp;version=KJV">1:14</a>) in the body of Jesus. This does not make the LOGOS an independent being known as Jesus prior to birth. It makes the LOGOS, God, an indwelling presence in Jesus - a substantial connection but not independent DEITY for Jesus apart from the indwelling presence of the LOGOS / Father. Jesus in His own words depicts the relationship clearly:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup>10</sup>Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and <em><strong>the Father in me</strong></em>? the words [remata, plural] that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but <em><strong>the Father that dwelleth in me</strong></em>, he doeth the works.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup>11</sup>Believe me that I am in the Father, and <strong><em>the Father in me</em></strong>: or else believe me for the very works' sake.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup>24</sup>he who is not loving me, my words [plural]doth not keep; and<strong><em> the LOGOS</em></strong> (singular) that ye hear<strong><em> is not mine</em></strong>, but<em><strong> the Father's</strong></em> who sent me. (John <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2014&amp;version=YLT">14</a>)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus the same LOGOS that is God in John 1:1 Jesus says is dwelling in Him, and is "<strong><em>not mine</em></strong>, but the Father's." The Oneness of God is preserved, while Jesus is properly DIVINE as the Shekinah presence in the OT wherever it dwelled was said to be "DIVINE" or "DIVINITY ABIDING." See<a href="/books/gospel-of-john/189-correct-christology.html"> Correct Christology</a>.</span></p>
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<h1>What Is John's Sequence of the Passion Week</h1>
<p><span style="font-size: medium; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In Bacon's article, "The Purpose of Mark's Gospel," at <a href="http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/jbl/1910_bacon.pdf">51</a>, we read:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: medium; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"The Asian gospel [<em>i.e.</em>, John] is Quartordeciman...making the sacrifice take place on 14 Nisan (not 15th as in Mark) at the hour prescribed by the Mosaic ritual. The Anointing of Bethany is dated not "two days" before the Passover, but "six days" before in order that it would coincide in the choosing of the lamb on the 10th of Nisan. The Resurrection and Ascension fall on the Day of First Fruits, 16th Nisan...."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: medium; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In the Wikipedia article on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartodecimanism">Quartordecimanism </a>(Nissan 14-ers), we read:</span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: medium; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="color: #000000; line-height: 19.1875px;" data-mce-mark="1">According to some interpretations, the&nbsp;</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_John" style="color: #0b0080; background-image: none; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px;" title="Gospel of John">Gospel of John</a><span style="color: #000000; line-height: 19.1875px;" data-mce-mark="1">&nbsp;(e.g.,&nbsp;</span><a href="http://bibref.hebtools.com/?book=%20John&amp;verse=19:14&amp;src=!" rel="nofollow" class="external text" style="color: #663366; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">19:14</a><span style="color: #000000; line-height: 19.1875px;" data-mce-mark="1">,&nbsp;</span><a href="http://bibref.hebtools.com/?book=%20John&amp;verse=19:31&amp;src=!" rel="nofollow" class="external text" style="color: #663366; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">19:31</a><span style="color: #000000; line-height: 19.1875px;" data-mce-mark="1">,&nbsp;</span><a href="http://bibref.hebtools.com/?book=%20John&amp;verse=19:42&amp;src=!" rel="nofollow" class="external text" style="color: #663366; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">19:42</a><span style="color: #000000; line-height: 19.1875px;" data-mce-mark="1">) implies that Nisan 14 was the day that&nbsp;</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus" style="color: #0b0080; background-image: none; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px;" title="Jesus">Jesus</a>&nbsp;<span style="color: #000000; line-height: 19.1875px;" data-mce-mark="1">was crucified in&nbsp;</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_in_Christianity" style="color: #0b0080; background-image: none; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px;" title="Jerusalem in Christianity">Jerusalem</a>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: medium; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">John writes in <a href="http://bible.cc/john/19-14.htm">19:14</a>&nbsp;and <a href="http://bible.cc/john/19-31.htm">19:31</a></span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 21px; text-align: justify; background-color: #fffefd;">[14] It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon. "Here is your king," Pilate said to the Jews. (NIV)</span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 21px; text-align: justify; background-color: #fffefd;"><span style="color: #001320; line-height: 21px; text-align: justify; background-color: #fffefd;">[31] Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: medium; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Some misunderstood "day of Preparation" to mean the day before the ordinary weekly Sabbath (our Saturday). And thus, they assumed Jesus was executed on Friday. But the mention of the "special Sabbath" mean to refer to Passover which was an annual / special extra day of Sabbath (unless it fell identically upon the weekly Sabbath). See <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+28&amp;version=NIV">Numbers 28:16-18</a>&nbsp;(Nissan 14 is start of Passover; Sabbath is the 15th, making the 14th a day of preparation for a high holy Sabbath, not the weekly Sabbath.)<br /></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 19.1875px;">One can see the issue indirectly in an article "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eve_of_Passover_on_Shabbat">Eve of Passove</a>r," Wikipedia (2013) which deals with how to handle when the "eve of Passover" (the day of preparation) falls on a Sabbath - where no work can be done. This complicated moving the preparation for the weekly Sabbath. For example, this article shows the moving interralationship between the Hebrew and Julian calendars -- the latter being our modern calendar in the West:</span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 19.1875px;" data-mce-mark="1">The Eve of Passover occurring on Shabbat is a relatively rare occurrence, falling on Shabbat less often than any other day of the week it possibly can. Other days of the week on which the Eve of Passover can occur include Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: medium; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, it is important to realize that the Good Friday celebration is erroneous. And the "Passover" meal being the last supper is equally erroneous. Instead, Jesus ate a meal 2 days (daylight periods - Gen. 1:5 "light he called day") prior to the Passover Sabbath -- that is on Nissan 13 -- when preparations of Passover would be made for its special Sabbath observance on the 15th (e.g., cleaning a house of leaven), and then Jesus was executed on Nissan 14 at the ninth hour (3 pm) -- which coincides with the slaying of the lambs required in Deut. 16:6, and then passover meals were eaten that night after sunset of the 14th and when Nissan 15 began. Then Jesus arose before sunrise on Nissan 18 -- our Sunday, making Jesus three days and three nights (but not a full 4th night) in the grave. Jesus was in the grave for the full duration of the nights of Nissan 15 (Wednesday night), Nissan 16 (Thursday night), and Nissan 17 (Friday night), but not the full Saturday night through morning / Nissan 18 -- rising before sunrise of the first day of the week; and Jesus was in the grave three days -- Nissan 16 (Thursday morning), Nissan 17 (Friday morning), and Nissan 18 (Saturday morning).&nbsp;</span></p>
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<h1>When Is Passover? When is the Sacrifice for Passover?</h1>
<p style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"><strong style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">In most versions (16 out of 17 at Biblios.com), Lev 23:5 reads:</span></strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">&nbsp; 'In the first month, on the&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">fourteenth day of the month at <span style="color: #000000; background-color: #ffff00;">twilight</span></span>&nbsp;is the Yahweh&rsquo;s<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">Passover</span>.&rsquo;</span>&nbsp;</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"><span style="line-height: normal; font-size: 16pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: teal;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Likewise</span>, Numbers 9:2-4</span><span style="color: #222222; line-height: normal; font-size: 16pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">&nbsp;reads: </span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"><span style="color: #222222; line-height: normal; font-size: 16pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">"Now, let the sons of Israel observe the&nbsp;<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">Passover</span>&nbsp;at its appointed time.&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="color: teal;">- 3</span>&nbsp; "On the&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline;">fourteenth day of this month, at twilight</span>, you shall observe it at its appointed time; you shall observe it according to all its statutes and according to all its ordinances."&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="color: teal;">- 4</span>&nbsp; So Moses told the sons of Israel to observe the&nbsp;<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">Passover</span>.</span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">What does twilight mean? According to Dictionary.com, it means:</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #212121; font-weight: normal;">twi&middot;light</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #212121; font-weight: normal;">&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></span></h3>
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #212121;">/?tw??l?t/<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">&nbsp;</p>
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<p style="margin: 15pt 0px 0px;">Noun<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 0in;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span>1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span>The soft glowing light from the sky when the sun is below the horizon, caused by the reflection of the sun's rays from the atmosphere.<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 0in;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span>2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span>The period of the <em><strong>evening during which this takes place, between daylight and darkness.</strong></em></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">However, a friend of mine, Adam, takes a view that it begins prior to twilight:</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">He says Leviticus 23:5 says in Hebrew, transliterated:<em style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">desh haRishon asar laChodesh ben haErebim pesach laYahweh</em></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="text-decoration: underline;" data-mce-mark="1"></span>&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></span></em></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">Translated literally Adam contend it reads:&nbsp; &ldquo;<strong>In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month,&nbsp;<em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">between the evenings</span></em>,&nbsp;</strong></span><strong><em><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">is the&nbsp;</span></em></strong><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"><span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #222222;">Passover</span>&nbsp;to Yahweh.&rdquo;</span></strong></p>
<p>Adam defends it means "between the evenings" (which he says as different than twilight) and explains why:</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;" data-mce-mark="1">The Hebrew word&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;" data-mce-mark="1"></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;" data-mce-mark="1"></span><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;" data-mce-mark="1">ben</span></em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;" data-mce-mark="1">&nbsp;(Strong&rsquo;s # H996) means: &ldquo;between&rdquo; (see Gesenius&rsquo; Lexicon).&nbsp; In the form here it is spelled differently than its lexical form </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;" data-mce-mark="1">&nbsp;because it is in the construct (if you want more details on the construct form in the Hebrew language let me know, I will give you references in Gesenius&rsquo; Grammar and another grammar).<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;" data-mce-mark="1"></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span>&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">The Hebrew definite article is Xxx</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">(with a dagesh forte in the following letter)&nbsp;<em>ha</em>.&nbsp; In the case above there is no dagesh in the letter following the&nbsp;<em>He</em>&nbsp;because the&nbsp;<em>Ayin</em>&nbsp;(</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">?</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"></span>) is a guttural letter.&nbsp; Guttural letters in Hebrew reject all forms of the dagesh (let me know if you want grammatical references to that as well).&nbsp; Because of this rule, the vowel under the definite article must change to accommodate the rejection of the dagesh, so it lengthens into a changeable long form of the same vowel class, hence&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">??</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"></span>&nbsp;</span><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">ha</span></em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">.<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"></span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span>&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">The definite article in Hebrew is never detached from the word it is modifying.&nbsp; Therefore, the third word in the phrase is</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"></span><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">arebim</span></em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">.&nbsp; Let me break down that word.&nbsp; It is a derivative of the Hebrew</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"></span><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">erev&nbsp;</span></em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">(Strong&rsquo;s # 6153).&nbsp; According to Gesenius&rsquo; Lexicon it means &ldquo;evening.&rdquo;</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">So what is Adam's point of defending it means "between the evenings?"</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">Adam contends that if any part of the 14th is Passover, then all of it was -- even beginning the sunset before when the 13th waned and became the 14th -- and I do not agree with this... but let's listen:</span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">So, all of the above was a very detailed breakdown to show one thing, the word &ldquo;twilight&rdquo; is an incorrect translation and shouldn&rsquo;t be relied upon in any way, shape, or form.&nbsp; Because you were taking the word &ldquo;twilight&rdquo; as being a literal and accurate rendering of the underlying Hebrew phrase, it has greatly skewed your opinion of what I believe, unfortunately.&nbsp; I will definitely be more careful in the future when quoting scriptures to make sure they contain the true translations (as much as physically possible).&nbsp; So, please forgive me for that.<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span>&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">Moving on&hellip;In the&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline;">whole</span>&nbsp;of the scriptures the &ldquo;Day of&nbsp;<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #222222;">Passover</span>&rdquo; is a complete day, 24 hours worth, no question.&nbsp; The Master&rsquo;s Supper, where the first Eucharist was given, was celebrated&nbsp;<em>at the beginning</em>&nbsp;of the 14<sup>th</sup>&nbsp;day of the first month.&nbsp; That means that<em>after sunset</em>&nbsp;that&nbsp;<em>ended</em>&nbsp;the 13<sup>th</sup>&nbsp;of the month, in the nighttime hours of the 14<sup>th</sup>&nbsp;day (which is the beginning of that day since the days begin at sunset) Yeshua gave the emblems of his body and blood.&nbsp; Throughout that evening they took the journey to Gethsemane, he was illegally tried at night, appeared before Pilate in the morning, and was crucified&nbsp;<em>on the third hour</em>&nbsp;of the day (9:00am) ON the 14<sup>th</sup>&nbsp;(still the Day of&nbsp;<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #222222;">Passover</span>).&nbsp; To clarify the next part I need to quote another scripture:<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span>&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">Deuteronomy 16:5-6 (ASV) &ndash; &ldquo;Thou mayest not sacrifice the&nbsp;<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #222222;">passover</span>&nbsp;within any of thy gates, which Yahweh thy Elohim giveth thee; but at the place which Yahweh thy Elohim shall choose, to cause his name to dwell in, there thou shalt sacrifice the<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #222222;">passover</span>&nbsp;at even,&nbsp;<em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">at the going down of the sun</span></em>, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt.&rdquo;<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></span></strong></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span>&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">The&nbsp;<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #222222;">Passover</span>&nbsp;lambs were to legally be slain&nbsp;<em>at the going down</em>&nbsp;of the sun, not&nbsp;<em>after</em>&nbsp;it went down.&nbsp; When does the sun start going down in the sky?&nbsp; From high noon through sunset the sun is&nbsp;<em>going down</em>.&nbsp; If you need me to go into the details of the Hebrew of that verse as well please let me know, I am more than willing to.&nbsp; Now, Josephus gives us a contemporary testimony as to when they sacrificed the&nbsp;<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #222222;">Passover</span>&nbsp;in the 1<sup>st</sup>&nbsp;century (i.e. the exact hours):<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span>&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">&ldquo;</span><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; color: #2e1308;">So these high priests, upon the coming of that feast which is called the&nbsp;<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #222222;">Passover</span>, when they slay their sacrifices,&nbsp;<strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">from the ninth hour till the eleventh</span></strong></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">&rdquo; (Wars of the Jews, l. 6, c. 9, s. 3)</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;"></span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">I do not think it necessarily follows that "between the evenings" in Lev. 23:5 means anything important as to the name "Passover" belonging to all of the 14th of Nissan. Instead, it defines a point at which Passover begins sometime&nbsp;<em>within</em> the 14th of Nissan. Hence ,there is no way to find the entire "Day of Passover" is 24 hours. </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;"></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Thus, if Jesus died before the "between the evenings" on the 14th and thus not on the Passover, I do not find it important. All that is spiritually important for us as Christians is that (a) John 19:31 is correct Jesus died on the "eve of Passover" and (b) under Deut. 16:5-6 the slaying of the lambs for the Passover feast is made on the "even" of Nissan 14th "at the going down of the sun" (which Lev. 23:5 says precedes when Passover starts at twilight) and per John's Gospel Jesus was slain right at the same point that the lambs are sacrificed for Passover -- Deut 16:5-6. Thus, if this sacrifice point is the same day of Passover, then John in His gospel is wrong to call this the "eve of Passover." Thus, I have let Adam's points be considered, but in the end, I go with the 17 of 18 translations of Lev. 23:5 that place Passover itself commending at twilight at the end of the 14th of Nissan. "Between the evenings" is an unclear alternative, and does not disprove "twiight" is not intended. And going with the predominant translation preserves John's Gospel.&nbsp;</p>
<h1>&nbsp;</h1>
<h1>&nbsp;</h1>
<h1>Passover Sacrifice Before Passover Begins</h1>
<p>&nbsp;The execution of the lambs takes place in the middle of the afternoon on the 14th as passover approaches.</p>
<p><strong style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">John's account would line up with the time of sacrifice for Passover. Deuteronomy 16:6 (ASV) &ndash; &ldquo;thou shalt sacrifice the&nbsp;passover&nbsp;at even,&nbsp;<em>at the going down of the sun</em>, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt.&rdquo;</strong></p>
<p>In "<a href="http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Spring_Holidays/Pesach/Zman_Seder/zman_seder.html">When Does Passover Begin?</a>" at HEBREW FOR CHRISTIANS, it explained somewhat differently when the lambs are slain: the afternoon of the 14th prior to commencment of Passover at sunset .</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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<p style="line-height: 18px;">During the time of the Temple,&nbsp;<em>zman shechitat korban Pesach</em>&nbsp;(the time of the slaughter of the Passover lambs) was performed during the afternoon hours of Nisan 14, in observance of the commandment: "In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, between the evenings (i.e.,&nbsp;<em>bein ha-arbayim</em>), is the Passover for the LORD" (<a href="http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?&amp;version=ESV&amp;passage=Lev.%2023:5" target="_blank" style="color: #660000;">Lev. 23:5</a>). Note that the time of the lamb's sacrifice is described as "bein ha-arbayim," usually translated as "between the evenings" or "between the settings." To the sages, the "first setting" of the Sun occurred at the beginning of its descent after noon, and the "second setting" referred to sundown or twilight.&nbsp; Hence "bein ha-arbayim" would mean sometime after noon but before twilight, or more simply, "the afternoon."&nbsp;</p>
<p>The sacrifice of the Passover lambs on the afternoon of Nisan 14 agrees with Jewish Oral Law and tradition. As Maimonides wrote, "It is a positive commandment to slaughter the Korban Pesach on the fourteenth of Nisan after midday"<em>&nbsp;(Hilchot Korban Pesach).&nbsp;</em>There is some discussion among the sages, however, as to whether the sacrifice of the korban Pesach occurred before or after the second set of tamid (daily) offerings made at the Temple (<a href="http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?&amp;version=ESV&amp;passage=Exod.%2029:38-42,%20Num.%2028:1-8" target="_blank" style="color: #660000;">Exod. 29:38-42, Num. 28:1-8</a>). In general, however, most of the sages agreed with Maimonides who clearly stated: "The Korban Pesach is not slaughtered until&nbsp;<em>after</em>&nbsp;the Tamid of the afternoon." In other words, the slaughter of the Passover lambs occurred on the late afternoon of Nisan 14.</p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-size: medium; color: #0000ff;">Twilight of the 14th / Night's Beginning of the 15th Commences Passover</span></strong></p>
<p>In the Law, we learn when Passover commences:</p>
<p><span style="line-height: normal; font-size: 16pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: teal;">Numbers 9:2-4</span><span style="color: #222222; line-height: normal; font-size: 16pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">&nbsp; "Now, let the sons of Israel observe the Passover at its appointed time.&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="color: teal;">- 3</span>&nbsp; "On the&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline;">fourteenth day of this month, at twilight</span>, you shall observe it at its appointed time; you shall observe it according to all its statutes and according to all its ordinances."&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="color: teal;">- 4</span>&nbsp; So Moses told the sons of Israel to observe the Passover.</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;Adam, a colleague of mine, says this is a mistranslation.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">The&nbsp;</span><span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">Passover</span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">&nbsp;lambs were to legally be slain&nbsp;</span><em style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">at the going down</em><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">&nbsp;of the sun, not&nbsp;</span><em style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">after</em><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">&nbsp;it went down.&nbsp; When does the sun start going down in the sky?&nbsp; From high noon through sunset the sun is&nbsp;</span><em style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">going down</em><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">.&nbsp; If you need me to go into the details of the Hebrew of that verse as well please let me know, I am more than willing to.&nbsp; Now, Josephus gives us a contemporary testimony as to when they sacrificed the&nbsp;</span><span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">Passover</span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">&nbsp;in the 1</span><sup style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: normal;">st</sup><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">&nbsp;century (i.e. the exact hours):</span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 30px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">&ldquo;</span><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; color: #2e1308;">So these high priests, upon the coming of that feast which is called the&nbsp;<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #222222;">Passover</span>, when they slay their sacrifices,&nbsp;<strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">from the ninth hour till the eleventh</span></strong></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #1f497d;">&rdquo; (Wars of the Jews, l. 6, c. 9, s. 3)<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 30px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;"></span>&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">This statement from Josephus aligns perfectly with the Torah.&nbsp; From the ninth hour (3:00pm) to the eleventh hour (5:00pm) the</span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">Passover</span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">&nbsp;lambs were slain.&nbsp; When did Yeshua die?&nbsp; The ninth hour (Matthew 27:46).&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Adam further complicates the chronology by asserting Jesus was crucified on the 14th.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">I believe that Yeshua was crucified on what the whole of the scriptures call the &ldquo;Day of&nbsp;</span><span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">Passover</span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">&rdquo;, which is the 14</span><sup style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: normal;">th</sup><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">&nbsp;day of the first Biblical month, &nbsp;Aviv.&nbsp; This 14</span><sup style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: normal;">th</sup><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">&nbsp;day is from sunset to sunset, just as every other Biblical day is.&nbsp; At the beginning of the 14</span><sup style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: normal;">th</sup><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">day of the month (which is the dark portion of it, since it begins at sunset), Yeshua had his last supper with his disciples.&nbsp; The following morning (which is still the 14</span><sup style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: normal;">th</sup><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">&nbsp;day of the month) he was crucified at the third hour, around 9:00am.&nbsp; Six hours later, at the ninth hour, when the&nbsp;</span><span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">Passover</span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">&nbsp;lambs were commanded to be slain &ldquo;</span><strong style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;"><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">between the evenings</span></em></strong><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">,&rdquo; and &ldquo;</span><strong style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;"><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">at the going down of the sun</span></em></strong><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">,&rdquo; Yeshua died as our&nbsp;</span><span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">Passover</span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal;">.</span></p>
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<td valign="top" ><p>"But if we must focus on Paul's letters to establish the Christian faith, then truly the servant has become greater than his Master." (Bercot<em>Theologians </em>(2010) at 40.)</p></td>
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<h1><span style="font-size: 24pt;"><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Macarius Magnes - Oldest Systematic Critic of Paul?</span></strong></span></h1>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Macarius<span data-mce-mark="1"> Magnes in his </span><a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus.htm">Apocriticus</a><span data-mce-mark="1"> III.30-36 (ca. 300) defended orthodoxy throughout, but when it came to Paul, I dare say he left Paul hanging out to dry, so to speak. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span data-mce-mark="1">Magnes recreated a debate over Paul's remarks, both stating the criticism and Magnes' answer. But his answers all evade the point, and really are feeble next to the criticisms that are well put, and truly have no answer. I believe Magnes did this because by that means he had no other way to criticize Paul and not appear to be a heretic. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span data-mce-mark="1">But all his defenses of Jesus' words, etc., were well-defended and convincing. So here is an amazing excerpt from a set of dialogues Magnes created circa 300 AD about Paul visible at this<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus.htm#3_31"> link</a> -- with the footnotes excerpted at the end - yet Paul is devasted by his inconsistencies about the Law, circumcision and pleas for financial support. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span data-mce-mark="1">To prove my point, I will highlight in purple those aspects of the "Answer" which indeed indict Paul further for hypocrisy and inconsistency or lack of inspiration. Only one precommitted to accept any plausible defense for Paul would not see the good sense in the critic's points, and reject the subtle critique in the so-called "Answer" of Magnes.&nbsp;</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span data-mce-mark="1">Here from Book III, we read:</span></span></p>
<hr />
<blockquote>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;" data-mce-mark="1">CHAPTER XXX. Objection based on the inconsistency of S. Paul, in his circumcising of Timothy (Acts xvi. 3).</span></strong></span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">He remained a little while in deep and solemn thought, and then said: "You seem to me very much like inexperienced captains, who, while still afloat on the voyage that lies before them, look on themselves as afloat on another sea. Even thus are you seeking for other passages to be laid down by us, although you have&nbsp;<a name="p100"></a> <span class="pb" data-mce-mark="1"></span>not completed the vital points in the questions which you still have on hand."<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#189"><sup>189</sup></a></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">If you are really filled with boldness about the questions, and the points of difficulty have become clear to you, tell us how it was that Paul said, "Being free, I made myself the slave of all, in order that I might gain all" (1 Cor. ix. 19), and how, although he called circumcision "concision,"&nbsp;<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#190"><sup>190</sup></a> he himself circumcised a certain Timothy, as we are taught in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts xvi. 3). Oh, the downright stupidity of it all! It is such a stage as this that the scenes in the theatre portray, as a means of raising laughter. Such indeed is the exhibition which jugglers give.<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#191"><sup>191</sup></a> For how could the man be free who is a slave of all ? And how can the man gain all who apes all ?<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#192"><sup>192</sup></a> For if he is without law to those who are without law,<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#193"><sup>193</sup></a> as he himself says, and he went with the Jews as a Jew and with others in like manner, truly he was the slave of manifold baseness, and a stranger to freedom and an alien from it; truly he is a servant and minister of other people's wrong doings, and a notable zealot for unseemly things, if he spends his time on each occasion in the baseness of those without law, and appropriates their doings to himself.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">These things cannot be the teachings of a sound mind, nor the setting forth of reasoning that is free.<a name="p101"></a> <span class="pb" data-mce-mark="1"></span>But the words imply some one who is somewhat crippled in mind,<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#194"><sup>194</sup></a> and weak in his reasoning. For if he lives with those who are without law, and also in his writings accepts the Jews' religion gladly, having a share in each, he is confused with each, mingling with the falls of those who are base, and subscribing himself as their companion. For he who draws such a line through circumcision as to remove those who wish to fulfil it, and then performs circumcision himself, stands as the weightiest of all accusers of himself when he says: "If I build again those things which I loosed, I establish myself as a transgressor."</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="3_37"></a><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">CHAPTER XXXVII. Answer to the objection based on the inconsistency of S. Paul, in his circumcising of Timothy, etc.</span></strong></span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">When his chosen band had stirred up such a swarm of subjects against Paul, and the multitude of points&nbsp;<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#195"><sup>195</sup></a> had at length grown quiet again like bees which have rushed to the attack in dense array, we, being as it were pierced all round by the stings of the difficulties raised, stood and fought against each in dire necessity, saying thus:--- [It is not right that you should abuse a great man for behaving towards those young in faith just as a teacher, or a doctor or a general does. For a teacher educates by imitating the stammering voice of his pupil, a doctor cures by placing himself in the patient's circumstances, and<span style="color: #993366;" data-mce-mark="1"> </span><strong><em><span style="color: #993366;" data-mce-mark="1">a general wins over a barbarian chief to his king by adopting his customs</span> </em></strong>rather than by force of arms. Paul<strong><em> <span style="color: #993366;" data-mce-mark="1">did similar good by being all things to all men</span></em></strong>. Sometimes he is the teacher, imitating Gentiles in order to educate them to the Gospel, sometimes the doctor, saying: "Who is weak, and I am not weak ?" as if inflamed with the trouble<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#196"><sup>196</sup></a> (2 Cor. xi. 29); sometimes<a name="p102"></a> <span class="pb" data-mce-mark="1"></span>the general, softening men's prejudices by his strategy. So<span style="color: #993366;" data-mce-mark="1"> <em><strong>he went out to meet both those without law and the Jews, though he did not himself really feel as they</strong></em></span>. &nbsp;[MY NOTE: Magnes admits therefore Paul's express hypocrisy.]</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Therefore he only adopted circumcision in order to enrich the law with the Gospel by giving way on one point. A good doctor may<strong><em> <span style="color: #993366;" data-mce-mark="1">forbid a certain drug as being harmful, and yet in a bad case he may combine it with other drugs</span></em></strong> in order to overcome the disease. Just so, Paul rejected circumcision, and yet at a crisis he combined it with the doctrines of the Gospel.<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#197"><sup>197</sup></a>]</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
<hr />
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;" data-mce-mark="1">CHAPTER XXXII. Objection based on S. Paul's use of the law for his own advantage (as in <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+9%3A7-14&amp;version=NIV"><span style="color: #0000ff;">1 Cor.9:7</span></a>, etc.).</span></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">[MY NOTE ON PASSAGE AT ISSUE: Paul in&nbsp;<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+9%3A7-14&amp;version=NIV">1 Corinthians 9:14</a> concludes "those who preach the Gospel should<em><strong> receive their living from the Gospel</strong></em>." To prove this, Paul cites from the Law on not muzzling the ox. The fuller context to which Magnes is referencing is: "<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Who <em><strong>serves</strong></em> as a soldier&nbsp;<strong><em>at his own expense</em></strong>? Who plants a vineyard&nbsp;and does not eat its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink the milk?</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">8&nbsp;</sup>Do I say this merely on human authority?<strong><span style="color: #ff0000;"> Doesn&rsquo;t the Law say the same thing?</span></strong></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">9&nbsp;</sup>For it is written in<strong><span style="color: #ff0000;"> the Law of Moses:</span></strong> &ldquo;Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.&rdquo;<sup class="footnote" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">[<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+9%3A7-14&amp;version=NIV#fen-NIV-28550a" style="color: #b37162; vertical-align: top;" title="See footnote a">a</a>]</sup>&nbsp;Is it about oxen that God is concerned?</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">10&nbsp;</sup>Surely he says this for us, doesn&rsquo;t he? Yes, this was written for us,&nbsp;because whoever plows and threshes should be able to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest.</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">11&nbsp;</sup>If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">12&nbsp;</sup><em><strong>If others have this right of support from you, shouldn&rsquo;t we have it all the more?</strong></em></span>&nbsp;(<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+9%3A7-14&amp;version=NIV">1 Cor. 9:7-12</a>, NIV.)]</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">[MAGNES WRITING]</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">That he dissembles the Gospel for the sake of vainglory, and the law for the sake of covetousness, is plain from his words, "Who ever goeth to war at his own charges? Who shepherdeth the flock and doth not eat of the milk&nbsp;of the flock?" (1 Cor. ix. 7). And, in his desire to get hold of these things, he calls in the law as a supporter of his covetousness, saying, "Or doth not the law say these things ? For in the law of Moses it is written, Thou shall not muzzle an ox that is treading out the corn " (<em>v. </em>9). Then he adds a statement which is obscure and full of nonsense, by way of cutting off the divine forethought from the brute beasts, saying, "Doth God take care of the oxen, or doth he say it on our account? On our account it was written" (<em>v</em>. 10).<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#203"><sup>203</sup></a> It seems to me that in saying this he is mocking the wisdom of the Creator, as if it contained no forethought for the things that had long ago been brought into being. For if God does not take care of oxen, pray, why is it written, "He hath subjected all things, sheep and oxen and beasts and birds and the fishes" (Ps. viii. 8-9) ? If He takes account of fishes, much more of oxen which plough and labour. Wherefore I am amazed at_such an impostor, who pays such solemn respect to the law because he is insatiable, for the sake of getting a sufficient contribution from those who are subject to him.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="3_39"></a><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">CHAPTER XXXIX. Answer to the objection based on S. Paul's use of the law for his own advantage (1 Cor. ix. 7, etc.).</span></strong></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="color: #993366;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong>It is not in order to get something for himself that Paul introduces the comparison of the soldier and the shepherd</strong></span>, but in order to make the Corinthians thankful. For a soldier does his work faithfully only as long as the State pays him; and just so a herald of the Gospel will give his best work when his hearers respond to it. Similarly, the spiritual shepherd's encouragement is to see his sheep with fair fleeces and abundant milk. Again, the labourer sows the seed of the knowledge of&nbsp;<a name="p105"></a><span class="pb" data-mce-mark="1"></span>God in his hearers' hearts, and is grieved if it does not bear fruit.<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#204"><sup>204</sup></a></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Therefore<span style="color: #993366;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong> it was in order to benefit his hearers that Paul introduced these things</strong></span>, and supported them with the witness of the law, so that they might show their gratitude. For the <span style="color: #993366;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong>divine grace</strong></span>, though lacking nothing, <strong><em><span style="color: #993366;" data-mce-mark="1">demands a little answering tribute</span></em></strong> from those whom it enriches.<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#205"><sup>205</sup></a>] </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">MY NOTE: But Jesus said take no wages to preach the gospel.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="3_33"></a><span style="color: #0000ff;"><strong>CHAPTER XXXIII. Objection based on his inconsistent attitude towards the law, condemning it in Gal. v. 3 and iii. 10, and approving it in Romans vii. 12 and 14.</strong></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Then he suddenly turns like a man who jumps up from sleep scared by a dream, with the cry, "I Paul bear witness that if any man do one thing of the law,<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#206"><sup>206</sup></a> he is a debtor to do the whole law" (Gal. v. 3). This is instead of saying simply that it is not right to give heed to those things that are spoken by the law. This fine fellow, sound in mind and understanding, instructed in the accuracy of the law of his fathers, who had so often cleverly recalled Moses to mind, appears to be soaked with wine and drunkenness; for he makes an assertion which removes the ordinance of the law, saying to the Galatians, "Who bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth," that is, the Gospel? (Gal. iii. 1). Then, exaggerating, and making it horrible for a man to obey the law, he says, "As many as are under the law are under a curse" (Gal. iii. 10). The man who writes to the Romans "The law is spiritual" (vii. 14), and again, "The law is holy and the commandment holy and just," places under a curse those who obey that which is holy!&nbsp;<a name="p106"></a> <span class="pb" data-mce-mark="1"></span>Then, completely confusing the nature of the question, he confounds the whole matter and makes it obscure, so that he who listens to him almost grows dizzy, and dashes against the two things as though in the darkness of the night, stumbling over the law, and knocking against the Gospel in confusion, owing to the ignorance of the man who leads him by the hand.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="3_40"></a><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">CHAPTER XL. Answer to the objection based on his inconsistent attitude towards the law.</span></strong></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">When he says that to do one thing in the law obliges a man to do all, he is not abusing the law, but pointing to its minuteness, and to that difficulty in carrying it out which Christ has freed us from, by coming to fulfil it Himself.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">For<em> </em>a man who attempts to fulfil any part of it now may justly be accused of ignoring the complete fulfilment of it by the Only Begotten. He loses the effect of the Saviour's fulfilment, and yet cannot complete it himself, but is like one who has a hundred parasangs<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#207"><sup>207</sup></a><em> </em>to ride to reach a city, and only rides ninety-five; in which case he is no more in the city than when he started. If a man keeps countless commandments, and yet leaves one undone, it is as bad as leaving one gate of a city undefended out of thirty-five.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">As an example of the difficulty in fulfilling the whole law, take two enactments, concerning the sabbath and circumcision. What is to be done with the babe born on a sabbath, upon the eighth day after its birth ?<sup><a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#208"><sup>208</sup></a> </sup>Here one rule contradicts the other. If two points are so hard, what of the whole ? Indeed there are more rules than can be remembered concerning sacrifices, cleansings, etc.<span style="color: #993366;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong> Such a burden proved too much for the Jews.<a name="p107"></a> <span class="pb" data-mce-mark="1"></span>Only Christ could fulfil it, and so cancel it that none need be subject to it any more</strong></span>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">As a cubit-rule measures dimensions, but can itself only be measured by the man who made it, so the law, which is the measure of life, could only be measured by Christ, who made it, and finally sealed it up by placing the better measure of the Gospel beside it.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="color: #993366;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong>To try and fulfil what Christ has thus fulfilled, is to act in opposition to Him.</strong></span> Thus does Paul warn the Galatians. As for his calling the law "holy," etc., it was holy because the Holy One fulfilled it.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Again, when he brings in the witness of the law and quotes from it, "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn,"<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#209"><sup>209</sup></a> he is thinking of the apostolic band as the unmuzzled ox, which threshes that harvest which Christ has sowed. Hence he says, " Not concerning oxen were these things written, but concerning us" (1 Cor. ix. 10).]</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="3_34"></a><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">CHAPTER XXXIV. Objection based on another inconsistency, in saying "The law entered that the offence might abound " (Rom. v. 20).</span></strong></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">For see here, look at this clever fellow's record. After countless utterances which he took from the law in order to get support from it, he made void the judgment of his own words by saying, "For the law entered that the offence might abound"; and before these words,<sup><a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#210"><sup>210</sup></a> </sup>"The goad&nbsp;<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#211"><sup>211</sup></a> of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law" (1 Cor. xv. 56). He practically sharpens his own tongue like a sword, and cuts the law to pieces without mercy limb by limb. And this is the man who in many ways inclines to obey the law, and says it is&nbsp;<a name="p108"></a> <span class="pb" data-mce-mark="1"></span>praiseworthy to live according to it. And by taking hold of this ignorant opinion, which he does as though by habit, he has overthrown his own judgments on all other occasions.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="3_41"></a>CHAPTER XLI. Answer to the objection based on S. Paul's saying that "The law entered that the offence may abound " (Rom. v. 20).</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">There was naturally much wickedness in life, and this could not be corrected unless the law came to reveal it. Good and bad could not be distinguished till standards of right and wrong were set up. From such a life of ignorance and sin the law guided men to the life of light. But its enactments naturally revealed as sin what was not before understood as such, and in this sense it "made the offence to abound."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Sin was a "goad of death" to drive men from true life, and took its "strength" from the law, because the law punished sinners (see 1 Cor. xv. 56). A goad requires some one to wield it in order to make it deadly, and it was thus that the law wielded sin. Paul bids men flee from it, not to the law, but to Christ who is Master of the law. He does not destroy the law, but its work as "schoolmaster" ( paidagwgo&amp;j ) is done when it has brought men to Christ (Gal. iii. 23). The law is like the moon, and the prophets like the stars, which fade away at dawn before the Sun and His twelvefold crown of Apostles, and yet remain, though without power.<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#212"><sup>212</sup></a>]</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="3_35"></a><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">CHAPTER XXXV. Objection based on S. Paul's words about their not having "fellowship with demons" in 1 Cor. x. 20, and also what he says in 1 Cor. viii. 4 and 8 and x. 25-26</span></strong>.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">When he speaks again of the eating of things sacrificed&nbsp;<a name="p109"></a> <span class="pb" data-mce-mark="1"></span>to idols, he simply teaches that these matters are indifferent, telling them not to be inquisitive nor to ask questions, but to eat things even though they be sacrificed to idols, provided only that no one speaks to them in warning. Wherein he is represented as saying, " The things which they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, but I would not that you should have fellowship with demons" (1 Cor. x. 20).<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#213"><sup>213</sup></a></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Thus he speaks and writes : and again he writes with indifference about such eating, "We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one" (1 Cor. viii. 4), and a little after this, "Meat will not commend us to God, neither, if we eat, are we the better, neither, if we eat not, are we the worse"&nbsp;<em>(v. </em>8). Then, after all this prating of quackery, he ruminated, like a man lying in bed, and said, "Eat all that is sold in the shambles, asking no questions for conscience' sake, for the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof" (1 Cor. x. 25-26). Oh, what a stage farce, got from no one ! Oh, the monstrous inconsistency of his utterance ! A saying which destroys itself with its own sword! Oh, novel kind of archery, which turns against him who drew the bow, and strikes him!</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="3_42"></a><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">CHAPTER XLII.<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#214"><span style="color: #0000ff;"><sup>214</sup></span></a> Answer to the objection based on S. Paul's words about having fellowship with demons (1 Cor. x. 20), etc.</span></strong></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Now that we have laid bare the full meaning of this passage, we will deal with the rest, if agreeable to you--- namely, how it was that Paul forbade them to eat things offered to idols,<sup><a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#215">215</a> [MY NOTE: Paul did not do so. So it is unclear what Magnes is referring to.]</sup> but he does not forbid them to take what was sold in the shambles, although it was well&nbsp;<a name="p110"></a> <span class="pb" data-mce-mark="1"></span>known that it was Greeks who did most of the slaughtering at that time.<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#216"><sup>216</sup></a> So you may perceive in this the accuracy and wisdom of Paul, how he protects their daily life and forbids the godly to touch things sacrificed to demons, but he permitted his friends to eat what was sold in the shambles without asking questions. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">[MY NOTE: Clearly Magnes is skirting the issue that Paul permitted eating such meat. Later he will address it. See below.] </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">For the sacrifice of animals was at that time manifold, and different in various parts of the world. There was one kind to the spirits of the air, another to those on the earth, while there were other sacrifices again to those under the earth. For error, taking the deceitful serpent as its minister, whistled many a strain, charming and subduing with its deadly spells&nbsp;<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#217"><sup>217</sup></a> earth, sea, air, and the things beneath the earth. So invisible spirits which flew in the air, which Isaiah sang of as flying serpents (Isa. xxvii. 1), demanded white and transparent sacrifices of birds, seeing that the air chances to be bright, and filled with light for the manifestation of the things that are below. But there are certain of the demons of the earth, which demanded herds of beasts for sacrifices which were black-skinned and dusky, seeing that the earth is by nature black and gloomy; and they ordered their sacrifices to be slain on lofty altars. Other demons of the regions beneath them enjoined that black offerings should be sacrificed to them in trenches, and that they should be buried alongside the remains of the things that had been slaughtered.<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#218"><sup>218</sup></a> Other deceitful phantoms of things in the seas demanded sacrifices of black things that were winged and living, and ordered them to be sent down into the sea, since the sea is black and in constant motion. Seeing then that wickedness thus destroys the things without reason through those that possess it, by feeding in this pitiable way on a multitude of beasts and birds, the Apostle naturally forbade the faithful to touch such things.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">You can verify these things from the book "Concerning&nbsp;<a name="p111"></a> <span class="pb" data-mce-mark="1"></span>the philosophy of oracles,"<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#219"><sup>219</sup></a> and learn accurately the record of the things sacrificed, as you read the <strong>oracle of Apollo </strong>concerning sacrifices,<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#220"><sup>220</sup></a> which Porphyry, puffed up with conceit, handed down to his intimates in a mystery, charging them with a terrible oath, as he himself reckoned, that they should not freely tell these things to many. The tragedy of this novel calamity will be well known to you, how the plotting of destroying spirits ruthlessly mangled the human race in various ways, as a flock without a shepherd, coming like an attack of wild wolves from the desert. It was impossible for any one to breathe freely, or to be quiet, but everything was forced together, from one end of heaven to the other, as though by a staff or a thunderbolt. If a man was crossing the sea, he let slip a sacrifice ; if he was journeying by land, he sacrificed four-footed beasts. If he were hollowing a cave or digging a piece of land, he threw down a sacrifice to the powers below, and many, by way of buying off their own death, buried some of their own stock while still alive. At any rate, Amistra, the wife of King Xerxes, sent fourteen boys down to Hades alive every year on her own behalf, by covering them with a mound, by way of appeasing the demons of the earth. Stakes and goads and snares had filled the world everywhere; neither air nor land, island nor sea were inopportune for their plottings ; but a girdle of guile had encircled the inhabited world, a dark veil of ignorance had enveloped it, and it was not possible for a man to live without trouble and fear. Life was full of suspicion, conditions were unreal, the very fact of chance was affected.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Since therefore the world was full of disorder, and the greater part of life was devoted to demons, he proclaims to those who wish for a brighter<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#221"><sup>221</sup></a> life, that they must loathe the table of demons, lest perchance they&nbsp;<a name="p112"></a> <span class="pb" data-mce-mark="1"></span>should at all corrupt the habit of the soul by their fellowship. And again, <span style="color: #993366;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong>perceiving how impossible it was for any one who was clothed with flesh to renounce the daily life of the body, he gives permission by way of dispensation, and solemnly counsels them to respect the common market of the shambles and to get their victuals from it.</strong></span> For the matter did not call for trouble, and involved no blame for meddling with such things, seeing that those who undertook the business of the shambles were the ministers of a general and public means of diet. But there were certain servants of temples, picked out and separated from the rest, who in some kind of mystery poured out libations to images and sacrificed with a kind of mystic witchcraft. From these he bids them keep away, and not to touch them at all.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">But he destroys the ignorant bounds of Greek belief, cuts their doctrine in pieces, and makes their judgment void, when he says, "An idol is nothing in the world." For the Greeks found out the naming of idols, as the serpent found out the naming of gods; but the judgment of truth does not lay down such an opinion at all. Therefore it is impossible that the theory or standard of idols should be preserved in the world. For the making of images is reasonably spoken of as images, not as idols. These figures, fashioned from gold, silver, bronze, and iron, are silver and gold, but not idols. And the dead bodies of living creatures exist as dead bodies, not as idols. Souls that are loosed from bodies are rightly souls, but not idols. But the representations in statuary of those who are called heroes are images, not idols. And the things that are skilfully painted in colours on tablets, are the delineation of bodies, but certainly not idols. And the things that are called appearances of visions are phantoms and shadows of dreams, but they are not idols. So the great Apostle speaks truth when he says, "An idol is nothing in the world." Unless perchance some one is mad enough to wish to call the elements idols, but he is refuted as he says it; for fire, water, air, and earth are not idols, but properly fire, water, air, and earth.<a name="p113"></a></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">To what then do those men sacrifice who pay respect to idols ? To demons, not to idols; but he does not wish them to be partakers of demons and partakers of Christ. Those who sell food in the shambles do not act as butchers for demons, but for the common life of men, and the end they set before them is not witchcraft but profit, which neither ruins nor corrupts the man who eats. This is the answer to your problem, which you may readily be learning.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="3_36"></a><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">CHAPTER XXXVI. Objection based on S. Paul's words about virginity (1 Tim. iv. 1, and 1 Cor. vii. 25).</span></strong></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">In his epistles we find another saying like these, where he praises virginity, and then turns round and writes, "In the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats" (1 Tim. iv. 1 and 3). And in the Epistle to the Corinthians he says, "But concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord" (1 Cor. vii. 25). Therefore he that remains single does not do well, nor will he that refrains from marriage as from an evil thing lead the way in obedience, since they have not a command from Jesus concerning virginity.<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#222"><sup>222</sup></a> And how is it that certain people boast of their virginity as if it were some great thing, and say that they are filled with the Holy Ghost similarly to her who was the mother of Jesus ?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">But we will now cease our attack on Paul, knowing what a battle of the giants he arms against him by his language. But if you are possessed of any resources for replying to these questions, answer without delay.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="3_43"></a><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">CHAPTER XLIII. Answer to the objection based on S. Paul's words about virginity (1 Tim. iv. 1, and 1 Cor. vii. 25).</span></strong></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">[Here, as always, the context must be studied. Often in Paul's writings a phrase by itself may suggest what he&nbsp;<a name="p114"></a> <span class="pb" data-mce-mark="1"></span>did not mean, as when he says, "On whom he will he hath mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth," a statement which must be taken in conjunction with his words about Him "that willeth that all men should be saved." In this passage (from 1<em> </em>Corinthians) about virgins,<strong><em> <span style="color: #993366;" data-mce-mark="1">it is not clear at once why he should say, "I have no commandment of the Lord, yet I give my judgment as one that hath obtained mercy," seeing that he had Christ speaking within him</span></em></strong><span style="color: #993366;" data-mce-mark="1">.</span> The explanation is as follows:---</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Virginity is a difficult and unnatural state, and so it is left to the individual to choose it. If Christ forced it on people by a command, they might say that the fault was His if it led to a fall. In simpler matters Christ does give a command through Paul, such as theft, adultery, slander, etc. The wisdom of all this is obvious, and to make virginity a free choice only exalts its position. There is praise for the man who does as he is commanded, but for this act of free-will beyond what is obligatory there is a higher glory.<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#223"><sup>223</sup></a> Note that Paul's words show a humble reverence for what he speaks of, for he gives his opinion "as one that hath obtained mercy," not as an Apostle, nor as "judging angels" (but here the virgins are angels in his judgment).</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">When he says that "There shall arise certain having their Conscience seared with a hot iron,"&nbsp;<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#224"><sup>224</sup></a> it is because he knew that such heretics would attract men by guile in recommending so excellent a thing as virginity,<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#225"><sup>225</sup></a> and thus using a branding-iron of godliness for their own deceitful purposes. These "seared" heresiarchs are like makers of counterfeit coin, washing over their worthless creed with the fine gold of virginity.<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#226"><sup>226</sup></a> They are&nbsp;<a name="p115"></a> <span class="pb" data-mce-mark="1"></span>"seared" because they know neither the dew of the Spirit nor the water of baptism, but are scorched at the Chaldean furnace.<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#227"><sup>227</sup></a> They insult creation and abuse the creatures of God which He meant to be received with thanksgiving.<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#228"><sup>228</sup></a>]</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Representatives of these have spread abroad in the children of the Manichaeans.<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#229"><sup>229</sup></a> Such heresies does the country of the Pisidians contain, and of the Isaurians; Cilicia also, and Lycaonia and all Galatia. Their names it is irksome to repeat; for they are called Encratites and Apotactites, and Eremites,<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#230"><sup>230</sup></a> not Christians. They are not seekers of protection from the grace of heaven, but rebels and wanderers from the faith of the Gospel, though, by their abstention from meats, they say that they raise the citadel of godliness. At the head of their chorus doubtless stands Dositheus,<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#231"><sup>231</sup></a> a Cilician by race, who confirms their teaching in the course of eight whole books, and magnifies his case by the splendour of his language, saying again and again that marriage is an illegal act, and quite contrary to law. Here are his words, "Through union the world had its beginning&nbsp;<em>; </em>through abstention from it,<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#232"><sup>232</sup></a> it would fain have its completion." He says that the tasting of wine and the partaking of flesh is disgusting and loathsome altogether, thus&nbsp;<a name="p116"></a> <span class="pb" data-mce-mark="1"></span>indeed ruthlessly lifting up a cruel branding-iron for those that delight&nbsp;<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#233"><sup>233</sup></a><em> </em>in him. By such reasoning all creation is accursed according to him, all life is under suspicion ard hurtful to everybody. Wherefore such men have come into conflict with the Divine, by insulting the beauty of the things that have been created; and nowhere have they benefited the common weal in anything, even though they do teach men to observe virginity, and set self-control as the highest point in life.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The Apostle therefore, knowing all this, protected the Church's doctrine before the time came, to prevent its admitting the attempts of heretical branding-irons. Here you will please conclude the discussion of all these questions. If there is anything which perplexes you again, we will meet and have another discussion, at the convenience of our leisure, with readiness on the part of him who comes off best.<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus_fn.htm#234"><sup>234</sup></a> <a name="p117"></a></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;" data-mce-mark="1">&nbsp;Miscellany</span></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Here I will just collect some "Objections" to Paul by Magnes without any comment by me. You can find the text at this <a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/macarius_apocriticus.htm#3_31">link</a>.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;">CHAPTER XXXI. Objection based on S. Paul's inconsistency in claiming at different times to be a Jew (Acts xxii. 3) and a Roman (Acts xxii. 27).</span></strong></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">This same Paul, who often when he speaks seems to forget his own words, tells the chief captain that he is not a Jew but a Roman, although he had previously said, "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, and brought up 198 at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed according to the exact teaching of the law of my fathers." But he who said, "I am a Jew," and "I am a Roman," is neither thing, although he attaches himself to both. For he who plays the hypocrite and speaks of what he is not, lays the foundation of his deeds in guile, and by putting round him a mask of deceit, he cheats the clear issue and steals the truth, laying siege in different ways to the soul's understanding, and enslaving by the juggler's art those who are easily influenced. The man who welcomes in his life such a principle as this, differs not at all from an implacable and bitter foe, who enslaving by his hypocrisy the minds of those beyond his own borders, takes them all captive in inhuman fashion. So if Paul is in pretence at one time a Jew, at another a Roman, at one time without law, and at another a Greek,199 and whenever he wishes is a stranger and an enemy to each |103 thing, by stealing into each, he has made each useless, robbing each of its scope by his flattery.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">We conclude then that he is a liar and manifestly brought up in an atmosphere of lying.200 And it is beside the point for him to say : "I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not" (Rom. ix. 1). For the man who has just now conformed to the law, and to-day to the Gospel, is rightly regarded as knavish and hollow 201 both in private and in public life.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;">CHAPTER XXXVIII. Answer to the objection based on S. Paul's claim to be both a Jew and a Roman.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Here again Paul showed the strategic powers of a general. If a general is driven out by his own countrymen, he no longer considers himself one of them, and overcomes them by joining some one else. Just so Paul was driven by the Jews into the hands of the Romans, and so he could say he was not a Jew but a Roman.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">He was not wrong in calling himself a Roman, for by the Rom&eacute; ( r9w&amp;mh = might) of the Spirit he was to teach among the Roman nation.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Just as one of the Galatian race is called an Asian by living in Asia, so might Paul become a Roman, and yet remain a Jew. When he calls himself a Jew, he honours his countrymen; when he calls himself a Roman, he proclaims his nobility.202]</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">&nbsp;From Book IV, we continue:</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;">CHAPTER IV. Objection based on the divine assurance given to both S. Paul and S. Peter, and their martyrdom in spite of it.</span></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Let us look at what was said to Paul, "The Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, for<em><strong> I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee</strong></em>" (Acts xviii. 9-10). And yet no sooner was he seized in Rome than this fine fellow, who said that we should judge angels, <em><strong>had his head cut off</strong></em>.254 And Peter again, who received authority to feed the lambs, was nailed to a cross and impaled on it.255 And countless others, who held opinions like theirs, were either burnt, or put to death by receiving some kind of punishment or maltreatment. This is not worthy of the will of God, nor even of a godly man, that a multitude of men should be cruelly punished through their relation to His own grace and faith, while the expected resurrection and coming remains unknown.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">CHAPTER XIV. Answer to the objection based on the divine assurance given to both S. Paul and S. Peter, and their martyrdom in spite of it.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">[In each case the martyrdom came after the struggle of life was over, and the great work of bringing souls to Christ in many lands had been fulfilled.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Such an end to their life meant a higher fame. The highest honour is for soldiers who defend their country against the enemy to the death. So, after having marshalled the faithful all over the world into Christ's army, and stayed the fierceness of the enemy from the |127 rest, they won an unfading crown, and encouraged many to win it likewise. A violent death was a seal upon their life, and proved the greatness of their zeal.256</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">During their work both Peter and Paul were many times protected by their Lord from the plots of the Jews, but when the seeds of their faith had taken root, He granted them the final glory of martyrdom. In thus treating His soldiers, God acted as a wise general, for many were hostile, and might have ascribed their works to magic had they died an ordinary death, or vanished from before tribunals.257 To conquer torments by enduring to the end was their best answer to these.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Some paltry critics are prepared to find fault with the saints in either case. If they are protected from death, these would assert that they would never have endured to the end. If they face it to the end, they would say that it proved they were not really righteous men. And so God, in His love for His saints, sometimes rescues them from death, as in the case of Daniel and the three children, and sometimes lets them witness by their death that they are neither cowards nor hypocrites, as in the case of Peter and Paul.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">MY COMMENT: The defense of Paul does not answer the question how Paul was promised by God supposedly that no man would hurt you, and yet he had his head cut off (at least by some reports).&nbsp;</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">189.&nbsp;<sup>1</sup> Before the next sentence the MS. has&nbsp;<span data-mce-mark="1">3Ellhn</span> in the margin, as a new heading, in order to mark the place where the actual objection begins. For the support thus claimed for the theory that Macarius is merely borrowing from a book, and himself turning it into a discussion, see Introd., p. xvii.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#190"></a>190.&nbsp;<sup>2</sup> Phil. iii. 2,&nbsp;<em>i.e.</em> a mere meaningless cutting.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#191"></a>191.&nbsp;<sup>3</sup> Gk.&nbsp;<span data-mce-mark="1">parapa&amp;llion</span>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#192"></a>192.&nbsp;<sup>4</sup> The MS. gives&nbsp;<span data-mce-mark="1">kaqhkeu&amp;wn</span>,<em> </em>which must be corrupt. The word, oddly enough, has just occurred in the previous answer of Macarius (ch. xxix. p. 122, 1. 2,<span data-mce-mark="1">kai/per kaqhkeu&amp;wn toi~j 'Ioudai/oij polla&amp;</span><em>. </em>Foucart suggested&nbsp;<span data-mce-mark="1">piqhkeu&amp;wn</span><em> </em>in both places, as equivalent to&nbsp;<span data-mce-mark="1">piqhki/zw</span> (to play the ape),&nbsp;<em>Arist. Vesp. </em>1290). But this requires the further emendation of&nbsp;<span data-mce-mark="1">pa&amp;ntaj</span><em> </em>to<span data-mce-mark="1"> pa~si</span><em> </em>in the present instance.&nbsp;<span data-mce-mark="1">pa&amp;ntaj</span><em> </em>has just occurred in the same line, which may have caused the mistake.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#193"></a>193.&nbsp;<sup>5</sup> The speaker takes this in the moral sense, as meaning " lawless," as is clear from what follows.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#194"></a>194.&nbsp;<sup>1</sup> The MS.&nbsp;<span data-mce-mark="1">u9popu&amp;roj</span><em> </em>may be altered to&nbsp;<span data-mce-mark="1">u9poph&amp;ron</span>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#195"></a>195.&nbsp;<sup>2</sup><em> </em>After all, he only deals with seven objections instead of eight at the previous bout, but only four of them were against S. Peter, and all the eight are here attacks on S. Paul.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#196"></a>196.&nbsp;<sup>3</sup> The words&nbsp;<span data-mce-mark="1">tw~| po&amp;nw| purou&amp;menoj</span> are taken as part of the quotation in Blondel's edition, but there is no need to do this.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#197"></a>197.&nbsp;<sup>1</sup> It will be noticed that Macarius makes no attempt to argue from the special case of Timothy.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#198"></a>198.&nbsp;<sup>2</sup> He omits the words, "In this city."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#199"></a>199.&nbsp;<sup>3</sup> Surely this is a slip for "a Jew."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#200"></a>200.&nbsp;<sup>1</sup> Or, more literally, " a foster-brother of that which is false."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#201"></a>201.&nbsp;<sup>2</sup> lit. " Festering beneath the surface."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#202"></a>202.&nbsp;<sup>3</sup> Such is the strangely inadequate three-fold answer given to the objection. The play upon the word 9Pw&amp;mh is quite characteristic of patristic interpretation. Macarius does not seem to have grasped that a Jew could be a Roman citizen.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#203"></a>203.&nbsp;<sup>1</sup> The quotations are abbreviated,&nbsp;<span data-mce-mark="1">pa&amp;ntwj</span><em> </em>is omitted after&nbsp;<span data-mce-mark="1">di0<em> </em>h9ma~j</span>, and the middle clause of&nbsp;<em>v. </em>7 is wanting. Macarius, however, makes use of the latter in his answer.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#204"></a>204.&nbsp;<sup>1</sup> The clause, "Who planteth a vine and doth not eat of the fruit thereof?" was omitted by his opponent from I Cor. ix. 7, but here Macarius plainly refers to it.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#205"></a>205.&nbsp;<sup>2</sup> No answer is here given to the difficulty about God not taking care of oxen, but there is a brief word of explanation at the end of the next answer (ch. xl. p. 107, 11. 12-17).</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#206"></a>206.&nbsp;<sup>3</sup> This is quite different from the text of Galatians, "to every man that is circumcised." Perhaps the "one thing" comes from James ii. 10. Macarius accepts the quotation as it stands, and repeats it.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#207"></a>207.&nbsp;<sup>1</sup> This spontaneous introduction of a Persian measure of distance is a proof that the writer was near that part of the world. His subsequent suggestion of a city with so many gates indicates that there were large cities in his district.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#208"></a>208.&nbsp;<sup>2</sup> He chooses the example given by Christ Himself in John vii. 22-23, but can scarcely have that passage in mind, for it decides the difficulty.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#209"></a>209.&nbsp;<sup>1</sup> Macarius had ignored this part of the previous objection, and here his reference to the quotation can scarcely be called an answer to the difficulty raised, which seems to have proved too much for him.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#210"></a>210.&nbsp;<sup>2</sup> This is evidently a slip, as it is unlikely that he placed the Corinthian before the Roman Epistle.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#211"></a>211.&nbsp;<sup>3</sup> This correct translation must be given, rather than "sting," as Macarius develops the idea of a goad in his answer.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#212"></a>212.&nbsp;<sup>1</sup> The above summary is in a very abbreviated form, but it will be seen that, unlike some of his defence of S. Paul, his line of argument is excellent, and is a sound interpretation of S. Paul's own attitude towards the law.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#213"></a>213.&nbsp;<sup>1</sup> The verse is quoted in an abbreviated form.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#214"></a>214.&nbsp;<sup>2</sup> The full translation of this answer is given, as its language is curious and interesting.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#215"></a>215.&nbsp;<sup>3</sup> The answer at once makes obvious what the objection failed to state explicitly&mdash;namely, that S. <strong><em>Paul's inconsistency lies in his contradiction of the decision in Acts xv. that the Gentile converts were not to eat things offered to idols.</em></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#216"></a>216.&nbsp;<sup>1</sup> This is an attempt to render&nbsp;<span data-mce-mark="1">kai/per 9Ellh&amp;nwn w9j e0pi\ to_ plei~ston tw~n makelleuo&amp;ntwn to&amp;te gnwrizome/nwn</span><em>. </em></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#217"></a>217.&nbsp;<sup>2</sup> <span data-mce-mark="1">i1ulci</span> of the MS. must be for&nbsp;<span data-mce-mark="1">i1ugci</span><em>.</em></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#218"></a>218.&nbsp;<sup>3</sup> <span data-mce-mark="1">sfazome/nwn</span><em> </em>is the addition of a later hand in the margin, and scarcely seems to supply the sense required.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#219"></a>219.&nbsp;<sup>1</sup> This was a book by Porphyry, called&nbsp;<span data-mce-mark="1">peri/ th~j e0k logi/wn filosofi/aj</span>.<em> </em>It is lost, but is mentioned by Fabricius, v. p. 744. See Introd., p. xiv., for the argument which the reference to this book affords, as against Harnack's belief that the writer of these objections is Porphyry himself.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#220"></a>220.&nbsp;<sup>2</sup> For this see Euseb.,&nbsp;<em>Praepar. Evang. </em>iv. 8, 9.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#221"></a>221.&nbsp;<sup>3</sup> <span data-mce-mark="1">eu0age/steron</span><em>&mdash;</em>perhaps "purer."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#222"></a>222.&nbsp;<sup>1</sup> The word applies to men as well as women, and it is the masculine plural which is here used, but the translation "virginity" best accords with the words which follow about the Blessed Virgin.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#223"></a>223.&nbsp;<sup>1</sup> Macarius reflects the attitude of his age in regarding virginity as a cause of "merit."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#224"></a>224.&nbsp;<sup>2</sup> I Tim. iv. 2. This is the passage quoted in the objection, but&nbsp;<em>v.</em> 2 was then omitted, and only&nbsp;<em>vv</em>. 1 and 3 given. (&nbsp;<span data-mce-mark="1">a0nasth&amp;suntai</span><em> </em>is not S. Paul's word, but is incorrectly borrowed from the&nbsp;<span data-mce-mark="1">a0posth&amp;sontai</span><em> </em>of the previous verse.) These are the men who should "forbid to marry" and therefore commend virginity.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#225"></a>225.&nbsp;<sup>3</sup> Our apologist is on the wrong track, but it leads to many things of interest to us.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#226"></a>226.&nbsp;<sup>4</sup> This sentence represents the previous paragraph, but best fits into the argument here.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#227"></a>227.&nbsp;<sup>1</sup> This seems to refer to the fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#228"></a>228.&nbsp;<sup>2</sup> He is referring to the further words of I Tim. iv. 3, "abstaining from meats," as well as "forbidding to marry."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#229"></a>229.&nbsp;<sup>3</sup> The followers of Manes are first found in Asia Minor, as here stated ; their system being founded on the theory of a god of good and a god of evil, which was to be found in the religion of Persia. For a further mention of Manes see Bk. IV. ch. xv.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#230"></a>230.&nbsp;<sup>4</sup> The Encratites (as the name implies) were the Gnostics whose contempt for matter showed itself in their strict asceticism, while the name Apotactites suggests the licentious tendencies of the Antinomian Gnostics, who showed their contempt in the opposite way. The Eremites were ascetics of the deserts.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#231"></a>231.&nbsp;<sup>5</sup> Dositheus cannot be the head of the Samaritan sect mentioned by Hegesippus (ap. Euseb.,&nbsp;<em>H.E. </em>iv.&nbsp;<em>22) </em>and represented in the Clementine writings as the disciple of John the Baptist. Macarius is alone in mentioning him (see also iv. 15, p. 128, 1. 24), which shows that this list is not a copy of that of Epiphanius, as Salmon suggested,&nbsp;<em>D.C.B., </em>art. "Macarius."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#232"></a>232.&nbsp;<sup>6</sup> <span data-mce-mark="1">e0gkra&amp;teia</span>,<em> </em>the word from which Encratite is derived.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#233"></a>233.&nbsp;<sup>1</sup> <span data-mce-mark="1">terpome/noij</span><em> </em>is the reading suggested by Blondel for MS.&nbsp;<span data-mce-mark="1">prome/noij</span> or&nbsp;<span data-mce-mark="1">poqome/noij</span>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="#234"></a>234.&nbsp;<sup>2</sup> If&nbsp;<span data-mce-mark="1">su_n eu0marei/a| tou~ krei/ttonoj</span><em> </em>is to be so rendered.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;" data-mce-mark="1">Is The Gospel of John Authentic?</span></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">I currently believe John's Gospel is authentic. But we are to test all things. So I have collected the criticism's of that thesis here:</span></p>
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<li><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">There is an apparent inconsistency in the duration of Jesus' ministry. In the Synoptics, the events could cover one year. In the Gospel of John, the summary spans three years. According to John, w<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">e find that three Passover festivals were mentioned to have occurred during Jesus' ministry (John 2:13; 6:4; 11:55).&nbsp;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">John's Gospel is the work of a trained mind who wrote good Greek with some semitizing; but <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%204:13">Acts 4.13</a> says that John was "unschooled."</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">John makes little reference to Galilee, which is allegedly scarcely what we would expect from a native of the province, especially since Galilee (supposedly) was the centre of Christ&rsquo;s ministry. Nor does he mention at all his brother James.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">John's knowledge of Judaism is supposedly tainted. Critics cite John 18.13 in this regard -- saying John implied there was an annual priest: "and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year." However, this does not imply an annual priest; it simply says who the high priest was that year.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The author of this gospel would supposedly hardly refer to himself as "the disciple Jesus loved" -- some suggesting this is a false humility. On the other hand, it may be a sincere effort at humility to keep his name out of the piece.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">John does NOT mention the 'Transfiguration' &ndash; when Jesus was joined by Moses and Elijah on a mountain top, transformed into "glory" and was addressed by God himself &ndash; a supposedly astounding omission considering that we are informed by each of the synoptic gospels that John was one of only three eye witnesses to this stunning miracle! Here is Mark's version:&nbsp;"And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them. And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them. And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus." &ndash; Mark 9.2,9.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Similarly, John's Gospel omits any mention of the raising of Jairus's daughter but according to Mark's gospel it was John who was a privileged witness:&nbsp;"And he suffered no man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James. And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly ... And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment." &ndash; Mark 5.37,42.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">There was also supposedly a last minute redraft: John 21. The last two verses of the twentieth chapter indicate that the author intended to terminate his work here:&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">&lsquo;Many other signs also did Jesus in the sight of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: and that believing, you may have life in his name &lsquo; &ndash; John 20, 30-31. But the&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">twenty-first chapter was apparently added as an afterthought, telling the story about a third appearance of Jesus, the catching of precisely 153 fish, and vouchsafing that &lsquo;we know that the witness he gives is true.&rsquo; (John 21.24). For a rebuttal to this concern, see "<a href="http://www.thesacredpage.com/2011/12/john-21-later-addition-or-epilogue.html">John 21: Later edition or epilogue?</a>" from the Sacred Page.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
<hr />
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong><span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Critical Consensus Denies Historical Genuiness of the Fourth Gospel</span></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">As Christians, we do not measure the validity of our canonical Scripture by the votes of non-believers. But among them are believers, and thus we must consider their opinions. Anyway, the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Catholic Encyclopedia</span>'s article, "<a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08438a.htm#VI">The Gospel of St. John</a>" records:</span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The historical genuineness of the Fourth Gospel is at the present time almost <em><strong>universally denied outside the Catholic Church.</strong></em> Since David Friedrich Strauss and Ferdinand Christian Baur this denial has been postulated in advance in most of the critical inquiries into the Gospels and the life of Jesus. Influenced by this prevailing tendency, Alfred Loisy also reached the point where he openly denied the historicity of the Fourth Gospel; in his opinion the author desired, not to write a history, but to clothe in symbolical garb his religious ideas and theological speculations. </span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">For more on the traditional reasons for the validity of John, see the updated New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia "<a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08438a.htm">Gospel of John</a>."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
<hr />
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;" data-mce-mark="1">Earliest Citations to John's Gospel</span></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Our manuscript evidence dates primarily to the 4th Century. However, Papyrus Bodmer II dated to 200 AD has the first 14 chapters of John (less 22 verses), and some parts of 16-21. So to know of its earliest history, we must turn to the earliest commentators.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The pagan philosopher Celsus in his &lsquo;True Discourse&rsquo; (about 178 AD) based some of his statements on passages of the fourth gospel. Also, Heracleon, a follower of Valentinius, composed a commentary on the fourth gospel about 160 AD.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">But a generation earlier, Papias (about 70-130), though mentioning an apostle called John, says nothing of any gospel. Speaking of this Greek Bishop, Eusebius says (Hist. eccl., III, xxxix, 17) his work included passages taken from a &lsquo;first epistle&rsquo; of John but nothing from a gospel.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Some contend that John went through its various re-writes in the second half of the second century. During this period, the anti-Montanists actually attributed John's Gospel to Cerinthus, an Egyptian &lsquo;heretic.&rsquo;Attribution to a heretic was certainly the fastest way for the hierarchy to discredit a false gospel! Wikipedia relates:</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Works attributed to Cerinthus</span><br /><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Cerinthus may be the alleged recipient of the Apocryphon of James (codex I, text 2 of the Nag Hammadi library), although the name written is largely illegible. A 2nd- or 3rd-century heretical Christian sect (later dubbed the Alogi) alleged Cerintthus was the true author of the Gospel of John and Book of Revelation. According to Catholic Encyclopedia: &nbsp;Caius: "Additional light has been thrown on the character of Caius's dialogue against Proclus by Gwynne's publication of some fragments from the work of Hippolytus "Contra Caium" (Hermathena, VI, p.&nbsp;397 sq.); from these it seems clear that Caius maintained that the Apocalypse of John was a work of the Gnostic Cerinthus.&rdquo;&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The Montanists deduced their doctrine of the &lsquo;paraclete&rsquo; mainly from John 15 and 16.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">We return to Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyons, who died about 202. Irenaeus was the first to identify and name the four gospels. He cites in his writings at least one hundred verses from the fourth gospel.</span></p>
<hr />
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;">Date Written in Relation to Revelation</span></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Eusebius says that Revelation comes <strong>prior</strong> to the Gospel of John:</span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"He [the apostle John] wrote this Gospel in the Province of Asia, after he had composed the Apocalypse on the Island of Patmos.&nbsp;A few months before his death [18 September, 96], the emperor had discontinued the persecution of the Christians and recalled the exiles."&nbsp;Eusebius (Hist. eccl., <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250103.htm">3.20. 5-7</a></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, the sequence of the writing of the works in the NT is not chronological. Revelation comes prior to John's Gospel.</span></p>
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<h1><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>The Most Famous Verse of Bible Is A Mistranslation Caused by the Septuagint</strong></span></h1>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/3-14.htm">Exodus 3:14</a>&nbsp;--- ehyeh asher ehyey --- is often rendered "I am that I am." This is wrong.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">As Wikipedia explains in "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_that_I_Am">I am that I am</a>," it reads:</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0.5em 30px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">It is one of the most famous verses in the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torah" style="color: #0b0080; background: none;" title="Torah">Torah</a>. Hayah means "existed" or "was" in Hebrew; "ehyeh" is the first person singular imperfect form and is usually translated in English Bibles as "I will be" (or "I shall be"), for example, at Exodus 3:14.&nbsp;<em style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Ehyeh asher ehyeh</em>&nbsp;literally translates as "I Will Be <strong>What</strong> I Will Be", with attendant theological and mystical implications in Jewish tradition. However, in most English Bibles, in particular the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Version" style="color: #0b0080; background: none;" title="King James Version">King James Version</a>, this phrase is rendered as<em> I am that I am.</em></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0.5em 30px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God_in_Judaism#Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh" style="color: #0b0080; background: none;" title="Names of God in Judaism">Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh</a></em>&nbsp;(often contracted in English as&nbsp;<em>"I AM"</em>) is one of the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God_in_Judaism#Seven_names_of_God" style="color: #0b0080; background: none;" title="Names of God in Judaism">Seven Names of God</a>&nbsp;accorded special care by medieval Jewish tradition.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The Pulpit Commentary (Funk &amp; Wagnalls 1919) -- a fairly modern commentary -- states &nbsp;correctly that Exodus 3:14 literally is "I will be what I will be," but then insists no 'better' translation exists than "I am that I am."</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">&nbsp;Umm. </span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Let's fairly listen even though it errs by ignoring the literal text in favor of affirming God must have meant to affirm self-existence rather than omnipotence which "I will be what I will be" would signify:&nbsp;</span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0.5em 30px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span><a href="http://biblehub.com/commentaries/pulpit/exodus/3.htm" style="color: #0092f2;">Pulpit Commentary</a></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0.5em 30px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Verse 14.&nbsp;-&nbsp;I AM THAT I AM. No better translation can be given of the Hebrew words. "<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong>I&nbsp;will be&nbsp;what I&nbsp;will be"</strong>&nbsp;</span>(Geddes) is more literal, but less idiomatic, since the Hebrew was the simplest possible form of the verb substantive. "I am&nbsp;because&nbsp;I am" (Boothroyd) is wrong, since the word asher is&nbsp;certainly the relative. The Septuagint explains rather than translates, but is otherwise unobjectionable. The Vulgate,&nbsp;sum qui sum, has absolute exactness. The idea expressed by the name is, as already explained, that of real, perfect, unconditioned, independent existence.&nbsp;I AM hath sent me to you.&nbsp;"I am" is an abbreviated form of "I am that I am," and is intended to express the same idea. &nbsp;(<a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/3-14.htm" style="font-family: Tahoma, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.3em;">Biblehub</a>)</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The reference to Geddes as the one who brought the literal meaning to light as " I will be what I will be" is Reverand Alexander Geddes, LLD (died 1802). Here is a screen capture of Exodus 3:14 from the original of his work:</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><img src="/images/Geddes_translation_Exodus_3_14.jpg" alt="Geddes translation Exodus 3 14" width="582" height="41" /></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">You can see his translation yourself of "I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE" at <a href="https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=LgJQAAAAYAAJ&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;output=reader&amp;hl=en&amp;pg=GBS.PA102">page 102</a> in his work <em>The Holy Bible, or the Books Accounted Sacred by Jews and Christians; Otherwise called the Books of the Old and New Covenants: faithfully translated / from Corrected Texts of the Originals / with Various Readings, Explanatory Notes, and Critical Remarks </em>by&nbsp;The Rev. Alexander Geddes, LL.D., (London: J. Davis, 1792) Volume I.<br /></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Geddes was a Scottish theologian and scholar. Geddes did an English translation of the Roman Catholic Bible which he published between 1792-1797 which led to his excommunication and becoming a Reverand and Doctor of Divinity within the Protestant faith. See "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Geddes">Alexander Geddes</a>," Wikipedia.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">On page 102, Geddes did this footnote explanation for "I will be what I will be," as follows, and you can see he finds a sensible commonality with other passages about a future tense and God's being:<img src="/images/Geddesvol1.jpg" alt="Geddesvol1" width="154" height="192" style="float: right;" /></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0.5em 30px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">This seems to be the most plausible rendering of this most difficult passage. &nbsp;It is of little importance by what name I am known. <strong>I will</strong>, as I promised, <strong>be a God to them</strong>. See Gen. 18:8 [17:7] and cross-references.</span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Geddes is saying that God was correcting Moses in context. &nbsp;Moses kept up an exasperating set of questions of how anyone will be believe Moses has spoken to God. Thus, God deliberately does not give a name in response. Rather, God repeats His promises that He will be doing great things for His people, and that is what Moses must relay to Pharoah, not God's actual name (which is Yahweh). So God tells Moses to tell Pharoah "I will be what I will be."&nbsp;</span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">God often uses a future tense with His being a God to others. It does not imply that God is not yet God, but rather that His manifestation as God of some peoples is for a future time. So for example, we read in Ezekiel:</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0.5em 30px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify; background-color: #fdfeff;">My dwelling place will be with them; <em><strong>I will be their God</strong></em>, and they will be my people. <a href="http://biblehub.com/ezekiel/37-27.htm">Ezek. 37:27.</a></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">We likewise read in <a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/17-7.htm">Genesis 17:7</a> (to which Geddes was referring as to as 18:8 in his differently chaptered edition) that God promises He "will be a God to you." We read in fuller context in Genesis 17:7: "<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">And <span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><em><strong>I wi</strong><strong>l</strong><strong>l</strong></em></span> establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to <strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">be a God unto thee</span></strong>, and to thy seed after thee." </span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Hence, the correct translation does not mean God is not yet God, but instead He will be a God to whomever He wishes whenever He wishes including these people. Geddes was correct, as the passage from Genesis he cited proves, and as Ezek 37:27 proves.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> However, below, you will see a persistent desire to defend the Septuagint 257 BC mistranslation of "I am that I am" as preferable to "I will be what I will be" because the latter supposedly necessarily implies that God is not yet God. &nbsp;Yet, as Geddes said in 1792, that is not true, and God uses a future sense with His being many times and in many ways without implying He is not yet God.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
<h3 style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="color: #0000ff; font-size: 18pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Septuagint Error Is Cause of Persistent Erroneous Modern Translation</span></strong></span></h3>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Where comes the desire to persist in this erroneous "I am that I am?" From the Septuagint translation in Greek from 257 BC -- ego eimi ho on -- which means "I am the one who is." As one commentator notes, the Septuagint Greek of 257 BC affirms "the concept of absolute existence" (see<a href="http://www.exodus-314.com/part-i/exodus-314-in-early-translations.html"> link</a>), not absolute power.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">As we have demonstrated in numerous places, the Septuagint is a horrible translation of the Original Hebrew Bible. See "Septuagint Translations" on <a href="/topicindex.html">Topical Index</a> page.</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The Septuagint is why the King James and then almost all subsequent English Bibles persist in this error. </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">However, now we found that two later Greek translations in the Christian era done by Jewish scholars correct this Septuagint error:</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0.5em 30px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The versions of Aquila [100s] and Theodotion [died 200 AD] have ehyeh asher ehyeh and the ehyeh of 3:14b rendered into Greek as "esomai hos esomai" and "esomai" respectively, which in turn translate as "<em><strong>I will be who I will be</strong></em>" and "I will be". (See K.J. Cronin, <em>The Name of God As Revealed in Exodus 3:14</em>, <a href="http://www.exodus-314.com/part-i/exodus-314-in-early-translations.html">link</a>, citing W.&nbsp;Propp, <em>Exodus 1-18, A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary</em>, The Anchor Bible, (NY: Doubleday, 1998) at 225.)</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Theodotion was a Jewish scholar who deceased near 200 AD, and lived near Ephesus. ("<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodotion">Theodotion</a>," Wikipedia.) </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Aquila of Sinope - a Gentile who converted to Judaism -- lived in the 100s at Pontus, and is "<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">celebrated for a very literal and accurate translation of the&nbsp;</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Testament" style="color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;" title="Old Testament">Old Testament</a><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">&nbsp;into&nbsp;</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language" style="color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;" title="Greek language">Greek</a>." ("<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquila_of_Sinope">Aquila of Sinope</a>," Wikipedia.)</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">But Septuagint loyalists who ignore that Hebrew syntax does support Theodotion and Aquila's translation are dumbfounded how "I will be what I will be" has any meaning at all next to "I am that I am." Thus, they express their preference for the only translation that supposedly has meaning -- "I am that I am." So Cronin writes in criticism of Theodotian and Aquila:</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0.5em 30px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">&nbsp;With this translation, Aquila and Theodotion gave an entirely different meaning to Exodus 3:14, and brought to it most notably the connotation of temporal existence in place of the absolute existence connoted by the Septuagint version of the verse. They thus proposed an entirely different meaning for the revelation of Exodus 3:14 than that proposed by the Septuagint, and in so doing gave expression to a radically different understanding of how it is that God should be known by name, which is the import of the question Moses asks God in Exodus 3:13. However, even if they did not understand the question of Exodus 3:13 in this way, one can still <em><strong>only wonder how they thought the temporal connotation of 'I will be' could communicate any more meaningful an understanding of God than the absolute and eternal implications of 'I am'.</strong></em> Translating the absolute ehyeh as 'I am' does present considerable interpretational difficulty, but so too does translating it as 'I will be'. The crucial difference between the two is that whereas the words 'I am' standing alone can be reasonably understood as God's self-designation, the absolute declaration 'I will be' cannot. This is because in Judaism God is understood to be eternally immutable, and so He is understood to be in the present as He always was in the past and as He always will be in the future. <em><strong>If God were to designate Himself in absolute terms that refer to the future ('I will be'), that would imply that He is not yet God</strong></em>, or that He is God but is in a state of becoming somehow other than how He now is, both of which are absurd and unacceptable to the Mosaic monotheist (i.e one who adheres to the Monotheism of Moses, most notably Jews).</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, Cronin says that "I will be what I will be" somehow implies God is not yet God, while "I am that I am" is supposedly the only sensible meaning. With that false dichotomy of only two choices, who would not pick "I am that I am" because of the Septuagint translation?</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">However, "I will be what I will be" implies omnipotence. God can be whatever He wants to be at any moment. God can be God over whomever He wants to be, as Genesis 17:7 and Ezek 37:27 says. It is not that He is not actually God over them, but He can become God to them -- make Himself known and active over them. </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The words "I will be what I will be" does not imply God is not yet God; rather it affirms He is God now, and has power to be "what I will be" at any moment. </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Cronin clearly gave us a false set of choices. This is the fallacy of false dichotomy to try to win an argument.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Hence, "I will be what I will be" affirms a current existence that is all powerful. God can assert His Godhood in time and space any time He wishes over people, and He will do so!&nbsp;</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
<h3 style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;">Why Does The Truth About Exodus 3:14 Matter?</span></h3>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Then why is this important? Well, one can see the point of God's name is not simply self-existence. It is instead an expression of POWER, not self-existence:</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0.5em 30px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">I will be what I will be.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">This means God can be at any time what He wants to be. He has absolute power in His hands to be God over anyone at any moment. He has chosen presently to wait, and work through us to invite and draw people to Him. But He shall be whatever He wants to be in relation to us if He so chooses.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
<h3 style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Why Is The True Translation Obscured?</span></strong></span></h3>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">What explains the persistent refusal to recognize this was an imperfect tense, not a present tense? Or what explains Christians accepting the Name being shortened to simply "I Am"?</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Well, Jesus gives seven present tense statements in the Gospel of John that begin I AM, such as "I am the Bread of Life." See this link for <a href="http://www.jesusanswers.com/bible/friday.htm">list</a>.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">From this, some argue Jesus was affirming deity. For example, Ed Rodgers as a guest writer for CBN Networks say these "I am" verses prove Jesus claimed deity. See <a href="http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/churchandministry/evangelism/Rodgers_Deity.aspx">link</a>.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Alone, they are simply affirmations of Jesus' character. Only the verse where Jesus says "before Abraham, I am" can mean a claim to deity because this speaks of a pre-existence that even the Gospels affirm does not belong to the Man Jesus -- a man whose birth is recorded near the start of the 1st century. See&nbsp;<a href="http://biblehub.com/text/john/8-58.htm">John 8:58</a>. </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">But because Jesus said "the father dwells in me" (John 14:10) -- which renders Jesus DIVINE (not Deity), then God's Word was speaking directly through Jesus unlike other prophets who heard visions alone. Indeed, the Words Jesus spoke were the Father's words, as Jesus repeatedly explains in John's Gospel. It would thus not be surprising the Father wished to affirm He was speaking to them through the man Jesus on the occasion of John 8:58. God spoke at the Temple too. God spoke from heaven in front of a crowd at Jesus' baptism and again at His transfiguration. If these voices said it was I AM, we would not confuse the cloud or the temple with God. We would see them as vessels of God, not as God.&nbsp;<em><br /></em></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Hence, the I AM version of Exodus 3:14 is held onto in order to sustain the argument of Jesus' deity from the seven "I am" verses in John. But Exodus 3:14 says "I WILL" if we shorten it. Thus, a favorite argument disappears if we translate Exodus 3:14 correctly. Rather than lose a single argument to support the Deity proposition, many Christians tolerate a mistranslation of Exodus 3:14 as "I am that I am" rather than "I will be what I will be."</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">&nbsp;END</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
<hr />
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">STUDY NOTES</span></strong></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The Septuagint influenced Jerome who rendered Exodus 3:14 the same way. Cronin notes:</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0.5em 30px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The Vulgate of Jerome corresponds closely to the Septuagint in its Latin translation of ehyeh asher ehyeh and ehyeh as "ego sum qui sum" and "qui est" respectively, which in turn translate into English as "I am who am" and "He who is".'</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">D</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p> </td>
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<td valign="top" ><p><span style="font-size: large;">"If the Apostles taught anything contrary to the authenticated revelation of God, they were to be rejected." Charles Hodge, <em>Syst. Theology</em> (1871) at 763.</span></p></td>
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<h1><span style="font-size: 24pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">John 6:39-40 Biased Mistranslations</span></h1>
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<h1 class="Heading1" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 34pt 48.023987pt 8pt 0pt; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; color: #000000; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">John 6:39-40: A Favorite ES Passage</span></h1>
<p class="BodyAfterHead" style="text-indent: 36pt; margin: 0pt 0pt 7pt; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-450747"></a>One of the favorite passages cited for eternal security is&nbsp;John 6:39-40. This says in the NIV that it is God&rsquo;s &ldquo;will&rdquo; that whosoever believes and looks at the Son&mdash;using English non-continuous present tense for <em><strong>look</strong></em> and <em><strong>believe</strong></em>&mdash;&ldquo;shall&rdquo; have eternal life and shall be raised. (John 6:40).</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead" style="text-indent: 36pt; margin: 0pt 0pt 7pt; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">However, the KJV has verse 40 weaker, instead saying &ldquo;may have eternal life....&rdquo; Then John 6:39 in the KJV says that it is God&rsquo;s will that of all &ldquo;given&rdquo; to Jesus, Jesus &ldquo;should&rdquo; lose none and &ldquo;should&rdquo; raise them (John 6:39). However, the NIV has it much stronger, that Jesus &ldquo;shall&rdquo; not lose any and &ldquo;shall&rdquo; raise them.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The first question whether eternal security is true in this verse arises from this issue: <em><strong>should</strong></em> we be saved or<em><strong> shall</strong></em> we be saved if given to Jesus?&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The word <strong><em>should</em></strong> implies some uncertainty while <strong><em>shall</em></strong> conveys certainty.</span></span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead" style="text-indent: 36pt; margin: 0pt 0pt 7pt; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452893"></a>Which way is it in the Greek? Even the KJV and NIV are in conflict on this issue. The NIV takes the pro-eternal security translation of this passage, always using <strong><em>shall</em></strong> in verses 39 and 40. The KJV uses <strong><em>should</em></strong> instead in three of the four situations. As we shall see, the NIV was wrong. The KJV was more correct. In fact, in all four instances the Greek should have been rendered less emphatically as <strong><em>should</em></strong>.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451713"></a>This makes all the difference in the world. The outcomes are <strong>should have</strong> <strong>eternal life,</strong> <strong>should</strong> not be lost, and <strong>should</strong> be raised. Also, it was too strong to introduce these clauses by &ldquo;it is God&rsquo;s will.&rdquo; It must be translated it is God&rsquo;s <em><strong>desire</strong></em> or <em><strong>wish</strong></em>, as explained below.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead" style="text-indent: 36pt; margin: 0pt 0pt 7pt; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452169"></a>Hence, there is nothing certain in this passage. The <strong><em>should</em></strong> is regarding salvation for those who keep on believing / obeying (discussed below) and who keep on looking to Jesus. There is no guarantee for salvation based on a one-time faith (or obedience) or one-time looking at Jesus, as it reads in the NIV.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">So if you grant all my translation points so far, you have nothing for eternal security in this passage.&nbsp;With only these corrections so far, John 6:39-40 should read as follows:</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt 30px; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">v. 39. It, to the contrary, continues to remain His</span><em style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; text-indent: 0pt;"><strong> desire</strong></em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> [of Him who] sent me, [that] everyone who He is giving to me <strong><em>should</em></strong></span><em style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; text-indent: 0pt;">&nbsp;</em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">not be lost, but rather <strong><em>should be</em></strong> raised&nbsp;</span><em style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; text-indent: 0pt;"></em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">on the last day.v. 40 That is, thus it continues to remain the <em><strong>desire</strong></em>&nbsp;</span><em style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; text-indent: 0pt;"></em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">of the Father [and] of me, [that] everyone who <em><strong>keeps looking</strong></em></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">&nbsp;[at the] Son, and who <em><strong>keeps on believing</strong></em>&nbsp;</span><em style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; text-indent: 0pt;"></em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">&nbsp;[or more correctly "keeps on obeying" because it is <em><a href="http://biblehub.com/text/john/6-40.htm">pisteuosin EIS</a> -- </em>see <a href="/books/gospel-of-john/161-chapter-26-1jwos.html">link</a> on same usage in John 3:16.] unto Him, <strong><em>should</em></strong> be having&nbsp;</span><em style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; text-indent: 0pt;"></em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">eternal life [or enduring true life], and I <em><strong>should</strong></em> have raised him</span><em style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; text-indent: 0pt;">&nbsp;</em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">up him on the last day.&rdquo; (John 6:39-40 literal, major differences in bold italic).</span></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451749"></a>&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451750"></a>Therefore, it is God&rsquo;s desire that you should be saved, Jesus says in verse 39. Jesus then explains what this means in verse 40. God&rsquo;s desire is that all those who are continuing to believe (or, obey, as we shall see is the correct translation) and to look to Jesus should be saved. This passage has nothing to do with eternal security. It is all about the kind of people God wants to save.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452170"></a>However, if you make just a few small changes as we see in the NIV, then you have a permanent guarantee from a one-time being given to Jesus or once having followed Jesus that you are going to heaven and will be raised.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Let me explain the proper translation turns on familiarity with well-known principles of Greek translation. We must review<strong> a Greek grammar rule</strong> and <strong><em>apply it four times</em></strong> to this passage. The KJV applied this rule three times correctly and one time incorrectly, but the NIV never applied this rule. And both the KJV and NIV never once rendered correctly the Greek present continuous tense into English in this passage. Making these simple and appropriate changes result in the passage reading as I quoted it above.</span>&nbsp;</span></p>
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<h1 class="Heading1" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 34pt 48.023987pt 8pt 0pt; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; color: #000000; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">First Let&rsquo;s Resolve Verse 40&rsquo;s Meaning</span></h1>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-450748"></a>Let&rsquo;s take verse 40 first because it helps translate some ambiguous aspects to verse 39.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span>In the NIV, verse 40 reads:</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt 30px; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-450832"></a>v40 For my Father&rsquo;s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.&rdquo; (<a name="marker-452563"></a>John 6:40 NIV)</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">As the NIV rendered it, you have the non-continuous English simple present for <strong><em>looks</em></strong> and <em><strong>believes</strong></em>. Thus, since English simple present can mean a one time event (looked once or believed once), you then have salvation is guaranteed (&ldquo;shall have eternal life&rdquo;) from a one-time faith. And although this depends on God&rsquo;s will (rather than the accurate meaning of 'desire'), who can resist the will of God? Thus, the eternal security advocate understands this verse means God will make one who looked and believed just one-time to surely enjoy later eternal life and will raise him on the last day.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">However, the Greek is a far cry from this very erroneous translation in the NIV. The Greek&nbsp;present participle active of <strong><em>believes</em></strong> (or <em><strong>obeys</strong></em>) and <em><strong>looks</strong></em> is used in verse 40. This is the Greek present continuous tense, and must always be translated using the English continuous present tense, e.g., &ldquo;is believing,&rdquo; and &ldquo;is looking,&rdquo; at minimum. Or better, it should say &ldquo;continues to believe&rdquo; (or obey) and &ldquo;keeps on looking&rdquo; to convey the Greek more explicitly. There are no exceptions to that rule for the Greek present participle active.&nbsp;See also Appendix A of JWO for a detailed discussion.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-450910"></a>Thus, it is only the persistent faith (or obedience) that endures and keeps looking to Christ that has any promise of eternal life and the resurrection in verse 40.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451908"></a>Verse 40 is not a problematical verse. It is easy to see that it does not apply to support eternal security. It is verse 39 in the NIV that requires a more in-depth knowledge of classical languages to correct the NIV back to the way the KJV had it.</span></p>
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<h1 class="Heading1" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 34pt 48.023987pt 8pt 0pt; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; color: #000000; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Another Repair to Verse 40</span></h1>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-450893"></a>Even though verse 40 on its face has nothing to do with eternal security, its correct translation in a second way assists us grapple with the issues in verse 39.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-450914"></a>This issue in verse 40 that affects verse 39 relates to this question: How do you translate what the NIV has in verse 40 as <strong>shall have eternal life</strong> and <strong>shall be raised</strong>?</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-450915"></a>While the NIV has <strong>shall</strong> both times in verse 40, the KJV has one time <em><strong>may</strong></em>. It reads in the KJV &ldquo;may have eternal life&rdquo; but then the KJV likewise has &ldquo;I will raise him up.&rdquo;</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-450926"></a>The verb here in the Greek for <em><strong>have eternal life</strong></em> is subjunctive present active. (The Latin Vulgate of 382 A.D. had it likewise.) That means it is translated <em><strong>may</strong></em> or <strong><em>should have eternal life</em></strong>. So the KJV had this correct, but the NIV has it incorrect. The Spanish Reina Valera Bible of 1602 also has it correctly as the subjunctive (&ldquo;tenga&rdquo;).</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Next, the verb in the Greek for "raise up" is, according to Quick Verse 6.0, in the future active. However, if we look at<em> Key Word Study Bible</em>, it says it is the aorist subjunctive. (See <em>Key Word Study Bible</em> (AMG: 1991) at 1326).</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451915"></a>So there is a disagreement on the tense for raise up between Quick Verse and Key Word Study Bible. One says it is future tense, but another says it is in the subjunctive tense.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451919"></a>When we examine the Greek, both the Textus Receptus (Stephanos 1550) and the Critical Text (WH 1896) use the identical verb form for "raise up." Therefore, this difference is not because the Greek word is in dispute.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451920"></a>What explains this disparity? Some Greek verbs have an ambiguous ending, and its ending signals either a subjunctive or future meaning. (We will see this occurs again in verse 39). That is why the same Greek word for "raise up" is said to be subjunctive in the Key Word Study Bible but future if you check Quick Verse 6.0. Thus, in verse 40, the verb is either future or subjunctive for raise up.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452175"></a>How do we decide in verse 40 whether it is "should raise up" or "shall raise up?" How do we choose between translating it as the subjunctive or future tense?</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451927"></a>As a general rule, Greek and Latin grammar tells us that if a sentence begins by a <em><strong>statement of wish, will, or desire, </strong></em>that the verbs that follow are in the subjunctive tense if we have an ambiguous ending. (Latin has this same ambiguity in endings.)</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451931"></a>And of course verse 40 begins with a statement of wish, will, or desire. &ldquo;It is God&rsquo;s wish/will/desire....&rdquo; Therefore, the verbs that follow should be in the subjunctive. It should read <em><strong>should</strong></em> raise up, not <em><strong>shall</strong></em> raise up.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452747"></a>Not all agree. For while both the KJV and RVA have the first verb <strong>should</strong> <strong>have eternal life</strong>, they both go the other way on the second verb, and it is <strong>shall</strong> be raised up. Its an inexplicable inconsistency.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451928"></a>Rather, if one verb should be in the subjunctive, there is no textual reason that the next is in the future. The KJV and NIV should have translated using the subjunctive form for have eternal life and raise up, and not just one without the other. However, of course, the NIV went way off course translating both in the future tense.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451942"></a>These corrections are not difficult to see, and stem from basic Greek grammar.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span>The way verse 40 should read is:</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt 30px; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span>&ldquo;That is, thus it continues to remain the will, wish desire of the Father [and] of me, [that] everyone who keeps looking at the] Son, and who keeps on believing (or obeying) unto Him, <strong>should</strong> be having eternal life, and <strong>should</strong> have been raised up on the last day.&rdquo; (John 6:40 literal).</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-450979"></a>This has importance later in translating verse 39 correctly. For now we see that verse 40 twice says having eternal life and being raised up are in the subjunctive mood. That means they should or might happen, but are not guaranteed. They should happen for those who keep on believing (or obeying) unto Jesus and who keep on looking to Jesus. Then we can recognize readily that verse 39 is talking in the same manner.</span>&nbsp;</span></p>
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<h1 class="Heading1" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 34pt 48.023987pt 8pt 0pt; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; color: #000000; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">How This Impacts Verse 39</span></h1>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451943"></a>In verse 39, there are two verbs for perish (become lost) and raise up, and their endings are completely ambiguous, being either subjunctive or future. You then have to employ tools to deduce which is which. However, you can also look to verse 40 where the subjunctive of <strong>have</strong> was clearly used, and this tells one that the other verb in verse 40, as well as these two verbs in verse 39 should also be in the subjunctive (meaning <strong>should</strong>). And we can rely not only on that, but also the fact both verse 39 and 40 begin with expressions of will, wish, or desire, which generally indicates a subjunctive is intended in the verbs that follow.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451815"></a>As to verse 39, the KJV agrees with me that both times should is the intended translation. However, the NIV disagrees. Yet, how one deduces to translate verse 39 depends not in a small part on how one translated verse 40. In other words, because an unequivocal subjunctive was used once in verse 40, then verse 39 should still be seen as subjunctive because verses 39 and 40 are an obvious couplet (connected ideas).</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451821"></a>And thus the KJV translation of verse 39 was correct on both verbs but the NIV was wrong both times. The KJV has no eternal security meaning while the NIV created a pro-eternal security meaning. Thus, this issue is not insignificant. Let&rsquo;s discuss in a little more detail why one is right and the other is wrong.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span><span data-mce-mark="1"><strong>The KJV Was Correct About John 6:39</strong></span></span></p>
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<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span>John 6:39 is susceptible to improper twisting if taken out of the context of verse 40. For standing alone, it says simply this in the NIV:</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt 30px; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-450753"></a>v. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but [shall] raise them up at the last day. (John 6:39 NIV).</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-450754"></a>&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">From this translation, you quite reasonably get this argument from a proponent of eternal security:</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt 30px; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">"Christ states categorically in John 6:39 that none whom the Father gives him will be lost.&rdquo;</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-450758"></a>&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-450759"></a>However, if you had the actual Greek in front of you, you would see verses 39 and 40 are intended as a couplet that are united to convey a single idea. Both start out with a long Greek phrase that is identical, &ldquo;it continues to remain the will / desire/ wish...&rdquo; Then there are parallel references to eternal life /not being lost and being raised on the last day. Thus, it seems unreasonable to lift verse 39 out-of-context of verse 40. Thus, verse 40&rsquo;s limitations of continuing faith (or obedience) and continued looking to Jesus should be read as part of a single thought beginning in verse 39.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-450760"></a>But let&rsquo;s suppose one insists that verse 39 can and should be read in isolation. What then?</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-450761"></a>Well, you must ask yourself why in verse 39 did the KJV have it &ldquo;should lose none&rdquo; but the NIV has it &ldquo;shall lose none&rdquo;? And why did the KJV have it &ldquo;should raise up&rdquo; but the NIV has it &ldquo;shall ... raise up&rdquo;?</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-450762"></a>The KJV use of <strong>should</strong> is intended to reflect the Greek subjunctive tense which means the verb action is uncertain and not guaranteed but it should happen. The NIV choice was to use a meaning of future tense that conveys the opposite meaning of a guarantee, <strong>shall</strong>. That is how the NIV has made John 6:39 a guarantee of salvation while the KJV reader would not have understood it that way.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;" data-mce-mark="1">The KJV reads this way:</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt 30px; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">&ldquo;And this is the Father&rsquo;s will which hath sent me, that of all that he has given me, I <strong>should</strong> lose nothing, but <strong>should</strong> raise it up at the last day.&rdquo; (John 6:39 KJV.)</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Cf. Latin Vulgate of 382 A.D. (&ldquo;resuscitem,&rdquo; subjunctive).</span></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Now contrast this to the NIV:</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt 30px; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">&ldquo;v. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I <strong>shall</strong> lose none of all that he has given me, but [<strong>shall</strong>] raise them up at the last day.&rdquo; (John 6:39 NIV).</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451067"></a>&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-450763"></a>What is the truth? Is the NIV correct or the KJV?</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-450764"></a>Well, the key to the answer is to see the sentence begins with &ldquo;it remains the wish, will, desire&rdquo; of God. It is one of those three meanings&mdash;will, wish, or desire. It is not important to determine which at this point.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451076"></a>Why is how the sentence begins important? Because the sentence states a wish, will, or desire at the start, we know the meaning of the verbs that follow is the subjunctive, that is <strong>should</strong> or <strong>may</strong> is intended, and not the future tense.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451077"></a>This is based on a cardinal rule of classical Latin and Greek. If a sentence starts with a statement of wish, will, or desire, then if a later verb in the sentence has an ending that signals either a future or subjunctive tense, you know that subjunctive is the proper translation. The&nbsp;<a name="marker-452570"></a>subjunctive tense is sometimes even called the tense of wish or desire, making its use here unavoidable. If a future tense were intended, you do not begin the sentence with a statement of wish, will or desire.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451080"></a>Here, in verse 39 both the verb for <strong><em>perish</em></strong> and for <strong><em>raise up</em></strong> on the last day has an ending that is either future or subjunctive in Greek. And since the sentence begins with a statement of will, wish, or desire, we know subjunctive is the correct choice for translation. It is quite simple and not a difficult translation decision at all.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-450766"></a>And since that is true, we know the KJV had this right.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451088"></a>So what possible reason would the NIV want to encourage its readers to think our salvation is guaranteed (&ldquo;shall not perish&rdquo;) merely by being given to Jesus? You can answer that on your own.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451090"></a>For now, let me just offer a corrected translation of verse 39:</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt 30px; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">v. 39. It, to the contrary, continues to remain His will/wish/desire [of him who] sent me, [that] everyone who He is giving to me should not perish, but rather should be raised on the last day. (John 6:39 literal).</span></p>
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<h1 class="Heading1" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 34pt 48.023987pt 8pt 0pt; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; color: #000000; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Does Everything God Wills Come To Pass?</span></h1>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-450773"></a>Let&rsquo;s look at a proof that in John 6:39-40, the word translated as <strong><em>will</em></strong> really should be <em><strong>desire</strong></em> or <strong><em>wish</em></strong>. It is not crucial to translation because if it means <em><strong>will,</strong></em> you still have the Greek grammar rule that the flexible verbs that follow (either subjunctive or future) must be translated in the subjunctive. At best the verse means it is God&rsquo;s will that those who are continuing to believe (or obey) <em><strong>should</strong></em> be raised, not <em><strong>shall</strong></em> be raised.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452690"></a>However, rendering this word as <em><strong>will</strong></em> does create a theological problem. Since Greek grammar dictates what follows is a subjunctive (<em><strong>should</strong></em>, not <strong><em>shall</em></strong>), then you have something God wills not being certain. The subjunctive mood means the opposite: something that might, should or could happen.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452689"></a>However, I do believe everything God wills comes to pass. That is the first clue that John 6:39 is wrong to translate this word as <em><strong>will</strong></em>.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452693"></a>And this is compelled by being consistent with 1 Tim. 2:3-4.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451254"></a>First, before discussing&nbsp;<a name="marker-452573"></a>1 Timothy 2:3-4, I want to comment a little more on God&rsquo;s will versus God&rsquo; wishing something. While I believe if God wills something, it will happen, this does not mean if God desires something it will happen. Humans can resist the desires of God, but I don&rsquo;t think we can resist the will of God if God directed otherwise. This distinction explains such passages as this speech of&nbsp;<a name="marker-452575"></a>Stephen in Acts: &ldquo;You are just like your fathers. You always resist the Holy Spirit....And now you have betrayed and murdered [the Righteous One].&rdquo; (<a name="marker-452574"></a>Acts 7:51-52)</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451263"></a>Stephen must be saying we can resist God&rsquo;s desires. Stephen is not saying we can resist God&rsquo;s sovereign will that we do something. At least, I would hesitate to think we could resist that.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451855"></a>So now we come to the question whether John 6:39 should be translated as <em><strong>will</strong></em> with the implication this represents God&rsquo;s sovereign will that is irresistible. If you think this is translated <strong><em>will</em></strong>, as does the NIV and KJV, you are led inevitably to dilemmas in other passages where you are compelled to translate it as <em><strong>wish</strong></em> or <em><strong>desire</strong></em>. Then, to avoid inconsistency, you must change the translation in John 6:39 to either wish or desire.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451856"></a><a name="26203"></a>For in 1 Timothy 2:3-4, we read that &ldquo;God who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto knowledge and truth.&rdquo; (KJV). In 1 Timothy 2:3-4 this <em><strong>will</strong></em> is the verb form of the same root word in John 6:39 translated by the King James as God&rsquo;s <strong><em>will</em></strong>. See Table 1 below.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451271"></a>But not all men are saved. So if <em><strong>will</strong></em> in 1 Tim. 2:3-4 is the sovereign will of God, then we have people successfully resisting that sovereign will. And I don&rsquo;t believe that is possible. However, if this means in 1 Tim. 2:3-4 simply desire or wish, then the conflict goes away, and men are resisting the desire of God, which the Bible tells us that humans can do. See&nbsp;<a name="marker-452576"></a>Acts 7:51-52.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451130"></a>So in 1 Tim. 2:3-4 the NIV chose the correct translation, namely &ldquo;God our savior <em><strong>wants</strong></em> everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.&rdquo; (NIV).</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451272"></a>But the NIV was not free to leave John 6:39 alone, saying God&rsquo;s <em><strong>will</strong></em> is to save those who are being given to Christ but in 1 Tim. 2:3-4 say God merely <em><strong>wants</strong></em> all men to be saved. That is an inconsistency in translating the same word root with no justification from the contexts, which are identical. Translation ethics prohibits translating inconsistently the same word used in a similar manner, especially so you can hold onto doctrine.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451863"></a>It is that kind of inconsistency, however, that the NIV engaged in. At least the KJV knew if you want John 6:39 to be God&rsquo;s sovereign will to save, you must be consistent and translate 1 Tim. 2:3-4 likewise as will. There is no contextual change to support the NIV&rsquo;s action. For both verses are talking about God&rsquo;s will or desire about some intended object toward salvation. The NIV, however, translates this word root inconsistently, once as <em><strong>will</strong></em> (John 6:39) and then as <em><strong>want</strong></em> (1 Tim. 2:3-4).</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451988"></a>Let&rsquo;s go a little deeper.&nbsp;<a name="marker-452579"></a>John 6:39 uses the word thele&ocirc;ma, which means will, wish, or desire. And in 1 Tim. 2:3-4, it is the verb form, theleo, which means wills, wishes, or desires. See Table 1 below for how this compares in Greek text.</span></p>
<h6 class="TableTitle" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt; margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 13.744598pt; font-size: 10pt; color: #000000; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451472"></a>&nbsp;</span></h6>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr><th colspan="1" rowspan="1">
<p class="CellHeading" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt; margin: 0pt; font-size: 9pt; color: #000000; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451476"></a>John 6:39</span></p>
</th><th colspan="1" rowspan="1">
<p class="CellHeading" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt; margin: 0pt; font-size: 9pt; color: #000000; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451478"></a>1 Tim. 2:3-4</span></p>
</th></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
<p class="CellBody" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 0pt 0pt 4pt; font-size: 9pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451480"></a>thele&ocirc;ma</span></p>
</td>
<td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
<p class="CellBody" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 0pt 0pt 4pt; font-size: 9pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451482"></a>theleo</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
<p class="CellBody" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 0pt 0pt 4pt; font-size: 9pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451487"></a>&nbsp;</span></p>
<div><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></div>
</td>
<td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
<p class="CellBody" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 0pt 0pt 4pt; font-size: 9pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-451492"></a>&nbsp;</span></p>
<div><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452729"></a>There is no good reason to translate them inconsistently. And so if it is true that God wills /wishes or desires that all men be saved in 1 Tim. 2:3-4, then because we know that not all are saved, it must not be God&rsquo;s sovereign will is in view. Otherwise, all would be saved. So <em><strong>desires</strong></em> or <em><strong>wishes</strong></em> certainly is the correct translation of theleo for&nbsp;<a name="marker-452580"></a><a name="marker-452581"></a>1 Tim. 2:3-4. And thus because John 6:39 uses the same root word, and is similarly talking about God&rsquo;s plan to save people, it should have the same meaning as in 1 Tim. 2:3-4. John 6:39 simply has to be translated as <em><strong>wish</strong></em> or <em><strong>desire</strong></em>.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">And then if you have established John 6:39 is talking of a wish or desire, that removes the dilemma that John 6:39 would say God&rsquo;s wills that someone &ldquo;should&rdquo; or &ldquo;shall&rdquo; be saved. Rather God desires those who are believing (or obeying) should be saved. Thus, our repair to the translation, by adding <em><strong>should</strong></em>, fits well with the sentence, especially when desire or want is put at the start of the clause.</span></p>
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<div style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;">
<h1 class="Heading1" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 34pt 48.023987pt 8pt 0pt; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; color: #000000; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">What About The Fact These Are Given to Jesus?</span></h1>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452210"></a>But the eternal security (ES) advocate is undaunted. What of the fact it says in verse 39 that this will, wish or desire is for those &ldquo;given&rdquo; to Jesus? Aren&rsquo;t you saying by using the subjunctive, meaning <em><strong>should</strong></em>, that there is some uncertainty? Aren&rsquo;t you saying that somehow those given to Jesus can be snatched from Jesus&rsquo; hand if they fail in faith (or obedience) or some other way? But the ES advocate simply knows that is impossible, from&nbsp;<a name="marker-452587"></a>John 10:27-29, so we should change the subjunctive to the future, as the NIV has it, to reflect that we know we are guaranteed of our salvation.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452211"></a>This is an example of where one mistranslation (John 10:27-29) can lead to a pressure to ignore proper Greek translation elsewhere.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452212"></a>But before we prove that&nbsp;<a name="marker-452588"></a>John 10:27-29 is a mistranslation (see article on John 10:27-29 on this website), let&rsquo;s just see that as a pure point of fact, we can prove that someone given to Jesus can be lost. That ends the issue. There is thus no pressure in John 6:39 to change the verbs into future guarantees simply because those mentioned are being given to Jesus.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span>And here is the proof. The very same verb as in John 6:39 translated as <em><strong>given</strong></em> is used by John in&nbsp;<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span>John 17:9 where Jesus says of all those given to him, only one was lost,&nbsp;<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span>Judas. See Table 2 below. Thus, this proves being given to Jesus is not a guarantee of salvation in and of itself. And thus, we have no textual reason from the word <em><strong>given</strong></em> to assume someone is always saved who is given to Jesus. And thus we are not justified changing the subjunctives in&nbsp;<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span>John 6:39 to future simply from the use of the word <em><strong>given</strong></em>.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452332"></a>John Wesley had cause to point this out about being given to Jesus over three hundred years ago. This was because some in Wesley&rsquo;s day were using John 17:11 as a proof text for eternal security. The argument was that if Jesus prayed those given to Him be saved, as Jesus does in&nbsp;<a name="marker-452592"></a>John 17:11, it as good as done. No prayer of Jesus can go unanswered, even if it means God to answer it must overpower our wills. John Wesley replied in his article &ldquo;Perseverance of the Saints,&rdquo; <em>Fundamental Christian Theology: A Systematic Theology,</em> A. M. Hills (C. J. Kinne), 1931, Vol. II, pp. 266-281, part IV:</span></p>
<h6 class="TableTitle" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt; margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 13.744598pt; font-size: 10pt; color: #000000; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452216"></a>&nbsp;</span></h6>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr><th colspan="1" rowspan="1">
<p class="CellHeading" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt; margin: 0pt; font-size: 9pt; color: #000000; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452220"></a>John 17:9,11-12</span></p>
</th><th colspan="1" rowspan="1">
<p class="CellHeading" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt; margin: 0pt; font-size: 9pt; color: #000000; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452222"></a>John 6:39</span></p>
</th></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
<p class="CellBody" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 0pt 0pt 4pt; font-size: 9pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452224"></a>given (perfect active)</span></p>
</td>
<td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
<p class="CellBody" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 0pt 0pt 4pt; font-size: 9pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452226"></a>being given (present indicative)</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
<p class="CellBody" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 0pt 0pt 4pt; font-size: 9pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452231"></a>&nbsp;</span></p>
<div><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></div>
</td>
<td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
<p class="CellBody" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 0pt 0pt 4pt; font-size: 9pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452236"></a>&nbsp;</span></p>
<div><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></div>
</td>
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</tbody>
</table>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452238"></a>&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452239"></a>Once more: &ldquo;Holy Father, keep through Thine own name, those whom Thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are one&rdquo; (<a name="marker-452593"></a>John 17:11). Great stress has been laid on this text; and it has been hence inferred, that all those whom the Father had given Him (a phrase frequently occurring in this chapter) must infallibly persevere unto the end. And yet in the very next verse, our Lord Himself declares that one of those whom the Father had given Him did not persevere unto the end, but perished everlastingly. His own words are: &ldquo;Those that Thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition&rdquo; (<a name="marker-452594"></a>John 17:12). So one of these was finally lost! &ldquo;Those whom thou hast given me,&rdquo; signifies here, if not in most other places, the twelve apostles, and them only.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452240"></a>&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span>I cannot disagree with Wesley&rsquo;s logic. So it follows if one is given to Christ in&nbsp;<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span>John 6:39, it is not a guarantee one will have eternal life. It was no guarantee for&nbsp;Judas later. Thus, it is not theologically sound to claim the word <em><strong>given</strong></em> in John 6:39 tells us that we should translate the verbs in John 6:39 about being raised in a future tense (certain) rather than subjunctive tense (uncertain).</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-452734"></a>But if what we just said about John 17:9, 11-12 is true, then something is messed up in the translation of&nbsp;<a name="marker-452597"></a>John 10:27-29. Is that possible? Indeed, it most certainly is, as we shall see.</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">In another article we plan to post, we will turn to the number one passage used to support eternal security: John 10:27-29. We shall see rather than a promise of eternal security, it is a teaching by Jesus that our assurance of salvation comes from continuing to follow and to listen (obey). Our salvation is not made sure by a one-time following or listening. Thus, being given to Jesus alone does not make our final salvation any more sure for us than it did for Judas.</span></p>
<h2 class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span>Conclusion</strong></span></h2>
</div>
<div style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;">
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-455272"></a>&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead" style="text-indent: 36pt; margin: 0pt 0pt 7pt; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-455274"></a>The correct translation must also reflect that <em><strong>pisteusin eis autos</strong></em>&nbsp;in John 10:40 (see <a href="http://biblehub.com/text/john/6-40.htm">Greek tab on Biblehub</a>) means &ldquo;obey unto him&rdquo; in John 3:16. We established that elsewhere. Hence, the entire passage correctly translated reads:</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt 30px; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-455472"></a>v. 39. It, to the contrary, continues to remain His desire [of Him who] sent me, [that] everyone who He is giving to me should not be lost, but rather should be raised on the last day.v. 40 That is, thus it continues to remain the desire of the Father [and] of me, [that] everyone who keeps looking [at the] Son, and who <em><strong>keeps on obeying unto Him,</strong></em> should be having eternal life, and I should have raised him up him on the last day.&rdquo; (John 6:39-40 literal, major differences in bold italic).</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-455473"></a>&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="text-indent: 0pt; margin: 12pt 0pt 6pt; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId-455468"></a>&nbsp;</span></p>
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<h1>Chapter Fourteen</h1>
<h1>Who Is The Benjamite Wolf In Prophecy?</h1>
<h3 class="Heading1"><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #3366ff;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong>Jesus' Words on the Ravening Wolf</strong></span></h3>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464095"></a> Jesus several times mentions a wolf or wolves. He says the false prophets will be wolves dressed like sheep. This means they will claim to be followers of Christ, but "inwardly [they] are <em><strong>ravening wolves</strong></em>." The full quote is:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;" class="Quote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464096"></a> Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are <strong><em>ravening wolves</em></strong>. (Matt. <a href="http://bible.cc/matthew/7-15.htm">7:15</a>.)<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2raw9FuCY1r2t9z1o1_500.jpg" width="115" height="96" style="float: right;" /></span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464097"></a> Jesus warns true Christians that they are at risk from these so-called Christians who are truly ravening wolves inside.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;" class="Quote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464098"></a> Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of<em><strong> wolves</strong></em>: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. (Matt. <a href="http://bible.cc/matthew/10-16.htm">10:16</a>)</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span> Christian leaders who do not care for the flock <span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; background-color: #ffff00;" data-mce-mark="1">more than their salary</span>&nbsp;will leave the average Christian at the mercy of these ravening wolves. Jesus explains:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;" class="Quote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464100"></a> He that is a <strong>hireling,</strong> and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, beholdeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the <em><strong>wolf snatcheth them</strong></em>, and scattereth them: (John <a href="http://bible.cc/john/10-12.htm">10:12</a>)</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;" class="Quote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464101"></a> He fleeth because he is a hireling, and careth not for the sheep. (John <a href="http://bible.cc/john/10-13.htm">10:13</a>)(ASV)</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> Is this imagery of the ravening wolf as the false prophet ever spoken about elsewhere in Scripture? Yes, in fact there is a prophecy in the book of Genesis that the tribe of Benjamin would later produce just such a "ravening wolf." (Gen. <a href="http://bible.cc/genesis/49-27.htm">49:27</a>.)<strong></strong>&nbsp;</span></p>
<div>
<h3><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #3366ff;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong>Genesis Prophecies of Messiah and His Enemy from the Tribe of Benjamin</strong></span></h3>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464104"></a> Paul tells us in Romans<a href="http://bible.cc/romans/11-1.htm"> 11:1</a>, "For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of <em><strong>Benjamin</strong></em>." Paul repeats this in Philippians<a href="http://bible.cc/philippians/3-5.htm"> 3:5</a>, saying he is "of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of <em><strong>Benjamin</strong></em>."<sup> <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=3VFnsDuxBPcC&amp;lpg=PP1&amp;dq=jesus%20words%20only&amp;pg=PA332#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false">1</a></sup></span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464108"></a> Keeping this in mind, Genesis has a very interesting Messianic prophecy. Modern Christians are sadly generally unaware of this prophecy. It may be ignored because the nearby passage about a Benjamite ravening wolf in the latter days hits too close to home. It is better to ignore a clear Messianic prophecy than to risk seeing the Bible prophesied the emergence of Paul and the error he would propagate among Christians.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464109"></a> In Genesis chapter 49, Jacob, also known as Israel, utters a prophecy of the latter days. In this prophecy, Jacob identifies the role of each son and his tribe. The passage begins:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;" class="Quote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464110"></a> And Jacob called unto his sons, and said: gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the latter days. (Gen<a href="http://bible.cc/genesis/49-1.htm"> 49:1</a>)</span></p>
<h4 class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;" data-mce-mark="1">A</span>. <span style="color: #0000ff;" data-mce-mark="1">Prophecy That Judah Produce Messiah</span></strong></span></h4>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Then Jacob delivers a prophecy about his son Judah and the tribe of Judah for the latter days. It is a clear Messianic prophecy.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;" class="Quote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464112"></a> The sceptre shall not depart from Judah [<em>i.e</em>., the right to rule belongs to this tribe], Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh come: And<strong><em> unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be</em></strong>. (Gen <a href="http://bible.cc/genesis/49-10.htm">49:10</a>)</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;" class="Quote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464113"></a> Binding his foal unto the vine, And his ass's colt unto the choice vine; He <img src="http://veganrus.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/thuc-pham-mau-tim-giup-nho-dai-bacsigiadinh-tac-dung-cua-nho.jpg" width="178" height="130" style="float: right;" />hath<em><strong> washed his garments in wine, And his vesture in the blood of grapes</strong></em>. (Gen <a href="http://bible.cc/genesis/49-11.htm">49:11</a>)</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;" class="Quote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464114"></a> His eyes shall be red with wine, And his teeth white with milk. (Gen <a href="http://bible.cc/genesis/49-12.htm">49:12</a>) (ASV)</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464115"></a> The root word for Shiloh comes from Shalom, meaning peace. Shiloh means one who brings peace. Shiloh comes holding the sceptre of Judah. Shilo thus is a prince of peace.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464116"></a> This passage therefore clearly depicts Messiah, the Prince of Peace, with his garments bathed in the blood of grapes. All obedience will be owed him. The Genesis-Shiloh Messiah is then presented in similar imagery as the Lamb of God in the Book of Revelation. (Rev. <a href="http://bible.cc/revelation/19-13.htm">19:13</a> "garment sprinkled with blood".)</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464117"></a> Ancient Jewish scholars also read this Genesis passage to be a Messianic prophecy. In all three Rabbinic Targums, the Hebrew scholars taught Shiloh was the name for Messiah. This was also repeated by many ancient Jewish writers. (Gill, Gen. <a href="http://bible.cc/genesis/49-10.htm">49:10</a>.)</span></p>
<h4 class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="color: #0000ff; font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong>B. Benjamite "Ravening Wolf" Prophecy</strong></span></h4>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464118"></a> So why is this Messianic passage so unfamiliar to Christians? Perhaps because in close proximity we find Jacob's prophecy about the tribe of Benjamin. This Benjamite prophecy follows many positive predictions for all the other eleven tribes.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464119"></a> Of whom does the Benjamite prophecy speak? When weighed carefully, <em><strong>there is very little chance that the Benjamite prophecy could be about anyone but Paul.</strong></em> This prophecy about Benjamin, if it was to be fulfilled and then verified, must have been fulfilled in the time of Christ. At that time, the tribes of Judah, Levi, and Benjamin still had survived. The others were the lost tribes of the <img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HVEWxyzI1_0/TeQuEo4FJeI/AAAAAAAAAv0/b9_yVbdLGRc/s1600/wolf.jpg" width="208" height="127" style="float: right;" />Diaspora. (Gill, commentary on Gen. 49:10.) After the time of Christ, any distinguishable tribe of Benjamin soon disappeared. Thus, the prophecy about Benjamin is no longer capable of being fulfilled and confirmed. Accordingly, one must consider the possibility this verse is talking about Paul. In fact, the early Christian church, as demonstrated below, did think this was a prophecy about Paul. Somehow we lost memory of this teaching.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464120"></a> Let's turn now to Jacob's last prophecy about the Benjamites in the "latter days" when Shiloh comes. Here we read of the imagery of a ravening wolf that identifies the tribe of Benjamin.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;" class="Quote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464121"></a> <em><strong>Benjamin is a wolf that raveneth</strong></em>: In the morning she shall devour the prey, And at even[ing] he shall divide the spoil. (Gen <a href="http://bible.cc/genesis/49-27.htm">49:27</a>) (ASV)</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464122"></a> <a name="22859"></a> Let's analyze this verse--for there is a time-sequence to the ravening wolf's activity. In the morning, he devours the prey. This means he kills his prey. In the evening, he takes the spoils left over after killing the prey. There are many metaphorical similarities to Paul. He starts as a killer of Christians or as one who approves the killing of Christians. (Acts <a href="http://bible.cc/acts/7-58.htm">7:58</a>; <a href="http://bible.cc/acts/8-1.htm">8:1</a>-3,<a href="http://bible.cc/acts/9-1.htm"> 9:1</a>.) However, later Paul claims a right of division among his earlier prey--he exclusively will recruit Gentiles as Christians while the twelve apostles supposedly would exclusively recruit Jews. (Galatians <a href="http://bible.cc/galatians/2-9.htm">2:9</a>.)<a href="file://///tsclient/C/Writings%20in%20Process/JWO%20Redo%20Formatting/Final%20Framemaker%20Archive/chapter%2014html.html#pgfId=464125" class="footnote"> </a><sup><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=3VFnsDuxBPcC&amp;lpg=PP1&amp;dq=jesus%20words%20only&amp;pg=PA334#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false">2</a></sup></span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464129"></a> <a name="24613"></a> In fact, in the early Christian church, this entire verse of Genesis 49:27 was read to be a prophecy about Paul. However, the second part was then spun favorably to Paul. An early church writer, Hippolytus (200s A.D.), said Paul fulfilled Genesis 49:27 because Paul started as a murderer of Christians, fulfilling the first part of Genesis 49:27. The second part about `dividing the spoil' was interpreted by Hippolytus to mean Paul made Christian followers predominantly among Gentiles. However, this was read positively. Hippolytus believed Paul divided the spoil in a manner God intended. However, <strong><em>dividing the spoil</em></strong> means<strong><em> plundered</em></strong>. It does not have a positive connotation. This spin by Hippolytus on dividing the spoil as a good deed was wishful thinking. God instead was sending a prophecy of the evil that would be done by this Benjamite, not the good.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464130"></a> <a name="34690"></a> Here is the quote from the early church writer Hippolytus (estimated to be <img src="http://www.discerninghearts.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/maximusconfessor1.jpg" width="114" height="105" style="float: right;" />205 A.D.) wherein he saw God prophesying of Paul in Genesis 49:27:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;" class="Quote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464131"></a> `<em><strong>Benjamin is a devouring wolf.</strong></em> In the morning, he will devour the prey, and at night he will apportion the food.' <strong><em>This thoroughly fits Paul</em></strong>, who was of the tribe of Benjamin. For when he was young, he was a ravaging wolf. However, when he believed, he `apportioned the food.' (Hippolytus, W 5.168.)[quoted <em><a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0502.htm">Catholic Encylopedia</a></em>.] See also footnote<a href="file://///tsclient/C/Writings%20in%20Process/JWO%20Redo%20Formatting/Final%20Framemaker%20Archive/chapter%2014html.html#pgfId=464134" class="footnote"> <sup><strong>3</strong></sup></a> below.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">[<span style="background-color: #ffff00;" data-mce-mark="1">Update: Many other sources in early church also said Paul was the fuflillment of the Benjamite Wolf prophecy. See <a href="/books/gospel-of-john/121-benjamite-wolf-research.html"><span style="background-color: #ffff00;" data-mce-mark="1">our webpage</span></a> on that "Benjamite Wolf Research" material. There we discuss Hippolytus was relying upon the Septuagint mistranslation, which simply has 'distribute the food.'</span>]<a name="pgfId=464135"></a></span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">These writings from the early church demonstrates two things: (a) early Christians were more familiar than ourselves with the Shiloh Messianic prophecy in Genesis 49:10-12; and (b) if one knew the Shiloh prophecy, one could not avoid seeing in close proximity the prophecy of a Benjamite wolf (Genesis 49:27) whereupon one would realize it is unmistakably talking about Paul. As Hippolytus says, "this thoroughly fits Paul."</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464136"></a> What do modern Pauline Christian commentators do with the Benjamite wolf prophecy? While some admit Genesis 49:27 is about Paul, and spin the divide the spoils aspect of the prophecy favorably toward Paul as a good deed,<a href="file://///tsclient/C/Writings%20in%20Process/JWO%20Redo%20Formatting/Final%20Framemaker%20Archive/chapter%2014html.html#pgfId=464139" class="footnote"> 4</a> the leading commentators take an entirely different approach. Gill, for example, adopts the ancient Jewish explanation of this prophecy of the latter days. Because Benjamin's territory was where the Temple was located, it was said the offering of the morning and evening sacrifice fell to his lot, i.e., territory.<a href="file://///tsclient/C/Writings%20in%20Process/JWO%20Redo%20Formatting/Final%20Framemaker%20Archive/chapter%2014html.html#pgfId=464348" class="footnote"> 5</a> Thus, this verse was supposedly intended to be talking about Benjamin's indirect role in the killing the sacrifice in the morning and evening. The performance of the sacrifices, of course, are positive God-serving actions if attributable to Benjamin's actions. Thus, rather than a ravening wolf being an evil beast who attacks innocent sheep, modern Christian commentators say Benjamin was being complimented for possessing wolf-like "fortitude, courage, and valour." (Gill.)</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464140"></a> Gill ignores many key flaws in this application. First, the role of Benjamin's tribe in the killing was entirely passive, i.e., its territory was ceded to help locate the temple where sacrifices later took place. This passive role cannot evince any kind of courage or valour. It is a poor solution.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464369"></a> More important, Gill ignores the context of the passage itself. The word prey, raveneth, wolf, spoils, etc., all are forebodings of evil acts, not courageous valor in good deeds. A ravening wolf is a wolf that is prowling and eating voraciously. Furthermore, the sacrificed animals in the temple are hardly prey. Also, technically, Benjamin's land-lot was used to kill the sacrifice in both the morning and evening. However, if prey means sacrifice, this prophecy was about killing prey only in the morning. Thus, it is incongruous to read this prophecy to be about Benjamin's land-lot being used in the evening and morning sacrifice.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464141"></a> Furthermore, Gill also overlooked the motivation behind these Targum explanations. The other tribes were probably mystified why their father Jacob warned them about Benjamin's tribe in the latter days. Gill fails to realize the Hebrew scholars who wrote the ancient Targums were engaged in good politics. The other eleven tribes were reassuring Benjamin that he was trusted. What else could they say to keep peace?</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464142"></a> As a result, we are not beholden to that ancient polite resolution of this latter days prophecy. We now can see the clear fulfillment of this prophecy in the deeds of Paul.</span></p>
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<h3 class="Heading2"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464143"></a> <span style="color: #3366ff; font-size: x-large;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong>Gill Also Overlooks the Bible's Portrayal Later of the Tribe of Benjamin</strong></span></span></h3>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464144"></a> The Bible also gives us later an adequate depiction of the tribe of Benjamin and its members so that it is impossible to believe Genesis 49:27 was meant at all positively. It was a portent of gloomy evil by the Benjamites. The Bible has utterly unflattering stories about the Benjamites.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464145"></a> First, at the same time the tribe of Benjamin's territory served its supposedly noble role in the morning/evening sacrifice, the Benjamites were fighting a war against the other eleven tribes. In two days, the Benjamites killed 40,000 members of the other tribes. However, the Benjamites were later lured into leaving their city, and lost their war. The tribe of Benjamin was virtually annihilated. (Judges chs. 19-21). In this episode, there is a particularly distasteful event. The men of Gibeah were Benjamites who the Bible describes as "a perverse lot." They cruelly tried to abuse a visitor and then they raped an old man's concubine. (Judges <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges%2019:14-25&amp;version=NIV">19:14, 22, 25</a>.)</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464146"></a> Certainly, to this point in the Bible, the Benjamites are depicted as quite evil and even as anti-Israelites.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464149"></a> The next and last Bible story of Benjamites is more of the same negative portrayal of Benjamites. This story also has uncanny parallels to Saul-Paul.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464150"></a> The Bible tells us King Saul was a Benjamite. (1 Sam. <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20samuel%209:21&amp;version=NIV">9:21</a>.) He is at one point an inspired true prophet, given a "new heart"--you could even say born again. (1 Sam. <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20samuel%2010:9-10&amp;version=KJV">10:9-10</a>.) Yet, later King Saul pursued the man named David to kill him. Saul did so despite knowing God decided David would replace Saul as King. (1 Sam. <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20samuel%2018:8-10&amp;version=KJV">18:8-10</a>; <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20samuel%2019:10&amp;version=KJV">19:10</a>.) Saul became so depraved that he wanted to kill his own son Jonathan because of his loyalty to David. (1 Sam. <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20samuel%2020:30-34&amp;version=KJV">20: 30-34</a>.) Thus, Saul is an example of a true prophet from the tribe of Benjamin who later turned false by virtue of defying God's anointed (messhiach).<a href="file://///tsclient/C/Writings%20in%20Process/JWO%20Redo%20Formatting/Final%20Framemaker%20Archive/chapter%2014html.html#pgfId=464153" class="footnote"> 6</a> Unfortunately, Saul also would not be the last Saul from the tribe of Benjamin to begin apparently as a true prophet but who later defied the messhiach.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464154"></a> Incidentally, it is reassuring to remember that Saul, the Benjamite, did not triumph over the house of David. Eventually David took the throne from Saul. Initially, King Saul would not yield the throne to the House of David despite Saul prophetically knowing God's will to choose David. Saul made a desperate stand to hold onto raw power even after he realized he lacked God's true blessing. Nevertheless, the House of David eventually triumphed anyway over the Benjamite Saul. (1 Samuel 9:1-2; 10:1; 15:10, 30, 16:1.)</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464155"></a> Thus, if Pauline Christians are the modern followers of the Benjamite wolf, then we know they are resisting following Jesus' words just like King Saul resisted letting David have the throne. Despite all their efforts to kill off Jesus' words by means of strained interpretations of various dispensations, God's anointed from the House of David will eventually triumph.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464156"></a> Regardless whether King Saul's story was intended to serve as such a parable, we can see in King Saul another Benjamite whose actions were evil in the last analysis. Prior to Paul's arrival, the Bible never depicts the Benjamite tribe as doing any good. Instead, the Bible portrays this tribe and its members as fighting the rest of Israel and God's anointed from the House of David. Thus, Gill's notion that Genesis 49:27 was intended to compliment the valor of the Benjamites is completely baseless. It is solely a verse portending gloomy evil by members of this tribe, of which the Bible documents every step of the way right up to the point Paul is himself helping murder Christians.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464157"></a> Next we shall see how to discern the wolf by his deeds. The Bible, in Ezekiel, is highly specific. There is no question that Paul in his post-conversion teachings fits the traits of the time of the ravening wolves depicted by Ezekiel.</span></p>
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<h3><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #3366ff;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong>Ezekiel's Warning About the Ravening Wolves</strong></span></h3>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464159"></a> Jesus said we would know the false prophets who are ravening wolves in sheep's clothing by their "deeds." (<a name="marker=464160"></a> Matt. 7:16.)</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464161"></a> How could we know who the wolf is by their deeds? Does this mean their deeds are merely wicked? Or does it mean their deeds are precisely described elsewhere in Scripture so you could not possibly mistake who are the wolves in sheep's clothing? In light of Ezekiel's description of the ravening wolves, it is likely the latter. God made a highly specific description of the deeds of the ravening wolves so we would "know them by their deeds." (Matt. <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matt%207:16&amp;version=KJV">7:16</a>.)</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464162"></a> The picture in Ezekiel chapter 22 of the time of the ravening wolves is startling in its parallel to Paul and Pauline Christianity. This description tells us what God thinks about the descent of Christianity into church-going that disregards the true Sabbath and the Law, dismisses the teachings of Jesus as belonging to a by-gone dispensation, and instead follows Paul because he claims a vision and boldly claimed to speak in the Lord's name. Ezekiel described the time of the ravening wolves in an uncanny parallel to Paulinism:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;" class="Quote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464163"></a> Her priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have made <em><strong>no distinction between the holy and the common</strong></em>, neither have they caused men to d<em><strong>iscern between the unclean and the clean</strong></em>, and <strong><em>have hid their eyes from my sabbaths</em></strong>, and I am profaned among them. (Eze <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ezekiel%2022:26&amp;version=ASV">22:26</a>)(ASV)</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;" class="Quote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464164"></a> Her princes in the midst thereof are like <em><strong>wolves ravening the prey</strong></em>, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain. (Eze <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ezekiel%2022:27&amp;version=ASV">22:27</a>)</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;" class="Quote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464165"></a> And her prophets have daubed for them with untempered mortar, <strong><em>seeing false visions</em></strong>, and divining lies unto them, saying, <em><strong>Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, when Jehovah hath not spoken</strong></em>. (Eze <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ezekiel%2022:28&amp;version=ASV">22:28</a>)</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;" class="Quote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464166"></a> The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery; yea, they have vexed the poor and needy, and have oppressed the sojourner wrongfully. (Eze <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ezekiel%2022:29&amp;version=ASV">22:29</a>)</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;" class="Quote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464167"></a> And I sought for a man among them, that should build up the wall, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none. (Eze <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ezekiel%2022:30&amp;version=ASV">22:30</a>)(ASV)</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464168"></a> Thus, those leading the people are ravening wolves. They are called the princes (leaders) in the people's eyes. They are buttressed by those having false visions and claims to have the right to speak in the name of the Lord. Their leaders seduce the people from following the Law. They teach them they are free to ignore the true Saturday Sabbath. They say all food is pure, and none unclean. Their teaching also leads to the vexation of the poor and the foreigner. There will be a time when no one is left who stands against these principles.<a href="file://///tsclient/C/Writings%20in%20Process/JWO%20Redo%20Formatting/Final%20Framemaker%20Archive/chapter%2014html.html#pgfId=464171" class="footnote"> 7</a></span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464172"></a> Now look at the<em><strong> parallels between these wolves and Paul</strong></em>.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464173"></a> First, Paul claimed a vision of Jesus. (Acts chapters. 9, 22, 26.) Based on this vision experience, Paul wanted us to accept that he was speaking directly from the Lord. (E.g., <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20corinthians%2014:37&amp;version=ASV">1 Cor. 14:37</a>; <a name="marker=464174"></a> <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20timothy%202:11&amp;version=ASV">1 Tim. 2:11</a>; <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20corinthians%202:13&amp;version=ASV">1 Cor. 2:13</a>; <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20thessalonians%204:1-8&amp;version=ASV">1 Thess.4:1-2,8</a>; <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20thessalonians%202:13&amp;version=ASV">1 Thess. 2:13</a>; E<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ephesians%204:17&amp;version=ASV">ph. 4:17</a>. cf. 1 Cor. 7:25, 40.)</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span> Second, Paul's view that the Law is entirely abrogated is well-established. (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20corinthians%203:14&amp;version=ASV">2 Cor. <span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">3</span>:14</a>; <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=galatians%205:1&amp;version=ASV">Gal. 5:1</a>; <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%2010:4&amp;version=ASV">Rom. 10:4</a>; <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20corinthians%203:7&amp;version=ASV">2 Cor. 3:7</a>; <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=colossians%202:14-17&amp;version=ASV">Col. 2:14-17</a>; <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%203:27&amp;version=ASV">Rom. 3:27</a>; <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%204:15&amp;version=ASV">Rom. 4:15</a>; <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20corinthians%203:9&amp;version=ASV">2 Cor. 3:9</a>; <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=galatians%202:16&amp;version=ASV">Gal. 2:16</a>; <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=galatians%203:21&amp;version=ASV">Gal. 3:21</a>; <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=colossians%202:14&amp;version=ASV">Col. 2:14</a>.)<a href="file://///tsclient/C/Writings%20in%20Process/JWO%20Redo%20Formatting/Final%20Framemaker%20Archive/chapter%2014html.html#pgfId=464181" class="footnote"> 8</a>&nbsp;[<span style="background-color: #ffff00;" data-mce-mark="1">Update:</span>&nbsp;<span style="background-color: #ffff00;" data-mce-mark="1">Paul also said likewise in <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%207:1-7&amp;version=ASV"><span style="background-color: #ffff00;" data-mce-mark="1">Romans 7:1-7</span></a>, making this abrogation specifically true about the Law between Yahweh and Israel. On the latter, see also our webpage "<a href="/books/gospel-of-john/167-romans-7-a-major-incongruity.html"><span style="background-color: #ffff00;" data-mce-mark="1">Paul in Romans 7 Claims the God of Sinai is Dead</span></a>."]</span></span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span> Third, Paul's view that we are free to ignore the Saturday Sabbath or any Sabbath-principle is undeniable. (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%2014:5&amp;version=ASV">Rom. 14:5</a>; <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=colossians%202:14-16&amp;version=ASV">Col. 2:14-16</a>.)<a href="file://///tsclient/C/Writings%20in%20Process/JWO%20Redo%20Formatting/Final%20Framemaker%20Archive/chapter%2014html.html#pgfId=464739" class="footnote"><sup><strong> 9</strong></sup></a> (Paul's followers typically behave like Jeroboam who offended God by moving God's set day to a "day he invented in his heart." (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20kings%2012:33&amp;version=RSV">1 Kings 12:33</a> RV.))<a href="file://///tsclient/C/Writings%20in%20Process/JWO%20Redo%20Formatting/Final%20Framemaker%20Archive/chapter%2014html.html#pgfId=464761" class="footnote"> <sup><strong>10</strong></sup></a>&nbsp;<span style="background-color: #ffff00;" data-mce-mark="1">[Update: Luther, Calvin and most Protestants believe Paul legitimately abolished Sabbath altogether even though Jesus did not do so, and this justified in 363 AD the Roman Catholic church expressly "transferring" the Sabbath to Sun-Day. See our article "<a href="/books/gospel-of-john/242-paul-abolished-sabbath.html"><span style="background-color: #ffff00;" data-mce-mark="1">Paul Abolished Sabbath</span></a>."]</span></span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464740"></a> Fourth, Paul's view that we are free to eat any food we like, including eat meat sacrificed to idols, is likewise plain. (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20tim.%204:4&amp;version=ASV">1 Tim. 4:4</a>, `all food is clean'; <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%204:2&amp;version=ASV">Romans 4:2</a>.)<a href="file://///tsclient/C/Writings%20in%20Process/JWO%20Redo%20Formatting/Final%20Framemaker%20Archive/chapter%2014html.html#pgfId=464743" class="footnote"> <sup><strong>11</strong></sup></a> Paul taught we only refrain from eating idol meat when others are encouraged to do what they believe is wrong even though we know such food is clean. (<a name="marker=464744"></a> <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%2014:21&amp;version=ASV">Romans 14:21</a>;<a name="marker=464745"></a> <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20corinthians%208:4-13&amp;version=ASV">1 Corinthians 8:4-13</a>, and <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20corinthians%2010:19-29&amp;version=ASV">1 Corinthians 10:19-29</a>.)<a href="file://///tsclient/C/Writings%20in%20Process/JWO%20Redo%20Formatting/Final%20Framemaker%20Archive/chapter%2014html.html#pgfId=464751" class="footnote"> <sup><strong>12</strong></sup></a></span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464198"></a> Fifth, did Paul give instructions to Christians which vex the poor? Some believe the following quote vexes the poor with a criteria for assistance never found in the Hebrew Scriptures.</span></p>
<p class="Quote" style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464199"></a> For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, If any will not work, neither let him eat. (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20thessalonians%203:10&amp;version=ASV">2Th 3:10</a>) (ASV)</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464200"></a> How many people have resisted giving food to a poor person simply because they are unemployed and they do not pass a Pauline-inspired interview about their willingness to work for it? This work requirement sometimes will stall the urgent help that a poor person has for food. Nowhere in Hebrew Scripture is there any such barrier to God's command that you are to feed the poor. In fact, Scripture specifically intends for us to generously provide food for the poor to eat even if we have no idea whether they are willing to work.<a href="file://///tsclient/C/Writings%20in%20Process/JWO%20Redo%20Formatting/Final%20Framemaker%20Archive/chapter%2014html.html#pgfId=464203" class="footnote"> <sup><strong>13</strong></sup></a> Thus, Paul's principle that if any will not work, neither let him eat has served as a punitive vexation on poor people by Christians who follow Paul's dictum. (Many Christians, of course, do not follow Paul's dictum, and follow instead the Bible's rule of open-handed provision of food to the poor.)</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464204"></a> Alternatively, we also now realize the early church at Jerusalem was known as the Poor which would be, as an Hebraism, the name Ebionites. Paul was a vexing problem to them as well, as Acts chapter 21 clearly shows. Perhaps that is what vexing the poor means. It fits Paul any way you examine it.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464205"></a> Sixth, what about oppressing the foreigner? Did Paul and his followers do that too? Yes, in two distinct ways. By Paul saying all people born in Crete are liars, he forever slurred a whole nation of people. To be born a Cretan became synonymous with being born a liar, thanks to Paul. This is what Paul wrote:</span></p>
<p class="Quote" style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464206"></a> One of themselves, a prophet of their own said, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons." This testimony is true (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=titus%201:12&amp;version=ASV">Titus 1:12</a>).</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464207"></a> Besides slandering all Cretans, Paul in another passage also slandered all Jews. He first labelled them as foreigners and then said they are enemies of all mankind. Let's review this with care.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464208"></a> One might at first think Jews cannot be viewed as foreigners in Judea. However, Paul in Galatians chapter 4 redefines Jews as foreigners in Judea. How did he do this? In our prior discussion, we saw how Paul said the Jews of Jerusalem no longer correspond to the sons of Abraham and Sarah. Instead they are now seen as Ishmael--the son of Abraham and Hagar. (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=galatians%204:22-31&amp;version=ASV">Gal. 4:22-31</a>.) Paul then says "cast out the handmaiden." This means Hagar and her children. In effect, Paul is saying the Jews in Jerusalem no longer hold the rightful position as owners of the land of Israel. They are Ishmaelites and foreigners to the covenant promise that gives them the right to the Land of Israel.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span> Second, after labelling Jews, in effect, as foreigners in Israel, Paul denigrates their entire race. Paul wrote "the Jews...both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are the enemies of the whole human race." (<a href="http://bible.cc/1_thessalonians/2-15.htm">1 Thessalonians 2:14-16, <span style="background-color: #ffff00;" data-mce-mark="1">Weymouth</span></a><span style="background-color: #ffff00;" data-mce-mark="1">; cf. at same link, these commentaries agree this is the meaning: Gil, Wesley &amp; Henry.)</span></span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464210"></a> The Greek in this verse means Jews oppose face-to-face every human being on earth. The various versions hold the essential meaning in tact:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;" class="Quote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464211"></a> <em><strong>Jews</strong></em>...who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and have persecuted us. They are displeasing to God and <em><strong>are the enemies of all people</strong></em>....(1Th 2:14-16)(ISV)</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;" class="Quote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464212"></a> <em><strong>Jews</strong></em>...both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and <em><strong>are contrary to all men</strong></em>: (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20thessalonians%202:14-16&amp;version=KJV">1Th 2:14-16</a>)(KJV)</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464213"></a> According to James, a different group is responsible for the death of Jesus: "Go now, ye rich men, weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you.... Ye have condemned and killed the just [one]; and he doth not resist you." (James 5:5-6.)</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464214"></a> Regardless of Paul's accuracy on who killed Jesus, Paul redefines Jews to be foreigners in Judea, equivalent to Ishmaelite sons of Hagar. He then denigrates Jews as the enemies of the entire human race. Paul's words of denigration aimed at Jews later inspired Martin Luther in Germany to promulgate a doctrine of harassment of the Jewish people who were by then foreigners in Germany.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464215"></a> The renown scholar, William Shirer, in his classic 1400 page tome <em>T<span style="text-decoration: underline;" data-mce-mark="1">he Rise and the Fall of the Third Reich</span></em> (1960) at 236 explains what Martin Luther did. Shirer writes:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;" class="Quote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464216"></a> It is difficult to understand the behavior of most German Protestants in the first Nazi years unless one is aware of two things: their history and the influence of Martin Luther. [At this point, Shirer writes in a footnote "To avoid any misunderstanding, it might be well to point out here that the author is a Protestant."] The<em><strong> great founder of Protestantism was both a passionate anti-Semite</strong></em> and a ferocious believer in absolute obedience to political authority. He wanted Germany rid of the Jews and when they were sent away he advised that they be <em><strong>deprived of "All their cash and jewels and silver and gold</strong></em>" and furthermore, "that their <em><strong>synagogues or schools be set on fire</strong></em>, that their houses be broken up and destroyed... and that they <strong><em>be put under a roof or stable, like the gypsies... in misery and captivity </em></strong>as they incessantly lament and complain to God about us"--advice that was literally followed four centuries later by Hitler, Goering, and Himmler.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464217"></a> Paul's words about Jews, when taken literally by his pupil Martin Luther, bore their inevitable fruit: the oppression of the foreigner including God's special people--the Jews.</span></p>
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<h3 class="Heading2"><strong><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #3366ff;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464218"></a> How Ezekiel's Depiction of the Deeds of Wolves Identifies Paul</span></strong></h3>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464219"></a> Thus, we can see how the Ezekiel description of ravening wolves fits precisely Paul and his followers. They did violence to the Law by attributing it to angels who `are no gods.' They taught we are free to disregard the Sabbath Law entirely. They tore away all food laws, including the laws on eating meat sacrificed to idols. They vexed the poor with the necessity that they must be willing to work for aid. They also oppressed the foreigners, as they defined them. This includes a slur on the people of Crete. It is a slur that has become part of our vocabulary. A Cretan is synonymous with a liar. Also, Paul oppressed Jews by redefining their status in Jerusalem as foreigners as well as enemies of all mankind. Centuries later Martin Luther of Germany, inspired directly by Paul, outlined a plan of denigration of Jews. By that time, Jews were in fact foreigners in Germany. Pauline Christianity thereby inspired wicked men in our recent memory to follow Luther's plan to utterly oppress the Jews as foreigners.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464220"></a> Hence, Paul and Pauline Christianity satisfies every criteria for Ezekiel's depiction of the ravening wolves. So when Jesus tells us about wolves in sheep's clothing in Matthew 7:15 and then says we will know them by their deeds in Matthew 7:16, Ezekiel chapter 22 tells us precisely what deeds mark the time of the ravening wolves. Those deeds fit Paul like a glove.</span></p>
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<h3><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #3366ff;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong>Conclusion</strong></span></h3>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464222"></a> Let's now pull all these Biblical references together, and see if the Bible identifies Paul as the Benjamite wolf.</span></p>
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<h6 class="TableTitle"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464225"></a> <strong><span style="font-size: x-large; color: #3366ff;" data-mce-mark="1">Who is the Benjamite Wolf?</span></strong></span></h6>
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<p class="CellHeading"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464229"></a> <em> Verse</em></span></p>
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<p class="CellHeading"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464231"></a> <em> Characteristics</em></span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464233"></a> <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matt%207:15&amp;version=ASV">Matt. 7:15</a></span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464235"></a> "ravening wolves" are "false prophets"</span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464237"></a> <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matt%207:15&amp;version=ASV">Matt. 7:15</a></span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464239"></a> "ravening wolves" appear as "sheep," i.e., claim to be Christians.</span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464241"></a> <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis%2049:27&amp;version=ASV">Genesis 49:27</a></span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464243"></a> In latter days, Benjamin shall be a "ravening wolf."</span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464245"></a> <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis%2049:27&amp;version=ASV">Genesis 49:27</a></span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464247"></a> This "ravening wolf" from Benjamin's tribe first shall kill its "prey" in the morning.</span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464249"></a> <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis%2049:27&amp;version=ASV">Genesis 49:27</a></span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464251"></a> Later this "ravening wolf" from Benjamin's tribe will "divide the spoil" <em>i.e.</em>, plunder and divide its prey.</span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464253"></a> <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%2011:1&amp;version=ASV">Rom. 11:1</a>; <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=philippians%203:5&amp;version=ASV">Phil. 3:5</a></span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464255"></a> Paul is of the tribe of Benjamin.</span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464257"></a> <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts%207:58&amp;version=ASV">Acts 7:58</a>; <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts%208:1-3&amp;version=ASV">8:1-3</a></span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464259"></a> Paul starts out participating in murders of Christians.</span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464261"></a> <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=galatians%202:9&amp;version=ASV">Gal. 2:9</a></span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464263"></a> Paul later divides the church along Gentile-Jew lines, reserving for himself the right to recruit Gentiles, claiming the Jerusalem church relinquished the Gentile-mission exclusively to Paul.</span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464265"></a> <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ezekiel%2022:26-32&amp;version=ASV">Ezek. 22:26-32</a></span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464267"></a> The "ravening wolves" will come who do "violence to the Law," and who teach the people to "hide their eyes from the Sabbath," and to no longer discern clean food from impure food, etc. These wolves are associated with those who "have false visions" and "divine" lies in the Lord's name.</span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464269"></a> <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%2014:5&amp;version=ASV">Rom. 14:5</a>; <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=colossians%202:14-16&amp;version=ASV">Col. 2:14-16</a></span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464271"></a> Paul, a Benjamite, came claiming visions of Jesus, and taught the Sabbath rule was a shadow of things to come, and no one can any longer judge another on failure to keep the Sabbath.</span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span>&nbsp;<span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20corinthians%203:14&amp;version=ASV" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">2 Cor.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">3</span>:14</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">;&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=galatians%205:1&amp;version=ASV" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">Gal. 5:1</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">;</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%2010:4&amp;version=ASV" style="color: #517291; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">Rom. 10:4</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">;&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20corinthians%203:7&amp;version=ASV" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">2 Cor. 3:7</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">;&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=colossians%202:14-17&amp;version=ASV" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">Col. 2:14-17</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">;&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%203:27&amp;version=ASV" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">Rom. 3:27</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">;&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%204:15&amp;version=ASV" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">Rom. 4:15</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">;&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20corinthians%203:9&amp;version=ASV" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">2 Cor. 3:9</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">;&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=galatians%202:16&amp;version=ASV" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">Gal. 2:16</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">;&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=galatians%203:21&amp;version=ASV" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">Gal. 3:21</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">;&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=colossians%202:14&amp;version=ASV" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">Col. 2:14</a>;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%207:1-7&amp;version=ASV" style="color: #517291; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Romans 7:1-7</span></a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><br /></span></span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464275"></a> Paul, a Benjamite, came claiming visions of Jesus, and on that authority taught the Law was abrogated, abolished, done away with, nailed to a cross; it was against us, etc. This same Paul said Jews are released from the Law and if they follow Christ instead, He has set them free from the Law which is death and bondage. This same Paul taught the Law was given by angels who are no gods, and Paul asked `why would anyone anyway want to submit to the weak and beggarly angels (elements)' who are no gods?</span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%2014:21&amp;version=ASV" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">Romans 14:21</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">;</span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20corinthians%208:4-13&amp;version=ASV" style="color: #517291; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">1 Corinthians 8:4-13</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">, &nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20corinthians%2010:19-29&amp;version=ASV" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">1 Corinthians 10:19-29</a>;<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20tim.%204:4&amp;version=ASV" style="color: #517291; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">1 Tim. 4:4</a></span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464279"></a> Paul, a Benjamite, came claiming visions of Jesus, and on that authority taught all foods were pure, including meat sacrificed to idols.</span></p>
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<p class="BodyAfterHead"><a name="pgfId=464280"></a></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464281"></a> Thus, God prophesied a wolf from the tribe of Benjamin would emerge who would start out killing its prey but end up plundering and dividing its prey. Jesus said to<em><strong> look out for a wolf </strong></em>who would claim to be a Christian but is a<strong><em> false prophet</em></strong>. Paul repeats twice that he is of the tribe of Benjamin. Like the Genesis Benjamite wolf, Paul started out killing or participating in killing of Christians. Paul, as Jesus prophecied about the wolf, later claimed he was a Christian. Subsequently, this Benjamite Paul sought to split off the Gentiles from the main church so they would follow exclusively Paul's doctrine. God further prophesied the time of the ravening wolves would involve false prophets who would claim visions but they would be divining lies; these wolves would do <em><strong>violence to the Law</strong></em>, teaching it was<strong><em> permissible to disregard Sabbath </em></strong>and to <em><strong>disregard the food laws on unclean food</strong></em>--all of which we find precise fulfillment in the post-conversion letters of Paul.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464282"></a> When this mass of evidence is assembled as clearly as it is above, Paul must be the target of these prophecies. What we have done in the name of Christ to the teachings of Jesus in reliance on the Benjamite wolf warrant our expulsion from the kingdom. (Pray for mercy.) It is not merely that we have followed a false prophet from the tribe of Benjamin. (We should have known better because he first killed us and then divided us Gentiles from the mother-church.) Rather, what is so deplorable is we even followed the wolf's teachings when they contradicted the words of Jesus whom we claim is our Lord. It is astonishing, frankly, how we ever rationalized this behavior: claiming the name Christian but refusing to follow teachings of Jesus when we realize Jesus is incompatible with Paul such as:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;" class="Quote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464283"></a> Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments [of the Law of Moses], and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Mat 5:19)</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464284"></a> All we can do now is repent and obey.</span></p>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>
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<h1 class="Heading1"><a name="pgfId=464299"></a>
<div><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">&nbsp;</span></div>
<span style="color: #3366ff; font-size: x-large;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Another Prophecy Aimed At Paul?</span></strong></span></h1>
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<h6 class="TableTitle"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464288"></a> Do Not Follow The One Who Says The Time Is At Hand</span></h6>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464293"></a> <a name="marker=464292"></a> Luke <a href="http://biblos.com/luke/21-8.htm">21:8</a></span></p>
<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="t;pgfId=464294&quot;"></a> "Take heed that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name, saying,... `The time is at hand!' [<em><strong>ho kairos eggiken</strong></em>] Do not go after them."</span></p>
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<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span> <span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span> <a href="http://bible.cc/romans/13-12.htm">Rom.13:12</a>&nbsp;<span style="background-color: #ffff00;">[see Greek tab]</span></span></p>
<p class="CellBody"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464298"></a> "the night is far gone, the day is at hand [<em><strong>hemera eggiken</strong></em>]"</span></p>
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<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464300"></a> <a name="32862"></a> In addition to the Benjamite prophecy, it seems likely Jesus in Luke 21:8 additionally prophesied about Paul. Jesus warned us to beware of the one who would lead us astray. This deceiver would be a Christian preacher ("[he] will come in my name") who would tell you the "<em><strong>time is at hand</strong></em>." Those very words are in Paul's mouth in Romans 13:12, warning us "the day is at hand." The prophecy of a "time" is inclusive of the word<em> day</em>. Thus, Paul's phrase matches Jesus' prophecy exactly. This allows us to deduce that Paul (and Paul alone) is the Christian preacher who fits Jesus' prophecy in Luke 21:8.</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">[<span style="color: #ff0000;" data-mce-mark="1">2011 ADDITION</span>] <span style="font-size: medium;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="background-color: #ffff00;" data-mce-mark="1">Please note also how precise Jesus was being. He himself taught the "kingdom is at hand." (<a href="http://bible.cc/matthew/3-2.htm"><span style="background-color: #ffff00;" data-mce-mark="1">Matt 3:2</span></a>.) &nbsp;The word is the same, from "engiken." (See "<a href="http://biblos.com/matthew/3-2.htm"><span style="background-color: #ffff00;" data-mce-mark="1">Greek</span></a>"). The difference between a false teacher and true treacher is Jesus uses the word "kingdom" and the false teacher will just use the word or concept of "time" being "at hand." Thus, the message of the kingdom's coming soon is not the same as saying the "time" is coming soon. And it is the latter which is the false gospel.</span>]</span></span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464301"></a> To repeat, what Jesus said would be the identifying mark of the deceiver was he will say "the time is at hand." Paul precisely matches this, saying "the day is at hand," in exactly identical Greek. Thereby, Jesus tells us Paul is one who comes in Jesus' name to "lead [you] astray." Jesus' warning was "do not go after them."</span></p>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><a name="pgfId=464302"></a> Will we obey Jesus?</span></p>
<h3><span style="font-size: x-large;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #3366ff;" data-mce-mark="1">FURTHER RESEARCH</span></strong></span></h3>
<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">After publishing JWO in 2006, we found further confirmation, and detail this in an article "<a href="/books/gospel-of-john/121-benjamite-wolf-research.html">Benjamite Wolf Research</a>."<a name="pgfId=458247"></a></span></p>
<h3><strong><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #3366ff;" data-mce-mark="1">FOOTNOTES TO CHAPTER FOURTEEN</span></strong></h3>
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<div class="footnotes">
<div class="footnote">
<p class="Footnote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span class="footnoteNumber" data-mce-mark="1"> 1.</span> <a name="pgfId=464107"></a> We discussed elsewhere the Ebionite charge that Paul was not a true Jew. Then could he still be a Benjamite? Yes, Paul could be a descendant of a tribe without being a true Jew. For example, if one of Paul's grandparents were a Benjamite, then he can be of the tribe but not a true Jew.</span></p>
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<div class="footnote">
<p class="Footnote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span class="footnoteNumber" data-mce-mark="1"> 2.</span> <a name="pgfId=464125"></a> The unlikelihood that this was consensual from the twelve is discussed in <a href="e:/Jwo%20#1/es6e.#15088" class="XRef"> </a> .</span></p>
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<div class="footnote">
<p class="Footnote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span class="footnoteNumber" data-mce-mark="1"> 3.</span> <a name="pgfId=464134"></a> Notice incidentally that the positive spin was manufactured by Hippolytus changing the verse's meaning from divide the spoils to apportion the food.</span></p>
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<div class="footnote">
<p class="Footnote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span class="footnoteNumber" data-mce-mark="1"> 4.</span> <a name="pgfId=464139"></a> See, e.g., http://cgg.org/index.cfm/page/literature.showResource/CT/ARTB/k/1007 (last accessed 8/19/05).</span></p>
</div>
<div class="footnote">
<p class="Footnote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span class="footnoteNumber" data-mce-mark="1"> 5.</span> <a name="pgfId=464348"></a> Louis Ginzberg, <em>The Legends of the Jews</em> (1909) Vol.2 Part VIII; Gill ("the temple which stood in the lot of Benjamin"). This rationale to apply the prophecy to a role for the tribe of Benjamin in the sacrifices is extremely weak. Just because the Temple apparently occupied part of Benjamin's territory does not mean that the morning and evening sacrifice was this tribe's responsibility. The duty of performing the sacrifice belonged to the Levites. It is a stretch of the wildest proportions to say a Benjamite in latter days would kill an animal by the mere passive role of having its tribal land under the feet of a Levite priest.</span></p>
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<div class="footnote">
<p class="Footnote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span class="footnoteNumber" data-mce-mark="1"> 6.</span> <a name="pgfId=464153"></a> Kings in those days were anointed with oil. The word anointed was messhiach. Thus, King David sometimes refers to himself as messhiach--anointed one. In Daniel, this title took on the characteristic of a future world ruler.</span></p>
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<div class="footnote">
<p class="Footnote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span class="footnoteNumber" data-mce-mark="1"> 7.</span> <a name="pgfId=464171"></a> This point in 22:30 destroys the Paulinists' claim that the sovereignty of God would prevent such apostasy. Paulinists cannot imagine apostasy by nearly everyone would be tolerated by God. Thus, they reason that our last four-hundred years of emphasis on Paul is proof that God predestines such an emphasis. This assumption, however, is fed by a circular deduction from Paul's false teaching about predestination. (On proof of its falsity, see <a href="file://///tsclient/C/Writings%20in%20Process/JWO%20Redo%20Formatting/Final%20Framemaker%20Archive/chapter%2016.#10879" class="XRef"> </a> pages <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=3VFnsDuxBPcC&amp;lpg=PP1&amp;dq=jesus%20words%20only&amp;pg=PA412#v=onepage&amp;q=predestination&amp;f=false">412</a> et seq .) God repeatedly shows, however, that wholesale apostasy is possible. He does nothing to stop it short of warnings in Scripture that He expects us to read!</span></p>
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<div class="footnote">
<p class="Footnote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span class="footnoteNumber" data-mce-mark="1"> 8.</span> <a name="pgfId=464181"></a> <a href="file://///tsclient/C/Writings%20in%20Process/JWO%20Redo%20Formatting/Final%20Framemaker%20Archive/chapter%205.#19182" class="XRef"> </a> .“Did Paul Negate the Law’s Further Applicability?” on page <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=3VFnsDuxBPcC&amp;lpg=PP1&amp;dq=jesus%20words%20only&amp;pg=RA1-PA71">71. [Link to books.google version].<br /></a></span></p>
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<div class="footnote">
<p class="Footnote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span class="footnoteNumber" data-mce-mark="1"> 9.</span> <a name="pgfId=464739"></a> See <a href="file://///tsclient/C/Writings%20in%20Process/JWO%20Redo%20Formatting/Final%20Framemaker%20Archive/chapter%205.#30478" class="XRef"> </a> page 75 et seq.</span></p>
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<div class="footnote">
<p class="Footnote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span class="footnoteNumber" data-mce-mark="1"> 10.</span> <a name="pgfId=464761"></a> For further discussion on this passage, see <a href="file://///tsclient/C/Writings%20in%20Process/JWO%20Redo%20Formatting/Final%20Framemaker%20Archive/Appendix%20C%20Sabbath%20&amp;%20Easter.#11783" class="XRef"> </a> Appendix C.</span></p>
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<div class="footnote">
<p class="Footnote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span class="footnoteNumber" data-mce-mark="1"> 11.</span> <a name="pgfId=464743"></a> Some claim Jesus taught all kosher food laws in the Law of Moses are abrogated. They base this on the account in Mark 7:2 et seq. However, it is a misreading to say Jesus abrogated the laws of kosher foods. First, Jesus is discussing the Rabbinic tradition that food was unclean if you did not ritually wash your hands first. (Mark 7:2,4, 5.) Jesus' disciples ate without ritual washing of their hands. Jesus' point then is to show the Pharisees that they make up rules that (a) are not in the Bible and (b) which make of none effect what the Bible does teach. (Mark 7:7-13.) Jesus so far is tightening the reigns of the Law, not loosening them. Then Jesus says "nothing without the man that going into him can defile him." (Mark 7:15; cf. Matt. 15:11.) If it defiles you, Jesus means it makes you a sinner. This does appear to reach as far as the question of non-kosher foods. What Jesus is saying, however, is that food laws, even the valid kosher laws, are health rules of what is "clean" and "unclean." They are not rules if violated make you a sinner. Jesus was trying to give the rationale of God behind the food laws so we would know how to interpret them. The food laws are good for your health. Thus, if you violate these rules, you are not thereby a sinner. God does not want to hear prayers of repentance over violating food laws. (The idol-meat rule, however, implicates moral wrong; it was not part of the clean-unclean food laws.) Thus, a Rabbinic rule on handwashing, even if valid, could not taint you morally if you happen to violate it. What corroborates Jesus did not intend to abrogate kosher is that while Jesus' disciples ignored the hand-washing rule for clean foods created by Rabbis, his disciples always ate kosher. In Acts 10:14, when Peter in a dream is presented non-kosher foods to eat, "Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common and unclean." This tells us indirectly that Jesus ate kosher. The dream story incidentally was simply God's message to Peter to regard Gentiles as clean and disregard the Rabbinic teaching that Gentiles were unclean. There is not the slightest hint the food laws were abrogated. If either Jesus or Peter teach against the food laws, then they are implicated as apostates under Deut. 13:1-5. One must tread carefully when they try to prove Jesus or his true apostles abrogated any portion of the Law given Moses -- a Law "eternal for all generations." (Ex. 27:21.)</span></p>
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<div class="footnote">
<p class="Footnote"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span class="footnoteNumber" data-mce-mark="1"> 12.</span><a name="pgfId=464751"></a>See “Paul Contradicts Jesus About Idol Meat” on page <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=3VFnsDuxBPcC&amp;lpg=PP113&amp;dq=jesus%20words%20only&amp;pg=PA113">113 (books.google link).</a></span></p>
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<div class="footnote">
<p class="Footnote"><span style="font-size: medium; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span class="footnoteNumber" data-mce-mark="1"> 13.</span> <a name="pgfId=464203"></a> Exodus 23:11 says "but the seventh year thou shalt let it [your land] rest and lie fallow; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beast of the field shall eat." The field owner was also not supposed to glean the field in ordinary harvests but leave the "fallen fruit" for the "poor and sojourner." (Lev. 19:10.) Thus, Scripture always depicts food being provided to the poor without Minutemen standing at the border of the farm to be sure the poor are willing to work for the food they picked up from the orchard. The proof that Paul has affected the poor negatively is there is no custom among Christians for the last 2,000 years to com</span>ply with Exodus 23:11 or Leviticus 19:10.</span></p>
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