Tag Archives: bible

The Covenant – The narrative love story of the Bible

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In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. He created Man and Woman in his image and placed them in Eden to work and keep the garden. This space was where heaven and earth overlapped. Humanity was created to be priests in sacred space, to cultivate and keep creation and to dwell with God, living according to his wisdom, to be mediators between God and others—relating with God on behalf of other people and reflecting his character to others through love, compassion, generosity, and justice. To rule and reign, to keep and cultivate.

Psalm 8 calls this our glory.

Starting in Genesis, God enters a formal partnership He defines as covenant with those that choose Him in order to rescue his world. These divine-human partnerships drive the narrative forward until it reaches its climax in Jesus. To tell the story of God redeeming humanity through Jesus is to tell the whole story of God’s covenantal relationship with humans. Covenants define obligations and commitments, but they are different from a contract because they are relational and personal. The Bible uses an analogy marriage to show Christ as the bride of the church—a husband and wife choose to enter into a formal relationship, binding themselves to one another in lifelong faithfulness and devotion. They then work as partners to reach a common goal, like building a life or raising children together. [1]

Humanity made a decision (albeit they were influenced by the Nāḥāš – נחש‎) to usurp God’s authority and live by their own wisdom, forsaking their role as priests, eating from the forbidden tree instead of the tree of life. Now in exile from the presence of God, humanity must deal with the natural consequences of separation… death. Exile is death. Sin enters the world… missing the mark of our role as partnered priests, falling short of the glory we were intended for, our vocation. God’s intention from the beginning was to create a covenant partnership with us and even though we were banished from that walking path in the garden, God’s character itself, His nature is to continue to find a way to continue to offer walking in covenant with us; despite the brokenness that we create. He sometimes finds us in the darkest places.

God is gracious. The downward spiral continues with spiritual beings falling in Genesis 6, the unrighteous world of Noah and the flood, the rebellion at the tower of Babel; but despite all of this pain, God still has a rescue plan for humanity. HE IS THE WAY MAKER. He calls Abraham and makes a covenant with him that through his seed all nations would be reconciled to Him. God makes a covenant with Abraham’s descendants, Israel. He calls them to be a light to the nations, a kingdom of priests. He rescues them out from Egypt and from their gods. He delivers them by the blood of the lamb and leads them into a land of promise, sacred space to dwell again with God. The people reject God after all he has done for them…“give us a king so that we can be like the nations.” God consents. But the kingdom splits they disobey God again and break the covenant, again like Adam and Eve, God’s people, his priestly nation, are in exile. Scattered to the nations, outside of sacred space. After continually breaking the covenant, God hands the people over to the consequences of their sin, furthering their separation from sacred space. They continue to walk farther from Him than closer to Him and eventually even their religion seems far from the ways of the scripture or the father. There is a holy remnant, but they are few.

The covenant seems lost…

God Himself comes in the flesh not only to deliver his people but to end the exile of all humanity. To eliminate separation from God and restore his purposes, to get the Eden project back on track. God has come in the flesh to establish himself as king again and to heal his people from sin… God so loved the world that he GAVE his son.

Jesus’s crucifixion was a political execution and at the same time his enthronement as king of kings. CS Lewis also describes it as a great victory over the fallen spiritual beings that the entire cosmos might return to a beautiful Edenic-like place once and for all.

Thus, as Scripture portrays the matter, the foundational reason Christ appeared was “to destroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn 3:8), to disarm “the rulers and authorities” (Col 2:15), and to “destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb 2:14). The consequence of this victory is that he is seated on his rightful throne, the whole cosmos is liberated from a tyrannical and destructive ruler, humanity is delivered “from the power of darkness and transferred … into the kingdom of his beloved Son (Col 1:13), and all who accept it are thereby reinstated to the original position and responsibility of stewards of the creation that God had always intended for us.

Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God stripped Satan and all levels of demons of all their power (Col 2:15). Therefore Christ now reigns in the power of God far above all such demonic powers. Expressing the tension of the “already/not yet” that characterizes the entire NT, Paul can say that “all things” are already “under his feet,” (Eph 1:21-22) though the actual manifestation of this truth is yet in the future. But the central point remains: the work of the cross was about dethroning a cruel, illegitimate ruler and reinstating a loving, legitimate one: Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ is reinstated, all who are aligned with his rule, all who are “in Christ,” all who are his “bride” and part of his “body,” are reinstated to their appropriate position of authority as well. In a word, we are saved because he is victorious. [2]

We are once again offered the fullness of his covenant promise, with the expectation of covenant devotion. Jesus gives us a commissioned calling to regain the nations in deep devotion to Him. We are now unhindered and partnered with the Holy Spirit, reinstated as ambassadors, the royal holy priesthood of believers to be the manifestation of His hands and feet to bring covenant love back to the world. A return to walking with Jesus as in Eden bringing Heaven to earth.

Taking these thoughts one step further… (and slightly different trajectory)

The idea of the priesthood of believers is both powerful and deeply ancient. That calling goes all the way back to the garden.

In the ancient Near East, kings were seen as the image of their gods—icons of divine authority, representing the rule and presence of deity on earth. Genesis radically reimagines this: every human being, not just royalty, is made in the image of God (tselem elohim). That image is not just about dignity—it’s about vocation. We were created to reflect God’s character, rule, and care into creation. We were meant to be royal priests in His cosmic temple.

Psalm 8 ties this together beautifully: “You have made them a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands…” (vv. 5–6). Image, glory, and dominion are all part of one vocation. To be made in God’s image is to be crowned with glory—kavod in Hebrew—weight, splendor, significance. In temple language, we were created to be living icons: not statues in a shrine, but animated reflections of God’s presence, mediating His glory to creation. That’s priesthood. This is also why the 10 commandments begin with having no gods before Him and no images — God already has an image, us.

But as Paul explains in Romans 1, humanity exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for lesser images. We turned from our calling and became idolaters—reflecting creation instead of the Creator. In Romans 3:23, Paul summarizes it: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That glory isn’t just moral perfection—it’s the vocation to image God. Sin isn’t merely lawbreaking; it’s a desecration of our identity as image-bearers. We were crowned with glory, but we gave it up.

And yet God didn’t abandon His plan. At Sinai, He told Israel, “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). God wanted all of Israel to reflect His glory, bear His name, and serve as His priestly partners. But when the people shrank back in fear (Exodus 20:18–21), the priesthood was restricted to the tribe of Levi. Even so, God’s purpose remained unchanged.

The tabernacle—and later the temple—became a mini-Eden, decorated with garden imagery, where priests were commissioned to “work and keep” the sanctuary using the same Hebrew verbs (abad and shamar) given to Adam and Eve in Genesis 2:15. It was sacred space, designed to extend God’s presence into the world. But time and again, Israel failed to embody their calling.

Then Jesus came—the true Image (Colossians 1:15), the radiance of God’s glory (Hebrews 1:3), and the Great High Priest. He fulfills Israel’s vocation and Adam’s as well. Through His life, death, and resurrection, the fractured image is restored, the priesthood reconstituted, and the glory reclaimed. Peter echoes Sinai’s language when he says of the Church, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood…” (1 Peter 2:9). In Christ, we are crowned again with glory and sent back into the world as priests of the new creation.

That’s why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that we are being “transformed from glory to glory into the image of Christ.” This transformation isn’t just about forgiveness—it’s restoration. Romans 8 picks up the same thread: those God foreknew, He also “predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son” (v. 29). This conformity is salvation’s goal. In verse 30, Paul completes the picture: “those He justified, He also glorified.” Glorification is not some distant afterthought—it is the return of the lost glory, the restoring of the cracked image, the final stage of God’s redemptive work.

Holiness isn’t about sinless moral performance—it’s about the Spirit restoring the image of God in us, reordering our loves, renewing our minds, and empowering us to live in union with Christ. We are being transformed to fully love God and neighbor—not in theory, but in Spirit-enabled action. Entire sanctification is not about perfection in the abstract—it’s about Christlikeness and love in practice.

And just like Eden was never meant to remain a private garden, our vocation was never meant to stay confined. God created the world tov—good, meaning functionally complete and equipped for purpose in Hebrew. Adam and Eve were called not just to tend Eden but to expand it—to take the beauty, goodness, and order of sacred space into the wild. That same mission is now ours. Through the Spirit, God partners with us to renew the world—to reflect His image, spread His goodness, and extend His kingdom.

Our priestly calling is not passive. We are to embody heaven on earth. That’s what Jesus taught us to pray: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The Edenic vision isn’t behind us—it’s ahead of us, fulfilled in Christ and now unfolding through His body, the Church.

The world still needs priests—Spirit-filled image-bearers who don’t just talk about glory, but carry it in love.

Written by Dr. Will Ryan and Dr. Matt Mouzakis

  1. The Bible Project
  2. Adapted from Greg Boyd’s God at War, pages 240-246

PASSOVER PALM SUNDAY

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The Historical Texture

“The Abomination of desolation” is a phrase from the Book of Daniel describing the Greek (Seleucid Empire) king Antiochus IV Epiphanes that desecrated the Second Temple by erecting an altar to Zeus and sacrificing swine, an unclean animal according to Jewish law, on the altar in 167 BC. [1] Partially in response, the Jewish Maccabees went to war (revolt) with the Seleucid Empire and in 164 BC, the Maccabees captured Jerusalem. [2] The subsequent cleansing of the temple and rededication of the altar on 25 Kislev is the source of the festival of Hanukkah. [3] In doing so they paraded through the town displaying their pomp and splendor over their enemies. The Hasmonean dynasty then survived 103 years before yielding to the Herodian dynasty in 37 BC. From that year on, at the beginning of Passover (the day the Jews believed Yahweh gave them freedom) the Roman governor of Judea, would march into the city from the West (THROUGH THE “GREAT” GATE) with full military might on a mighty war horse. His parade was a show of force to remind the people of Jerusalem that Rome was in charge, and every magistrate wanted to be treated like a god. [4]

But here we have Jesus coming through the East Gate. That is the lowly gate that shepherds of animals used. This is where the Passover lambs would have been ushered in later this week. It is readily seen that Jesus’ triumph is very different from the Maccabees; Jesus wields the cross, not the sword, as His triumphal weapon, just as his regality is ensconced upon a lowly donkey rather than a mighty warhorse.

The Maccabees were aimed at liberating Jews from the oppressive nations, focused upon the pollution of the temple by the Greeks but Jesus would be setting the table that the nations might be regained through a different kind of spiritual cleansing.

The triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, continues to take on a similar image of palms and laudatory praise, echoing the entry of the Maccabees into Jerusalem following their triumph over the Seleucids. [5] The Maccabees entered Jerusalem “with a chorus of praise and the waving of palm branches” [6]. All of this, of course, in the context of a grand temple cleansing – just as Jesus’ entry will be followed by a temple cleansing of His own the day following His triumphal entry. In Antiquity, the palm is one of the trees identified as the Sacred Tree connecting heaven, represented by the crown of the tree, and earth, the base of the trunk. [7] The palm became so closely associated with victory in ancient Roman culture that the Latin word palma could be used as a metonym for “victory” and was a sign of any kind of victory or redemption of a people. [8] They connected the “gods” with victory.

Why a donkey and the coats thing? Well, they both are tied to royal procession. This is a story of the contranyms of the kingdom of Jesus. In 2 Kings 9:13, a man named Jehu is anointed king of Israel and his supporters spread their cloaks on his path, shouting “Jehu is king!” This becomes a regular act from that point forward. In the ancient Middle Eastern world, leaders rode horses if they rode to war, but donkeys came in peace. In 1 Kings 1:33, it mentions Solomon riding a donkey on the day he was recognized as the new king of Israel.

By some estimates, a population of perhaps a few hundred thousand could swell to 2-3 million during Passover. This helps explain several dynamics, most notably why the city’s leadership (both the Romans and the temple establishment) might be more on edge. [9]

FULFILLMENT OF SCRIPTURE

Jesus’ dramatic entry into Jerusalem is included in all four of the canonical Gospels but it varies slightly leaving us the need to harmonize the gospels. In Matthew, quotes Zechariah 9:9, which says:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

This is a scratch my head moment theologically and my take on this may challenge your views of inspiration. Was Jesus engineering the fulfillment of scripture? Was Matthew doing a bit “too much” to try to align with a well-known scriptural prophecy? I do not often align with Bart Ehrman, but in this case, I do as he notes, “Hebrew poetry was often organized conceptually rather than by rhyme scheme. This was the case for the poem from Zechariah, in which the idea in the penultimate line is repeated in the last line with different words. Because the author of Matthew doesn’t understand this, he interprets the verse as saying that the king will ride both on a donkey and a colt, which is what he has Jesus do. He doesn’t explain the gymnastics one would have to do to straddle two animals this way, but our imaginations can fill in the details.” [10] So is that what Jesus did? He straddled two animals to fulfill scripture. It seems that way, but who knows, maybe one was good for Jesus.*

*(On a side note, I often like to point out that we have the best tools of any time in History to best interpret scripture. Everything is at our fingertips. We often see the disciples not understanding Jesus and today we have the whole lens of scripture which they didn’t have, linguistic tools for the Biblical languages they wouldn’t even know how to dream of, and hundreds of commentaries from the best scholars the world has known. We “should” understand far better than they did when it comes to seeing things like this.)

But there is something else that I want to point out here of more significance. Matthew 21:5 quotes Zechariah but leaves out one line, “triumphant and victorious is he.” Isn’t that interesting? It should continue to point you towards the backward kingdom dynamics of Jesus as power under not over. This was quite strategic.

Luke and Mark’s narratives give very similar versions of the story, compared to Matthew’s (though without the two animals). However, in both Mark and Luke (but not Matthew), after his triumphal entry, Jesus goes to the Temple and looks around before leaving and going out to Bethany. This is interesting because in all three Synoptic Gospels, Jesus’ next action will be to cleanse the Temple which I am sure you have made the connection to mirroring the history of the Maccabees above. Why the second cleansing? Who was Jesus’ worst enemy? It surprisingly wasn’t Rome; it was the Jewish religious leaders. Consider the need for Jesus to cleanse the “religion” that “defiled” the temple. When you sit back and consider this, Jesus might be making quite a statement. Is He making the point that what the pharisees have done in the temple is as defiling to His father as the abomination of Desolation? So, then you would ask the question is the desolation of religion connected with what they are sowing and will be reaped in 70AD. Are we reading too much into the textual analogy to the Maccabees? Is this a faithful to the text interpretation? Jesus is known for how he regularly crafts inference. Furthermore, we only read Jesus weeping twice and this is one of them. Which one is He weeping over? The context definitely fits the ensuing destruction of 70AD but perhaps both are at liberty within the textures of interpretation.

As Jesus approached Jerusalem, He was acutely aware of the city’s impending destruction and the spiritual blindness of its inhabitants. This event takes place shortly after the crowd had joyfully welcomed Him as the Messiah, laying down palm branches and cloaks in His path. Despite the outward celebration, Jesus knew that the hearts of many were far from understanding His true mission. [11]

Hosanna

Psalm 118:25 says, “Save us (Hosanna), we beseech you, O Lord!” In one sense, the crowd is asking Jesus to save them. In another parallel sense, it’s calling him “savior.” Perhaps both. The strange thing is that the greater portion of the crowd doesn’t seem to have the mind of Christ. That is one of the reasons why Jesus weeps later. They are looking for a war monger savior to meet Herod on the streets and victoriously and triumphantly overcome Rome. You better believe they wanted Jesus to call down the angels of war or open the earth and swallow the Roman army. I am sure fire from heaven would have appeased them too. But that wasn’t the way of Jesus. Some believe that’s why a few days later perhaps the same crowd will be saying, “Crucify Him or take Him away” Others believe the same people weren’t in that “kangaroo courtroom” and it didn’t really matter.

Most of the people were just looking for a show while they were in town and Jesus probably also wept because he wasn’t into that, and He still isn’t.

The next thing they chant – “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” – is also from Psalm 118, this time verse 26. Luke has the crowds say “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” This accords both with Jesus as king and agrees with Luke 2:14, which John also says, and with what the angels proclaim to the shepherds when they announce Jesus’ birth: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom he is pleased!” But what is interesting is the rest of Psalm 118. If you have never read it, well that may influence your thoughts a bit on this.

Hosanna meant they were looking for savior. “It is, however, possible that in the case of someone like Judas, if he had previously been a political zealot, that this entry signaled to him that Jesus would perhaps take over things in Jerusalem, and the cleansing of the temple (Matthew 21:12–13) might well have been interpreted as a symbolic gesture suggesting Jesus would clean house. But then when Jesus reiterates, he came to die, not to start a coup, this must have crushed the hopes of anyone with zealot inclinations about kicking out the Romans. Perhaps that is why Judas does what he does at the end of the week.” [12]

WHAT IS THE TRIUMPHANT ENTRY?

In their book The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Final Days in Jerusalem, John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg write “What we often call the triumphal entry was actually an anti-imperial, anti-triumphal one, a deliberate lampoon of the conquering emperor entering a city on horseback through gates opened in abject submission.” [13]

Ian Paul Says it like this, “This is a different kind of king to any you’ve met before. And the reason for that is that the journey up to Jerusalem is not a journey to power and glory, but (as Paul makes very clear in Phil 2.5–11) it is a journey down in obedience to death. Jesus does not come to conquer the city; he comes to be conquered, and in this great reversal to win an even more profound victory. This is why he brings peace: he has turned us from enemies of God to friends through his death. This is why he brings praise and joy: because his death and resurrection have dealt with the things which separate us from God and from one another. This is the power he offers: power to know forgiveness and peace of mind.” [14]

There is a lot going on here. Jesus is acting out the prophecies that the people recognize as pointing to a Messiah, but the prophecy seems to change. Perhaps the prophets read a bit too far into the vision they were given or maybe the failures of the religious Jews changed the conditional covenant offered. Your overall theology for the lens of scripture is going to influence your thoughts here.

The Triumphal entry is CERTAINLY the coronation of the coming king and His kingdom. But it’s also a picture of the rest of the world being so far away from the heart and kingdom that Jesus was offering, and perhaps quite a statement about how far the religion of His day has turned from the Kingdom that He is ushering in.

  1. Lust, Johan (2001). “Cult and Sacrifice in Daniel. The Tamid and the Abomination of Desolation”. In Collins, John Joseph; Flint, Peter W. (eds.). The Book of Daniel: Composition and Reception. Vol. 2. BRILL. 
  2. https://biblehub.com/topical/t/the_desecration_of_the_temple.htm
  3.  Doran, Robert (2016). “Resistance and Revolt. The Case of the Maccabees.”. In Collins, John J.; Manning, J. G. (eds.). Revolt and Resistance in the Ancient Classical World and the Near East: In the Crucible of Empire. Brill. pp. 175–178, 186–187. 
  4. Josephus: The Essential Works, copyright 1994. Kregal Publications Grand Rapids, MI 49501. 
  5. John’s wisdom : a commentary on the Fourth Gospel by Witherington, Ben, III, p. 221.
  6. 1 Macc 13.51
  7. Giovino, Mariana (2007). The Assyrian Sacred Tree: A History of Interpretations. Academic Press Fribourg Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht Göttingen. 
  8. Vioque, Guillermo Galán (2002). Martial, Book VII: A Commentary. Translated by J.J. Zoltowski. Brill.
  9. https://talmidimway.org/commentary/gospels/gb4/39-triumphal-entry/
  10. https://ehrmanblog.org/did-the-triumphal-entry-really-happen/
  11. https://seedbed.com/when-love-comes-to-town-jesus-triumphal-entry-a-study-of-matthew-21/
  12. https://biblehub.com/topical/j/jesus_weeps_over_jerusalem.htm
  13. https://www.amazon.com/Last-Week-Gospels-Really-Jerusalem/dp/0060872608
  14.  @psephizo

Teaching Philosophy and Theology

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I have taught theology and religion in higher education for most of my life and what continually excites me is the continual innovation of theological interpretation. I have taken many years of Biblical language coursework which reflects in me now holding several related degrees, and I often joke that all my years of hard study could be traded for the simple innovation particularly of a good digital interlinear within the last 5 years. As an example, higher education within theology now attempts to better teach how to use linguistic interpretation tools (such as an online interlinear) rather than spending a lot of time actually teaching the language itself.

There are several factors that influence this conversation. In philosophical instruction deduction and induction give us a basis for understanding and learning attribution. Deduction as a construct does not bring forth knowledge any more than induction. [1] Dewey M. Beegle, for instance, opts for a priority of induction (Scripture, Tradition and Infallibility. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1973, p. 16) and he chides the upholders of inerrancy for having permitted an Aristotelian scholastic method of deductive reasoning to obscure the phenomena of Scripture which, he feels, should have been the foundation on which inductive reasoning could have developed a truly biblical view. [2] Yet he has a place for both. Naturally an inductive study tends to be more exegetical in nature where several textures of interpretation come into play such as 1) inner texture, 2) intertexture, 3) social and cultural texture, 4) ideological texture, and 5) sa‐cred texture. [3] Deductive studies are usually eisegetical which is prompted by a topic, doctrine, or concept. [4] Logos Software specialists and Ben Ho would then deduct that “The deductive method of reasoning moves toward necessary conclusions derived from correct connections between premises premises which are all either given or assumed to be true. The inductive method of reasoning moves toward possible conclusions derived from hypothetical connections between premises (observations) which are selected from among all possible true premises (observations). [5]

Many of these things combined with a better modern world understanding of learning have helped scholars and teachers approach theology and the life applications of studying both biblically and systematically. Bloom’s Taxonomy, for instance, is a classification of the different objectives and skills that educators set for their students otherwise known as learning objectives. [6] Understanding learning styles and fine tuning a taxonomy tailored to theology such as I began explaining through the lens of linguistics has very much changed the shape and applications of religious texts academically and towards a spiritual life application.

It is quite intriguing for religion based on a text that is at most 3500 years old (in some cases) to still be the topic of several new theological revelations. [7] And I say this from historical texture rather than spiritual. I also find that as religious studies, biblical studies and both systematic and biblical theology are all closely related fields; the nature of the scientific approach can change immensely across the different threads. [8] I have found that as time flows different things impact the interest levels of students that you might not get in other humanities. Authorship seems more well read in a spiritual climate, practices, beliefs, and traditions [9] are often greater impacted by culture trends and larger organization input. On one hand the more systematic side of things tends to be objective and academic while the experiences, approaches, applications, and examinations [10] (discussed more often in a taxonomy conversation) often tend to be more of the spiritual nature and difficult to measure. There is also an anthropological, cultural, and sociological texture [11] that influence interpretation both at the level of the intended audience and to our current life application. These tend to carry more faith based or subjective assertations. All of these dynamics have the ability to deepen your understanding of the religion at hand but accomplish the feat in very different methodologies. 

I say all of these things, to come to the conclusion that there has never been as exciting as a time in history to teach theology. Unlike the other humanities, this will have the power to change every facet of life as you know it. Your life will truly be transformed by the interpretation of the text.

  1. https://philosophical-theology.com/2024/05/05/deduction-induction-tag/
  2. https://learn.ligonier.org/articles/induction-and-deduction-with-reference-to-inspiration
  3. Vernon K. Robbins. Exploring the Texture of Texts: A Guide to Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation. Valley Forge, Pennsylvania: Trinity Press International, 1996. ISBN 978-1-56338-183-6.
  4. https://www.fastmissions.com/article/inductive-vs-deductive-study
  5. https://sermons.logos.com/sermons/113029-inductive-and-deductive-bible-studies?sso=false
  6. https://tips.uark.edu/using-blooms-taxonomy/#gsc.tab=0
  7. https://the-bible.net/how-old-is-the-bible/
  8. Carson, D. A. (2018). NIV, Biblical Theology Study Bible, eBook: Follow God’s Redemptive Plan as It Unfolds throughout Scripture. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan. ISBN 9780310450436.
  9. Sponsel, Leslie E. (2014). “Spiritual Ecology”. In Leeming, David A. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion (2nd ed.). Boston: Springer. pp. 1718–1723. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-6086-2_9295. ISBN 978-1-4614-6087-9.
  10. Garrett, James Leo (2014). Systematic Theology, Volume 1, Fourth Edition. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 20. ISBN 9781498206594.
  11. Andy Clark, David J Chalmers (January 1998). “The extended mind”. Analysis. 58 (1): 7–19. doi:10.1093/analys/58.1.7. JSTOR 3328150.; reprinted as: Andy Clark, David J Chalmers (2010). “Chapter 2: The extended mind”. In Richard Menary (ed.). The Extended Mind. MIT Press. pp. 27–42. ISBN 9780262014038.

TEDS Demise & Reformed Theology

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One of the most well-known Evangelical Seminaries in the world has agreed to be acquired by a Canadian university and move to British Columbia, the school’s leaders announced Tuesday. The move comes after years of financial and theological struggles resulting in declining attendance at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School—known as TEDS—an Evangelical Free Church Seminary. [1]

To those that are in the theology world, this announcement comes as no surprise. Over the last 10 years Trinity (TEDS) and the Evangelical Free Church of America has moved towards a reformed bend in their theology which I and many others would say continues to be the source of their demise. [2]

The Baptist convention is also unfortunately figuring this out over the last few years. [3] Reformed theology leads to Calvinism and those that understand the dilemmas involved with accepting the tenets of these views arguably can’t reconcile them with a Biblical character of God. [4] Many educated young people have walked away from Christianity altogether not being able to reconcile the nature of a loving God with these theological views. This is particularly unfortunate to the rest of the non-reformed world because it is an identifier that those leaving the faith didn’t comprehend that there were several other constructs of Christianity besides reformed theology. [5] According to Barna, less than 31% of all Christians in the US consider their theology to have some kind of reformed perspective (TULIP), yet reformed theology attempts to convince the rest of the world that their view is the only Biblical view. [6] This notion is killing evangelical Christianity and making people walk away from Jesus. We need to do better.

There are several reasons why reformed theology has been identified as a less Biblical interpretation of the scripture. [7] Along with not reconciling the Biblical character of God in core views of the belief such as Penal Substitutionary Atonement and hardline views of eternal conscious torment there are many other objections. [8] Calvinistic soteriology can lead to a misapplication of scripture and a misunderstanding of its storyline, such as predestination as an example of a concept that is not clearly supported by scripture. Perhaps the bigger problem is trying to position the Bible to say what you want it to say rather than exegetically and faithfully reading it for all it is worth. [9] The doctrine of total depravity and/or original sin which states that humans are inherently sinful and incapable of choosing God, can be seen as a denigration of human nature and a disincentive for personal responsibility. [10] Other critics argue that Reformed theology confuses the gospel of grace by bringing the law into sanctification and hedging on eternal security. [11]

Over the last 10 years I have watched other respected graduates of TEDS also become concerned such as the esteemed New Testament scholar Scot McKnight. [12]

Graduates of TEDS include the disgraced evangelist Ravi Zacharias, Christian television host John Ankerberg, and Collin Hansen, editor-in-chief of The Gospel Coalition. Longtime professor Don Carson also was one of the founders of The Gospel Coalition (a reformed organization), helping launch the so-called Young, Restless and Reformed movement that led to a Calvinist revival among evangelicals, but is now seeing a great demise. [13]

In the end, the theology of the reformation is quite problematic and rather unbiblical by most scholars’ opinions. [14] Since the 1980s the reformed movement has thrived through the support of great rhetorical spokesman such as the convincing late RC Sproul; but the world isn’t buying it anymore. For the first 1800 years of Christianity those ideas were unfounded, and of late, generations x,z, and millennials aren’t buying it either.

Most Christians today aren’t accepting the spoon-fed dogma; we need the text to exegetically be in harmony with the overall lens of the Bible. We demand a better Biblical theology. And that is a very good thing! As the average Christians become scholars, they need to be taught better theology in the church from the pulpit, or they are simply going to leave the church to find a better way. The next generation isn’t going to just take “the pastor’s word for it” anymore, they are done with being duped by those they thought they trusted in the name of religion. If we can learn anything from the demise of one of the largest evangelical seminaries in the world this should be the point, we take away. Expedition 44 has long sense been a source of truth examining the overall lens of the Bible and how it should be viewed in harmony. The Kings Commision School of Divinity (https://tkc.education/) and several other great institutions such as AWKNG (Heiser’s School), The Bible Project. (Tim Mackie’s School), Eternity Bible College (Francis Chan’s School), Dr. Jordan B. Peterson’s Peterson Academy and other similar institutions have changed the way that students engage. Did you notice what all of these schools have in common? They aren’t reformed! Out with the old (well newer -old reformational thinking), and in with the new.

Engage with the text. Dive in. Don’t merely be spoon fed. This is the core of the great commission – A deeper discipleship individually and communally.

  1. https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/04/trinity-evangelical-divinity-teds-moving-canada/
  2. https://blogs.efca.org/strands-of-thought/posts/arminianism-and-calvinism
  3. https://christoverall.com/article/longform/encore-reformed-and-reforming-the-sbc-christ-over-the-law-amendment/
  4. https://beyondcalvinism.blogspot.com/2016/11/dr-greg-boyd-on-romans-9-and-leaving.html
  5. https://www.bartehrman.com/branches-of-christianity/
  6. https://www.barna.com/research/is-there-a-reformed-movement-in-american-churches/
  7. https://www.theologymatters.com/articles/theology/2023/characteristics-of-reformed-theology/
  8. https://reknew.org/2015/12/10-problems-with-the-penal-substitution-view-of-the-atonement/
  9. https://soteriology101.com/2014/12/08/the-5-points-that-lead-me-out-of-calvinism/
  10. https://drjohnjackson.com/irresistible-grace/total-depravity/
  11. https://heidelblog.net/2014/05/do-the-reformed-distinguish-between-law-and-gospel/
  12. McKnight, S. The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011); ISBN: 978-0-310-49298-6
  13. IBID 1: https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/04/trinity-evangelical-divinity-teds-moving-canada/
  14. https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/was-the-reformation-a-mistake-an-excerpt-by-catholic-theologian-matthew-levering

SHOFAR

Posted by expedition44 on

DISCLAIMER: I am just going to warn you; this post is going to be all over the place. Squirrel – ADD post? But if you know me at all you likely are used to this sort of thing and might even still “love” it. Either way, hang in there, it all comes together in the end.

If you have been around Christianity for much time at all you have probably seen a ceremonial ram’s horn or shofar and wondered what it meant. I’ll admit, the average Christian is confused about the Old Covenant and what from it might still be relevant to them. In fact, most Christians don’t really know what to do with or what to make of anything “Torah” related. To most modern Christians, “relics” left over from the ancient world just seem a bit weird when brought back into modern Christianity. [1] However, I believe the still serve a great purpose.

SHOULD CHRISTIANS STILL OBSERVE TORAH?

Is there a place for these things (relics) or even the “Torah as law” to modern Christianity? I could spend pages making great arguments to several different views, but I will just leave you with a couple sentences that summarize my basic thoughts. Are you asking the right question? First, Jesus followed the Torah to the fullest extent, and we are to be like Jesus. Second, if the Scriptures show that Paul, an apostle personally trained by Jesus, was still Torah observant some 25 years after his conversion (and the adoption of the New Covenant) doesn’t that mean something? Yet on the flip side, Jesus’ death and resurrection clearly released us from the law, it came right from Paul’s mouth himself and not just once but three times in Galatians, Romans, and Ephesians. Sounds like something important enough to state 3x over. Is Paul confused? Nope. So, then we have other things to consider. The Torah was essentially a stop gap to keep people of Yahweh righteous and on track until the Messiah could reconcile things left undone within the Old Covenant. It was given to “better” keep people on track. Couldn’t we still use that today? The weird thing is Torah (law) could never fully be followed; the goal was to simply follow it the best you could. Some would even say it was similar to a speed limit today. It was to be “loosely” followed. It was more about the heart. But if God gave it as a “recipe” to stay in devotion to God before the cross it might still, at the very least, be a good idea or practice for us today.

THE SYMBOLS OF THE TORAH

The Shofar is just one of the many symbols of the Torah. Christianity has several symbols and the one you likely understand the most in the New Covenant is the cup and the bread of communion. It is a symbol that should remind you of a great deal of what you believe. It is a remez. Remez is a Hebrew word that means “hint” or “suggestion.” In the context of the Bible, remez refers to a teaching technique where a word or phrase hints at something more profound, often pointing to a larger scriptural context such as an entire teaching. Jesus used this a lot. Think of it as saying a word that brings foundation to many things that would be basic to the belief you’re addressing that encapsules all things to be considered. You might think of a shofar the same way, a basic remez of covenant. Here are a couple of the verses that talk about the shofar that I want to make note of and consider.

Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.  Joshua 6:4  NASB

How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! O Lord, they walk in the light of Your countenance.  Psalm 89:15  NASB

What is the cry of the shofar?  It is the sound of sanity in a world gone mad.  God enters the tragic nothingness of human life and proclaims unity (covenant) with Him in the Torah, which is not, by the way, simply the list of 613 commands. The Torah is the narrative of all these men and women who encounter the abyss, who tread the path of annihilation and meaninglessness but still find a God who cares.  Hear the shofar and rejoice. [2] The shofar should be a symbol that reminds (remez) you of covenant faithfulness both old and new. Why we have decided to regularly practice communion but have mostly put aside other reminders of our covenant such as foot washing and the shofar (and possibly others) are beyond me. Too many have forgotten the shofar, and I think we would do well to bring it back.

BAD GRAMMAR MYSTERY

Joshua 6:4 is interesting, as it is a grammatical nightmare. There are a few places in the Old Testament where we find what appears to be poor Hebrew grammar, albeit mostly strategic, and this is one of them. I don’t want to get off here, but it is interesting so I will take a moment – The numeral 7 in Hebrew is the word shiva.  Almost all Hebrew nouns have a gender form, in this case, the masculine form ends in the letter chet; the feminine form ends in ayin.  In most cases, according to Hebrew grammar, the ending of the numeral matches the gender of the modified noun.  So, if the noun (like trumpets or day or times) is masculine, the numeral is masculine; if the noun is feminine, the numeral is feminine.  Thats just basic Hebrew grammar. But in this verse, it is different. It resembles someone that doesn’t know English trying to say a sentence where the pronouns don’t line up. The word for “seven” is feminine, but the plural noun has a masculine ending, similarly, the word for “day” is yom, a masculine term, but the term for “seventh” is in the feminine form.  essentially “seven times,” is all mixed.  “Times” is paʿamim, the plural of paʿam, a masculine noun.  But here the word for “seven” is feminine.  It looks like a hot mess. As I mentioned before, we have seen this in other places in the Bible such as Joshua 1:8 and Genesis 1:26 and both do the same thing, but it becomes a recognizable word play. The problem is that this one is a mystery to everyone. It doesn’t seem to make sense. What do we do with it? I don’t know. It is very strange singular instance – perhaps a mystery. Hidden code, deeper meaning, scribal mistake (highly doubtful.) I have a notion, but I am going to keep it to myself. You will have to figure out your own solution.

ABOUT THE SHOFAR

The shofar is blown in synagogue services on Rosh Hashanah and at the end of Yom Kippur; it is also blown every weekday morning in the month of Elul running up to Rosh Hashanah. [3] Shofars come in a variety of sizes and shapes, depending on the choice of animal and level of finish. [4] The first instance we have is in Exodus 19, the blast of a shofar emanating from the thick cloud on Mount Sinai makes the Israelites tremble in awe. The shofar was used to announce the new moon [5] and the Jubilee year. [6] The first day of Tishrei (now known as Rosh Hashana) is termed a “memorial of blowing”, [7] or “day of blowing”, [8] the shofar. Shofars were used for signifying the start of a war. [9] They were also employed in processions [10]as musical accompaniment, [11] and were inserted into the temple orchestra by David. [12] According to the Talmud, a shofar may be made from the horn of any animal from the Bovidae family except that of a cow, [13] although a ram is preferable. [14] The one who blows (or “blasts” or “sounds”) the shofar is termed the ba’al tokeah or ba’al tekiah (lit. “master of the blast”). Being a ba’al tekiah is an honor as He represents the covenant community of the Lord.

MEANINGS OF THE SHOFAR

As, I mention earlier, the shofar is a symbol of remez that should remind people of many Biblical things. In biblical times it was a reminded of covenant with Yahweh. If I had to pick one definition that is what I would go with. But it symbolizes a lot more than that. The Shofar has been sounded as a sign of victory and celebration from battles of ancient antiquity to modernity. For instance, Jewish elders were photographed blowing multiple shofars after hearing that the Nazis surrendered on 8 May 1945. Because of its inherent ties to the Biblical Days of Repentance and the inspiration that comes along with hearing its piercing blasts, the shofar is also blown during prayer services called during times of communal distress. [15] On Yom Kippur, jubilee years, and New Year’s Day the shofar is often sounded. At times of victory the shofar is sounded. At special days such as to announce sacrifice, the shofar is sounded. The shofar was commonly taken out to war so the troops would know when a battle would begin. The person who would blow the shofar would call out to the troops from atop a hill. All of the troops were able to hear the call of the shofar from their position because of its distinct sound. As you see, it carries varied meaning. Once my son blew it in the middle of the day and naturally our entire family congregated to the living room, asking what was happening. In Bible times, that was the natural response… something was happening, and it had to do with Yahweh!

The shofar has always been a sign & symbol of those in covenant community with Yahweh. It has also been a sound that signifies an alignment with Him. It may be seen as a symbol or representation of desire, recognition, or praise from humanity to our covenant father.

  1. https://www.str.org/w/should-followers-of-christ-observe-the-torah-
  2. @Hebrewwordstudy
  3.  “Jewish prayer-book”. Cambridge Digital Library.
  4. “The Mitzva of Shofar – Jewish Tradition”. yahadut.org. 19 August 2024.
  5. Psalm 81:3 (4)
  6. Leviticus 25:9
  7. Hebrew: זכרון תרועה, lit. ‘zikron teruˁah’, Leviticus 23:24
  8. Hebrew: יום תרועה, lit. ‘yom teruˁah’, Numbers 29:1
  9. Joshua 6:4; Judges 3:27; 7:16, 20
  10. 2 Samuel 6:15; 1 Chronicles 15:28
  11. Psalm 98:6; compare Psalm 47:5
  12. Psalm 150:3
  13. Rosh Hashanah, 26a. Although Maimonides ruled differently (Mishneh Torah Hilchot Shofar 1:1: “…the shofar with which they make the blast, whether on Rosh Hashanah or the Yovel, is the curved horn of sheep. Now all [other] horns are invalid, except the horn of a sheep…”), the custom of Israel was to make use of other horns, and not only that of the ram (the male sheep). Some would use the horn of the wild goat (Walia ibex) on Rosh Hashanah, while others made use of the long, spiraling horn of the kudu antelope because of its deep, reverberating sound. Compare the teaching of Rabbi Isaac b. Judah ibn Giat, who wrote: “All shofars are valid, excepting that of a cow since it is a [solid] horn. Said Rabbi Levi: ‘The shofar of Rosh Hashanah and of Yom Kippurim are curved, while those of the entire year are straight, and thus is the Halacha.’ Why is it that they blow with a shofar of a ram on Rosh Hashanah? Said the Holy One, blessed be He: ‘Blow before me the shofar of a ram so that I might remember on your behalf the binding of Isaac the son of Abraham, and I impute it over you as if you had bound yourselves before me.’…” (Rabbi Isaac ibn Giat, Sefer Shaarei Simchah (Me’ah She’arim), vol. 1, Firta 1861, p. 32 [Hebrew])
  14. Mishnah Berurah 586:1
  15. “International Day of Shofar Study”. Archived from the original on 5 April 2016.

FREE

Posted by expedition44 on

What is freedom? This word often gets thrown around in an American nationalistic sense which sometimes makes me cringe; but what does it really mean to be personally free?  In the West, our conception of freedom has been extended to include a doctrine of entitlements and rights no prior civilization could have imagined. When we turn our thoughts towards scripture, the first verse that probably comes to mind is John 8:36 – “Therefore, if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.”  

The thrust of this is found in two Greek words, eleutherose and eleutheroi. Whenever words seem to rhyme or present a “play” we need to focus on intent. What is happening in the text? When you follow the root words on any good interlinear you might find a better reading to say “if the Son shall make you unconstrained and independent, you really will be liberated”.  But my question then would be from what? What exactly are we to be liberated or unconstrained from?

Our primary motivation should be to be like Christ. Yet in Philippians 2 we find that Jesus’ definition of “freedom” is giving up all His rights and becoming an obedient slave to the will of the Father. That doesn’t sound much like our nationalistic or entitled version of freedom. Essentially Jesus makes us free to live under the authority of God not the rulers of this world or principalities. The liberty is mine to humbly live a sacrificial life.

A good friend of mine redefines what this freedom means: “Freedom is no longer living under the constraints of this world.  No longer being subject to its conditions.  No more “to do” lists in order to earn self-worth.  No more shackled to the wheel of success.  No more need to look out for Number 1.  Jesus makes you free to put all of that aside and live in the hope of God’s unwavering faithfulness.  That’s exactly what he did.  No power on earth controlled him.  He was free to let his life be completely under God’s authority no matter what the earthly consequences because he knew that he was independent of this world and liberated from its weight.” [1]

Kenotic Christology

Before I continue with freedom, I need to touch on some theology in Phillippians 2. I have always held to my own view of Kenotic Christology which is based on the Greek word kenosis, which means “to empty.” It’s used in Philippians 2, which reads:

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied [kenosis] himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death–even death on a cross (Phil 2:5-8).

Greg Boyd sets the stage for us well, “Jesus, being divine, did not cling to his equality with God, and it is for this reason that he was able to become a full human being. In the words of Paul, he “emptied himself” so that he might come in “the form of a slave” and be “born in human likeness.”  By contrast, if Jesus continued to use all the divine attributes, as the classical Christology holds, one has to wonder what exactly Jesus “emptied himself” of. Moreover, if Jesus retained the exercise of his omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence, one has to wonder how he could be affirmed as being fully human.” [2]

Kenotic Christology is the idea that the Son of God, God the Son, the Word/Logos, voluntarily decided to “set aside” (or retract) his attributes of glory and power in becoming incarnate as the boy and man Jesus Christ and function throughout his life on earth as a human being, not using his attributes of glory and power or even knowing about them except through revelation from his heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit. [3]

The New Testament does not use the noun form kénōsis, but the verb form kenóō occurs five times (Romans 4:14; 1 Corinthians 1:17, 9:15; 2 Corinthians 9:3; Philippians 2:7) and the future form kenōsei once. [4] Of these five times, Philippians 2:7 is generally considered the most significant for the Christian idea of kenosis.

There are of course other views, such as adoptionism, docetism, the Chalcedonian doctrine, and others.

Philippians 2.6-11 is often known as the “Philippian Christ Hymn.” I will admit that this text is also notoriously difficult to translate, especially verse 6 and 7a, because of rare vocabulary and unusual grammatical constructions. Crispin Fletcher Louis wrote a 900 page work entitled, The Divine Heartset: Paul’s Philippians Christ Hymn, Metaphysical Affections, and Civic Virtues (Wipf and Stock 2023) is worth a look if you’re a scholar. [5] He takes a slightly different view on the text which is intriguing and convincing, some of which I have adopted.

BACK TO FREEDOM

I wrote earlier this week on edification. It is rather ironic that starting this work was completely unrelated yet somehow it connects. I always love it when I am surprised by Jesus in this way. There is a temptation as we study this passage to remove it from its context and treat it as a passage on Theology. But we must remember the basics of hermeneutic interpretation. How would this have been interpreted by its intended audience? Ray Steadman reminds us that “The passage is set against the background of two quarreling ladies in the church at Philippi. That quarrel was threatening to destroy the unity of the whole church. The apostle has made it clear that the secret of maintaining unity is humility. Wherever there is contentiousness, it is a revelation of the presence of pride. Pride, whether in a single individual life, in a family, a church, in government, or a whole nation, always destroys, divides, sets one person against another, perpetuates conflict, breaks up marriages and partnerships and unions of every sort.” [6]

Building up and tearing down (relationally working out) create deeper relationships and covenant intimacy. Often when two good-willed people come together with disagreements but take on the mind of Christ, the result is beautiful. It will result in deeper understanding and love than before. That is what the apostle is wanting for these two ladies in Philippi and those in the church who were taking sides with them. That points to enabling covenant freedom. This is in part what our commission is -a holy nation to re-knew the earth.

Duke Taber bring’s this together well, Philippians chapter 2 serves as a powerful reminder of the transformative power of humility, unity, and selfless love within the Christian community. As I reflect on Paul’s words, I’m challenged to cultivate a mindset that mirrors Christ’s humility and obedience, putting others’ needs before my own and actively pursuing spiritual growth.

By holding fast to God’s Word and joyfully serving others, I can shine as a light in this world, pointing others to the hope and love found in Christ. The examples of Timothy and Epaphroditus inspire me to love sacrificially, even when it’s difficult or risky.

As I strive to live in a manner worthy of the gospel, I find comfort in knowing that God is working in me, providing the desire and strength to fulfill His purposes. By embracing humility, unity, and selflessness, I can experience the deep joy and fellowship that comes from walking in step with Christ and His church. [7]

The Bible recognizes that self-rule is blindness. Self-rule denies the sovereignty of God. Self-seeking existence leads to death. So, submission to God’s rule leads to life. To surrender to God is freedom – freedom from the tyranny of self, from the futility of self-seeking and from the results associated with a life bent on its own control. There is no idea of self-determination in Hebrew thinking. There is only submission or rebellion. [1]

  1. @Hebrewwordstudy
  2. https://reknew.org/2014/02/was-jesus-really-human-like-the-rest-of-us/
  3. https://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2021/05/kenotic-christology-explained-and-defended/
  4. 1 Corinthians (ed. Brooke Foss Westcott, Fenton John Anthony Hort) in I Corinthians, chapter 9
  5. The Divine Heartset: Paul’s Philippians Christ Hymn, Metaphysical Affections, and Civic Virtues (Wipf and Stock 2023)
  6. https://www.raystedman.org/daily-devotions/philippians/the-mindset-of-christ
  7. https://answeredfaith.com/philippians-chapter-2-summary/

Completely consumed by the Rabbi

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Education was a big deal the first century. The command to “teach your children” first appeared in Deuteronomy as part of what later became the Shema – the most central of Jewish prayers (prayed 3x daily). Rabbinic literature is filled with references to schools and schooling and to teaching and learning taking place at all levels, and for all ages from the youngest children through adulthood. Jews are often known as “The People of the Book.” Jewish life is lived according to texts, commentary, and interpretation of those texts. The varied methods of teaching them include instructive, experiential, argument, and discussion. [1]


Bet Sefer – “House of the Book” (Ages 6-10yrs) [2]

In the Jewish culture of Jesus’ day kids were taught the Torah (first 5 books of the Bible) in the local Synagogue (church) beginning at the age of 6. They had classes 5 days a week just like we do today. By the time they were about 10 years old, they had memorized all of the Torah – the first five books of the Bible. These classes were called “Bet Sefer.” Anyway, most Jewish kids were pretty well finished with school after this and went home to learn the family trade – like fishing or carpentry or something like that.

Bet Talmud – “House of Learning” (Ages 10-14yrs) [2]

The best of the best among them were allowed to continue in school in something called “Bet Talmud.” Here, they studied all of the Hebrew Scriptures (Our Old Testament) and memorized all of them between the ages of 10-14. During this time, students also learned the Jewish art of questions and answers. Instead of answering with an answer, they were taught to answer with another question. In this way, students could demonstrate both their knowledge and their great regard for the Scriptures. They were taught to always be curious about the Scriptures.

Look at how Jesus was described as a young boy in Luke 2:46-47 – “After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.”

Bet Midrash – “House of Study” [2]

Very few of these students ever made it this far. For the few who did there was still another set of classes called “Bet Midrash.” This meant you were on track to become a Rabbi. To become a Rabbi you had to first train under a Rabbi, to walk their every step. The rabbi would grill you and ask you all kinds of questions, because he was trying to find out if you were good enough to be his student. He wanted to know if you knew enough, but even more importantly, if you could be like him in all areas of your life. If he decided that he didn’t think you could do it, then he would tell you to go back to the family business. It was very rare, but if he thought highly enough of you, he would become your teacher, and it would be your goal to become like him in every way. You would agree to take on his “beliefs” and his interpretations of the scriptures. This was called his “yoke” and he would say to you, “come follow me.” The disciple’s (also called “talmudim”) job was to become like the rabbi in every way. If the rabbi was hurt and had a limp, you might see his healthy disciples walking behind him (in his footsteps or “in the dust” of the rabbi) with a limp.

To this description their arose a Hebrew Idiom, “May you be covered in the dust of the Rabbi” and the source of this saying is the Mishnah, Avot 1:4. (The Mishnah is a collection of rabbinic thought from 200 BC to 200 AD that still forms the core of Jewish belief today.) The quotation is from Yose ben Yoezer (yo-EHZ-er). He was one of the earliest members of the rabbinic movement, who lived about two centuries before Jesus:

Let thy house be a meeting-house for the wise;
and powder thyself in the dust of their feet;
and drink their words with thirstiness. [3]

These teachers were called “sages” before 70 AD (hakamim, or “the wise”). After that the title “rabbi” began to be used. [4] The middle line is sometimes translated as “sit amid the dust of their feet,” and understood as being about humbly sitting at the feet of one’s teacher to learn from him.

When we catch up with Jesus in Matthew 4:18-22 and 16:13-20 He is walking beside the Sea of Galilee, and sees two brothers; Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were fishing.

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fisherman. “Come, follow me, ” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him. Matthew 4:18-20

What has always struck me as interesting in regard to this text is that they left what they were doing at once. No delay, they just dropped everything and followed.

Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. Matthew 4:21-22

No questions asked, they just left. They didn’t help their father bring in the boat or finish the day of work or anything…they left immediately.

Why? In hindsight we can say, “well it was Jesus, of course they would follow him.” But while Jesus was well known at this point, He may have been considered just another rabbi and I’m sure he wasn’t considered the son of God at this point by these people. So, what caused them to drop everything and leave?

Well, the answer is that every kid in the first century dreamed of being great. And great in Judeo Rome meant either a roman Centurian or a Rabbi.

When my oldest son Ty was about 4, we would ask him what he wanted to be when he grew up. He would say a “garbage man photographer.” We would laugh and joke saying things like, “wow this kid is really aiming for the stars!” Not a garbage man, not just any kind of photographer, a very specific one, a garbage man photographer! Ok so not every kid may have wanted to be a Rabbi or a Centurian, but the great majority of them dreamed that one day that is what they would become! They dreamed of this day.

No you have also probably read my book or heard me teach that when you harmonize the gospels you find out that Jesus actually called the disciples three different times. The first two they followed Him for a few days and then went back to what they did… they went fishing… That was the normal way to follow a Rabbi. But Jesus was asking for something different than other Rabbi’s of the day, He was asking for something that He still asks of us today… to Follow him and never go back to our former life. To be completely consumed by the Rabbi. THAT WAS RADICAL FOR HIS DAY AND IT IS STILL RADICAL TODAY! The third time Jesus calls them they get the picture.

But let me clarify something that is astounding here. Usually in Rabbinical training when students were chosen by the Rabbi, they were around 14 years old. The Rabbi has watched them, and you might even say known them intimately for 10 years. That’s why he could choose them. Thats how they made the cut. They spent 10 years convincing the Rabbi they were worth it to him. But you see here Jesus is setting the tone for a backwards kingdom dynamic. This is profound… He can choose them without ever meeting them because He is God. He already knows them more intimately than any Rabbi with 10 years or more knowledge would ever know them. And what is even more profound is that He is choosing them not based on their merit, but on His; their value was in Him. Today your kingdom value isn’t in your doing but according to the purpose that God has already manifested in you. You have been called because God already believes you are worthy of the mission. That was why the YOKE OF JESUS was described as EASY!

That is the beginning of their calling into Rabbinical training, now let’s fast forward to a couple years later. I call these Jesus’ field trips. I have an extensive article about one of these when Jesus takes them to check out some pigs. Remember when you were a kid, and you went to school and then you heard you were going on a field trip, and it was amazing? You didn’t care where you were going, wherever it was, whatever you were going to do, it was way better than school right?

Well in this particular instance with Jesus that might not actually be the case. You see in Matthew 16:13 it says, “When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi”. We have to go back to 15:21 and we read “Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon” to figure out how far they walked to go on this field trip. Jesus and his disciples would have traveled by boat from Magadan to Bethsaida. Bethsaida is located on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. This body of water is nearly 700 ft below sea level. From there, they likely spent some days making the 25 mile ascent to Caesarea Philippi, which was located at an elevation 1,150 ft above sea level. It is referred to as Mt Hermon.

In other words, this might not have been such a great field trip, or maybe it was? It was a 25 mile hike up a mountain in a day. (Reminds me of our Eagle Trek days at my local Grade school doing the 20+ mile hike around Lake Geneva.)

This is also where I have to hold myself back because I could talk for days on this part, let me try to hold back my enthusiasm and keep this brief.

At Caesarea Philippi, Jesus and his disciples would have seen the largest rock formation in Israel with pagan statues and at least fourteen temples in the background. In Old Testament times, Caesarea Philippi, then known as Banias, sat at the foothills of Mount Herman. The early Canaanites worshiped Baal at Banias, and prisoners were thrown into the “Gates of Hell”, to determine guilt for a crime. Ferocious waters gushed from a very large spring of this limestone cave. In ancient times, the water was fast-moving and would have propelled the bodies over the rocks, and death was nearly guaranteed but if they survived – well then, they were thought to have not been guilty of the crime accused of. Eventually, the cult of Baal was replaced with the worship of Greek fertility gods and Caesar but still carried negative connotations.

To the ancient Greeks who settled in this area, the cave at Caesarea Philippi was the gate to the underworld, where fertility gods dwelt during the winter and then returned to the earth each spring. The people also believed the cave held the “Gates to Hades.” The idea of these Greek fertility Gods is laced in the idea that fallen spiritual beings would “take” humans by their lustful desires. If you know anything about Greek mythology you know this sexuality of the “gods” was rampant. But it goes back even further than that.

The location of Caesarea Philippi is significant because the entire region was considered the domain of the Nephilim and their disembodied spirits. That is where the Greek mythology of the “gods” gets its roots. Mount Hermon was ground zero for the Genesis 6 transgression and where we are told in 1 Enoch that the fallen elohim made their pact to take human women. Additionally, this is also the location where King Jereboam constructed his adulterous center of worship.

At the time of Jesus, the most important god in Caesarea Philippi was Pan, the Greek god of shepherds and the wild. Pan’s hindquarters, legs, and horns are like that of a goat, while his upper body was of a man. The Greeks believed Pan was born in this cave, and he is often associated with music and fertility. Each spring, the people of Caesarea Philippi engaged in wicked deeds, including prostitution and sexual interaction between humans and goats to entice the return of Pan.

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter,[b] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[c] will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[d] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[e] loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Back up to where I started, when the disciples were called, Jesus was able to choose them because their identity was already in Him. Remember that? Three years later, at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus wanted each disciple to fully understand His identity, not only God the Father’s.  For three years, the disciples had heard his teachings and witnessed his healing ministry, but Jesus wasn’t just a miracle worker and healer. He wanted to be certain these disciples understood his complete, divine nature and to know the sovereignty of his Father’s kingdom was available for everyone to experience for all time.

Now, imagine Jesus standing at a distance, looking at this cliff with the pagan statues in the niches. Since this was a pagan “red light zone or the other side of the tracks,” He then said to Peter and his disciples, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” He was contrasting the most notorious powers of the day with the power that was soon to be infused in them.

This day in Caesarea Philippi is when Jesus founded his church. His church would symbolically be built on the “rock” of Caesarea Philippi, one then filled with niches for pagan idols and where ungodly beliefs and values dominated. This huge rock’s destiny was like so many ancient tells in Israel: to be crushed and destroyed as rabble, and where God’s kingdom would be built on its ruins.

It is a story of victoriously taking what was broken and worthless, even corrupt and breathing new life into it. The regrafting of the world for the kingdom of Jesus.

This is similar to Christ’s message about the temple in 70AD. That’s a bit later in the book of Matthew.

Matthew 24:1-2 : “As Jesus left the temple and was walking away, His disciples came up to Him to point out its buildings. ‘Do you see all these things?’ He replied. ‘Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.'”

You see Jesus didn’t need what the world had or has. He was defining a new covenant. Today we aren’t looking for a new temple to be built because we are the temple. His identity is in us. The purpose and plan is right here in our hearts and it isn’t so much of our work, but Christ in us.

He’s telling the disciples that they are going to help Christ build the church among those
types of people. He’s not focusing all His attention on the religious people hanging out in
the synagogues. The plan is through the least of these, the meek. That is the backwards kingdom.

Jesus had given Peter a new name, “Petros,” meaning a single stone. This is a terrific wordplay “Petra,” means a massive rock or formation; fixed, immovable, enduring – yet they were looking at the Mt Hermon, the biggest place of Evil and He says, they will not prevail. It is backwards thinking. The least of these.

In the ancient world, gates were defensive structures to keep the unwanted out, but they were also where the city courts were in session. They were where the wise men gathered to make decisions that would influence the rest of the city, it was the place where decisions were made to go to battle.

Are you following me… He is gathering His people at the gates to say you’re going to make a difference that is going to revolutionize the world and the kingdom of Jesus. And part of this is battle language against the principalities but it’s not really your battle – your identity, your presence, your power is mine. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit you are my ambassador. You don’t have to do much – It is Me in you that is going to get the job done. But the relationship of grace is somewhat reciprocal. A response is part of the covenant relationship. I need you to put one foot in front of the other and walk to the front line of the battle. My yoke is easy but you have to walk intimately with me in deep devotion.


Jesus is still calling today. He’s calling you! You see, upon that rock, the people in your city, your school, your work, your circle of friends, He wants to use you to build His church. And not even the gates of hell can get in the way, because God Himself has empowers you to make it happen. But it all comes back to you – right where you are. Christ is walking down the beach towards you. He’s calling out, “Come and follow me.” What will your answer be? Can you follow those feet?

MAY YOU BE COVERED IN THE DUST OF YOUR RABBI!

May you be consumed to the Core.

This is a PDF small group discussion to accommodate this article.

handout consumed by the dust of RabbiDownload
  1. https://amitchildren.org/ancient-jewish-education/
  2. https://stevecorn.com/2010/11/01/jewish-educational-system/
  3. Pirqe Aboth 1:4 
  4. Can We Call Jesus “Rabbi”?

PRAYERS FOR ISRAEL

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Tonight, my wife and I attended a conference with The International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem. To be clear this is one of the leading Zionist organizations.  Some within the organization might be construed as dispensational (although ICEJ leadership would claim that they are not Dispensational as they do not preach the Pre-Trib Rapture or 2/3rds of Israel dying). If you have followed my work or X44 for long, you know that I would not align with either ideology (even though I have a degree from Moody Bible Institute which remains as one of the top dispensational colleges in the world). I might add, nor would I align with most versions of replacement theology. However, simply because I don’t see theologically the same way as another “Christian” individual or organization doesn’t mean that I don’t partner with them as kingdom brothers & sisters. In fact, quite the opposite. As an unbiased theologian of course, I think my theologies are right (who doesn’t); but I am also open to the fact that in the eyes of God my views may not be correct, or God’s “will or order” may not be understandable to me here. I strongly believe in seasons, callings, and anointings. God’s ways are certainly higher than mine. David Parsons, ICEJ Vice President & Senior Spokesman has become a good friend of mine, and I firmly believe in what he and the rest of his team are doing and the heart for which they do it. God is smiling on them. They are incredible kingdom partners! If there was ever a time to put differences aside and unite on what we do stand in agreement with; it is now and, in the name and kingdom of our LORD Jesus Christ. There isn’t a place for petty differences right now, and whatever they may be, seem rather insignificant. Jesus is calling and these brothers and sisters are highly favored and anointed to the calling before them. If you want to support Israeli aid, this is the organization that is going to see the Kingdom established in Israel and I can’t recommend a better organization than ICEJ.

The night was powerful. Praise and worship, amazing testimonies of what God was doing, deep teaching, and the moving of the spirit with fresh anointing.

I pray for Israel, ICEJ, those in affliction, and particularly the now and coming kingdom of Jesus as I stand in agreement with my family at ICEJ.
I wrote a previous post on “all things Israel” here.

The Dead Sea Scrolls

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Today was a life milestone. I visited the home of the Dead Sea Scrolls. I have dreamed of this since I was young. As I would love to tell you everything I know about them, I think I will keep this to a brief introduction.

The Dead Sea Scrolls, also called the Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a set of ancient Jewish manuscripts (some original biblical texts) from the Second Temple period. They were discovered over a period of 10 years, between 1946 and 1956, at the Qumran Caves near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the northern shore of the Dead Sea. These date back to the third century BCE.[1] 

The Shrine of the Book was built as a repository for the first seven scrolls discovered at Qumran in 1947. The unique white dome embodies the lids of the jars in which the first scrolls were found. This symbolic building, a kind of sanctuary intended to express profound spiritual meaning, is considered an international landmark of modern architecture. Designed by American Jewish architects Armand P. Bartos and Frederic J. Kiesler, it was dedicated in an impressive ceremony on April 20, 1965.

The contrast between the white dome and the black wall alongside it alludes to the tension evident in the scrolls between the spiritual world of the “Sons of Light” (as the Judean Desert sectarians called themselves) and the “Sons of Darkness” (the sect’s enemies). The corridor leading into the Shrine resembles a cave, recalling the site where the ancient manuscripts were discovered. [12]

2017 marks the 70th anniversary of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Long story short, in late 1947 a young Bedouin boy tossed a stone into a cave, heard the clink of breaking pottery, and would later scramble in to find the tattered remains of ancient scrolls from the centuries leading up to and after the Common Era. If this modern story of ancient discoveries is new to you, you’ve got to ask a very important question. Why does any of this matter today?

These are the oldest Biblical manuscripts that we have and therefore have made us consider the texts of our later translations of the Bible. [2] Today I visited the Shrine of the Book Museum in Jerusalem where the Dead Sea Scrolls and fragments are located and are now mostly the property and heritage of Judaism.[4] There are 981 different manuscripts (discovered in 1946/1947 and in 1956) from 11 caves,[5] in Qumran in the eastern Judaean Desert in the West Bank.[6] Archaeologists have long associated the scrolls with the ancient Jewish sect known as the Essenes, although some recent interpretations have challenged this connection and argue that priests in Jerusalem or other unknown Jewish groups wrote the scrolls.[7][8]

Most of the scrolls are in Hebrew, with some written in Aramaic and Greek.[9] The texts are written on parchment, some on papyrus, and one on copper.[10] The scrolls cover a wide range of topics and genres. The biblical scrolls include texts from every book of the Old Testament, with the possible exception of Esther. Other scrolls are Jewish sectarian writings, administrative documents, deeds of sale, and even divorce and marriage records. Despite the name, the majority of the scrolls are preserved as fragments, small scraps of what were once larger scrolls and documents. While some scrolls are several feet long, many smaller fragments are no larger than a fingertip. To date, more than 25,000 fragments have been discovered, and extensive work has gone into combining, preserving, translating, and studying these various fragments.[11]

The Dead Sea Scrolls shed light on the period between Alexander the Great’s conquest of Palestine in 332 BCE through the Great Revolt, which ended in 73 CE, with an emphasis on the period from the Maccabean Revolt (168–164 BCE) through the turn of the century. However, in order to fully comprehend the Qumran sect, the reasons for its establishment, and its unique character, one must study Judaism and Jews in the Second Temple Period. It is essential to understand the political realities, external influences, and theology of the time. The Second Temple period, or Second Commonwealth, began in 538 BCE with a declaration by Cyrus the Great, king of Persia and Media, that the Jews could return to the Land of Israel and rebuild their Temple. The Temple and the city of Jerusalem were rebuilt by the year 515 BCE, and, in contrast to the First Commonwealth, the high priest became the secular as well as religious authority. This system of government lasted into the Hasmonean period and became an object of protest in the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as in other literature of the period. [13]

The scrolls gave historians great insight into the ancient forms of these languages, and they also changed the way scholars studied the Old Testament. For example, the scroll with the most complete version of the book of Psalms had about 40 psalms, including three that were previously unknown. One of these unknown psalms was a “plea for deliverance,” which made note of “evil incarnation.” The Dead Sea Scrolls provide evidence of the diversity of religious thought in early Judaism and the Hebrew Bible’s text development. They revealed the psalms were once sequenced in a different order. This was interesting to scholars because the texts had long been so uniform, and seeing flexibility with the wording and organization was stunning. Few people, however, were able to read and analyze the texts. The Dead Sea Scrolls were long hidden away until they were “liberated” in the 1990s. [14] Later that year, the Biblical Archaeology Society was able to publish the “Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls”, after an intervention of the Israeli government and the IAA.[15] In 1991 Emanuel Tov was appointed as the chairman of the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation, and publication of the scrolls followed in the same year. Researchers at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio, Ben Zion Wacholder and Martin Abegg, announced the creation of a computer program that used previously published scrolls to reconstruct the unpublished texts.[16] Officials at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, led by head librarian William Andrew Moffett, announced that they would allow researchers unrestricted access to the library’s complete set of photographs of the scrolls. In the fall of that year, Wacholder published 17 documents that had been reconstructed in 1988 from a concordance and had come into the hands of scholars outside of the international team; in the same month, there occurred the discovery and publication of a complete set of facsimiles of the Cave 4 materials at the Huntington Library. Thereafter, the officials of the IAA agreed to lift their long-standing restrictions on the use of the scrolls.[17]

If you keep a close eye on the footnotes of your Bible, you’ll see a number of places where the words of modern translations are different than those read by your parents or grandparents. One of the reasons for this is that we know more about ancient scribal culture and have access to hoards more biblical manuscripts today than we ever have. This means the textual foundation under the hood of most any contemporary translation is better than it has ever been. Whether you’re a fan of the NIV, NRSV, ESV, or ABC-123, each new edition involves incremental change to the actual words on the page.

But this sword cuts in both directions. While we have far more evidence to work with, if the Scrolls taught us anything about Old Testament scripture, it is generally true that the older the manuscripts the more varied they become. Simply put: human scribes were not photocopiers and no two manuscripts are the same. Scribes copied texts but also interpreted them. That was their job. It wasn’t trickery or introducing error at every turn. This often resulted in slow growth of biblical texts with manuscripts having relatively modest variations in content. A word here, a phrase there, and in some cases, more than one edition of a book circulated. To many modern readers, this might sound like a major problem. I’d rather see it as an opportunity. An opportunity for artful restoration of a text that is both ancient and sacred. Let me show you what I mean.

I really like the way RELEVANT handles this:

Have you ever been reading the Old Testament and then, wham!, some guy shows up in the story and starts gouging out people’s eyeballs? I have, very alarming. (Gotta love the Old Testament though, so old school!) Of course, I’m talking about the incident that plays out in 1 Samuel 10-11, just after Saul became Israel’s first king. In most ancient manuscripts and modern Bible translations, chapter 10 ends with a statement of a small group uttering lack of confidence in Saul’s ability to defeat the Ammonites (1 Sam 10:27). Chapter 11 then opens with the sudden introduction of an Ammonite king named Nahash, who insists on only making a treating with the Israelites so long as he can gouge out each and all’s right eyeball (1 Sam 11:1-2). Not only is this a bad deal, its super confusing in the context of the narrative. Why? Something is missing.

At least seven copies of the book of Samuel were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. One of these, known as 4QSamuala, just happens to be the oldest known manuscript of the book in existence (dated to around 50-25 BCE). In this version of the text, we find a full paragraph tucked in between the end of chapter 10 and beginning of chapter 11. The translation of this Dead Sea Scroll reads as follows:[Na]hash king of the [A]mmonites oppressed the Gadites and the Reubenites viciously. He put out the right [ey]e of a[ll] of them and brought fe[ar and trembling] on [Is]rael. Not one of the Israelites in the region be[yond the Jordan] remained [whose] right eye Naha[sh king of] the Ammonites did n[ot pu]t out, except seven thousand men [who escaped from] the Ammonites and went to [Ja]besh-gilead. 

What we have here is essentially a cut scene seemingly lost in the generations of copying all other biblical manuscripts. From this content, we learn who this Nahash figure is and why he had the sadistic penchant for collecting eyeballs. Incidentally, the ancient Jewish historian Josephus also seems to have been aware or this detail as he hints at it in his own retelling of Saul’s life (Antiquities 6.5.1). This is the single largest difference discovered when the biblical Dead Sea Scrolls were compared with all previously known witness to the Old Testament. The spectrum of other variations revealed by the scrolls ranges from the spelling of terms, to added/omitted words, or even sentences. While many common Bible translations have dabbled in the Dead Sea Scrolls and included new readings, to date the NRSV is the only one bold enough to integrate the reading described here in 1 Samuel.

[18] https://relevantmagazine.com/faith/how-the-dead-sea-scroll-discovery-changed-christianity/

Conclusion

The Dead Sea Scrolls are important for a number of reasons. First, they shed light on an otherwise known Jewish group. Actually, the people who wrote the Scrolls never refer to themselves as Jews. They are intriguingly vague about their identity. Second, the Scrolls indicate that certain books of the Bible were more popular than others, a conclusion we could draw similarly from the New Testament quotations of the Old Testament. Third, the use of the Old Testament as an authoritative source for biblical interpretation and personal and community life matches material from the New Testament as well. Finally, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls allows us to access Old Testament manuscripts more than 1,000 years older than we previously possessed. Before the discovery of the Scrolls, the oldest complete manuscript of any Old Testament book dated to the 10th century A.D. To be clear, if Moses wrote the Pentateuch in circa 1400 B.C., then our earliest copy of his complete work in Hebrew dated 2,400 years after it was written! It is with justification that the Dead Sea Scrolls are considered by many the most important biblical archaeological discovery of all time.[19]

WORKS CITED:

  1.  “The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls: Nature and Significance”. Israel Museum Jerusalem. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
  2. “Dead Sea Scrolls | Definition, Discovery, History, & Facts | Britannica”. http://www.britannica.com.
  3. Lash, Mordechay; Goldstein, Yossi; Shai, Itzhaq (2020). “Underground-Archaeological Research in the West Bank, 1947–1968: Management, Complexity, and Israeli Involvement”. Bulletin of the History of Archaeology. 
  4. Duhaime, Bernard; Labadie, Camille (2020). “Intersections and Cultural Exchange: Archaeology, Culture, International Law and the Legal Travels of the Dead Sea Scrolls”. Canada’s Public Diplomacy. Palgrave Macmillan Series in Global Public Diplomacy. Cham: Springer International Publishing. p. 146
  5. “Hebrew University Archaeologists Find 12th Dead Sea Scrolls Cave”. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Archived from the original on 2 June 2017.
  6. Donahue, Michelle Z. (10 February 2017). “New Dead Sea Scroll Find May Help Detect Forgeries”. nationalgeographic.com. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018.
  7. Ofri, Ilani (13 March 2009). “Scholar: The Essenes, Dead Sea Scroll ‘authors,’ never existed”. Ha’aretz. Archived from the original on 6 January 2018.
  8. Golb, Norman (5 June 2009). “On the Jerusalem Origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls” (PDF). University of Chicago Oriental Institute. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 June 2010.
  9. Vermes, Geza (1977). The Dead Sea Scrolls. Qumran in Perspective. London: Collins. p. 15. 
  10. McCarthy, Rory (27 August 2008). “From papyrus to cyberspace”. The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 December 2016.
  11. https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/dead-sea-scrolls/what_are_the_dead_sea_scrolls/
  12. https://www.imj.org.il/en/wings/shrine-book/dead-sea-scrolls
  13. https://cojs.org/dead_sea_scrolls_overview/
  14. https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/at-2-000-years-old-the-dead-sea-scrolls-help-inform-ancient-language
  15. “Copies of Dead Sea Scrolls To Go Public – Release Would End Scholars’ Dispute'”. The Seattle Times. 22 September 1991. Archived from the original on 21 October 2013
  16. HUC-JIR Mourns Dr. Ben Zion Wacholder, Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, 31 March 2011, archived from the original on 18 November 2015
  17. “Dead Sea Scrolls”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 12 April 2009. 
  18. https://relevantmagazine.com/faith/how-the-dead-sea-scroll-discovery-changed-christianity/
  19. https://apologeticspress.org/the-dead-sea-scrolls-and-the-bible-5741/

the Sheep’s Gate Jerusalem

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Today was our first full day in Jerusalem and we pretty much covered the entire Old Jerusalem. It was overwhelming but perhaps one of the best days of my life. Our tour guide was an Atheist which I actually quite enjoyed hearing his take on things (that might be a future post). So much of the Jerusalem experience sounds like, “they think this may have been,” or “according to tradition.” I guess that is expected but of course it left me longing to want to stand where Jesus stood for certain. That may be impossible seeing that things have been “excavated” several times over the last 2000 years, and they have continued to build over the last structures raising the “mount” about 40 feet from what it was during the time of Christ. I think there is good evidence for the trial location being at about the same elevation thanks to recent archeology and perhaps the crucifixion site at Golgotha which is covered by a church but shows the mountain top. The temple dome is also covered and completely inaccessible to Christians as the Islamic Mosque covers it. But the location that came to life for me was the Sheep’s gate.

THE ARCHEOLOGY AND LINGUISTICS

In John 5 we find Jesus, the great physician, engaged with a man who is physically unwell. The Pool of Bethesda is referred to in John 5:2 when Jesus heals a paralyzed man at a pool of water in Jerusalem, described as being near the Sheep Gate and surrounded by five covered colonnades or porticoes. I saw this today and it came to life. (It is also sometimes referred to as Bethzatha) [1] and is now established in the current Muslim Quarter of the city, near the Church of St. Anne, which was excavated in the late 19th century.

The name of the pool in Hebrew is Beth hesda (בית חסד/חסדא) which is a bit ambiguous and could mean “house of mercy”[2] or “house of grace” likely due to the invalids waiting to be healed.[3][4][5]IN Greek it reads Βηθεσδά (Bethesda),[7] appearing in manuscripts of the Gospel of John, include Βηθζαθά[8] (Beth-zatha = בית חדתא[9]) as a derivative of Bezetha, and Bethsaida (not to be confused with Bethsaida, a town in Galilee), although the latter is considered to be a metathetical corruption by Biblical scholars.[10] Franz Delitzsch suggests this is a Mishnaic Hebrew loanword from the Greek estiv/estava, that appropriately referred to stoa (στοά).[11] That would seem to fit here. As I mentioned earlier, when you visit this in person you are looking down into a deep hole. This is because over 2000 years nearly 40 feet of fill has been added to nearly the entire Temple mount. Until the 19th century, there was no conception for the existence of such a pool. The Pool of Bethesda almost took on a mystical or magical persona similar to the fabled fountain of youth. However, Conrad Schick in 1872 was permitted to conduct research on the Temple Mount, which was generally off limits to non-Muslims.[12] He discovered a large tank situated about 100 feet (30 m) north-west of St. Anne’s Church, which he contended was the Pool of Bethesda. Further archaeological excavation in the area, in 1964, uncovered the remains of the Byzantine and Crusader churches, Hadrian’s Temple of Asclepius and Serapis, and the small healing pools of an Asclepeion, the second of the two large pools, and the dam between them.[13] It was discovered that the Byzantine church had been built in the very heart of Hadrian’s temple and contained the healing pools.[14] Essentially, when you see this in person as it was excavated, it comes to life. You see the gentle steps for the inflicted, and the way around them. You see how it was likely off the beaten bath and in the bad part of town.

THE NARRATIVE

“Jesus is making his way through the crowd at the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem. To do so he has to pass by a pool. Today, just like every day, it is surrounded by those who cling to life by a thread of hope. Legend says that this pool sometimes becomes the channel of God’s grace. Legend has it that the first one to enter the water after an angel stirs it up will be cured. So the square is full. There are blind, lame, diseased, dumb, paralytics, amputees. The vestiges of an occupied society. The outcasts, the homeless, the beggars. All there waiting for a chance at new life, to be freed of their special form of imprisonment.”[6]

So, what exactly took place? We aren’t given much of his spiritual state, but he seems to have some faith. Jesus asks a pointed question: “Do you want to get well?” (v 6 NIV). As we take a deeper look at this scene in scripture, we might find Jesus challenging our own situations with that question. The passage points us toward considering the areas in our lives where we are seeking healing from the Lord.

If you have any Bible other than the King James Version you will notice that Verse 4 is missing. Perhaps you have a footnote. I always thought the fact that the NIV has 49 blank verses was very interesting and certainly should challenge your thoughts on inerrancy and what that means. There are over 3000 Greek manuscripts and fragments of the New Testament of varying age. Each one was hand copied, which leaves room for mistakes and even practical decisions of what to do with what the previous copyist has done. John 5:4 is one of the verses in contention, as the addition or subtraction from your translation does carry some interesting implications worth exploring, IMHO it doesn’t change the primary narrative.

The verse or perhaps note in your Bible does help to explain the context of the story and the people involved. They believed in a rather superstitious way that from time to time when the water was troubled (it would rise rapidly and then sink again) that this was caused by an angel who visited the pool, and the first person who got into it when it was so moved would be healed. This is akin to what is found in many parts of the world today. Lourdes, in southern France, has a spa which many believe has healing capacities. The shrine of Guadalupe, in Mexico City, has thousands of crutches stacked along its walls where people have been healed in this special place where they thought they could receive a blessing from God. I spent many summers in Ecuador and there were several pools that took on the same notion. In many historical cases people have been unarguably healed.

Of course, Bethesda, and most of the others mentioned are all intermittent springs, thus explaining the rising and falling water lines, but also may give relevance to people’s notions of healing waters coming from the natural earth. As you can imagine the theories vary. Perhaps most of these healings around the world and throughout history can be explained psychologically. When people believe they are going to be healed, and they are in a place where healings supposedly occur, and they do the expected thing, many of them are “healed.” So much of the human process is psychological and/or spiritual. Thus, the pool at Bethesda had established a reputation as a place where people could be healed. Would you call this then a natural or supernatural occurrence? Yes?! Perhaps? Well, that may depend on your theology!

I used to think that this man at the pool at Bethesda had lain there for 38 years. But the text does not say that; it says he had been ill for 38 years. Scripture likely would have identified him as a “lame” man (or a cripple) had that been the case, but we get more of the description that he is weak, feeble, and unable to stand, probably because of some wasting disease; perhaps what we refer to in modern day language as cancer, tuberculosis, or multiple sclerosis.  

The story picks up early in Jesus’ ministry where He is being followed by a crowd at the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem. He approaches the pool where there are blind, lame, diseased, dumb, paralytics, amputees all hoping to be healed. I am sure this was a mosaic of the fallen world. I am sure the stench in the air would have tipped you off to this. Jesus seemed to have a heart for this kind of place and people. There is a certain simplicity that Jesus masters in cutting to the chase. If you have never picked up on this, Jesus always seems to be direct in a sense of what we might think of as “making time or space for something”; but the fact was his expediency commanded the sole work of the father. In other words, that’s the only “time” He kept.

You don’t need to “make time for something” when “all of your time” is given to it.

The question was direct and quite simple, “Do you want to get well?” I am sure some wondered if he was making fun of the man, as the question may have seemed quite rhetorical. If the man is here at the pool, then of course he wants to get well- why else would he be here on the “other side of the tracks”?

What is interesting is that the paralytic doesn’t exactly answer the question that Jesus asks. His response is, “Sir, I can’t get to the pool fast enough. I have no one to help me and before I get there, someone else is always first”. I find this pretty common. We are stuck in our world’s way of thinking; our paradigm isn’t that of the ways or mind of Jesus.

But Jesus isn’t actually asking him if he “wants” or “desires” to be healed, (that would be rude), He is actually asking him if he is willing. There is a difference. I get tired of completely “free” and/or “unmerited” grace language in the American evangelical church. I will get there…

I often read the Biblical texts in Greek and Hebrew and when I get to this part, something jumps out at me that you wouldn’t know from the English translations. The Greek word He uses is “thelo”. This is an unusual choice of words for “willingness”. The Greek word “boulomai” is the more common word for such a question of will or desire. But “thelo” carries a stronger connotation which also likely created a bit of a wordplay in Aramaic. Jesus isn’t asking if he has a desire to be healed, he is asking if he is willing to do what is needed to experience this. It is a bit of a word play because the man responds that he can’t do this alone; and that is true – HE NEEDS JESUS. But he doesn’t actually realize what he “needs.” Does he realize healing comes from Jesus not the pool, does he understand that Jesus is asking if he is willing to enter into what may be an agreement or covenant as a result of the offered healing? It isn’t really a deal or a contract but has some ramifications similar. By modern English-American understanding perhaps we call this “strings attached.” There is an expectation to the action and an expected response to such a gift.

Jesus is asking, “Are you willing to do what it takes to be generated whole?” Often in English we need more than one word to express the singular joined words of the Hebrew and Greek languages. This is why translation is difficult and gets into literal word versus thought for thought arguments. In this case “be” is often short for become and functions the same way in Greek. It is also why I would say the better translation would uses the phrase “be generated.” It is one of the rare Greek words that actually carries over into English knowledge as the transliteration is “genesis” which in English shares the same root notion as the word generated. In other words, do you want to start over to be made whole? This healing experience in many ways is what each of us is confronted with, it is the takeaway from the text, what does complete healing look like for you?

Do you have the desire and are you willing to enter a covenant to be generated completely well. spiritually and physically?

Jesus is asking then if He wants to “commit” to a new life. We say that all the time without thinking of the implications of what commitment means. Again, I am sure he doesn’t understand the question and we have the advantage of reading the entire Biblical narrative backwards or inside out to gain a better understanding. Did you know that this same Greek word carries the connotation linguistically of being “sound or good (TOV)?” (The creation story reminds us of this.) Another way we say this is “to be healthy.” You may be familiar with the term “shalom” which is so important to the balance of life and healthy physical and spiritual living. It embraces the whole person, physical and spiritual. It is far reaching in the kingdom.

That brings me to the reflective action of this message. Just how ready are we to do whatever is required to begin our own rebirth or regeneration? The man in the story says he needs Jesus and I love the poetic inability. Over and over in the scripture we see that Jesus is looking for a first step and offers for people to simply “Trust Him”. He is asking for first steps of devotion, to follow through right now. He is here, now, in this moment, to help. Take the action of your desire and . . . “Rise up and walk.” Do you see that this is an invitation to all of us?

The reaction on that day would have never been forgotten. The lame man of thirty-eight years stands up and walks. But don’t miss the real miracle- the poetic voice of the story, that without asking, without even knowing or imagining, God visits this victim of the world and asks him to be reimagined for His kingdom. God initiates. God searches. God authors the contact, but our response is important and vital. It is Jesus’ intention to bring this man to wholeness before the paralytic even knows Jesus is there. That is the desire that he has offered and presented to all of us. God cares nothing about your ability. God cares about motivation and action in the midst of inability. Will you complete the covenant gift presented to you?

Do you wish to be generated well?

Maybe the man believed he could be healed, and he wanted to be healed. Maybe this is a story of faith, or maybe it is just a story of what God is offering to anyone, regardless of your faith or even understanding or desire within His kingdom. Perhaps that comes later as a result of enduring devotion and faithfulness. It is absolutely, imperative that you believe Jesus can and does desire to heal you.

Jesus heals in many ways, instantaneously, in a process, and when we see Him face to face. I don’t know what the kingdom sequence or order of why and when is, but I know that He does this, and He will do it completely.

Many of us received initially what was offered (and all of these were miraculous encounters); but perhaps we haven’t completed the circle of the gifted grace. Perhaps we left the covenant on the table. There are “strings attached” that are called devotion, and this devotion is what leads to the preeminent calling of scripture which is to be an “ALL IN” disciple of Jesus. The story wasn’t written with just the expectation to become fans or even simple followers, it was written that we may “become generated” disciples completely whole (and healed) in Jesus. Most American Christians certainly do not fulfill the calling of Biblical discipleship. Yes, it is a free gift of grace, but that gift was given to be regifted or regenerated and show (or display to the world as an image of Jesus in each of us) the way to the new complete life God has intended for you. I feel like many Christians have been quick to take the “free gift” but haven’t followed through with the covenant aspects of the kingdom. We don’t bear the fruit that outwardly proclaims the complete healing inside. Perhaps you’re wondering what you’re missing. I find the answer usually lies in discipleship and devotion. God wants all of us. Thats is what a disciple “works” towards. What does that covenant life look like for you and your family? What does this kind of discipleship look like in your own life and in the lives of those that you are regenerated to impact?

NOTE: If this is the first you have read of such a notion of reciprocal grace I would point you to consider this article: https://expedition44.com/2024/06/23/baptism/

WORKS CITED: 

  1. John 5:2: Contemporary English Version
  2. Easton’s Bible Dictionary.
  3. “Bethsaida (the pool)”. Catholic Encyclopedia.
  4. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1995), on sheep gate and on sheep market.
  5. D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John (1991), p. 241.
  6. https://skipmoen.com/2009/02/do-you-want-to-be-well/
  7. Textus Receptus.
  8. Tischendorf and WH.
  9. Revised Standard Version marginal note to John 5:2.
  10. “Bethsaida”. newadvent.org. Retrieved 6 October 2010.
  11. Delitzsch, F. 1856. “Talmudische Studien, X. Bethesda”, Zeitschrift für die gesamte lutherische Theologie und Kirche.
  12. August Strobel, Conrad Schick: ein Leben für Jerusalem; Zeugnisse über einen erkannten Auftrag, Fürth: Flacius-Verlag, 1988, p. 44. ISBN 3-924022-18-6
  13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pool_of_Bethesda#cite_note-Rex-18
  14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pool_of_Bethesda#cite_note-Wahlde2006-17