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.
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.
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:
“The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls: Nature and Significance”. Israel Museum Jerusalem. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
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.
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
“Hebrew University Archaeologists Find 12th Dead Sea Scrolls Cave”. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Archived from the original on 2 June 2017.
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.
Ofri, Ilani (13 March 2009). “Scholar: The Essenes, Dead Sea Scroll ‘authors,’ never existed”. Ha’aretz. Archived from the original on 6 January 2018.
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.
Vermes, Geza (1977). The Dead Sea Scrolls. Qumran in Perspective. London: Collins. p. 15.
McCarthy, Rory (27 August 2008). “From papyrus to cyberspace”. The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 December 2016.
“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
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
“Dead Sea Scrolls”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 12 April 2009.
In Egypt today we visited several churches, one of which was The Church of Martyrs Sergius and Bacchus in The Cave, also known as the Abu Serga Church, and is one of the oldest Coptic Christian churches in Egypt, dating back to the 4th century.[1] Tradition holds that Saints Sergius and Bacchus Church was built on the spot where the Joseph, Mary, and the infant Jesus rested at the end of their journey into Egypt.
The flight into Egypt is a story told in Matthew 2:13–23 and in New Testament apocrypha. Soon after the visit by the Magi, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream telling him to flee to Egypt with Mary and the infant Jesus since King Herod would seek the child to kill him.
You might remember, when the Magi came in search of Jesus, they went to Herod the Great in Jerusalem to ask where to find the newborn “King of the Jews”. Herod became afraid that the child would threaten his throne and sought to kill him (2:1–8). Herod initiated the Massacre of the Innocents in hopes of killing the child (Matthew 2:16). But an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and warned him to take Jesus and his mother into Egypt (Matthew 2:13). Both Egypt and Judea were part of the Roman Empire, linked by a coastal road known as “the way of the sea”,[2] making travel between them easy and relatively safe.
After Herod passed, Joseph was told by an angel in a dream to return to the land of Israel. However, upon hearing that Archelaus had succeeded his father as ruler of Judaea he “was afraid to go there” (Matthew 2:22), and was again warned in a dream by God “and turned aside to the region of” Galilee. This is Matthew’s explanation of why Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea but grew up in Nazareth. Herod died is 4BC, which is stated by Matthew and affirmed by Josephus. Mary and Joseph return to Judah. This is the only time the Biblical Text uses the term “Judah” as a geographical place identifying Judah and Galilee. The text indicates that they first come to Judah but them quickly relocate to Galilee after learning that Archelaus had become the new king who was known to be violent and aggressive.
As an interesting rabbit hole, the beginning and conclusion of Jesus’ parable of the minas in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 19, may refer to Archelaus’ journey to Rome. Some interpreters conclude from this that Jesus’ parables and preaching made use of events familiar to the people as examples for bringing his spiritual lessons to life. Others read the allusion as arising from later adaptations of Jesus’ parables in the oral tradition, before the parables were recorded in the gospels.
Many would deduct the flight to Egypt to fulfill a prophecy by Hosea. Matthew’s use of Hosea 11:1 has been explained in several ways. A sensus plenior approach states that the text in Hosea contains a meaning intended by God and acknowledged by Matthew, but unknown to Hosea. A typological reading interprets the fulfillment as found in the national history of Israel and the antitypical fulfillment as found in the personal history of Jesus. Matthew’s use of typological interpretation may also be seen in his use of Isaiah 7:14 and 9:1, and Jeremiah 31:15. Some have pointed out that “Hosea 11.1 points back to the Exodus, where God’s ‘first-born son’ (Ex 4:22), Israel, was delivered from slavery under the oppressive Pharaoh. Matthew sees this text also pointing forward, when Jesus, the eternal first-born Son (Rom 8:29), is delivered from the tyrant Herod and later brought out of Egypt (2:21).”[3]
The Orthodox Study Bible states that the citation of Hosea 11.1 “refers first to Israel being brought out of captivity. In the Old Testament ‘son’ can refer to the whole nation of Israel. Here Jesus fulfills this calling as the true Son of God by coming out of Egypt.[4] The Anglican scholar N. T. Wright has pointed out that “The narrative exhibits several points of contact with exodus and exile traditions where Jesus’ infancy recapitulates a new exodus and the end of exile, marking him out further as the true representative of Israel.”[5]
The Masoretic Text reads my son, whereas the Septuagint reads his sons or his children;[6] I typically prefer the Septuagint but, in this case, the Masoretic seems more accurate. The Septuagint seeks to find agreement in the plurals of Hosea 11:2 they and them. I bring this up because Luke does not recount this story, relating instead that they went to the Temple in Jerusalem, and then home to Nazareth. However, both texts can be in Harmony without Luke mentioning the flight to Egypt. A theme of Matthew is likening Jesus to Moses for a Judean audience, and the Flight into Egypt illustrates just that theme.[7]
“[Joseph’s] choice of Egypt as a place of exile … was in line with the practice of other Palestinians who feared reprisals from the government; as a neighbouring country with a sizeable Jewish population it was an obvious refuge. And his subsequent avoidance of Judea under Archelaus, and expectation of safety in Galilee, accords with the political circumstances as we know them.”[8]
We also get some strange tales in the extra biblical apocropha. Jesus tames dragons, the trees bow to Him, and the story of the two thieves that later appear on the cross with Him. [9] These stories have certainly influenced Egypt and the Coptic Orthodox Church which was established by Mark, an apostle and evangelist, during the middle of the 1st century (c. AD 42).[10] There are a number of churches and shrines such as the one I visited today marking places where the family stayed.
There is another difficulty here that I should point out. Nazareth is not mentioned in the Old Testament, or by Josephus or any other rabbinical sources.[11] In other words, the quote, “he will be called a Nazarene” is that it occurs nowhere in the Old Testament, or any other extant source. In Judges 13:5 we see a similar clause of Samson but reads “nazirite.” Did Matthew suggest Jesus was intended to have been a Nazirite? Dis the text change and eventually the area became known as Nazareth? Jesus later would not match the description of a first century Nazarite so this has left scholars scratching their heads.
Much of Matthew was likely penned in Hebrew and when you translate this back to Hebrew you find a wordplay that I think answers our difficulty. Isaiah 11:1 states that there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: the Hebrew for branch is נצר (netzer). The priestly clan of the “netzerites” possibly settled in the place which became known as Netzereth/ Nazareth. This leaves us clearly seeing that the title Nazarene alludes not so much to his town of origin as to his royal descent.
At any rate, I hope you enjoyed a venture into my mind and appreciate the way that I view history, theology, and a working through a better lens of agreement within the entire text taking into account several different textures of interpretation. I pray that it deepens your enthusiasm for the Word as it has moved me.
WORKS CITED:
Sheehan, Peter (2015). Babylon of Egypt: The Archaeology of Old Cairo and the Origins of the City. Oxford University Press. pp. 35, 40. ISBN 978-977-416-731-7.
Von Hagen, Victor W. The Roads that Led to Rome published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1967. p. 106.
Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, New Testament (2010). San Francisco: Ignatius Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-1586174842
The Orthodox Study Bible (2008). Nashville: Thomas Nelson. p. 1268. ISBN 978-0718003593
Wright, N. T. and Michael F. Bird (2019). The New Testament in its World. London: SPCK; Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic. p. 590. ISBN 978-0310499305
Brenton’s Septuagint Translation of Hosea 11, accessed 4 December 2016
Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. “Matthew” pp. 272–285
France, R. T. (1981). “Scripture, Tradition and History in the Infancy Narratives of Matthew”. In France, R. T.; Wenham, David (eds.). Gospel Perspectives: Studies of History and Tradition in the Four Gospels. Vol. 2. Sheffield (UK): JSOT Press. p. 257. ISBN 0-905774-31-0.
The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew at The Gnostic Society Library, Christian Apocrypha and Early Christian Literature
Meinardus, Otta Friedrich August (1999). “The Coptic Church: Its History, Traditions, Theology, and Structure.”. Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity. American University in Cairo Press. p. 28. ISBN 9789774247576. JSTOR j.ctt15m7f64.
Perkins, P. (1996). Nazareth. In P. J. Achtemeier (Ed.), The HarperCollins Bible dictionary, pp. 741–742. San Francisco: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-060037-3.
Galilee Archived 9 May 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
“Unless you can enter deeply into the mystery of the Incarnation, I’m afraid your Christianity will remain shallow, uninspiring and largely legalistic. You will essentially think that Christianity is about rules and rewards and where you go when you die. And in an increasingly secularized and pluralistic culture not too many people are interested in a legalistic afterlife religion. The best hope I know for presenting the gospel in a compelling way to a 21st century audience is to begin with….the beginning: The Incarnation. The breath-taking mystery of God joining us in our humanity.” [1]
Greg Boyd, has put it this way, “There is no denying that the Incarnation is paradoxical. It is hard, if not impossible, to conceive how a person could be, at one and the same time fully God and fully human. I don’t think this should surprise us too much, however. After all, we confront similar paradoxes in science as well as in our everyday life. For example, as I’m sure most of you have heard that physicists tell us that light has the property of waves in some circumstances and of particles in other circumstances, yet we have no way of understanding how this is possible. Even the nature of time and space is paradoxical if you think about it. We can’t conceive of time having a beginning, but neither can we conceive of it without a beginning. So too, we can’t conceive of space having an end, but we also can’t conceive of it not having an end. If things as basic to our experience as the nature of light, time and space are paradoxical, I don’t think we should find it too surprising that things surrounding God are mysterious.”
Paul declared that Jesus was nothing less than the very embodiment of all of God. This distinction of “all of God” is important for us to understand what it means for us to see Jesus and God rightly. Battling proto-gnostic teachers who were apparently presenting Christ alongside other manifestations of God, Paul declares “in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Col. 2:9; cf. 1:19). His statement could hardly have been more emphatic:
“All” (pan)—not some
“of the fullness” (plērōma)—not a part or an aspect
“of the Deity” (theotēs)—not a lesser divine being. [2]
As F.F. Bruce notes (regarding 1:19), Paul is asserting that, “all the attributes and activities of God—his spirit, word, wisdom and glory—are disclosed in [Christ].”[3]
In other words, the fullness of God is revealed or embodied in Jesus. Jesus is the complete revelation of God in Word. Graeme Goldsworthy puts it this way, if “Jesus is the one mediator between God and man,” then Jesus himself must be “the hermeneutic principle for every word from God.”[4] It is also paramount to recognize that Christ is the “head” of the cosmos by which all reconciliation will come (Eph. 1:10; Col 1:19-20).
The Temple and YHWH’s return to Zion are the keys to gospel Christology. Focus on a young Jewish prophet telling a story about YHWH returning to Zion as judge and redeemer and then embodying it by riding into the city in tears, by symbolizing the Temple’s destruction, and by celebrating the final Exodus. He would be the pillar of cloud for the people of the new Exodus. He would embody in himself the returning and redeeming action of the covenant God. [5] Wright is suggesting, and I would agree that we are to read the Gospels as the Story of God’s returning to Israel, to Zion, to the Temple and Jesus is that presence of God.
Regardless of your view of the atonement, such as Substitution, Satisfaction or Christus Victor; in all of them, Christ must be human in order for the sacrifice of the cross to be efficacious, for human sins to be “removed”, “cleansed”, “purified”, “covered”, and/or “conquered” (again depending on your atonement theology). This soteriological emphasis then gives way to the incarnation of the Son of God becoming a man so that he could save us from our sins. Therefore, the incarnation serves as a fulfilment of the love of God manifested and revealed in completeness as Jesus to be present and living amidst humanity, to “walk in the garden” with us.
The pervasive New Testament theme of union with Christ is by the Spirit. We actually become united to Christ the Lord by the Spirit’s power.
Michael F. Bird shares this, “What we should take away is that in the unfolding story of the New Testament, the pre-incarnate Son who divested himself of divine glory in his incarnation is now fully invested by the Father with divine authority over every realm and every creature. What the Lord God of Israel does in creation and redemption is now, in some way, done through the lordship of Jesus Christ. When Jesus is named as “Lord” it is usually in the context of affirming that he carries the mantle of the Father’s authority and that he is the Father’s agent for rescuing Israel and putting the world to rights. Confession of Jesus as Lord was not a matter of mere assent or academic affirmation. It was a life and death issue. It meant standing up to the Caesar’s of the world who usurped for themselves the praise and power that rightly belonged to God. As Christians today, our highest vocation is to live our lives under the aegis of Jesus’ lordship and to make it clear to all that “this Jesus,” whom men and women reject, is Lord of all. What is more, the Lord Jesus will bring justice to our sin cursed earth and then flood the world with the shalom of heaven.” [6]
Before Christ passes, he shares with the remnant, his faithful disciples that he wants them to continue this oath of allegiance to a coming kingdom and that he will rule as the Lord of all regathering the nations to Him. And when he dies, no one can understand what has happened. We still struggle with this today. We don’t know the full work of the cross; we don’t need to. We know that it was the power to save. The veil separating humankind from God was torn and the cord fell once and for all. The blood of the cross would run both ways. The plan to enter into a holy covenant with God would be not only restored but made perfect. The new covenant was cut. The plan of redemption for all humankind fulfilled. Nothing more than obedient faith to walk with God would be asked for. This commitment would encompass all of life, the heart, mind, and soul. [7]
[1] brianzahnd.com/2008/12/son-of-adam/ [2] The Incarnation: Paradox & reknew.org/2017/01/jesus-center-scripture/ [3] F. F. Bruce, The Epistles to the Colossians, Philemon and to the Ephesians, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eermans, 1984), 207. [4] Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics, 252, cf. 62. [5] N.T. Wright, The Historical Jesus and Christian Theology, Sewanee Theological Review 39, 1996. [6] Reflections on Jesus as Lord, June 24, 2014 by Michael F. Bird [7] Dr. Will Ryan, This is the Way of Covenant Discipleship, Crosslink Publishing 2021 Pgs. 82-83
What is the gospel? Most people answering this would go right into soteriology and likely give you some step plan for salvation, the spiritual laws, the romans road or some other systematic cleverly devised way of super simplifying the message of Jesus. For nearly the last 2000 years this wasn’t the way people thought of the gospel. In the Bible we read stories of people considering “conversion” into the way of Jesus and it never comes off as some checklist. These plans are almost always laced with some kind of Penal Substitutionary theory of atonement and feel very bait and switch. If that was the intention of the text, wouldn’t one of the authors simply have given it to us? But we don’t get that. In fact, we don’t get anything in history close to this until perhaps the reformation with Luther and Calvin. But they wouldn’t be considered evangelists by today’s standards. It isn’t until many years after that when Moody, Billy Sunday, Charles Finney, Bill Bright, and Billy Graham that we really get the church wide view pushing decisions to follow Jesus and altar calls of momentary decision. If we go back to the pages of the Bible what we find is quite different. We see mind wrenching decisions of people determining whether they want to change their entire life to follow the way of Jesus. This is followed by being baptized into this way of life and then likely joining this “ALL IN” community to continue their immersion into discipleship. Jesus literally used the 12 as an example to step away from life as you know it and enter into a life of total commitment. This kind of a decision was intended to be pondered and your old life to be exchanged for a new one should you take the dip.
The Greek word εὐαγγέλιον originally meant a reward given to the messenger for good news (εὔ = “good”, ἀνγέλλω = “I bring a message”; the word “angel or messenger” comes from the same root) and later “good news” itself. The Bible records that Jesus sent out his disciples to evangelize by visiting people’s homes in pairs of two believers (cf. Luke 10:1–12).[1] In the same text, Jesus mentioned that few people were willing to evangelize, despite there being many people who would be receptive to his Gospel message.[2] In case you ever wondered this is why Mormons go door to door.
In 2017 Salvation by Allegiance Alone: Rethinking Faith, Works, and the Gospel of Jesus the King was released by Matthew W. Bates. Anytime something has “alone” in the title I am weary, but there was a lot of good in this book, Jesus is the anointed King of all creation, elevated to that position by God, evidenced by the resurrection. As King, he has expectations for those who follow him. As the verse in John 14 clearly demonstrates, commandments and/or devotion is central to these expectations. Allegiance entails obligatory obedience. I think Torah is important here and even though bates uses the word commandments I would take that more into devotion. He goes on to define the gospel by these points:
a reiteration of his eight-point summary of the gospel, totally Trinitarian which is ok I guess…
a statement that the Church needs to “stop asking others to invite Jesus into their hearts and start asking them to swear allegiance to Jesus the King”[3] Yep!
a claim that “it is dreadfully wrongheaded to suggest that the gospel is best (or even adequately) proclaimed by actions unencumbered by words” . . . “the true gospel is not reducible to Christian activities.”[4] Totally Agree!
a suggestion that the “Christian metanarrative” need only include the creation, the fall, the election of Israel, the gospel, the church and the future renewal [5] This one I see a bit differently
a demand for discipleship: “The invitation to begin the journey of salvation can never be anything less than a call to discipleship, for nothing less will result in final salvation.”[6] YES!!! YES!!!
a suggestion that saying the creeds (particularly the Apostle’s Creed) is the equivalent of saying the eight-points of the Trinitarian gospel as he outlines it. I can argue this one either way.
Where I mainly agree is on allegiance. In the first century you were allegiant to one and had no other masters. If you were loyal to Caesar there couldn’t be another. In my book, this is the way of covenant discipleship I devote an entire chapter to a better way of theologically framing the gospel. I will share some of that book at the bottom of this article. If you haven’t read it, I suggest starting there. My next suggestion would be The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good released in 2016 by Scot McKnight (Author), N.T. Wright and Dallas Willard (Foreword).
Frank Viola also has a great handle on this. The New Testament calls Jesus an insurgent. He was an enemy of the State, accused of treason.
“They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.”
The Insurgence, then, is the recovery of the titanic, earth-shaking, subversive gospel of the kingdom that got Jesus, John the Baptist, and the apostles in hot water. It’s a spiritual revolution against the world system that Jesus, John, and Paul speak against, and an utter and total allegiance to Jesus Christ and His alternative civilization called “the kingdom of God.”
But I still go down deeper trails… the gospel is combined in every word of the New Testament. The gospel isn’t a “plan” as much as it is a Person.
“And Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he announced Jesus as the gospel to him (Acts 8:35).”
The gospel of God is “concerning His Son (Rom. 1:3).” It is the all-inclusive unveiling of God’s full counsel concerning His goodness, His will, His purpose, and His kingdom.
“The gospel is the work of God to restore humans to union with God and communion with others, in the context of a community, for the good of others and the world.”
– Scot McKnight, Embracing Grace
So then, what is the Gospel? This is pretty basic to Christianity, yet we have made it out to be so confusing. If we can’t answer this as Christians then what are we doing? Many of us understand part of the gospel, or understand part of the gospel to be the complete gospel. The Bible literally calls the gospel the “good news” and the word for that is euengelion. If you have never done a simple word study in the Greek, it is worth the investment to start here. This word is introduced at the announcement of Christ’s birth and carries forward to continue to be our calling as Christians. The word originally signifies the idea of good tidings, but as we work our way through the scripture, ironically what we refer to as “the gospels” or the books that tell the story of Jesus; we find that the word begins to take on a similar yet different meaning. We read passage like Mark 1:14:15, ‘The time has been fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has drawn near; repent and believe in the gospel’. Has the meaning of the word changed, stayed the same, or taken on a broader meaning?
What about Luke 4:18-19“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointedme to proclaim good newsto the poor. He has sent meto proclaim releaseto the captivesand the regaining of sightto the blind, to set freethose who are oppressed, to proclaim the yearof the Lord’s favor.”
The answer is in the covenants and the context of the entire lens of the Bible. When I say you can’t clearly understand the message of the Bible without understanding the covenant thinking, this is what I mean. Many have failed to see the gospel in the Old Testament and that is problematic to understanding the complete message of the overall gospel. In Galatians 3:8 we read, that God made a Covenant to Abraham. We usually call the this the Abrahamic covenant, but it is actually more clearly called the covenant of circumcision. Essentially the message from God to Abraham was that all nations would be blessed through his lineage. In the next chapter we are going to walk through this story, but for now let’s simply leave it that many generations went by and failed to live intimately with God. We see the fall in the garden, the flood, the tower of babel, God taking on Israel as His chosen people (or portion of all the world) and eventually they fail him too and he allows them to go into exile and judgment. But he doesn’t lose everyone throughout those years. Some remain faithful and some will return back to Him. The faithful are called the remnant. The Old testament closes with an idea that the Messiah will come to not only deliver the faithful remnant but possibly even the rest. Those that have fallen short (all of us in some way), and lost their allegiance will be given a chance to find their way back into this covenant of intimacy with God; to be let’s say, “adopted” into the kingdom. But as we read, we also find that even the remnant is blemished and (despite ritual yearly cleansing through faithful sacrifice) still will not “make the cut”; so not only is the good news for the unfaithful to return to faithfulness but even for the faithful to now be made complete. The good news is for everyone.
This plan by original design would be the greatest message to the earth; it would be the “good news” that the world needed to receive after the realization of knowledge that they had lost, or given up their right to the kingdom, by refusing God.
To the Jews, God’s chosen people, it meant a return from exile. To the gentiles, it meant a return or reclaiming by God of all people, the covenant of Abraham. To the spiritual beings, it meant that the fallen would be bound and a promise or covenant that ensured victory had been won. To all, it meant a return of the original plan to be in intimate relationship and walk with God in a covenant vocation with Him. We are all Lightbearers that eventually inherit a new Kingdom merged with the Heavenly realms and sacred space on the earth.
That is essentially the good news. We have been given the opportunity to be with God in intimate sacred living once again and all we have to do, is by our free will accept the new covenant that God is offering and live life in covenant with him, our spiritual family and our neighbor. But God isn’t just asking for a momentary decision, he is asking for us to follow Him as he has shown us; to literally give back all that he has offered in “life” and sacred living.
It comes down to the complete plan of the new covenant, eternal living life with God in His sacred kingdom. The story that starts with a sacred partnership in Eden has a plan to return to that way of walking in life with God almighty. A vocation of light, to be one with God almighty.
Rainer, Thom S. (1989). Evangelism in the twenty-first century: the critical issues. H. Shaw Publishers. p. 148. ISBN 978-0-87788-238-1.
Muzorewa, Abel Tendekayi (December 1, 2005). Evangelism That Decolonizes the Soul: Partnership with Christ. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-59752-445-2.
[1]Matthew Bates, Salvation by Allegiance Alone, Chapter 8.
I want to talk about what is meant by God’s order, but before I do that, I want to guide you through a brief exegetical teaching through the text. When you hear the word order in relation to a biblical sense we have been conditioned to think about creation, law, hierarchy in the church and marriage, and perhaps even church discipline. Although it encompasses those things, I find it unfortunate that we start there, and therefore I feel we might need some deconstruction to get to good.
In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice; in the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch. Psalm 5:3 NASB
As I begin to read this in Hebrew the first thing that I notice in contrast to most English translations is the phrase “My prayer” is not found in the text. It isn’t a bad translation as I get the context leans that way but in Hebrew the verse better reads, “I will order toward you” which emphasizes a slightly different posture. Interesting the word prayer isn’t really there, perhaps a NT implication or even insertion. Prayer in the OT was a bit different than the way we understand it today. It was communal and far less personal (unless God appeared to you in a bush and orally spoke directly to you), after Jesus ascends to the throne and sends the Spirit to dwell in us and intercede, the biblical concept of prayer takes on a different form than what it had been considered over the last 2000 years or more. The way people thought of “prayer” in the OT may or may not be accurate. Are we just reading what they thought prayer was supposed to be perhaps based on what they knew of their former deities? Is this something that they got a bit off track with and Jesus sought to adjust or shed new light on? Perhaps, but perhaps not. Maybe our prayer should take a cue from the OT notions. When we read this verse in Hebrew form, we see that David isn’t talking about ritualistic prayer, or is he? He isn’t necessarily folding his hands and closing his eyes – but he is sort of. He is making a statement that if his life is in alignment with what is of God – TOV (creation order language), then he expects God to acknowledge and “DO THINGS” on his behalf. This may tie into the never-ending OT grappling over whether God was retributive or not, but it certainly had the trajectory of demonstrating the idea of devotion in connection to intimacy with the Lord. This connection over the years will then be attributed to the conjecture of relationship with the father in prayer. Some prayer is communal and some is personal.
Different people interact with God differently and perhaps in different seasons. Some say they don’t hear God and others act like God never stops screaming in their ear. How can the voice of God differ from person to person? Is it based on the posture of the heart, covenant faithfulness, gifting, seasons, understanding, choice, some sort of prejudice, or something completely different that is higher than our understanding? I believe that God is just that dynamic. I don’t know why He communicates differently to people and what it might be based on; I don’t always have the eyes of God. I believe Him to be Sovereign and know significantly more than we do in a much more complex grid. I am convinced that there are many things that influence this covenant relationship at a cosmic level. It is far bigger than simply me, and to think of my relationship with God (the creator of the universe) as doating on my every thought seems like a selfish notion. Does that view minimize a personal relationship or exemplify it?
God’s order is described in everything naturally defined by Yahweh and described generally as what is good (TOV). This is creation, the waters, the counting of the ark, the building of the temple, the pieces of firewood set in order for a sacrificial fire, showbread set out in two rows of six cakes on the gold table (Lev 24:8); seven altars set up by the pagan mantic Balaam (Num 23:4); stalks of flax arranged by Rahab for hiding the spies (Josh 2:6); a table prepared for dining (Ps 23:5; Isa 21:5); words produced for speaking (Job 32:14); a legal case developed for presentation (Job 13:18); etc. In II Sam 23:5 David exults in the covenant granted him by Yahweh, “for he has made with me an everlasting covenant, / ordered (ʿărûkâ) in all things and secure.[1] We see God’s order in many ways, but the common thread that binds seems to be that it is given as a framework for our devotion to Him. This intimate devotion that is often described as reading or memorizing scripture, devotional repetition, standards of practice and living, and so much more are all described as what it means to be defined as SET APART. That we are defined and claimed as part of God’s order not the chaos of the world.
What defines this? Covenant. Covenant is the secure, accessible, and recognizable attribute of everything good that God offers to us. It is the basis of all of our interaction with the LORD. Without covenant we are detached or separated from the creator and his ways. When David chooses every morning to be in order, he is making a statement about the balance of life and the posture of the heart. The Hebrew term בְּרִית bĕriyth for “covenant” is from a root with the sense of “cutting”, because pacts or covenants were made by passing between cut pieces of flesh of an animal sacrifice.[2] It meant something deep.
The New Covenant is a biblical interpretation originally derived from a phrase in the Book of Jeremiah and often thought of as an eschatological world to come related to the biblical concept of the Kingdom of God. Generally, Christians believe that the New Covenant was instituted at the Last Supper as part of the Eucharist, which in the Gospel of John includes the New Commandment.[3] A connection between the Blood of Christ and the New Covenant is portrayed with the saying: “this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood”. Jesus is therefore the mediator of this New Covenant, and that his blood, shed is the required blood of the covenant. This is true looking back in both testaments and can be seen in all of the biblical covenants of the bible.
In the Christian context, this New Covenant is associated with the word ‘testament‘ in the sense of a ‘will left after the death of a person (Latin testamentum),[4] the original Greek word used in Scripture being diatheke (διαθήκη) which in the Greek context meant ‘will (left after death)’ but is also a word play having a dual meaning of ‘covenant, alliance’.[5] This notion implies a reinterpreted view of the Old Testament covenant as possessing characteristics of a ‘will left after death’ placing the old covenant, brit (בְּרִית) into a new application of understanding as revealed by the death, resurrection, ascension, and throning of CHRIST THE KING, JESUS. All things will forever connect at the covenants and be defined by the atoning accomplishments that transform into a covenant of eternity.
Order today might be better understood as a continually evolving algorithm based on the posture of your covenant faithfulness which, as I have described, is defined by many facets of devotion. Some may hear the audible voice of God more clearly while others simply see Him in every image. The revelation of God to us isn’t in a form of hierarchy. One form of transcendence doesn’t trump another. Who are we to judge anyway. But I do know that most of Christianity seems to be off course here. Rather than coming to the LORD as the cosmic wish granting genie in a bottle, let’s get back to biblical roots and think more covenantal and devotional based on the order that God modeled for us.
[1] Harris, R. L., Archer, G. L., Jr., & Waltke, B. K. (Eds.). (1999). Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 696). Chicago: Moody Press.
[2]Strong’s Concordance (1890).
[3] “Comparison of the two covenants mediated by Moses and the two covenants mediated by Jesus”. 25 September 2022. Archived from the original on 2022-09-28. Retrieved 2023-01-29.
Is Christmas Pagan? Well sort of yes, sort of not. It’s a great discussion. I’ll frame it first like this as an easy reference. Some Christians are triggered when people say XMASS instead of Christmas, saying things like your taking “Christ” out of Christmas. Well actually X has been a symbol for Christ since at least His death. IXOYE, the Christian Fish Symbol, (ichthus) means “Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior” in Greek. Christ in Greek starts with the X symbol or character. Since Greek is more Biblically correct than English XMass may actually be a more Bible way of saying Christmas than “Christmas” is. As I will go on to show. It is really a similar argument with Christmas as a whole. Is it Pagan? Well yea, there are some pagan things, are we taking back what is Biblical (Christ and celebrating His birth) as ambassadors of truth? Yea I hope so! In that way some of this gets a bit dicey and comes down to how you’re going to think about it or frame it. I love it that the world celebrates the Birth of Jesus! But I want my readers to work through this on your own, so as usual, nothing is spoon fed. Here are some notes, good luck!
Dec 25, -“unconquered son” (Christians stole this day from the Pagans) Not really. There is no reason to conflate some pagan festivity no one cares about with Christmas. If there was a conspiracy back in the fourth Century, then St. Augustine would likely have said something about it. What he did say was that when the barbarians came to sack Rome, they left the churches alone, out of respect for traditions that were foreign to them, but which they could see were clearly holy.
It likely is a result of mixed Jews and Christians trying to figure out how to be unified in the first few centuries after Christ. Some are aware that during the reformation England banned Christmas in 1647 in some part because of connections to paganism. But the reformation had a lot of problems this really shouldn’t surprise anyone. The accusation that Christmas was usurped from Sol Invictus is probably a result of works of the puritans of the 16/17th Century England.
In America Christmas was banned between the years of 1659-1681. Christmas as we know it really didn’t start happening until the late 1800’s and even then, it was foreign to most people. Puritans then where preaching and distributing literature denouncing such celebration. Christmas really became what we think of it today, when in 1843 Charles Dickens wrote “A Christmas Carol”.
If we look at the outlook of the early Western Church (and by Western, I mean both the Latin Catholics and the various Eastern Orthodoxies) towards pagan life and rituals in general, its abundantly clear that they saw it with utter disgust.
Incensing is also interesting. In the Torah it signified holiness, yet later within some orthodoxy it is outright condemned. For them, it was nothing more than a pagan remnant that would defile Christianity, if adopted. Lactantius, the 4th Cent. Christian writer and one of Constantine’s main advisers condemns it in his book Institutiones Divinae. Hippolytus of Roma omits the use of incense entirely in his work, Apostolic Traditions. Of course, Constantine was a mess.
Accusing the Roman Church of usurping/adopting an entire pagan festival and rebranding it as Christmas to gain pagan converts, when it was repulsed by something so frivolous as a stick of incense which it perceived to be pagan, is in the realm of the absurd.
The Roman Empire wasn’t the only place with Christians in the 4th Century. There is no evidence that Sol Invictus was observed anywhere outside of the borders of the Roman Empire. Earliest record of Sol Invictus being celebrated on the 25th of December is from AD354. There is little evidence to suggest it was celebrated before 4th Century in Rome. But we know that the Syriac Christians were already celebrating Christmas (although it was considered a minor feast leading up to Epiphany) in the last week of their season of Subbara, which falls on December in the Gregorian Calendar – this practice dates from at least the mid-4th Century.
During the early centuries AD, the Jews clearly did not give Hanukkah much importance, as the Mishnah obviously omits it. Neither does Hanukkah have any theological connotations – after all, it’s kept for the memory of the Maccabees. Christianity had no need to find a replacement for an obscure Jewish holiday. But I do agree that some Christian communities, especially the ones with Jewish origins, like the Christians of St’ Thomas of Kerala, do observe some rituals reminiscent of Hanukkah. But they do it in the week of Epiphany, not the week of Christmas.
Christ was likely born on Sep 11, 3bc – Yes, I know some think 4BC was the death of Herod but that is definitely not concrete.
It was winter, and the Festival of the Dedication of the Temple was being celebrated in Jerusalem. Jesus was walking in Solomon’s Porch in the Temple, when the people gathered round him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? Tell us the plain truth: are you the Messiah?” – John 10: 22 The Hanukkah festivals that Jesus likely took part in was similar enough to Christmas in ritual and custom to assume that early Christians continued with the festival in honor of the birth of Jesus – that might well have fallen on the same day of the year.
The Feast of the Lights (Hanukkah or ‘Festival of Dedication’) took place for two days on the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth days of Kislev starting with the lighting of candles on the evening of the twenty-fourth. (The Judaic month of Kislev is almost the same as December.) Candles were then lit for a further six or possibly eight days. The specific reason for the festival of Hanukkah is to celebrate the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucids and the result of that victory, which was the re-dedication of the altar in the Temple after three years when no services took place. In general, it celebrates religious freedom, the light that was lit in Israel for all people, and the spread of that light throughout the world.
The date was of particular importance in the Greek /Roman calendar and in the calendars of many of the ancient societies. On or roundabout this day the star Sirius (the brightest of all stars) that flies behind the earth in its path around the Milky Way is right overhead at midnight. When Sirius is overhead at midnight it means that the sun is at its furthest south and that summer is coming again. For this reason, the date had been associated in many ancient and not so ancient religions with the birth of a god or a new period of religion. It was therefore no accident that Antiochus Epiphanes offered the first sacrifice to Zeus Olympios in the Temple on this date in 167 BCE. It was intended to show that a new period of rule of the Greek gods over the land had begun. Judah Maccabeus would have been fully aware of this and made sure that the first Hanukkah also fell on 25 December 164 (165) BCE to counter the Greek claim. (Now upon the same day that the strangers profaned the Temple, on the very same day it was cleansed again, even the five and twentieth day of the same month, which is Kislev – II Maccabees 10: 5)
Persia was different from the other countries in their beliefs around Sirius and used the star to make predictions. This is based either on changes in color (white, blue, emerald) the star undergoes (in the past there were times when it has appeared red) or on the positional shift in relation to the background stars due to the gravitational influence of a white dwarf companion star. Because these changes are minute and dependent on great knowledge, it is no surprise that nobody, but the Magi noticed them. (This would explain why Herod and the scribes did not notice it. If a huge comet hung over Bethlehem, millions of people would have turned up, as they were strong believers in the magic of stars.)
Because it is closely linked with the Feast of the Tabernacles (Succoth), so close that it is even called that in some communities as an interchangeable title; and now we see that that ye keep the Feast of Tabernacles in the month Kislev – II Maccabees 1: 9. To the original promise made in the desert by the festival of Sukkoth (that one day Israel would no longer live in tents but in houses) the important facet of lights were added. With the rededication of the Temple, came the profound moment of the lighting of the candelabra. They made also new holy vessels, and into the temple they brought the candlestick . . . and the lamps that were upon the candlestick they lighted, that they might give light in the temple – I Maccabees 4: 49 – 50. Josephus said (Antiquities of the Jews, 12: 7: 7), and from that time to this we celebrate this festival, and called it Lights. I suppose the reason was, because this liberty beyond our hopes appeared to us; and that thence was the name given to that festival.
The festival is supposed to be a happy time in accordance with I Maccabees 4: 59 – the days of the dedication of the altar should be kept in their season from year to year by the space of eight days, from the five and twentieth day of the month Casleu, with mirth and gladness. From the earliest, the festivalgoers bare branches, and fair boughs, and palms also, and sang Psalms – II Maccabees 10: 7.
Israel in winter is green as this is the time of the rains and what snow there is (if at all) quickly melts. Bringing greenery into the home therefore has nothing to do with the pagan midwinter festival but with the promise made in the desert and celebrated during the Feast of the Tabernacles.
The twenty-fifth of December (Kislev) that became important to Christianity together with joyous songs and the Christmas tree and lights all originated in Hanukkah.
Dies Natalis of Sol Invictus, or that is the birthday of the unconquerable sun. It is also called Saturnalia as it Honors the deity Saturn. Saturn was worshiped for agricultural purposes. This was later celebrated by the Romans as Dies Natalis of Sol Invictus. It celebrated the renewal of light and the coming of the new year. What day was it celebrated on? You guessed it December 17-23 and 25. Saturnalia was celebrated with feasting, partying, and gifts. Saturnalia
As the Roman empire came under Christian rule pagan holidays were added to help convert pagans to Christianity. You see this mainly under emperor Constantine’s rule. The people whom the Romans conquered had their “religion” and celebrations added to the Romans celebrations.
The names of Saturnalia where later changed to take on a more Christian aspect. The church commemorated December 25 as Jesus’s birthday. The church got pagan converts, and the pagans simply got to keep their holidays.
NOTE: The best general and easily understood book I have yet seen on ‘Jewish’ holidays is ‘Guide to Jewish Holy Days’ by Hayyim Schauss, published in paperback by Schocken Books of New York in 1962.
Here is more on Christmas: Unfortunately, the churches audio video was not great, but it still has some good content.
Expedition 44 was founded by Dr. Will Ryan. It represents a way of life wholly devoted to living as a disciple of Jesus. It is made up of a global assembly of believers united to the Kingdom of Jesus. Dr Ryan and Matt Mouzakis co-host a YouTube channel based on Biblical Theology called Expedition 44 that has about 130,000 subscribers worldwide. There are also various small groups, Bible studies, weekend retreats, and conferences associated with Expedition 44.
The notion of the “image” doesn’t refer to a particular spiritual endowment, a secret “property”…The image is a vocation, a calling. It is the call to be an angled mirror, reflecting God’s wise order into the world and reflecting the praises of all creation back to the Creator. That is what it means to be the royal priesthood: looking after God’s world is the royal bit, summing up creation’s praise is the priestly bit.
– N.T. Wright, The Lost World of Adam and Eve (W/ John Walton)
Expedition 44 represents a way of life based on the pursuit of true discipleship. As those bearing the light of Jesus, we are called to both keep and cultivate life for the Lord in our communal body of believers. The Biblical vision for that culture is Christoformity, or Christlikeness. Nurturing Christoformity was at the heart of the Pauline mission. As New Testament priests, we are charged to mediate Christ in everything. Expedition 44 is based on Biblical Theology teachings encouraging a way of life completely devoted to the Lord.
Everything in the expedition 44 life points towards Jesus, but don’t get too wrapped up in this section. You might find it interesting, but it is just meant to explain a more in-depth pursuit of Jesus that might help you to identify what your journey looks like and pray over the journey of other brothers and sisters within the same kingdom calling.
THE MOSAIC MEANING
Expedition 44 was started by me, Dr. Ryan years ago as a bit of a family crest or coat of arms and has developed into so much more. When I was young, I decided I was different than those in the world in that I wanted to dedicate my life to following Jesus. Many have made that profession and like me, had very little idea of what it really meant, particularly at the time they made the confession.
In ancient times people were often communally represented by what they had in common. For God’s people of Israel, it began with spreading blood over a doorpost. Throughout history people have sought to show their allegiance in similar signs. The flag, a crest, a heraldic symbol, a cross, or even something as simple as a mark on the ground showing a common understanding completed by both parties (the idea of the ixoye) expressed the sign of a common spiritual bond. In eastern society you are communally responsible for those with you. It is very different from our western me-istic thinking. This was the mindset of the early church, that together we are one in the kingdom of Christ. The cross was the culmination of this way of thinking in Christ, but the tone was set to begin thinking this way many years before. Today we have mostly lost this kind of communal consideration and without it, much of the original cultural understanding of proclaiming the kingdom of God has been lost.
There are several ways that this style of thought is described in the Bible and throughout history. The writing of Hebrew itself is actually a bit of a pictograph language with each letter describing a visual identity, many of which contain Biblical truths and meanings. Each letter is a symbol and understanding the letters and how they work together gives insight to deeper meanings, themes, metaphors, and visual imagery throughout the Bible. For thousands of years throughout ancient culture we see these images take form. Representations of an image to signify groups of people or tell a story are very common in the ancient eastern world both inside and outside of scripture.
In western thought we understand the term icon a little bit better as something that represents an image that people might put on a pedestal or desire. Sometimes the idea of an icon was more aligned to words that described idolatry. An icon served as an image that represented something deeper that you claimed. It was and still is associated with spirituality. There were several examples of this kind and other types of imagery in the ancient world. Although Expedition 44 and its logo has been treated like an icon over the years it is actually closer to a Biblical mosaic.
Mosaics date back to the 3rd millennium B.C. and were a major part of Mesopotamian culture. They were pictures that represented something significant in life and were made with whatever could be found. Stones, seashells, bone, and other materials were used to decorate walls and floors for thousands of years. Into the Middle Ages, this was a popular way to create motifs and still continues to be an icon of religious imagery in basilicas around the world. Stained glass is a simple example of a mosaic. The word mosaic as you can imagine, has its roots in the Bible. History shows us that Moses through the law, would give the Hebrew people a collection of small images to live by. (This was the law but so much bigger than the law.) Together all of these images made a collective whole. Similar to the progression we see in the New Testament giftings of various members making up the church. We as westerners understand some of the New Testament picture of spiritual gifts and how they work together but have a hard time understanding the mosaic law because naturally we don’t think of these commands as imagery that builds a complete life. The Lord, through Moses, would give his people a collection of descriptions that would describe holy life and together when practiced by everyone would build a picture of complete devotion to the Lord. Groups of people, families, and tribes would regularly build a collection of imagery, usually something very simple that described who they were. They were communally devoted to a way of living that the image represented. Biblical Mosaics are based on Mosaic covenant.
THE SURFACE MEANING
Years ago, I came up with a symbol that would represent an ancient communal kingdom like way of thinking; it is a symbol that resembles a shield with a front and backwards 44. It has taken on a lot of meaning to me and others bearing the logo to be set apart to a more ancient way of life considering the calling of the kingdom on your life, and the lives of those you are in Biblical covenant with.
The backwards 4 represents Christs backwards, or counter cultural (to our world) kingdom. The first should be last. One of my life themes or motif is to live in the backwards or upside down Kingdom that Christ not only taught but lived.
I am going to encourage you to think in a way that resembled ancient Hebrew and early church culture rather than the culture we live today. Our western thinking doesn’t really consider this kind of representation any more, but the Hebraic, more eastern style of conceptual thought will come to life. The number 44 in the expedition 44 logo on a very surface level represents things like a .44 magnum, my favorite hunting pistol caliber. Throughout the years it has been referred to by many in the 4×4 community (which I am really into), it was also my jeep number when I raced, and has other significance within our family but I think you get the idea. Many hunters, competitive shooters, 4×4 enthusiasts and others have found themselves wearing shirts and hats with the symbol aligning themselves with perhaps part of what the 44 represented, yet often they didn’t fully understand the connection or meaning behind the symbol. It was just a cool image that represented something in their life, in many ways it was more of an icon by that description than anything else. It is very “faith like” in this way. Many will come to desire a relationship with God and accept on a very basic level what that means, yet not first understand the depth that comes with such a relationship. Some will even want to claim ownership, yet their life never takes form to truly represent the mosaic thinking behind what the image represents to those that hold it closer.
I would often hand out 44 t-shirts on 4wheeling trips and people would love them. They would plaster stickers on their jeeps and take great pride that they were part of this select die hard group. I own a private shooting range and the symbol has also taken on a similar form with the competitive firearms crowd. It has been donned in the form of patches, branded into wooden handles, team jerseys, and various other things. There are many other pockets of life that the symbol has represented over the years but perhaps the one closest to its true form is in our church culture. From men’s and women’s weekend retreats to theology videos; the Christian crowd has come to see the symbol on a basic level in a way closer to the real significance of its meanings. To them it is a sign of those that are wholly devoted to the Lord.
Many understand a small part of what the symbol might represent but very few end up understanding the entire mindset. Over the years it has carried with it a very in depth, almost secret sacred definition. Let me explain the deeper meanings behind the symbol.
THE ESSENES
I want to introduce you to a sect during the second temple period called the Essenes אִסִּיִים . They were similar to the Pharisees or Sadducees except dedicated to Biblical (more than Rabbinical) truth. Similarly, it seems today that we have gotten away from seeking the truth of the scripture and Christians are often more defined by tradition similar to the way the pharisees or Sadducees may have acted “religiously.” Part od the Expedition 44 culture is to be less “religious” and more scripturally motivated.
The Essenes were a tight community of dedicated believers who devoted themselves to the scripture and actively sought to preserve what they held sacred to life. Josephus shares that they practiced piety, celibacy, the absence of personal property and of money, the belief in communality, and commitment to a strict observance of Sabbath. He further adds that the Essenes ritually immersed in water every morning, ate together after prayer, devoted themselves to charity and benevolence, forbade the expression of anger, studied the books of the elders, preserved secrets, and were very mindful of the names of the angels kept in their sacred writings. (Josephus, The Wars of the Jews)
So rewind 2000 years and we find a group that in obedience to the prophet Isaiah, went to the desert to “prepare the way for the Lord” (Isaiah 40:1-5). Though small in number (ancient sources indicate 4,000), they exerted significant influence on the religious community of their day. Some have even alluded that they may be the converts mentioned in Acts 6:7.
Now, as in any group, things often get generalized. Such as we say the Essenes were basically pacifistic scholarly types, but as we would argue for any group, not all of them followed this description. The Essenes had their issues, and I am not building a case by any means to be just like them. But they did share some observable qualities that Jesus asked of His church that we seem to have lost in our American or Western influenced culture. They went against the grain of their cultural society to live the way they believed the scriptures taught. They didn’t want to be influenced by anything other than the Word of the Lord.
The Essenes are most known for the Dead Sea Scrolls which are commonly believed to have been their library. But most people don’t realize that this was not the main body of the Essenes but a more aggressive offshoot of them. The place in Qumran where the scrolls were found in the ruins seem to have been a fortress, used as a military base for a very long period of time. Some have argued that this doesn’t make since for the Essenes as they were mostly monk type pacifistic group, yet the facts would confirm that this was indeed part of their community.
There is something that sheds light on this with the discovery of the seven scrolls at the first cave in Qumran. Most of the other scrolls, like in cave four were fragments and scholars believe that they were likely fragments when they were placed in the caves, because they were worn out – retired. All written words were sacred according to Jews, so these scrolls were placed in a Genizah. You might think of this as a protected burial place, nearly every synagogue in the world has one. But many of the scrolls besides these are in much better condition and it is largely assumed that the Essenes were the authors of these scrolls and much of the Pseudepigrapha.
There is a scroll here called the war scroll. It is very eschatological in nature describing the great war that Revelation describes as GOG- MaGOG. What’s interesting is this was written before the book of Revelation. You see they thought the Messiah was coming again and the war would be within their lifetime. Whoever wrote the war scroll, was writing in a spoken dialect of Hebrew and they understood Roman warfare and Persian rule; in other words, they were incredibly well prepared and gave their life to readiness for the coming kingdom.
There is a group known as the Essaioi, and Philo’s Therapeutae describes them as pursuing an active life. The War Scroll, or The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness, was different than many of the others, it has a different writing style, even the jar of clay and Asphalt seal was different. The scroll describes a war in two distinct parts, first (the War against the Kittim) described as a battle between the Sons of Light, consisting of the sons of Levi, the sons of Judah, and the sons of Benjamin, and the exiled of the desert, against Edom, Moab, the sons of Ammon, the Amalekites, and Philistia and their allies the Kittim of Asshur (referred to collectively as the army of Belial), and [those who assist them from among the wicked] who “violate the covenant.” The second part of the war (the War of Divisions) is described as the Sons of Light, now the united twelve tribes of Israel, conquering the “nations of vanity.” In the end, all of Darkness is to be destroyed and Light will live in peace for all eternity.
When we make the connection that this scroll was likely written by this particular group of Essenes, we find the terminology that they refer to themselves as the SONS OF LIGHT.
Interestingly there are many verses in the Bible Like Jn 12:36 that make note of SONS OF LIGHT. What is interesting about this regarding Expedition 44 is that I (Dr. Ryan) am wired a little bit more towards writing a war scroll such as the minority group of the Essenes referred to as the Sons of Light and Matt (who co-leads the video series with me) is a pacifist such as the majority of the Essenes; yet together I like to think we continually bring out the best in each other and have a bit of a communal covenant between us in regard to understanding Biblical Theology. Much like the Essenes in their culture, we are the studious remnant who seek to preserve and live out the true intentions of the scriptures.
THE NUMBERS:
Throughout the Bible numbers matter, they are important and sometimes carry Biblical truth. I would advise not getting too hung up non these numbers and the study of them (numerology), but I do believe we can gather value from them in some areas of study.
In the Bible, God’s chosen ones (both Jew and gentile) are attributed to the number 22, which has some ties to the book of Revelations and the day of judgment (which Biblically appears to have more correlation to 70AD then it does to a dispensational idea of end times). It is usually referred to as the number of completeness. But then you get more specific by narrowing it down to those more deeply devoted (I might even say as true disciples); you see that number doubled which is a concept from Isaiah that is applied to those that are within the Lord’s favor and often ask for or are given a double portion, the number 22 doubled is 44. The idea is that we bring God all of who we are and all of what we can offer. In the Old Testament the word Nephesh would best describe all that God has given us as a person. We can only offer 100% of what we have no more. Yet when we give God our complete life, he takes that life and does exceedingly more than what was possible in of itself. He multiplies what is given (at the altar). Throughout the Bible that is what is often implied by a double portion. It would be like saying I want you to give 110%. That’s western culture thinking. We can’t give more than 100%. Biblical thinking says that Christ gave all for us and asks that we do the same. By Grace we offer our complete lives to Him and he continues this reciprocal dance of Grace by taking that life and doing more than we could ever fathom, God’s part is better than ours. Not 110%, not 200%, something more like 70X7. This way of thinking is rooted deep within the Old Testament narrative and is echoed throughout the pages of the New Testament. We often miss it because we read these pages with 20th century eyes. Expedition 44 represents the expedition of life to completely give God your life and ask that in Him, you might do exceedingly more to the glory of the kingdom. Giving all that is humanly possible while God multiplies that offering and answers by what is his double portion in the spiritual kingdom and is innumerable in His eyes.
The numerology of number 44 is efficient, disciplined, and confident. The number also bears with it the idea of spiritual beings guarding or preserving. Interesting how both of these traits also would have described the Essenes and the first priests. The Essenes were priestly, they were scholarly, they were incredibly devoted in their way of life, and were not influenced by the world around them. They were missional to the scriptures and aware of the spiritual climate of their world.
THE SONS OF GOD
When we study the term often used for spiritual beings in the Bible, sons of God (Bənē hāʾĔlōhīm), it often unfortunately carries a negative connotation perhaps based on Genesis 6. However, I would encourage you to take on the understanding that this term in basic form simply represents all spiritual entities initially created by the hand of God. It has no male or female designation. We are told, and most would believe, that eventually 1/3 of all of these beings fell from the heavenly realms to be opposed to God. (I would argue that this number is more controversial than you might think though, so don’t give it too much weight.) Yet when we enter into covenant relationship in the new kingdom we are also described as “Sons of God” (again gender neutral, so some say sons and daughters of God to align with our western thought) which shows that we are recreated directly by the hand of God. That we are adopted into this royal lineage and now considered sons of God.
THE DEEPER (DIRECTIONAL) CALLING
There is a notion (especially within more Orthodox Christianity) that perhaps the way that we live on this earth will have an impact on our rank, jewels, or proximity to God (direction) in heaven or in the recreated heaven and earth. The expedition 44 way of life implies that we desire to make the spiritual investments here as called into Christlike living that could have lasting eschatological affects. But this is not to be confused with some kind of pie in the sky dispensational fantasy, quite the opposite. We believe that we were “saved for” the life work of Christ’s kingdom here and now. This is a journey or expedition that we might be found faithful, humble, and obedient servants here on earth and on to the final destination of the recreated heavens and earths as we take on our new spiritual bodies. Life and salvation are a journey with Christ as the king of the eternal kingdom.
I might be walking on thin ice with some where I am going next, but I assure you it is Biblical thinking. This is going to seem like a bit of a rabbit trail, but it will come together in the end. Throughout the last 2000 years many have sought to understand the complexities of the re-creation of the new heavens and earth. In my last book, “This is the way?!,” I venture into this a little bit more, so I won’t get to far into it here. We aren’t given the full story in the Bible. We don’t have the New Heavens and Earth or recreated being’s manual yet. But we are given a few hints in the story of the Biblical Narrative that is given to us. We know that some of us will rule angels (I Corinthians 6:3). We also are told that every knee will bow. What does that mean? I have always found it interesting that if God desires that all come to Him, and He is omnipotent or able for all to come to Him, then possibly, could He have found a way that all might come to Him? Is that what every knee will bow means eschatologically? Perhaps we all should be hopeful universalists in that sense. As you can imagine this kind of thinking also will influence your thoughts of hell, but as I said, my previous book explored some of this so I will mostly leave it alone here. Personally, I don’t see the framework for Universal reconciliation, but I might say that I am hopeful. Wouldn’t it be great if all of the world for all of time could be reconciled to Jesus?
Now that I have that out of the way, my point it to say that some may serve in different capacities in the final state of the recreated heaven and earth. Perhaps it is possible that some will rule and others will be ruled in the heavenly realm. It is interesting that some view this very similar to the way the Garden of Eden and the first priests Adam and Eve may have been intended. Some see Adam and Eve partnering to rule and reign with God in the high mountain temple garden over the others on the earth. What others you ask? For just a moment consider the fact that we don’t actually know God’s plan for Adam and Eve in the garden, we can only speculate. We actually don’t even know for sure if there were others living on the rest of the earth when Eden existed. I know to most traditional western readers this is starting to sound crazy but consider it as a more scriptural alternative. Consider the Genesis story as being more concerned with teaching theology (God’s relationship with the universe) as opposed to its being concerned with cosmology (how the universe was created).
Today we would call this science and many of us want to read Genesis as a Science book but that is not what it is. That doesn’t mean it is scientifically inaccurate, it just means that God’s goal in giving us this story was not to teach us science or even history for that fact! It’s not a science book and it’s not even really a history book. That is not its intent. It’s God’s love story to us showing the broken plan and the hope that what was lost will be found and given new life in a new kingdom.
This is going to take a second, have you ever read Genesis chapters one through three straight through? You would likely stop for a second and think that it is restating creation, that it tells the story twice. Isn’t it interesting that Genesis one does not mention Adam and Eve? Genesis 1 says God created humanity, male and female He created them. Then Chapter 2 starts to talk about the creation of Adam and Eve. Let me challenge you that chapter 2 “could” be a sequel to chapter 1 which implies there were more people. As we look at the Bible, we see several hints at this, such as Cain finding a wife. Remember when Cain says anybody who finds me will kill me? Who would he have been talking about? His family? Why would they have killed him? It just doesn’t make sense unless there were other people on the earth. And how do you explain Cain building a city? To you have a city you have to have people, likely more than just your family. Or how do you name all the animals in one day? You don’t, it took longer. Also, did you realize that after Genesis chapter 5 Adam and Eve are never mentioned again in the Old Testament?
What about the idea that Adam and Eve were immortal? From dust we are formed & from dust you return (Genesis 1:19). I would suggest that Adam and Eve were always mortal beings, but when they ate from the tree of wisdom and were kicked out of The Garden they lost the remedy for continued life in a relationship walking with God. They were no longer eating the fruits that granted life.
So, if they weren’t the first people then what is the significance of Adam and Eve? You have probably heard it before, but they are the first pictures of priests. Genesis 2:15 says to serve and keep; doesn’t that sound like the Priestly language described in Leviticus? This is why God created us, because he wanted to be together, and if you read your entire Bible, guess how the story ends? We’re united in this togetherness relationship with God to serve and rule over God’s creation in the new Heaven and Earth. In the Old Testament the priest had knowledge and access to God‘s presence. We see this idea carried over throughout the Bible and into the New Testament as the royal priesthood of believers.
Perhaps in the New Heavens and Earth those who come to an allegiant knowledge of Christ and are found faithful to this coming kingdom while on earth are those that rule over the rest. Perhaps there are even more levels, jewels, or distinctions that will set us apart. This fits very well if you’re considering some version of being a hopeful Universal Reconciliation where every knee bowing might meaning access to the heavenly realm eschatologically. Perhaps there are different degrees of what it means to be found faithful. To be honest I don’t know, we don’t have all the cards to the entire kingdom in the narrative that we are given. It is all speculation given on the scripture that we have. As I have mentioned before, I personally do not see the theology for a universal reconciliation view concerning hell, but I am open to the fact that God could do this.
But what I do know is that I want to be considered the faithful, those set apart, those given a deeper calling, the remnant, the martyrs, those that rule, and those that found faithful in the kingdom to become immeasurably more than they brought to the alter. To completely give all of what I have been given and receive the double portion that only God can give by the power of the only King Jesus in an everlasting Kingdom. This is the heart of Expedition 44.
PSALM 144:1
If you look closely at the logo you will find that within the logo lie the numbers 1441. The bar on the left is a 1, the 44 in the middle and the bar on the right is a 1. Psalm 144:1 says “Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.” If you can’t tell, I (Dr. Ryan) came up with this one (Not Matt!) It is often associated with the gun toting group although, that may actually be taking it out of context! The idea of the verse is complete reliance of every day on the Lord. There is a theological belief that David seemed to hold that God was supposed to fight the battles and when men tried, they usually messed things up and got in the way. That is the essence of Psalm 144:1, that David could simply be a humble instrument devoted to the actions of the Lord and not of himself.
THE SHIELD OR CHALICE
The Box with a chevron under it actually means something as well. At first it appears to be a shield, and it is. Some know that shields in ancient warfare weren’t intended for individual battle. They were best used when locked together as a communal force. This is most commonly known from the Roman Legions using the testudo or tortoise formation as a type of shield wall. As you have figured out, the shield in the 44 means we are all in this together. It’s a picture of the body of Christ.
But that’s not all. You might know that Matt and Ryan are Egalitarians. The egalitarian interpretation of Scripture is based on the view that Scripture does not limit women’s (or anyone else’s) roles and contributions in any arena, including the Church. From Eden to our role in the new heavens and earth, God’s ideal is equality. Everything in between is a mess of the earth, sin, and the fallen spiritual beings. The double line at the bottom of the shield also resembles a chalice. The chalice symbolizes communion and Christ’s blood. In Ancient culture the chalice was a symbol of life. As in other cultures there is also an ancient understanding that a chalice represents the significance over the power God gives to create life in the order of his cosmos. Men are predominantly mentioned in the Bible (due to culture) but the chalice is a constant reminder that we men need women (and I might argue are equal in God’s eyes.) Thus, the eternal chalice is the female uterus, where human life begins. That’s why some say ancient chalices were shaped the way they were. It started with the appearance of humans on Earth, and it will continue until the end of time. The chalice shaped V in the 44 logo is a constant reminder that Man and Women together are the recipe that God gives and communally we are all working together as if we were in one accord moving together as one locked shield.
MYSTERIUM TREMENDUM
There are 44 days between Jesus’ crucifixion and his ascension to Heaven.
There were 44 months in Jesus’ ministry
Jesus was crucified over a period of 4 days. In addition, the four gospels are the story of Jesus, his life, and his ultimate mission, as told by Matthew, Luke, Mark and John.
There is a huge significance in the correlation of the number 44 and sonship (& Daughters) in the Bible.
The number of candles used in a Hanukkah celebration is traditionally forty-four
The number 10000 is used 44 times in the Bible.
The word tribulation is used 44 times in the Bible and typically best describes a tough journey or expedition (not the end times!)
Expedition 44 represents a way or walk of life for those who more than anything else, wish to be true disciples of Jesus, fervently devoted to a deeper calling of intimacy in Him.
The Mesha Stele, also known as the Moabite Stone, is one of the oldest artifacts connecting biblical history to the ancient world dating over 2800 years old with the inscription dating at 840 BC. Stelae (plural of stele) are monuments in the form of upright stone slabs or pillars that are often inscribed. The language of the inscription is Moabite, very similar to Hebrew. It uses an alphabetic script almost identical to the Old Hebrew (or Paleo-Hebrew).
You might notice what resembles several “44” inscriptions on this stone and other paleo- Hebrew relics. Some of the imagery behind X44 is to capture the ancient mindset of those devoted to God as indicated by the earliest known images from Ancient Israel.
_______
The “Moabite” language was a different dialect of the common language spoken (and written) in this region that could just as well be called an early form of Hebrew. Several biblical names and events are mentioned on the stele with amazing specificity.
This stele contains several lines of Aramaic referring to an individual who killed Jehoram of Israel, the son of Ahab and king of the house of David. The account can be found in 2 Kings 9:24.
References to biblical history contained in the Mesha Stele inscription include:
“Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old?”” John 3:4
Nicodemus heard Jesus say that a man must be “born from above” if he is to be a son of God. He asked, “How can I make this happen?” He just wanted the steps but didn’t want the “why.” Sounds like our Christian culture today – Just get in the water, and maybe that’s not all bad! But it’s not about what you can do, it’s about what God will do. In a very eloquent and rhythmic fashion Jesus answers Nicodemus with the words gennēthēnaianōthen. The witty inference is that we must be born from above regenerated by the Spirit. The answer to the real question, why must a man be born from above, is far more important than the how. God knows how. What we need to know is why.
You do not become what you are, but you are what you become.
I studied philosophy first which led me to a better theology. I don’t believe we are simply a product of our environment, nor do I believe in the Calvinist sense that God has predetermined all things and is the grand puppet master.
Our decisions shape us.
Jesus’ answer shares an entire “remez” of theology. I’ll give you the short version. God separated the water and created man in His image within His order. Man fails and falls numerous times, and God does a “reset” with His newly chosen people coming out of Egypt and through the redemptive waters of the red sea, they are “baptized” as a nation and become a “new” people. Those originally created by the direct hand of God were referred to in Genesis as the Bene Ha Elohim. Fast forward to Jesus when we are now “reborn from above”, we take on the same terminology. We are now directly created by the hand of God and are a new royal priesthood set apart as ambassadors for a new kingdom. Jesus Himself was an example – image – foreshadow – archetype of this. As He was born of a virgin, His creation or re-creation to earth in the form of a “second Adam”, was directly by the hand of God. In a similar fashion, all of us now “born from above,” have entered into completely new life with God. The old person is dead.
When Jesus answers Nicodemus He says that we are at a total start over through Him. Nicodemus is a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin who is drawn to hear Jesus’s teachings. As is the case with Lazarus, Nicodemus is not mentioned in the synoptic Gospels and is mentioned only by John. [1] This famous encounter is contextually set before John 3:16, you might consider that. Most Biblical scholars have identified the Nicodemus of the New Testament with a 1st-century historic Nicodemus Ben Gurion, which would have him being a key figure 40 years later in the First Jewish Roman War. [2]
He was a wealthy and popular holy man reputed to later have had miraculous powers, which some would say was a sign that God was with Him. [3] In the account in John we aren’t given the whole picture or all the details. In fact, we seem to get the opposite idea. Jesus tells Nicodemus to leave the world at the beach and he seemingly can’t do that. He comes to Jesus in secret in the night because He is afraid of what His pharisee friends will think if he is aligned with Jesus, yet he says that many of them believe and uses the title Rabbi with Jesus out of honor and respect.
Nicodemus is mentioned in three places in the Gospel of John. This is the first encounter. The second is four chapters later when he reminds his colleagues in the Sanhedrin that the law requires that a person be heard before being judged. He seems to be a friend of Jesus or possibly advocating for Him. The third and final encounter is in John 19 when Nicodemus appears after Jesus’s crucifixion to provide the customary spices for anointing the dead and assists Joseph of Arimathea in preparing the body of Jesus for burial. Some believe this is a sign of conviction. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes—about 100 Roman pounds (33 kilograms, or 73 lb). Nicodemus must have been a man of means; in his book Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week, Pope Benedict XVI observes that, “The quantity of the balm is extraordinary and exceeds all normal proportions. This is a royal burial.”[5] If you take the notion that He was the notable Nicodemus Ben Gurion, then it means that over the next 40 years he would lead many to a “born again” notion and eventually be considered a saint within orthodoxy for his actions. But we also may want to question “that notion,” and we likely should.
The decision for Nicodemus wasn’t easy. Brian Zahnd shares, “Undoubtedly, he was raised in a Pharisee household, educated in the Pharisee school of Jewish thought from a child and placed on a course that would inevitably make him what he became. But now Jesus was challenging him to make a choice that would fundamentally alter his self. To make the choice to rethink everything. To start over. To radically change his dominant paradigm; instead of viewing the kingdom of God through the paradigm of the Pharisees, to view the kingdom of God through the new paradigm of Jesus. No easy task.” [6]
Jesus’ words to Nicodemus were life changing. We don’t know if Nicodemus ever “got there.” The orthodox church would say he did, Nicodemus is venerated as a saint in Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy and in Catholicism. The Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Churches commemorate him on the Sunday of the Holy Myrrhbearers, which is celebrated on the Third Sunday of Pascha (i.e., the second Sunday after Easter).[7]But from my perspective, the text nor history gives us the confirmed answer. Jesus’ words were hard. Leave it all at the Beach and start over. Rethink. Everything.
The world and the Christian church (alike) often don’t decipher this story well.
A spiritual re-birth meant a new and/or total spiritual re-learning. A new start. Discipleship. Could he do that? Did he do that the next 40 years? Perhaps. Or perhaps he was still “off” as he might have led thousands to their death in 70AD and completely missed the “WHY” of Jesus. The world (and Christians) often puts those “types” on a pedestal. We nearly “worship” those that are very opposite to the ways and words of Jesus. Maybe he got the fame his heart was postured towards but never could die to himself as Jesus challenged him to do; or maybe He did as His “saint hood” would later venerate. Only God knows.
What about you. The call wasn’t to simply make a decision to get on your knees in tank of water as the lights and lasers dazzle everyone to chalk up another bar of statistics for the year of tallied success. It was to enter total discipleship. The first step is a proclamation of the heart to total faithful allegiance in Jesus by getting in the water, the second step should be towards a changed life of discipleship. I pray the lasers and lights lead that way! That was always the calling of Jesus. Leave it all on the beach.
That is the ONLY commission of Jesus. There was no halfway or halfhearted version of this story. Are you all in? Will the water set you apart?
This article is dedicated to my good friend and disciple Paul Lazzaroni as he is shepherding so many others to walk this journey well. Love you and proud of you, my friend. -Halak
x44 has an old but good video on Nicodemus here:
Driscoll, James F. (1911). “Nicodemus” . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Reid, George J. (1907). “Acta Pilati” . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company. p. 111.
ee, for instance:
Flusser, David (16 December 2013). “Character Profiles: Gamaliel and Nicodemus”. Jerusalem Perspective.
Burke, Daniel (17 March 2013). “Nicodemus, The Mystery Man of Holy Week”. The Washington Post. Religious News Service. Archived from the original on 14 May 2023.
Holy Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Paraskevi, Saint Barbara, Saint John the Merciful & Our Mother of Consolation. St Albans, Melbourne: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia. Archived from the original on 20 March 2023.
Wait what? All that in the one word? -I don’t think so!
Just about every day I scroll through a “BIBLE” meme on Facebook that makes me cringe. I used to comment but I no longer do largely because I think sometimes people don’t interpret the comments as useful, or teaching better theology but as some kind of self-promotion, or “I think I am better than you” type of thing. I think that is unfortunate. I believe part of shepherding and discipleship is a Mars Hill or rabbinical teaching method of being open to constantly learning and working through a better understanding of the test with the giftings of those around you. To keep each other Biblically sharp and accountable to be faithful to the text. Letting people get really loose with the text has led to alot of bad theology and ditch diving. I believe the Bible greatly encouraged textual exploration together within the body. That is what the body of Christ is supposed to do. I have 40 years of deeply studying the Bible under my belt and God has gifted me with a certain learned spiritual intuition of exegesis. I hope it comes as a gift to those that have a learning posture towards the scripture. To those more interested in fighting or finger pointing, or making internet dumpster fires, I am not interested.
THE MEME:
At first glance this probably looks pretty neat. It’s challenging, it looks at the original language rather than an English glossed translation, it comes off as going deeper. So, what’s the problem? Well, it isn’t faithful.
A faithful translation means you let the text speak for the text. You don’t read your own desire into the text. This commonly referred to as good exegesis.
In this case, here are some issues:
One word? Sort of. The text is Genesis 3:9. Start by typing that into a browser followed by the word interlinear. The first link will be the Bible Hub, click it. The word is ’ay·yek·kāh and you will see the [are] is in parentheses. It technically isn’t in the text but linguistically it is- but it is understood such as an understood “YOU” in English. Click the word and you are going to find there is only one occurrence of this “word” or conjunction of words in the Bible. This is called a Hapax Legomenon. The basic hermeneutical law or idea of any Hapax Legomenon is because it is rare don’t read too much into it. See if you can find how it is used outside of the Bible to give you a better understanding of how the text uses it. But in this case, it isn’t a “TRUE” Hapax Legomenon in the sense that if you click the root word above which is Strong’s 335 you will see the root is “ay” in Hebrew which occurs 36 times in the Old Testament. We have a pretty good idea of what it means! There are some words or phrases in the Bible where we don’t even have the root anywhere else and that is a better example of a Hapax Legomenon, but they are both technically considered Hapax Legomenon’s. This one we can see essentially means “where or how” which makes sense in the English translation “where are you?” I would encourage you to read the usage and cultural notes below the word. These are theologically very basic and at times arguable, but still give you a better start. In this case it notes that the word can come with distress or lament. Seems true to this text! It also notes that this particular word is often noted of spiritual locations within the cosmos. Again, true to the text. Most of the time these notes don’t get too controversial and are written by well noted scholars. This is sort of important because there are other similar words in Hebrew that could have been used without a sometimes-spiritual emphasis. We see this importance in Deuteronomy 32 when the text asks “Where are there gods.” It is also used in 1 Samuel 9:18 in regard to the SEER. It is used in 2 Samuel 15:2 in regard to the city which is interesting and could be signified as one of the reasons I believe in ancient times cities were gatherings of fallen spiritual beings and people aligned to their ways and rival to Yahweh. In Job 2 it is used to ask where “the satan” came from. The problem is (as you can see to the column on the right of all the verses using this Hebrew root) there are at least a few texts that don’t seem to take on “spiritual spatial” significance, it just means where? So that tells us we can’t read too much into a sense of cosmic space every time we see the word used. Hermeneutically it may or may not have spiritual bearing. Therefore, we have to determine from the rest of the text whether it does or not. In other words, we don’t have the “RIGHT” to attribute a spiritual significance to the simple text “where” unless something in the rest of the text gives it to us for certain. If the text doesn’t grant it, then we have to determine if we the ability to say it could go that way, but we don’t know for sure. It may or may not have spiritual spatial implications. In this text we already know they are in Eden, so the context gives us the sacred space.
To say that it is one word is accurate (I would have said the same thing), but it’s a bit complicated as in Hebrew bits of different words form one word. This is actually really helpful in determining what one word can mean because we can break the word up and study the microcosm of it. In this case you would think all the things the author of that post says the word means would be great if the word could have been textually broken up that way. The problem in this case is it doesn’t say all those things. We get “where” which (as we already noted) may or likely implies a spiritual search-find. You could take away from the text exegetically that God is “searching us out” or “looking for us” or perhaps even noting that the space is spiritual as I already alluded to. All of those things could be good exegesis. That is what the text gives us. Next, we have the understood {ARE}. We don’t really get anything magical from that. Then we have “you” essentially as formed into the singular word. There is really not much to exegete there either. He is talking to a certain person. DO we have the right to insert our name here? Well, the genre of this text is a historical narrative. Simply telling the story. So no, we don’t really have the right to insert our name. Because God was seeking out Adam in the garden doesn’t give us the textual ability to say He searches us out the same. He may or may not, but the text doesn’t give us that warrant. So here you see the author of the meme breaking some huge theological and hermeneutical laws. He takes a text that isn’t about him and tries to make it about him or us. This is called reading into the text. Using the Bible to twist it into saying what you want it to say without the merit of the text giving you that. Now could it mean that later God will act the same towards you? Yeah, later the text may do that but here it doesn’t. However, if you read the text doing that for others in the story over and over and over you might come to an ontological conclusion that if there are 26 examples of God acting this way in the narrative, we have then maybe he acts this way towards me too! (But to be clear, the text still wouldn’t give us that for certain.) Sometimes people take a lot of latitude to say the scripture means something that the text never gave or intended to give. That seems to be the case here. It simply isn’t good theology or maybe even theology at all. It is saying the Bible says something in a text that doesn’t say that.
“God’s first words after the fall” – We don’t know this either. The Bible doesn’t give us the full account. There may have been other words. Perhaps these are the first words in the Bible after the fall. But making the statement that the author makes in the way that he does isn’t true. Does this seem nitpicky? Maybe but there is a difference, and it matters in biblical interpretation and textual criticism.
This is classic for someone trying to make a doctrine or in the authors words, “a whole theology” over something the text doesn’t say. The text says nothing of the lost. Was Adam lost? We aren’t told that he was. Was he asking for a confession. Later scripture tells us that when we sin, we need to confess, but that isn’t in the text here. What about restoration and redemption? Well, everyone knows God wants restoration and redemption, right? But this text doesn’t go here either. Are you following me? There are texts that talk about redemption and restoration but not this one. In fact, maybe the opposite. This text leads to exile from the garden, that is the opposite of restoration. So what it does tell us is exile may come before restorative acts. That could be a more faithful takeaway than what the author of the meme comes up with. The author improperly says the text means something that isn’t given to us. It is as if the author is trying to write his own Bible and proof text the word to say what he wants it to say. The real problem is that we are saying the word says something that it isn’t. Maybe other places say that, but a better hermeneutic is to only exegete what the text says. Don’t add or fill in anything. There is no context for the takeaways the author asserts over the text.
CONCLUSION
A Faithful reading of the text means we only take away what the text gives us. We can’t read anything else into it. I can’t tell you how many times in a sermon I hear a pastor say “the Bible says this” and goes on to quote a verse that doesn’t say anything close to what the pastor says it said. In many cases we have become all too comfortable with accepting things like this, and it has led to a lot of bad consequences. It seems there are so many people are using the Bible for their own gain saying what they want it to ay and that is unfaithful to the text.
NOTE; The Bible Hub is free, easily accessible and works well. LOGOS is better but is $$$.
EXPEDITION 44 