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A Straight Path

25 Monday Sep 2023

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman!

I am continuing my study on the Whole Armor of God and the passage of scripture I am using is Ephesians 6:10-18a.  We are to put on and take up the Whole Armor of God so that we might be able to stand against the wiles of the devil and withstand in the evil day.  I want to spend some time studying “the wiles of the devil” and “the evil day” but, first, am going to look at the Armor piece by piece.  While “girding your waist with truth” is mentioned first, I have not been able to draw my attention away from the Breastplate of Righteousness.  The word ‘righteousness’ has been echoing in my mind for weeks now.  It is a fascinating word and is the subject of this week’s post.

What do we mean when we use the word ‘righteousness’?  An online search resulted in this definition for righteous: “1. (of a person or conduct) morally right or justifiable; virtuous; 2. very good, excellent.”  My New World Dictionary agrees, defining righteous as: “1. Acting in a just, upright manner; doing what is right; virtuous [a righteous man] 2. morally right; fair and just [a righteous act] 2. morally justifiable [full of righteous anger], 4. [Slang] good, excellent, satisfying, pleasant, authentic, etc.; a generalized term of approval.”

I can’t disagree with anything here.  My personal definition of righteousness has been those things pertaining to acts or conduct which would lead to approval.  Specific to Believers, we are “righteous” if we do the Will of God and keep His commandments: doing the right things lead to His approval of us.  This belief appears to be rooted in the Bible because Revelation 19:8 speaks of the wife of the Lamb clothed in fine linen which is the righteous acts of the saints.  One of the most quoted scriptures on righteousness is Genesis 15:6: “And he (Abram) believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.”  I don’t know that any believer would say Abram or Abraham as he became, possessed righteousness but he did something-he believed-and his act of believing was credited to him as righteousness thus indicating God’s approval. 

Our belief being a work is reinforced by the words of Jesus.  John 6:29 quotes Him saying; “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”  The same chapter declares the will of God to be that Jesus lose nothing of what the Father has given Him and that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life.  We do the work of believing and this belief is not only proof of our righteousness but our ticket to everlasting life and being raised on the last day (see John 6:38-40).

I would be curious to know how many of you reading this believe what I’ve written in the last paragraphs.  It is certainly what I’ve been taught from various pulpits.  There is no denying it appears to be backed by scripture and thus forms the picture of how I spent a great deal of my Christian life.  There is certainly a finished work of the cross.  There is no Jesus+.  Eternal life is the free gift of God in Jesus Christ but there is no escaping the fact that I must do my part.  I must believe and if I am not living victoriously then I have not believed hard enough and have to take care lest I lose my garment, be made to walk naked, and have my shame exposed (see Revelation 16:15).  If I fail to properly do the work, I lose God’s approval and risk spending an eternity separate from Him.   

However, is the meaning of righteous and righteousness moral conduct and right acts?  The word “righteous” comes from the Old English righwis (rightwise).  The first definition of “right” in the New World Dictionary is “not curved; straight;” and the dictionary states that definition is now only used in mathematics.  When I read down to the third and fourth entries, I find: “in accordance with justice, law, morality…fact reason, some set standard” which is how I find “right” is usually defined.  “Wise”in the Old English meant “manner, state, condition”.  So then being righteous or right wise was being morally correct and acceptable in one’s manner, state, or condition.

Looking at the Greek word translated as “righteousness” throughout the New Testament (Hebrews 1:8 is the exception), I found another definition that serves to expand the meaning a bit more.  The word is dikaiosune (G1343) and the Strong’s defines it as “equity (of character or act) justification, righteous.”  Dikaioma (G1345) meaning “an equitable deed” and dikaios (G1346) meaning “equitably” are both used in the New Testament as well and all three words are related to dikaios (G1342) meaning “equitable, holy, innocent, just” and come from the root dike (die-kay, G1349) meaning “right (as self-evident) justice (the principle, a decision, or its execution):-judgment, punish, vengeance”.  In turn, dike is related back to deiknuo (G1166) which means “to show”. 

I thought ‘equity’ and ‘equitable’ were worth looking up.  The meaning is “fair, just, impartial” and that fairness, justness, and impartiality pertains to laws or, in other words, a set standard which I feel brings me full circle.  I don’t find that my heading down this path has changed all that much how I define ‘righteousness’ or ‘righteous’.  For a believer, our set standard is Jesus Himself and therefore ‘righteousness’ is being aligned with and acting in accord with all He has revealed Himself to be which is shown in how we conduct ourselves day to day.  Which is impossible.

Bless religion’s heart but it has tried to make righteous conduct possible.  Various denominations all have their set standards of what righteous behavior looks like and it is presented to the congregation as rules to be followed.  If the congregation breaks the rules (which we inevitably must), there are various other acts we can perform to show not only how sorry we are but to work our way back into God’s good graces.  Wherein lies the rub: all of these rules of conduct and acts of repentance are built on the foundation that God the Father is disapproving and must be appeased.  We please Him by doing our work of believing but, if we should falter one iota in our belief, then we have doubted.  Our doubting does NOT please God and we should not expect to receive anything from Him (see James 1:6-8). 

Are you exhausted?  Burdened?  Heavy laden?  Are you hopeless?  Does the Bible itself increase your feelings of hopelessness?  Do you read a passage like Matthew 5: 20 where Jesus says, “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” and know such a requirement is not possible?  When you read Isaiah 64:6 which states, “all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” are you struck with the fear that God’s expectations are too extreme, that He knew we could not attain them, and that He just might not be equitable Himself?

This is too massive a subject to be dealt with in one post so I plan to continue looking at righteousness in the upcoming weeks.  I would urge you to see that the foundation of the Father being angry with you is an illusion.  When you see that, everything built on it crumbles to dust.  The foundation that can never crumble is Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God who is the very image and expression of The Father.  There is no difference in their characters.  Jesus is the one who knew no sin yet was made to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  We are In Christ and therefore our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees as far as the east is from the west because our righteousness is His!  It is not just our manner but our condition and state of being that now is the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

In Jesus Christ we can rest in our rightwiseness.  The conduct of our lives will show His righteousness because it is no longer us who live but Christ who lives in us.  Christ in us and us in Him is the will of the Father.  Paul opens His letter to the Ephesians with this: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”   

This is what our Heavenly Father willed before we walked this earth and before we ever committed a sin.  He will carry the work He has begun in us on to completion and He will do so because He is equitable and acts in accord with the only set standard that could apply to the I AM: His own character which is agape.  That first definition of ‘right’ is “straight, not curved”.  He makes our paths straight.  He does so because of His goodness and not because we have worked so hard at believing that He is pleased enough to ease our way a little.  He leads us in paths of righteousness for His Name’s Sake!

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Guralnik, David B., Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition, William Collins + World Publishing Co., Inc., Cleveland • New York, 1953, 1976

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

New Vistas

21 Monday Aug 2023

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I continue in my study of Ephesians 6: 10-18a.  I am looking specifically at the Apostle Paul’s urging to “Put on the whole armor of God” (verse 11).

This past week has been an interesting one.  Every Christian book I have picked up and every teacher I have listened to has given me a variation on the same message: rest, abide, do only those things you see The Father doing, it is Christ in you that is the hope of glory, Christ lives in you by His Spirit, it is the Holy Spirit who is the revealer, guide, and ability to live the Christian life.  This is all in line with what I have seen up until now in my study: that the Whole Armor of God is the very life of God.  My conviction appears to be substantiated when I read Ephesians 6:11 out of Jonathan Mitchell’s New Testament: “you folks must at some point, for yourselves, enter within (or: clothe yourselves with) the full suit of armor and implements of war (panoply; the complete equipment for men-at-arms) which is God (or: which comes from and belongs to God), in order for you to be continuously able and powerful to stand (or: to make a stand) facing toward the crafty methods (stratagems; schemes; intrigues) of the adversary…” (Mitchell, 479)

I believe this to be true: I believe when Jesus cried “it is finished!” on the cross He had done everything necessary to abolish sin and death and restore us to relationship with The Father.  With His resurrection and ascension, we now have a new and living way opened for us and we-boldly and with confidence-enter the holy places (see Hebrews 10:19-20).  In terms of the whole armor of God and Spiritual Warfare, I don’t believe we are “putting on” something exterior to us nor are we responsible for claiming ground for Jesus, building the kingdom, or seeking to defeat Satan in any way.  Again, I believe this passage is describing the Covenant Life of God freely given to us (and IN US via the Holy Spirit), that the victory belongs entirely to Jesus (see 1 John 3:8) and is a free gift to us because we are in Him, and that His life in us makes us to STAND. 

But then, it doesn’t really matter what I believe if the scripture is saying something else.  The English is clear: Paul says to “PUT ON the whole armor of God”.  I am not forgetting he says to “take up the whole armor of God” in verse 13 but that is the focus of a later post.  At face value, “Put On” does seem to be describing the whole armor of God as something external that we must put on in the sense that we put on our clothes every day.  To that end, I looked up the Greek Word translated “put on”.

That word is endysasthe.  It is the Aorist Imperative Middle 2nd Person Plural Verb form of the Greek enduo.  I realize few share my love of Grammar so I ask you to stay with me through the next few paragraphs!  I’m sure we all remember the definition of a Verb from our language classes but, just as a reminder, a verb is a word that shown an action, occurrence, or state of being.  The Aorist is the tense of the verb and is (probably) best defined as simple past tense.  The Aorist states that an action has happened but gives no information on how long the action took or whether the results are still in effect.  Aorist verbs describe the entire action as a single event.  According to the Ezra Project, “Aorist is an ideal tense to describe an action that happens at a particular point in time.  That is why some grammar books describe it as ‘punctiliar’”. (See Ezra Project link and link to definition of “punctiliar” below).

The Mood of the verb is Imperative which is a verb form used to make a demand or to give advice or instructions.  2nd Person Plural refers to the speaker’s audience.  In this case, the Apostle Paul is addressing many “youse”. 

The Verb enduo is Strong’s number 1746 and is a compound word comprised of en (1722) and duo (1416).  En denotes a fixed position in place, time, or state, instrumentality, a relation of rest, and means simply “in”.  Duo means “to sink, to go down.”  Enduo is thus defined as “to invest with clothing in the sense of sinking into a garment; array, endue”. 

There was enough here for me to meditate on for days however some teachers I’ve recently listened to have made some snarky comments about the definitions in the Strong’s Concordance.  Thus the reason I verified the definition in two other resources.  The Young’s Concordance defines enduo as “to clothe, to go into clothing”.  The Greek English Lexicon defines enduo literally as “to put any kind of thing on oneself; clothe oneself in, put on, wear” and metaphorically as, “the taking on of characteristics, virtues, intentions.”  This Lexicon lists Ephesians 6:11 under the literal definition and Ephesians 4:24 under the metaphorical.  That scripture is “and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”  An interesting anecdote of Alexander the Great is included in this section and that is that, when he would dress as the gods, he believed he became Ammon, Artemis, Hermes, or Heracles.

Still with me?  Great!  Here are my conclusions.  First, I see no reason to consider the occurrence of enduo in Ephesians 6:11 as literal and the occurrence in Ephesians 4:24 as metaphorical. The occurrence in Ephesians 4:24 is endysasthai which is the Aorist Infinitive Middle form of the verb.  Second, I am fascinated by the verb being aorist in both passages.  Both the new man and the whole armor of God are new realities and ways of being for us in this today moment but they originate at a point in the past. They are not new in any sense of the word except that they are new to us when the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see them.

Third, I am fascinated by the fact there is no getting around that there are two ways of looking at this word enduo.  We can define it as we are clothing ourselves in the armor that belongs to God and it is ours on loan or we can define it as we are sinking down into the very life of Jesus Christ and He Himself is our armor.  In the first definition, there is no vital connection to the armor.  It is not something that is a part of us which brings me to the inevitable conclusion that, since the armor belongs to God and it is really only loaned to me, it is something that can be snatched away if I happen to fail while conducting Spiritual Warfare.

I have heard many believers say things about their relationship-or lack thereof-to The Father which makes me believe many accept this first definition as truth.  I recently read a description of a book on spiritual warfare which told me the book would help me learn how to escape Satan’s grip, how to address the roots of spiritual bondage, and would teach me how to avoid the wrong approaches so I could truly partner with the Holy Spirit and experience freedom.

This book description is, to me, sadly indicative of the state of believers who do not believe what is spelled out in the Bible.  Satan has no grip on me because the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil.  I don’t worry about sin because I am IN CHRIST, therefore I am born from above (or again), and, because I am born of God I do not sin because His seed remains in me and I cannot sin.  Don’t believe this means you as well? Don’t believe all of that is even in the Bible?  Read 1 John 3!  And, there’s more.

The blood of Jesus, the blood of the new covenant, has cleansed me from all sin because I am IN CHRIST and therefore I walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light (See 1 John 1:7).  Perfect freedom is mine because the law of the Spirit of life IN CHRIST JESUS has set me free from the law of sin and death (see Romans 8:2).  I could go on.  An excellent eye-opening study is to go through the New Testament and underline every occurrence of the words “in Christ”.  Seeing what is ours IN CHRIST is truly marvelous.

And so, I choose the second definition.  I don’t choose it because I wish to (although it really is so much better than the first) but because it is the truth I see proclaimed to me from every page of the Bible.  The manifestation of Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, is my fixed position in time.  As time is linear, this fixed point is past and yet is so vitally my present and also will be my future.  I put Him on by hastening to enter into His rest thus resting from all my works.  I put Him on by abiding in Him because apart from Him I can do nothing.  I put Him on as I conformed more and more into His image.  I sink down into everything He is and experience everything that is mine because I am His and He is God’s (1 Corinthians 3:21).         

He is my salvation.  He is my life.  He is the whole armor of God who protects me and ministers His victory to me in all times and places because in Him I live and move and have my being.  I sink down into Jesus Christ, snuggle into Him like the most comfortable of garments, and my life is now hidden with Him in God (Colossians 3:3).

Isn’t this incredible?!  May the Holy Spirit open our eyes to Christ who is our life!

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Ephesians 6 Interlinear Bible (biblehub.com)

Greek Tenses Explained – Ezra Project

Punctiliar Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Webster

Imperative Mood | Definition, Examples & Use (scribbr.com)

Middle Voice: Overview & Examples | What is Middle Voice? | Study.com

Second Person: Explanation and Examples (grammar-monster.com)

Danker, Frederick William, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third Edition, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1957, 2000

Green, Jay P., The Interlinear Bible: Hebrew, Greek, English, Volume IV, Second Edition, Authors For Christ, Inc. Lafayette, IN, 1796, 2000

Mitchell, Jonathan Paul, MA, The New Testament, 2019 Edition, Harper Brown Publishing, 2009, 2019

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

Young, Robert, LL.D., Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts

The Way He Has Made

07 Monday Aug 2023

Posted by in Studies, Walking in the Way, Whole Armor of God

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Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman!

This week’s post is a continuation of my study on Ephesians 6:10-18a; the passage which contains the Apostle Paul’s description of the Whole Armor of God.  I have not yet delved into the pieces of armor as there has been so much to learn from the word “stand” as it appears in this passage.  The Greek word translated “stand” is histemi.  “Stand” is a perfectly good translation for histemi but it doesn’t fully express the intent of the word.  Histemi means “to stand, abide, appoint, bring, continue, covenant, establish, hold up, lay, present, set up, staunch, stand”.  It is not standing in the sense of perseverance or holding fast but rather carries the idea of being made to stand.  I have been thinking of verse 10 of my study passage in terms of defining histemi: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might”.  We do not stand in our own strength or merit but are made to stand in the power of His might.  The other word that has grabbed hold of my attention is “covenant”.  I have not ever thought of the whole armor of God in terms of covenant before and doing so now makes me feel as though I am approaching this passage for the first time.

Ever since I looked up the meaning of histemi, I have been thinking about covenants.  It never ceases to fascinate me how, when my attention is focused on something, I begin to see that same thing everywhere.  In last week’s post I quoted from an article published in an issue of Biblical Archeology Review.  I’ve had this issue for months but I just happen to open it and read on article on covenants in the ancient world at the exact time I have begun to meditate on covenants.  During this Sunday’s sermon, the Teacher just happened to mention the phrase “blood is thicker than water” is a shortened version of “the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb”.  There is no getting away from covenants.

And, what is a covenant?  It is not what I hear it defined as from a great number of believers.  They define covenant in terms of if Person A does this then Person B will do that which is not a covenant but a contract. Of course, I cannot blame my fellow believers for thinking in these terms because THE COVENANT in the minds of believers is the Mosaic Covenant i.e. The Law given at Mount Sinai.  Before Moses and Israelites ever get to Mount Sinai, there is this word from the Lord: “…If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, and will do what is right in His sight, and will listen to and obey His commandments and keep all His statues, I will put none of the diseases up you which I brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord Who Heals You” (Exodus 15:26, AMP).  Reading on through the giving of the law and the description of the results of failing to keep it, I understand why the language of if/then has been drug into this Day.

The Covenants of the Old Testament is a subject worthy of a devoted study.  For the sake of staying on the track of my current study, I point out the Mosaic Covenant is not the only covenant of the Old Testament nor is it the most important.  There is a fascinating passage in Galatians which speaks of a covenant made before and one which takes precedence over the covenant of Moses: “…just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.  And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.  For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” Yet the law is not of faith but “the man who does them shall live by them.” 

“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.  Brethren, I speak in the manner of men; Though it is only a man’s covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it.  Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made.  He does not say, And to seeds,” as of many but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ.  And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.  For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise” (Galatians 3:6-18).

This passage is referring to the covenant described in Genesis 15: 9-21.  The animals are brought and split in half but Abraham (though he is still Abram at this time) falls into a deep sleep.  God speaks to Abraham but it is a smoking oven and burning torch which pass through the carcasses and blood of the animals.  Abraham certainly took part in the preparation of the animals and he drove vultures away from the carcasses but, when the sun comes down, Abraham falls into a deep sleep.  He is a spectator rather than a participant.  I wholeheartedly agree this is a covenant God makes with Abraham but the keeping of it didn’t depend on Abraham in any way as he did not pass through the pieces himself but slept and saw as if in a dream or vision the smoking oven and burning torch pass through the pieces.

I think of this covenant when I think of the New Covenant which we all live under.  It is not a covenant of keeping laws and rules, or moderating behaviors so God will be pleased with us and bless us.  Like that covenant made while Abraham slept, this New Covenant was not made with our participation.  Like that covenant described in the Galatians passage, this New Covenant is not one of law but one of promise.  Hebrews 12: 18-24 says: “For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who hear it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow”. And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said,”I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”) But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.”

“In Christ” is such a small phrase.  It’s only two words but they refer to a life and an inheritance that surpasses anything we’ve been taught to expect.  In the crucifixion of Jesus we see “God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19).  Human hands participated in the making of the New Covenant by preparing the sacrifice but, again, humans could only watch as the New Covenant was established.  But now, we are In Christ!  Every promise of God is “yes” in Christ Jesus.  We are raised from death to life in Christ Jesus and we are seated with Him in heavenly places.  His life in us is the life of the New Covenant.  Life, not keeping rules and laws.

How does this pertain to the Whole Armor of God?  I see so many believers engaging in “spiritual warfare” by attempting to animate the Mosaic Covenant with the keeping of rules and laws and adhering to standards of behavior.  I rarely if ever hear fellow believers exulting in passages like the ones I’ve shared from Galatians and Hebrews or Paul’s beautiful description of Christ’s fulfilling the law as related in Romans 8. 

I came across an interesting entry in my New Koine Greek Textbook Series Supplements.  In the collection of George Ricker Berry’s Synonyms under “Covenant”, I found: “Asynthetos, occurring only in Romans 1:31, is “covenant-breaker”, one who interrupts a state of peace and brings on war by disregarding an agreement by which peace is maintained.  Aspondos is “implacable”, one who refuses to agree to any terms of suggestions of peace.  It implies a state of war, and a refusal of covenant or even of armistice to end it permanently or temporarily”.

This struck me because God has, by His own desire, established a New Covenant in Christ Jesus.  It is one where He chose not to impute our trespasses against us.  It is one where Jesus put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself and one where He has destroyed the devil who had the power of death.  He has come that we would have life and that abundantly!  Now, this New Covenant cannot be broken because it does not depend on us.  However, calling anything but the life and inheritance that is now ours in Jesus Christ “good news” is a refusal to partake of the covenant.  It is a rejection of the peace that is ours in Christ Jesus.  The result is a warfare that is carnal rather than spiritual because it is warfare that seeks to gain a victory over a perceived enemy when the reality is, in Christ Jesus, the victory is already won.

We put on the Whole Armor of God and our feet are shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace.  I look forward to gaining understanding of just what this means. 

To be continued…

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

 4 quotes that you have been terribly misquoting. | by Josiah Ross | Student Voices (mystudentvoices.com)

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

Walker, G. Allen, New Koine Greek Textbook Series Supplements, 2014-2018, Page 64

The Life in Us

23 Monday Jan 2023

Posted by in Isaiah 45:7, Studies

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Hello!  Welcome to a new week and a new post on Renaissance Woman.

One day last week, I perchanced to listen to a bit of a conversation on Bible translations.  The two participants were talking about the dangers of reading translations done by just one person as opposed to other translations; ones that actually lived up to the word “translation” (as opposed to being called a “paraphrase”) because they were made by committees of scholars. One of the participants inferred bibles translated by a committee of scholars are more trustworthy than those translated by a single person but I don’t necessarily agree.  I have found translators have an incredibly difficult time not translating the Bible according to what they think it ought to say rather than sticking to the meanings found in the original languages.

One such case in point is the NIV translation of the Bible.  This is a popular translation.  According to Amazon.com, since its publication in 1973; the NIV has sold 16o million copies1.  I own a copy myself: a NIV Journal Bible because I find the columns an invaluable space to note the Greek words that have been translated by different English words: sometimes in the same sentence.  Despite the NIV being translated by a committee of scholars and despite some key changes made in the 2011 update, given the choice, it is not a translation I would trust to be the only one I read.

But then, no translation is perfect.  I have already pointed out how the translators of the King James Version were bothered by the word Elohim in Psalm 8:5 and chose to render it as “angels” rather than “God” despite there being the Hebrew malak translated angel or angels in numerous other passages.  And yet, the KJV does translate Galatians 2:20 as “…the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God” rather than “”the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God” which is how the NKJV as well as many other translations renders it.  It’s a small change-“of” to “in”-but it shifts the meaning and focus from His faith in us as our strength to live our lives to our having to have faith in Him.    

Despite the inaccuracies and inconsistencies of the various translations, I love reading my Bible.  I enjoy reading it in different translations because the rhythms resulting from the different word choices help me to look at passages in a different way.  I honor my brothers and sisters who risk their lives by merely possessing a Bible and I am grateful I live in a country where I can possess as many copies in as many translations as I like.  It is a privilege I never take for granted.  I do have a favorite translation which I read the most because the language suits me.  I think the best translation of the Bible for everyone is the one that suits that person.  For example, the Action Bible does not appeal to me in any way.  However, I recently read an article that said the Action Bible is the version that is appealing to new believers in various regions of Africa.  Just because it is not a version I care to read does not mean it is not a version the Holy Spirit would use to open others’ eyes to the truth of Jesus Christ.  Who am I then to say what is good or evil?

Bible reading and the disagreements over translations have been weighing on my mind as I’ve conducted my study on evil.  Just reading a translation, any translation, does not give a complete nor accurate picture of the meaning of evil.  For example, let’s compare the Strong’s Concordance list of scriptures containing the word “evil” in the books of Matthew and Romans.  There are 19 occurrences in the Book of Matthew.  In all but three, “evil” is used to translate the Greek word poneros (G4190). Two exceptions are Matthew 24:48 and 27:23 where the Greek word is kakos (G2556) and the third is Matthew 6:34 where “evil” is used to translate kakia (G2549). The opposite is true in the Book of Romans.  There are 17 occurrences in Romans and all but two are translations of kakos.  Romans 14:16 does not have a reference number next to it in the Strong’s.  The passage is “Then do not let your good be spoken evil of” and the word “evil” is supplied by the translators as they sought to make the meaning of blasphameo (G987) clear.  The other exception is Romans 12:9 where we are to “abhor what is evil” and the Greek word there is poneros.  We can glean a bit of the differences of meaning through a careful reading of the context of these scriptures but we cannot help but bring our own definition of “evil” to these passages.  The words in the Greek mean very different things and I am convinced something is lost with a mere reliance on an English translation.

Poneros means “hurtful, bad, evil, grievous, lewd, malicious, wicked” and derives from ponos which means “toil”.  It is a word that relates to effects rather than character and is the word translated “evil” in the scriptures describing deeds and works as well as the heart and eye (See Matt 9:4, 12:34, 15:19, 20:15, John 3:19, 7:7).  It is also the Greek word found in the scriptures describing “evil spirits” and the “evil one” (See Mat. 5:37, 6:13, Luke 7:21, Luke 8:2, Luke 11:4, John 17:5, Acts 19:12).  Kakos is a primary word and means “worthless, bad, evil, harm, ill, noisome, wicked” and-despite the definition-is not interchangeable with poneros in that kakos is intrinsic meaning the “badness” or “evil” belongs naturally to the subject being referred to. Kakos relates to character.  This fascinated me because I would have expected kakos to be the word describing both evil spirits and the evil one and it is not.  I need to take a much longer and deeper look at why this is so.

Just to be thorough, the Greek word kakia is the noun while kakos is the adjective.  The words do not carry different meanings.  

One more example because it makes me shake my head in wonder: “evil” appears three times in Titus and each time it translates a different Greek word.  The passages are Titus 1:12, 2:8, and 3:2. The phrase in Titus 1:12 is “evil beasts” and the Greek word is kakos.  Titus 2:8 says “…having nothing evil to say of you” and Titus 3:2 says “speak evil”.  The Greek words are phaulos (G5337) and blasphemeo, respectively.  I include this because I would not necessarily think the words all translated by “evil” had different meanings in the Greek based on context.  The Strong’s Concordance is, of course, based off of the King James Version.  Different translations have sometimes chosen to use different words in the passages I’ve listed but then they too end up having their own inaccuracies.  Again, no translation is perfect.

Paul says two things to Timothy which will bring me to my material point.  The first is in 2 Timothy 2:15 where Paul says, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” and, as I have heard that used to stress the importance of studying the Bible, I include it here.  The second is 2 Timothy 3:16 where Paul says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”  The NIV (ha!) but also the ESV as well as other translations have “god-breathed” instead of inspiration. 

I don’t disagree.  As I said, I love reading my Bible.  I do so for enjoyment and I can’t put into words how my knowledge of the Lord has grown through studying the Bible.  Looking beyond the language of my translations into the Hebrew, Greek, and even Aramaic is also invaluable to my increasing knowledge.  But, I do not consider my reading and study a substitute for knowing God, personally and intimately.  Paul also wrote, “our sufficiency is from God who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:5.-6).  The Spirit gives life.  I cannot say that too many times.

In recent days, the social media algorithms have sent me various posts which all have contained the same message: the number one way to grow closer to God is to read your Bible.  That is not true. You can definitely come to know about God by reading your Bible but; to know Him, which in the original languages carry the intent of the same level of intimacy as the marriage relationship, is only possible in the Holy Spirit.   It is the Spirit alone who ministers life-the very life of Jesus Christ-to us by dwelling in us.  My Bible Teacher recently pointed out the Persons of God are Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not Father, Son, and Holy Scripture.  I am concerned that all I hear is a stressing of first and foremost reading the Bible.  The Holy Spirit is not mentioned.  Ever.

Do not allow yourself to be kept from living to the fullest the life of Christ Jesus which is yours now through the Holy Spirit.  The same Spirit who inspired the writers of the Bible lives in you.  So read your Bible in whatever translation you choose but take the time to close your Bible.  Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you the truth of you in Christ and Christ in you. If you do not know your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit right now, ask Him to open your eyes to this reality.  Do not settle for knowing about our God, but KNOW HIM!

May the Spirit of wisdom and revelation open the eyes of all our hearts.

Amen.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

1. NIV/The Message Parallel Bible (New International Version): Zondervan: 9780310928898: Amazon.com: Books

References

The New Testament in Four Versions, Christianity Today Edition, Washington, D.C. 1965

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1990

Interesting Reading

Where Did the NIV Come From? | The Story of the NIV (thenivbible.com)

NIV changes “sinful nature” to “flesh” | Freedom In Christ Ministries (ficm.org.uk)

The Men Who Wrote Scripture Were Led by the Spirit – BJU Seminary

My Missing Piece

12 Monday Dec 2022

Posted by in Isaiah 45:7, Studies

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Hello and welcome to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I am returning to my Isaiah 45:7 study.  I am still in the beginning stages of studying “evil” with the intent of understanding just what God meant when He said, “I create evil.”

I must say, it does appear to be a hopeless undertaking.  I looked up “evil” in the Davis Dictionary of the Bible and found this as the first sentence: “The origin of evil is a problem which has perplexed speculative minds in all ages and countries”.1  The Hastings Dictionary doesn’t appear to hold out much hope either because, at the end of the entry for “evil”, I found: “The speculative question of the origin of evil is not resolved in Holy Scripture, being one of those things of which we are not competent judges”.2

These two statements did almost obliterate an enthusiasm already dampened by the sheer vastness of the subject of evil.  If such august personages as Aquinas, Calvin, Plato, and Plotinus have turned their minds to the subject of evil and failed to find a definitive answer as to its nature and source, what hope did I have?

Well, firstly, I do not seek to provide a definitive answer.  Even if I were to do so, the odds against anyone else agreeing I had done so are astronomical.  And yet, my enthusiasm was restored during the retreat I attended earlier this month as I sat in the airport terminal reading a book while waiting for my flight.  The book was “Authors and Their Public in Ancient Times” by George Haven Putnam.  I both laughed and somewhat sadly acknowledged the truth of what he wrote in his introduction.  Mr. Putnam spoke about his reasons for writing what he called an “essay” stating it was to “trace, as far as might be practicable, from the scattered references in the literature of the period, an outline record of the continuity of literary activity, the methods of the production and distribution of literature, and the nature of the relations between the authors and their readers”.3  He then when on to write:

“The majority of my reviewers were ready to understand the actual purpose of my book and to recognise that my part in the undertaking was limited to certain general inferences or conclusions as to literary methods or conditions.  In one or two cases, however, the critics, ignoring the specified purpose and the necessary limitations of the essay, saw fit to treat it as a treatise on classical literature and devoted their reviews almost exclusively to textual criticisms and corrections.”4

This made me chuckle but it restored my enthusiasm because, no matter what I discover or what conclusions I draw at the end of this study, someone will argue.  Knowing and accepting that is liberating.  Some arguments are useful but there are those who argue for the sake of arguing.  I cannot tell you how many times someone has argued against something I have said but has done so by picking up a phrase or even a single word, constructing their argument on that, and ultimately ignoring the material point I took some pains to make.  This is irritating and yet these critics are also useful because I have learned-and am continuing to learn-how not to fall into the trap of arguing back and forth about something that really had no bearing on the main point in the first place.  I include “am learning” because there are still times when my mind gets caught up in refuting this or that and it takes a moment to mentally step back and realize, “wait a moment: we’re not even talking about the same thing!”

And so, expecting arguments and not expecting a definitive answer on the origin and nature of evil, just why am I conducting this study?  1 Peter 3:15 instructs us to “sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you”.  That is what I am seeking to get out of this study.  I want to understand as much as I can so I at least have both a scripture and study based answer for any question I am asked.  The question specific to this study is; “why did God say He creates evil?”  Since I am trusting the Holy Spirit to guide me into all truth, I am looking at the scriptures that pop into my mind as I am conducting the study and the first scripture is Psalm 8:5.  For the sake of context, I’ll begin quoting in verse 3: “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him?  For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor.”

The bit of scripture that popped into my mind was “you have made him a little lower than the angels”.  You might be wondering what that could possibly have to do with evil so allow me to tell you how and why I got here.  This translation: “a little lower than the angels”, is not accurate.  The Modern Young’s Literal has it, “and cause him to lack a little of Godhead.”  The Amplified renders it, “but little lower than God” but adds [or heavenly beings] as a disclaimer while the NIV says, “little lower than the heavenly beings” but adds the footnote “or than God”.

The Bible fascinates me and one thing that keeps me wondering is why the translators have chosen to translate certain passages the way they have.  The only answer I have is that their theology couldn’t hold up to what the original language is actually saying and they thus translated passages to say what they thought they ought to say.  This particular passage is one such case in point.  If you have a Strong’s concordance, I encourage you to open it to the “Angels” entry and look at the list of numbers.  You’ll see 4397, 4397, 4397, 4397…and then you’ll see 430.  4397 relates to malak in the Hebrew and it means “to dispatch, as a deputy or messenger”.  This is the word usually translated as “angel” or “angels”.  430 is the word Elohim which is not translated as “angel” or “angels” anywhere except Psalm 8:5.  It is, however, very often translated as “God”.  For example, in Genesis 1:1 “God” = Elohim. 

The word translated “lower” is the Hebrew chacer (H2637) and it does mean “to lack.”  I looked it up in the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon and over and over again the word is used to mean “lack”.  It is only by stretching both the intent of the words and the imagination that one can came up with “lower than the angels” as a correct interpretation of Psalm 8:5.  The Hebrew says, “made to lack from God” though I quote it to myself as “lack from Elohim”: I prefer the Hebrew word.

It is because “lack from Elohim” is how I have long thought of Psalm 8:5 that it popped into my mind as I was looking up “evil” in the Dictionary of New Testament Theology.  I read through a brief comparison of the different theories on evil and then read, “Whichever cause is regarded as the basis of evil, even when it is seen as hamartia (Sin), it must not be regarded as personal guilt, for it is not the result of a free and responsible personal decision but of a lack.  It may be the lack of knowing the divine providence (Socrates), or of the working of a cosmic power.”5

I read that, Psalm 8:5 popped into my mind, and I took a moment to consider the evil in the world as the result of a lack.  A lack of what?  With Psalm 8:5 in mind, I must first consider it as a lack from all that God is.  This lack is the will of God for he made man to lack and, more than that, called man good.

I turned my mind to consider man placed in the garden with the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Man at this moment had the very breath of God in them and were not yet subject to death but had to look elsewhere for the source of their life.  They could eat freely from the Tree of Life but Life was something both exterior to them as well as interior.  That Life was provided by God in the form of the tree (exterior) but it was as they ate of its fruit that they would know Life (interior).  Man did lack from Elohim because Man did not have their own source of life to draw on.  In choosing the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, man really did believe a terrible lie.  Already without a source of life in themselves, they decided to make themselves their source anyway and decided it was right to know good and evil for themselves.  Of course the result was death.

I take a look at my own life and breathe a massive sigh of relief.  I do not have any life in myself!  I have no resources to meet my own needs much less the needs of others around me.  I can pretend with all my might and I might even fool a few people along the way but I am NOT enough.  The relief comes in knowing I was not designed to be.  I was made to lack from Elohim.  I was made to know Him alone as the source of my life.  And, what a blessed gift to be alive now.  I am not holding onto a promise of one to come who would one day crush the head of the serpent and restore to me what was lost.  The One has come!  Everything that was to be done, He did! 

Jesus Christ IS now, this very moment, my life.  He is my missing piece, the One who perfectly fits me because I was designed to live in union with Him (See Ephesians 1).  I no longer attempt to fit myself to anything else because I am complete in Him (Colossians 2:10).  What a blessed rest!

I have been meditating on Deuteronomy 30:19-20.  Moses declares he has set before the people of Israel life and death.  He begs them to choose life so that they may “love the Lord your God that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days”.  I pray to utterly know this truth for myself and I pray it also for each of you.  May we know Jesus for in Him is life and that life is the light of men.

Amen

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

  1. Davis, John D., Davis Dictionary of the Bible, Royal Publishers, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee, 1973, Page 234
  2. Hastings, James, Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, Fifth Printing, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts, 2001, Page 247
  3. Putnam, George Haven, Authors and their Public in Ancient Times, Third Edition, Cooper Square Publishers Inc., New York, New York, 1967, Page iv
  4. Ibid., Page v
  5. Brown, Colin, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Volume I, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1967,1971, Page 562

Other References

The Comparative Study Bible, The Zondervan Corporation, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1984

Brown, F., S. Driver, and C. Briggs, The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, Eighteenth Printing, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts, 2018

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1990

Young, Robert, Modern Young’s Literal Translation: New Testament with Psalms & Proverbs, Greater Truth Publishers, Lafayette, Indiana, 2005