Tag Archives: Christian Life

Help My Unbelief

16 Monday Oct 2023

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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

You might be thinking the photo at the top of this post looks a bit sad.  Perhaps it does.  The tiny sprouts are the result of a project I was certain had failed but it had not!  I shouted for joy when I saw them.  There was an internet tip which said to lay tomato slices filled with seeds on the top of potting soil and then cover the whole lot with plastic, creating a terrarium.  I did so and then watched as nothing happened except the tomato slices molded, shriveled, and dried into rings.  I finally approached the pot with trowel in hand, intending to scrape the tomatoes and a good layer of dirt into my compost bin.  When I looked under the plastic, there were sprouts!  The project had not failed after all.  Despite how things looked, the process was working and some of those seeds had sprouted.

There are many lessons I think can be drawn from this especially in regards to my current study.  Then again, some of you might be wondering what tomato sprouts could possibly have to do with the Breastplate of Righteousness.  When I saw those slender green sprouts long after I had given up hope of their growth, I couldn’t help but to see them as another confirmation that what I’ve been seeing in my current study is the truth.  I’ve been looking at Genesis 15:6 “And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness” which is quoted in James 2:23.  I’ve also been looking at John 6:29 where Jesus says, “This is the word of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent” and at Revelation 19:8 where we find this description of the wife of the Lamb: “And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”

I don’t think I deviate from accepted doctrine when I say the Christian life can be summed up in these four passages of scripture if we also take into account all of James 2.  Belief equates to righteousness and we do the work of God by believing/having faith in Jesus.  We prove our belief/faith is real by performing good works and then one day our works will transform into a fine linen garment.  But what if our belief is backwards?  What if Jesus was saying God does the work of belief in Him who He sent?  What if every part of our Christian life, especially the good works that have been prepared for us to do, are intended to flow out of the life of Christ within us, made our reality by the Indwelling Holy Spirit, and not a lifestyle of exhaustion and spiritual burnout?

If Jesus was saying belief in Him is a work God performs, it makes clear a passage of scripture I have never understood.

The passage is found in Mark 9.  There is a great multitude around the disciples and the scribes are there also, disputing with the disciples.  As Jesus approaches he asks the scribes what they are discussing with His disciples.  It is one of the crowd who answers that he has brought his son to Jesus.  The son has a mute spirit who, from childhood, not only seized the boy, threw him to the ground, and caused him to foam at the mouth and gnash his teeth; but had tried to destroy him by throwing the boy into the fire and into water.  The disciples could not cast the spirit out and the man hoped Jesus could do something.  Jesus answers, “If you can believe all things are possible to him who believes”.  The man answers, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Verses 14-24).

I have quoted from the New King James Version but Jesus’ reply is related a bit differently in other versions.  For example, the Berean Standard Bible casts a different light on this passage.  The man says, “But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”  Jesus’ reply is, “If You can?” echoed Jesus.  “All things are possible to him who believes!”  Then the man cries, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”  The Amplified is similar in its wording: “Jesus said to him ‘[you say to Me,] “If You can?” All things are possible for the one who believes and trusts [in Me]!’  While the NKJV does translate the Greek here as “If you can believe…” there is a note included which states “NU-Text reads, ‘If You can! All things…” so there is good reason to accept Jesus is repeating the man’s words, not stating that all things are possible if you can believe.

Let’s look at “belief”:

The Greek word translated as “belief” in this passage is pisteuo (G4100) which is the verb form of pistis, the word translated as “faith” in Galatians 2:20 and James 2.  Pisteuo is also the word appearing in John 6:9 and John 16:5-10: “But now I go to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou?  But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow had filled your heart.  Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.  And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.  Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged” (KJV).

Pisteuo means “persuade, be persuaded” and the full definition of the word mentions two different types of persuading: “4100 pisteuo (from 4102 pistis, “faith” derived from 3982 peitho, “persuade, be persuaded”) believe (affirm, have confidence); used of persuading oneself (=human believing) and with the sacred significance of being persuaded by the Lord (=faith-believing).  Only the context indicates whether 4100/pisteuo (believe) is self-serving (without sacred meaning), or the believing that leads to/proceeds from god’s inbirthing of faith”.

The word “unbelief” in the passage from Mark is apistia and I find this definition: “570; form of 4103 pistos “faithful” properly, without (divine) persuasion”.  I think the context of this passage supports a conclusion that both definitions of persuasion are meant.  The man was convinced that, if anything could be done for his son, Jesus was the one who could do it.  “If you can…”  He needed something more than he could find in himself to come into a place of rest and trust that not only could Jesus, but that Jesus would.

What about John 6:29?  What definition does the context support?  The entire chapter is full of signs and wonders only God could do.  Jesus feeds a great multitude with 5 barley loaves and 2 small fish and then walks on the water.  When the people follow Jesus to the other side of the sea, He says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.  Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”  The people ask Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Then comes Jesus’ reply: “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent” (John 6:1-40).

If we continue on in Chapter 6, Jesus appears to be stressing his point: Moses did not give the bread of heaven, it is the Father who gives the true bread, Jesus Himself is the true bread, etc.  I find the context to be clear that the definition of pisteuo intended is that of divine persuasion: “This is the work of God, to persuade you…”

This brings me such joy and peace when it comes to sharing the Gospel of Jesus with others.  There have been many who have asked me questions about Jesus and then have rejected outright what I have said.  The few who do not reject it outright don’t appear to make any sort of response.  What do I expect when I answer a question?  There is another passage in Mark that perfectly describes my expectations and brings me back to the picture of the surprise tomato sprouts.  It’s found in Chapter 4 verses 26-29: And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.  For the earth yields crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.  But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

My work is not to try and get more faith or try really hard to believe in Jesus.  I can read and study and listen to various Bible Teachers to persuade myself about Jesus but learning about Jesus is the best I will get.  It takes the Holy Spirit, the very Spirit of the Living God, dwelling and working inside of me to reveal to me the nature of God.  I can only know Jesus and know the Father through the Holy Spirit.  In Acts 1:8, Jesus says, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me…”  The disciples were to wait for the Holy Spirit for, without Him, they would have poured out their lives to no avail.

The Holy Spirit makes our Christian life.  He brings us into union with the risen and ascended Jesus Christ without whom we can do nothing.  The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation and it is His working in us which enables us to be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks the reason for our hope (See 1 Peter 3:15-16).  When we speak as the Spirit gives us utterance, we can trust that the words we speak are a seed planted in the heart-ground of those around us.  No matter how impossible it looks, the Spirit will nurture and water that seed until it sprouts and grows though we know not how.

It is truly the work of God that we all believe in Him whom He has sent!

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

References

https://biblehub.com/kjvs/james/2.htm

https://biblehub.com/kjvs/galatians/2.htm

https://biblehub.com/kjvs/john/16.htm

https://biblehub.com/kjvs/mark/9.htm

https://biblehub.com/greek/4100.htm

https://biblehub.com/greek/570.htm

No Field Lies Fallow

05 Monday Jun 2023

Posted by in Studies

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Image by Marion from Pixabay

Hello, Readers, and welcome to a new post on Renaissance Woman!

I ended last week’s post by asking how did all I had said in that post relate to the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares?  If you have not read last week’s post, A Vast Inheritance, I recommend doing so before continuing on.  If you are ready for my answer to that question, my answer is “Fruit”.  More specifically, the life of Jesus Christ manifested in us His people of which “fruit” in the scriptures is representative.

Let me explain.

First, I must review some bits of Dora Van Assen’s interpretation of this parable which kicked off my study.  Ms. Van Assen points out Matthew 13:35 quotes Psalm 78:2 saying, “I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world”.  It is her conviction that, in the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, Jesus is describing what happened in the Garden of Eden when sin entered into the plan of God.  Ms. Van Assen says the wheat in the parable represents the good thoughts and spiritual understanding planted in the mind of Adam by the Spirit of God while the tares represent evil thoughts and carnal understanding sown into the mind of Adam by the Adversary.  Ms. Van Assen goes on to say these two types of thoughts caused a duality within the mind of Adam which led him to fall into a carnal mind.  This dual mind was capable of bringing forth a harvest of a certain kind of man.  Ms. Van Assen stresses that the “battlefield is in the mind!” (See Kingdom Bible Studies article linked below).

I’ve been meditating on this for weeks now and a passage in James came to the forefront of my mind: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.  But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.  For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:5-8).

This has always been a difficult passage for me to understand although I have obeyed the command in it and asked God for wisdom.  I am convinced the wisdom we need is immediately ours, after all it is the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation who lives in us.  And yet, I am also convinced that, in some cases; that wisdom takes time to be fully realized.  Like building a house, strong foundations must first be laid.  That was my experience with this passage.  There have been glimmers of understanding as I have studied other passages and then, during the weeks of this study on The Parable, I came across a teaching by Don Keathley called “You Ain’t Double-Minded”.  I was instantly uncomfortable because that title seemed to be refuting the Book of James but I was also curious.  I clicked the link. (It’s excellent: I’ve linked Part One below)

Within the first few minutes, Mr. Keathley said something that grasped my attention.  He was describing the Garden of Eden and the various trees growing in it, especially the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  He pointed out there was only one Garden.  There were two Trees growing in it but they grew together in the same Garden.  This is the same picture as both wheat and tares growing in the same field and it made me wonder just what “double-minded” really meant in the Greek.

The Greek word used in James 1:8 is dipsuchos (G1374) and means “two-spirited, vacillating (in opinion or purpose), double-minded”.  The word is formed of dis (G1364) meaning “twice, again” and psuche (G5590) which means “breath, spirit, life, mind, soul”.  The Greek Lexicon of the New Testament defines it as “double-headed people who stagger helplessly here and there in their thinking” and “to be uncertain about the truth of something, doubting, hesitating.” 

 I have heard this passage used against those who doubt their belief in God.  The encouragement is to trust your leader and don’t ask questions.  I am convinced this is not what James is saying.  He begins his sentence with “if anyone lacks wisdom let him ask of God”.  A knowing and trusting of God must already be in place before anyone dares ask Him anything and that knowing and trusting is what James is telling us not to doubt. If we carry around false ideas of who God is and do not think He is trustworthy, odds are we won’t ask Him anything at all. If we did, how could we possibly receive anything from Him because, would we even recognize it? It all comes down to which spiritual influences we are allowing to sow seeds in the fields of our minds.  We must take care because there are many false ideas of who God is and many willing and waiting to sow those ideas in our minds. 

The Knowledge of the nature of God is what I believe is represented by the wheat and the tares.  My studies have brought me across some interesting facts about the darnel which is believed to the tare mentioned in Jesus’ parable.  The seeds of the darnel are poisonous.  Small quantities do actually have some medical benefit and have been used internally to treat dizziness, insomnia, and stomach problems and externally as a poultice to treat skin problems like shingles and ulcers.  The official name of the darnel, L. temulentum comes from a Latin word for “drunk” and, although bread made with darnel seed mixed with wheat is bitter to the taste, both bread and beer have been made with darnel deliberately included to give a special kick.  It’s a dangerous seed to play with though consumption of the darnel in greater quantities causes some of the same symptoms it has been used to treat and can be deadly.  It is a soporific poison causing a sleep that results in death.  It can also cause convulsions leading to death.

The seeds of the darnel are almost indistinguishable from wheat in seed form.  No one deliberately sows darnel in a wheat field and its presence in the field is often not known until the stalks produce fruit.  Then, the wheat and tares are so clearly distinguishable one from the other that a child can go into a field and separate one from the other.  When Don Keathley’s message got me thinking about the Garden of Eden, I remembered the lie used by the Serpent to deceive Eve.  It wasn’t encouragement to lie or cheat or steal or murder or drink or smoke cigarettes or anything else deemed a “sin” by various religious denominations.  The lie that brought sin into the plan of God was to believe a wrong thing about God.  The lie suggested He wasn’t trustworthy and that humankind was better off determining good and evil for themselves.  This same lie is present with us today and such false ideas about God are often difficult to discern because there is a touch of truth to them.   

A passage I’ve quoted portions of in a couple previous posts is 1 John 5.  The last verse of Chapter 5 and thus the entire Epistle, is “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.  Amen.”  Jonathan Mitchell’s New Testament renders this verse as, “Little children (born ones) keep yourselves in custody (or: guarded)!-away from the idols (the external appearances; the forms; or: = false concepts)!  Going back to the passage in James, “such a man is double-minded, unstable in all his ways.”  Keeping false ideas of God in our minds might feel good and even exciting but their fruit is death.

How do we guard ourselves from false concepts of God when the wheat and the tares in seed form are indistinguishable from each other?  How do we know whether or not the ones we are listening to are false teachers?  Jesus answered this in Matthew 7:15: “You will know them by their fruits.” 

An article I found on the Jewish Virtual Library says the darnel seed, while harmful to humans, is not harmful to birds, especially doves.  I tried to verify this with other articles and, while I did find a few that mentioned the seeds not being harmful to birds such as ducks or chickens, the original article (quoting the Mishnah in Kilayim) is the only source stating specifically the darnel seed is not harmful to doves.  I still found it interesting because it is the Holy Spirit is often represented as a dove in the Bible.  This thought brings me such comfort because, no matter how many times tares have been sown into the field of my life, they have not harmed the Spirit within me nor hindered His work in any way.

There have been many times when I have found myself in a situation where the seeds sown in the field of my life have been a mix of wheat and tares: false concepts of God that appeared to be the truth and I could not separate between the two.  At first, I could not distinguish between the fruit either and I ate of mixed bread.  There was euphoric moments I thought were proof of the moving of the Holy Spirit but these moments were always mixed with bitterness.  As I have continued to be guided by the Holy Spirit and have tasted His fruit, which is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control-I quickly became able to distinguish the fruit of the tares from that of the wheat.

That is, of course, not good enough.  No field lies fallow and discerning what type of fruit is growing in the field does nothing to increase either the health of the field or the field’s yield. I want there to be no tares at all sown in the field of my life but the fact remains the seeds of one are almost indistinguishable from the other: I cannot prevent tares on my own.  No matter: the seeds of the tares do not harm the dove who is the Holy Spirit.  He is the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation lavished upon us by a God of Love who pours out His Spirit even before we ask.  We ask knowing our God, trusting in His love, and assured that what we ask for is ours already.  He is our guide within and He alone reveals to us Jesus who is the Face of God. The Holy Spirit is the only way to distinguish the seed of the wheat from that of the tare.

He guides us into all Truth and we can trust that the One who began a good work in us will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Hallelujah!  Amen. 

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

References

KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES: THE FIRSTFRUITS, THE HARVEST, AND THE VINTAGE by J. Preston Eby (godfire.net)

What Does Tares Mean? Bible Definition and References (biblestudytools.com)

Tares – WebBible Encyclopedia – ChristianAnswers.Net

Tares (jewishvirtuallibrary.org)

Darnel Ryegrass Plant Care & Growing Basics: Water, Light, Soil, Propagation etc. | PlantIn (myplantin.com)

A Short Summary on our Botanical Knowledge of Lolium Temlentum L.

Bearded Darnel – Medicinal Herb Info

Bearded Darnel – Medicinal Herb Info

 You Ain’t Double Minded – Don Keathley – YouTube

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

Green, Jay P. Sr., The Interlinear Bible, Volume 4, Authors For Christ, Inc., Lafayette, Indiana, 1976, 1985

Mitchell, Jonathan, The New Testament, Harper Brown Publishing, 2019

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

If No One is Watching

04 Tuesday Apr 2023

Posted by in Walking in the Way

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

I am running a bit late this week but I did get a post completed!  I had thought I would take a deeper look at the word “wicked” in scripture but then saw some fascinating things in the NT about faith I wanted to look at as well.  And then, there have been so many avenues of study opened up to me through my study of Isaiah 45:7, I wasn’t sure which one to pursue first.  I’ve known my next study was going to be on the full armor of God as described in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (See Ephesians 6: 10-18) and, as I started to put together notes this this week’s post, I realized everything I was looking at would be explored as I looked at the various pieces of armor.  Perhaps I should just wait to post until deeper into my Armor of God study…but then, I read something interesting in Ephesians Chapter 6.  The word as found in The New King James Version of the Bible is “eyeservice” found in verse 6. 

“Eyeservice” caught my attention because of my study of the word “evil”.  I had looked at the Hebrew and Greek words for “evil” during my study of Isaiah 45:7 and the Hebrew word translated “evil” is ra.  Ra is spelled Resh (ר) Ayin (ע).  Resh is a picture of a bent head or one bent under a heavy burden and the Ayin is the picture of the eyes.  So, those who do evil are those who allow their actions to be guided by what they have determined is right in their own eyes.

The Greek word translated as “eyeservice” is ophthalmodouleia (G3787)and is a bit of a tongue twister.  It’s a combination word of opthalmos meaning “the eye” and douleia meaning “slavery” or “bondage”.  This Greek word appears twice in scripture: here in Ephesians 6:6 and then again in Colossians 3:22 where Paul writes, “Servants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not only when their eyes are on you, as pleasers of men, but in simplicity of purpose (with all your heart) because of your reverence for the Lord and as a sincere expression of your devotion to Him” (Amplified). 

At first glance, the word ophthalmodouleia doesn’t have any relation to “evil”.  The two passages where this word appears does seem to be speaking about a bondage to another’s opinion rather than doing what is right on one’s own eyes.  Since the two passages are similar, I am focusing on Ephesians 6:6 and  Jonathan Mitchell’s New Testament renders the passage as, “not in accord with eye-service (or; in line with slavery to the eyes [of folks watching]; or = doing it only when being watched) as folks desiring to please men, but rather as slaves of Christ, constantly doing (performing; producing) the will and intent of God-from out of [the] soul (=with the whole inner being; mind, will, emotion, life-force; or: = spontaneously)”. 

The Amplified is a smoother read: “Not in the way of eyeservice-as if they were watching you-and only to please men; but as servants (slaves) of Christ, doing the will of God heartily and with your whole soul.”  Paul’s admonition is to not behave one way when another person is watching you and another when they are not.  In other words, Paul is telling us not to be hypocrites.  And yet, I do see a deeper meaning in this passage.

In June of 2020, I was in prayer asking not only that the eyes of my understanding be enlightened but that I would see the Holy Spirit guiding me into all truth.  The answer I received was “the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”.  I did a word study on Genesis 2:9 but, once I’d completed it, I wasn’t sure where to go next.  I didn’t need to worry: the Holy Spirit was about to guide me.  I began hearing my Bible Teacher’s mention the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and then they weren’t just mentioning it but teaching on it.  I also would just happen to come across books and other writings teaching on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil as well as the Tree of Life.  Since June of 2020, I have come to see that there are two ways to live.  We can live our lives out from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil which means we have ourselves at the center of our lives and determine for ourselves what is good and evil.  We can live our lives out from the Tree of Life which is the very life of the risen and ascended Jesus Christ made real to us through the Indwelling Spirit. 

I do not see Ephesians 6:6 (or the passage in Colossians) as Paul only telling his listeners not to be hypocrites.  I see this passage as Paul urging his listeners, and us today, to live our lives out from the very life of Jesus Christ no matter what position we find ourselves in and no matter what work might be placed in our hands to do.

I hear the word “secular” a great deal.  I get what people are saying but may I suggest there is no such thing as “secular” where a Believer is concerned?  Our very bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.  We are One Body with Jesus Christ, partakers of His divine nature and co-creators with Him (2 Peter 1:4, 1 Corinthians 3:9).  This is our very identity.  This is not something we pick up and adorn ourselves with on a Sunday morning but then lay aside when we go to work or to school or whatever occupies our time on a day to day basis.  Everything we do we do unto the Lord and with Him because He is in us. 

That is what I saw in Ephesians 6:6.  I suppose “eyeservice” does have some relation to “evil” because a person who is living for the approval of others and is acting accordingly has determined it is good to do so.  In that sense, that person is doing what is right in his or her own eyes.  Let us not live that way.  Let us live-and live spontaneously-with our whole inner being: mind, will, emotion, out of the Christ.  Let us each one live joyfully knowing that it is no longer we who live, it is Christ who lives in us. 

Hallelujah!  Amen.

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

References

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

Mitchell, Jonathan Paul, MA, The New Testament, Harper Brown Publishing, 2009, 2013, 2015, 2019

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, Koine Greek Textbook, Volume IV-V, 2014-2017

I Have Questions

13 Monday Mar 2023

Posted by in Walking in the Way

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Hello and welcome-or welcome back-to another week and another post on Renaissance Woman.  This week I am going to venture down one of those side paths I did not go down during my Isaiah 45:7 study.  This path presented itself during my study of the Hebrew word bara which is most often translated by the English word “create”.

While studying bara, I had had a video shared with me where the meaning of bara was given as “to fill”.  I had found another video which expanded on that first one by pointing out that the Hebrew word bar meant “son” and thus bara not only meant “to fill” but also “to increase”.  I can’t say any of this is wrong.  The root of the English word “create” used to translate bara is kre and means “to grow”.  Filling, increase, growth…all of these ideas are contained within the word bara.  However, while none of this is wrong, perhaps it is incomplete.

Bar is the Aramaic word for “son”.  The Hebrew word for “son” is ben.  Bar in the Hebrew means “beloved, pure, empty, choice, clean, clear.”  The root barar means “to clarify, brighten, examine, select, make bright, choice, chosen, cleanse (be clean), clearly, polished, pure, purify”.  Bar is also used to mean “field” or “grain, in the sense of winnowing”.  All of these definitions are from the Strong’s concordance where I also find an entry for bar defining it as “borrowed from the Chaldean as a title, the heir, son, grandson”.  The Strong’s then says bar corresponds to ben: son.

The Young’s concordance concurs.  Both concordances show several different Hebrew words used throughout the Old Testament all translated as “son”.  Ben is used most often and there are pages of scriptures associated with that word.  Bar is also translated “son” in a few different passages.  But then, bar is also translated as “pure” and “clean” in other passages (See Psalm 19:8, 24:4, 73:1, Proverbs 14:4). 

All of this might just be a matter of interest in studying the Hebrew language if it weren’t for Psalm 2:12.  The King James Version has it as: “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.  Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.”  The Hebrew word translated “Son” in this passage is bar.  What interests me is that the English word “son” also appears in verse 7 of this Psalm: “…Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.”  In verse 7, the Hebrew word is ben.  I wondered to myself, why are the different Hebrew words translated with the same English word?  The Strong’s Concordance answers this question by telling me in this passage bar is “Son” in the sense of a title.  I checked and didn’t find anything in any of my reference books or any other Bible translation that suggested bar in this passage could or should be translated as anything but “Son”.

I looked up this passage in every Bible translation I have access to and didn’t find much variation.  The Young’s Literal has “Chosen One” in place of “son” and the New English Bible has “king” but the majority of the other translations all have “Son”.  Only two translations had footnotes associated with this passage that suggested there might be more to the standard interpretation.  One is The Complete Jewish Study Bible which states, “Regarding this verse, the Targum says, ‘Those who reject his instruction will incur his anger and perish but blessed are those who trust in his Word’.”  The second footnote appears in The Passion Translation which states, “Or ‘be ruled by the Son”.  The Hebrew word for ‘kiss’ is nashaq and can also mean ‘to be ruled by’ or ‘be in subjection to’ (the Son).  Yet another possible translation of this difficult verse is ‘be armed with purity’.”

I found other glimmers of possibility.  The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon did have “kiss purely, of sincere homage” under the entry for bar but none of this was enough for me to question how this verse has been translated.  And I did want to question it because the verse bothers me. 

“Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little.”  Every resource I have access to are in agreement this is a messianic Psalm and thus I have to ask myself whether this passage is an accurate reflection of the Jesus I read about in the gospels.  That Jesus came to save the lost, received and ate with sinners, and wept over Jerusalem.  He washed filthy feet and died on a cross.  Am I to expect that if I don’t kiss or show proper homage to that Jesus, He’s going to get angry with me and I’ll be left to perish?  That seems to be what this passage is saying and ending the Psalm with “Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him” doesn’t really soften that blow.  Still, I couldn’t find anything that suggested there was any other possible interpretation for this passage and, since I agree with those who are saying we can’t make the Bible say whatever we want, I put all my discomfort with this passage firmly with the Holy Spirit and waited for what He would say.

I waited a while.  I did shift my focus from studying Isaiah 45:7 but my questions about this passage percolated in the back of my mind.  Then came the day when I happened to pick a Hebrew word study book off my shelves and found the last two studies in it were devoted to Psalm 2.  The book is Hebrew Word Study: Exploring the Mind of God by Chaim Bentorah with Laura Bertone and I ask you to imagine my surprise when I read someone else asking the same question I had asked.  Mr. Bentorah writes, “In Hebrew, the word for “sin” is ben (בן).  Only in Aramaic is the word bar (בר )used as son.  This passage was written in Hebrew, so why suddenly insert an Aramaic word?” (Bentorah, 248).  My question exactly, Mr. Bentorah!

He goes on to say that there is a basis for using the word “Son” and capitalizing it to imply a reference to Jesus.  Mr. Bentorah says that, because Jewish tradition teaches this psalm in a messianic context, Christians do have a legitimate basis for assuming the word bar is “Son” with a capital S and implying we are to kiss the Son of God-Jesus.  But then, he goes on to say, “I’m okay with this interpretation, except the idea that Jesus will become angry with us and we will perish if we don’t kiss Him is a little unnerving to me.  Out salvation has nothing to do with “kissing” Jesus. Additionally, Jesus threatening us to submit to Him doesn’t fit His character” (Bentorah, 249).

Mr. Bentorah points out that rendering nashaq as “kiss” is a later, postexilic use of the word and that nashaq, which is derived from an old Akkadian word, signifies a voluntary joining together or a desire to be joined together.  He also points out that if the New Testament attributes Psalm 2 to David (which does seem to be the case in Acts 2:24-26), then rendering the word nashaq as “kiss” postdated David’s time and we ought then revert to the original meaning of the word which is a voluntary joining together.  If we also use the Hebrew meaning for bar which is “purity” rather than translating it by the Aramaic “son”, then command in this passage becomes to embrace or desire purity in our relationship with God.  Mr. Bentorah goes through the other words in this passage questioning why ‘aneph is translated “anger” and “wrath” instead of “passion”.

Mr. Bentorah closes his study with: “By saying that ‘aneph ( אנף) does not refer to anger or wrath but rather to God’s passionate love for us, I know I am trying to put a positive spin on something that is traditionally read in a negative context.  That may be the case” (Bentorah, 252). 

As I said before, every Bible translation is consistent in the interpretation of this scripture.  I am not saying Mr. Bentorah is correct and everyone else is wrong and Mr. Bentorah isn’t saying that either.  What he is saying is that there is valid reason to take a deeper look at this passage, the ancient language it was written in, and to question the interpretation.  It’s okay to ask questions.

There was a recent post on a Biblical Archeology forum I follow that said the Bible had to be taken “as is”.  It is difficult to glean just what exactly someone means by a one sentence post so I can only speak to what I thought when I read it.  I hear Believers declare the Bible is the inerrant word of God.  This is said as if it’s the arguments to end all arguments.  The Bible means exactly what it says and the idea of questioning what’s written there is unthinkable.  Besides, the very act of questioning means you don’t have any faith and without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). I don’t agree.  I’ve found my questions about scripture passages are an invitation from the Living God to enter deeper into relationship with Him.

I love my Bible.  Reading it used to be a chore, a box I would tick to prove I’d done my Christian duty for the day.  Reading it was a chore because I’d finish with this sense of unease that my life was not quite measuring up to the standard set down combined with the certainty it never would.  It’s a great irony that, the closer I have drawn to Jesus and the Father through the Spirit, the more questions I have and the more I delight to read the Bible.  One of the greatest privileges of my life is being able to possess as many copies of it as I like.  And yet, I also never lose sight of the fact that what I possess is a translation.  The translators have done the best they could whether they sought to produce a literal translation or express what they thought the ancient languages were saying.  I agree the Bible is the inerrant word of God because the One who inspired it is inerrant and any interpretation of it is inerrant if the Holy Spirit is the One doing the interpreting.   

There is no relationship on earth that is formed without asking questions and I have not found my relationship to the God who loves me to be any different.  The Bible is a crucial way of getting to know Him.  When I have a difficult passage I present it to Him.  “This passage says this,” I say.  “Is this truly who You are?  Show me.  Help me to know You.”  I have found our God is delighted to answer my questions and draw me closer to Himself.  Does He answer everything at once in the way I expect?  No.  Sometimes His answers have been years in the receiving and I have found He had to teach me other things before I could understand His answer.  Doesn’t stop me asking.   

My precious fellow believers, Jesus Himself says, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and these are they which testify of Me.  But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life” (John 5:39:40).  The Life we live in Christ Jesus is one of relationship.  His perfect love casts out all fear and I think that includes the fear of asking questions.

The Bible contains the promise of a day when we will know as we are known.  So ask.  Ask whatever you would.  He is safe.  He loves you.  He will answer you.

Amen. 

inerrant meaning – Google Search

Two Competing Philosophies of Bible Translation | Patterns of Evidence

References

Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

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

The Complete Jewish Study Bible, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts, 2016

The New English Bible with the Apocrypha, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970

The Passion Translation, Broadstreet Publishing, Passion & Fire Ministries, 2018

Bentorah, Chaim, with Laura Bertone, Hebrew Word Study: Exploring the Mind of God, Whitaker House, New Kensington, Pennsylvania, 2019

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

Guralnik, David B., Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition, William Collins + World Publishing Co., Inc., Cleveland • New York, 1970, 1976

Peterson, Eugene H., The Message, NavPress, Tyndale House Publishers, 1993, 2002, 2018

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

Wilson, William, Wilson’s Old Testament Word Studies, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts

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

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

There Is No Substitute

20 Monday Feb 2023

Posted by in Isaiah 45:7, Studies

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Hello and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I am continuing my study of Isaiah 45:7: “I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things” (NKJV).

I have not fully plumbed the depths of the meaning of “calamity” in this passage which other translations have as “evil”.  I have no doubt I’ll be looking at the Hebrew ra and the Greek kakos and poneros again in other studies.  I am moving on in the study because I have answered one of my questions to my own satisfaction: when God says, “I create darkness…I create calamity” does that mean neither existed until He created it and thus He is the source of both? 

My study has shown me that answer is no.  The Hebrew word bara translated as “create” does not mean “to make something out of nothing” and, in some passages where the word is used, it cannot possibly mean that as those “creating” are doing so out of something that already exists.  There is no reason to apply the “make something out of nothing” meaning to this passage in Isaiah and I have found it borne out by many other passages in the Bible: God is not the source of darkness nor evil.  However, He is found inside the darkness that is mankind’s resulting state after eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  I also find calamity, badness, and circumstances “injurious to happiness” (which are all better definitions of ra then “evil”) are used by God to instruct and correct His people and to bring about His will.

Which does, I think, raise another question: is our God a trustworthy God?  Of course every Believer cries a resounding “yes!” but let’s pretend we don’t know God.  Our eyes have not been opened by the Holy Spirit to see Him as He really is.  Let’s pretend we do not know the Father in the face of Jesus.  Is the same Lord who says, “I, the Lord, do all these things,” One who can be trusted?  The second part of Isaiah 45:6 says, “I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me.”

I think that, to a one, every Christian would agree there is only one God.  And yet, I do not see that belief upheld by what I hear Christians saying and what I read in the books they are writing.  Christians really do believe in two Gods.  There’s the one God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob but then there’s His opposite.  Perhaps that god only warrants a little ‘g’ but he is as omnipotent as God, and is in many ways more powerful than God.  God had a plan you see, and the little ‘g’ god came and messed it up in the Garden of Eden so badly big ‘G’ God is salvaging what He can.  Little ‘g’ rules the underworld and will have untold numbers of the people of God enslaved in his domain where he will torment them for all eternity.  Sound familiar?

This is not a post on the existence of hell or even the meanings of the words translated “hell” on the Old and New Testaments.  I am going to take a moment to point out a few matters of interest.  The word for “hell” in the Hebrew is sheol (H7585) and is translated as “hell” in various passages in the KJV.  It is translated an almost equal number of times as “grave” and then three times as “pit”.  There are three words in the Greek translated as “hell”: geenna (G1067) though most of us are more familiar with the words Gehenna or Hinnom or Ge-Hinnom, hades (G86), and tartaroo (G5020).  Hades is also translated once as “grave” in 1 Corinthians 15:55 (though two different Greek words are used for “grave” in other passages) and tartaroo only appears in 2 Peter 2:4. 

“Doesn’t matter”, I hear my Christian brethren say: the words all mean the same thing.  I put it to you they cannot possibly mean the same thing.  Open your concordance to the entry for “Hell” and look which Greek words are associated with “burning” or “fire”.  To a one, that Greek word is geenna.  Even James 3:6 has geenna rather than hades.  Then, take a look at Revelation 20:14: “Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire.  This is the second death.”  It does not make sense that hell, which is a place already on fire according to the words of Jesus Himself, would be cast into the Lake of Fire.  Those same believers will insist hell is a place of separation from God forever with no hope of escape but then one has to consider these passages (quoted from the KVJ):

“For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell” Psalm 16:10

“…Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell” Psalm 86:13

“…if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou are there” Psalm 139:8

“The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath” Proverbs 15:24

Again, this is not a post arguing for or against the existence of hell.  What I am saying is how extremely important to heed the words of Paul: “Test everything.  Hold fast what is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).  When I began questioning what I was being taught from the pulpit, looking up the passages that described the hell I was so afraid I’d go to if I ended up backsliding, I found much of what I was told was NOT AT ALL backed up by the Bible.  I recently read an article where the author quoted Gleanings from Gussie by Patricia “Gus” Nolan Savas where she writes, “whereas many Roman Catholics worship their religion, many Protestants worship the Bible” (Savas, xiii). I also recently heard the term “Bible Preach”.  As I am always looking for Christians to say something along the lines of “Holy Spirit lead, teach, comfort, interpret, and guide”, this did not set well with me.  And yet, since the majority of Christian denominations have sidelined the Holy Spirit and pay Him little more than lip service, “Bible Preach” is the best they’ve got.  Very well then, let your Bible Preach.

Ask questions.  Look these passages up for yourself.  See if what you are being taught is the truth.  Does the Bible really teach this destination theology, i.e. you’ll either go to heaven or hell when you die?  Or, does it teach us of the fruit-filled and fruit-bearing, overcoming, peace in the midst of tribulation life we have in Jesus Christ right this moment through His Spirit dwelling within us?  When you’ve done that, look up the passages that mention the Holy Spirit and see if what you’ve been told about His vanishing from the world the moment the Biblical canon was finalized can possibly be the truth.  When you’ve done that, ask Him to open your eyes to the truth that only He can tell you.  Ask Him to guide you into all Truth, the truth that is Jesus Christ alone. 

Test everything.  Hold fast what is good.  The Greek word for “good” in this passage is kalos (G2570).  The Strong’s concordance defines it as “beautiful, good, valuable, virtuous, worthy”.  The Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament goes a bit deeper.  While its definition for kalos does contain “beautiful-being attractive in outer appearance” it also defines kalos as “pertaining to being in accordance at a high level with the purpose of something or someone” and “morally good, pleasing to God, contributing to salvation.” I also hear the accusation made that those who are questioning and refuting are choosing only those scriptures that they like or make them feel good.  I don’t doubt some are but I do not allow accusations and mockery to stop me from working out my own salvation with fear and trembling (which is not describing terror of God!).   

Knowing our God, living in vital union relationship with Him is a matter of life and death and that not reserved until after our body dies but life and death right this moment.  Just because someone tells you who God is or writes a book or has a vision, does not mean what they are saying, speaking, or seeing is the truth.  Test everything.  Hold fast what is good. If the underworld we’ve been taught to believe in is not upheld by the Bible, there needs to be a thorough look at the idea of a little ‘g’ god of evil.  Which I intend to do next week.

References

Danker, Frederick William, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, Third Edition, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinios, 1957,2000, Page 504-505

Savas, Patricia Nolan, Gleanings from Gussie, CSN Books, San Diego, California, 2009

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, Koine Greek Textbook, Volume IV-V, 2014-2017