On God Not Wanting Sacrifices, But Mercy and Doing What He Says

 “And Jesus, passing away from there, saw a person sitting upon the tax office, being said ‘Matthew,’ and He says to him, ‘Follow me.’ And having stood up, he followed Him. And it happened with His reclining at the table in Matthew’s house, look, many tax collectors and malfunctioning people having come reclined at the table together with Jesus and His disciples. And having seen, the Pharisees were saying to His disciples, ‘Because of what does your teacher eat with the tax collectors and malfunctioning people?’ Yet having heard, He said, ‘the physically strong don’t have a use for a physician, but those having been harmed. Yet as you go, learn what this is, “I want mercy and not a sacrificial victim;” because I didn’t come to invite righted people but malfunctioning people.’”

Matthew 9:9-13

     I’ve been wrestling with this topic for a couple of weeks now. It’s something that seems to strike at the heart of the Christianity I grew up with and was trained in just out of High School. In my last post on the subject, I discussed the reason Jesus died for us, and in that post I discussed that it was not so God could forgive our sins, that is, our malfunctioning behaviors, but rather so that we could be enabled to stop sinning and so our behaviors and responses could stop being influenced and informed by our inherited human malfunction. In short, God doesn’t need a blood sacrifice in order to forgive us, but we needed to be joined to Jesus Christ’s death on the cross so that His death would become our death and the natural consequence of that malfunction would be satisfied.

     In this post, I want to talk about those passages in the Scriptures where God explicitly states that He doesn’t want sacrifices, but for people to be merciful, compassionate, and to do what He’s asked them to do. What a lot of Christians may not know is that He says this several times in the Psalms and in the writings of the Prophets.

     The practice of animal sacrifice is an ancient one. From what I’ve been able to read on the subject, there have been animal sacrifices from the very beginnings of human civilization, and from even before this. When the first sacrifices are mentioned in the Book of Genesis in the Scriptures, the practice was already well established. What’s important to note here is that, prior to the Book of Exodus, God never asks for or requires a sacrificial offering. Many Bible Evangelicals will point to Genesis 3:21 as proof of God establishing the need for a blood sacrifice to forgive sins. But the text itself says nothing of the kind. It just says, literally, that God made tunics from leather for Adam and Eve to replace the leaf coverings they had sewn together. It never says God killed the animals to get the leather. It never says this needed to be done for Him to forgive them. The only thing the text really suggests is that God taught them the rudiments of leather working out of compassion for their new reality, and the delusion that their natural nakedness needed to be covered up. Leather happens to be a far more durable clothing material than leaves held together with grass or stalks. Another passage held up is Abel’s offering from his flock being accepted and Cain’s offering of vegetables he farmed being rejected in Genesis 4. While it is one potential interpretation to suggest that this supports God having established blood sacrifices, it is not the only interpretation. It can just as well be said this passage might be an amalgam or a metaphor for our malfunctioning human ancestors who embraced tilling the soil and farming, the rudiments of civilization, driving those other human species which existed once upon a time, all hunter gatherers, to extinction. It really all depends on how it is seen.

     With this in mind, the first actual mentions of animal sacrifice in the Scriptures assume it as a well established practice with meaning, and one which God did not explicitly ask for. In every instance, the initiative is taken by human beings to build an altar and offer a sacrifice in order to honor Him in some way. The one exception here is actually Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, a human sacrifice no less (also practiced from extremely ancient times), which the text makes clear that God had no intentions of Abraham going through with it. This understanding of blood sacrifice as an established practice continues into the Mosaic law. If you notice in the text of the law, in a similar way that it treats things like slavery and polygamy, the Mosaic law doesn’t found or establish the practice of sacrifice in order to forgive sins, but it regulates it, establishing rules, rituals, and specific ways it had to be done from the building of an altar out in the bush to what the official place of sacrifice was to look like to the priesthood in charge of that sacrifice.

      So, what am I driving at here? That animal sacrifice, much less human sacrifice, in order to forgive sins wasn’t God’s idea in the first place. It was an idea born out of our malfunctioning mind, that we could somehow transfer our guilt onto an innocent animal or person and then destroy it by destroying that creature, and had become integrated very early in human culture and society.

     So what does God have to say about sacrifices? In the passage I translated at the beginning of this, Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6 which says, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and a knowledge of God more than whole burnt offerings.” In Psalms 40:6-8 the psalmist writes, “Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire, but ears you prepared for me; You didn’t require whole burnt offering and sin offering. Then I said, ‘Look, I am here! It is written about me in the head of the book. I delight to do your will, my God. Your law is within my heart.” In Psalm 50:7-23, God is explicit that sacrifices of animals don’t impress Him and that He could do without them. Instead, the worship He wants is gratitude and people doing what they promised. He really takes issue with folks quoting His laws and covenant and then hurting and harming others. In Psalm 51:14-17 David writes, in his great penitential psalm, addressing God says that “You don’t delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give one; burnt offerings don’t please You.” He continues by saying, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” This last part is significant because God very clearly talks about despising the animal sacrifices brought to Him by the people of Judah in Isaiah 1:11-20, animal sacrifices and rituals regulated by the very same Mosaic law which He instructed Moses to write. God tells them to stop bringing them altogether because He’s sick of them. He then tells them what He wants instead, “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” Notice He says to stop bringing the sacrifices, but then says “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean.” How were they supposed to do that without animal sacrifices if animal sacrifices were absolutely necessary for forgiveness and absolution? In Jeremiah 7:21-26 God tells the people that He didn’t even command Israel regarding sacrifices or whole burnt offerings when He brought them out of Egypt. Instead, He commanded them that if they obeyed what He said, then He would be their God, and they would be His people. So there is an implication that even the sacrifices spoken of in the Torah were someone else’s idea, and not God’s. 1 Samuel 15:22-23 also sums up which God prefers when the prophet tells Saul that God prefers people listening to Him to offering animal sacrifices. Finally, there is also Ezekiel 18 where the entire point of the chapter is that if someone who has done a life of wrongdoing turns from that wrongdoing to do what is right, God would forgive him and he would live. Nowhere in this chapter are sacrifices mentioned as being necessary for God to forgive that person.

     At this point, someone will bring up Hebrews 9:22 which literally says, “and nearly everything is cleansed with blood in line with the Torah and apart from the spilling of blood a release doesn’t happen.” The word I have translated “release” is what is frequently translated as either “remission” or “forgiveness.” What it actually means is a “letting go, a release,” and can also be translated “dismissal, divorce, quittance, exemption,” and so on. In context however, it is talking about the practice of the high priest who entered the Holy of Holies and sprinkled everything with blood, as well as the sealing of the Mosaic covenant with the people of Israel where everyone and everything was also sprinkled with blood. Under that covenant, there was no release or remission without blood being spilled and sprinkled. But this verse was only meant to be taken in the context with which it was written, it was not meant to be a general principle. Even as Paul writes in Romans 4 about Abraham being made or declared right because of his faith, because he trusted God. There was no animal sacrifice, there was no Torah at all, when this happened in the Book of Genesis, and that was Paul’s point.

     The thrust of the New Testament arguments are that animal sacrifices, the blood of bulls and goats and sheep, could do nothing about our inherited malfunction. The best they could do was make us feel less guilty from a psychological perspective because something had been tangibly done to make up for it. In reality however, God never needed them to forgive us. He just needed us to realize our screw ups, turn around, and seek Him.

     While Christ’s death on the cross can and frequently does fulfill the same role of a tangible act of propitiation from a psychological perspective, and does Scripturally take the place of all the animal sacrifices proscribed by the Torah for this reason, the actual purpose of it was to provide a solution for us to be able to act and respond apart from our malfunction by joining us to His death and resurrection so that His death and resurrection becomes our death and resurrection. This was God’s chief concern, that we be freed, or given the choice to be free, from the hereditary neurological malfunction incurred by the first Adam so that we no longer had to be enslaved to it, but could be joined or enslaved to the Spirit of Jesus Christ so that it would be Him responding and acting through us. Paul writes voluminously about this in his letter to the Romans and writes from this same position throughout all of his letters. God’s concern was to “right” us from our malfunction, not to be appeased like some vengeful tribal god demanding innocent blood for offenses like Molech, Ba’al, or even Zeus. To accuse Him of such motivations is to speak evil of Him and to put Him on the level of such lesser beings.

A Fresh Translation of Philippians 1

 Philippians 1

Paulos and Timotheos, slaves of the Christ, Yeshua, to all the holy by means of the Christ, Yeshua, who are in Philippi together with the Bishops and Deacons, charity to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Yeshua the Christ.

     I thank my God upon every single memory of you always in every single petition of mine on behalf of all of you, submitting the petition with joy, upon your communion into the Gospel from the first day  up to this moment, having been convinced of this same thing, that the One having made the beginning of a good work within you will complete it up til the day of the Christ, Yeshua; just like it is right for me to be minded this way on behalf of all of you because of me having you within my heart, being my partners from the charity of you all in both my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel. Because God is my witness as I would long for you all with the deepest parts of the Christ, Yeshua. And I am praying this, so that your love would overflow more and more with the knowledge which comes from seeing Him for yourself and with every single sensory perception as far as you proving the things which carry from one to another, so that you would be unmixed and free from having caused harm as far as the day of the Christ, having been filled with the produce of rightness which is through Yeshua the Christ for God’s reputation and praise.

     Yet I want you to know, brothers, that the things which are happening to me have more come for the advancement of the Gospel, so as for my chains by means of the Christ to have become visible among the whole Praetorium and all the rest, and the more of the brothers in the Lord having been convinced by my chains to overwhelmingly dare to speak the message fearlessly.

     Some on the one hand also through envy and discord, yet some on the other hand also preach the Christ because of good intent; these on the one hand from love, knowing that I am lying outstretched for the defense of the Gospel, yet those on the other hand proclaim the Christ from selfish ambition like a politician drumming up support for themselves, not purely, expecting to rouse up trouble by my chains. Because of what? However, that by every manner, whether by pretext or by truth, the Christ is proclaimed, and with this I am rejoicing. But I will also rejoice, because I know that this will turn out for me for a rescue through your petition and support of the Spirit of Yeshua the Christ in line with my eager expectation and hope that I will be ashamed with nothing but with every openness like always and currently the Christ would be magnified with my body, whether through life or through death. Because the Christ is what I’m living and for me to die is profit. Yet if what I’m living is in the meatsack, this situation is for me fruit from the work, and I don’t make known what I would prefer. Yet I am caught pressed between the two, holding the longing for the unloosing and to be together with the Christ, better by a lot more; yet the keeping going in the meatsack is more constraining because of you folks. And being convinced of this I know that I will stay put and stay nearby you all for your progress and joy of the faith, so that your bragging might overflow with the Christ, Yeshua, by means of me through my arrival again in your direction.

     Just live worthily as a citizen of the Gospel of the Christ, so that whether having come and seen you or being away I hear what’s happening with you, that you would stand with one Spirit, with one soul contending together by the faith of the Gospel and not being scared by anything at all by those opposed, which is an omen of destruction to them, yet your rescue, this from God. Because it was charitably given to you on behalf of the Christ, not just to put your trust into Him but also to suffer on His behalf, having the same struggle, as much as you saw with me and now hear with me.

     

On the Reason Christ Died for Us

 Jesus Christ died for us so that we could die with him. In this way death was satisfied. It wasn't about God needing a blood sacrifice to forgive us, it was about finding a way to satisfy the necessary outcome of our inherited malfunction without actually ending the physical lives of the entire human race from the first Adam onward. It was about making a way to bypass that inherited malfunction by enslaving us to Himself voluntarily on His part and on ourse, so that we don't have to be enslaved to our own malfunctioning psyche. And because he included all of us in His death, all of us are included in His resurrection, of which He is only the first.

     God will happily forgive what we do wrong without violence to anyone or anything when we turn from it to Him. He didn't really want blood from anything, that was a human idea. But there is only one outcome where the malfunction is concerned, and that is death. It isn't a punishment, but a natural consequence. Once that consequence has been rendered, the person who has died has been righted from the malfunction because the malfunctioning neurology is no longer functioning, but begins its state of decomposition. By enslaving us to Himself with our permission  by means of His death on the cross, this same effect is achieved without the physical body needing to die. It can continue to live a normal lifespan. And in this way, we are able through this voluntary enslavement to actually do what He wants us to do. Not so that God could forgive us like some angry tribal deity like Molech, but so that we could actually function the way He intended, dealing with the malfunction which began with the first Adam.

     God takes people where they are at, that is, He knows that it would take a lot of time to re-teach people and correct their worldview, and they would be resistant to it at best. So instead, He works within their worldview with the intention of moving them closer to the truth at a speed their minds can handle. For some, it takes centuries or millennia, for others, not quite as long. But His goal with everyone is that they might all be rescued and that He might bring them all (if at all possible, the choice is theirs, but He is very patient) to share in His Eternal Life, to be immersed in His love, care, compassion, joy, peace, kindness, and light.

     God loves. The truth is, this is an understatement, and there is no word in any human language sufficient to express the term "love" as it applies to God. He's angry at the malfunction and hates how it hurt and hurts us. But He's not angry at us, His sick and malfunctioning children. His creations for which He moved heaven and earth to heal and make right.

A Fresh Translation of Colossians 4

The last chapter of Paul's letter to the Colossians. All names are rendered in their original languages.

     The owners, furnish your slaves with right and equality, knowing that you also have an owner in the heavenly realm.

     Persist obstinately in prayer, keeping awake with it with thanksgiving, praying at the same time also about us, so that God would open to us a door for the message to say the mystery of the Christ, because of which I had also been bound, so that I would make that mystery visible as there is a need for me to talk. Walk with wisdom towards those outside buying up the time you have. Your message always with charity, being seasoned with salt, to know how it is necessary for you to respond to each one.

     Tukhikos, the dear brother, trustworthy servant, and co-slave by means of the Lord, will make known to you all the things happening with me, whom I will send in your direction for this self same thing, so that you would know the things about us and he would encourage your hearts, together with Onesimus the trustworthy and dear brother, who is from you; they will make all the things here known to you.

     Aristarkhos my fellow spoil of war embraces you as well as Marcus the cousin of Barnabas (about whom you received a command, if he should come in your direction, welcome him), and Yeshua, the one said, “Iustus,” they being from the circumcision, these are the only co-workers as far as the kingdom of God is concerned such as became a comfort to me. Epaphras, slave of the Christ, Yeshua, who is from you embraces you, always agonizing on your behalf with his prayers, so that you would be stood mature and having been brought to the full measure by means of every will of God. Because I testify to him that he has a lot of pain on your behalf and on behalf of those in Laodikeia and those in Hieropolis. The dear physician Lucas embraces you as well as Demas. Embrace those brothers in Laodikeia, and Numphas as well as the congregation in line with her house. And when the letter should be read in your presence, you should make it so that it would also be read by the Laodikeian congregation, and so that you also should read the one from Laodikeia. And tell Arkhippos, “Look out for the service which you received by means of the Lord, so that you would fulfill it.”

     The embrace of Paulos by my own hand. Remember my chains. The charitable gift be with you.

A Fresh Translation of Colossians 3

     If then you folks were raised together with the Christ, look for the high things, where the Christ is seated at the right side of God; be mindful of the high things, not the things on the ground. Because you folks died and your life had been covered over in the earth together with the Christ by means of God; when the Christ is made visible, the life of you all, at that time you folks will also be made visible together with Him by means of what He is thought of.

     Make then the body parts which are on the ground dead: whoring, dirtiness, passionate suffering, bad attachment, and the avarice which is idolatry, because of which things the passionate anger of God is coming upon the unpersuaded sons among whom also you folks walked at one time, when you were alive among them; yet at present you folks also undress yourselves from all these things: passionate anger, temper, hurtfulness, blasphemy, profanity from your mouth. Don’t lie to one another, having stripped off the old human being together with his activities and having been clothed with the young who is made new again for the knowledge which comes from observation lining up with the image of the One having created him, where there isn’t a Greek and Iudaean, circumcision and foreskin, a barbarian, a Skythian, a slave, a free person, but the Christ is the everything and within everything.

     Clothe yourselves then, like the holy and dear chosen of God, with the deepest parts of compassion, kindness, humility, courtesy, a long temper, holding up one another and charitably giving to yourselves (if someone holds a cause of complaint in the direction of someone; just like also the Lord charitably gave to you, so also you folks), and love above all these things, which is what binds the finished work together. And let the peace of the Christ arbitrate within your hearts, as far as which also you were chosen in a single body; and become thankful. Let the message of the Christ indwell within you opulently, teaching and minding yourselves with every wisdom, with the charity of God singing psalms, hymns, spiritual odes with your hearts to God; and every single thing what ever you might do by means of message or thing achieved, everything with the name of the Lord Yeshua, thanking the God, Father through Him.

     The women, be posted to the men like he is connected with the Lord. The men, love the women and don’t be made bitter towards them.

     The children, obey the parents in line with everything, because this thing is pleasing with the Lord. The fathers, don’t incite your children to anger, so that they wouldn’t be discouraged.

     The slaves, obey the owners in line with the flesh in line with everything, not with eye-service like human pleasers, but with sincerity of the heart fearing the owner. Whatever you might do, achieve from the soul like to the Lord and not to human beings, knowing that you will receive repayment of the inheritance from the Lord. You are enslaved to the Lord Christ; because the person doing wrong will be provided for what he did wrong, and there isn’t any favoritism.

A Fresh Translation of Colossians 2

Same translation rules as before:

     Because I wish you to know what kind of a struggle I have on your behalf, on behalf of those in Laodikeia, and  as many as haven’t seen my face in the flesh, so that their hearts would be motivated having been brought together with love and as far as every wealth of the certainty of the conclusion, for the knowledge of the mystery of God, the Christ, which comes from seeing that mystery for yourselves,  within whom (the Christ) are hidden all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge. I say this thing, so that no one would defraud you folks with the use of probable arguments. Because if I am also away from you where the flesh is concerned, all the same I am together with you where the Spirit of Christ is concerned, rejoicing and looking at how you are ordered and drawn up and the solidity of your trust as far as the Christ is concerned.

     Like you then received the Christ, Yeshua the Lord, walk by means of Him, rooted and constructed upon with Him and being stabilized in the faith just like you were taught, overflowing with thanksgiving. Look out for not any of you to be the guy carrying people off as captives through the philosophy and empty sleight of hand in line with the mythology of human beings, in line with the rudiments of the universe and not in line with the Christ; because within Him is the entire sum of what makes God “God” in a human body, and you are having been filled with Him who is the head of every beginning and authority, with whom also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made by human hands with the stripping off of the biological body with the circumcision from the Christ, being entombed together with Him by means of your baptism, with which you were also raised together with Him through the faith with the energies of the God who raised Him from the dead; and you folks being dead by the violations and foreskin of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having humored us where all the violations are concerned. Having wiped out the handwriting against us in the dogmas which were opposed to us, and he took it from the middle having nailed it securely to the cross; having stripped the beginnings and the authorities he flaunted them openly, having led them in chains in a triumphant parade by means of Him.

     Don’t then let anyone judge you folks with food and with drink or with part of holy days or new moons or sabbaths; which things are shadows of what’s to come, yet the body casting the shadow belongs to the Christ. Don’t let anyone cheat you out of the prize wishing with humility and a religion of angels, setting foot upon what things he had seen, for no reason having a big head under his biological intellect, and not seizing the head, out of whom the entire body through the ligaments and sinews being supplied and brought together grows the growth of God.

     If you died together with the Christ away from the rudiments of the universe, what are you following dogmas for like living by means of the universe? Don’t grasp neither taste neither handle, which things are all as far as what’s consumed by using them up, in line with the commandments and teachings of human beings, which are holding a message on the one hand of wisdom with voluntary religion and humility and unsparing treatment of the body, on the other hand not with any value in the direction of the gratification of the flesh.

A Fresh Translation of Colossians 1

     Paulos, Apostle of the Christ, Yeshua through the will of God, and Timotheos the brother to those holy and trusted brothers by means of the Christ in Kolossai, charity to you and peace from our Father, God.

     We thank the Father God of our Lord, Yeshua the Christ always, praying about you, having heard your trust in the Christ, Yeshua and the love which you folks have for all of the holy because of the hope which is laid up in store for you in the heavenly realms, which you heard about before with the message of the truth of the Gospel which is here for you, just like also within all the universe it is producing fruit for itself and growing itself just like also among you, from the day you heard and knew by seeing for yourselves the charity of God with the reality of it, just like you learned from Epaphras, our dear co-slave, who is a trusted servant of the Christ on our behalf, the one who also made clear to us your love by means of the Spirit.

     Because of this also we, from which day we heard, don’t pause praying and asking on your behalf, so that you would be filled full of the knowledge of His will which comes from seeing it for yourself with every wisdom and putting it together in the mind which come from the Spirit, to walk worthy of the Lord as far as every desire to please Him, with every good thing achieved you folks producing fruit and being grown by the knowledge which comes from experiencing God for yourself, being powered with every power in line with the force of His glory with the result of every endurance and keeping a long temper. With joy thanking the Father who is enough for you folks as far as the share of the inheritance of the holy in the light; Who rescued us from the authority of the darkness and transposed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, by means of Whom we have the purchase by ransom, the divorce from the malfunctioning behaviors, Who is the avatar of the unseen God, firstborn of all the creation, because with Him the everything has been created in the skies and on the ground, the visible things and the unseen, either thrones or ownerships or beginning ones or authorities; the everything was created through Him and for Him, and He exists before everything and the everything has been stood together by means of Him, and He is the head of the body of the Congregation; Who is the start, first born from the dead so that Himself being the first it would have happened among all, because He was pleased for the sum of everything to reside within Him and through Him to completely reconcile the everything away from the darkness into Himself, having brought peace through the blood of His cross, whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavenly realms.

     And you folks, at one time existing separated and hostile by means of the notion within the deranged deeds, yet currently He completely reconciled you folks away from that with the body of His flesh through His death to offer you folks holy and unblemished and not liable to an accusation standing directly across from Him, if you at least continue by the faith of Yeshua having been grounded and seated and not changing position from the hope of the Gospel which you heard which was preached among every single creation which is under the sky, of which I, Paulos became a servant.

     Now I rejoice with the sufferings on your behalf and fill up completely what the crushings of the Christ failed to reach with my flesh on behalf of His body, which is the Congregation, of which I myself became a servant in line with the management of God which was given to me for the purpose of filling you with the message of God, the mystery hidden from the eons and from the generations—yet now was made visible to His holy ones, to whom God wished to make known what the wealth of the glory of this mystery is among the ethnic groups, which is the Christ within you, the hope of the glory; Whom we proclaim warning every single human being and teaching every single human being by means of every single bit of wisdom, so that we should cause every human being to stand finished by means of the Christ; for which thing I also wear myself out agonizing down the line of His energy which is energized within me with power.

An Alternative Take on the Magi who Visited in Matthew 2

     This time of year, we start turning towards the events surrounding Christ’s nativity. One of those events was the visit of the Magi to Bethlehem. As with a lot of things, I tend to take a different view of who they were and why they came than tradition says.

About two years after Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem Ephratah (and there is no legitimate reason to assume other than the Scriptural account of the location of His birth), His mother, adopted father and He were visited by a group of men identified in the Gospel of St. Matthew only as “magoi” in the Greek who had come from the east. The text says that they had followed a star looking for the birth of a new born “King of the Judeans”, and that they had initially gone to King Herod’s palace looking for Him, only having been directed to Bethlehem after Herod had consulted with scribes and priests to determine where the Jewish “Mashiach” would be born.

While Christian tradition has given us a particular image of who these men were (three kings or Zoroastrian magi), there is nothing in Matthew’s text to support that image other than the term “magoi”, often rendered “magi” or the more vague and slightly euphemistic “wise men.” There is no account of the number of these travelers to support that there were only three. The word “magos” (the singular form) in Greek refers principally to a class of Zoroastrian priests, practitioners of astrology, centered in the area of Persia. For this reason, it also refers more generally to someone as a “wizard”, “sorceror”, “mage”, or a practitioner of the magical arts. Another example of the word used in the New Testament is in the Acts of the Apostles referring to “Simon the Magos” (often rendered “Simon the Sorcerer”) in Samaria. It appears clear that Simon was neither Persian in origin nor a Zoroastrian priest.

The Magi were regarded with extreme renown in their own homeland as scholars, magicians, astrologers, and priests. They were some of the most educated of their people and heavily involved in politics. But in all of the reading I have done on the subject, I have not once encountered a single extra-Biblical account of Zoroastrian Magi traveling outside of their homeland, much less for two years along the caravan routes across the Middle East, to honor newborn royalty they didn’t know (if anyone has such evidence, I would be happy to look at it). 

Furthermore, the trip on foot across the land trade routes between a location in ancient Persia (such as Babylon, for example) only runs about 1200 miles, give or take. Figuring 20 miles a day on foot with a caravan, using Google maps to calculate it (as most of those ancient roads are still in service), the trip would take approximately two weeks and no more than a month, not one to two years as is implicated by the Biblical text. But those roads went farther east than just Babylon or ancient Persia. They went all the way to China even then. For this reason, the idea that these were literal Zoroastrian Magi doesn’t fit the description. In order to fit the time frames involved we must go farther east than ancient 1st century Persia.

In fact, there is one particular religious group also practiced with astrology that perhaps does fit the scant identifiers given. It is a little discussed fact among Christian theologians and pastors that Buddhism not only existed but flourished during this period (having been established by Gautama Siddharta around 500 B.C.E.) in what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, and India. More than this, there is evidence that they regularly sent missionaries westward as far as Egypt. One region and group in particular that seems to fit is that of Ghandara around what is now Kabul in Afghanistan.

This region was conquered by Alexander the Great in 327 B.C.E. and later would become a part of the Indo-Greek kingdoms of the period. It also became a major center for the practice of Indo-Greek Buddhism, patronized by the rulers of the period, Menander I and his successors. One interesting note about Ghandaran Buddhism is its focus on the boddhisatva Metteya, the prophesied successor to Gautama Siddharta (the Buddha), from approximately 30-375 C.E.

About Maitreya, it is written that the Buddha said before he died:

And the Blessed One replied: “I am not the first Buddha who came upon earth, nor shall I be the last. In due time another Buddha will arise in the world, a Holy One, a supremely enlightened One, endowed with wisdom in conduct, auspicious, knowing the universe, an incomparable leader of men, a master of angels and mortals. He will reveal to you the same eternal truths which I have taught you. He will preach his religion, glorious in its origin, glorious at the climax, and glorious at the goal, in the spirit and in the letter. He will proclaim a religious life, wholly perfect and pure; such as I now proclaim.”

Ananda said: “How shall we know him?”

The Blessed One said: “He will be known as Metteya, which means 'he whose name is kindness.'”

(The Gospel of Buddha XCVII:12-15)5

It is a well established fact that to this day, Tibetan Buddhists will search far afield for reincarnations of previous teachers known as “lamas”. One of the more sensational occurrences of this is that depicted in the film “Little Buddha” which was based on the true story of a group of Tibetan monks who believed they had found the reincarnation of a great lama in a boy from Washington state in the United States.

It makes more sense to me, based on the scant details given, that these “magoi” described in the Gospel of St. Matthew were in fact Buddhist monks from either Ghandara or somewhere in the surrounding region. They were actively looking for the coming of the man they believed to be the Buddha’s successor (and it appears that at least after 30 C.E. believed that they had found him). When the star appeared, probably after much debate, they set out to follow it from “the east”. Not being aware of local Judean, much less Roman, politics, and assuming that the new boddhisatva would be born a prince (which would be a reasonable assumption since Siddharta was  also born a prince), they traveled first to King Herod’s palace assuming that the new prince would be his son. They would not have known Herod the Great’s reputation. When inquiring about the new born prince, it is possible that they might have included in their explanation the Pali form of the name, “Metteya.” An interesting point about Greek orthography and pronunciation is that the “tt” and the “ss” can be, at times, interchangeable depending on the dialect and the age. It is possible they might have explained in Greek that they were looking for the new born “Metteya” (Grk. μεττηας) and those hearing understood them to be saying “messias” which comes into English as “messiah”. This would explain why Herod and those with him inquired as to where the “Christ” would be born upon the monk’s announcement they had come to honor a newborn king.

I imagine their conversation happened along these lines:

Monks: “We have come to do homage to the newborn king of the Judeans.”

Herod: “Sorry, friend. There is no newborn prince in my house.”

Confused, the Monks reply: “We have seen his star far to the east. The Lord Metteya has been born here, we are certain of it.”

Herod, now beginning to shake a little: “Did you just say Messiah’s been born?”

Monks, not understanding the difference: “Yes.”

I imagine also that Mariam, being one of the few remaining living witnesses to their presence and St. Matthew’s only realistic source, called them simply “magoi from the east” because, in reality, she may have had little real idea who they actually were or what land they had come from not having been educated in such things being a first century woman either still in puberty or barely out of it. Furthermore, among the Greek speakers of the Mediterranean, Buddhists were referred to as either “sarmanes”, meaning “ascetics” in general, “therapeutai,” or simply “philosophers” if they were mentioned at all. It is easy for me to entertain the idea that a group of Greek speaking Buddhist monks with heavy accents, educated in astrology and with their journey possibly backed by an Indo-Greek king, traveling together might have been described by such a woman as “magoi”. That they may have been looking for a newborn Buddha might be suggested by the three gifts they presented as well. Today, Tibetan monks searching for their reincarnated lamas frequently bring a series of personal objects belonging to the deceased lama along with similar objects not having belonged to them in order to test whether or not the child in question is who they think they are. In this case, they were looking, not for a reincarnation, but for the birth of a new Buddha, and so brought gifts that might indicate the path in life the child would take should he choose them. It’s been commented on before that the gifts which were given represented either kingship, priesthood, or healing. And they would have been familiar with the prophecy made when Siddharta was an infant that he would be either a King of kings or an enlightened one. It stands to reason they wanted to be certain as to which path the child would take.

Assuming that the two year old Jesus would have passed those tests, the next obvious thing they would have done would be to invite Him and His parents to return with them to where they came from to study and possibly protect the child. To this day this is Tibetan Buddhist practice. Here however, it is clear that they did not. Speculating on this further (as this is all reasoned speculation, to be sure), given Yosef’s advanced age, and Jesus’ very young age, there is probably a good chance that they conceded that it would be too far of a journey for them to make at the moment on foot and survive, and extended an invitation for Him to take when He was old enough.

Fresh Translation of Romans 3

Continuing to translate what I'm told. This one's a bit more periphrastic due to the amount of additional verbiage for clarification of meaning, otherwise the same translation rules which I've used before apply.

Romans 3

     What thing more then does the Iudaean have than anyone else, or what is the aid of circumcision? A lot in line with every turn. First on the one hand because the sayings of God were trusted. Because what? If some didn’t trust them, their distrust doesn’t unemploy the faith of God, does it? Absolutely not. Yet let God come to be honest, and every human being a perjurer, just like it had been written, “So that You would be declared right with the things You said, and would conquer with You being brought to trial.” Yet if our wrong holds God’s rightness together, what are we saying? The God who brings passionate anger upon us is not wrong, is He? I’m talking down the line of a human being. Absolutely not. Since how will God judge the universe? Yet if the truth of God overflows with the lie of mine into His glory, what am I also still judged like a malfunctioning person for? And not just like we are blasphemed and just like some say us to say that, “We should do the harmful things, so that the benefits would come”? Of whom there exists the legitimate legal decision.

     What then? Are we Iudaeans surpassed? Not entirely, because we previously accused both Iudaeans and Greeks all to be subject to the malfunction, just like it had been written that,

“There isn’t a person who is right, not even one, there isn’t a person who gets it, there isn’t a person who searches out God. Everyone turned away at the same time they were made useless. The person doing kindness doesn’t exist, there isn’t even one. Their voicebox is a tomb having been opened, they deceived with their tongues, cobra venom is under their lips; of whom the mouth is fully loaded with curses and bitterness, their feet are keen to spill blood, fracture and grinding work are with their paths, and they aren’t familiar with the path of peace. The awe of God doesn’t exist in front of their eyes.”

     Yet we know that as much as the Torah says it’s talking to those subject to the Torah, so that every mouth would be fenced in and the entire universe would come to be brought to trial, because every single physical being will not be righted by the deeds of the Torah face to face with Him.

     Yet at present, separate from the Torah, God’s rightness had been made visible being testified to by the Torah and the Nevi’im; and God’s rightness, not through the Torah, but through the faith of Yeshua the Christ as far as all those putting their trust into Him. Because there isn’t a difference between Iudaean and Greek, because everyone malfunctioned and doesn’t measure up to the glory of God, everyone is being righted for free by His charity through the payment of ransom which was with the Christ, Yeshua; whom God displayed publicly to be a mercy-seat (like on the Ark of the Covenant) through the faith of Yeshua, with His blood for an evidence of His rightness because of His letting the malfunctioning behaviors which had happened prior to this go unpunished within God’s armistice, in the direction of the evidence of His rightness during the current period of time, as far as Him being right and righting the person who is of the faith of Yeshua.

     Where then is the bragging? It was shut out. Through what kind of Torah? Of achievements? No, but through a rule of trust. Because we figure a human being to be righted by the faith separate from the achievements of the Torah. Or is He just the God of the Iudaeans? Isn’t He also the God of the ethnic groups too? Yes, He’s the God of the ethnic groups too, since there is a single God who rights a circumcision from the faith and a foreskin through the faith. Are we then nullifying the Torah through the faith? Absolutely not, instead we are making it stand.

Fresh Translation of Matthew 1

The Lord wanted me to translate Matthew 1 this morning for my devotions. Can't say I understand why, but here it is. All names have been rendered in their original Hebrew/Aramaic forms, and some words have been added to bring out and clarify the meaning of certain words in the Greek. 

Matthew 1

     The Book of the Genesis of Yeshua the Christ Bar-David Bar-Avraham.

     Avraham fathered Yitzchak, and Yitzchak fathered Ya’akov, and Ya’akov fathered Y’hudah and his brothers, and Y’hudah fathered Peretz and Zerach from Tamar, and Peretz fathered Chetzron, and Chetzron fathered Ram, and Ram fathered Amminadav, and Amminadav fathered Nachshon, and Nachshon fathered Salmon, and Salmon fathered Bo’az from Rachav, and Bo’az fathered Oved from Rut, and Oved fathered Yishai, and Yishai fathered David haMelech.

     And David fathered Shlomo from she belonging to Uriyah, and Shlomo fathered Rechav’am, and Rechav’am fathered Aviyah, and Aviyah fathered Asa, Asa fathered Y’hoshaphat, and Y’hoshaphat fathered Yoram, and Yoram fathered Uziyahu, and Uziyahu fathered Yotam, and Yotam fathered Achaz, and Achaz fathered Chizkiyahu, and Chizkiyahu fathered M’nasheh, and M’nasheh fathered Amon, and Amon fathered Yoshiyahu, and Yoshiayahu fathered Y’khanyahu and his brothers upon the Babylonian deportation.

     And with the Babylonian deportation Y’khanyahu fathered Sh’altiel, and Sh’altiel fathered Z’rubavel, and Z’rubavel fathered Av’ichud, and Av’ichud fathered Elyakim, and Elyakim fathered Azur, and Azur fathered Tzadok, and Tzadok fathered Yakhin, and Yakhin fathered El’ichud, and El’ichud fathered El’azar, and El’azar fathered Mattan, and Mattan fathered Ya’akov, and Ya’akov fathered Yosef, the man of Maryam, from which woman was born Yeshua who is being said to be the Christ.

     All the generations then from Avraham until David are fourteen generations, and from David until the Babylonian deportation are fourteen generations, and from the Babylonian deportation until the Christ are fourteen generations.

     And the genesis of Yeshua the Christ was in this way. With His mother Maryam being betrothed to Yosef, before their coming together she was found holding something in the belly from the Holy Spirit. Yet Yosef her man, being in his right mind and not wishing to make a show of her, preferred to unbind her from himself secretly. Yet with his taking these things to heart, look, an angel of the Lord in line with a dream shined forth to him telling him, “Yosef Bar-David, you shouldn’t be afraid to receive Maryam from her father to be your woman; because the thing within her is fathered from the Holy Spirit. And she will bring a Son into the world, and you will call His name, ‘Yeshua,’ because He will rescue His people from their malfunctioning behaviors. And this whole thing has happened so that the thing spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled saying, ‘Look, the virgin will hold something in the belly and will bring a son into the world, and they will call His name ‘Immanu’el’, which is translated, ‘God with us.’” And being roused from the sleep, Yosef did like the angel of the Lord posted him and received his woman from her father, and didn’t become familiar with her until where she brought a Son into the world; and he called His name, “Yeshua.”

Fresh Translation of John 10

I got from the Lord this morning that I was supposed to do a fresh translation of John 10 for my devotions today and post it. I don't know why, but, here it is.

 John 10

     “Amen amen I tell you, that person who doesn’t enter through the gate into the sheep pen, but climbs up from another place is a thief and pirate; yet the person entering through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens to this person, and the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he tosses out all his own, he goes in front of them, and his sheep follow, because they know his voice. Yet they will absolutely not follow another, but will flee from him, because they don’t know the voice of others.” Yeshua told them this proverb, yet those didn’t recognize what it was he was saying to them.

     Yeshua then spoke again, “Amen amen I tell you that I Myself am the gate for the sheep. Everyone as many as came before Me are thieves and pirates, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. I Myself am the gate. If any person should enter through Me he will be rescued and will go in and go out and will find pasture. The thief doesn’t come except that he should steal, and slaughter, and destroy. I came so that they should posses life and should possess overflow. I Myself am the Very Best Shepherd. The Very Best Shepherd lays down His last breath on behalf of the sheep. The wage-worker also, not being the shepherd, of whom the sheep are not his own, watches the wolf coming and lets the sheep go and runs for it—and the wolf plunders and scatters them—because he is a wage-worker and it isn’t concerning to him about the sheep. I Myself am the Very Best Shepherd and I recognize what is Mine and what is Mine recognizes Me just like the Father is familiar with Me and I Myself am familiar with the Father, and I lay down My last breath on behalf of the sheep. But I also possess other sheep which aren’t from this sheep pen; and there is a need for Me to lead them and they will hear My voice, and they will be a single flock, there will be a single Shepherd. Because of this, My Father cares for and has compassion for Me because I am laying down My last breath, so that I should receive it again. No one takes it away from Me, but I lay it down from Myself. I hold the authority to lay it down, and I hold the authority to receive it again. I received this command while standing next to My Father.”

     A schism happened again among the Iudaeans because of these words. Yet a lot of them were saying, “He possesses a demon and is a raging lunatic; what are you listening to Him for?” Others were saying, “These aren’t the spoken words of one who is demonized; no demoniac can open the eyes of the blind, can he?”

     Then Chanukkah happened among the people of Hierosoluma, it was winter, and Yeshua was walking within the Temple among the colonnade of Solomon. The Iudaeans then circled Him and were telling Him, “Until what point in time will you take our breath? If you are the Christ, tell us openly.” Yeshua answered them, “I told you and you didn’t believe it. These deeds which I am doing in the name of My Father testify about Me, but you don’t believe it, because you aren’t from the sheep which are Mine. The sheep which are Mine listen to My voice, and I recognize them and they follow Me, and I am giving them the life of the Eternal One and they will absolutely not be destroyed into the eternal and not a single person will plunder them from My hand. My Father who gave them to Me is greater than everything, and no one can plunder anything from the hand of My Father. I and the Father are one thing.”

     The Iudaeans then carried stones again so that they would stone Him. Yeshua responded to them, “I showed you a lot of beautiful deeds from the Father; for which of these deeds are you stoning Me?” The Iudaeans answered Him, “We aren’t stoning You about a beautiful deed but about blasphemy, and that You, being a human being, are making Yourself a god.” Yeshua answered them, “Isn’t it written in your Torah that, “I said, you are gods”? If it said those to be gods to whom the message of God happened, and the Scripture can’t be unlaced, then to the one whom the Father consecrated and sent out into the universe you are saying that, “You are blaspheming,” because I said, “I am the Son of God”? If I don’t do the deeds of My Father, don’t believe Me; yet if I do, and you won’t believe Me, believe the deeds, so that you recognize and might recognize that the Father is inside of Me and I am inside of the Father.” They sought to grab Him again, and He went out of their hand.

     And He came out again to the other side of the Jordan into the place where Yohanan was first baptizing and stayed put there. And many came to Him and were saying that Yohanan on the one hand didn’t do a single sign, yet everything as much as Yohanan said about this guy was true. And many put their trust into Him there.

Fresh Translation of the Gospel of John 1-3

 Trying something a little different from my usual way of translating. Felt like the Lord wanted me to post it here:

1

     The Message was at the start, and the Message was facing God, and the Message was God. This Message was facing God at the start. Everything happened through Him, and not a single thing which has happened happened apart from Him. By means of Him was life, and that life was the light of human beings; and that life shines in the darkness, and the darkness didn’t seize it.

     A person happened, having been sent out from God, his name is Yohanan. This person came for a testimony so that he would testify about the light, so that everyone would believe by means of him. That person was not the light, but existed so he would testify about the light. The light was real coming into the world, which light illuminates every human being. He was within the universe, and the universe happened by means of Him, and the universe didn’t recognize Him. He came into His own things, and His own people didn’t take Him to themselves. Yet as many as got Him, He gave to them the authority to become children of God, to those who put their trust into His name, they weren’t born from blood neither out of a biological drive nor out of a man’s wish, but from God.

     And the Message became flesh and blood and camped out among us, and we watched the opinion everyone had of Him, a reputation like the One of a Kind at the side of the Father, full of charity and truth. Yohanan testifies about Him and had cried out saying, “This person was the one whom I said, ‘The person coming behind me has become in front of me, because He was first before me.’ Because from His sum we all also got charity in place of charity, because though the Torah was given through Moses, charity and truth happened through Yeshua the Christ. No one had seen God at any time, yet that one of a kind God who started off into the embrace of the Father has explained Him.

     And this is the testimony of Yohanan, when the Iudaeans sent priests and Levites out from Hierosoluma so that they would question him, “Who are you?” And he confessed and didn’t deny it, and confessed that “I am not the Christ.”And they questioned him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he says, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet then?” And he answered, “No.” They say then to him, “Who are you? What are you saying about yourself then; so that we might give a response to those sending us?” He said, “I am a voice shouting in the desert, ‘Straighten the path of the Lord,’ just like Isaiah the Prophet said.” And they were on a mission from the Pharisees. And they questioned him and said to him, “What are you baptizing for then if you aren’t the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” Yohanan answered them saying, “I am baptizing with water, yet a person stood in the middle of you whom you don’t recognize; the one coming behind me of whom I’m not worthy so that I would untie His sandal straps.” These things happened in Bethany on the other side of the Jordan.

     By the next day, he looks at Yeshua coming towards him and he says, “Look, God's sacrificial lamb who removes the Hamartia Disorder from the Universe. This guy is about whom I said, ‘a man comes behind me who has become in front of me, because he was first before me.’ And I didn’t see Him, but I came baptizing with water so that He would be made visible to Israel for this reason.” And Yohanan testified saying that, “I have watched the Spirit descending like a pigeon out of the sky upon Him and making its home there. This person is the one baptizing with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

     Again on the next day, Yohanan was standing there as well as two from among his disciples, and having looked at Yeshua walking he says to them, “Look, the lamb of God.” And the two disciples heard him talking and followed Yeshua. And turning around, Yeshua, also having watched them following, says, “What are you looking for?” And these guys said to Him, “Rabbi (which is translated, “Teacher”), where do you make your home?” He says to them, “Come and see.” They then came and saw where He makes His home and they made their home at His side that day. It was like the tenth hour from dawn. Andreas, one of the two who heard at Yohanan’s side and followed Him, was the brother of Shimon Petros. This guy finds his own brother Shimon first and says to him, “We found the Messiah,” (which is translated, “the Christ”). He led him to Yeshua. Having looked at him, Yeshua said, “You are Shimon Bar-Yonah. You will be called ‘Kefa’ (which is translated, ‘Petros’).”

     On the next day, He wished to come out into the Galilee and find Filippos. And Yeshua says to him, “Follow Me.” And Philip was from Bethsaida, from the town of Andreas and Petros. Filippos finds Nathanael and says to him, “We found the guy whom Moses and the prophets wrote about in the Torah, Yeshua Bar-Yosef from Nazareth.”And Nathanael said to him, “Is anything good capable of being from Nazareth?” Filippos says to him, “Come and look.” Yeshua saw Nathanael coming to Him and says about him, “Look, a real Israeli within whom there isn’t any deceit.” Nathanael says to Him, “Where do you know me from?” Yeshua responded and said to him, “Before Filippos’ calling to you I saw you being under the fig tree.” Nathanael responded to Him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God? You are the King of Israel?” Yeshua answered and said to him, “Do you believe it when I said to you I saw you underneath the fig tree? You will see bigger things than these.” And He says to him, “Amen, amen I’m telling you, you will see the sky having opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Adam.”

2

     And on the third day a wedding happened in Kana of the Galilee, and the mother of Yeshua was there; and both Yeshua and His disciples were invited into the wedding. And with them running short on wine the mother of Yeshua says to Him, “They don’t have wine.” Yeshua says to her, “What do you want Me to do about it, woman? My hour hasn’t come yet.” His mother says to the servants, “Do whatever He may tell you.” And there were six stone water jars, in line with the cleansing of the Iudaeans, lying there holding up to two or three measurements [between 20 and 30 gallons] worth of water. Yeshua says to them, “Fill the water jars with water.” And they filled them up to the top. And He says to them, “Draw some right now and bring it to the person presiding over the banquet.” And they brought some. And as the person presiding over the banquet tasted the water having become wine and didn’t know where it is from (yet the servants who had drawn the water knew), the person presiding over the banquet shouts to the groom and says to him, “Every sentient being places the good wine first, and when they are intoxicated the lesser quality stuff. You have kept the good wine until now.” Yeshua did this first of the signs in Kana of the Galilee and made His reputation visible, and His disciples put their trust into Him.

     After this, He went down into K’fer-Nahum and His mother and brothers and His disciples, and didn’t stay put there for many days.

     And the Passover of the Iudaeans was close, and Yeshua journeyed upwards into Hierosoluma. And He found sitting within the Temple those selling cattle and sheep and pigeons, as well as those exchanging currency. And having made a flagellum out of small ropes, He threw everyone out of the Temple along with the sheep and the cattle, and with those exchanging currency He poured out the coins and overturned the tables, and to those selling the pigeons He said, “Take these things away from here! Don’t make the house of My Father the home of a trading exchange!” His disciples were reminded that it had been written, “Jealousy for Your house consumes Me.” The Iudaeans responded then and said to Him, “What sign from God are you going to show us because You are doing these things?” Yeshua responded and said to them, “Undo this shrine and within three days I will raise it.” The Iudaeans then said, “It took forty six years to construct this shrine, and You would raise it within three days?” Yet that One was talking about His bodily shrine. When He was then raised from the dead, His disciples were reminded that He was saying this, and they believed the Scripture and the message which Yeshua said.

     And as He was among the people of Hierosoluma at the Passover during the holy day, many put their trust into His name watching His signs from God which he was doing. Yet Yeshua Himself didn’t trust Himself to them because of Him knowing everyone, and because He didn’t have a need for anyone to testify about the human being, because He recognized what was inside the human being.

3

And a person was from the Pharisees—Nikodemos is his name, a chieftain of the Jewish people—this guy came to Him by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher having come from God, because no one can do these signs from God which you are doing should God not be with him.” Yeshua responded and said to him, “Amen amen I am telling you if someone hasn’t been born again from above, he can’t see the kingdom of God.” Nikodemos says to Him, “How is it possible for a human being to be born again being old and infirm? He can’t go into the belly of his mother a second time, is it?” Yeshua answered, “Amen amen I tell you, if someone isn’t born from water and wind, he can’t come into the kingdom of God. What has been born from the biological is biological, and what has been born from the wind is wind. Don’t be surprised that I said to you, ‘There is a need for you to be born again from above.’ The wind blows where it wills and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from, or where it’s going. So is every person having been born from the wind.” Nikodemos responded and said to Him, “How is it possible for these things to happen?” Yeshua answered and said to him, “You are the teacher of Israel and you don’t recognize these things? Amen amen I tell you that We talk what We know and We testify what We have seen, and you folks don’t accept Our testimony. If I told you folks about the things upon the earth and you don’t believe it, how would you folks believe it if I should tell you about the things occurring in the heavenly realm? And no one has gone up into the heavenly realm if not the person coming down from the heavenly realm, the Son of Adam who started off in the heavenly realm. And just like Moses raised the snake in the desert high, so there is a need for the Son of Adam to be raised high, so that every single person who puts their trust into Him would possess the life of the Eternal One. Because God cared about and had compassion on the universe in this way, as He also gave His One of a Kind Son, so that every single person who puts their trust into Him would not be destroyed but would have the life of the Eternal One. Because God hadn’t send out His Son into the universe so that He would judge the universe, but so that the universe would be rescued through Him. The person putting his trust into Him isn’t judged, yet the one not placing his trust into Him has already decided for himself, because he hasn’t put his trust into the name of the One of a Kind Son of God. And this is the decision, that the light had come into the universe and the sentient beings loved the darkness more than the light because the things they achieved were deranged. Because every person bringing about foul things hates the light and doesn’t come towards the light, so that the things they achieve won’t be brought into the light; yet the person engaging with the truth comes towards the light, so that the things he achieves would be made visible that they are having been accomplished by means of God.”

     With these things Yeshua and His disciples came into the country of Iudaea and passed the time there with them and He baptized them. And Yohanan was also baptizing in an Ayin [wellspring] close to Salim, because there was a lot of water there, and they were beside them and were baptizing, because Yohanan hadn’t yet been thrown into prison. An investigative debate happened then out of the disciples of Yohanan with those of the Iudaeans about cleansing. And they came to Yohanan and said to him, “Rabbi, the guy who was with you on the other side of the Jordan, about whom you had testified; look, this guy is baptizing and everyone is coming to Him.” Yohanan answered and said, “A human being can’t accept anything at all if it hasn’t been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear witness to me that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but that, ‘I have been sent out ahead of that one.’ The one possessing the bride is the groom, and the friend of the groom, having stood and hearing him, rejoices with joy because of the sound of the groom. This joy of mine then has been filled to the top. There is a need for that One to grow, and for me to shrink.

     “The person coming from above is above everything. The person who is from the earth is from the earth and talks from the earth. The person who comes from heaven is above everything. What He has seen and heard, this is what He bears witness to, and no one accepts His witness. The person who does accept His witness He stamps with a seal because God is honest. Because the person whom God sent out talks the speech of God, because He doesn’t just measure out the Spirit to Him [like He does with the prophets]. The Father loves the Son and has given everything into His hand. The person who puts his trust into the Son possesses the life of the Eternal One, yet the person unconvinced by the Son doesn’t see that life, but the mood God is in stays put against him.”

Complete Commentary on Galatians

 Taking a break from translating Acts for a bit. To be honest, I'm just kind of tired of Luke's Greek. I'm a lot more familiar and comfortable with Paul's way of speaking than with Luke's. So, I started on Galatians again this morning. This will probably be my sixth or seventh time translating through it.

     What stuck out to me in chapter 1 this time is really how much Paul is trying to stress that he didn't learn the Gospel from a human being. No one handed it down to him, but he learned it straight from Christ. What is also of note is that he was baptized by Ananias before he understood anything about the Gospel. This can be deduced in that after his conversion experience, he says he went into Arabia for three years, and didn't look for counsel from flesh and blood about it, yet from the book of Acts, it looks like Paul was baptized almost immediately after receiving his sight back. Paul believed in Jesus Christ based on his experience with Him on the road. He knew He'd been crucified and rose from the dead, but didn't know any more "theology" than those facts. And according to Paul, no human being taught it to him, not even Ananias. So just his experience with Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, and conversion because of it, was enough in Ananias' mind to baptize Paul. No soteriology. No trinitarian theology. No understanding of the person of Christ. All Paul knew was that He had dumped him off his donkey and was lit up like the sun when He told him to knock it off and that Paul was getting a new job. That He had been crucified was public knowledge, and that He had risen from the dead was obvious to him at that point.

     And at that point Paul's foundational beliefs had been pulled out from underneath him. His teachers, the Pharisees whom he had trusted, were wrong, and worse either didn't know it or were deranged. He went into a crisis of faith trying to reconcile it, and spent three years in Arabia away from everyone, which was even then a harsh desert (Did he care if he lived or died at that point? Disillusionment on that scale can be devastating). To say that Paul had to deconstruct and reconstruct what he knew to be true was probably an understatement. And in those three years, Jesus Christ taught him the Gospel with which Paul would evangelize the entire Aegean. It took three years for Paul to integrate and accept it, letting go of the Pharisee's interpretation of the Torah.

     Notice too that Paul is clear that the only Apostle he met after that was Kefa (Peter), and James the Presbyter, the Lord's brother. He was there a total of fifteen days before they sent him home to Tarsus in Kilikia, someplace he hadn't even been since he was a child.

     Was Paul taught only by the Spirit of Christ in visions and revelations? Was Christ present in some bodily fashion with him for three years, teaching him in a similar fashion to how he taught the twelve for three years? Who knows? I'm inclined to think the former, but it just occurred to me that three years is exactly how long He taught the twelve for as well. What is interesting too is that Paul more or less quotes Jesus in his letters, and yet there were no Gospels written when he was in Arabia, and he didn't sit in on His lectures before the crucifixion. So the Spirit of Christ had to be doing some kind of serious rehash of everything He taught for three years. The twelve got in person classes. Paul got the online version with one on one tutoring, but the same material regardless.

     How much does someone need to know before we baptize them? I think the answer lies with Paul. They need to be fully convinced of the reality of Jesus Christ, and that He was crucified and rose from the dead. The rest can obviously be explained later.

Finished translating Galatians 2 just now. Verses 1-10 continue Paul's explanation that he didn't receive the Gospel he taught from any other human being. Even when he went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas to settle the question of circumcision, the Apostles there didn't contribute anything to what he taught, and actually put his apostolate on an equivalent level to Peter's. Peter would go to the circumcised and Paul to the foreskins (literal from Grk.). What's interesting in these verses as well is that Paul describes those causing the circumcision debate as "false brothers smuggled in." I have previously described (and if you're interested check my blog post on the topic) that the church in Jerusalem wasn't immune from Judean politics, and that the divisions within the church didn't start happening until after Peter and John spoke to the entire Sanhedrin, including members, Pharisee and Sadducee alike, who hadn't been present for Jesus' trial and crucifixion like Gamaliel. After that, it seems like there were indications that the membership of the church began to be infiltrated by Pharisees seeking to turn the disciples of Jesus to their side or advantage against the Sadducees, seeing the as natural allies in their belief in angels and the resurrection. It is my opinion that this is what Paul is describing. He's not bashing fellow disciples. He's calling out Pharisees who snuck in trying to subvert the church to their aims.

     The rest of the chapter from verse 11 to 21 is where Paul really starts in to his main theme of the letter which is that the disciple of Jesus Christ, properly functioning, is no longer subject to the Torah. and he is vehement about this.

     He demonstrates his vehemence by referring to an incident when Peter (Kefa) came to Antioch, and Paul had to get right up in his face (literally what the Greek describes). Paul explains that before some guys came from James (the Presbyter in Jerusalem), Kefa would sit and eat with the other, non-Jewish Christians without issue. But when they did, he withdrew and separated himself to eat only with the Judeans according to Jewish custom. And this mentality spread until even Barnabas, whom Paul had evangelized the non-Jews with across Asia Minor and Cyprus, fell in line. Paul calls them hypocrites, and uses a word in the Greek that describes Kefa's actions as criminal. Paul stands up to him, and to his face directly in front of him, and in front of everyone he says, "If YOU starting out a Judean live like a non-Jew and not like a Jew, how are YOU compelling the non-Jews to Judaize?"

    Paul then goes on to say, either as part of his tirade against Kefa (Peter) or just in the letter, "We Judeans by nature, and not malfunctioning people from the non-Jews, knowing that a human being isn't set right from the works of the Torah if not through the faith of Jesus Christ, we also entrusted Christ Jesus, so that we would be set right by the faith of Christ and not from the works of the Torah, because every soft-tissue of the body will not be made right from the works of the Torah. Yet if looking to be set right with Christ we have also ourselves been found malfunctioning people, then is Christ a servant of the malfunction? Absolutely not. Because if I again construct these things which I tore down [being the soft tissues of the body attemping to be set right by the works of the Torah], I myself am put together a violator. Because I died to the Torah through the Torah, so that I would live to God. I was crucified together with Christ; yet I am no longer alive, but Christ is alive within me; yet what I am now living within the soft tissues of my body, I am living with the trust which is of the Son of God who loved me and handed Himself over on my behalf. I am not setting aside the charity of God; because if being set right is through the Torah, then Christ died for no reason."

     Paul is absolutely clear where he stands on this issue. Those who seek to be set right by the faith of Christ should not be looking to keep the Torah. He and every other baptized disciple (see Romans 6) was crucified together with Jesus Christ, and as he wrote in Romans about the old human being crucified together with Him, Paul himself is no longer alive, but Jesus Christ is alive within him. And what life he is now living within the meat and soft tissues of his body, he is living by means of the trust or faith which belongs to Jesus Christ who loved him and handed Himself over on his behalf. And Paul gets explicit about it when he says that, if it was possible to be set right by obeying the Torah, then Jesus Christ died for no reason. If the Torah could fix the malfunction within the soft tissues of our body, then there was no reason for Christ to have been crucified.

     Paul's tirade against Torah keeping only gets more intense with chapter 3 where he starts off, "O IDIOT Galatians..." and it doesn't get any more friendly for Torah keeping or Torah keepers from there.

     It's important to understand that nowhere here is Paul talking about what we would consider initial justification, and this is where a lot of confusion comes in to Paul's writings. Initial justification has nothing to do with what we can do or have done. This was dealt with by Christ. No, Paul is actually talking about what we would call the process of sanctification here, the actual practice of discipleship and in the rest of the letter, and this becomes incredibly blatant in chapter 5.

     By succumbing to his fear of the guys sent from James, Peter (Kefa) began operating from his own natural responses and behaviors, that is, the soft tissues of his body, the flesh, was in control rather than the Spirit of Christ, and Paul wasn't having it. Not from anyone who knew Jesus and had been taught by Him, and especially not from Peter who himself had recognized in Jerusalem, which Paul was probably throwing back in his face, that even those who were born Jewish couldn't keep the requirements of the Torah and failed at it miserably. Paul was forcibly reminding Peter of his own words in Acts 15 where it was Peter himself who told the council to not put the burden of the Torah on the non-Jewish disciples.

     There are a lot of folks here that argue vehemently for Torah keeping in one form or another, and appear to have no understanding that any rule or law keeping results in more malfunctioning behaviors such as Paul described of the "works of the flesh" in Galatians 5, and the mechanics of which he described in Romans 7. Galatians is Paul's wake up call to them that you can't be set right, you can't please God, you can't be a disciple of Jesus Christ if you're still trying to follow laws and rules, especially the Torah. This only happens if you put your own responses and behaviors to death, and it is Jesus Christ who lives, acts, and responds through you. If you are trying to mitigate your own internal malfunction by keeping the Torah then you are saying Christ's death was meaningless.

Just finished translating Galatians 3 this evening. Did the first half of it this morning, and finished it up after doing work in the barn this afternoon.

     Galatians 3 continues Paul's tirade concerning Torah keeping. As I wrote previously, he begins by calling the Galatians idiots, and asks them who bewitched them with the evil eye, because that's the only way he can fathom how they turned from the faith of Jesus Christ to keeping the Torah. 

     He then goes on to say, "I just want to learn this from you, did you get the Spirit [of Christ] from keeping the Torah or from listening to [in the sense of obeying] the faith of Christ? Are you such idiots, starting off by the Spirit [of Christ] are you now being matured by the soft tissues of your body? Were you suffering so much just for the heck of it? If at least it was even for the heck of it. The One then furnishing to you the Spirit [of Christ] and energizing powers within you, was this from keeping the Torah or from listening to the faith [of Christ]?" 

     Paul is here appealing to their own experiences and what they themselves had seen and heard. They started off by denying themselves, dying to themselves, and relying on the Spirit of Christ to act and speak through them, and suddenly, they're relying on their own natural responses and behaviors coming from their own brains and psychology. Why did they suffer persecution by the Judeans if keeping the Torah was the path that would make them right? The powers which they themselves demonstrated through the Spirit of Christ had nothing to do with keeping the Torah, as well they knew. And so Paul is essentially hitting them over the head with a metaphorical two by four of the things they themselves had undeniably experienced.

     The next part of his argument is that the promises made to Abraham weren't to any of his physical descendants except for one, Jesus Christ. Now, I did check in both the Hebrew and the Greek Septuagint. Paul is right, the word for seed or sperm is singular in both versions, that is, it doesn't refer to many, just a single "seed." So Paul's argument is that those who were supposed to inherit the promise weren't Abraham's biological descendants, that is, neither the blood descendants of Ishmael or the descendants of Isaac, much less Jacob. But rather only those joined to or made one with Jesus Christ would inherit the promises as He was the only real heir being spoken of. And the Torah which was written four hundred and thirty years later had neither authority nor power to nullify the contract God made with Abraham.

     So why was the Torah given? According to Paul, the Torah was given in order to mitigate the violations or trespasses. That is, it was given to be something like one of the old British governesses who oversaw the raising and education of a gentleman's or nobleman's children before the advent of public schools. In other words, it was given to watch over us and keep us from hurting one another or ourselves. But there was no way it could actually fix or bypass the problem within our malfunctioning brain, or flesh, which is what was actually needed. Paul goes on to say explicitly that the Torah was our governess into Christ, so that we would be set right by the faith; but with its coming we are no longer subject to the governess. That is, there is no longer any need for the Torah for those who are of Christ, any more than there is a need for the governess once the child has reached adulthood.

    He then closes the chapter with, "Because as many of you as were baptized into Christ, have clothed yourselves with Christ. There isn't Judean neither Greek, there isn't slave neither free person, there isn't male and female; because you are all a single person within Christ Jesus. And if you are of Christ, you are therefore the seed of Abraham, heirs in line with the promise."

     Like in Romans 6, Paul is here stating explicitly that those who are baptized into Jesus Christ are joined to Him and have become a single person with Him. Because we are joined to Him, a single person with Him, then like Him we too are the seed to whom the promises were made, and not those who are biologically Abraham's descendants or those who keep the Torah.

     Rather than just going off on those still trying to keep the Torah, Paul ups the ante by saying, and doubling down on it in the next chapter, that the promises God made to Abraham don't even apply to his blood descendants, but to Jesus Christ alone, and anyone joined into a single person with Him, literally throwing in the trash any hope a Jewish person may cling to by just being Jewish and keeping the Torah. Paul is telling those people there's nothing there to hope in. You're either joined to Jesus Christ, or you're left out in the cold where the promises are concerned.

Just finished translating Galatians 4 through 5:1. I stopped at the first verse of five because it really belongs with the previous paragraph and train of thought.

     Verses 1-7 are Paul continuing his train of thought from chapter three where he described the Torah as a governess over young children, watching over us until the faith of Christ came, and he ended the chapter with that those who belong to Christ, because they are joined to Christ and He is the rightful and only heir of the promise to Abraham, are also heirs being a single person with Him through their baptism into Him. He goes on with this train of thought describing an infant who happens to be the heir to an estate such as which is large enough to have real property, servants, slaves, and so forth. That heir, even though he legally owns everything is himself no better off than a slave in terms of authority because he has to listen to the governess, his legal guardians, and the household managers until he comes of age to have full and unrestricted access to his inheritance. And this is the situation with us being watched over by the Torah and the "basic components of the world," as he describes it. Yet when the day which had been fixed to inherit came, God sent His Son to buy up all those under the guardianship of the Torah in order for us to receive the adoption as sons.

     Roman adoption was a little different than the modern American concept. A Roman father had to adopt or declare his son as an heir legally. Just because you were biologically related to your father didn't mean much under Roman law, and it was a common Roman practice to adopt those not directly related to you as your heirs. A case in point was the Senator Gallio, the Roman governor of Achaia in Acts when Paul was in Corinth. Gallio was actually the biological son of Seneca the Elder and brother of Seneca the Younger, but had been adopted as the heir of one of his friends whose name was Gallio, even while Seneca the elder was still alive.

     Here as in Romans 8, Paul says that, "because you are sons, God sent out the Spirit of His Son into our hearts shrieking [lit.], Abba Father. So that you individually are no longer a slave but a son; and if a son, also and heir through God." It is very clear from here and in Romans 8 that the Spirit to which he is constantly referring, especially in contrast or opposition to "the flesh" (literally the soft tissues of our bodies) is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, being joined to and made one with Him.

     He then returns from explaining spiritual mechanics to addressing the Galatians more personally in 8-20 as he says, "But at that time on the one hand not knowing God you were enslaved to those by nature not being gods; yet currently recognizing God, yet more being recognized subject to God, how are you turning back again upon the weak and impoverished basic components to which you wish to again be enslaved once more?" Paul is again wanting to know "What are you thinking? What could possibly possess you to run back to the governess when being one with Jesus Christ you own the whole estate?" And here he gets specific wanting to know why they're trying to keep the holy days, months, and years prescribed by the Torah when they are joined to Jesus Christ. He then says dishearteningly, "I'm scared for you lest I had worn myself out for you just for the heck of it."

     12-20 is another more personal appeal talking about their personal history together, how they first received him not turning away in disgust at the physical problem he was having at the time. He asks them, after all they had been through together, "Did I become your enemy speaking truthfully to you?" In twenty, he says he's going to change his voice again because "I'm at a loss with you."

     21-5:1 Paul uses Hagar and Sarah as an allegory between the two contracts, the one God made with Abraham about the inheritance of his "seed" (sing.), and the one God made with Moses and Israel on Mount Sinai. The former is described aptly as the son of the free woman, and the latter in keeping with his description of being enslaved as a child under the Torah is described as the son of Sarah's handmaid or slave girl, Hagar. In line with Isaac, those of the faith of Christ, being joined to Christ, are the children of the promise, not those subject to the Torah who are in line with Ishmael, the product of the flesh and the son of the slave girl; legally a slave himself and not an heir. He then ends the train of thought in 5:1 saying, "Christ freed us for freedom; stand then and don't be held again in the yoke of slavery [to the flesh through the Torah]."

     With nearly every word in this letter, Paul is begging and pleading with the Galatians, fighting tooth and nail for them to not engage with or return to Torah keeping, because that is of the flesh, our own natural responses and behaviors, not the Spirit of Christ. He is explicit and adamant about the idiocy of it, continuing his fight against it by declaring in the next verse in chapter 5, "If you should be circumcised, Christ will benefit you nothing." And the warning really couldn't be clearer or more harsh. What he's telling them is that if they choose to be initiated into Judaism or return to Judaism and attempt to be set right through keeping the Torah, then they have blasphemed the Holy Spirit, essentially trashing everything they experienced with the Spirit of Christ and saying it's worthless as the author of Hebrews warns the Jewish Christians about not doing. This is why Paul is so desperate to put a stop to this immediately and turn them back to submission to and reliance on the Spirit of Christ within them.

     This is why I personally write so harshly against Torah keeping now. By returning to the Torah, or any law keeping, you're saying Christ's death, burial, and resurrection means nothing to you and you can be set right by your own efforts. This is what damns a person.

I finished translating Galatians 5 last night, but waited until now to write this. The truth is I was shaking a little after writing the commentary for Galatians 4-5:1, though it was really through 5:2, for a while. Paul's message here is forceful and to the point as he begs and pleads for the Galatians to turn around and not to go any farther down the road they're going.

    Paul starts Galatians 5 with a serious warning that he again doubles down on, "Look, I Paul am saying to you that if you should be circumcised, Christ will benefit you nothing. Yet again I testify to every circumcised human being that he is a debtor to do the whole Torah. You were nullified from Christ, such ones of you being set right with the Torah! You deprived yourselves of the charity [of God]!" The word I have here translated as "nullified" is "katargeo" in the Greek. Several possible translations for this word are "nullified, rendered inert, left unemployed, ruined, destroyed." A good image to illustrate this word is say one of the factories in Europe which had been bombed during World War II. Some of the walls or pieces of it may still be standing, but it's been rendered completely useless for its original purpose. The word I have translated as "deprived yourselves of" is "ekpipto." Strictly speaking, it means to "fall out of" a thing, or "fall off" a thing, such as "falling out of" a chariot, which would be a good picture illustration for what Paul's saying. But it can also mean "to be deprived of," to be "thrown ashore, shipwrecked," or also of actors, "to be booed off of a stage."

     The author of the letter to the Hebrews, writing under similar circumstances to Jewish Christians contemplating abandoning Christ to return to Judaism because of persecution against Christians, writes, "Because it's impossible those once having been enlightened, having also tasted of the gift of the high heaven and having become sharers of the Holy Spirit, and having tasted of the good spoken word of God and powers of the impending aeon, and having fallen aside to make those people new again into a change of mind, recrucifying the Son of God and making an example of Him. Because ground which drinks the rain frequently coming upon it and giving birth to a suitable plant for those by whom it is also cultivated, receives a share of praise from God; yet having brought out thorns and thistles, failure and curse are near, the end of that ground results in burning." And also, "Because with us erring deliberately after the receiving the observable knowledge of the truth, there is no longer a sacrifice left concerning those errors, but some terrifying expectation of judgment and jealous impending fire to eat those opposed. Someone having set aside the Torah of Moses dies without compassion upon two or three witnesses; by how much more worse punishments do you think will the person who has trampled the Son of God, and the blood of the contract with which he was consecrated, having been treated like dirt [lit. common, profane], and outraged the Spirit of charity, be worthy of? Because we know the One who said, 'Vengeance is for Me, I will pay back.' and again, 'The Lord judges His people.' Falling into the hands of the Living God is terrifying."

    This is why Paul is begging, pleading, and fighting tooth and nail against the Galatians abandoning the Spirit of Christ in order to be set right by keeping the Torah. Because doing this treats Jesus Christ and His death on the cross like dirt, like there was no point to it. It blasphemes the testimony which the Holy Spirit gave them about Christ through the powers He displayed through them, something which they experienced and couldn't deny the experience of. They tasted the gift of heaven, they tasted the Spirit of Christ, and they were trashing it by Torah keeping.

     Paul goes on to say that it doesn't matter if you're circumcised or not. Neither cutting the foreskin off nor leaving it on is physically capable of changing anything about our natural responses or behaviors. It's pointless and without any power to actually do anything. The only thing which has any power to do anything about this is the faith of Jesus Christ being energized and activated through love.

     Verses 7-12 Paul returns to his personal address to them, and gets really, really blunt about what he thinks of those causing these problems among them, expressing the wish, explicitly, that whoever they might be, those pushing the Galatians to be circumcised and follow the Torah wouldn't stop at removing the foreskin from themselves, but would go all the way and be castrated completely! How much more proof does anyone need to understand how Paul feels about this topic of Torah keeping? How much more blunt does he have to get?

     From verses 13 to the end of the chapter we come upon the base understanding of the roots of Christian practice and behavior which Paul had spoken of in Romans 6-8. Those who are of Christ are freed from the Torah, they're no longer under the governess. Being an adult means accepting the role of an adult with all of the responsibilities that go with it, as well as the privileges. And our first responsibility is to, through love, enslave ourselves to one another. Keeping the Torah, or following any moral code, isn't necessary because every single rule in the Torah is brought to fulfillment with the single, simple message, "love your neighbor [lit. the person next to you] like yourself." Do this and the Torah, or any moral code, isn't necessary at all. But by turning on one another, nipping and eating at one another we will expend and destroy each other.

     Immediately following his warning about nipping and eating at one another, he writes, "Yet I say, walk by the Spirit [of Christ] and you won't bring the desire of the "flesh" [the soft tissues of the body, brains, meat, organs] to completion. Because the flesh desires against the Spirit [of Christ], yet the Spirit of Christ against the the flesh, because these things lie opposite one another, so that you would do these things, not what things you would wish. Yet if you're led by the Spirit [of Christ], you aren't subject to the Torah."

     The Spirit Paul is speaking of here refers to the Spirit of Christ. This is obvious from not only his referring to "God sending the Spirit of His Son into our hearts" both in this letter and in Romans, but also referring directly to those having or not having the Spirit of Christ in Romans 8. As Paul stated earlier in this letter, and in the letter to the Romans, as many as were baptized into Christ were clothed with Christ.

     What Paul is saying here is that, rather than attempting to restrain the flesh with Torah keeping, which ends up failing miserably regardless and does nothing to address the underlying malfunction within the flesh, if we disengage from our own natural responses and behaviors produced by our malfunctioning flesh, and instead depend solely on the Spirit of Christ to respond and behave through us, then those responses and behaviors produced by the flesh, while they may still come to mind, they won't be expressed in actions or words. As long as we are engaged with the Spirit of Christ and disengaged from our own responses, then there's no way for the malfunctioning flesh to express itself. It gets completely bypassed as a point of origin for our behaviors. And if the Spirit of Christ is the point of origin for a person's behaviors, then they're a functioning adult and have no need to be subject to the governess, that is, the Torah.

      What follows after this are two lists Paul gives in order to determine whether or not a person's behaviors are originating from their own flesh, or from the Spirit of Christ. I'm not going to go into them individually, they're pretty self explanatory. But I will say this, each "work of the flesh" can ultimately be attributed to either a fear, aggression, feeding drive, or sexual drive response. This is why I tend to think that when Paul says "flesh," he literally means the meat of our brains where our natural behaviors originate. All of these responses are governed by the hypothalamus specifically, and the limbic system in general, as survival responses. In every other animal, these survival responses work to physically protect and propagate the animal in question. But in human beings, these responses have gone haywire, treating EVERYTHING as either a survival need or a survival threat whether it's physical or psychological, or even imaginary. That malfunction then presents as the works of the flesh which Paul describes here and in other lists in his other letters, which he gives frequently.

     The fruit of the Spirit of Christ is Jesus Christ acting and speaking through the person walking by the Spirit of Christ. The word fruit is singular in the Greek. It's not "fruits" but "fruit." It's a single kind of fruit presented by love, joy, peace, and so on. And he goes on to say that there is no law, no rule within the Torah, against anything which is produced by the Spirit of Christ.

     Those of Christ Jesus have been crucified with Him, and as such have also crucified the malfunctioning soft tissues of the body, with its passions and its desires, referring back to Romans 6 and here in chapter 2 of this letter regarding being crucified together with Christ by being baptized into His death. For this reason, if we live by the Spirit of Christ, we will also march in step [lit.] with the Spirit of Christ. If we live by the Spirit of Christ, we don't become conceited, provoking one another, or envying one another.

I just finished translating Galatians 6, the last chapter of the letter. This will be my last post here for at least a couple of days for personal reasons, but I wanted to finish what I started.

     Here, Paul switches back from explaining how things work at the end of chapter 5 to personally addressing and instructing the Galatians. In particular, he starts off addressing what steps should be taken if someone go off the deep end with some violation or overstepping. I think, in particular, he's thinking of those who started this mess in the Galatian church with the Torah to begin with. His instruction is that those who are walking in the Spirit of Christ, the spiritual ones not functioning from their flesh, fix or repair that person gently or softly. With this he says, "Carry one another's weight, and in this way you will pay in full the rule of Christ," that is, the rule He gave or laid down.

     He then begins to talk more specifically about they are to individually do to prevent this kind of heresy from happening again, "Because if someone thinks to be something, being nothing, he is delusionally deceiving himself. Yet let each person put his own work to the test, and then the bragging will arrive for just himself and not for a different person; because each person will carry his own load." In short, if one of them starts feeling like they're something special, they need to check themselves, examine their own responses and behaviors, and in this way the bragging will be contained to just that person bragging to himself and it won't spread like the poison their current problem did. He goes on to say, continuing to explain, "God is not sneered at." Literally, what he saying is that God will not stand for someone turning their nose up at Him and blowing Him off. "Because whatever seed a human being spreads, this he will also harvest; because the guy spreading seed for his own flesh [previously described in chapter five, and what started this whole mess] will harvest corruption from the flesh, yet the guy spreading seed for the Spirit [of Christ] will harvest the life of the Eternal One from the Spirit [of Christ]." I think this is pretty self explanatory, to be honest. If you indulge your own malfunctioning flesh, and operate from that, then you will harvest the works of the flesh and the corruption which follows. If you submit to the Spirit of Christ, with Him in control, then you will harvest God's own Eternal Life through you, that is, Jesus Christ living and expressing through you. " He then admonishes them not to give up or lose enthusiasm for walking in the Spirit and accomplishing the highest good in the period of time that they have. 

     Finally, addressing those causing the problems one last time, he says, "As much as they wish to put on a good face with the flesh, those folks compelling you to be circumcised, it's just so that they might not be persecuted for the cross of Christ." And this is what really started this whole problem. They got scared. Their fear survival response kicked in and the Spirit of Christ went out the window, and everything went downhill from there, harvesting massive damage and corruption among the Galatian disciples. "Because neither the circumcised themselves keep the Torah but they wish you to be circumcised so that they would brag about the flesh of yours." In other words, for as much as they talk the Torah up, they don't actually keep it either, but they want notches on their Torah scrolls to brag about with the number of circumcisions they can obtain.

     He then states, "Yet may it never happen to me to brag about anything except about the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the cosmos had been crucified to me, and I to the cosmos." In this case, I have rendered "kosmos" in its original form rather than world, because he's referring essentially to the entire system of the universe. As far as he's concerned, as he wrote earlier, he was crucified with Christ, and he's no longer alive, but it's Christ who is alive within Him. The rest of the universe is dead to him, and he to it.

     He then says again, repeating himself, "Because neither circumcision means anything nor does a foreskin mean anything, but it's the new creation that means something." That is, it doesn't matter whether you cut on your man parts or not. It won't affect anything that matters. It's the new creation in Christ Jesus, the Spirit of Christ acting and speaking through you that matters. "And as many as march in line with this standard of measurement, peace will be upon them, and mercy and peace upon the Israel of God."

     He closes with, "Let no one offer me any more beatings; because am carrying the scars of Jesus within my body." This was both hard and personal for Paul. With as much as he had physically and emotionally suffered, his body carrying the scars of that suffering for Christ, he displayed Jesus Christ wherever he went. He no longer lived, but Christ lived in him. He didn't need delusional folks in the churches to start beating on him too.