1 John 5, Revised from "The Practice of the Way"

 

Every single person trusting that Yeshua is the Anointed has been born of the God, and every single person loving the One having given birth also loves the one having been born from Him. With this we experience that we should love the children of the God, when we are loving the God and do His commands. Because this is the love of the God for us to keep His commands and His commands not be heavy¹ [when we are keeping them]. Because every single thing which had been born of the God is victorious over the illusion of this world; and this is the victory which has been victorious over the illusion of this world, our trust. And who is the person victorious over the illusion of this world if not the person trusting that Yeshua is the Son of the God?

This One is the One having come through water and blood, Yeshua the Anointed, not with just water, but with the water and with the blood; and the Pneuma is the One testifying, because the Pneuma is the Reality. Because three are they who testify in the heavenly realm, the Father, the Logos, and the Holy Pneuma; and these three are One Existence. And three there are who testify on the ground, the Pneuma, and the water, and the blood; and these three are resting in the One Existence. If we accept the testimony of human beings, the testimony of the God is better; because this is the testimony of the God that He had testified about His Son. The person putting his trust into the Son of the God holds the testimony [of the God] within himself. The person not trusting the God had made Him a liar. And this is the testimony, that the God gave to us the Life of the Eternal One, and this Life is by means of His Son. The person possessing the Son possesses this Life; the person not possessing the Son of the God doesn’t possess this Life.

I wrote to you these things so that you would know that you possess this Life of the Eternal One, to those who put their trust into the name of the Son of the God. And this is the freedom to speak openly which we hold facing Him that if we should ask for anything in line with His will He listens to us. And if we know that He listens to us, whatever we would ask for, we know that we have the requests which we had requested from Him.

If someone should see his brother making a mistake with a malfunctioning behavior not in the direction of death, ask for it and He will give him life, to those making a mistake not facing death. There is a malfunctioning behavior facing death; I’m not speaking about that so that you should question it. Every wrongdoing is a malfunction, and there is a malfunction not facing death.

We know that every single thing [within you] having been born from the God doesn’t malfunction, but the One being born of the God keeps him and the good for nothing one doesn’t touch him. We know that we are born of the God and the whole illusion of this world lies by means of the good for nothing one. Yet we know that the Son of the God came here and had given to us the intention so that we would experience Reality, and we are within Reality by means of His Son, Yeshua the Anointed. This One is the real God and Life of the Eternal One. Little children, guard yourselves from idols.²

1That is, when His commands aren’t heavy when we are keeping them.

2One gets the sense that John intended to keep going with a new topic, but ran out of room on the scroll. You were limited in how much you could write by how long the piece of paper was.

1 John 4, Revised from "The Practice of the Way"

Dear ones, don’t trust in every pneuma but examine the pneumata by testing if they are born of the God or not, because many false prophets had come out into the universe. With this you experience the Pneuma of the God: every single pneuma which agrees that Yeshua the Anointed had come with flesh and blood is born of the God, and every single pneuma which doesn’t agree with Yeshua isn’t born of the God; and this thing is the one of the one opposed to the Anointed, which you had heard that he is coming, and now is already within the universe. You are born of the God, little children, and had been victorious over these false prophets, because the One within you is bigger than the one within the universe. They are of the illusion of this world, because of this these false prophets talk out of the illusion of this world and the illusion of this world listens to them. We are born of the God, what [within you] experiences the God listens to us, what [within you] isn’t born of the God doesn’t listen to us. From this we recognize the Pneuma of Reality and the pneuma of going astray.

Dear ones, we should love one another, because love is born of the God, and every single thing [within you] which loves had been born of the God and experiences the God. Every single thing [within you] not loving didn’t experience the God, because the God is love. With this the love of the God was made visible within us, because the God had sent out His one of a kind Son into the universe so that we would be alive through Him. With this is love, not that we ourselves had loved the God but that He Himself loved us and sent out His Son a mercy-seat about our malfunctioning behaviors. Dear ones, if the God loved us in this way, we also are obligated to love one another. No one had been a spectator of God at any time. If we should love one another, the God makes His home within us and His love has been brought to completion within us.

With this we experience that we are making our home within Him and He within us, because He gave to us out of His Pneuma. And we had been spectators and are testifying that the Father had sent the Son a rescuer of the universe. Whoever should agree that Yeshua is the Son of the God, the God makes His home within him and he within the God. And we had known and had trusted the love which the God holds within us.

The God is love, and the person making his home within love makes his home within the God and the God makes his home within him. With this that love had been brought to completion in the midst of us, so that we would have a freedom to speak out on the day of the decision, because we also are just like that One is within this universe. Fear isn’t by means of love but the love brought to completion tosses fear outside, because fear holds discipline and what is fearing hadn’t been brought to completion with love. We are loving because He Himself first loved us. If someone should say that, “I love the God” and should hate his brother, he is a liar; because the person not loving his brother whom he had seen can’t love the God whom he had not seen. And we have this command from Him that the person loving the God also loves his brother.

1 John 3, Revised from "The Practice of the Way"

Do you see of what kind of love the Father had given to us, so that we should be both summoned to be and exist as children of God¹? Because of this the illusion of this world doesn’t recognize us, because it didn’t recognize Him. Dear ones, We are children of God right now, and what we will be wasn’t yet made visible. We know that if it should be made visible, we will be the same as Him because we will see Him just like He is. And every single person possessing this hope upon Him makes himself sacred, just like that One is sacred.

Every single person engaging with the malfunction also engages in lawless behavior, and the malfunction is lawless behavior. And you know that One was made visible so that He would remove these malfunctioning behaviors, and the malfunction doesn’t exist within Him. Every single person making his home within Him doesn’t malfunction; every single person malfunctioning hasn’t seen Him nor experienced Him. Little children, don’t let anyone lead you astray; what [within you] is doing the right behavior is right, just like that One is right; what [within you] is engaging with the malfunction is born of the inner slanderer, because the inner slanderer malfunctions from the start². For this reason the Son of the God was made visible, so that He would undo the works of the inner slanderer. Every single thing [within you] having been birthed from the God doesn’t engage with the malfunction, because His seed makes its home within it, because it had been birthed from the God, and He can’t malfunction. With this the offspring of the God [within you] and the offspring of the inner slanderer [within you] are visible; every single thing not doing the right behavior is not born from the God, including the one not loving its brother.

Because this is the news which you heard from the start, so that we would love one another, not just like Kayin was of the good for nothing one and cut the throat of his brother; and for the sake of what did he cut his throat? Because his actions were good for nothing yet his brother’s right. And don’t be shocked, brothers, if the illusion of this world hates you. We know that we had been transitioned from Death into Life because we are loving the brothers: the person not loving makes his home within Death. Every single thing [within you] hating his brother is homicidal, and you know that every single homicidal thing doesn’t possess the life of the Eternal One making its home within it. With this we became experienced with love, because that One laid down His breath of life on our behalf; we are also obligated to lay down our breaths of life on behalf of the brothers. And whoever would have the means of living of the illuson of this world and should watch his brother having a need and should close his deepest feelings from him, how does the love of the God make its home within him? Little children, we shouldn’t love by message nor by tongue but with action and reality.

With this we will know that we are of Reality, and in front of Him we will convince our heart, if our heart should experience something against us, that the God is bigger than our heart and experiences everything. Dear ones, if our heart shouldn’t experience anything against us, we have a freedom to speak facing the God and whatever we ask we get from Him, because we keep his commands and do the things pleasing in front of Him. And this is His command, for us to put our trust in the name of His Son, Yeshua the Anointed and would love one another, just like He gave a command to us. And the person keeping His commands makes his home within Him and He within him; and with this we experience that He is making his home within us from the Pneuma which He gave to us.

1I am reminded here of the Roman practice of a father “adopting” his own biological children, legally acknowledging them as his. Notably, there is no definite article before θεος here and later where the same term, τεκνια θεου, is used. Rather than specifying “children of the God” it might also be rendered “divine children,” that is, children born from God as substance.

2Consider Paul’s distinction between the “new human being” and the “old human being,” and also his explicit teaching on the antagonism between the pneuma and the flesh in Romans 7 and Galatians 5.

 

1 John 1-2, Revised from "The Practice of the Way"

What was from the start, what we had heard, what we had seen with our own eyes, what we gazed at and our own hands groped about for surrounding the Logos of Life—and Life was made visible, and we had seen and we are testifying and we are proclaiming to you the Life of the Eternal One which was facing the Father and was made visible to us—what we had seen and had heard, we are proclaiming to you too, so that you also would hold communion with us. And the communion which is ours is with the Father and with His Son, Yeshua the Anointed. And we are writing these things, so that our joy would be filled to the brim.

And this is the report which we had heard from Him and re-tell to you, that the God is light and there is not one bit of darkness in Him at all. If we should say that we hold communion with Him and should walk within the darkness, we are lying and aren’t engaging in Reality; yet if we should walk within the light like He is within the light, we hold communion with one another and the blood of Yeshua His Son makes us clean from every screw up. If we should say that we don’t possess a malfunction, we are leading ourselves astray and Reality is not within us. If we should agree about our screw ups, He is trusted and right so that He would drop those screw ups for us and make us clean from every wrongdoing. If we should say that we hadn’t screwed up, we make Him a liar and His Logos isn’t within us.

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you wouldn’t screw up. And if anyone should screw up, we have an Advocate facing the Father, Yeshua the Anointed who does what is right; and He is a mercy-seat about our screw ups, yet not about just ours but also about the whole universe’s. And with this we know by experience that we had experienced Him, if we should keep His commands. The guy saying that, “I had experienced Him” and not keeping His commands is a liar and Reality isn’t within this guy; yet the love of God is genuinely brought to completion within whoever would keep His logos, with this we know by experience that we are within Him. The person claiming to make his home within Him is obligated for himself to walk just like that One walked.

Dear ones, I’m writing, not a fresh command to you, but an old command which you had held from the start; the old command is the logos which you heard. I am again writing the fresh command to you, which is real, within Him and within you, because the darkness is passing to the side and the real Light is already shining. The person claiming to be within the Light and hating his brother is within the darkness up to this point. The person loving his brother makes his home within the light and there isn’t anything tripping up within him; yet the person hating his brother is within the darkness and is walking in the darkness and doesn’t know where he’s going, because the darkness blinded his eyes.

I am writing to you, little children, because the screw ups are dropped for you because of His name. I am writing to you, fathers, because you had known the One from the start. I am writing to you, teenagers, because you had been victorious over the good for nothing one. I wrote to you, little kids, because you had known the Father. I wrote to you, fathers, because you had known the One from the start. I wrote to you, teenagers, because you are strong and the Logos of God makes His home within you and you had been victorious over the good for nothing one.

Don’t love the illusion of the world neither the things within the illusion of the world. If anyone loves the illusion of the world, the love of the Father isn’t within him; because every single thing which is within the illusion of the world, the biological drive, and the desire of the eyes, and the false pretension from one’s living isn’t from the Father but is from the illusion of the world. And the illusion of the world is passing to the side as well as its drive, but the person doing the will of God makes his home into the eon.

Little children, it is the last hour, and just like you heard that one in opposition to the Anointed is coming, now also many in opposition to the Anointed have happened, from which we know by experience that is it the last hour. They came out from us but they weren’t from us; because if they were from us, they would have made their home with us; but so that they would be made visible that they aren’t all from us. And you hold the baptismal chrism¹ from the Holy One and know everything. I didn’t write to you because you don’t know Reality, but because you know it and because every single lie is not from Reality. Who is a liar if not the person disowning that Yeshua is the Anointed at all? This person who disowns the Father and the Son is in opposition to the Anointed. Every single person who disowns the Son neither possesses the Father, the person agreeing with the Son also possesses the Father. What you yourselves heard from the start, let it make its home within you. If what you heard from the start should make its home within you, you also will make your home within the Son and within the Father. And this is the promise which He had promised us, the Life of the Eternal One.

I wrote these things to you about those leading you astray. And you, the baptismal chrism which you received from Him makes its home within you and you don’t have a use so that anyone should teach you, but like His chrism teaches you about everything and is real and is not a lie, and just like He taught you, make your home within Him.

And now, little children, make your home within Him, so that if He should be made visible we would possess the ability to speak openly, and we would not be disgraced away from Him at His arrival. If you know that He is right, you recognize that also every single person doing the right thing has been birthed from Him.

1Greek “χρισμα,” lit. “anointing ointment” and specifically the ointment or oil used to anoint someone at baptism

1 Corinthians 13, The Extreme Importance of Love

 

If I talk with the languages of human beings and of the messengers, but don’t possess love, I have become a ringing brass or clanging cymbal. And if I possess prophecy and see all the mysteries and all the knowledge and if I possess all the trust so as to transfer mountains from one place to another, but don’t possess love, I am nothing. And if I would feed all of my belongings bit by bit like a nurse to others and if I would hand over my body so that I might be consumed by flames, but don’t possess love, I get no benefit from it at all.

Love has a long temper with people, love is kind, it isn’t jealous, it doesn’t brag, it doesn’t inflate itself, it doesn’t act disgracefully, it doesn’t look for its own things, it isn’t irritated, it doesn’t keep a ledger of the bad thing, it doesn’t celebrate over wrongdoing, but it does celebrate together with Reality; it protects everything, trusts everything, hopes everything, endures everything.

Love doesn’t fall at any time; yet either prophecies will be rendered inert, or languages will be stopped, or knowledge will be rendered inert. Because we know by experience [only] partially and we prophesy [only] partially, but when what has been brought to completion should come, what is partial will be rendered inert. When I was a nursing baby, I was talking like a nursing baby, I was minded like a nursing baby, I reasoned like a nursing baby. When I had become a man, I rendered the things of a nursing baby inert. Because at present we see through a mirror by means of a riddle, but at that time we will know by observation just like we are also known by observation. Yet for now these three things stay put, trust, hope, and love; yet the better of these is love.

John 20:1-23, Luke 24:50-53, The Resurrection

 

One day from Shabbat, Mariam from Migdol comes to the tomb in the morning with it still being dark and looks at the stone having been lifted away from the tomb. She then runs and comes to Shimon Petros and to the other disciple for whom Yeshua had affection and says to them, “They took the Mar from the tomb and we don’t know where they placed Him.” Petros and the other disciple then came out and started for the tomb. And the two were running shoulder to shoulder; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Petros and came to the tomb first, and looks at the linen wraps laying there, and the soudarion which was upon His head, not laying with the linen wraps but separated having been folded up in one place. At that time then he and the other disciple who came first entered into the tomb and saw and trusted; because they hadn’t yet known the writing that it is necessary for Him to resurrect from the dead. The disciples then came away again to them.

And Mariam was standing next to the tomb outside sobbing. As she was then sobbing, she stole a glance into the tomb and she watches two messengers in white just sitting there where the body of Yeshua had been laid, one at the head and one at the feet. And those said to her, “Woman, what are you sobbing for?” She says to them that, “They took my owner away, and I don’t know where they put Him.” Having said these things she turned back and watches Yeshua standing there and didn’t know that it was Yeshua. Yeshua says to her, “Woman, what are you sobbing for? Who are you looking for?” That woman thinking that He is the gardener says to Him, “Mar, if you carried Him away, tell me where you put Him, and I will take Him away.” Yeshua says to her, “Mariam.” Turning around that woman says to Him in Aramaic, “Rabbouni?” which is translated, “Teacher?” Yeshua says to her, “Don’t grab Me, because I haven’t yet gone up to the Father; but go to My brothers and tell them, ‘I am going up to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.” Mariam from Migdol comes reporting to the disciples that, “I have seen the Mar!” and He said these things to her.

It then being late on that one day from Shabbat and the doors having been closed where the disciples were because they were panicked by the Iudaeans, Yeshua came and stood in the middle of them and says to them, “Shlama l’kun.”¹ And having said this He showed His hands and side to them. The disciples then celebrated having seen their Mar. Yeshua then said to them again, “Shlama l’kun. Just like the Father sent Me out, I am also sending you.” And having said this He blew on them and says to them, “Take the Holy Pneuma; whosever mistakes you should drop will be dropped for them, whosever mistakes you should seize onto will have been seized onto.”

* * *

And he led them out towards Beit-Anya, and having lifted up His hands He blessed them. And it happened with Him blessing them He was separated from them and was brought up into the sky. And they having prostrated themselves to Him returned into Hierosoluma with a huge joy and they were in the temple speaking well of the God through everything.

1lit. “Peace to you,” rendered into Aramaic; the same as “Shalom aleikhim” in Hebrew

John 19, The Crucifixion

At that time then Pilatus took Yeshua and flogged Him. And the soldiers having woven a crown from thorny weeds put it on His head and robed Him with a purple cloak and started at Him and were saying, “Hey! King of the Iudaeans!” And they hit him in the face.¹ And Pilatus came out again outside and says to them, “Look, I am leading Him to you outside so that you would know that I don’t find any reason at all to charge Him.” Yeshua then came out outside, bearing the crown of thorny weeds and the purple cloak. And he says to them, “Look at the man.” When the high priests and the officers saw Him they yelled loudly saying, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” Pilatus says to them, “Take Him and crucify Him yourselves! I don’t find any reason to charge Him!” The Iudaeans replied to him, “We have the Torah! And according to the Torah He is obligated to die because He made Himself the son of a god!”²

When Pilatus heard this message, he was all the more panicked, and entered into the praetorium again and says to Yeshua, “Where are You from?!” But Yeshua didn’t give him an answer. Pilatus then says to Him, “You won’t talk to me?! Don’t you know that I possess the authority to set you free and I possess the authority to crucify You?!” Yeshua replies, “You don’t possess a shred of authority where I am concerned except for what had been given to you from above. For this reason the guy handing Me over to you holds the more egregious error.”³ From this, Pilatus was looking for a way to set Him free. But the Iudaeans yelled out loudly saying, “If you set this person free, you aren’t a friend of Caesar! Every single person making himself a king talks against Caesar!”

Pilatus then having heard these words led Yeshua outside and sat upon the Bema Seat in the place called, “Stone Pavement,” and in Aramaic⁴, “Gabbatha.” And it was the preparation day of the Paskha, it was like the sixth hour⁵. And He says to the Iudaeans, “Look at your king.” Those people then yelled loudly, “Take Him away! Take Him away! Crucify Him!” Pilatus says to them, “I should crucify your king?” The high priests answered, “We don’t have a king except Caesar!” At that time then he handed Him over to them so that He would be crucified.

They then take Yeshua aside, and carrying His own execution cross He comes out into what is called “Place of the Skull,” which is called in Aramaic, “Gulgulta,” where they crucified Him, and two others with Him from here and from here, and Yeshua was in the middle. And Pilatus also wrote an execution notice and put it on the cross. And it was written, “Yeshua from Natseret King of the Iudaeans.” This then was the execution notice many of the Iudaeans read, because the place where Yeshua was crucified was near the city. And it was written in Aramaic, Roman, and Greek.⁶ The high priests of the Iudaeans then were telling Pilatus, “Don’t write, ‘the king of the Iudaeans,” but “that person said, I am king of the Iudaeans.” Pilatus answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

The soldiers then, when they crucified Yeshua, took His clothes and made them four parts, a part to each soldier, yet His shirt was also seamless, having been woven from the top down through the whole. They then said to one another, “Let’s not tear it up, but we should throw lots about whose it will be;” so that the writing which says, “They split up My clothes among themselves and threw lots for My apparel,” would be fulfilled. The soldiers then in fact did these things. And His mother and His mother’s sister, Mariam the wife of Klopa, and Mariam from Migdol stood beside Yeshua’s cross. Yeshua then having seen His mother and the disciple who was dear to Him standing beside her says to His mother, “Woman, look at your son.” Then He says to the disciple, “Look at your mother.” And from that time on, the disciple took her for his own mother.

With this, Yeshua having seen that everything had already been finished, so that the writing would be brought to completion says, “I’m thirsty.” A vessel full of wine vinegar was sitting there; having then put a sponge full of wine vinegar around a piece of hyssop they brought it to His mouth. When he then took the wine vinegar Yeshua said, “It’s finished,” and having inclined His head He surrendered His pneuma.⁷

The Iudaeans then, since it was the preparation day, so that the bodies wouldn’t stay put on the crosses on Shabbat, because that Shabbat was a huge day, requested Pilatus to break His legs and those of the others who were crucified together with Him. But having come upon Yeshua, as they saw Him having already died, didn’t break His legs, but the soldiers stabbed His side with a spear, and blood and water immediately came out. And the guy having seen it has testified, and his testimony is real, and that guy knows that he is speaking honestly, so that you also would trust. Because these things happened so that the writing would be fulfilled, “His bones will not be shattered.” And again a different writing says, “They will see into whom they pierced.”

And with these things Yosef from Har-Ramatha, being a disciple of Yeshua yet having hidden because of his fear of the Iudaeans, requested of Pilatus that he might take the body of Yeshua; and Pilatus allowed it. He then came and took His body. And Nikodemos also came, the guy having come to Him by night at first, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes like a hundred litras. They then took the body of Yeshua and bound it with linen cloths with the spices, just like it is the custom of the Iudaeans for intombing. And there was a garden in the place where He was crucified, and there was a fresh tomb in the garden in which no one had yet been placed. It was there then because of the preparation day of the Iudaeans, because the tomb was close by, they placed Yeshua.

1Yeshua was being formally accused of insurgency against Rome whether the soldiers knew who He was or not. It would have been a similar situation to U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan being handed an Al-Qaida leader after watching their friends being killed by insurgents, and then told to rough that leader up.

2Notably, the Greek here does not include the definite article before θεος, indicating that Yahweh was not necessarily meant, but “a god” in general. Pilatus, being a Roman who likely worshiped the Olympians, would have caught that. In his Greco-Roman worldview, this would have been a real possibility. His following actions were probably colored by whether or not he was being asked to crucify a demigod, and possibly the offspring of one of the Olympians.

3Yeshua just confirmed Pilatus’ worst fear without directly stating that His Father was the God. Pilatus would have in no way wanted to be responsible for crucifying the offspring of any of the gods because of that god’s potential repercussions against him.

4Greek, “Εβραιστι,” “Hebrew.” I chose to render it as “Aramaic” instead because the word, “Gabbatha,” is actually from Classical Syriac/Aramaic rather than Hebrew.

512:00 PM give or take

6“Yeshua m’N’tsaret Malka Y’hude,” “Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaerorum,” and “Iesous o Nazoraios o Basileus ton Ioudaion,” respectively, all the written languages anyone there might be literate in.

7This could also be rendered, “He breathed His last,” or also “He gave up His breath.”