A Fresh Translation of John 8

    Yet Yeshua went into the Hill of the Olive Trees. Yet at dawn he again came aside into the temple and all the people started towards Him, and having sat down He taught them. Yet the scribes and the Pharisees lead a woman having been seized upon adultery, and having stood her in the middle say to Him, “Teacher, this woman had been seized by being self brought being committed adultery with; yet in the Torah Moses commanded us to stone such as these. You then, what do You say?” Yet they were saying this putting Him to a test expecting Him to fail, so that they would have something to accuse Him with. Yet Yeshua having bent down inscribed with his finger into the ground. Yet as they continued questioning Him, He bent up and said to them, “Let your first guy without error throw the stone at her.” And again having bent down He wrote into the ground. Yet these having heard exited one by one having started from the elders and just the woman was left behind being in the middle. And having bent up Yeshua said to her, “Woman, where are they? No one judged against you?” And the woman said, “No one, Lord.” And Yeshua said, “Neither do I myself judge against you; go, and from this point on no longer err.”

     Again Yeshua talked to them saying, “I Am the Light of the Universe; the person following Me would absolutely not walk in the darkness, will arrive at the light of the Life.” The Pharisees then said to Him, “You testify about Yourself; Your testimony isn’t real.” Yeshua answered and said to them, “Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is real, because I know from where I came and where I’m going; yet you people don’t know from where I am coming or where I’m going. You make decisions in line with the flesh, I don’t decide about anyone at all. Yet if I also do make decisions, the decision which is mine is real, because I am not alone, but it’s I and the Father having sent Me. Yet also in the Torah which is yours it had been written that the testimony of two human beings is genuine. I am the one testifying about Myself and the Father having sent Me testifies about Me.” They were saying then to Him, “Where is Your Father?” Yeshua replied, “You don’t know either Me nor My Father; if you knew Me, you would also have known My Father.” These words He talked within the treasure room teaching in the temple; and no one arrested Him, because His hour hadn’t yet come.

     He then said again to them, “I am going and you will look for Me, and you will die by means of your malfunction; where I am going you people can’t come.” The Iudaeans then were saying, “He isn’t going to kill Himself, is He? Because He’s saying, “Where I am going you people can’t come”? And He was saying to them, “You people are of down here, I Myself am of up there; you people are of the order of this world, I Myself am not of the order of this world. I then said to you that you will die by means of your malfunctioning behaviors; because if you won’t trust that I Am, you will die by means of your malfunctioning behaviors.” They were then saying to Him, “You, who are You?” Yeshua said to them, “The start whatever it be I also am talking to you. I have a lot to talk and to decide about you people, but the One having sent Me is genuine, and what things I heard from beside Him these things I talk into the universe.” They didn’t recognize that He was speaking about the Father to them. Yeshua then said to them, “When you raise the Son of Adam high, then you will recognize that I Am, and I am doing nothing from Myself, but just like the Father taught Me I am talking these things. And the One having sent Me is with Me; He didn’t let Me go by Myself, because I am always doing the things which please him.” With His talking these things many put their trust into Him.

     Yeshua then was saying to those Iudaeans having trusted Him, “If you make your home within the message which is Mine, you are genuinely My disciples and you will know Reality, and Reality will free you.” They responded at Him, “We are the sperm of Abraham and had been enslaved by no one at any time; how are You saying that, “You would become free?” Yeshua answered them, “Amen amen I tell you that every single person who engages in the malfunction is a slave of the malfunction. Yet the slave doesn’t make his home in the house into the eon, the son makes his home into the eon. If then the Son should free you, you will be existentially free. I know that you are the sperm of Abraham; but you are looking to kill Me, because the word which is Mine isn’t fond of dwelling within you people. I am talking what things I have seen from beside My Father; and you people then are doing what things you heard from beside your father.

     They responded and said to Him, “Our father is Abraham.” Yeshua says to them, “If you people were children of Abraham, you were doing the works of Abraham; yet now you are looking to kill Me, a human being who had talked to you the Reality which I heard from beside God; Abraham didn’t do this. You are doing the works of your father.” They said to Him, “We hadn’t been born from whoring; we have one Father, God.” Yeshua said to them, “If God was your Father you would have loved Me, because I came out and arrived from God; because neither had I come from Myself, but that One sent Me out. Because of what are you not familiar with the speech which is Mine? Because you can’t hear the message which which is Mine. You people are of your father the Slanderer and wish to do the desires of your father. That one was homicidal from the start and didn’t stand in Reality, because reality isn’t within him. When he should talk the lie, he is talking from his own things, because he is a liar and its father. Yet because I Myself speak Reality, you don’t trust Me. Who from you cross-examines Me about malfunctioning behaviors? If I am speaking Reality, because of what do you not trust Me? The person being from God listens to the spoken words of God; because of this you don’t listen, because you aren’t from God.”

     The Iudaeans responded and said to Him, “Didn’t we speak beautifully that you are a Samaritan and possess and demon?” Yeshua replied, “I don’t possess a demon, but value My Father, and you devalue Me. Yet I don’t look for My reputation; He is the One looking for and deciding it. Amen amen I am telling you, if anyone should keep the message which is Mine, he would absolutely not gaze on Death into the eon. The Iudaeans then said to Him, “Now we knew that you possess a demon. Abraham died as did the prophets, and you are saying, ‘If anyone should keep My message, he would absolutely not taste death into the eon.’ You aren’t better than our father Abraham, are you? Who died? And the prophets died as well? Whom do you make Yourself?” Yeshua answered, “If I should build up My own reputation, My reputation is nothing; My Father is the One building up My reputation, whom you speak that ‘He is our God,’ and didn’t recognize Him, yet I know Him. And if I said that ‘I don’t know Him,’ I will be a liar the same as you people; but I know Him and keep His message. Abraham your father was overjoyed so that He should see the day which is Mine, and He saw and rejoiced.” The Iudaeans then said at Him, “You don’t yet have fifty years and you’ve viewed Abraham?” Yeshua said to them, “Amen amen I tell you, before Abraham’s having happened, I Am.” They then picked up stones so that they would throw them at Him. Yet Yeshua hid and came out of the temple.

When Jesus was Depressed

      I was translating through John 7 today when I realized something I hadn’t seen before between verses 1 and 9. Jesus was depressed and isolating after the events of John 6.

     Towards the end of John 6, what Jesus teaches is so hard for people to accept that most of his disciples leave Him except the twelve. Whether or not any of them did eventually come back, the Scripture says that many went back and stopped following Him. This takes such a toll on Jesus that He asks the twelve, “You don’t want to leave too, do you?” To which Peter replies, “Where would we go? You alone have the words of life.” And still Jesus says, “Didn’t I choose the twelve of you, and yet one of you is a devil?” referring to Judas Iscariot. Most of His disciples took off and didn’t return, and the Pharisees and Judeans were looking to kill Him. He had said exactly what the Father had told Him to say. No more, and no less. But there was a human emotional toll on Him from the aftermath. Jesus never disobeyed His Father, but that doesn’t mean He enjoyed every minute of it either.

     The events of John 6 sent Jesus back into Galilee, and there’s no mention of the twelve in these verses, or even in the following verses in the chapter. There’s very much a sense that Jesus was alone by choice. And the only other people mentioned are Jesus’ brothers, among them likely James and Jude from whom John probably heard what had happened. So, after those events, Jesus went home and spent time alone walking in Galilee near his family in a melancholy that didn’t want to lift. Where were the twelve? Most of them were from Galilee as well, so maybe they took the time to go home to Capernaum too. Maybe everyone needed some time to process what had happened and where they were at as well.

     It appears though that Jesus’ brothers noticed His mood. The Scripture is clear that they didn’t believe in Him, at least at this point in time, but they were still His brothers. Other Gospels record them as having come with His mother to take Him home because they thought He had lost His mind at one point. Whether they believed in Him or not, they were clearly concerned for Him. Their words strike me as brothers trying to pull someone they care about out of their funk and get them going again even if they don’t agree with or understand what they’re passionate about. But Jesus told them no, that it wasn’t His time to go, and that He was going to stay put where He was. I don’t know about you, but I can hear the melancholy, the depression, the “I don’t know if I want to do this anymore” in His words. That's why He didn't want to go up for the feast of tabernacles and show Himself openly, and why He answered His brothers the way He did. 

     But then He changes His mind. He does go up for the feast, though not openly but in secret. Again, there’s no mention of His disciples, so it could be presumed He went up alone. Why does He do this when it seems clear He really doesn’t want to? For the same reason He said He did or said anything. Because the Father instructed Him to do it, and He obeyed as He always did, and taught, and went into the temple challenging the Pharisees and the high priests, calling them out. He obeyed, and they couldn’t touch Him. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a difficult thing for Him to do in His humanity.

     Depression, melancholy, these things aren’t sin. They’re normal human responses to stress or trauma. Not wanting to throw yourself back into a crowd of people who want to destroy you is a normal human desire and survival response. Wanting time alone to process through a bad emotional experience is a normal human response. Jesus Christ was fully human, and had all of these responses without sinning. Yet when push came to shove, and the Father instructed Him to get back to it, He obeyed and did it. The Pharisees didn’t succeed in bullying Him or driving Him away, and by the end of the chapter, the tables were turned on their machinations because He obeyed, got back up, and went even though He didn’t really want to.

     It’s okay to be depressed and want time alone to process things and figure things out after a bad experience. It’s neither sinful nor immoral. What’s important is that, like Jesus, we still surrender to the Father’s will through His Spirit and continue to obey His instructions even when we don’t want to.

A Fresh Translation of John 7

And with these things Yeshua was walking within Galilee; because He didn’t wish to walk within Iudaea, because the Iudaeans were looking to kill Him. Yet the tabernacles holy day of the Iudaeans was near. His brothers then said to Him, “Transfer yourself from here and go into Iudaea, so that your disciples will also view the works which you’re doing; because no one does anything in secret and himself looks to be speaking out openly. If you’re doing these things, make yourself visible to the universe.” Because neither did His brothers put their trust into Him. Yeshua then says to them, “The time which is Mine hasn’t yet presented itself, yet the time which is yours is always ready. The order of this world can’t hate you, yet it hates Me, because I am testifying about it that its works are deranged. You go up into the holy day; I’m not going up into this holy day, because the time which is Mine hasn’t yet been filled.” Yet having said these things, He stayed put within Galilee.

     Yet as His brothers went up into the holy day, then He also went up not visibly but like in secret. The Iudaeans then were looking for Him at the holy day and were saying, “Where is that One?” And a lot of people within the crowds were complaining about Him; these on the one hand  were saying that, “He is good,” yet others were saying, “No, but he’s leading the crowd astray.” No one actually was talking openly about Him because of fear of the Iudaeans.

     Yet with it already being the middle of the holy day Yeshua went up into the temple and was teaching. The Iudaeans there were shocked saying, “How does this person know letters not having had learned?” Yeshua then answered them and said, “The teaching which is Mine isn’t Mine but from the One having sent Me; if anyone would wish to do His will recognize about the teaching whether is it born of God or I am talking from Myself. The person talking from himself seeks his own reputation; yet the person seeking the reputation of the one having sent him, this person is genuine and wrong isn’t within him. Hadn’t Moses given you the Torah? And no one of you people does the Torah. What are you looking to kill Me for?” The crowd answered, “You possess a demon; who is looking to kill You?” Yeshua replied and said to them, “I did one deed and everyone is shocked. Because of this, Moses had given to you the circumcision—not that is is from Moses but from the fathers—and you circumcise a human being on Shabbat. If a human being gets the circumcision on Shabbat so that the Torah of Moses wouldn’t be undone, are you full of black bile at Me because I made a whole human being healthy on Shabbat? Don’t make your decisions down the line of what can be seen, but make your decisions with the right decision.”

     Some of the Hierosolumites then were saying, “Isn’t this person the One whom they’re looking to kill? And look, He’s talking openly and they say nothing to Him. Did the chiefs genuinely on no account know that this person is the Christ? But we know from where this person is; yet when the Christ should come no one recognizes from where He is.” Yeshua then shouted within the temple teaching and saying, “You people both know Me and know from where I am; and I hadn’t come from Myself, but the One having sent Me is real, whom you people don’t know; I know Him, because I am from the side of Him and that One sent Me out.” They were looking then to arrest Him, and no one threw hands upon Him, because His hour hadn’t come yet. Yet many from the crowd put their trust into Him and were saying, “When the Christ should come, He won’t do more omens than those which this person did, will He?”

     The Pharisees heard the crowd complaining these things about Him, and the high priests and the Pharisees sent out officers so that they would arrest Him. Yeshua then said, “I am still with you a small amount of time, and I am going to the One having sent Me. You will look for Me and you won’t find Me, and where I myself am you people can’t come.” The Iudaeans then said to themselves, “Where does this person intend to go that we won’t find Him? He doesn’t intend to go as far as the diaspora of the Greeks and teach the Greeks, does He? What is this message which He said, “You will seek Me and will not find Me, and where I Myself am you people can’t come”?

     Yet on the huge last day of the holy day Yeshua stood and shouted saying, “If anyone is thirsty let him come to Me and drink. The person putting his trust into Me, just like the Scripture said, rivers of living water will flow out of his belly.” Yet He said this about the Spirit which those having put their trust into Him were about to receive; because the Spirit wasn’t yet given, because Yeshua wasn’t yet esteemed.

     From the crowd then having heard these meesages they were saying, “This person is genuinely the Prophet;” others were saying, “This is the Christ,” yet these over here were saying, “because the Christ doesn’t come out of Galilee, does He? Didn’t the Scripture say that the Christ comes from the sperm of David and from Bethlehem the village where where David was?” A schism then happened within the crowd because of Him; yet some of them were wishing to arrest Him, but no one threw hands upon Him.

     The officers then came to the high priests and Pharisees, , and those said to them, “Because of what didn’t you lead Him here?”The officers answered, “A human being didn’t talk this way ever before.” The Pharisees responded to them, “You haven’t also been led astray have you? Not anyone of the chiefs or of the Pharisees put their trust into Him, did they? But this crowd which isn’t familiar with the Torah are damned.” Nikodemos says to them, who came to Him earlier, being one of them, “Our Torah doesn’t judge the human being if it shouldn’t first hear from Him and be familiar with what He’s doing, does it?” They answered and said to him, “You aren’t from Galilee too, are you? Scrutinize and look that the Prophet doesn’t rise out of Galilee.”

     And each person went into His house...

A Fresh Translation of 1 John 5

     Every single person believing that Yeshua is the Christ had been born of God, and ever single person loving the One having birthed also loves the one having been born from Him. With this we recognize that we should love the children of God, when we love God and do His commands. Because this is the love of God, so that we should keep His commands, and His commands aren’t heavy. Because every single thing which had been born of God is victorious over the order of this world; and this is the victory which has been victorious over the order of this world, our trust. Yet who is the person being victorious over the order of this world if not the person believing that Yeshua is the Son of God?

     This One is the One having come through water and blood, Yeshua the Christ, not with just water, but with the water and with the blood; and the Spirit is the One testifying, because the Spirit is the Reality. Because three are they who testify in the heavenly realm, the Father, the Message, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are One thing. And three there are who testify on the ground, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these three are resting in the One thing. If we take the testimony of human beings, the testimony of God is better; because this is the testimony of God that He had testified about His Son. The person putting his trust into the Son of God possesses the testimony within himself, the person not trusting God had made Him a liar. And this is the testimony, that 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 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 God. And this is the freedom of speech which we possess 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 erring a malfunctioning behavior not in the direction of death, ask for it and He will give him life, to those erring not facing death. There is a malfunctioning behavior facing death; I’m not speaking about that so that you should question it. Every wrong is a malfunction, and there is a malfunction not facing death.

     We know that every single person having been born from God doesn’t malfunction, but the One being born of God keeps him and the deranged one doesn’t touch him. We know that we are born of God and the whole universe lays within the deranged one. Yet we know that the Son of God came here and had given to us the mental capacity so that we would recognize the Truth, and we are by means of the Truth, by means of His Son Yeshua the Christ. This One is the genuine God and Life of the Eternal One. Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

"What Does It Mean to be Saved?"

 "What does it mean to be saved?" I've been thinking about writing on this topic for the last several days, but was prevented for various reasons. It just didn't seem to be the right time yet.

     I think, in many respects, that this is a better question than "How do you know you're saved?" Or "Are you saved?" Rarely is it ever explained exactly what it is one needs to be saved from. And there is always the past tense involved, as though the action is completed and yet this isn't considered true across the spectrum of Christian theological belief, but only with one set of Biblical interpretation. I tend to like Eastern Orthodox Bishop Kallistos Ware's response to this question when it is asked of him. I encourage everyone to look into it.

     Assuming I am saved, what was I saved from? The word usually translated as "to save" in Greek can also be rendered "to deliver" and "to rescue," and it is this last word that I believe to be the better translation for our purposes. Have I been rescued? And if so, what was I rescued from?

     My own true conversion experience had nothing to do with theology or accepting a point of theological doctrine. From the time I was a small child, my mother had taken me to whichever church she was attending at the time. I was always stuck in some Sunday School class, much to the chagrin of the SS teachers who didn't want me there. 

     My parents were divorced when I was 6, and after the age of 8 I didn't see my dad again until my mid thirties or so. I had some kind of a behavioral disorder when I was a kid, so I was labeled as hyperactive at the age of five and put on Ritalin, and then Cylert (the actual diagnosis of Asperger's didn't come until I was in my early thirties because it wasn't recognized by the American Psychiatric Association until after I had left High School). I developed an attachment disorder from an emotionally and verbally abusive sister as well. As a child I would become violent when frustrated to the point of attempting to choke peers and even a teacher once (and I was easily frustrated), unable to process my own emotions in real time, had few friends and none that could get close even if they tried, and was trapped at the emotional age of about five or so up until my later teenage years. I would also have severe emotional breakdowns starting from the age of twelve or so which didn't really let up until my early twenties. On top of all of this, I also had a photographic memory, and had a genius level I.Q., but that wasn't a blessing. I was the bad kid. The kid no one wanted to be around. The kid who was always getting paddled, suspended, beat up, made fun of, and laughed at. The kid only his mother would want or defend. And at the time, I had no idea why I was different, why I couldn't make friends, why nothing I did right seemed to help, and why it would always go wrong.

     I had read large portions of the Bible, and would occasionally go through religious phases trying to do the right thing, but it somehow always went wrong. I was baptized in a Bible Fellowship when I was ten, but didn't really understand it. I just wanted to be baptized because I thought that's what I was supposed to do. I had attended a private Christian academy in their Special Education class from fifth to eighth grades, but by the time I left eighth grade, I had no friends, and in spite of my intelligence, the only reason why I graduated from Junior High was because of a principal who didn't want me to return the next year. By the time I was fourteen, I had stopped going to church on Sundays altogether. I was emotionally about five or six years old. I had no friends at all. I was at home alone most of the time, and so heavily invested in the fantasy worlds I either made up, read about, or watched that my greatest aspiration in life was to go running in a forest with a pack of wolves.  I stayed home "sick" from school frequently so that I wouldn't have to deal with the people there that didn't want me there anyway, and I didn't want to be around them either.

     I don't remember what started it, but I began to go through another "religious phase" in the second semester of my sophomore year of High School. I started reading a bunch of my mom's religious books again, many of them by Hal Lindsey (don't judge me), and I absconded with my mom's copy of the Living Bible called "The Book," and started reading it again. My mind and heart were so twisted, buried, broken, and shielded that I didn't know which way was up at this time. But I had read the part in Galatians (or was it Romans?) where it talks about God sending the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying out "Abba, Father." I remember it distinctly, because I was sitting up against a chain link fence next to the Horticulture Classroom during a lunch period like I always did. At that moment, I'm not sure how else to explain it except that God and I came to an understanding. He would be my Father, and I would be His son, and that was the end of it. And He was. He took that role in my life from then on. I didn't really know anything about theology, about soteriology, about any of it, and understood less. But God took over that role in my life and everything started to change from that point onwards. Did I still have those disorders? Yep. Was I still emotionally about five or so? Yep. Could I still be violent when frustrated? Yep. But He pushed me, and drove me to start taking steps towards Him, and as I took steps towards Him, I started taking steps away from where and what I had been. I wanted to do what He wanted me to do, no matter what it was, no matter my own limitations.

     What was I rescued from? My own malfunctioning, disordered neurology which continued to make itself known even as I continued to try to do the right thing. But it wasn't all at once, but through a continuous cooperation with God through Jesus Christ. People noticed the difference between when it was me and when it was the Spirit of Christ speaking and acting through me early on, because the difference was night and day. It was obvious that it couldn't have been coming from me. This continued on after I was ordained, and I came to understand what would happen if "I" tried to pastor anyone, or preach any sermon. If it came from my own natural responses and behaviors, it would fail and possibly cause harm. But if I asked Him and surrendered to Him, it was as if my disorders didn't exist at all, because He took control and spoke and acted through me.

     I was rescued from myself, my own malfunctioning psychology, my own malfunctions being more visible and apparent than most, and continued to be in the process of being rescued for the rest of my life as I came to recognize when it was Him and when it was me, and learned to ask Him more and more that it be Him and not me so that "I" wouldn't cause any more harm, but that Jesus Christ would be alive within and through me, and that impossibly for anyone else but God, they might experience Jesus Christ through me.

     Don't cheapen the rescue which God offers to everyone freely by saying that it's just about being forgiven once and done. You have no idea what the power of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ can do.

A Short Rant About Legalism

      It's amazing to me how those who go on about following the law, those who are legalistic, totally ignore the chief and primary commandments in which all other commandments are fulfilled: "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength," and "Love your neighbor as yourself." Likewise, Jesus Christ's other, explicit commands are also ignored, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who persecute you, and pray for those who abuse you," and "Love one another like I loved you." If one were to do these, all other commands would be fulfilled in the process. You literally do not need to know any other commands or moral codes other than these things. As Rabbi Gamaliel once said, "the rest is commentary." If someone is going to be a legalist, then why wouldn't they harp on keeping these actual commands which Jesus taught which themselves fulfill all the Torah and the Prophets? It's clear that Jesus Himself called the first two the Greatest of all the commandments in the Torah, and it's equally clear that He directly commanded the latter two from His own lips.

     But no, let's focus on which day should be the Sabbath. Let's focus on which ritual needs to be done when. Let's focus on how long a man's hair is, or whether or not women should teach or lead. Because it's far more important to God what men or women do in the privacy of their own bedrooms and with whom than to actually obey the commands God Incarnate Himself said were the most important ones.

     "Dear ones, we should love one another because every single person who loves is born of God and knows God. The person not loving hasn't known God, because God is love." And, "Dear ones, if God loved us in this way, we also are obligated to love one another. No one had gazed on God at any time. If we should love one another, God makes His home within us and His love is having been brought to completion within us. With this we know that we are making our home within Him and He within us, because He gave to us out of His Spirit."  And also "God is love, and the person making his home within love makes his home within God and God makes his home within him."

     If you're going to be legalistic about something, be legalistic about what actually matters to God. Not how much you tithe or when, not how often you go to church, not whether you're wearing the right clothes or using the right Christianese, but be legalistic about mercy, charity, kindness, and most importantly loving one another. How can you say you love God whom you can see yet hate your brother whom you can't? I guarantee you God is not going to care which Bible translation you use, what particular view you hold on the end times, or any other ridiculous thing such as these. If you're going to demand folks follow God's law, then actually follow the law God said was important, Love the Lord your God, love one another as Jesus Christ loved you, love your neighbor, and love your enemies. And while you're at it, throw in "Forgive and you will be forgiven," and "Don't judge so that you won't be judged." Or did you think these were more like "guidelines" than actual teachings or rules? Or how about, "If anyone doesn't deny himself, pick up his cross and follow Me, he cannot be My disciple."

     If you're going to harp on the rules, or "God's Law," understand what that Law actually is, and what those rules actually are. Otherwise, you don't actually know Him, and are lying to yourself, to others, and to Him.

A Fresh Translation of 1 John 4

     Dear ones, don’t trust in every spirit but examine the spirits by testing if they are born of God or not, because many false prophets had come out into the universe. With this you recognize the Spirit of God; every single spirit which agrees Yeshua the Christ had come with flesh and blood is born of God, and every single spirit which doesn’t agree with Yeshua isn’t born of God; and this thing is the one of the antichrist, which you had heard that he is coming, and now is already within the universe. You are born of God, little children, and had been victorious over them, because the One within you is bigger than the one within the universe. They are of the order of this world, because of this they talk out of the order of this world and the order of this world listens to them. We are born of God, the person being familiar with God listens to us, the person who isn’t born of God doesn’t listen to us. From this we recognize the spirit of the Truth and the spirit of going astray.

     Dear ones, we should love one another, because love is born of God, and every single person loving had been born of God and recognizes God. The person not loving didn’t know God, because God = love. With this the love of God was made visible within us, because 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 God but that He Himself loved us and sent out His Son a mercy-seat about our malfunctioning behaviors. Dear ones, if God loved us in this way, we also are obligated to love one another. No one had gazed on God at any time. If we should love one another, God makes His home within us and His love is having been brought to completion within us.

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

     God = love, and the person making his home within love makes his home within God and 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 of speech on the day of the decision, because just like that One is, we also are within this universe. Fear isn’t by means of love but the completed love throws fear outside, because fear possesses a correction, yet the person fearing hadn’t been brought to completion with love. We should love, because He Himself first loved us. If someone should say that, “I love 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 this command we possess from Him, so that the person loving God also loves his brother.

Thoughts on God's Holiness

 What does the word "holy" mean? Someone recently made the comment on a post of mine that I was redefining God's holiness. "Holiness" means, in English, "a state of being holy." But what does that word, "holy," actually mean? It's an English translation of both a Hebrew word, "qadosh," and a Greek one, "hagios," where the former is used in the Old Testament, and the latter is used in the New.

     So, let's look at what these words actually mean. "qadosh," strictly speaking means "separated," and is a cognate of the Hebrew "qadash," meaning "to set apart, to separate." It's useful here to know that this word should not be translated as "holy" in every context, because it only takes on the implications of the English word within religious contexts. A thing could be "qadosh" for ceremonial use, and a thing could be "qadosh" to be destroyed. The chief meaning of the word is that this thing is separated out apart from everything else for a particular purpose.

     "hagios," is a little more specific, and refers to something "devoted to the gods" in its original Greek language context. That is, again, something has been set apart or reserved for the divine use.

     So, when the term "qadosh" is used of Yahweh in the Old Testament, what is being said is that Yahweh is set apart, separated out, and everything pertaining to Yahweh is to be set apart, and held apart from what isn't. The same came be said of "hagios" and it's cognates in the New. Notice that this is really the only thing this means. God and His things were to be treated with absolute care and respect, and not even touched or mixed with things meant for common use. Thus you have the "Holy of Holies" chamber in the tabernacle and temple which was so set apart, so separated, that no one was permitted to enter except the High Priest one day a year, and not without an offering. You didn't just go hang out with Yahweh in His personal chamber.

     What sets God apart from us? What makes Him "qadosh, qadosh, qadosh?" God is, in fact, completely "other" than us. He is completely "other" than His creation, even as He is imminent to us, "in Him we live and move and have our being," surrounding us, omnipresent in every conceivable way, He is "other" from us. Our existence relies on His for its foundation, but His existence relies on Himself alone. We cannot exist without Him, but He can and has existed without us prior to the creation event. He is, in fact, completely separate from us even as He is so very intimate with us. This is one way He is "qadosh."

     Another way He is "qadosh" is that, unlike us, He is not malfunctioning. He cannot malfunction like we can and have. That is a strange thing to say of a God who is omnipotent, but this involves what He is as much as who He is. God the Father is static and does not change, as change requires motion and all motion of time and space occurs through and within Him. To malfunction would require that He change, and that does not happen ("I am YHWH, I do not change, therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob"). He has not changed from who He was at the beginning of creation, and He is no different now than He will be at the end of creation.

      Another way He is "qadosh," is that, unlike us, He is love, and the depth of His love is without measure. His love drives Him to take every measure possible to heal us and cure us of our malfunction without destroying our free choice and who we are as unique persons. His love, the very foundation of His personality, drives His justice, in that He knows the harm each one of us causes one another due to the malfunctioning behaviors produced by our malfunctioning brains. His love drives Him to correct and discipline us to change our behavior, and change our hearts and minds, with an eye to making us feel and recognize the pain we cause others in a similar way to how He feels the pain we cause to others. Thus you had in the Torah the "eye for an eye" principle of justice. His goal in this is always that the offender come to their senses, turn it around, and try to repair what they've damaged. But His goal is never to destroy the offender, but to redeem them. It's their choice to willfully continue in the harm they cause and to reap the consequences of it up to and including damning themselves to torment for eternity. He doesn't want that, but He won't stop it either if that's what they choose.

     Still another way He is "qadosh" from us is that holding onto wrongs committed is alien to Him. For malfunctioning human beings, we hold onto and are tormented by the wrongs others commit against us, and the wrongs we do to others. It can create mental illness within us. We have a need to forgive and be forgiven. But because of who and what He is, even letting those wrongs go isn't quite the right term, because He never held onto them to begin with. He recognizes when we're causing harm, and the effect it's having on us, and pushes us to recognize what we're doing and how we're hurting others as well as ourselves. But He Himself is not holding onto those hurts and wrongs and never has. He just doesn't want us to keep doing them. Forgiveness comes more naturally to Him than breathing does to us.

     Jesus Christ was and remains the living incarnation of God's "qadoshness." As he said, those who saw and experienced Him, saw and experienced the Father's own personality. And yet this Person who did not act or speak unless the Father acted and spoke through Him forgave as easily as saying the words, ate with sinners, went homeless and kept company with the poor, and yet had extremely harsh words for the religious who believed themselves holy and condemned all of the above believing that God was just like themselves. And yet His harsh words were also meant to snap them to their senses and bring them to a change of heart and mind if at all possible. "If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father."

     Jesus Christ demonstrated that God's main purpose was never to punish our malfunction, but to provide a cure for it. Not to destroy us for our malfunctioning behaviors, but to rescue us from them through inclusion into His death, burial, and resurrection. Those who don't understand that, don't understand God at all.

A Fresh Translation of 1 John 3

Do you see of what kind of love the Father had given to us, so that we should be summoned and are children of God? Because of this the order of this world doesn’t recognize us, because it didn’t know Him. Dear ones, We are children of God 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 ritually makes himself sacred, just like that One is sacred.

     Every single person engaging in the malfunction also engages in lawless conduct, and the malfunction is lawless conduct. And you know that that One was made visible, so that He would remove the malfunctioning behaviors, and the malfunction isn’t within Him. Every single person making his home within Him doesn’t malfunction; every single person malfunctioning hasn’t seen Him nor recognized Him. Little children, don’t let anyone lead you astray; the person engaging in the right state of being is right, just like that One is right; the person engaging in the malfunction is born of the inner slanderer, because the inner slanderer malfunctions from the start. For this reason the Son of God was made visible, so that He would undo the works of the inner slanderer. Every single person having been birthed from God doesn’t engage in the malfunction, because His sperm makes its home within him, and he can’t malfunction, because he had been birthed from God. With this the children of God and the children of the inner slanderer are visible; every single person not engaging in a right state of being is not born of God, as well as the person not loving his brother.

     Because this is the report which you heard from the start, so that we would love one another, not just like Kayin was of the deranged one and cut the throat of his brother; and for the sake of what did he cut his throat? Because his works were deranged yet his brother’s right. And don’t be shocked, brothers, if the order of this world hates you. We know that we had been transferred from Death into Life because we would love the brothers; the person not loving makes his home within Death. Every single person hating his brother is homicidal, and you know that every single homicidal person doesn’t possess the life of the Eternal One making its home within him. With this we we became familiar with love, because that One  laid down His soul on our behalf; and we are obligated to lay down our souls on behalf of the brothers. Yet whoever would have the means of living of the order of this world and should stare at his brother having a need and should close his deepest feelings from him, how does the love of 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 the Truth, and in front of Him we will convince our heart, because if our heart should know something against us, that God is bigger that our heart and is familiar with everything. Dear ones, if our heart shouldn’t know anything against us, we have an outspokenness facing God and what thing if we ask we receive from Him, because we keep his commands and do the things pleasing in front of Him. And this is His command, so that we will put our trust in the name of His son Yeshua the Christ 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 recognize that He is making his home within us, from the Spirit of Christ which He gave to us.

Thoughts on God's Justice

 In my last post, I brought up the idea that holding onto an offense or wrong was an alien concept to God, and that this is something which we project onto Him. Someone brought up to me the idea that God must punish "evil" in order to be "just." But how do we define "evil?" Here, as an answer to this question, I would say, rather than needing to punish evil, God redresses or answers harm caused to another.

     Being who He is and what He is, He is fully aware of how each and every one of us feels. He can literally see things through our eyes, hear them through our ears, tracks every electro-chemical impulse through each of our neurons able to feel what we feel, and knows instantly how we take things and whether or not we've been hurt or harmed by another whether that other is aware of it or not; something which He also knows. He knows the harm we cause to one another intimately, and when we don't take steps to repair that harm, He wants to ensure that the person causing that harm knows exactly what they've done, and how that other person felt because of their (usually selfish) actions. This is the reason for the sections in the Torah that require repayment, and the "eye for an eye, hand for a hand, foot for a foot, wound for a wound, tooth for a tooth, burn for a burn, life for a life." He sees all the pain we cause each other, and when there is no feeling what the other person felt, no empathy for the harm which is caused, He takes appropriate measures to bring this about one way or the other either in this life, or after it, either through natural consequences of the actions which were taken (usually), or through more extraordinary means. He wants us to make it right if at all possible, and repair the harm which we've caused. He wants us to change our hearts and minds about what we've done. His judgment is about turning us around and getting us back on track, not about destroying us. It isn't His will that any of us should be destroyed, but that every single one of us should change our hearts and minds.

     So, on the one hand God doesn't hold onto wrongs or offenses. Such a thing is alien to Him. But on the other, He does want each and every one of us to understand the harm which we do, what it felt like for the other person, and to make it right. It is to this end that He will take appropriate measures to ensure this if at all possible without violating our free choice. And if it isn't possible within that boundary, then yes, He will let our malfunction play out to its logical conclusion of madness, destruction, and death.

More Thought's on God's Forgiveness

 God the Father is not a human being. This should be obvious, but we as human beings tend to project our own ways of thinking onto Him, ways of thinking which are just alien to who and what He is. 

     Human beings hold onto offenses against them. Human beings keep count of wrongs real or imagined. God does not. Human beings have a need to forgive and be forgiven because we hold onto wrongs which are either done to us, or which we have done. Yet both the holding on to a wrong and the letting go of one is alien to Him, because He would not hold onto it to begin with. He would correct, He would discipline us with the goal of turning us around from the wrong, but holding onto that wrong because He felt it a threat or offense to Him? Why? 

     He is completely omnipresent throughout all of space and time, every dimension, and every universe within the multiverse. He is completely omniscient, being in full and intimate contact with every particle, wave, and motion which exists. Not one sub-atomic particle changes location and He doesn't know not only where it came from, but where it's going throughout all dimensions of space and time in every conceivable universe. He is also completely omnipotent. He need only "speak" and whole worlds are either formed or dissolved. What could possibly threaten Him? Or what would He take as such an offense that He could not let it go were the person to turn around and start heading in the way He would want him to go?

     Human beings get hung up on wrongs. We do this because our brains are malfunctioning, and have been since a certain fruit was consumed by our ancestors. We get hung up on perceived wrongs against us, and we get hung up on the wrongs which we do that we just cannot let go. And because we can't let go of them, we make the gross assumption that He can't either. In Scripture, the only real condition God places on His letting go wrongs and offenses is changing our minds and hearts about our behavior and turning it around to do what He wants us and has asked us to do. After that, He always forgives freely. There are always natural consequences to actions, and those He lets us live with as a lesson learned, sometimes a hard lesson learned, but as far as the wrong committed, that is let go and done with because, in truth, He was never holding onto it to begin with. He just wanted us to change our behavior.

     We torment ourselves with this. If we don't turn our behaviors around, He will allow those natural consequences to continue, as well as discipline us to push us into a change of heart and mind. Those natural consequences include a descent into a torment of madness which ultimately results from selfish action conflicting with our inability to let go of the wrongs which we commit. He would call us out of it and have us restored to sanity if we would agree to it. But we have to agree to it.

     God loves. God doesn't hold onto wrongs. God wants what is best for each one of us, and what is best is to draw closer to Him through Jesus Christ and His death, burial, and resurrection, letting go of everything which impedes us from that goal.

A Fresh Translation of 1 John 2

     My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you wouldn’t malfunction. And if anyone should malfunction, we have an advocate facing the Father, the right Yeshua the Christ; and He is a mercy-seat about our malfunctions, yet not about just ours but also about the whole universe’s. And with this we recognize that we had known Him, if we should keep His commands. The one saying that, “I had known Him” and not keeping His commands is a liar and the Truth isn’t within this person; yet whoever would keep His message, the love of God is genuinely finished within this person, with this we recognize that we are within Him. The person saying to make his home with Him is obligated, just like that One walked, so also for himself to walk.

     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 message which you heard. I am again writing the fresh command to you, which is genuine within Him and within you, because the darkness is passing to the side and the genuine Light is already shining. The person saying 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 malfunctions are let go 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 deranged 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 Message of God makes His home within you and you had been victorious over the deranged one.

     Don’t love the order of the world neither the things within the order of the world. If anyone loves the order of the world, the love of the Father isn’t within him; because every single thing which is within the order of the world, the desire of the meat and bones and the desire of the eyes and the false pretension of the means of living, isn’t from the Father but is from the order of the world. And the order of the world is passing to the side and its desire, yet 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 an antichrist is coming, now also many antichrists had happened, from which we recognize 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 chrism with the Spirit of the Christ from the Holy One and know all things. I didn’t write to you because you don’t know the Truth, but because you know it and because every single lie is not from the Truth. Who is the liar if not the person disowning that Yeshua is the Christ at all? This person is Antichrist who disowns the Father and the Son. Every single person who disowns the Son hold neither the Father, the person agreeing with the Son holds also 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 with the Spirit of the Christ 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 have an outspokenness and we would not be ashamed away from Him at His arrival. If you know that He is right, you recognize that also every single person engaged in the state of being right has been birthed from Him.

A Fresh Translation of 1 John 1

     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 about the Message of the Life—and the 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, 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 Christ. And we are writing these things, so that our joy might be having been filled to the brim.

     And this is the report which we had heard from Him and re-tell to you, that 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 practicing the Truth; 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 malfunction. If we should say the we don’t possess a malfunction, we are leading ourselves astray and the Truth is not within us. If we should agree about our malfunctioning behaviors, He is trusted and right, so that He would let those malfunctioning behaviors go for us and make us clean from every wrong. If we should say that we hadn’t malfunctioned, we make Him a liar and His Message isn’t within us.

Some Thoughts on the Deutero-Canonical/Apocryphal Books

 Jumping off of a recent conversation I had about the Deutero-Canonical Books/Apocrypha, one of the things I've noticed when reading and studying them is how much they form New Testament thought and are referenced or paraphrased from. Two books in particular stand out in this regard, "The Wisdom of Solomon" and "Ecclesiasticus" also called "The Wisdom of Ben Sira" or "Sirach." I offer several examples of this which should be immediately recognizable to anyone with even a cursory knowledge of the New Testament. It should be noted that both books were written at least 150-200 years prior to the first century.

Sirach 28:2-5 (NABRE)

"Forgive your neighbor the wrong done to you; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven. Does anyone nourish anger against another and expect healing from the Lord? Can one refuse mercy to a sinner like oneself, yet seek pardon for one's own sins? If a mere mortal cherishes wrath, who will forgive his sins?"

Here it truly appears like Christ Himself was quoting or at least referring to the Wisdom of Ben Sira as He Himself cites these very words and sentiments several times in the Gospels.

Wisdom 5:16b-20a (NABRE)

"For he will shelter them with his right hand, and protect them with his arm. He shall take his zeal for armor and arm creation to requite the enemy, shall put on righteousness as a breastplate, wear sure judgment for a helmet, shall take invincible holiness for a shield, and sharpen his sudden anger for a sword."

     To me at least, it's clear that Paul drew upon this imagery in his description of the "full armor of God" in Ephesians 6. With the understanding of this passage from the Wisdom of Solomon predating Paul's, Paul isn't just describing "armor" given to the Christian, but describing God's own armor being placed on the Christian. There are some differences in what each piece of armor represents, but the similarities in description are too great to be a coincidence.

Ben Sira 15:11-17 (NABRE)

"Do not say; "It was God's doing that I fell away," for what he hates he does not do. Do not say: "He Himself has led me astray," for he has no need of the wicked. Abominable wickedness the Lord hates and he does not let it happen to those who fear him. God in the beginning created human beings and made them subject to their own free choice. If you choose, you can keep the commandments; loyalty is doing the will of God. Set before you are fire and water; to whatever you choose, stretch out your hand. Before everyone are life and death, whichever they choose will be given them."

     Anyone who has read through James' epistle should recognize this sentiment in 1:13.

     The passage is too long to type out here, but I would also draw your attention to Wisdom 12:23-14:31 as paralleling Paul's train of thought from Romans 1:18 on to the end of the chapter. Ben Sira's thoughts on the wealthy and their treatment of the poor can be found all throughout the New Testament in particular as well. Ben Sira 13 in particular lays this out.

     I bring these things up because it is a frequent argument by those not familiar with these books against them that the New Testament never quotes or references them. Clearly this isn't the case as even Jesus Christ Himself cited Ecclesiasticus and His brother was clearly familiar with it as well, and the influence of The Wisdom of Solomon is readily seen on Paul's writings by anyone who's read that Deutero-Canonical book. But one wouldn't know that if they didn't have access to them, would they? By removing these books from the commonly available editions of the Scriptures, our understanding of the development and origins of New Testament thought and society within Judea are completely crippled.

A Fresh Translation of John 5

With these things was the holy day of the Iudaeans and Yeshua ascended into Hierosoluma. Yet there is within Hierosoluma upon the sheep gate a columned bath which is called in Hebrew, “Beit-Zata,” having five columns. A multitude of the sick, blind, crippled, and withered reclined against these eagerly waiting for the movement of the water. Because an angel of the Lord from time to time used to bath in the columned bath and stirred up the water; the first then going into the water with the stirring up of the water became healthy by as much of the disease as once upon a time he was afflicted. And there was some human being having thirty eight years with his illness; Yeshua, having seen this person reclining against the column and knowing that he already has a lot of time there, says to him, “Do you wish to become healthy?” The person being ill answers him, “Lord, I don’t have a person so that he would throw me into the columned bath when the water is stirred up; and during which I am coming, another descends before me.” Yeshua says to him, “Get up, pick up your sleeping mat and walk.” And the human being immediately became healthy and picked up his sleeping mat and was walking.

     Yet it was Shabbat on that day. The Iudaeans then were saying to the person having been cured, “It is Shabbat, and it isn’t allowed for you to pick up your sleeping mat.” Yet the person responded to them, “The guy having made me healthy, that One said to me, ‘Pick up your sleeping mat and walk.’ They questioned him, “Who is the human being who said to you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?” Yet the one having been healed didn’t know who it is, because Yeshua turned aside with a crowd being in the place. With these things Yeshua finds him in the temple and said to him, “Look, you became healthy, error no longer, so that nothing more severe would happen to you. The human being went and reported to the Iudaeans the Yeshua is the one having made him healthy. And because of this the Iudaeans chased Yeshua down, because he was doing these things on Shabbat. Yet the One responded to them, “My Father is working up to this point in time and I am working;” because of this then Iudaeans were seeking all the more to kill Him, because not only was He undoing Shabbat, but He was saying God was His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

     Yeshua then responded and was saying to them, “Amen amen I say to you, the Son absolutely can’t do from Himself anything at all if He shouldn’t see the Father doing something; because what things that One would do, these things also the Son does in the same way. Because the Father has affection for the Son and shows Him all the things which He Himself does, and will show Him better works than these, so that you folks would be shocked. Because just like the Father raises the dead and makes them alive, so also the Son makes those alive whom He wishes. Because neither does the Father judge anyone at all, but had given all judgment to the Son, so that all people would value the Son just like they would value the Father. The person not valuing the Son doesn’t value the Father who sent Him. Amen amen I say to you that the person hearing My message and putting his trust in the One who sent Me holds the life of the Eternal One and isn’t coming into judgment, but had exchanged his position from Death into Life. Amen amen I say to you that an hour is coming and is at present when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those hearing will live. Because just like the Father possesses life by means of Himself, so also He gave to the Son to possess life by means of Himself. And He gave authority to Him to make a decision, because He is the Son of Adam. Don’t be shocked at this thing, because an hour is coming in which all those within the tombs will hear His voice and these having done good will be driven out into the resurrection of life, yet these practicing foul things into a resurrection of judgment.

     “I absolutely can’t do anything at all from Myself; just like I hear I judge, and the decision which is Mine is right, because I’m not looking for the will which is Mine but the will of the One who sent Me.

     “If I testify about Myself, My testimony isn’t true; but there is the One testifying about Me, and I know that the testimony which He testifies about Me is true. You people sent out to Yohanan, and he had testified the truth; yet I’m not taking the testimony from alongside human beings, but I am saying these things so that you would be rescued. That One was the lamp which burned  and shone, yet you wished  to exult for an hour with his light. Yet I hold testimony better than Yohanan’s; because the works which the Father gave Me so that I would finish them, these works themselves which I am doing testify about Me that the Father sent Me out. And that Father who sent Me had testified about Me. Neither had you heard His voice at any time nor had you people seen His form. In this One you don’t trust. Examine the Scriptures, because you people think to possess the life of the Eternal One with them; and those are what testify about Me; and you don’t wish to come to Me so that you would posses Life.

     “I’m not accepting reputation from human beings, but I knew you that you don’t possess the love of God by means of yourselves. I had come with the Name of my Father, and you don’t accept Me; if another should come with his own name, you would accept that person. How can you people trust, accepting opinion from one another, and don’t look for the reputation which is from the only God? Don’t assume that I will bring charges against you people to the Father; the person bringing charges against you is Moses, into whom you people hoped. Because if you were believing Moses, you would have believed Me; because the one wrote about Me. Yet if you don’t trust in the written words of that one, how will you people trust in the spoken words which are Mine?”

What is easier? Forgiving sins, or curing a paralysis?

 "Because what is easier, to have said, 'your sins are forgiven,' or to have said, 'Rise and walk'?" Matthew 9:5

This verse has been stuck in my mind for a couple of days now. Jesus calls forgiving sins easy. As I read back through some Old Testament passages recently, it seems like for God, it is ridiculously easy for Him to forgive sins, and He wants to. He's just waiting for people to admit they've screwed up and turn around from it. Like, on the edge of His seat waiting. He doesn't want to bring destruction, or ruin, or any of those things which He said He would in the Torah if the people didn't follow the covenant. He's actually very specific about what would happen if they didn't keep up their end of the contract. Notice also how long it takes Him to bring about all the destruction, and how many generations it takes before the people are suffering through severe famines, seiges, and invasions. Many. This is God wanting to forgive and the people leaving Him no choice but to carry through with what He said with a heavy heart.

     We tend to make God out as a Being who struggles to forgive, and because of certain theologies, requires blood in order to do it. In reality, we project our own difficulty in forgiving others and ourselves onto Him. If we hold grudges and want vengeance, we assume God does too. And in this way we make Him into our image instead of remaking ourselves into His. God says in the Scriptures that He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, He wants them to turn around not be destroyed.

     In the passage where this verse is found, Jesus had told a paralytic that his sins were forgiven. He hadn't healed him yet, He had just absolved him without sacrifices in the temple, and the scribes who were there threw a fit accusing Him of blasphemy, because only God could forgive sins. And Jesus responds, "What's easier? To have said your sins are forgiven, or to have said, rise and walk?" And then tells the man to rise and walk, and he does.

     Forgiveness is the easiest thing in comparison with healing a man with paralysis. As a Priest, it was one of my joys, when a man came to me with a heavy heart and a history of drugs and serious trouble, to declare to him as he recounted everything he had done and wanted to turn everything around, "By the authority of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven and absolved of all of your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." It was the easiest thing in the world to do, and yet the impact on this young man was profound and devastatingly beautiful as he sobbed. It was the easiest thing in the world for God to forgive him through me, and yet afterwards was when the miraculous, "Rise and walk," was given to him, as I met with him twice to disciple him and then I didn't see him again. I later heard that he had passed away in a motorcycle accident from his mother. But before he died, he had brought all of his former drug addict and dealing friends to Christ, sharing with them what I had taught him in those two sessions. Forgiving him was as easy as breathing, but God making him rise and walk was truly a miracle.

     God is the Father in the story of the prodigal son who forgives without recrimination or retribution; He just wanted His son to come to his senses and come home. But then there is the matter of making those paralyzed with hamartia to rise and walk. This is more difficult, and requires extreme measures, miraculous intervention through inclusion of us into the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. His life flowing through us is the only way we cease to be paralyzed from our own malfunctioning flesh. And the only way this comes to be is through being baptized into His death, burial, and resurrection and offering our body parts to the Spirit of Christ voluntarily to live, act, and speak through us.

     This has been a hard road of understanding for me personally. It is difficult to conceive of God not needing some kind of payment in order to be forgiven, because this is how I was taught and indoctrinated. This is what I was indoctrinated as to what salvation was, the forgiveness of sins, as though this was the sum total of what needed to happen. And yet God was more concerned with the harder work of curing the problem entirely while preserving our free choices. Forgiving our behaviors was easy. That wasn't as much of a concern, and certainly didn't require extreme or heroic measures. But solving the problem of human sin, that was something else entirely. That required a new "Adam" and a death which included the entire human race without actually destroying the entire human race. That required Jesus Christ, God the Son and human flesh conjoined and grown together in Mary's womb, dying on a cross and taking the entire human race with Him, so that the entire human race might be freed from the slavery to their own sinful flesh, and conjoined to Him so that they would carry what is born of God within them, activated, watered, by baptism into His death and resurrection.

     Forgiveness is easy for God to give. Making us rise and walk, now that was miraculous.

A Fresh Translation of John 4

As then Yeshua knew that the Pharisees heard that “Yeshua makes and baptizes more disciples than Yohanan”--although Yeshua Himself wasn’t baptizing but His disciples—He had let Iudaea go and came out again into Galilee. Yet there was a need for Him to come through Samaria. He then comes into a town of Samaria called Sukhar neighboring the piece of land which Ya’akov gave to Yosef his son; and a wellspring of Ya’akov was there. Yeshua then having been worn out from the journey sat in this way upon the well; the hour was like the sixth.

     A woman from Samaria comes to draw water. Yeshua says to her, “Give Me something to drink;” because His disciples had come away into the town so that they would purchase food. The Samaritan woman then says to Him, “How do You, being a Iudaean, beg something to drink from me, being a Samaritan woman? Because Iudaeans don’t avail themselves of Samaritans.” Yeshua answered and said to her, “If you knew the free gift of God and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me something to drink,’ you would have begged Him and he would have given to you living water.” The woman says to Him, “Lord, you don’t have a well-bucket and the well shaft is deep; from where then do you hold this ‘living water?’ You aren’t better than our father Ya’akov, who gave us the well shaft and he was drinking from it and his sons and his cattle?” Yeshua responded and said to her, “Every single person drinking from this water will be thirsty again; yet whoever would drink from the water which I will give him will absolutely not thirst at all into the eon, but the water which I will give to him will become a wellspring of water leaping up into the life of the Eternal One within him.” The woman says to Him, “Lord, give me this water, so that I wouldn’t be thirst, nor come through in this place to draw it.”

     He says to her, Go call your man and come to this place.” The woman replied and said to him, “I don’t have a man.” Yeshua says to her, “You spoke beautifully that, ‘I don’t have a man;’ Because you’ve had five men and now whom you hold isn’t ‘your’ man; this you had spoken true.” The woman says to Him, “Lord, I view that You are a prophet. Our fathers prostrated themselves on this mountain; and you people say that the place where it is necessary to prostrate oneself is in Hierosoluma.” Yeshua says to her, “Trust Me, woman, that an hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Hierosoluma will you people prostrate yourselves to the Father. You people prostrate yourselves to what you don’t know; we prostrate ourselves to what we do know, because the rescue is from the Iudaeans. But an hour is coming and is now, when the genuine prostraters will prostrate themselves to the Father with the Spirit and the truth; because the Father is looking for such as these who prostrate themselves to Him. God is wind, and it is necessary for those prostrating themselves to Him to prostrate themselves with the Spirit and the truth.” The woman says to Him, “I know that Meshiakh is coming who is called ‘the Christ;’ when that One should come, He will announce everything to us.” Yeshua says to her, “I Am, who talks to you.”

     And upon this His disciples came and were shocked that he was talking with a woman; on the other hand though no one said, “What are you looking for?” or “What are you talking with her for?” The woman then let her water jar go and came into the town and says to the people, “Come here, see a human being who said to me everything as much as I did, this guy isn’t the Christ, is He?” They came out from the town and started in His direction.

     In the middle of this the disciples asked Him saying, “Rabbi, eat.” Yet he said to them, “I have food to eat which you people don’t know.” The disciples were saying to one another, “No one brought Him something to eat, did they?” Yeshua says to them, “The food which is Mine is so that I would do the will of the One having sent Me and would finish His work. Don’t you say that, It is still four months and the harvest comes? Look I tell you, lift up your eyes and view the fields that they are white for harvest. The reaper is already getting paid and gathering fruit as far as the life of the Eternal One, so that the one scattering the seed and the reaper both rejoice. Because with this the message is true that ‘another is the one who scatters the seed and another is the reaper.’ I sent you out to reap what you people hadn’t worn yourselves out for; others had worn themselves out and you had entered into their wearying work.

     Yet out of that town many of the Samaritans put their trust into Him through the message of the woman testifying that, “He said to me everything which I did.” As then the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to stay next to them; and he stayed there two days. And by much, more people put their trust into Him because of His message, to the woman too they were saying that, “We no longer trust this because of your talking, because we ourselves had head and we know that this is genuinely the rescuer of the universe.”

     Yet with the two days He came out from there into Galilee; because Yeshua Himself testified that a prophet doesn’t hold value within his own fatherland. When then He came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed Him having seen everything as much as He did within Hierosoluma at the holy day, because they also came into the holy day.

     He then came into the Kana of Galilee, where He made the water wine. And some royal was there whose son was sick in K’fer-Nahum. This person having heard that Yeshua came here from Iudaea into Galilee came out to Him and requested so that He would go down and would cure his son, because he was about to die. Yeshua said to him, “If you people don’t see omens and portents, you absolutely won’t put your trust into Me at all, will you?” The royal says to Him, “Lord, go down before my boy is to die.” Yeshua says to him, “Go, your son is alive.” The human being put his trust in the message which Yeshua said to him and went. Yet with his already going down his slaves met him saying that his boy is alive. He inquired then the hour from them in which he got better; they then said to him that, “yesterday, the seventh hour, the fever let go of him.” The father then knew that this was the hour in which Yeshua said to him, “Your son is alive,” and he put his trust into Him and his whole house. Yet this thign again was the second omen Yeshua made having come from Iudaea into Galilee.

Thoughts on Forgiveness and Repentence

 “But if the wicked turn from all his sins that he has committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of his transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him: in his righteousness that he has done he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked? says the Lord Yahweh; and not rather that he should return from his way, and live? But when the righteous turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? None of his righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered: in his trespass that he has trespassed, and in his sin that he has sinned, in them shall he die. Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, house of Israel: Is my way not equal? Aren’t your ways unequal? When the righteous man turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and dies therein; in his iniquity that he has done shall he die. Again, when the wicked man turns away from his wickedness that he has committed, and does that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Because he considers, and turns away from all his transgressions that he has committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die. Yet the house of Israel says, “The way of the Lord is not fair.” House of Israel, aren’t my ways fair? Aren’t your ways unfair?  Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, everyone according to his ways, says the Lord Yahweh. Return, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, in which you have transgressed; and make yourself a new heart and a new spirit: for why will you die, house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies, says the Lord Yahweh: therefore turn yourselves, and live.”  Ezekiel 18:21-32 (WEB)

     Biblically speaking, the requirement for unconditional forgiveness has always been a change of heart and mind about one's behavior. It has always been about turning your behavior around, stopping the harmful behaviors, and doing the merciful, loving, obedient, and helpful things towards others. This can be seen throughout the Old Testament where God clearly disdains and rejects the sacrifices and rituals offered where the person offering them is harming others, being unjust, cheating others, and so on. In Isaiah 1, in Ezekiel 18, in Psalm 51, in Hosea 6, God spells out that he wants mercy, kindness, and obedience rather than the blood of bulls and goats. Even in the New Testament, in the Gospel accounts of John the Baptist, the baptism he came offering was for a change of heart and mind for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus Himself was explicit in several places in the Gospels that those who do not forgive will themselves not be forgiven, thus you have "and forgive us our trespasses like we forgive those who trespass against us." And as Jesus responded when asked how many times we should forgive, not seven times, but seventy times seven, because God forgives every time we come to our senses, turn it around, and ask for forgiveness.

     The forgiveness of God is illustrated in Jesus' parable of the prodigal son, who goes off and squanders everything, finding himself destitute, starving, and alone in a kind of personal hell. all he had to do was come to his senses, change his heart and mind about his behavior, and come home, and his father ran to him with forgiveness and compassion.

     Confession and this change of mind and heart is about agreeing that the path you were on was the wrong one, and the things you were doing were selfish and hurting people. It's about turning away from this and doing what God asked you to do in the first place, loving Him, loving your neighbor as yourself, and loving your enemies as Christ taught, being merciful, compassionate, forgiving, and without judgment, reflecting and voluntarily channeling Jesus Christ through you. Will we struggle with our own flesh? Of course. But it's always about recognizing when we've started walking in the darkness and turning back to the light where God can be trusted to forgive us our mistakes and making us clean from all wrong.

     But when we do not turn around, when we choose to stay in the darkness, we cannot expect to be forgiven regardless of the theology we profess or hold because we have not come to our senses, and have not sought forgiveness or the right path. The longer we stay in the darkness, the darker that darkness gets. This is the prodigal son who chooses to stay wallowing with the pigs and coveting their pea pods because he prefers that to going home. That is not the Father's choice for him or for us; that would be his choice.

     The Pharisees and Judeans in the New Testament thought they got a free pass because they were descended from Abraham. Too many today believe they get a free pass because of the church they attend or the theology they hold, and thus believe they can do whatever they want and get away with it. But as Paul wrote, God is not mocked. What you sow, you harvest.

A Fresh Translation of Matthew 5

And having seen the crowds He ascended into the mountain, and with His having sat His disciples approached Him; and having opened His mouth He taught them saying,

“The destitute in spirit are happy that the kingdom of the heavenly realms is theirs.

Those bewailing and mourning are happy that they will be encouraged.

The gentle are happy that they will inherit the land.

The people hungering and thirsting for rightness are happy that they will be well fed.

The merciful are happy that they will shown mercy.

The clean in heart are happy that they will see God.

The peacemakers are happy that they will be invited sons of God.

Those having been chased down because of rightness are happy that the kingdom of the heavenly realms is theirs.

     You people are happy when they will reproach you and will chase you down and should say every single deranged thing about you because of Me. Rejoice and be overjoyed, because your pay is much in the heavenly realms; because so they chased down the prophets who were prior to you.

     You people are the salt of the land; yet if the salt becomes useless, with what will it be salted? It is still physically capable for nothing if it isn’t thrown outside to be trampled under the human beings. You are the light of the universe. A city lying atop a mountain can’t be hidden; neither do they burn a lamp and put it under the measuring basket but on the lampstand, and it gleams to all those within the house. In this way let your light gleam in front of human beings, so that they would see your beautiful works and will glorify your Father who is in the heavenly realms.

     Don’t assume that I came to tear down the Torah or the prophets completely; I didn’t come to tear it down completely but to make it full. Because amen I say to you, until the sky and the land would pass to the side, one iota or one horn would absolutely not pass to the side from the Torah at all, until everything would happen. Whoever then should untie one of the least of these commands and should teach in this way to human beings, he will be invited least in the kingdom of the heavenly realms; yet whoever would do and teach, this person will be invited big in the kingdom of the skies. Because I say to you that if your rightness doesn’t go beyond more than the rightness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will absolutely not enter into the kingdom of the heavenly realms at all.

     You heard that it had been said to the ancients, ‘You will not murder;’ and whoever murders, he will be guilty for judgment. Yet I say to you that every single person who is provoked by his brother will be guilty for judgment; and whoever should say to his brother, ‘Airhead,’ will be guilty to the Sanhedrin; yet whoever should say, ‘Moron,’ will be guilty as far as the Gey-Hinnom of fire. If then you should offer your gift upon the sacrificial altar and there you are reminded that your brother holds something against you, let your gift go there in front of the sacrificial altar and go first to be reconciled to your brother, and at that time having come offer your gift. Be making friends with your opponent fast, up to which you are on the road with him, or else the opponent will hand you over to the judge and the judge to the officer and he should throw you into the prison; amen I tell you, you won’t exit from there at all until soever you would repay the last quadrans.

     You heard that it had been said, ‘Don’t commit adultery.’ Yet I say to you that every single person who looks at a woman in the direction of desiring her already committed adultery with her with his heart. Yet if your right eye trips you up, take it out and throw it from you; because it comes together for you so that one of your body parts would be destroyed and your whole body wouldn’t be thrown into the Gey-Hinnom. And if your right hand trips you up, cut it off and throw it away from you; because it comes together for you so that one of your body parts would be destroyed and your whole body should not depart into the Gey-Hinnom.

     Yet it had been said, ‘Whoever divorces his woman, let him give her a written notice of divorce.’ Yet  I say to you that every single person who divorces his woman besides a message of whoring makes her to commit adultery, and whoever having been divorced should marry commits adultery.

     Again you heard that it had been said to the ancients, “Don’t take a false oath, and repay your oaths to the Lord.’ Yet I say to you to entirely not take an oath; neither with the sky, because it is God’s throne, nor with the land, because it is the footstool under His feet, nor as far as Hierosoluma, because it is the city of the great king, neither should you take an oath with your head, because you can’t make one hair white or black. Yet let your word be yes yes, no no; and beyond these is from the deranged.

     You heard that it had been said, ‘An eye in place of an eye and a tooth in place of a tooth.’ Yet I say to you to not stand against the deranged; but anyone who hits you into your right cheek, turn to him also the other; and to the one wishing to take you to court and to take your shirt, release your coat also to him; and anyone who presses you into service for one mile, go with him for two. Give to the person asking you, and don’t turn away the person wishing to be lent money from you.

     You heard that it had been said, ‘You will love the person next to you,’ and will hate your enemy. Yet I am saying to you, love your enemies and pray for those chasing you down, so that you would become sons of your Father who is in the heavenly realms, because His sun springs up upon the deranged and good and rains upon the right and the wrong. Because if you should love those loving you, what pay do you have? Don’t the tax collectors also do the self-same thing? And if you embrace just your brothers, what are you doing beyond anyone else? Don’t also the ethnic groups do the self-same things? You yourselves then be mature like your Heavenly Father is mature.

A Fresh Translation of Romans 1

Paulos, slave of the Christ, Yeshua, called apostle appropriated as far as the Gospel of God which was being previously promised through His prophets with the Holy Scriptures about His Son who happened from the sperm of David where His biology is concerned, who having been divided from other human beings God the Son with power where the Spirit of holiness is concerned by the resurrection from the dead, Yeshua the Christ our Lord, through whom we received charity and apostleship as far as the obedience of the faith among all the ethnic groups on behalf of His name, among whom you also are summoned of Yeshua the Christ, to all those who are in Rome loved by God, summoned holy, charity to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Yeshua the Christ.

     First I thank my God through Yeshua the Christ about all of you folks that the faith which is yours is proclaimed among the whole universe. Because God is my witness, to whom I minister as a priest with my spirit with the Gospel of His Son, as I incessantly make myself a memory of you always upon my prayers petitioning if somehow I would already have a good road at some point in time within the will of God to come to you. Because I long to see you, so that I would give a share of some spiritual charitable gift to you for the stabilizing of you, and this is to be encouraged together among you through the faith of one another both yours and mine. Yet I don’t wish you to be ignorant, brothers, that I openly planned many times to come in your direction, and I was prevented until the present, so that I would have some fruit also among you just like also among the rest of the ethnic groups. I am a debtor to both Greeks and barbarians, to both wise and unintelligent, thus as far as I’m concerned eager also to evangelize you who are in Rome.

     Because I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the rescue of every single person who puts their trust into Him,  both Iudaean first and Greek. Because the rightness of God is revealed with it from trust into the faith, just like it is written, “yet the righted will be alive from trust.”

     Because the natural impulse of God is revealed from the heavenly realm upon every irreverence and wrong of human beings keeping the true nature of things suppressed with that wrong, for the reason that the thing known of God is visible inside them; because God made it visible to them. Because his unseen things being perceived by the mind are observed from the creation of the universe by the things made, or also His eternal power and state of being God, as far as them to be without defense, for the reason that knowing God not like God did they glorify Him or thanked Him, but were brought to nothing with their thoughts and the witless heart of them was darkened. Asserting to be wise they became stupid and exchanged the glory of the undecaying God with the likeness of an icon of a decaying human being and birds and mammals and reptiles.

     Therefore God handed them over with the desires of their hearts into the filthy pus of the treating their bodies as worthless among themselves; such ones as exchanged the true nature of God with the lie and revered and ministered to the creation as priests alongside the One having created, who is blessed into the eons, amen. Because of this God handed them over into worthless experiences, because their females too exchanged the natural employment into what is besides nature, likewise too the males also letting go the natural employment of the female were kindled with their affinity for one another, males with males achieving a lack of decorum and receiving from their going astray with themselves the recompense which was necessary. And just like they didn’t put it to the test with the knowledge by observation to have God, God handed them over into an unproven intellect, to do unbecoming things. Having been filled with every single wrong, derangement, avarice, harm, full of envy, murder, discord, cheating, malice, whisperers, slanderers, God-haters, violent, arrogant, braggarts, inventors of harm, disobedient to parents, witless, disloyal, unloving, unmerciful; such ones as knowing the regulation of God by observation that those practicing such things as these are worthy of death, don’t just do them but also approve of those who practice them.

A Reflection on Good Trees and Rotten Trees

 "Pay attention to keep away from the false prophets, such ones as come to you with the clothing of sheep, yet from inside they are plundering wolves. You will know them by observation from their fruits. They don't collect bunches of grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles, do they? Thus every single good tree makes beautiful fruits, yet the rotten tree makes deranged fruits. A good tree can't make deranged fruits neither a rotten tree make beautiful fruits. Every single tree not making a beautiful fruit is cut down and is thrown into the fire. Therefore at least, you will know them by observation from their fruits." Matthew 7:15-20

     I've been reflecting on this passage in Matthew on and off over the last while. The first question I have to ask when looking at it is, what does the fruit which I make look like? Does it look like the fruit of the Spirit of Christ as Paul described it in Galatians 5? Or is it deranged, full of envy, anger, fear, hatred, discord, and so on? The beautiful fruit must be the life of Jesus Christ flowing within and out through me to all those around me so that what people taste when they experience it is Him. The deranged fruit however is what comes from the rotten tree, that is, what comes from my own natural experiences, behaviors, neurology, and so on. This tree is rotten and diseased, and can only produce diseased fruit.

     The language Jesus uses here is similar to the language in John 15 where he talks about being the Vine and His disciples the branches, and the necessity of remaining in or making one's home in Him in order to produce fruit, because apart from Him we can do nothing. He also gives the same illustration about what happens to those branches that don't remain in Him, they wilt, they dry up, and then they are thrown into the fire where they are burned.

     In the course of my posts and comments, I have been called heretic, cultist, false prophet, and more. I'm sure I'm not the only one as many of us tend to become passionate when others disagree on teachings we hold as important. When I am called these things, I have to ask myself, am I or am I not producing Jesus Christ for people to experience and encounter? Can they or can they not see Jesus in me, or hear Jesus in my words? "My sheep hear My voice, and they follow Me."

     There are many teachings and doctrines which we disagree on, many of them very minor, and some of them not so minor. But at the end of the day, what defines a Christian is whether or not Jesus Christ can be seen and heard through them, not what denominational theology they profess. A disciple of Jesus Christ is defined by whether or not they live as He taught, and walk as He walked, not by whether they are Calvinist, Arminian, Catholic, Orthodox, or Messianic Jewish.

     I can only judge whether I am on the right Path or not by whether or not people are able to experience Jesus Christ through me. Either I walk the Way He walked, or I don't. Either the fruit I produce is from His tree, His vine, or it is from my own rotten one. And at the end of the day, this determines whether what I follow and what I teach others to follow is truly from that good tree and true Vine. 

     I would encourage you who read this as it gets late here in Kentucky to reflect on what kind of tree your own fruit is coming from, and whether it tastes of Jesus Christ or something rotten.

A Fresh Translation of John 6

With these things Yeshua came out on the other side of the Sea of Galilee of Tiberias. And a lot of crowd were following Him, because they watched the omens which He was doing upon the sick. And Yeshua came up into the mountain and was sitting there with His disciples. And the Pascha was near, the holy day of the Iudaeans. Yeshua then, lifting up His eyes and having watched that a lot of crowd is coming in His direction says towards Philippos, “From where would we buy loaves of bread so that these folks would eat?” And He was saying this thing expecting him to get the wrong answer; because He Himself knew what He intended to do. Philippos answered Him, “Two hundred denarii’s worth of loaves of bread wouldn’t be enough for them so that each would get something small.” One of His disciples, Andreas the brother of Shimon Petros, says to Him, “There’s a little boy here who holds five loaves of barley bread and two small jars of fish paste; but what are these things as far as such ones as these? Yeshua said, “Make the people to recline on the ground.” And there was a lot of grass in the place. The men, the number like five thousand, reclined on the ground. Yeshua then took the loaves of bread and having given thanks distributed them to those reclining, likewise also from the jars of fish paste as much as they wished. And as they ate themselves full, He says to His disciples, “Collect the leftover pieces of bread, so that not anything is destroyed. They then collected and filled twelve baskets of pieces from the five loaves of barley bread which overflowed to those devouring. The people then having seen what omen He did were saying that, “This really is the Prophet coming into the universe.” Yeshua then, knowing that they intended to come and grab Him so that they would make Him king, separated just Himself from them again into the mountain.

     And as it became late, his disciples went down upon the sea and embarking into a boat they started for the other side of the Sea into K’fer-Nahum. And darkness was already happening and Yeshua hadn’t yet come to them, the Sea too had roused up a huge blowing wind. Having come then like twenty five or thirty stadia they watch Yeshua walking on the Sea and coming to be near the boat, and they were panicked. Yet the One says to them, “I Am; don’t panic.” They wished then to get Him into the boat, and immediately the boat came to be upon the land as far as which they were going.

     On the morrow, the crowd which stood on the other side of the Sea saw that another small boat wasn’t there except one and that Yeshua didn’t go into the boat with His disciples but just His disciples left; but boats came from Tiberias near the place where they ate the bread with the Lord having given thanks. When then the crowd saw that Yeshua isn’t there nor His disciples, they embarked into the little boats and came into K’fer-Nahum looking for Yeshua. And finding Him on the other side of the Sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, at what time had you come to be here?” Yeshua responded to them and said, “Amen amen I say to you people, You are looking for Me not because you saw omens, but because you ate from the loaves of bread and were gorged. Work not the feed which is destroyed but the feed which stays put as far as the life of the Eternal One, which the Son of Adam will give to you; because the Father God put His seal on this feed.” They said then to Him, “What should we do so that we would work the feed worked of God?” Yeshua responded and said to them, “This is the feed worked of God, so that you would put your trust into Whom that One sent.” They said to Him, “What omen then are You doing, so that we would see and would believe You? What thing are you working? Our fathers ate the manna in the wasteland, just like it is written, “He gave them bread from the sky to eat.” Yeshua said to them, “Amen amen I say to you people, Moses didn’t give you the bread from the sky, but My Father gives you the real bread from the heavenly realm; because the bread of God is the One descending from the heavenly realm and giving life to the universe.

     They then said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” Yeshua said then to them, “I Am the bread of Life; the person coming to Me will absolutely not hunger, and the person putting their trust into me will absolutely not thirst forever, but I told you that you have both seen Me and don’t believe. Every single thing which the Father gives to Me will come here to Me, and I will absolutely not throw the person coming to Me outside, because I had descended from the heavenly realm no so that I do the will which is Mine but the will of the One having sent Me. And this thing is the will of the One having sent Me, so that every single thing which He had given Me I wouldn’t destroy from Him, but would resurrect it on the last day. Because this thing is the will of My Father, so that every single person who watches the Son and puts their trust into Him would have the life of the Eternal One, and I Myself will resurrect him on the last day.”

     The Iudaeans then were grumbling about Him because He said, “I Am the bread which descended from the heavenly realm,” and they were saying, “Isn’t this Yeshua Bar-Yoseph, of whose father and mother we know? How is He now saying that, “I had descended from the heavenly realm?” Yeshua responded and said to them, “Don’t grumble with one another. No one can come to Me if the Father who sent Me shouldn’t drag him, and I will resurrect him on the last day. It is written in the prophets, “and they will all be instructed by God;” every single person who heard alongside the Father and learned comes to Me. Not that anyone had seen the Father except the One who is alongside God, this One had seen the Father. Amen amen I tell you, the person putting their trust into Me holds the life of the Eternal One. I Am the bread of Life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wasteland and died; this One is the bread which descends from the heavenly realm, so that anyone having eaten from Him would also not die. I Am the living bread which descended from the heavenly realm; if anyone should eat from this bread he will live into the eon, yet also the bread which I will give is My flesh on behalf of the life of the universe.”

     The Iudaeans were then fighting with one another saying, “How can this guy give us His flesh to eat?” Yeshua then said to them, “Amen amen I tell you, if you don’t eat the flesh of the Son of Adam and drink this blood of His, you don’t hold life within yourselves. The person feeding on My flesh and drinking this blood of Mine holds the life of the Eternal One, and I will resurrect him on the last day. Because my flesh is real food, and My blood is real drink. The person feeding on My flesh and drinking this blood of Mine makes his home within Me and I within him. Just like the Living Father sent Me out and I live because of the Father, also the person feeding on Me that one will also live because of Me. This is the bread which descended from the heavenly realm, not just like the father ate and died; the person feeding on this bread will live into the eon.” He said these things teaching in a synagogue in K’fer-Nahum.

     Many then from His disciples having heard said, “This message is hard; who can listen to it?” And Yeshua knowing within Himself that His disciples are grumbling about this said to them, “Does this offend you? What if you should then see the Son of Adam ascending where He was in the first place? The Spirit is what makes alive, the flesh is of absolutely no profit at all; the words which I spoke to you are Spirit and are Life. But there are some from you who don’t believe.” Because Yeshua knew from the start who they are who don’t believe and who it is who will hand Him over. And he was saying, “Because of this I had said to you that no one can come to Me if it might not have been given to him from the Father.”

     From this many from His disciples went into the things behind and no longer were walking with Him. Yeshua then said to the twelve, “You don’t also wish to go, do you?” Shimon Petros answered Him, “Lord, to whom would we come away? You hold the words of the life of the Eternal One, and we have put our trust into You and know and You are the Holy One of God.” Yeshua answered them, “Hadn’t I selected you twelve? And one from you guys is a satan.” Yet he was speaking of Y’hudah Bar-Shimon of Iscariot, one of the twelve, because this guy intended to hand Him over.