Love – Godly Love

This topic takes a look at love, primarily godly love, according to Bible verses about love.

1Jn.4:16 “God is love.”  Although God is love, God is greater than love.  His character exudes love.  And He has put within the human spirit of man, made in God’s image & likeness, the capacity to love.

One reason we’re on earth is…to learn how to love!  The Christian life consists of learning the principles of love and then practicing love.  The ultimate goal is for us to live forever together with God, in love.

There are at least five types of love indicated in the Bible Greek – philáutia, stórge, éros, philéo, agápe.

Philautia (Strongs g5367 phíl-autos) is the love of self.  The term occurs only in 2Ti.3:2.  Philautia can be good or bad.  It is inward; concerned with one’s own health (cf. Da.1:8-16), happiness, avoidance of pain, self-preservation, self-esteem, etc.  Some or most aspects of self-love come naturally to us.

Storge (stór-yee) is family love.  It develops between parents & children, siblings, extending to grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.  It’s a familiar love with commitment which can increase over the years.  The Greek term doesn’t occur in scripture.  A form of storge is seen in Ro.12:10 in regards to the at-large family of sons and daughters of God. “Be devoted [g5387 philóstorgos] to one another in brotherly love [g5360 philadelphía].”  (Philadelphia is called the ‘City of Brotherly Love’.)   Family love is evident in the Bible accounts of Abraham & Isaac (Ge.22:2), Jacob & his sons (Ge.49:1, 50:14), Job & his children (Jb.1:4-5), Mary & Martha & Lazarus (Jn.11:1-ff), Jáirus & his daughter (Lk.8:41-ff), etc.  Family love grows via attachment and dependency, by living together and relatives visiting.

Eros (áir-os g2064.2 in the Old Testament (OT) Septúagint/LXX Pr.7:18, 30:16) is a sensual or sexual desire/lust, physical attraction or ‘chemistry’, romantic or passionate love.  Testosterone and estrogen (created by God) causes desire.  The next two verses contain a form (g2037.1) of eros.  Pr.4:6 LXX figuratively, “Love her [wisdom], and she will guard you”.  Est.2:17 LXX “The king loved Esther, and she found grace and favor beyond all others.”  Desire is seen in Pr.5:18-19. “Rejoice in the wife of your youth. As a loving deer and graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy you at all times; be ravished always with her love.”  Eros relates to self-satisfaction or self-gratification, though both partners can be gratified.

Phileo (phil-éh-o g5368) is the love in (deep) friendship.  This verb occurs 25 times in the New Testament (NT) and 27 times in the OT LXX.  The noun phílos (fée-los g5384) occurs 65 times in the LXX, and 28 times in the NT where it is translated “friend”.  Phileo is more general, present in various relationships.  It includes respect, shared goodwill, lovingkindness, fondness or affection – towards one dear, beloved, cherished, or a thing.  Ge.27:4-5 LXX Isaac loved (g5368) venison.  Father God phileo loves in Jn.5:20 & Jn.16:27.  Ge.37:4 LXX Jacob loved Joseph.  Phileo can be a powerful emotional attachment or bond.  Ge.29:11 LXX “Jacob kissed [g5368] Rachel.”  Phileo is part of being ‘in love’.  Rachel Pace writes, “Love, value, care, respect, and trust are the fundamentals around which emotional attraction is built.”  Phileo connects one with a ‘soul-mate’, and may lead to family/storge.  Phileo combined with eros can be exhilarating!  (Note: There is a degree of overlap between the types of love.)

Agape (ah-gáh-pay g26) is the Greek noun for universal love, empathy for all people.  In the NT, it is seen as godly love, transcendant, outgoing, unconditional.  It’s the highest form of love in the Bible!  Early Christianity viewed agape as the spiritual love God has for humanity, and the love man has for God.  Agape occurs 115 times in the NT and 15 times in the OT LXX.  A Greek verb meaning ‘to love’ is agapáo (ah-ga-páh-o g25).  It occurs 140 times in the NT and nearly 200 times in the LXX.  In OT times, agapao could resemble phileo.  Jesus loves with agapao in Jn.19:26, 21:7, 20, and with phileo in Jn.20:2; with agapao in He.12:6, and with phileo in Re.3:19.  The Creator too expresses various types of love!  After Peter denied Jesus 3 times (Lk.22:34, 54-62)…Peter phileo loves Jesus, he didn’t yet agapao love Jesus (Jn.21:15-16).  (But Peter as an old man agapao loved Jesus; ref 1Pe.1:8.)  Also, the adjective agapetós g27, translated as “beloved”, occurs 60 times in the NT and 15 times in the LXX.

{Sidelight: Agapao in the NT usually indicates a godly love.  His own benevolent, unselfish agape that can be present without reciprocity (Ro.5:8).  But agapao doesn’t always indicate godly love.  Sinners can agapao sinners who agapao them (Lk.6:32).  Also people can agapao darkness (Jn.3:19), the praise of men (Jn.12:43), and unrighteousness (2Pe.2:15)!  Those verses aren’t indicative of a divine love.}

Greek Bible scholar Dr. Spiros Zódiates: “Agapao is used of God’s love toward man and vice versa, but phileo is never used of the love of men toward [Father] God. Agape isn’t found in classical Greek, only in revealed religion.”  Only through godly love can man truly love God.  Such love originated with God.

Again, 1Jn.4:8, 16 “God is love [g26].”  How may we express benevolent godly love?  1Jn.5:2-3 “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.”  Godly love (g26 in v.3) includes as a priority the keeping of His commandments!  Our obedience reflects love.

What are His commandments?  We may say, they are God’s instructions, His guidelines for right living.  To begin, 1Jn.3:23 “This is His [God’s] commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He [Jesus] commanded us.”  It is crucial to believe in and honor Father God’s Son Jesus, who died for our sins!  1Jn.2:23 “Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father.”  And Jesus the Son said in Jn.14:15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments”.

As we’ll see, Jesus’ commandments reflect love to God, love to our neighbor, and love to ourselves.  It’s natural to love ourselves, our own flesh.  Who is my ‘neighbor’?  In the broad sense, my neighbor is…other humans.  Jesus’ commandments tell us how to love God, other people, and ourselves.

According to John, Peter, Paul…the pre-incarnate Christ, the primordial word of God (Jn.1:1-3, 14), was the God of ancient Israel.  He was the Lord God, the Shepherd of Israel who dwelt above the cherubim in the Most Holy Place of God’s tabernacle & temple (Ps.80:1, Jn.10:14).  see the topic “Jesus Was The Old Testament God”.  Christ gave His commandments, His instructions, His principles to Moses/Israel.

Let’s now identify Jesus’ commandments of love.  There are two main commandments.  In Mk.12:28-31 a Jewish scribe asked Jesus, “What commandment is the foremost of all?”  Jesus answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. The second is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

Jesus’ many commandments are summarized into these two broad categories.  They represent enduring moral principles for mankind, and are seen in the OT.  De.6:5-7 LXX “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.”  Le.19:18 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  (We can’t love others if we don’t love ourself!)  Love (g25) God and your fellow man.

Christ’s Ten Commandments, the Decalogue or Testimony, describe how to love God and love others.

Ex.20:1-11 the first four commandments pertain to loving God.  Christ said in v.6, “Those who love Me and keep My commandments.”  Man is not to have any god beside the true God, is not to make any idols or images depicting God, is not to use God’s name for a wrong purpose.  Observing the fourth commandment, “Remember the sabbath [h7676 Hebrew] day to keep it holy”, honors God and signifies that our God is the Creator.  Ge.2:1-3 God ceased/rested (shabáth h7673 on the 7^th day of Creation.

De.5:12-15 allowing people under our charge to rest also shows love to others.  Jesus said in Mk.2:27-28, “The sabbath was made for man…the Son of Man is Lord even of the sabbath.”  Jesus is Lord, of the 7^th day sabbath too.  He was the Creator who ordained the sabbath.  He made it for the benefit of mankind.  Resting on the sabbath encompasses love for ourselves too.  Our body has a circaseptan rhythm which requires rest approximately every 7 days to keep our immune system strong.  Sabbath rest even shows love to work animals.  The Lord’s creatures that work for man in agriculture and other uses need rest too.  (see the series “Sabbath 7^th Day”, and the topic “Ten Commandments in Genesis & Job”.)

Ex.20:12-17 commandments #5 through #10 describe how to love others. “Honor your father and your mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not covet.”  Adultery is engaging in sexual relations with another man’s wife.  Analogous to not bearing false witness in court is Col.3:9, “Lie not one to another”.  Wrong coveting is desiring something we cannot rightfully have some day.  Christ’s Decalogue reflects enduring principles of love.

But godly love involves more than the Decalogue.  Ge.14:18-20 Abram tithed or gave a tenth to the priest-king Melchisedek, representative of church & state.  Our tithes or giving to church ministries contribute to their efforts of sharing/spreading the good news of God’s love and His Kingdom.  Paying just taxes to our government provides funds for societal benefits & entitlements for our neighbor and ourself.

Also, we show love to others by giving from our means to the poor & needy (Ja.2:15-16, 1Jn.3:17).

Paul wrote a strong admonition in 2Th.3:10-15. “If anyone does not work, neither let him eat”.  We are to work an honest job so we have money to help support the Lord’s commission of spreading the gospel.  And earning money buys food for our own family table…loving ourselves.

Ge.1:26-28 God created man in His own image and likeness.  God said, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it”.  Humanity has the God-given mandate/command to raise families, to produce offspring through the generations as caretakers to manage the earth and its resources God created.

Le.20:13 same-sex marriage violates God’s mandate for mankind to reproduce.  (It is understood that some couples are unable to have children.)  John R. Diggs MD The Health Risks of Gay Sex “Common sexual practices among gay men lead to numerous STDs, some of which are virtually unknown in the heterosexual population. Lesbians are also at higher risks for STDs.”  Disease isn’t love.

Le.18:23 beastiality, sexual relations with another kind, is vile.  Christ told Moses/Israel, “It is a perversion”.  Horrific Risks of Sex With Animals “The likelihood of disease transmission from an animal to a human is high.”  This demeaning practice harms; it doesn’t show love.

Ps.139:14 “I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”  The psalmist David loved himself and understood it was the Lord who’d designed our remarkable human body.

John wrote in 3Jn.1:2, “I pray in all respects that you may prosper and be in health”.  We want to have good health.  We love ourselves (phílautos g5367).  Again, God’s instructions tell us how to rightly love ourselves.

De.14:2-21 our refraining from eating unclean creatures which are parasitic or carcinogenic reflects love to self.  Also, by refraining from feeding unclean creatures to others we show love to our neighbor.  Ge.7:2 even the antediluvian patriarch Noah (who wasn’t Jewish) understood the difference between clean and unclean!  (see the topic “Unclean versus Clean Food”.)

Abstaining from blood pertains to loving our self.  God told Noah in Ge.9:4, “You shall not eat flesh with its life [or soul], its blood”.  The life/soul is in the blood.  Blood is the carrier of both life and disease.  Le.17:10-16 “No person among you may eat blood, nor may the alien who sojourns among you eat blood.”  Nor are we to eat an animal that dies of itself, is suffocated or “strangled” (Ac.15:29), or roadkill.  Improperly bled carcasses attract harmful organisms.  (see “Acts 15 – Four Prohibitions”.)

Le.3:17 “You shall not eat any fat or any blood.”  We avoid eating animal fat, which can contain toxins.

Le.18:19 “You shall not approach a woman to have relations during her menstrual period.”  Blood is present.  We should abstain from menstrual sex.  It puts women at risk for disease.  Dr. (Ms) De Souza Dangers of Sex During Menstruation “Irritation and an introduction to infection are major risks. Any wound or bleeding is a gateway to infection.”  (see “Doctrinal Disunity Impacts Evangelism”.)

All the above are Christ’s commandments…they reflect love to God, to other people, and to ourselves.  In a broad sense…Ro.13:10 “Love is the fulfillment of the law”.

God gives believers His Holy Spirit (HS).  The HS enables us to love God, other people, and ourself in the right way.  It’s a spiritual love.  Ga.5:22 “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace [etc.].”  Godly love is present now in us through the indwelling HS (1Co.3:16).  Ro.5:5 “The love of God has been poured forth into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”  The love of the Spirit should flow from us.  Christians are to be reflectors of God’s divine love.  Jesus said in Jn.13:35, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples [adherents], if you have love for one another”.

1 Corinthians 13 is known as the ‘Love Chapter’.  In it, Paul lists some facets or reflections of love (agape g26)…loving attitudes, mindset, words, and proper restraint & self-control.  1Co.13:4-8 “Love is patient, love is kind, it isn’t envious; love doesn’t boast and isn’t proud; love isn’t rude, it isn’t self-centered, isn’t quick-tempered to anger, doesn’t keep an account of wrongs suffered; love takes no pleasure in evil but rejoices with the truth. Love never gives up; and its faith, hope and endurance never fail. Love never ends.”  Godly love is eternal.  Benson Commentary 1Co.13:8 “It [love] accompanies us to, prepares us for, and adorns us in eternity…of heaven.”  Love is forever.

Godly love is pure, altruistic, wanting the best for others, self-giving, self-sacrificing.  Mk.10:45 “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”  Jn.15:13 “Greater love has no man than this, that a person lay down his life for his friends.”  Jesus’ sacrificial death redeems us from the consequences of sin.  Jn.3:16 “For God so loved [agapao g25] the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.”  ref 1Pe.1:18-19.  God willingly gave up Jesus to death, to die for our sins.

Divine love has a moral core.  It is dutiful, active, and obedient.  Yet godly love isn’t without right emotion.  Although godly love is compassionate, it can be ‘tough love’ too (cf. Lk.12:49, Jn.8:7).

God’s divine love is perfect.  It can be present with and enhance all types of love…agape, philautia, storge, phileo, and eros.  (God is responsible for placing sex hormones and right desire in mankind!)

The Lord has given us the capacity to love in its various forms, and to share love.  Col.3:14 “Above all, put on love [g26], which binds all things together in perfect unity.”  Godly love is as a garment which binds us in harmonious moral perfection.  Ep.3:17-19 “That you, being rooted and grounded in love [g26], may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and height and depth, and to know the love [g26] of Christ.”

Christ’s character, morality and principles of love are the same yesterday, today, and forever (He.13:8).  2Jn.1:6 “This is love, that we walk according to His commandments.”  As we’ve seen…God’s commandments convey how to properly love God, other people, and ourselves, through the Holy Spirit.

Doctrinal Disunity Impacts Evangelism (1)

Disunity within Christendom has had far-reaching negative effects.  Dr. Joel R. Beeke wrote in The Church’s Unity, “Disunity affects the whole church, including the work of evangelism”.

The success of evangelism, here in the USA and worldwide, has been hindered by a perceived disunity existent in Christendom.  Also, disunity inhibits fellowship among already believing Christians.

The factors which cause disunity in the church are many.  Doctrinal controversy is a significant factor.  The apostle Paul exhorted Titus in Ti.2:1, “Speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine”.

From Does Our Focus On Sound Doctrine Detract From Biblical Evangelism? “Doctrinal purity is extremely important. Biblical love never minimizes the importance of God’s truth…from Genesis to Revelation. A healthy focus upon truth and sound doctrine is essential for God’s honoring evangelism.”

This topic deals with unity in doctrine, and table fellowship which contributes to unity.  There’s the old adage, ‘Those who eat together stay together’, and ‘The family that eats together stays together’.

Jesus said there is one “way” (Jn.14:6).  Jesus is the way.  Some of His earliest followers were known as “the Way” (ref Ac.9:2, 24:14).  Yet in the 50s AD, Paul asked the rhetorical question in 1Co.1:11-13, “Each one of you is saying, ‘I am of Paul,’ and ‘I of Apollos,’ and ‘I of Peter,’ and ‘I of Christ.’ Has Christ been divided?”  Disunity and division was happening even then in Corinth.

There are presently more than 2.2 billion people in the worldwide Christian family.  But they are divided into more than 40,000 denominations, sects, or groups!  Why is that?

Answers.com How Many Christian Denominations Are There? “Different people have different beliefs in Christianity. Unfortunately, those differences lead to divisions. God requires unity. Jesus’ last prayer was for His disciples to remain united (John 17). The Lord never intended for His church to be divided into competing groups teaching different doctrines. The Lord is not the Lord of confusion. Much of Christianity has been polluted by other false pagan religions, which has led to differing beliefs and unscriptural practices which has caused them to break apart.”  Unscriptural practices cause division!

But what if all Christian beliefs and practices were based on scripture…with no pagan or contradictory unscriptural dogma based on traditions that cause disunity, dividing brothers & sisters in the faith!?

Most Christian churches make the claim that their beliefs, teachings and practices are based on the Holy Bible.  The late Dr. Myles Munroe wrote in 2008, “The Bible is the Constitution of the Kingdom of God”.  Pastor Benny Hinn says, “The Holy Spirit authored the Bible”.  That’s the written scriptures.

The inspired word of God is the true standard for our faith!  We learn the word/Bible over the years by various means…reading, study, sermons, etc.  We learn of our salvation, available via Jesus’ sacrifice!

1Ti.4:13 Paul told Timothy to do public reading of Old Testament (OT) scriptures in the church.  Barnes Notes 1Ti.4:13 “The then written portions of the sacred volume, the Old Testament, are doubtless specially intended here.”  The written word of God is the basis, the foundation, of true knowledge…unlike the traditions of men.

In addressing various Bible topics on this site, some verses I’ve quoted or referenced are verses which, unfortunately, are ignored by much of mainstream Christianity.

Wikipedia: Mainstream “Mainstream Christianity’ is a term used to collectively refer to the common views of major denominations of Christianity (such as Orthodox Christianity, Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Protestantism) as opposed to the particular tenets of other Christian denominations. The context is dependent on the particular issues addressed, but usually contrasts an orthodox majority view against a heterodox minority view.”

Heterodox minority groups may be disregarded as lacking overall credibility.  But, the orthodox majority may emphasize its traditions; also the orthodox churches themselves disagree among themselves.

There are principles found in scripture, valid for all humankind (Christians too)…that mainstream omits.  Sadly, these points of scripture limit or divide fellowship between various Christian sects/groups.

Missiologist Dr. Ed Stetzer Tribalism Outside the Church. And In “Of the many negative impacts that spring from church disunity, perhaps most troubling is the damage it does to our gospel witness.”

Gavin Reid OBE Doctrine Matters “Doctrine in evangelism is not so much what converts, but what establishes the new believer. Evangelism and doctrine are inseparable.”

In this two-part topic, I’ll focus on four significant points of doctrine that impact Christian unity and (table) fellowship, but which much of mainstream ignores.  Yet these points are scriptural, and can help us improve our rapport with other peoples we hope to evangelize.  They’ll also benefit our own lives.

There is a cause for every effect in our life!  These doctrinal points teach us how to better live blessed and healthy lives!  They are practices found in scripture…for Christ’s people OT Israel, and even for gentiles prior to when Christ spoke His Decalogue to Israel on Mt. Sinai (Ex.20)!

#1) CLEAN/UNCLEAN creatures:  If I were to list only one important practice that mainstream ignores, I might well choose this one!  The neglect of this principle hinders unity and table fellowship among Christian brethren; and it limits the success of our evangelistic efforts in Middle East nations.

The pre-incarnate Christ was the Creator and executive God of the OT (Jn.1:1-3, 14).  He was the God of ancient Israel…according to Peter, John, Paul.  see the topic “Jesus Was the Old Testament God”.

Christ wasn’t like a harsh heathen god who may subject his people to bondage.  Christ freed Israel from Egyptian bondage.  Then He gave commands and principles to Moses/Israel for their benefit.  Christ wasn’t overly restrictive or selfish, and didn’t Lord it over them to flaunt His authority.  He loved them.

As Creator, Christ knows which creatures are compatible with the human digestive system, and which aren’t.  And which creatures will typically carry parasites or can even be carcinogenic.  Christ instructed ancient Israel in His guidelines of clean and unclean…out of love!  Moses told them in De.7:6-15, “You are a holy people; the Lord your God has chosen you. The Lord loved you.”  Christ the Lord gave Israel His dietary laws for their well-being…to bless, not burden, them!  see “Unclean versus Clean Food”.

But even centuries before Christ conveyed His dietary standards to ancient Israel, the gentile Noah knew the difference between clean and unclean animals.  Ge.7:1-2 “The Lord said to Noah, ‘Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, male and female; and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, male and female.”  Had they eaten of an unclean pair, that genus could have there ceased!

Noah wasn’t Jewish.  There was no Jews or Old Covenant (OC) in Noah’s day; his right understanding predated the OC!  Clean vs unclean creatures (ref Le.11 & De.14:1-21 for detail) were known by that gentile prior to Christ’s OC law for Israelites/Jews!  Perhaps such knowledge had been passed down from Christ’s instructions in Eden, or from Adam & Eve’s experience, or righteous Enoch had taught it, or by revelation from God to Noah.  (also see “Added in the Old Covenant”.)

The Lord spelled out in Le.11:2-ff, “These are the creatures which you may eat from all the animals that are on the earth”.  Benson Commentary Le.11:2 “For the preservation of their health.”

Unclean creatures carry micro-organisms which cause disease.  Eating them harms all races of mankind.  Not just Jews.  (Whereas properly fed clean animals don’t normally carry those disease-causing organisms.)  Feeding or serving unclean flesh to our neighbor…isn’t loving our neighbor!

Humanity (Christians too) consumes numerous unclean scavengers, created by God to clean up earth’s refuse and thereby limit disease.  Wikipedia: Scavenger “Scavengers play a fundamental role in the environment through the removal of decaying organisms, serving as a natural sanitation service.”

Reducing the populations of these ‘creature janitors’ can increase global disease due to excess decaying matter extant.  Eating scavengers is self-indulgence, perhaps done under the guise of dietary freedom.  But removing scavengers from their created purpose of sanitation/clean-up…isn’t loving our neighbor.

The makeup of animals, such as unclean swine (a scavenger), didn’t change at the cross!  Scientists say the AIDS virus was transmitted to humans by slaughtering and eating monkeys.  Monkeys are unclean.  How tragic!  The scourge of AIDS has nearly wiped out entire peoples!  It’s a result of disobeying or ignoring Christ’s food laws!  False teaching or lack of teaching has led to this great calamity.

The internet is full of medical articles which explain the dangers of eating pathogenic unclean creatures.  Literate affluent societies can easily learn their dangerous effects, and stop eating the unclean.

This table fellowship issue of clean vs unclean divides church groups.  More than that…Christian evangelism to Jews and Muslims is impeded by Christians eating prohibited creatures.  It can offend those Abrahamic peoples!  Yet the scriptures about this are on their side.  It is a shame for Christ’s church that these other two religions are showing more love for their neighbor (Le.19:18b) in this regard!

Count Zinzendorf (1700-1760), leader of the Moravian church (Czechoslovakia/America) in 1738 wrote of himself. “I have during my lifetime not eaten the foods which were formerly forbidden them….that I have done without design, in simplicity of heart.” (Budingsche Sammlung, 1742, sec.8, p.224.)

#2) BLOOD abstention:  Abstaining from blood is a health issue, related to clean vs unclean.  Two of the four restrictions of Acts 15 for the New Testament (NT) church…are dietary.  God wants us to be in good health (3Jn.1:2), and He gave us guidelines in scripture which contribute to good health.

Ac.15:28-29 “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things dying of itself [strangled], and from sexual immorality.”  However, this directive wasn’t something new in the book of Acts.

Christ previously had decreed these same four restrictions in the OT!  Abstention from blood and from eating things dying of itself or strangled are dietary laws involving clean animals only…for Israelites and aliens.  Le.17:13-16 “When any man from Israel or aliens among them catches a beast or bird which may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood.”  Unclean creatures may not be eaten (Le.11).  The carcass of an unbled or unslaughtered clean animal is defiled as food and was forbidden, for aliens too.  Neither will gentile Muslims eat it.  It is very risky health-wise.  Pulpit Commentary Le.11:2 “There is something loathsome in the idea of eating such flesh.”  (see the topic “Acts 15 – Four Prohibitions”.)

God forbad the consumption of blood.  He commanded the non-Jew Noah in Ge.9:4, “You shall not eat flesh with its life, its blood”.  This principle applies to everyone…gentiles, Israelites, aliens.

Christ said in Le.17:10-12, “If any man from the house of Israel, or from the aliens among them, eats any blood, I will set My face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off”.  That’s serious!  v.11 “The life of the flesh is in the blood.”  Blood is the principle carrier of life…and of disease.

Sickness and even death can result from consuming blood…and also from contacting blood.

Ge.31:33-35 shows that incidental contact with blood was avoided.  If bleeding is detected on a player during today’s NBA games, e.g., the officials immediately stop play, and he must have it attended to.

Le.18 identifies acts of sexual immorality/porneia.  (Sexual immorality is prohibited also in Ac.15:29.)  Le.18:19 “Do not have sexual intercourse with a woman during her monthly period.”  also ref Le.20:18; Ezk.18:5-6, 22:10.  Having sexual relations with a menstruating woman can put her at risk for vaginal infection, cervical cancer, and possible tubal pregnancy.  Doing so isn’t loving our neighbor/wife!

Dr. (Ms) De Souza Dangers of Sex During Menstruation “Irritation and an introduction to infection are major risks. Any wound or bleeding is a gateway to infection. The cervix is slightly opened during menstruation to let out blood. This heightens the risk of infection, not being limited only to the vagina, but additionally to the uterus. ‘Engaging in sex during menses is associated with the development of STDs such as chlamýdia, gonorrhéa and HIV infection, which in turn are associated with cervical cancer’ (Ben-Noun, 2003:101).”  Ac.15:29 commands the church to abstain from blood.

Cycle Harmony: Potential Side Effects of Having Sex During Period “It can cause blood stasis and lead to amenorrhéa (no period or scanty period), dysmenorrhéa (painful period), menorrhágia (heavy and prolonged period), or irregular periods.”  Dr. Elaine Loh Sex During Menstruation “Studies have shown that immunity is decreased during menstruation. Momentary pleasure versus risky health – you be the judge.”  Christ had warned in the OT that menstrual sex must be avoided.

To this day, religious Jews avoid menstrual sex.  Judaism 101: Kosher Sex “According to the Torah, a man is forbidden from having sexual intercourse with a niddáh, that is, a menstruating woman. The law of niddah is the only law of ritual purity that continues to be observed today; all the other laws applied to when the Temple was in existence, but aren’t applicable today.”  That one is relevant today.

Woman’s anatomy and her monthly cycle didn’t change at the cross or when the Temple fell in 70 AD!  Menstrual intercourse is still risky.  Abstention from sex during her period is mostly for her sake.

Neither do (most) Muslims engage in menstrual intercourse.  Quranic Path “The only prohibition in the Quran during menstruation is sexual intercourse.”  Yahoo Answers: Why is Sex While the Wife is Menstruating Not Allowed in Islam? “To protect women from infection and disease.”

I’m not Jewish or Muslim.  But this issue regarding blood has had a negative effect on evangelizing Jews and Muslims, two Abrahamic peoples.  Yet scripture about this too is on their side.  Also, menstrual sex causes conflict in the American home between some Christian husbands and their wives.

Christian neglect to practice doctrinal points #1) and #2) limits the credibility of our evangelism in the eyes of Jews and Muslims.  Yet the war-torn Middle East so desperately needs the Spirit of the Prince of Peace!  Benson Commentary Le.11:2 “When men cannot eat together, they have little inclination to enter into any close intercourse with one another.”  If we could all eat together in like-minded table fellowship…the opportunity and believability of our gospel witness would be enhanced!

Jesus’ principles and His morality is “The same yesterday, today and forever” (He.13:8).  No man could compel Him to reiterate His many beneficial principles over & over again, or in the NT too.  Christ said, “It is written”.  He didn’t err in commanding these two good-sense principles.  Love was His motive.

This topic is continued and concluded in “Doctrinal Disunity Impacts Evangelism (2)”.

Wine or Grape Juice in Jesus’ Cup? (2)

This topic was begun in “Wine or Grape Juice in Jesus’ Cup? (1)”.  Part 2 here is the conclusion.

Part 1 identified the two most-used Hebrew Old Testament (OT) terms for “wine”…yáhyin (Strongs h3196) and tiroshé (h8492).  Yayin was fermented wine.  Tirosh usually referred to unfermented grape juice.  Tirosh is called “new wine” in many Bibles.  (Other terms for alcoholic drink were less-used.)

Part 1 also discussed the customary Jewish practice of using wine to celebrate Passover in 1^st century Jerusalem.  Jesus the man was Jewish, and He observed God’s annual Passover (Lk.2:41-42).

In the Greek New Testament (NT) and Greek OT Septúagint/LXX, the term for “wine” is oínos g3631.  It occurs 33 times in the NT.  However, yayin (fermented) and tirosh (unfermented) were both translated as oinos in the OT LXX!  No differentiation was made.  The context determined its meaning.

The NT writers didn’t identify the type of liquid in the “cup” at Jesus’ Last Supper.  “Cup” is potáyreeon g4221, occurring 33 times.  “Cup” as a drinking vessel is seen at the Lord’s Supper: Mt.26:27; Mk.14:23; Lk.22:17, 20; 1Co.10:16, 21, 11:25-28.  No beverage is specified (not oinos).

In Part 2 we’ll discuss uses, concerns, and symbolism of wine from the Bible; also when Christian churches started using grape juice in communion or the eucharist.  (Part 1 material won’t be repeated.)

In Bible times, wine (mixed with water) was used for other celebrations besides Passover.  Jn.2:1-11 Jesus’ first miracle was, He changed water into wine (oinos g3631) at a wedding celebration.  Probably His miracle wine was undiluted.  In Is.1:22, the Lord had negatively compared debased ancient Israel to pure wine diluted with water.  And Jesus didn’t change the Jn.2 water into grape juice.  Jn.2:10 after the guests had drank, they wouldn’t notice any quality difference if it was grape juice.  But they would notice a difference if it was wine.  Jesus wasn’t opposed to wine (in moderation)!

Lk.7:33-35 Jesus was exaggeratedly even called a glutton and a ‘wino’ (oinopótes g3630), a friend of tax collectors & sinners.  Winos drink fermented wine.  In contrast, John the Baptizer didn’t drink wine.

De.14:25-27 rejoicing with wine (h3196 yayin) to celebrate the Lord’s OT feasts was fine!  Included were Levites too.  But priests weren’t allowed to drink wine while on duty (Le.10:8-9; Ezk.44:21).

Wine symbolized Jesus’ blood!  The 19^th century German theologian Augustus Neander wrote of Jesus’ Last Supper (Lk.22:17-20). “The broken bread was to represent His body. The wine is to represent His blood, about to be shed for them.”  Got Questions: What is the Meaning of the Blood of Christ? “The pouring of wine in the cup symbolized the blood of Christ.”  Answers.com: What is the Symbolic Meaning of Wine? “Wine signifies blood and blood signifies life, ‘the life is in the blood’ (Lev.17:14).”

Fermented wine yayin h3196 (not unfermented tirosh h8492) was called the blood of grapes.  Ge.49:10-12 is a prophecy about the future King Messiah Jesus. “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until He comes to whom it belongs. He will wash His garments in wine [h3196], His robes in the blood of grapes.”  That’s meaningful.  Henry Commentary Ge.49:11 “He is the true Vine, wine is the appointed symbol of His blood.”  Poole Commentary “The ‘blood of grapes,’ so the wine is called in Deu.32:14.”  (De.32:14 has a less-used term for fermented red wine, chémer h2561-2.  Chemer wine was at the feast of Babylon’s King Belshazzár in Da.5:1-4, e.g.)

Wine also symbolized God’s divine wrath.  Re.14:9-10 “If anyone worships the beast…he will drink of the wine [g3631] of the wrath of God, which is unmixed in the cup [g4221] of His anger.”  Pure wine of intoxication is in His metaphorical cup of judgment.  Barnes Notes Re.14:10 “Without being diluted with water.”  Re.16:19 “Babylon the great’ was remembered before God, to give her the cup [g4221] of the wine [g3631] of His fierce wrath.”  Also ref Ps.75:8; Is.51:17-22, 63:6; Je.25:15-ff; Ezk.23:31-33.

Is.63:1-6 symbolically reflects blood as the wine of His wrath, not as celebration.  v.6 “drunk”.  v.2 “winepress” (gath h1660) is somewhat a misnomer.  As grapes were pressed, it was grape juice, not wine, which flowed down the drain.  (Usually grapes in the upper vat/receptacle were trodden by a team; but interestingly, in v.3 only One solely does the treading.)

{Sidelight: Just before Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, He prayed at a place called “Gethsemane”, g1068 (Mt.26:36).  It’s from the OT h1660 gath/winepress and h8081 oil, on the Mount of Olives.  The later olive harvest was perhaps pressed into the same vats as grapes were recently pressed.  Laura Reynolds “Why Are Olive Trees Planted Around Vineyards? “The two crops used a similar processing procedure. As wine press works ends, olive pressing begins.”  Lk.22:42-44 in agony, Jesus sweated drops of blood (cf. hematidrósis) at the place of the press.  Jesus Himself felt so pressed, shedding His blood for us!}

Ex.29:38-42 the twice-daily sacrifice at God’s tent of meeting included a drink offering of fermented wine (yayin h3196).  The drink offering wasn’t grape juice!  In Nu.28:7 this drink offering is called “strong drink” (shekár h7941).  Also see Le.23:13.  ATS Bible Dictionary: Drink Offering “A small quantity of wine, part of which was poured on the sacrifice, and the residue given to the priests.”  It was part of the sacrificial system, prefiguring Christ’s blood sacrifice.

This drink offering libation of wine was poured out (cf. Ezr.7:17), as was Jesus’ shed blood (Jn.19:34; Lk.22:44).  Jesus said in Lk.22:20, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood”.  (The apostle Paul also compared his own life to a drink offering poured out, Php.2:17, 2Ti.4:6.)

1Ch.9:29 Levites had charge over the fermented wine (h3196) kept in the temple.  The tirosh h8492 grape juice firstfruits initially tithed to the Levites (Nu.18:12; De.18:4; Ne.10:37) fermented into wine.

Again, there were restrictions for wine-drinking placed upon Aaron and his sons (the priests).  Priests weren’t allowed to serve God in the tabernacle/temple if they’re intoxicated!  Is.28:7 priests and prophets erred through their misuse of wine (h3196) and strong drink (h7941).  1Ti.3:8 deacons in the NT church aren’t to be heavy drinkers.  (Paul advised only a little wine for Timothy, 1Ti.5:23.)

Jewish Christian historian Alfred Edersheim wrote of Jesus’ Last Supper, held in a large furnished upper room of a house (Lk.22:12).  There Jesus instituted the eucharist.  The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, p.809 “Peter and John would find there the wine for the four cups, the cakes of unleavened bread, and probably also ‘the bitter herbs’. The wine was…red, mixed with water, generally in the proportion of one part to two of water.”  Peter, John, and Jesus the man were Jews, here at Passover.

David Stern Jewish New Testament Commentary [JNTC] Lk.22:17a, p.144 “Luke is the only one of the four [gospel] writers describing the establishing of the New Covenant who mentions both a cup of wine before the meal (here) and another after (v.20).”  Wine-drinking was customary at the Lord’s feasts.

The ingathering of the grape harvest occurred in the later summer, prior to the Feast of Ingathering or Booths of the early autumn.  Back then it was something of an ordeal to preserve pure grape juice for 7 months until the Passover next spring!  Joe Thorn A Theology of Wine “Drinking wine was normative.”

However, it was possible to maintain unfermented grape juice (albeit more difficult).  Wayne Jackson Was the Fruit of the Vine Fermented? “It is known from ancient sources, that there were ways of preserving juice, thus preventing fermentation. The ancient Roman statesman, Cato, said: ‘If you wish to have ‘must’ (grape juice) all year, put grape juice in an amphora [narrow-necked jar] and seal the cork with pitch; sink it in a fish pond. After 30 days take it out. It will be grape juice for a whole year.’ (De Agri Cultura CXX)”  Steve Shirley Should Wine or Grape Juice Be Used For Communion? “Heating it [juice] to 150–180° would result in a syrup which could be diluted with water, then drank as unfermented grape juice. Also, keeping it in temperatures below 40° would prevent fermentation.”

Which beverage was used by the church?  Jennifer Tait New Wine, New Wineskins “The early Western church maintained the use of wine and unleavened bread. The Eastern church soon began to use leavened bread. From the 16^th until the 19^th century, the majority of Protestants communed using wine from a common cup and leavened bread. However, in the 19^th century, temperance became teetotalism or total abstinence, moving all alcohol (wine included) into the list of forbidden beverages. Many began to question why a beverage considered dangerous to drink was still used on the Communion table.”

Joe Iovino Methodist History: Controversy, Communion, & Welch’s Grape Juice “In the 1800s, churches faced a dilemma. To combat the epidemic of alcoholism, the temperance movement advocated total abstinence from all alcohol. Raw grape juice stored at room temperature (home refrigerators weren’t available until 1913) naturally ferments into wine. This caused a problem for congregations [taking the Lord’s Supper] not wanting to use anything containing alcohol. ‘Lots of churches just didn’t have communion when grapes were out of season,’ reports Roger Scull.”

Welch Foods, Inc. is named for Thomas Bramwell Welch (1825-1903).  He was a dentist, Methodist minister and “communion steward”, and Prohibitionist.  Wikipedia “In 1869, Welch invented a method of pasteurizing grape juice so that fermentation was stopped, and the drink was non-alcoholic. He persuaded local churches [in Vineland, NJ] to adopt this non-alcoholic ‘wine’ for communion services, calling it ‘Dr. Welch’s Unfermented Wine.”  It became the well-known Welch’s Grape Juice in 1893.

Thus pasteurization made it possible for churches to use grape juice year-round for the Lord’s Supper eucharist.  Most Protestant churches today use grape juice when serving communion.  Over the past 150 years, this relatively recent deviation from the practice of Bible times has become their church tradition.

However, there is evidence that Jewish religious bread and wine meals were held to honor the Messiah in the decades even prior to Jesus’ human birth and His Last Supper.  JNTC Appendix, p.931 says the Jewish community at Qumrán had regular meals in honor of the Messiah, who they expected soon.  Quoting their Dead Sea Scrolls: “When they gather for the Community table…let no man stretch out his hand over the bread and wine before the priest. He shall first stretch out his hand. And afterwards the Messiah of Israel shall stretch out His hands. They shall process according to this rite at every meal where at least ten persons are assembled.”  These were frequent meals.

These Qumran Community meals weren’t Passover meals!  Yet they partook of bread and wine, not grape juice, to honor the Messiah.  Jesus is the Messiah.  Traditionally, wine celebrated Him.

But the representative bread and wine is much more ancient than the 1^st century BC!  In Ge.14:18-19 “Melchisedek the king brought out bread and wine [yayin h3196]; He was priest of the Most High God.”  He served wine, not grape juice (tirosh h8492)!  He shared a (leavened?) bread and wine meal with the uncircumcised gentile/non-Jew Abrám.  The Ps.110:1-4 prophecy is about Jesus. “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedek.” (also see He.6:20.)

Jesus, the Priest-King, is of the order of Melchisedek (not of the in-between Levitical order)!  So way back in the days of father Abraham, even prior to Jacob/Israel and the Jews, a bread and wine meal foreshadowed Christ’s priesthood and rule.  This is significant…we are of the order of Melchisedek!  The archetypal meal wasn’t tied to a recurring religious date or season of the year, e.g. Passover.  Its timing may or may not coincide with other religious observances.  (see “Melchisedek Order Priesthood”.)

Pr.9:1-5 “Wisdom has built her house. She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine [h3196, fermented], she has set her table. ‘Come, eat of the bread and drink of the wine [h3196] I have mixed.”  It is wisdom to partake of (symbolic) bread and wine.  Melchisedek did so with Abraham.

In 1Co.11:20-34, drunkenness was a problem in the Corinthian church (v.21).  They were consuming too much wine while celebrating the eucharist at regular love feasts.  Drunkenness can have bad consequences (cf. Ge.9:20-27).  But wine-drinking in moderation is fine (except for Levites on duty).

To conclude…Jesus and His disciples drank wine with His Last Supper (Passover) meal.  International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [ISBE]: Wine “The wine of the Last Supper may be described in modern terms as sweet, red, fermented wine, rather highly diluted.”  Wine was in Jesus’ “cup”.

As a representation of Jesus’ blood and body, taking wine with bread is scripturally acceptable.  Joe Thorn The Lord’s Supper – Wine or Welch’s? “Regarding children, in most of the United States it is not illegal for children to consume alcohol ‘in the performance of a religious ceremony or service.”

However, conscience matters!  Je.35:5-8, 16-19 Jonadáb the son of Recháb commanded the Rechabites to be nomads, enduring hardship and abstaining from wine.  His descendants obeyed their forefather.  Some Christians abstain from wine, meat, card-playing, etc., as a matter of conscience or from fear of excess.  They only use grape juice, not wine, for communion.  We should respect their consciences.

Recovering alcoholics who become Christians, those with health problems and/or taking medications which could conflict with alcohol…should substitute grape juice for wine when taking communion.

Christians celebrate the Lord’s Supper with either wine or grape juice!  Over the years, I’ve used both.  (Again, the NT writers didn’t specify the beverage in the “cup” at Jesus’ Last Supper.)  When taking the eucharist, more important is our attitude of heart.  Yet division may occur when a perhaps well-meaning church custom/tradition becomes a modern form of pharisaic oral law and promotes exclusivism.  Jesus castigated the Pharisees for their oral traditions that contradicted OT scripture.

For more, see “Wine or Grape Juice in Jesus’ Cup? (1)” and the separate topic “Bread and Wine in the Church”.  Also related is “Jesus’ Last Supper Timing”.

Wine or Grape Juice in Jesus’ Cup? (1)

Bread and wine are symbols which represent the body and blood of Jesus the Savior.  The partaking of these symbols as the eucharist or communion in the early New Testament (NT) church is addressed in the topic “Bread and Wine in the Church”.  Little of the material covered in that topic is repeated here.

At Jesus’ Last Supper before His crucifixion, He instructed His disciples in the symbolic ceremony. Mt.26:26-28 “Jesus took some bread…and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body’. And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the [new] covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”  This became the eucharist.

Accordingly, after Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection, in the 30s AD a communal sharing of consecrated bread and wine became a regular practice or sacramental rite at church gatherings.

However, there is controversy among church denominations (mostly since the 1800s AD) about what form of beverage should be in the communion “cup”.  This topic addresses the contents of Jesus’ “cup”.

Wikipedia: Sacramental Wine “The majority of mainstream liturgical churches require that sacramental wine be pure grape wine. In most liturgical rites, a small quantity of water is added to the wine when the chalice [cup] is prepared. However, some Christian churches disapprove of the consumption of alcohol, especially by children, and hold that it is acceptable to substitute grape juice for wine. These denominations include Pentecostals, Baptists, Methodists, some Churches of Christ, and other evangelical groups. In this case, generally only pasteurized grape juice is used. In some Protestant churches each communicant drinks from a small individual cup.”  Well-known liturgical churches using wine for communion are the Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and Roman Catholic.

What is wine?  Merriam-Webster Dictionary’s present definition of wine: “The alcoholic fermented juice of fresh grapes used as a beverage. From Latin vinum.”  If it’s unfermented, it’s not actual wine.

Steve Shirley Should Wine or Grape Juice Be Used For Communion? “Juice becomes fermented when yeast is added to it and it begins to break down the sugars that are present in the juice, producing carbon dioxide and alcohol. However, grape juice does contain small amounts of naturally occurring yeast, and can ferment naturally over time.”

In our Greek NT, “cup” is potáyreeon, Strongs g4221.  It occurs 33 times.  In the NT, cup g4221 refers to: a drinking vessel; or metaphorically, one’s lot or experience, joyous or adverse.  “Cup” as a drinking vessel is seen in: Mt.26:27; Mk.14:23; Lk.22:17, 20; 1Co.10:16, 21, 11:25-28.  What was in Jesus’ cup?

Wikipedia: History of Wine “Consumption of ritual wine was part of Jewish practice since Biblical times and, as part of the eucharist commemorating Jesus’ Last Supper, became even more essential to the Christian Church.”  Reid Mitenbuler What Did Wine Taste Like Thousands of Years Ago? “Priests, monks, and nuns cultivated vineyards to make wine an everyday drink in places where it hadn’t existed before.”  Christian religion actually promoted and increased the knowledge of wine (production)!

In the NT and Old Testament (OT) Septúagint/LXX, the Greek term for “wine” is oínos g3631.  It occurs 33 times in the NT.

In the OT, the most-used Hebrew term for fermented wine is yáhyin h3196.  It occurs 140 times.

But OT “wine” prior to the fermentation process, grape juice, is tiroshé h8492, occurring 38 times.  Tiroshe is translated as “new wine”, in many Bibles.  This “new wine” was unfermented, or less fermented.  Grape juice.  (A half dozen less-used Hebrew terms also relate to wine or alcoholic drink.)

Rex M.D. Russell What the Bible Says About Healthy Living “Some Biblical commentaries suggest that yayin is wine fermented from the previous year, and tirosh is a somewhat less fermented drink from the recent harvest. Others concede that yayin is a fermented and intoxicating beverage, but tirosh is simply freshly squeezed juice from grapes.”  (Ho.4:11 may indicate a fermented tirosh.)

Tirosh would naturally ferment into wine, unless (impractical) steps were taken to preserve it as juice.  Mitenbuler op. cit. “Preservation efforts are the most noticeable culinary difference between ancient and modern wine.”  Wine was a valued product of agriculture.  Let’s compare tirosh and yayin in the OT:

Pr.3:10 “Your vats [yéhqeb h3342] will overflow with new wine [tirosh h8492].”  Ellicott Commentary Pr.3:10 “Vats, into which the newly pressed [grape] juice flowed.”  ref “wine vat” in Mk.12:1.  Cambridge Bible Pr.3:10 “The wine-press of the Jews consisted of two receptacles or vats placed at different elevations; in the upper the grapes were trodden, while the lower one received the expressed [grape] juice.”  (cf. Joel 3:13 “The press [gath h1660] is full, the vats [h3342] overflow.”)  Unfermented grape juice, not wine, flowed from the “winepress” (so called).  Mic.6:15 ESV “You shall tread grapes [or new wine h8492], but not drink wine [h3196].”  Is.65:8 the Lord says new wine (h8492) is found in the cluster of grapes.  Fermented wine/yayin h3196 isn’t found in grapes.  Quora What is Tirosh? “It’s literally grape juice in Hebrew.”  However, word meanings in languages can change over the centuries.

University of Chicago Biblical Notes, 1891, p.181 “Tirosh and Yayin denote not two kinds of wine but the same wine at different stages, before and after fermentation. The juice of the grape is tithed as tirosh [ref 2Ch.31:4-5] but drunk as yayin. At first it is a simple product of husbandry and valued for the promise that is in it. Finally it is treated as a drink, and praised or condemned as it is used or abused.”

Right use of fermented wine can be of benefit.  Ps.104:15 “Wine [yahyin h3196] makes glad the heart of man.”  De.14:25-26 “Go to the place the Lord chooses. You may spend the money for…wine [h3196] or strong drink [h7941 shekár], or whatever your heart desires…and rejoice.”  God encouraged wine-drinking (in moderation) to aid Israel’s rejoicing at His pilgrim feasts.  In Is.25:6 KJV, the prophetic banquet the Lord prepares includes aged wine on the lees h8105 of yeast sediment (from fermentation).

The Jews mixed wine in their water.  2Mac.15:39 “It is hurtful to drink wine or water alone. Wine mingled with water is pleasant, and delights the taste.”  In Bible times, water by itself was often dirty, contaminated with pathogens.  Charles Swindoll Dirty Water, Prohibition, and the Bible “Pure drinking water was often unavailable.”  Mitenbuler op. cit. “Ancient wine provided valuable nutrients and was used to sanitize water well past the Middle Ages.”  Also, Israel would water down their wine.

Paul told Timothy in the NT, 1Ti.5:23 “No longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine [oinos g3631] for your stomach’s sake and your frequent ailments”.  But excessive alcohol consumption could worsen ailments, and lead to drunkenness.  Paul also wrote, Ep.5:18 “Be not drunk with wine [g3631]”.  Due to its alcoholic content, drinking wine to excess can cause intoxication.  Moderation is key.

Professor R. Laird Harris wrote, “All the wine [of Bible times] was light wine, i.e., not fortified with extra alcohol. Concentrated alcohol was only known in the Middle Ages when the Arabs invented distillation (‘alcohol’ is an Arab word) so…20% fortified wines were unknown in Bible times. Probably ancient wines were 7–10%. To avoid the sin of drunkenness, mingling of water with wine was practiced.”  The blend of water and wine was 50/50–65/35?  Prior to Is.1:22, 700s BC…wine undiluted?

Alfred Edersheim described 1^st century Jewish practices. The Temple, p.187 “Red wine alone was to be used at the Páschal [Passover] Supper, and always mixed with water.”  Cups containing wine were customary at Passover in Jerusalem.  Benson Commentary Pr.23:31 “Red, the color of the best wines in that country, which therefore are called blood, Ge.49:11; De.32:14; and used by them in the Passover.”

Mishnah Pesachim 10:1 “Even the poorest person in Israel must not eat (on the night of the Passover) until he reclines [cf. Lk.22:14]. And they must give him no fewer than four cups of wine.”  Even the poor who couldn’t afford the cost of wine at other times were given wine at Passover.

The Biblical expression “fruit of the vine” (ref Mt.26:29; Mk.14:25; Lk.22:18; Is.32:12; Hab.3:17; Zec.8:12) referred to grapes from the grapevine, common in Palestine.

Wayne Jackson Was the Fruit of the Vine Fermented? “There is considerable historical evidence that the common Passover beverage used in the 1^st century was wine.”  Jesus kept Passover (Lk.2:41-42).

Dr. Jack Lewis states, “Wine was ordinarily used at the Passover and is called ‘fruit of the vine’ in Berakoth 6:1 [Talmud].”  Berakoth 6:1 “Over wine one recites: Who creates fruit of the vine.”

And Jesus’ Last Supper was also a Passover meal celebration!  Jesus told His disciples to prepare it.  Mk.14:12 “On the first day of unleavened bread, when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed, His disciples said to Him, ‘Where do want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?”  Lk.22:7-8 “Then came the first day of unleavened bread, when the Passover lamb must be killed. ‘Go and prepare the Passover for us to eat.”  This would be His Last Supper.  (see the topic “Jesus’ Last Supper Timing”.)

In the OT the Lord didn’t command wine or any drink at Passover.  But we read from the above sources that wine was the “fruit of the vine”, and was customarily consumed in 1^st century Judea at Passover.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [ISBE]: Wine “The wine of the Last Supper may be described in modern terms as sweet, red, fermented wine, rather highly diluted.”

The annual Passover was 6 months after the grape harvest in the Land.  Grape juice would’ve naturally undergone some fermentation during that time, even if yeast wasn’t added.  David C. Hopkins Life on the Land, p.186 “Stored [new] wine naturally fermented unless it was boiled down or kept cool.”

Again, in the Greek NT, “wine” is oinos g3631, occurring 33 times.  In the OT Greek LXX, oinos g3631 was used to translate the Hebrew yayin h3196 in 130 of its 140 occurrences.  And the LXX also used oinos to translate the Hebrew tiroshe h8492 in 37 of its 38 occurrences (all except Is.65:8)!  Therefore, we see that the Greek oinos g3631 in the LXX referred to either fermented or unfermented drink.

{Sidelight: The Greek term for vinegar and “sour wine” is óxos g3690.  It occurs in 6 NT verses, all relating to Jesus’ crucifixion (Mt.27:34, 48; Mk.15:36; Lk.23:36; Jn.19:29-30).  Oxos/sour wine g3690 was a variety, quality or adulteration of oinos/wine g3631, such as acrid wine or vinegar.  This cheap “wine” was a common beverage.  It was a stimulant, and had standard wine/oinos and water as a base.  “Wine” and “sour wine” and pure vinegar differed.  (see the topic “Jesus’ Death – the Physical Cause”.)

Vinegar was made by the oxidation of wine or fermented fruit juice, or a mix of barley and wine.  It is highly acidic (acetic acid), and harms the teeth (Pr.10:26).  It wasn’t drank straight.  Livestrong.com What Are the Dangers of Drinking Vinegar? “Drinking vinegar can have unpleasant and dangerous side effects.”  ISBE: Vinegar “Undiluted vinegar was of course undrinkable, but a mixture of water and vinegar makes a beverage that was very popular among the poor.”  It was also popular among soldiers.

The Hebrew OT term for vinegar is chométs h2558, occurring 5 times (Nu.6:3; Ru.2:14; Ps.69:21; Pr.10:26, 25:20).  Nu.6:3 has both chomets h2558 vinegar and yayin h3196 wine.  They’re different Hebrew terms, representing different things.  (Nu.6:3 LXX has oxos g3690 and oinos g3631).  There’s no indication that oxos “sour wine” or vinegar was in the cup at Jesus’ Last Supper Passover meal!}

Also, in Ac.2:13 disciples were mocked, supposedly full of sweet wine (or ‘must’?), g1098 gleúkos.  In the OT LXX, this term is found only in Jb.32:19.  Bible linguists differ regarding what gleukos meant back then.  Callixenus wrote (300s BC), “They were trampling on the grapes and the new wine (gleukos) ran out over the whole road”.  Greek Bible scholar Dr. Spiros Zódiates, “Some believe that it [gleukos] is what distills of its own accord from the grapes which is the sweetest and smoothest. It was mentioned at Pentecost (Ac.2:13) indicating that the ancients probably had a method of preserving the sweetness, and by consequence the strongly inebriating quality of the gleukos for a long time.”

In the NT, oinos g3631 usually referred to fermented wine.  Lk.10:33-34 the good Samaritan poured oil and wine (oinos)…not grape juice…into the traveler’s wounds!  Red wine is an antiseptic.  Mt.9:17 Jesus said new wine (g3631) would cause brittle old wineskins to break (due to the fermentation process).

This topic is continued and concluded in “Wine or Grape Juice in Jesus’ Cup? (2)”.  In it, we’ll discuss concerns and symbolism of wine in Bible times, and when the use of grape juice for communion began.

Sacrifices and Burnt Offerings

We read of various sacrifices/offerings throughout the Old Testament (OT) history.  There were five main types of offerings.  They are described in Leviticus: #1 Burnt (ref Le.1, 6:8-13), #2 Grain (Le.2, 6:14-23), #3 Peace (Le.3, 7:11-34), #4 Sin (Le.4, 5:1-13, 6:24-30, 16:3-22), #5 Guilt/Trespass (Le.5:14-19, 6:1-7, 7:1-7).

This topic mostly discusses burnt offerings.  Peace offerings are discussed in the topic “Passover and Peace Offerings”.  Sin and guilt offerings, and blood sacrifice (and Christ’s sacrificial death) are discussed in “Day of Atonement (1)”.

New Age advocates have sought self-enlightenment through their own efforts, and ignore the necessary sacrifice of Jesus.  Most Islamics, Deists and other non-Christians also disregard His shed blood.

After mankind (Adam & Eve) sinned in the Garden of Eden, the only Way to God’s forgiveness and reconciliation was through shed lifeblood.  He.9:22 “Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”  Sin is atoned for by life/blood.

The first sin of Adam & Eve and the ramifications are discussed in the topic “Tree Symbolism in Scripture”.  Ge.3:7 “Then their [Adam & Eve] eyes were opened and they knew they were naked; they sewed fig leaves together and made loin coverings.”  Nakedness can be both physical and spiritual, being unclothed or symbolic of sin and shame.  Sin brought guilt and shame to their psyche.

Adam & Eve tried to cover their physical nakedness and their sin themselves with fig leaves.  Sewn fig leaves, or human devices/ways, are inadequate to cover sin.  Ge.3:21 “The Lord God made garments of skin [Strongs h5785, Hebrew] for Adam and his wife, and clothed [h3847] them.”  God Himself covered them with animal skins, perhaps leather garments of calfskin or kidskin.  In so doing, the Lord showed that to cover the nakedness symbolic of sin and their diminished condition, humans must be “clothed” by means of the death of another!  (also see “Skins Made For Adam Were Passed Down?”.)

After they sinned, Adam & Eve were expelled from the Garden, from God’s Presence (Ge.3:22-24).  The Way (cf. Ge.3:24, Ac.24:14, 22) back to the Presence would mainly be God’s doing and according to God’s plan, not man’s.  It continually required blood.

Most Bible teachers think those first skins were taken from an animal sacrifice.  It foreshadowed the (temporary) animal sacrificial system, and ultimately Jesus the Lamb of God’s perfect final sacrifice to cover or atone for humanity’s sins.  Cambridge Bible Ge.3:21 “The first mention of death among animals is implied in this provision for man’s clothing.”  Ellicott Commentary Ge.3:21 “Animals were killed even in Paradise….Adam must in some way, immediately after the fall, have been taught that without shedding of blood is no remission of sin, but that God will accept a vicarious sacrifice.”  JFB Commentary “This implies the institution of animal sacrifice, which was undoubtedly of divine appointment.”  It appears that animal sacrifice was an institution authored by God.

Throughout his life, Adam probably followed God’s example/lead or mimicked His action.  And Adam & Eve would’ve told their Garden experience to their sons Cain and Abel.

Consequently, Ge.4:3-5 “In the course of time, Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the ground. Abel brought the firstlings of his flock.”  This is the first offering (h4503 mincháh) recorded in the Bible.  Abel brought a burnt offering, less likely a peace offering.  Bible Bay Why Did People Sacrifice Animals? “Ge.4:3-5 Scholars tell us the Hebrew of the first phrase, ‘In the course of time’, suggests this offering of sacrifices was a recurring event.”  Perhaps, though we don’t read of God commanding offerings that early.  However, it’s very unlikely that Abel and Cain invented sacrifice on their own.

Abel must have known of and believed his parents’ Garden experience/covering, and he offered a lamb.  Gill Exposition Ge.4:5 “Firstlings of these, lambs were first brought forth.”  Barnes Notes Ge.4:5 “Blood was therefore shed, life was taken away.”  Cain brought a form of grain offering (no blood) from common produce he’d grown.  (After Adam’s sin, God had cursed his ground, Ge.3:17.)  He.11:4 “By faith, Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain. He [Abel] was approved as righteous.”  But Cain tried to atone via his own cultivation works.  (Adam/Eve had attempted fig leaves as covering.)  Cain murdered Abel, and wandered lost from God (Ge.4:6-16).

Knowledge of animal sacrifice was passed down from Adam and his other offspring to the generations of the antediluvian age.  After the Flood, history shows that ancient peoples practiced animal sacrifice.

Claude Mariottini Why Did God Ask For Animal Sacrifice? “The origins of animal sacrifice are lost in antiquity. As early as the 4^th millennium BC, animal sacrifices were offered in Egypt at the temples at Abýdos, Thebes, and On. Among the animals sacrificed were oxen, wild goats, geese, and even pigs. Babylon had centers of worship at Éridu, Níppur, Érech, Ur, and other places that can be dated from the 4^th and the 3^rd millenniums BC. Babylonian records give evidence of an elaborate system of worship and sacrifices at these temples. One document says that the animals offered in sacrifice by King Gudea included oxen, sheep, goats, lambs, and birds. As for animal sacrifice in the Bible, the biblical record is very clear that animal sacrifice goes back to the earliest days of biblical history. For instance, the garments of skins for Adam and Eve (Ge.3:21) were made from animals slain in sacrifice.”

The second animal sacrifice recorded in the Bible is in Ge.8:20-21.  After the Flood, Noah built an altar and offered burnt offerings…oláh h5930, Greek LXX holocaust g3646.  (The ground curse ended.)  Bible Encyclopedia: Burnt Offering “It was the most frequent form of sacrifice, and apparently the only one mentioned in the book of Genesis.”  (Again, it seems Abel’s sacrifice was a form of burnt offering.)

Animal sacrifice was continued by the post-Flood patriarchs.  Abram was from Mesopotámia (Ge.11:31).  Ge.12:7 & 13:4 Abram built an altar and called on the Lord.  Ge.13:18 Abram built another altar at a different location.  Ge.15:9-11, 17-18, here the Lord commanded a covenantal sacrifice from Abram.  This was the first single offering commanded by God in the Bible.  Ge.22:1-13 later the Lord told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering.  But God then substituted a ram in place of Isaac…the burning of human offspring/children as sacrifice wasn’t God’s will.

Ungodly peoples vainly sacrificed children at heathen temples, while drinking blood mixed with wine.  God strictly forbad sacrifices to idols and the human consumption of blood.  ref Ge.9:4, Le.7:26-27, 17:12, Ac.15:29.  see “Sacrifices To Idols and Romans 14”.  (After departing Egypt, even Israel would offer burnt & peace offerings to the golden calf idol they made, Ex.32:1-6.)

After Abraham died, Isaac built an altar and called upon the name of the Lord (Ge.26:25).  Ge.31:54-55 Jacob and his father-in-law Laban offered a sacrifice and shared a meal at Mizpáh in Gileád.  This is the first occurrence of the actual term sacrifice (h2077 zébach) in the Bible.  Later, Jacob sacrificed at Beersheba (Ge.46:1), enroute to Egypt to be with his son Joseph the Prime Minister.  Joseph’s father-in-law was an Egyptian priest at On/Heliópolis (Ge.41:44-45).

Jb.1:5 the patriarch Job offered burnt offerings at Uz in the East.  Family heads often served as priests.  Jb.42:8 the Lord commanded Job’s three friends to sacrifice a one-time burnt offering of bulls and rams (clean domestic animals).

Balaám was from Pethór on the Euphrates River in N. Mesopotamia.  Balák was the king of Moab.  Nu.23:1-4 Balaam & Balak sacrificed bulls and rams as burnt offerings.  Then God met with Balaam.

When the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt, the Lord had commanded Moses to tell Pharaoh that Israel must go offer sacrifices.  Ex.3:18 “The Lord God of the Hebrews has met with us; and now let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.”  Ex.10:25-27 Moses/Israel asked permission to go sacrifice burnt offerings (denied).  Ex.18:12 after the exodus, Moses’ father-in-law Jethró, the priest of Midián (Ex.18:1), made a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God.

Burnt offerings represented a tribute to God, submission to His will, and a desire to fellowship with Him.  An individual, recognizing that he is weak & commits sin, and wanting to renew his relationship with God, could generally give a burnt offering at any time.  In a basic sense, it made atonement for his sin nature (Le.1:4), but not for specific sins.  The Jewish Encyclopedia article Burnt Offering indicates that burnt offerings weren’t distinctively expiatory (unlike sin/guilt offerings).

Ex.20:24-26 Israelites would be allowed to erect individual altars for burnt & peace offerings.  Ex.24:4-8 “He [Moses] sent young men of Israel to offer burnt offerings and peace offerings.”  Moses sprinkled the blood of that offering on an altar at Mt. Sinai.  This was to ratify God’s Old Covenant with Israel.

Ex.29:38-43 the Lord instituted the daily morning & evening burnt offering, offered every day of the year at the tabernacle/temple.  A grain offering was required to accompany this twice-daily sacrifice.

Voluntary salted unleavened grain offerings (KJV “meat” offering is from the Middle English for grain/cereal/meal/food) accompanied other burnt & peace offerings.  Or grain offerings were brought alone by the poor.  But they didn’t accompany sin/guilt/trespass offerings.  (However, the Lord did allow the very poor to offer grain as a sin offering, Le.5:11.)  The priest ate a portion of the grain offerings (Le.2:3, 6:16.)  Perhaps grain symbolized God’s harvest blessings.

Nu.28–29 shows the extensive sequence of sacrifices that were to be repeated at the tabernacle/temple throughout the year and over the centuries.  Why Did God Require Animal Sacrifices in the Old Testament? “The animal served as a substitute—that is, the animal died in place of the sinner, but only temporarily, which is why the sacrifices needed to be offered over and over.”

Burnt offerings were from clean domestic animals…cattle, sheep, goats.  The poor could offer birds.  Le.1:1-17 the offerer slaughtered the animal.  The priest splashed/sprinkled the blood on the altar.  The animal was skinned and cut in pieces.  The priest arranged the pieces on the altar.  The entire animal was burned, except for the hide.  The priest kept the hide for himself.  Le.7:8 “The priest who presents any man’s burnt offering shall have the skin [h5285].” (cf. Adam)  None of the burnt offering was eaten.

De.27:4-7 entering the Holy Land after 40 years in the wilderness, Israel was to offer burnt & peace offerings on an altar at Mt. Ebál.  This was a renewal of the Old Covenant with burnt/peace offerings (Ex.24:5-7).

Simple common altars were allowed for the private worship of YHVH, if they weren’t made from stones cut by the hand of man (ref De.16:21 & Ex.20:25).  God honored the offering.  We read of them elsewhere in the OT.  Jg.6:19-21 supernatural fire consumed Gideón’s offering in the presence of the Messenger of the Lord.  Jg.13:18-21 the Messenger of YHVH ascended in the flame of Manóah’s (Samson’s father) offering.  God’s Messenger or Name was there for those two offerings.  (Ge.4:4-5 possibly fire had fallen on Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s.)

1Ch.21:26 fire from heaven fell upon the altar of David’s burnt & peace offerings on Mt. Moriáh at the site of Ornán’s/Araunáh’s threshing floor.  In 1Ki.18:30-39, fire fell from heaven and consumed Elijah’s burnt offering on an altar at Mt. Carmél.  God showed up!  (see “Fire From Heaven!”)

However, no Bible verse commands anyone to do recurring animal sacrifices away from the Lord’s tabernacle/temple…the place of God’s Name.  All sin and guilt offerings…and most burnt, grain and peace offerings…must be sacrificed at the altar of the tabernacle/temple.  That one altar with holy fire!  Those offerings there, and the altar, were most holy (ref Ex.40:10, Le.2:10, 6:17, 14:13).

Centuries later, the Lord sent the kingdoms of Israel and Judah into captivity for their disobedience; to Assyria and Babylon respectively.  Ezr.6:3-9 afterwards, the Jewish returnees to the Land from Babylon were to offer burnt offerings (h5928 Aramaic, v.9) at the altar of Zerubbabél’s temple in Jerusalem.

Burnt offerings were the most common type of sacrifice.  They may be voluntary korbán (h7133, ref Le.1:2-3), which was an offering in general for worship/fellowship with God.  But in Mk.7:9-13, Jesus criticized those Jews’ oral tradition…they dedicated/claimed that one’s wealth would pass to the temple, while using it selfishly until death.  Those Jews were claiming “It is korban” (Mk.7:11).  They tried to excuse themselves from using their means to rightly care for the needs of their elderly parents.

Again, only clean domestic animals (and clean birds) were allowed by God for sacrifices.  Clean wild animals/game, unclean creatures, and fish weren’t allowed.  Those cost the offerer comparatively nothing!  It is meaningful that sin and sacrifices exact a cost.  2Sm.24:24-25 David understood there should be a price to pay.  e.g. a more expensive animal, a ram, was required as a guilt offering to atone for a person or family’s intentional non-capital sin (Le.6:1-7).

The Jews continued to offer burnt offerings and other sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem, until it was destroyed in 70 AD.  Blood was sprinkled on the altar there.  The Old Covenant was a blood covenant (Ex.24:4-8).  Throughout OT times, blood was offered.

Then the promised Seed of the first woman (Ge.3:15) came to earth 2,000 years ago…and shed His perfect blood on the cross!  (see “Jesus’ Virgin Birth”.)  Jesus the Son of God died once for all mankind.  1Pe.1:18-19 Jesus’ precious blood!  Mt.27:50-51 the temple veil of separation tore at Jesus’ death.  Jesus entered into the Presence of God, into the greater and more perfect heavenly tabernacle, on our behalf.  ref He.9:8-16.

No more Old Covenant sacrifices are necessary!  The temple has been gone for 2,000 years.  After Father God watched His Son die on the cross, there’s no need to revert to inferior animal sacrifices!  They are finished.  Jesus fulfilled the burnt offerings…and all the OT sacrificial types.

{Sidelight: Le.14 is about cleansing the leper.  v.1-8 two (clean) birds and cedar wood were involved.  One bird was slain.  The live bird and the cedar wood were dipped in the blood of the slain bird.  The live bird was set free.  Then the priest sprinkled the leper with the blood.  The blood “cleansed” (g2511 LXX) the leper.  Even the typology of this ceremony to cleanse the leper is fulfilled.  The slain bird symbolized the blood of Jesus crucified.  The cedar wood symbolized His cross, and the live bird the resurrected Jesus.  (also ref the slain goat and the live goat in Le.16, discussed in “Day of Atonement (1)”.)  1Jn.1:7 we too are figuratively “cleansed” (g2511) from sin by His blood.}

1Co.11:23-25 the New Covenant is in Jesus’ blood.  He.13:20 we’re in this eternal Covenant.  Re.1:5 mankind is released from our sins by His blood.  Ep.1:7 “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.”  Col.1:20 the blood of the cross reconciles us to the Father and brings peace.  1Co.6:20 “You have been bought with a price.”  God paid the highest price to redeem us…His lifeblood (Ac.20:28)!  Jesus said in Jn.19:30, “It is finished”!

Adam & Eve were cast out of the Garden.  God provided them with clothing from an animal sacrifice.  Re.19:13 the garment of Jesus, our ultimate sacrifice, was stained with His own blood.  (Mt.27:35 the Roman soldiers even cast lots for His garment at His crucifixion.)  Animal sacrifices, including burnt offerings, are now unnecessary.

The separation from God is ended!  Jesus’ blood makes it possible for us to come before God and be in His Presence again (He.10:19)!  The blood of Christ is a must for our salvation!  There’s no other Way to God (contrary to New Age theories and false religions).  As the song goes…Don’t Forget The Blood!

Day of Atonement (2) – in Revelation

This Part 2 is a continuation of “Day of Atonement (1) – Sacrificial Blood”.  This topic’s foundational verses are addressed in Part 1.  Only the initial paragraphs from (1) are repeated here in (2).

In ancient Israel, the weekly 7^th day sabbath and the annual Day of Atonement (approximately Oct 1) were the only full sabbath days.  The Day of Atonement was the holiest day.  The Septúagint/LXX identifies the Day of Atonement as a double sabbath.  Le.23:26-32 LXX “On the 10^th day of the 7^th month is the day of atonement, holy to you. It is a perpetual precept throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a sabbath [Strongs g4521, Greek] of sabbaths [g4521].”  Le.16:29-31 LXX “On this day he [high priest] shall make atonement for you to cleanse you from all your sins before the Lord, and you shall be clean. It is a sabbath [g4521] of sabbaths [g4521] to you, and you shall afflict your souls [fast].”

Unlike God’s pilgrim temple feasts, the Day of Atonement (Yom Kíppur h3725, Hebrew) was kept in all their dwellings.  Jewish Virtual Library “The most important day of the year. It was said that even if all the other festivals were to be abrogated, the Day of Atonement…would remain.”  It was the Lord’s day.  And this annual double-sabbath was the only recurring day of fasting commanded by God.

Luke wrote in Ac.27:9, “Sailing was now dangerous, since the fast was already past”.  The Day of Atonement was then being observed within the Roman Empire.  Cambridge Bible “The fast here meant is that of the great Day of Atonement.”  Ellicott Commentary “The date may have been fixed on St Luke’s memory by St Paul’s observance of the Fast.”  The fact that Luke refers to it indicates the Day of Atonement was being kept by Jews, and probably by many Christians too, outside the Holy Land.  Adam Becker The Ways That Never Parted, p.268 “Gentile Christians from Syria-Palestine continued to celebrate Yom Kippur together with their Jewish neighbors until at least the 4^th century, as sermons by Origen and Chrýsostom prove.”  The Day of Atonement was a well-known occasion.

Some think John (a Jewish Christian) had been fasting when he received the book of Revelation.  John eats a scroll (Re.10:9-10), but no food is indicated.  Franklin Hall Glorified Fasting “The Revelation of Jesus Christ was given to John on the rugged Isle of Pátmos, where he’d been placed to starve to death. John converted his intended starvation into one of the greatest consecration fasts. Revelation of this kind almost always came to a prophet on an empty stomach.”  Also seen in Revelation, is atonement.

The Lord had instructed Moses/Israel in Le.25:8-10, “You shall sound the trumpet [LXX g4536] abroad on the 10^th day of the 7^th month, on the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet. You shall thus set apart the 50^th year as holy, and proclaim liberty throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof. It shall be a jubilee for you.”  The Day marked the jubilee special event.  (Part of this verse was inscribed on the Liberty Bell at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, PA in 1752 AD.)

I awakened the sabbath morning of May 7, 2016 with Isaiah 58 impressed on my mind.  The chapter is about a proper fast.  Is.58 was traditionally read in the synagogue on the Day of Atonement!  The Lord instructed the prophet Isaiah in Is.58:1, “Shout aloud, don’t hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to My people their transgression.”  Proclaim it loudly, like the sound of a ram’s horn, a shofár (h7782).  In Is.58:1, the Greek LXX trumpet is g4536 Strongs.  Is.58:1 refers to the Day of Atonement.

God continued in Is.58:2-3, “Yet they [Israel] seek Me daily. ‘Why have we fasted’, they say, ‘and You don’t see? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You don’t notice?”  Though they afflicted their souls on Yom Kippur (Le.16:29, 23:27, Nu.29:7), their fast was insincere.  Pulpit Commentary Is.58:3 “The fast spoken of is probably that of the great Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement was, like the sabbath, a day on which no work was to be done (Le.16:29).”  Ellicott Commentary Is.58:3 “Only one fast, the Day of Atonement, was prescribed by the Law.”  Benson Commentary Is.58:3 “Wherefore have we afflicted our soul’ – defrauded our appetites with fasting.”  To fast was to afflict one’s soul.

The Lord continued in Is.58:6, “Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen…?”  The Day of Atonement was set by the Lord.  Pulpit Commentary Is.58:6 “This passage stands like a homily for the Day of Atonement.”  God ordained it, not man.  It was the Lord’s day, quite unlike any other day!

We read in Le.25:9 and Is.58:1-ff that the trumpet sounded on the Day of Atonement (especially in the jubilee year).  It was the only double-sabbath day of the Lord.  It is present in the book of Revelation.

Re.1:9-11 “I, John…was on the island of Patmos. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet [g4536], saying, ‘Write in a book what you see.”  Notice the similarity to Le.25:9 and Is.58:1.  It was on this holiest day of the year, the Lord’s Day of Atonement fast, when the trumpet was loudly sounded (Le.25:9).  John hears Jesus’ voice loud like a trumpet on the Lord’s Day (Re.1:10), and Isaiah was to raise aloud his voice like a trumpet on this fast day (Is.58:1).

John told Jesus’ message to the seven churches of Asia Minor in Re.2–3.  Then John writes in Re.4:1-2, “After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice, which I had heard like a trumpet [g4536], said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things. A throne was set in heaven, and One sat on the throne.”  John sees the heavenly sanctuary!

There was only one day of each year when man was permitted entrance to the Most Holy Place of God’s tabernacle/temple sanctuary.  (ref Part 1.)  On the Day of Atonement the high priest was allowed to approach the Lord who dwelt between the chérubim atop the ark.  That Day the trumpet sounded; the priest saw the ark.  John wrote in Re.11:19, “The sanctuary of God was opened in heaven, the ark of His covenant appeared in His sanctuary”.  John too saw the ark (containing the Decalogue) on that Day.

God had said in Is.58:13, “If you will turn away your foot from the sabbath, from doing your interests on My holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord”.  Ellicott Commentary Is.58:13 “The sabbath is as holy ground.”  Matthew Poole Commentary Is.58:13 “Whether we understand it of the occasional sabbath in solemn humiliations or otherwise set apart for sacred services, which is called a sabbath, Le.16:31 [Day of Atonement].”  The sabbath fast of Yom Kippur was the most sacred day.

Matthew Henry Commentary Is.58:14 “Even in Old Testament times the sabbath was called the Lord’s Day, and is fitly called so still; and for a further reason, it is the Lord Christ’s day, Re.1:10.”  Matthew Henry identified “the Lord’s Day” of Re.1:10 as a sabbath.

Whereas John refers to Sunday as the “first of the week” (Jn.20:1, 19)…not “the Lord’s day” of Re.1:10.  The Lord’s Day…“My holy day”…was a sabbath.  (also see the topics, “Sabbath 7^th Day” and “Sabbath Day Became Sunday in Rome”.)

Wikipedia “The shofar is blown in synagogues at the end of every Yom Kippur. The Rabbis created the practice of the Shofar’s sounding every Yom Kippur rather than just on the Jubilee (once in 50 years).”

Yet that Lord’s Day sabbath of Re.1:10 may have been an actual Jubilee Day of Atonement!

The prophet Ezekiel recorded years by counting from their captivity and/or the jubilee year.  Each new jubilee cycle was proclaimed by a trumpet sounding on the 10^th day of the 7^th month…Yom Kippur.

Ezekiel wrote in Ezk.1:1-2, “In the 30^th year…I was by the river Chebár among the exiles. In the 5^th year of King Jehoiachín’s exile, the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar.”  ref 2Ki.24:10-16.  The river Chebar in N. Mesopotámia flows into the Euphrates.  King Jehoiachin/Jeconiáh/Coniah and Judah were taken captive by Babylon in 597 BC.  Jewish Virtual Library “In the winter of 597 BCE Nebuchadnézzar exiled him.”  The 5^th year of exile was 592 BC.

Later Ezk.40:1-3, “In the 25^th year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the 10^th of the month in the 14^th year after the city was taken, on that same day the hand of the Lord was upon me. In the visions of God He brought me into the Land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain.”  The previous civil year ended as the new year began near the autumnal equinox (Sep 20), see Ex.23:16 & Ex.34:22.  New Year’s Day was Rosh Hashánah, the 1^st day of the 7^th month Tíshri.  The 10^th of the month was the Day of Atonement (followed by the Feast of Ingathering/Booths).  Jerusalem was destroyed in 587-586 BC.

God gave Ezekiel visions on that jubilee Day of Atonement!  The year was 573-572 BC.  Ezekiel was fasting.  The “30^th year” prior to Ezk.1:1 was the previous jubilee of 622 BC.  Barnes Notes Ezk.40:1 “If that was a jubilee year, which is highly probable, this vision also falls in a jubilee year. The jubilee year began with the month of Tishri, a sufficient reason for speaking of the time as ‘the beginning of the year.’ The 10^th day of this month was the day of atonement, Le.16:29-30.”  The civil year (not the sacred year) began on Tishri 1.  Geneva Study Bible Ezk.40:1 “This is to be understood as September.”  Rodger C. Young The Jubilee and Sabbatical Cycles “The prophet Ezekiel, aware that the Day of Atonement in his 25^th year of captivity would mark the beginning of a year of Jubilee….”  Jacob Milgrom Ezekiel’s Hope “The probable reference of the ‘25^th year’ to the jubilee year, which begins in the fall (Le.25:9).”  622 – 50 = 572.

Chronology of Jubilees “It can more firmly be established that Ezekiel could have received his vision of a new Temple around the time of a 50^th year of a 50-year cycle. Essentially, the year 572 BC hypothetically did correspond with around the time of a jubilee year.”  Yom Kippur proclaimed jubilee.

rootsweb.ancestry.com Ezekiel 1:1-2 & Ezekiel 40:1 “The final year or the Jubilee year which began on the 10^th day of the 7^th month on the 49^th year and then concluded with the 50^th year. Now one should be able to see that if the 5^th year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity was in fact the 30^th year of the Jubilee count and that 20 years passes that it would then be the 50^th year or the Jubilee year in which King Jehoiachin’s 25^th year of captivity came to pass as the scripture gives note.”  Ezekiel noted it.

The remainder of the book of Ezekiel, chapters 40–48, consists of the awe-inspiring visions God gave beginning on that Day of Atonement fast!  Pulpit Commentary Ezk.40:1 “Of the prophet’s [Ezekiel’s] utterances, it was beyond question the grandest and most momentous.”  Given him on that Lord’s Day.

Similarly, it seems the awesome visions which John recorded in Revelation came on the Day of Atonement, centuries later!  The day wasn’t just some Sunday.  Continuing in Ezk.40 are verses which compare with Revelation.  Ezk.40:2 & Re.21:10 both Ezekiel and John envisioned a very high mountain.  Ezk.40:3 & Re.11:1 both Ezekiel and John envisioned a measuring rod.

Also on Yom Kippur, God executed His judgment of His people, sealing the verdict.  Again Re.4:1 “I saw a door standing open in heaven.”  That was between the Holy Place and Most Holy Place on the Day of Atonement.  v.2 John sees the throne inside the Most Holy Place on that Day.

Re.8:1-3 “When He [Jesus the Lamb] broke the 7^th seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him to offer with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne.”  (He.9:3-5 describes the earthly sanctuary type of the heavenly. “There was a sanctuary called the Holy of Holies, having a golden altar/[censer] of incense and the ark of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim….”)

Continuing with Re.8:4-5, “The smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints went up before God. And the angel took the censer and he filled it with the fire of the altar and threw it to the earth [Land].”  The high priest took a golden censer into the Holy of Holies only on the annual day of atonement.

Following is Isaac Newton’s commentary tying Re.8:1-5 to the Day of Atonement…William Whitla Sir Isaac Newton’s Daniel and the Apocalypse, p. 314-315: “The 7^th seal was therefore opened on the day of expiation [day of atonement], and then ‘there was silence in heaven for half an hour. And an angel (High-Priest) stood at the altar having a golden censer; and there was given him incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints, upon the golden altar which was before the throne.’ The custom was….while he offered the incense, the people prayed without in silence, which is the silence in heaven for half an hour. When the High-Priest had laid the incense on the Altar, he carried a Censer of it burning in his hand, into the most holy place be­fore the Ark. ‘And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.”

But in Re.8:5, the angel overturns the golden censer, to pour out God’s judgments upon the Land!  The Lord chooses to ignore prayers of Judah, and refuses the atonement.  Ellicott Commentary Re.8:5 “As in the parallel vision in Ezk.10:2 when the man clothed with linen is bidden to ‘go in between the wheels, even under the cherub, and fill his hand with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the doomed city’; so here the ashes fall—the judgments are at hand.”  The doomed city in Ezk.10:2 also is Jerusalem (ref Ezk.8–11).  Jerusalem previously was destroyed in 586 BC.

Again, the ark in the Holiest Place was seen by man only on the Day of Atonement.  Re.11:19 – John Tudor Church of England Quarterly Review “The temple of God is then opened, and the ark of his testament seen, 11:19; and the voice issues from the throne, 16:17; both expressions equally denoting the holy of holies, which was only en­tered once a year….All the imagery in this poem was taken from the Day of Atonement—the golden censer, the incense, the deep affliction, the temple opened, and the ark seen indicating the opening of the veil on the day of atone­ment.”  Now let’s go to Re.15….

Re.15:5 “The tabernacle of the testimony is opened.”  God’s testimony was the Decalogue (Ex.31:18).  It was written on two tablets and contained in the ark, which was in the Holy of Holies.  The Lord’s judgment is based upon His commandments and principles.

Re.15:6 angels therein are clothed with linen (g3043).  Only on the Day of Atonement could the high priest enter the Holiest Place clothed in linen holy garments (Le.16:4, 23, 32 LXX), not his everyday priestly attire.  Matthew Poole Commentary Re.15:6 “These angels came in the habit of high priests.”

Blood was carried into the Most Holy Place.  The high priest sprinkled the blood of atonement seven times on the altar of incense before the Lord (Le.16:19).  But in Re.15:7, angels representative of the high priest have seven bowls filled with the blood-red wine of…the wrath of God (cf. Re.14:10)!

Re.15:8 “And the sanctuary was filled with smoke.”  A cloud or smoke-screen had protected, in a sense, the high priest in the sanctuary, lest he die (Le.16:12-13).  This event occurred only on Yom Kippur.

Then in Re.16, God executes His verdict/judgment.  Rosh Hashanah and the Days of Awe Lead to the Time of Judgment “Yom Kippur. That’s when the judgment falls.”  The bowls containing God’s blood-red wrath…are poured out upon the Land!  Re.16:3-5 two angels pour out their bowls; the sea, rivers, springs became blood!  Josephus Wars of the Jews 3:10:9 “The lake [of Gennesarét] is all bloody, and full of dead bodies.”  That was the Sea of Galilee during the Roman-Jewish War of 66–70 AD.

Peter J. Leithart Atonement Inverted (9/25/2015) “Though the Jews who killed Christians think they are doing service to God, this offering is rejected, and the blood is instead poured out on the land.  Instead of cleansing the land, this rejected atonement pollutes it.”

This inversion atones for the innocent blood shed in the Land.  Re.16:6-7 “For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and Thou have given them blood to drink. They got what they deserved.”  Blood for blood.  The blood of martyrs is figuratively poured back upon the guilty Land, defiled with blood.

In Mt.23, Jesus had prophesied woes upon the Jewish leaders who opposed Him.  Mt.23:33-37 “You serpents, you brood of vipers. Upon you shall come the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on the earth [Land]. Truly I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets.”  The Lord declared His judgment upon those responsible for the blood of righteous Israelites & Jewish Christians.  It happened.

Le.24:17 “If a man takes the life of any human being, he shall surely be put to death.”  The lifeblood of man atones for the blood of man.

Atonement makes possible the reconciliation of man, and even God’s creation, to God.  It involves His judgment.  Nu.35:33-34 “You shall not pollute the Land in which you are; for blood pollutes the Land and no expiation can be made for the Land for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it. You shall not defile the Land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell.”

Leithart op. cit. “Here [in Re.16], the blood of the saints is poured out on the land, and calls up an avenger of blood who will bring the blood of the killers to return on their own heads.”

Centuries earlier, the Lord had denied the atonement for the northern kingdom of Israel.  He sent them into captivity to Assyria in 721 BC.  Later, the Lord denied the atonement for the southern kingdom of Judah.  He sent them into captivity to Babylon; Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC.  Likewise, the Lord denied the atonement for Judah after Jesus was crucified.  Titus destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD.  For more on this aspect of God’s justice, see the topic “Babylon the Great’ in Revelation”.

In conclusion…the book of Revelation, the judgment of God and the wrath of the Lamb (Re.6:16-17, Lk.23:28-30) may seem severe.  But God is just and fair.

The good news for Israel is…Israel and the Jewish people can be re-grafted in!  The apostle Paul wrote in Ro.11:21-26, “Behold the kindness and severity of God. If they [Israel] don’t continue in their unbelief…God is able to graft them in again. And thus all Israel shall be saved.”

“All Israel” includes the Jews.  Paul didn’t know dates…but in God’s good time.  The Lord loves the Jewish people.  As discussed in Part 1, Christ’s atoning blood applies to all peoples, through faith (Ro.3:23-25).  And the final chapters of Revelation are the silver lining after the storm.  Praise the Lord!

Day of Atonement (1) – Sacrificial Blood

Atonement has to do with expiation for sin and reconciliation with a holy God.  In this topic we’ll preview the gospel of salvation through the Old Testament (OT) Day of Atonement and sin offerings.

In ancient Israel, only the weekly 7^th day sabbath and the annual Day of Atonement (approximately Oct 1) were full sabbath days.  The Day of Atonement was the holiest day.  The Septúagint/LXX identifies the Day of Atonement as a double sabbath.  Le.23:26-32 LXX “On the 10^th day of the 7^th month is the day of atonement, holy to you. It is a perpetual precept throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a sabbath [Strongs g4521, Greek] of sabbaths [g4521].”  Le.16:29-31 LXX “On this day he [high priest] shall make atonement for you to cleanse you from all your sins before the Lord, and you shall be clean. It is a sabbath [g4521] of sabbaths [g4521] to you; you shall afflict your souls [fast].”

The Lord Christ authorized His OT pilgrim feasts to be kept only in the environs of the tabernacle or temple; ref De.16:5-6, 15-16.  (see “Feasts of the Lord and the Jews”.)  Unlike the temple feasts, the Day of Atonement (Yom Kíppur, in Hebrew) was to be kept in all their dwellings.  Luke wrote in Ac.27:9, “Sailing was now dangerous, since the fast was already past”.  The Day of Atonement was then being observed within the Roman Empire.  Benson Commentary “The fast here spoken of was the day of atonement.”  Cambridge Bible “The fast here meant is that of the great Day of Atonement.”  Ellicott Commentary “The date may have been fixed on St Luke’s memory by St Paul’s observance of the Fast.”  The fact that Luke refers to it indicates the Day was being kept by Jews, and probably by many Christians too, outside the Holy Land.  Adam Becker The Ways That Never Parted, p.268 “Gentile Christians from Syria-Palestine continued to celebrate Yom Kippur together with their Jewish neighbors until at least the 4^th century, as sermons by Origen and Chrýsostom prove.”

Some Christians today still honor the day.  Pastor Don Finto said on Sunday 9/15/2007, “The [upcoming] Day of Atonement is the holiest day of the year”.  Benny Hinn “Join Pastor Benny Hinn in fasting on the Day of Atonement on Monday 9/28/2009.”  Those pastors aren’t Jewish.

The Day of Atonement (h3725 kippur) is also known as Yom Kippur by Jews.  Yom Kippur means ‘day of covering’.  Sins were covered by blood on Yom Kippur.  Let’s look at forgiveness in the OT:

At the annual temple service, Yom Kippur was the national sin offering day for ancient Israel.  Blood was brought into the Most Holy Place by the high priest (Le.16:14-16) only on this holiest day of the year.  The Lord commanded a fast on this day (Le.23:27).  The offerer wasn’t authorized to eat his own sin offering (Le.6:30)!  The slain goat wasn’t eaten (Le.16:27).  It is appropriately a day of fasting.  (This was unlike the Passover animals, which were peace offerings, not sin offerings.  The spring Passover sacrifice from the flock and herd, De.16:2-3, was eaten.  see “Passover and Peace Offerings”.)

The Lord said in Le.17:11, “The life [or soul, h5315 néphesh] of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls. The blood by reason of the life makes atonement.”  Blood is the principal carrier of life in the body.  De.12:23 “The blood is the life [soul].”  Ge.9:4 “Its life [soul h5315], that is, the blood.”  The lifeblood.

Sin is so serious…God required the death of His creatures, clean domestic animals, to expiate lesser (menial) human sin.  Sin kills.  Sin offerings were accepted at the tabernacle/temple during the year.

Blood was necessary for forgiveness, to atone.  Le.4:1, 2-35 shows sin offerings for unintentional sins.  Le.4:11-12, He.13:11 the animal was afterwards burned, not eaten.  Le.5:1-19 shows sin/guilt/trespass offerings.  These were for sins of ignorance, omission, and against holy things.  (Le.5:11-13 the poor may offer birds…or grain.  He.9:22 “Almost all things are cleansed by blood.”  But not quite all…God allowed the very poor, who didn’t have an animal/bird or couldn’t pay for one, to offer grain.)

Le.6:1-7, 19:20-22 shows intentional sins (and the guilt/trespass offering).  They’re more serious than unintentional, accidental or inadvertent sins.  But these sins in Le.6 also aren’t capital sins.

Individuals made sin/guilt offerings during the year…but they weren’t made for unknown (secret) sins.

Le.16 reflects the annual Day of Atonement service for the nation of ancient Israel as a whole.  It was a day of national repentance.  Only on this most solemn day was the high priest allowed into the Holiest Place behind the veil.  To atone for Israel’s sins, known and unknown, the Lord required that blood be sprinkled at the mercy seat on the Ark of the testimony.  To avert God’s wrath.  So that Israel could be forgiven, remain the people among whom God dwelt, and not be sent into captivity or cease as a nation.

The Lord instructed Moses/Israel in Ex.30:10, “Aaron shall make atonement…on it [altar of incense in Holy Place] with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once a year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord.”  This was the holiest ceremony of the year.  God is very holy; He won’t dwell with sin!  He.9:7 refers to the Day of Atonement. “Only the high priest enters, once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance.”

In the annual service, the high priest first atoned for his own sins with the blood of a bull, Le.16:11-14.  Two goats were involved in the ceremony, for the people.  The high priest offered the blood of one goat (v.15-19).  Then he laid his hands on the head of the second goat and transferred the sins, iniquities and transgressions of the people onto this goat.  The goat, bearing all their wrongs, was released alive into the wilderness (v.20-22).  One goat was slain to atone, the second lived to carry away their sins.  David wrote in Ps.103:12, “As far as east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us”.

But there was no animal blood sacrifice/substitute to expiate major capital sins!  The penalty for capital offenses was death, upon the testimony of two witnesses (De.17:6-7, 2Co.13:1).  From personal, and circumstantial, evidence.  Capital sins are, e.g….murder, adultery, kidnapping, blasphemy, false witness in capital cases.  Also Nu.15:28-31, the person who rebelliously defied God and despised His word was utterly cut off.  No sacrifice for these sins.  The prescribed penalty was death without mercy (He.10:28).  Though usually a commensurate fine was instead paid, except in cases of 1^st degree murder, Nu.35:31.

For capital wrongs, the sinner’s own blood is required by a just God.  Harvard University’s Jacob Neusner Judaism When Christianity Began, p.153, 158 “Offerings then expiate those sins which are not committed as an act of rebellion against God. The ones that embody an attitude of rebellion, by contrast, cannot be expiated through the surrogate, the blood of the beast, but through the sinner, who is put to death by the court or is flogged by the court’s agents or is cut off in the prime of life. So God sees into man’s heart….Above all, death marks the final atonement for sin.”

The end of a person’s biological life, death, is the consequences of sin for everyone (eventually).  De.24:16 “Everyone shall be put to death for his own sin.”  (cf. Ro.6:23 “The wages of sin is death.”)

The Day of Atonement service reflected the highest mediatorial work of the high priest (Encyclopedia of the Bible).  This OT service did remove sins and “sent them away”…but it didn’t remove the sin nature from people’s hearts (He.10:1-4).

Along with animal sacrifices for sins, a sequence of repentance, confession, restitution was required for forgiveness (cf. Le.6:1-7).  This mindset/action was concurrent with the ‘work’ of doing sacrifices.  Philo The Special Laws 1:43:236 “Pardon shall be given to such a man…by works.”

It wasn’t choosing one or the other!  But today there’s no temple at which to expiate (lesser) sins.  Many (non-Christian) Jews have said the non-sacrificial elements alone are sufficient to cover sin.  But that’s not what the word of God reveals and requires!  Without a physical temple, what did the Lord provide as a just blood substitute to expiate sins?  (To pay the penalty for, or to make amends.)

Is.53:1-12 reflected a prophesied future sinless human sacrifice.  v.12 “He poured out His life [soul h5315] unto death…He bore the sins of many.”  This will be Jesus.  Benson Commentary “He willingly laid down His life.”  JFB Commentary “His life, which was considered as residing in the blood.”

Paul wrote in 1Co.15:3-4, “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried and was raised.”  He.4:14-15 Jesus, our great high priest in the order of Melchisedek, was sinless.  1Pe.1:18-19 Christ’s precious lifeblood redeemed mankind.  He.9:28 “Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many.”

Jesus bore our sins on the cross.  He died…and yet He lives at Father God’s right hand in heaven (Ac.2:32-33).  The OT type was in the Day of Atonement temple service…the one goat was slain, and the second scapegoat or escape-goat bore Israel’s sins and lived (Le.16:21-22).  They pictured Christ who died, was resurrected, and now lives!

The New Testament writers and early Jewish Christians had faith that Yeshúa’s (Jesus’) sacrifice was sufficient to cover their sins.  We don’t read of them bringing any offerings for sin or guilt to the temple, which existed until 70 AD.  (Nu.6:13-21 the sacrifices for voluntary vows did include a sin offering, cf. Ac.21:23-26.)  Jesus’ sinless Divine life (via the virgin birth) is worth more than the sum of all human lives…and much more than animals’ lives!  His blood is enough.  see “Jesus’ Virgin Birth”.

But “Jesus” isn’t a name magically invoked, and then we merely return to willingly commit more sins or carelessly ignore God’s laws that identify sin…the violation of which animal sacrifice was required by Christ for forgiveness in the OT.  That kind of cheap grace, so-called, is a sham.  We’re to obey the Lord.  God gives the indwelling Holy Spirit, enabling us to overcome the sin nature (Ro.8:4-14).

What about the more serious capital sins for which death was prescribed, upon the testimony of two witnesses?  e.g. 2Sm.12:7-14 no animal blood could atone for David’s adultery, murder and despising of God’s word (Nu.15:30-31)!  Whether or not witnesses came forward…the Lord knew what David had done.  Neither the Day of Atonement sacrifice, nor an individual sin offering, could expiate David’s major sin!  Only David’s own life, or the life of a sinless human victim, could atone/substitute.

2Sm.12:15-18, 24 David’s capital sins were covered by the death of his innocent newborn son.  The baby was sinless, knowing no sin which later would be atoned by his own death.  The Lord chose to take his life in place of David’s life.  This little one was a type of Christ, if you will.  David was forgiven.

2Co.5:19-21 “He [God] made Him [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf.”  Christ became that which He did not know.  Jesus was completely sinless.  He’d committed no sins for which His own death on the cross must atone.  His life as Creator God (Jn.1:1-3, He.1:2) is worth more than the sum of all our lives…so Jesus’ sacrificial death was sufficient to atone for our sins in the eyes of God.  (Though we all still die physically, we’ll live forever in eternal life!  see “Life After Death – for Saints”.)

Ac.13:38-39 “Through Him [Jesus] forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him all who believe are justified in all things from which you couldn’t be justified by the Law of Moses.”  Capital sins couldn’t be justified by the Yom Kippur goats or sin offerings, according to the Law of Moses.

Matthew Poole Commentary Ac.13:39 “There were some sins which by the ceremonial law there was no sacrifice appointed for.”  Major sins/crimes.  Matthew Henry Commentary “By Jesus Christ we obtain a complete justification; for by him a complete atonement was made for sin.”

After our belief, confession of sin, and repentance…through Christ’s sacrifice we stand justified from all kinds/categories of sin.  We’re not condemned by God.  Pulpit Commentary “Upon the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, a free and full forgiveness of sins to all that repent and believe the gospel.”

Reading through the chapters of Hebrews 9–10 will provide a more complete understanding.  They go into more detail about Jesus’ sacrifice as related to the Day of Atonement.

We’ve all sinned.  Christ is our atonement or propitiation through His blood.  Ro.3:23-26 “He [God] passed over our sins previously committed.”  We receive the gift of total expiation for all sins we’d done.  Ro.5:8-9 “Much more then, having now been justified by His [Christ’s] blood, we shall be saved from God’s wrath [condemnation] through Him.”

Human courts may (justly) condemn a criminal to physical death.  But upon repentance and belief in Christ’s sacrifice, the condemned man stands un-condemned by God.  Thank You, Lord!

Lk.23:39-43 shows that a criminal, condemned by the courts, can be forgiven and be with the Lord.  Unrepentant thieves, kidnappers, murderers, adulterers, haters of God, etc. won’t inherit the Kingdom of God, 1Co.6:9-10.  v.11 “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”  All the repentant who believe in His sacrifice!

Ro.8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  No eternal condemnation.  Jesus/Yeshua has atoned for all our sins.

Ti.2:11-14 “The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.”  Gentiles too can be redeemed from all wrongs and be saved!  People who didn’t know of Yom Kippur.

1Jn.1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us.”  Our confession is still required, including sins and transgressions in the future.

The song title has it…Nothing But The Blood of Jesus.  Christ’s precious blood/life/soul is our atonement…even for capital offenses repented of (such as David’s)!

Jesus fulfills both atonement goats of Yom Kippur.  (For that matter, He fulfills the Passover, the burnt offerings, etc….Christ fulfills all the OT sacrificial types.  also see “Sacrifices and Burnt Offerings”.)

Father God saw Christ’s atoning blood poured out.  God’s justice has been upheld.  We stand reconciled to the Father.  The ancient Day of Atonement service and sin offerings foreshadowed the real living gospel…the gospel of eternal salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord!  He is the propitiation, the appeasing, the atonement, for the sins of the whole world (1Jn.2:2).

This topic is continued in “Day of Atonement (2) – in Revelation”.

Jesus’ Virgin Birth

There are some who teach the New Testament (NT), but don’t fully believe a basic gospel truth…the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.  That includes some who have knowledge of Bible Hebrew and Greek.

There was uncertainty about Jesus’ birth in 1^st century Judaism.  The Jews said to Jesus/Yeshúa in Jn.8:41, 48 “We weren’t born from sexual immorality. You’re a Samaritan and have a demon.”  Those disbelieving Jews implied that Jesus was racially variant and demented.  There was hostility between Jews and the mongrel Samaritan people.  Samaritans resembled Jews but were considered imposters.  v.42-44 Jesus’ reply was, He came from God and the father of those Jews was the devil.

In 178 AD, the Greek philosopher Célsus spread the false Jewish story that a Roman soldier called Pantéra (‘panther’) had an affair with Mary, and was Jesus’ biological father.  Rabbinic writings of the Middle Ages called Jesus/Yeshua, ‘Yeshu ben Pantera’.  Let’s see what the Bible says about Jesus’ birth.

The supposed parents of Jesus, Joseph and Mary, were Galileans betrothed.  But they hadn’t yet come together.  God sent the angel Gabriel to inform Mary in Lk.1:26-34. “You will bear a Son, and you shall name Him Jesus [Yeshua]. He will be the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.’ Mary replied, ‘How can this occur, since I’m a virgin?”  Mary hadn’t had sexual relations with Joseph or any other man.

Mary went to visit her pregnant aunt Elizabeth for 3 months, 75 miles to the south (Lk.1:36-56).  When Mary returns to Galilee, Joseph sees she is 3–4 months pregnant.  What?!  Mt.1:18-19 “She was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit [HS]. Joseph, being a just man, didn’t want to disgrace her publically, so he intended to divorce her privately.”  Divorce annulled a betrothal.  If a betrothed woman has sexual relations with another man, it was adultery (De.22:13-14, 20-27).  Although stoning for adultery was a neglected law, Joseph could have thrown the first stone (De.17:7).  Or Joseph could put Mary away privately by giving her a writ of divorce (De.24:1), and paying the legal cost.

Before Joseph could divorce her, an angel came to him in a dream.  Mt.1:20-21 “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the One conceived in her is by the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son and you shall name Him Jesus [Yeshua], for He will save His people from their sins.”  Joseph knew then that Mary hadn’t been impregnated by another man.  And Mary knew she hadn’t.

Gabriel had also informed Mary 3–4 months earlier in Lk.1:35. “The angel [Gabriel] said, ‘The Holy Spirit will come, and the power of The Highest will overshadow you [Mary]; therefore the Holy One to be born shall be called Son of God.”  Orthodox Study Bible Lk.1:35 “Note the revelation of the Holy Trinity: The Father (The Highest), the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”  The Father overshadows the HS upon Mary, and God’s Son Jesus is conceived.  Chinese preacher Witness Lee was part of the Christian work started by Watchman Nee.  Lee’s Living With and In the Divine Trinity, p.39 “Lk.1:35 shows the Holy Spirit coming upon Mary…the Most High, God the Father, overshadows Mary…and the birth of the holy thing, the Son of God. Thus the entire Divine Trinity was involved in the conception.”  The Son was conceived into Mary by His Parents, who are God!  (See the topics “Holy Spirit versus Mariolatry”, “Holy Spirit Personification”, and “Holy Spirit’s Identity”.)

Jesus was Fathered by God Most High.  Jesus said in Jn.16:28, “I came forth from the Father”.  Mary gave birth to Jesus, and her husband Joseph became Jesus’ legal father.  Lk.3:23 “Jesus, supposedly the son of Joseph.”  Joseph wasn’t Jesus’ biological father.  Mary & Joseph both knew that Joseph didn’t father Jesus.  Mt.1:24-25 Joseph married her and “kept her a virgin until she gave birth to Jesus”.  Jesus was carried and birthed by a virgin, Mary/Miriam.

Father God is Jesus’ Father.  Jesus referred to Himself as the Child of Wisdom (Lk.7:35), His Mother.  In the NT, nowhere did Jesus call Mary, “mother”!  Jesus referred to the surrogate Mary tenderly as “woman”.  Jn.2:4 “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what have I to do with you?”  Jn.19:26 “When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold your son!”  John and other writers customarily referred to Joseph & Mary as Jesus’ father & mother, his parents.  But Jesus didn’t.  Jesus indicated His Mother is Wisdom, the HS.  (Connect in order seven verses to identify the HS: Jl.2:28a, Pr.1:20, 23, De.34:9a, Nu.27:18, Mt.1:18b, Lk.7:35.)

Father God didn’t somehow have sexual relations with Mary, who was engaged to the man Joseph (Mt.1:18).  It would’ve been adultery to have relations with a married or betrothed woman.  De.22:23-27 God’s penalty for such adultery was severe!  Needless to say, Father God (or the HS) didn’t commit adultery!  Furthermore, Mary was of a different kind…she was of the human kind, not the Godkind.  Father God is Spirit, not flesh (Jn.4:23-24).  The term incubus pertains to a spirit having sex with a human woman.  Heathen mythological gods, such as Zeus/Jupiter, had sex with mortal women and produced offspring.  Le.20:15-16 the penalty for beastiality (sex with a different kind) was death!

Jesus was fully God in the flesh…both His Father and Mother are God!  The womb of Mary, the “woman” as Jesus called her, served to form Him in the flesh to become the God–Man.  The 300s AD Apostles Creed has it: “I believe in Jesus Christ, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary.”  Mary birthed Jesus.  Paul knew of the virgin birth, writing in Ga.4:4, “God sent forth His Son, born of a woman”.  We already read where Matthew and Luke knew.

In Mk.6:3, Mark calls Jesus the “son of Mary”.  A matrilineal reckoning isn’t the usual practice seen in scripture.  So it seems Mark also knew of the virgin birth.  Jesus in the flesh most often referred to Himself as the Son of Man/humanity/ánthropos (Strongs g444, Greek)…not the Son of Male/áner (g435).

The first Bible prophecy is Ge.3:15, where God told the serpent, “I will put hostility between your seed and her seed”.  Her seed, not the male Adam’s.  Yet Bible genealogies are almost always patrilineal, not through females.  (e.g. Ac.16:1-3 Timothy hadn’t been circumcised because his father was Greek.)

The prophecy of Is.7:14 foretold the Lord’s virgin birth. “The Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold! The virgin shall be with child and she will call His name Emmanuel.”  The “Lord Himself” would be the sign!  (also ref Ge.22:8, “God Himself the lamb”.)  And a pregnant virgin would be so remarkable…something to “behold”!  Whereas a non-virgin who is with child is commonplace; it happens every day in every city.  It seems Is.7:14 cannot refer to King Hezekiah.  When Isaiah visited King Aház (Is.7:3-14-ff) and spoke of the future virgin birth of the Child, Hezekiah was already 8 years old or so (when Ahaz was age 20–21).  cf. 2Ki.16:2, 18:2.

The Greek term translated as “virgin” in the Septúagint/LXX Is.7:14 is parthénos (g3933).  In Greek, this term meant virgin.  The temple shrine of the mythological Greek virgin goddess Athena in Athens was called the Parthenon.  LXX Ge.24:16 of Rebekah, “She was a virgin [parthenos], no man had known her”.  LXX Jg.21:12 “Young virgins [parthenos] who had not known a man by lying with him.”

Matthew quoted the old Greek in his Mt.1:22-23 passage about Mary’s virgin pregnancy. “This was done to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, ‘Behold! The virgin [parthenos LXX] shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, meaning “God (is) with us.”  Yeshua/Jesus is God.  (see “Jesus Is God…Jesus Has A God”.)

Another prophecy about Jesus is Je.23:5-6. “Declares the Lord, ‘I will raise up for David a righteous Branch. He will reign as King. This is The Name by which He will be called, “YHVH our righteousness.”  Jeremiah indicated the Branch/Messiah will be both a descendant of David and…YHVH/God!  Je.30:9 “They will serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.”  The Messiah was referred to as David or the son of David (e.g. Lk.18:38).

Also Is.9:6-7, “A Child will be born to us. His name will be called Wonderful, Mighty God…on the throne of David forevermore.”  As Is.7 & Je.23, the Child to rule as ‘God with us’, on David’s throne.

Note: Other subjects connected to the virgin birth are the Davidic covenant (it’s not the Solomonic), the so-called curse of Jeconiah (some think Zedekiah is meant), Jesus’ genealogy.  see “Jesus’ Genealogy”.

Fathers name their own sons.  Mt.1:21 God chose the name Yeshua/Iesoús/Jesus for the Son of God.  The name wasn’t of Joseph or Mary’s own choosing.  The Greek name Iesous/Jesus is from the Hebrew Yehoshúa/Joshua (h3091), meaning ‘salvation’.  “He will save His people from their sins.”  Nu.13:16 “Moses called Hoshéa the son of Nun, Yehoshua [h3091 Joshua].”  The name Yeshua/(Iesous/Jesus) is the shortened form of the name of Moses’ successor in the Old Testament (OT), Yehoshua/Joshua.  They had the same name.  And phonetically, Jesus the Savior also was a ‘son of Nun/none’, since He wasn’t the son of human parents in the normal sense!

We see in Zec.6:11-13 another OT type who had the same name as Jesus. “Make an ornate crown and set it on the head of Jehoshua [Joshua, LXX Iesous/Jesus] the high priest. Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Behold a man whose name is the Branch.”  Around 520 BC, God raised up a high priest whose name was the same name the Branch/Messiah would have (ref Je.23:5).  God had predetermined to name the Son of God…Yeshua/Jesus!  (See the topic “Savior’s Name in Bible Languages”.)

1Jn.4:9 “God has sent His only begotten Son into the world.”  Jesus is the monogenés (g3439) Son, the unique one-of-a-kind Son of the Most High.  He had heavenly genes, if you will.  Jesus is Deity!  He.1:8 “Of the Son, ‘Thy throne, O God, is forever.”  Jn.20:28 “Thomas said to Him [Jesus], “My Lord and my God.”  Jesus was the Lord God of ancient Israel.  see “Jesus Was The Old Testament God”.

There is another very significant purpose for Jesus to have been born from a virgin!  It pertains to His DNA (the self-replicating material that contains genetic characteristics), and His blood.  Blood has great significance throughout the Bible!  Le.17:11 the life or soul is in the blood.  De.12:23 the blood is the soul/life.  Ge.9:4 the soul/life is the blood.  It was prophesied in Is.53:12, “He [Jesus] poured out His life unto death”.  The Lord God Jesus poured out His soul/lifeblood for our sins!

1Pe.1:18-19 “You weren’t redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold, but with the precious [g5093] blood of Christ.”  Silver & gold are closer to being incorruptible than are other substances.  Yet even they are corruptible.  Ellicott Commentary 1Pe.1:18 “By contrast, the blood of Christ is implied to be not corruptible.”  Pulpit Commentary 1Pe.1:19 “As opposed to the corruptible things of v.18; it is precious, because it is the blood of Christ. Christ’s holy body saw not corruption; the precious blood in its virtue and efficacy abides evermore.”  Bengel’s Gnomen “The blood of Christ is incorruptible.”  Ac.13:37 “He [Jesus] whom God raised saw no corruption.”  Pr.3:15 LXX “Wisdom is more precious [g5093] than precious stones.”  Lk.7:35 Jesus is Wisdom’s Child.  She and His blood are so precious!

As the God-Man, Jesus was flesh and blood (He.2:14).  The life is in the blood.  For Jesus, that life was the eternal Life of God in His blood!  Jesus’ blood speaks better things than that of Abel (He.12:24).  We’re saved by Jesus’ transcendent blood.  And His blood figuratively never loses its effectiveness.

Jesus said in Jn.6:54, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal Life”.  v.66 but after Jesus uttered those figurative words, many quit on Him.  His wasn’t just a man’s blood…Jesus’ perfect Life was in His blood!  Ac.20:28 “The church of God which He purchased with His own blood.”  God’s own blood!  Ellicott Commentary “The ‘blood of God’, which this passage suggests.”  Benson Commentary “How precious it is! Here the blood of Christ is termed the blood of God.”  Matthew Poole Commentary “The blood of Christ, called truly the blood of God.”  Jesus’ blood is incomparable!

There are those who even say that the ascended Jesus as High Priest sprinkled some of His shed blood on the mercy seat of the ark in heaven (as they interpret He.9:11-12, 23-24, 12:24, Re.11:19), where it remains forever.  JFB Commentary He.12:24 “He entered the heavenly holiest place ‘by His own blood’, carrying it separately from his body.”  Bengel’s Gnomen “This Priest Himself carried into the sanctuary His own blood separately.”

Geneticists understand that the DNA of the father and mother is passed on to the fetus, half from each.  Geneticists say that very little, if any, of a surrogate mother’s DNA is absorbed by the fetus (and vice versa).  None of the surrogate’s characteristics significantly affect the fetus.  (ref e.g., Dr. Julie Granka Does A Surrogate Mom Contribute DNA to the Child?.)  An expectant mother’s cells and the blood circulating in her body cannot penetrate the placenta screen or reach her unborn baby.  The baby’s own blood is formed in its little body.  However, nutrients do pass to the unborn through the placenta.

Mt.1:18-20 since Jesus’ Father is Father God, and the HS is Jesus’ Mother…there was divine DNA, so to speak, in Jesus’ blood (or soul or life)!  He received mitochondria DNA from His divine Parents.  Perhaps God miraculously placed the zygote of Jesus within Mary?  (I’m not a biogeneticist.)  Jesus said in He.10:5, “A body you [God] have prepared Me”.  And Jn.5:26 “As the Father has life in Himself, so He gave to the Son to have life in Himself.”  Eternal Life (zoé g2222) was within the Son Jesus!  That point is missed by people who don’t believe the great miracle of the virgin birth.  So Jesus, having divine DNA, didn’t reproduce while on earth.  A woman, having human DNA, would’ve been a different kind.  And any offspring they had would be a hybrid, with DNA part God and part human!

The life is in the blood (Le.17:11, De.12:23), and all men have sinned (Ro.3:23).  Jesus wasn’t a man with corruptible human blood/life as we, yet was somehow able to obediently live a sinless life and become the Savior of mankind.  His blood/Life was unequaled, having no corrupted sin nature!  Mary contributed nutrients, but no blood, cells, or DNA to Jesus.  Paul referred to Jesus as the last Adam (1Co.15:45).  The first Adam didn’t receive DNA from a human mother either!  If Jesus was only a good man/martyr who obeyed God fully, then others (with the HS) could too!  We wouldn’t need a Savior.  But we’ve sinned and do so need the Savior…Yeshua/Jesus!

Jesus wasn’t solely man in the flesh.  He was also Deity.  Col.2:9 “In Him [Christ] all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.”  Both of His Parents are God.  Jesus was the fullness of Deity in a human body (as was glimpsed in Je.23:5-6).  He was Emmanuel, “God (is) with us”.  Jesus’ deity was veiled with flesh (He.10:19-20).  The primordial Word of God was fully God (Jn.1:1-3, 14), and was the Son of God by the Father/HS/blood/birth.  Thereby, Christ didn’t inherit a sin nature.  (Yet He wasn’t a docétic phantom.  Jesus’ fleshly body had nerve endings; He experienced pain/suffering on the cross.)

So Jesus’ virgin birth affirms that divinity was in His precious blood; which enabled only Him, of all men, to obey God completely.  His divine nature wouldn’t allow Him to submit to sin.  Though Jesus looked like other men, He (and His blood) was unlike any other person born of woman.

The virgin birth is crucial to the salvation of mankind!  As the song goes, Nothing But The Blood Of Jesus.  Ac.4:12 “There is no other name under heaven, by which we must be saved.”  Yeshua/Jesus is His name.  Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift (2Co.9:15)!

Zechariah Son of Berechiah, Mt.23:35

Zechariah is a very common name in the Old Testament (OT).  There are 25–30 men named Zechariah.  The name means ‘Yah Remembers’.  In Mt.23:31-38, Jesus connected Jewish leaders of His day to the murderers of God’s prophets of old.  He said they will kill His prophets and servants.  Jesus referred to a Zechariah among those prophets.  Which Zechariah (Zech) was Jesus referring to specifically?

Mt.23:31-38 is the passage in question.  Jesus accused the scribes & Pharisees. “You’re the descendants of those which killed the prophets. You brood of vipers. I am sending you prophets; some of them you will kill and crucify. That upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on the earth [or Land]; from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariáh [Zacharías in Greek], the son of Berechiáh [Barachías in Greek], who you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. O Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets.”  Also Lk.11:46-51 is a parallel passage. “Woe to you lawyers. That the blood of all the prophets may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who was killed between the altar and the house of God.”

It seems that Jesus’ words were no idiom.  The Jewish nation put to death God’s prophets, innocent victims.  For example 2Ki.24:3-4, wicked King Manasséh of Judah shed much innocent blood.

Why would Jesus link those Jewish leaders to Abel?  The first recorded murder in the Bible is well-known.  Ge.4:8-10 “Cain rose up and killed Abel his brother. The Lord said to Cain, ‘The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.”  Jerusalem Targum Ge.4:10 paraphrase reads, “The voice of the bloods [plural] of the multitude of the righteous that shall spring from Abel thy brother”.  Targum Ónkelos “The voice of the blood of the seed that shall rise from thy brother.”  The scribes & Pharisees didn’t kill Abel.  But Jewish traditional belief held that innocent bloods (which defiled the land, Nu.35:33) collectively continued to beseech God for justice against their murderers (Abot. R Nathan, c. 31).  Also He.11:4 & 12:24, “The sprinkling of [Jesus’] blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel”.  (Mercy is better than vengeance.)  So Jesus too traditionally connected them to Abel.

Four criteria are apparent in the accusation or implication of guilt made by Jesus in Mt.23:

1 Jesus said Zech is the son of Berechiah/Barachias.  This common name meant ‘Blessed of Yah’.

2 Jesus indicated Zech was the last one slain.  Jesus could mean last by order of: the Greek OT (Malachi is the end book), or the Jewish/Tanakh OT (2Chr is now the end book), or the latest murder before Jesus spoke Mt.23, or Jesus prophesied of a final slaying before the temple destruction in 70 AD.

3 The Zech Jesus had in mind is killed between the sanctuary and altar (of burnt offering).  That holy area was located in the inner court/court of the priests (2Ki.21:5, 2Ch.4:9), where only priests (and assisting Levites) were permitted.  So it’s very unlikely Zech was a layman; most likely he was a priest.

4 There’s strong indication that the Zech Jesus meant was a prophet.  Four identifying criteria.

Also we’ll reference secondary texts…Biblical/religious and historical accounts, which corroborate or may serve as confirmation to Matthew’s (and Luke’s) New Testament account.

Of the many men named Zechariah/Zacharias in scripture (and Jewish history), only four seem feasible possibilities or candidates for the Zech/(Zach) Jesus had in mind in Mt.23:35.

The four are: #1 Zech the son of Barúch.  #2 Zech the son of Jehoiadá.  #3 Zech the father of John the Baptizer.  #4 Zech the son of Berechiah or Iddó.  Let’s examine the likelihood of these four, one-by-one.

#1 Zech the son of Baruch.  Josephus wrote of this Zech in Wars of the Jews 4:5:4. “Zealots and Iduméans intended to have Zacharias the son of Baruch, one of the most eminent citizens, slain. Hatred of wickedness was in him. He was a rich man, who had great power to destroy them. He turned his speech to his accusers and went over all their transgressions and made heavy lamentation. Two of the boldest Zealots fell upon Zacharias in the middle of the temple and slew him.”

This #1 Zech/Zach is the son of a Baruch (not Barachias).  He was a prominent citizen, not a priest.  Josephus recorded this man’s final testimony, which may have been viewed in part as prophetic.  This account is a historical witness.  If Jesus was prophesying (Mt.23:35) of the last one to be slain, perhaps this eminent citizen was the last of note before Jerusalem was destroyed?  In 68 AD he was slain by Jewish Zealots in the middle of the temple, not between the sanctuary and altar (off-limits to laymen).  But Jesus probably was referring to a past event.  #1 Zech seems the least likely of the four candidates.

#2 Zech the son of Jehoiada.  His death is recorded in 2Ch.24:17-22. “The officials of Judah bowed to the king. They served idols. The Spirit of God came on Zechariah (LXX Azarías), son of Jehoiada the priest; he stood above the people and said, ‘God has said, ‘Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord? Because you have forsaken the Lord, He has forsaken you.’ So they conspired against him; and at the command of the king [Joásh] stoned him to death in the court of the house of the Lord. As he died he said, ‘May the Lord look upon it and require it.”  He was a priest, stoned circa (ca) 800 BC.

This #2 Zech was the son of Jehoiada, not Berechiah.  Perhaps Jehoiada was Zech’s famous long-lived grandfather (not father) who died at age 130 (2Ch.24:15), or Jehoiada had two names?  That’s conjecture.  Yet many scholars think this #2 Zech is the one Jesus had in mind.  In support of him as Jesus’ Zech is the Pulpit Commentary. “When he died, it is added, he said, ‘The Lord look upon it, and require it.’ This makes his case correspond to that of Abel, the voice of whose blood cried to God from the ground.”  Also Meyer’s NT notes from Jerome’s Commentary on Matthew. “In the Gospel of the Hebrews the wrong name (Berechiah) was carefully avoided, and the correct one, viz. Jehoiada, inserted instead.”  Jerome (400 AD) disputed the father name associated by Jesus in Mt.23:35 (ca 30 AD).

Since 2Ch is the final book in the present order of the Tanakh (Jewish OT), he’s the last Zech slain in today’s Tanakh (but dying in 800 BC, not the last chronologically).  However, there’s evidence that Chronicles wasn’t always the last book in the Tanakh.  For example, in both the Aléppo and Leningrad Codex (the oldest complete Masoretic text of scripture, 1000 AD), Chronicles begins the section of the Hebrew scriptures called the Writings/Ketúvim.  ref Encyclopedia Judaica.  Furthermore, Chronicles wasn’t the last book in Josephus’ 1^st century AD order of books.  Against Apion 1:8 “The remaining four books contain hymns to God and precepts for conduct.”  The last four were Psal, Prov, Eccl, SSol.

Even in the present order of the Tanakh, the last slain chronologically is governor Gedaliáh, in the 580s BC (Je.41:1-2).  That’s more than 200 years later than this Zech #2, son of Jehoiada.  (Zec.8:19 the fast of the 7^th month honored Gedaliah.)  Although scripture doesn’t call the son of Jehoiada (Zech #2) a prophet, he did speak the inspired judgment of God in 2Ch.24:20.  But a prophet slain 200 years later, ca 605 BC, is Uriáh (Je.26:20-24 below).  The #2 Zech was killed by the Jewish people or officials in the “court of the house of the Lord”.  Possibly that occurred in the great court of the first temple (Solomon’s) where the people were allowed (ref Je.26:2, 2Ch.4:9), not in the restricted inner court.  But Jesus said the Zech of Mt.23:35 was killed near the sanctuary and altar…in the priests’ inner court!

2Ch.24 is OT witness to the murder of a Zechariah/Azarias.  Yet if this #2 Zech is who Jesus had in mind in Mt.23:35, He could have said “son of Jehoiada” instead of “son of Berechiah”…but He didn’t!  This Zech #2 fits two or possibly three of the criteria.  He was a priest, and he prophesied by the Spirit of God.  He being the last slain according to a 1^st century AD Tanakh order of books may be a stretch.

#3 Zech/Zach the father of John the Baptizer.  Lk.1:5 “In the days of Herod, there was a certain priest named Zacharias.”  This Zach/Zech was a priest.  v.13 “Zacharias, your wife Elizabeth will bear a son who you will name John.”  He’s the father of John the Baptizer (and is Jesus’ kin via Mary’s family).  v.67 “Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and he prophesied.”  v.68-79 reflects Zach’s prophecy.

The Protevangélion of James (an Infancy gospel, so-called) says Herod’s men murdered him in the temple courtyard.  Prot Jas.16:14-25 “Zacharias replied to them, ‘I am a martyr for God, and if he [Herod] shed my blood, the Lord will receive my soul. Besides, know that you shed innocent blood.’ Zacharias was murdered about daybreak in the entrance of the temple and altar, and about the partition. The priests went into the temple. One of them saw congealed blood next to the altar of the Lord.”  It seems the soldiers of King Herod trespassed by entering the court of the priests.

Orthodox Church in America “The Holy Prophet Zachariah and the Righteous Elizabeth were the parents of the holy Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord, John. They were descended from the lineage of Aaron: St Zachariah, son of Barach. In these tragic days St Zachariah was taking his turn at the services in the Temple. Soldiers sent by Herod tried in vain to learn from him the whereabouts of his son. Then, by command of Herod, they murdered this holy prophet, having stabbed him between the temple and the altar (MT.23:35).”  And Orthodox Wiki “The holy prophet Zachariah, a priest in the Jerusalem Temple, was the son of Baruch, from the lineage of Aaron.”

The early theologian Origén (185–254 AD) thought Jesus had in mind this Zech #3.  So did Orthodox patriarch Peter I of Alexandria (300 AD).  Also Bishop Serápion The Life of John the Baptist “O pious Zacharias! In the time when the soldiers of Herod came….they killed him inside the Temple, the priests shrouded his body and placed it near that of his father Barechiah in a hidden cemetery, from fear of the wicked [king]. Titus, the Emperor of the Romans, came and destroyed Jerusalem and killed the Jewish priests for the blood of Zacharias, as the Lord ordered him.” (from A. Mingana Woodbrooke Studies: Christian Documents in Syriac, Arabic, and Garshuni, vol 1, Cambridge 1927, pp. 138-287.  Woodbrooke dates Serapion’s text to 385–395 AD, probably composed in Greek.)

The slaying of Zach/Zech #3 may have been the last of note before Jesus spoke His words recorded in Mt.23?  However, the death of the prophet John the Baptist in Mt.14:10 precedes Mt.23, yet probably occurred later than the death of his father Zacharias.  So the murder of John was perhaps last of note.

This #3 Zech fits most all the criteria.  He’s a prophet, a priest slain between the temple and altar, and is a son of Barechiah.  That is, if traditional accounts of his place of death and father’s name are correct.

#4 Zech the son of Berechiah (and the grandson of Iddo).  Ne.12:1, 4, 7, 16 “These are the priests and Levites who returned with Zerubabbél…Iddo…these were the heads of the priests and their relatives; of Iddo, Zechariah.”  As we’ll see below, he’s actually the grandson of Iddo, a chief priest.  Iddo may have been a more notable figure than his son Berechiah, or Berechiah could have died young.  Zech #4 returned from Babylon in the 530s BC.  In 520–518 BC he wrote the first part of the Bible book that bears his name.  Seventy years after the 586 BC destruction of the first temple and captivity, the second temple was completed in 516 BC.  (see the topic “Temple of Zerubbabel”.)  Ezr.6:14-16 “Zechariah the son of Iddo.”  He’s the last Zech (died 480s BC?) in the Greek OT order (became the LXX/Septúagint), which is also the order of books in most of our Bibles today (e.g. KJV).  And Matthew often quoted the Greek OT.

Zec.1:1 KJV & LXX “The word of the Lord came to Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo [Addo].”  The same is in v.7.  Zech #4 says he’s the son of Berechiah, and the grandson of Iddo.  This Zech is also the next-to-last OT prophet-writer (chronologically too).  Malachi is the last.

Targum on Lamentations is an Aramaic rendering/commentary dating from the early centuries AD.  TgLam.2:19 “Arise, O Congregation of Israel dwelling in exile. Pour out like water the crookedness of your heart and turn in repentance. And pray in the synagogue before the face of the Lord.”  TgLam2:20 “Is it right to kill priest and prophet, as when you killed Zechariah son of Iddo, the High Priest and faithful prophet in the Temple of the Lord on the Day of Atonement because he admonished you not to do evil before the Lord?”  TgLam.2:22 “You will declare freedom to your people, Israel, by the hand of King Messiah just as you did by the hand of Moses and Aaron.”  TgLam.1:19 “Jerusalem said, when she was delivered to Nebuchadnézzar, ‘I called to my friends, the sons of the nations, with whom I had made treaties to come to my aid. But they deceived me and turned to destroy me.’ (These are the Romans who entered with Titus and the wicked Vespasian against Jerusalem.)”  TgLam.4:22 “And after this your iniquity will be finished, O Congregation of Zion, and you will be freed by the hands of the King Messiah …, and the Lord will no longer exile you. And at that time I will punish your iniquities, wicked Rome, built in Italy and filled with Edomites.”  This TgLam asserts that Jews killed Zech #4, (grand) son of Iddo (and writer of the book of Zechariah), in the temple.

Also Tátian’s Diatéssaron gospel harmony (170 AD). “That there may come on you all the blood of the righteous that has been poured on the ground from the blood of Abel the pure to the blood of Zachariah the son of Barachiah, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.”  And Irenáeus refs Mt.23:35 in Against Heresies, Book 5:14:1 (180 AD). “All righteous blood shall be required which is shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, who you slew between the temple and the altar.”  So Mt.23:35 “son of Berechiah/Barachias” isn’t a later copyist error.

This #4 Zech fits all four criteria at face value…he’s the son of Berechiah, the last slain in the Greek OT, a priest, a prophet.  Although there’s no OT verse noting the death of Zech #4, there are traditional accounts of it.  For that matter…there’s no OT verse about Michael disputing with the devil in regards to Moses’ body either (Jude 9).  Nor are there any verses in the OT (Ex.7:11 or elsewhere) which cite Jannes & Jambres in Egypt (2Ti.3:8).  Yet Christians accept those persons as fact.  TgLam.2:20 saying Zech the descendant of Iddo was killed is significant, and thereby may further identify Jesus’ Zech.

There’s another Jewish tradition, which says the prophet Zechariah “died peacefully at a great age” (Lives of the Prophets 15:6).  Yet George Klein’s Zechariah “The Old Testament doesn’t record anything about the martyrdom of Zechariah the prophet, but rabbinic literature from the early Christian period suggests that ‘Zechariah son of Berechiah’ was murdered.”  And scholar Gleason L Archer in Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, “We can only conclude that the later Zechariah died in much the same way the earlier one (the son of Jehoiada) did, as a victim of popular resentment against his rebuke of their sins”.

In the book of Zechariah, it may be unclear whether the prophet, writing in 1^st person, means himself or Someone future.  e.g. Zec.12:10 “The inhabitants of Jerusalem…will look upon me whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him.”  Gordon Churchyard Commentary “The dead man may be a prophet. Or it may mean the Lord.”  Zec.13:6 “What are these wounds between your arms?’ Then I will say, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.”  Cambridge Bible note “As given him by his parents, from whose righteous indignation he had escaped wounded, when they went about to kill him (Zec.13:3).”  Pulpit Commentary “It seems most probable the answer is intentionally false and misleading; as if he had said, ‘The wounds were not made as you suppose, but are the result of what happened to me in my friends’ house.”  In His beloved house/nation.

Did Zech #4 the prophet-priest know that he himself would be slain, and therefore his prophecy have a dual fulfillment?  Then perhaps his book reflects both himself and Jesus condemned as a false prophet.

Also consider Isaiah’s prophecy.  Is.8:1-2 “The Lord said, ‘I will take to Myself faithful [Strongs g4103 LXX, Greek] witnesses [martyr g3144 LXX] for testimony, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of JeBerekiáh.”  The LXX reads, “Zacharias, son of Barachias”.  Is.8:2 doesn’t read “son of Jehoiada”.  Gill Exposition “Read Berekiah (ref Babylonian Talmud Maccot 24.2).”  Is.8:2 names two faithful witnesses, Uriah and Zechariah.  Benson Commentary “Persons of unquestionable reputation.”  Two victims.  cf. Re.2:13 “Antipas, My faithful [g4103] witness [martyr g3144] who was killed among you.”

First, Uriah the priest.  There was a priest named Uriah in 2Ki.16:10-16, living around 720 BC.  But he wasn’t faithful to God.  Geneva Bible Is.8:2 footnote “Uriah was a flattering hypocrite, 2Ki.16:11.”  JFB Commentary Is.8:2 “Uriah, an accomplice of Aház in idolatry (2Ki.16:10).”  Barnes Notes “In 2Ki.16:10, he was a man of infamous character…corrupting the true religion.”  (also cf. 2Ch.28:21-25.)  This Uriah was unfaithful to God, dubiously having the integrity to fulfill Is.8:2.

But there’s another Uriah, the prophet found in Je.26:20-24. “Who prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah the son of Shemaiáh from Kiriáth-jearím; he prophesied against this city [Jerusalem] and this Land words similar to all those of Jeremiah. King Jehoiakím slew him.”  This Uriah was a true prophet, killed ca 605 BC.  Gill Exposition Is.8:2 “The Jewish commentators Járchi, Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Abarbinél would have Uriah the prophet meant, who prophesied in the time of Jehoiakim and was slain by him, Je.26:20-23.”  This Uriah was the son of Shemaiah.  There was Shemaiah the Levite who served King Josiah in the first temple, 2Ch.35:9.  Mark Leuchter The Prophets and the Levites in Josiah’s Covenant Ceremony “Uriah of Je.26 presents a priestly Levite image…Uriah and Jeremiah addressed their own priestly kin.”  So the prophet Uriah in Je.26:20-23 is a priest, as the Uriah in Is.8:2 is a priest.  And he became a victim, due to his prophetic witness in the name of the Lord.

The second named in Is.8:2 is Zechariah the son of JeBerechiah (Barachias, LXX).  From Difficult Sayings “The Targum on Isaiah inserts the assertion that this was the as yet unborn prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah.”  Rabbi Ákiva “Uriah was [in the time of] the First Temple, and Zechariah was [in the time of] the Second Temple! The Torah makes Zechariah’s prophecy dependent upon Uriah’s prophecy.”  Isaiah linked the (martyrs) prophets-priests Uriah and Zechariah.  Davar Akher writes, “Ecclesiastes Rabba (3:16), for example, speaks of both Zechariah and Uriah being murdered in such a fashion and the connection of the two names together is indicative of the fact that we are speaking of the Zechariah who served as a witness for Isaiah. This would mean that, along with the Rabbinic sources, Matthew’s gospel is equating Isaiah’s witness with the prophet named Zechariah – despite the fact that they lived hundreds of years apart.”  These sources are saying that Isaiah prophesied in Is.8:2 of the Zech #4 who would write the book of Zechariah 200 years later.

Conclusion: Based on the four criteria, the most likely Zechariah son of Berechiah who Jesus had in mind in Mt.23:35 is either…Zech #4 the prophet-priest who wrote the book of Zechariah, or Zech/Zach #3 the father of John the Baptizer.  And Zech #2 the son of Jehoiada is (possibly a close) third.

Also, it’s not inconceivable that Jesus used the very common name/character Zechariah as a composite representation in Mt.23:35, melded to exemplify the murders historically done by the Jewish nation to some of God’s prophets.

Sacrifices To Idols and Romans 14

This is about sacrifices to idols, and the apostle Paul’s related conscientious guidelines.  The pertinent chapters are 1Corinthians 8, 1Corinthians 10, Romans 14.  This issue has to do with respecting the consciences of others, so others aren’t mistakenly influenced to return to sin.

The society and religious beliefs of Nero’s Roman Empire (54-68 AD), a ‘beastly’ regime, were quite different from ours.  Times were much worse in the 1^st century world than in 21^st century America!

As background, let’s first reference scriptures about idolatrous practices which were extant in the ancient world.  Ex.20:1-6 Christ had commanded ancient Israel to not have any other gods besides Him, nor were they to make or worship physical representations of God.  But those Israelites disobeyed, and engaged in rites to the heathen gods of other peoples & nations.

Despite Christ’s commands, Israel ate and bowed down to the god Báal (Nu.25:1-3).  David wrote of idolaters in Ps.16:4. “The sorrows of those who run after another god will be multiplied; I will not pour out their drink offerings of blood, nor take their names on my lips.”  Drink offerings to pagan gods were often blood mixed with wine.  Ezk.33:25 “Thus says the Lord, ‘You eat with the blood, and lift your eyes to your idols.”  Israelites were eating ‘strangled’ meat with the blood, dedicated to idols.  The heathen ate the blood of sacrifices, or sat beside that blood in a vessel, to communicate with evil spirits (Benson Commentary).  The heart of their sacrificial animals was often extracted.  Ho.4:12-14 Israelites were sacrificing to idols at altars with temple prostitutes.

Ac.14:11-15 “The priest of Zeus, whose temple was outside the city, brought oxen to the gates to offer sacrifice.”  In 1^st century Lýstra of S. Galatia, the priest of Zeus wanted to honor Barnábas & Paul with animal sacrifice, as if they were gods!  Oxen are clean animals.  But not all pagan animal sacrifices were clean…in the 160s BC Antíochus Epíphanes offered swine’s flesh and polluted the Jerusalem temple.

From the Acts 15 Jerusalem council, four prohibitions were sent out in a decree to the church at large.  (see the topic “Acts 15 – Four Prohibitions”.)  Ac.15:28-29 “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols (Strongs g1494 eidolóthuton, Greek), from blood, from things strangled (dying of itself), and from sexual immorality.”  These four things were customarily practiced in the Roman Empire and impacted the early church, especially gentile believers.

Gentiles worshiped idols by drinking the blood of strangled animals and having sex with heathen temple prostitutes.  Many gentile idol-worshipers were now coming to Christ.  This was a big issue!

It was said…anciently the worship of pagan deities could be engaged in on almost ‘every street corner’!  1Th.1:9 Paul wrote, Christians at Thessaloníca had “turned from idols to serve the true God”.  1Co.12:2 when Christians at Corinth were pagans, they were “led astray to dumb idols”.  Ac.15:29 prohibited Christians from sacrificing to idols at pagan temples.  Yet years later some in the churches at Pérgamos (Re.2:14) & Thyátira (Re.2:20) still “eat things sacrificed to idols and commit immorality”…violating two Ac.15 prohibitions.  The worship of pagan gods & goddesses was a way of life in the ancient world.  A multitude of animals were often sacrificed; a ‘hécatomb’ was the Greek term for offering 100 oxen.

Here’s a hypothetical question…would the Holy Spirit have approved or disapproved of Christians eating roast beef sandwiches at the Aphrodíte Diner and wine shop (adjacent to her temple)?

Paul explained where/when questionable food should and shouldn’t be considered defiled by idols, idolatry.  He wrote 1 Corinthians around 55 AD.  Ancient Corinth, located 50 miles SW of Athens, had many idol temples; e.g. to Aphrodite, Poseidon, Apollo, Ísis, Deméter.

In verses of 1Corinthians 8, Paul addressed eating things sacrificed to idols.  Pagan idols represented pagan gods.  1Co.8:1 “Concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”  v.6-7 “We know there’s no God but only the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. But not all believers know this. Some people are so accustomed to idolatry, that when they eat food offered to an idol, their weak conscience is defiled.”  Some believers ate it thinking that since the idol represents a (lesser) god, the sacrificial meat is holy.  Or, since the meat was offered to a heathen god, it thereby became polluted, unfit to eat anywhere.  Two extremes.  Paul continues in v.8, “We’re no worse if we don’t eat it, and no better if we do”.  Although fasting, dieting, or of course eating have benefit, these actions won’t affect our salvation standing with God.

1Co.8:9-12 “But be careful that your choice doesn’t become a hindrance to the weak. For if someone sees you dining in an idol’s temple [eidolíon g1493], won’t his conscience be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols? And through your knowledge the weak for whom Christ died is ruined. Thus by wounding their conscience you sin against Christ.”  Don’t you cause others weak in the faith to violate their conscience.  Your bad example of eating in an idol temple area might cause a weak Christian to think it’s okay to worship the pagan god, and thereby defile his conscience.  Paul sarcastically refers to this as your “knowledge” (or your abuse of it), which he indicated can make one arrogant (from v.1).  Jesus said in Mt.25:40, “Whatever you did to the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me”.

Paul concludes this passage with 1Co.8:13. “Therefore if food causes my brother to offend, I would never eat flesh again.”  Paul considers eating food/flesh comparatively unimportant, if it would cause a weak brother to return to idolatry.  Of note, whether such meat is clean or unclean isn’t addressed.

Orthodox Bible Note 1Co.8:4-13 “Throughout the Roman Empire, animals were sacrificed to gods at feasts and public occasions. Part of each offering was used in a ceremonial meal or went to the donor; the remainder was often sold in public meat markets. A dilemma…should Christians eat meat that had been offered before idols? Jews had prohibitions.”  Pagan temples also served as restaurants and butcher shops.

In 1Corinthians 10, Paul returned to this issue.  v.14 “Beloved, flee from idolatry.”  v.19-21 is an idol itself a god? “No. The things which the nations sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons.”  Don’t do both the Lord’s Supper and an idolatrous ceremony.

1Co.10:25 “Eat whatever is sold in the shambles without letting your conscience trouble you.”  Of course, “whatever is sold” in the public markets doesn’t mean rancid meat or meat having harmful parasites!  Community, Conflict, and the Eucharist in Roman Corinth “The quality of the meat was questionable.”  Paul was saying that the buyer shouldn’t worry his conscience about the source of the food/leftovers, possibly unknown.

1Co.10:27 “If an unbeliever invites you to dinner, eat what is served without asking questions of conscience.”  It was okay to eat meat at a dinner or banquet in someone’s home (but not in pagan temple eateries) if a place at the table isn’t set for a god; no need to ask the host about the source of the food.  v.28-29 “But if anyone says to you, ‘This was sacrificed to idols’, don’t eat it, for the sake of him that disclosed it and for the conscience of another.”  If anyone makes an issue about the source of the food, then don’t eat it out of respect for the conscientious scruples of the person who informed/‘warned’ you or a fellow-guest.

1Co.10:31-32 Paul concludes the passage with, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense, either to Jews, Greeks, or to the church of God.”  So in 1Co.10, Paul elaborated on this matter of things sacrificed to idols, which he began in 1Co.8.

Eating leftovers from previous sacrifices to idols would also offend Jews & Jewish Christians.  Mishneh Avodat Kochavim 7:15 doesn’t allow eating leftover flesh, wine, or fruits from an idol temple.  Jews had an overly restrictive interpretation from Ex.34:15, originally regarding heathens in the Land. “They prostitute themselves after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods and invite you to eat of it.”  This verse related to ancient Israel worshiping pagan gods with Canaanites in pagan idol-feasts.  Ahavat Israel “This prohibition [for Jews] applies to anything served to an idol in a sacrificial manner.”

Close to two years after his 1Corinthians epistle, Paul wrote to the Romans around 57 AD.  Here Paul addressed the same issue.  Ancient Rome had approximately 400 idol temples…e.g. to Diana, Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter, Juno, the Pantheon to the gods.  (also see the topic “Heavenly Host Authorities and Powers”.)  The sacrifice for Jupiter (Zeus) was a castrated white ox, for Juno it was a white heifer.

Generally meat in ancient Rome could be expensive and was rarely eaten.  Only very cold weather would allow it to stay fresh.  Roman scholar R.W. Davies said the soldiers were reluctant to eat meat, fearing they’d get sick from it.  Cereals and legumes made up the bulk of most diets.

Misapplying or misinterpreting Romans 14 has resulted in hard feelings and even a measure of division in the church.  Let’s now go through Ro.14, keeping in mind the verses of 1Co.8 and 1Co.10.

Ro.14:1-2 “Accept him whose faith is weak, without becoming divided over his scruples. One believes he may eat all things; another who is weak eats vegetables only.”  No leftover flesh.  By “all things”, Paul doesn’t mean harmful or fatal things!  David Stern Jewish New Testament Commentary “Paul isn’t proposing that the Jewish dietary laws have been abrogated.”  Paul had referred to the weak in 1Co.8:9.  The weak in Rome are thought to be Jewish Christians (the minority) who’d returned after their 49 AD exile by Claudius (ruled 41-54 AD), Ac.18:2.  Strict kosher slaughter places in Rome were now fewer.

Jews and some God-fearers wouldn’t eat leftovers from idol temples.  Barnes Notes Ro.14:2 “Another who is weak – there is reference here, doubtless, to the Jewish convert; whether it was lawful to eat the meat which was offered in sacrifice to idols. In those sacrifices a part only of the animal was offered, and the remainder was eaten by the worshipers, or offered for sale in the market like other meat.”  Life Application Bible Ro.14:2 “After a sacrifice was presented to a god in a pagan temple, only part of it was burned. The remainder was often sent to the market to be sold. Thus a Christian might easily, even unknowingly, buy such meat in the marketplace or eat it at the home of a friend.”  Amy Jill Levine Judaism and Jewishness “Many Jews refused to partake of meat distributed at civic festivals, what the Jews called ‘meat sacrificed to idols.”  It was safer for Jews (and Jewish Christians) in Rome to just renounce all meat sold at markets.  That’s what Ro.14 is dealing with.

Ro.14:3-6 “Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains condemn the one who eats, for God has accepted him. One man regards one day above another, someone else regards them all alike. He who eats does so to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; he who eats not does so to the Lord and gives God thanks.” (cf. 1Co.10:31)  Some abstain from food due to scruples of conscience.  The self-righteous Pharisees appointed Mondays & Thursdays as fast days to abstain from food.  The Pharisee declared in Lk.18:12, “I fast twice in the week”.  They chided Jesus in Mk.2:18-20. “The disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples don’t fast.’ Jesus replied, ‘They will fast in those days.”  There were Christians (Jews & gentiles) who chose to eat nothing at all on some (fast) days…we shouldn’t judge Christians for being selective about what food groups (meat, fruit, veggies, etc.) they’ll eat “to the Lord”, Ro.14:6, on (non-fast) days.

Ro.14:13 “Let us not judge each other, nor put an obstacle or stumbling block in a brother’s way.” (cf. 1Co.8:13)  Don’t offend or cause another (Jewish) Christian to doubt, backslide, or lose his faith.

Ro.14:14 “I am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is defiled/common [koinós g2839] of itself; but to him who thinks anything to be defiled/common [koinos g2839], to him it is defiled/common [koinos g2839].”  Paul is saying it’s a matter of conscience.  Barnes Notes “Greek ‘common.”  Vincent Word Studies “Lit. common. Compare Mk.7:2 ‘With defiled [koinos g2839], unwashed hands.”

In Ro.14:14, many Bibles mistranslate koinos as “unclean”.  But the Greek LXX and New Testament term for unclean is akáthartos g169, not koinos g2839.  (In the LXX, koinos never meant unclean!)  This distinction is evident in Ac.10:14 where Peter used both terms in the same verse. “I have never eaten anything defiled/common [koinos g2839] or unclean/impure [akathartos g169].”  The two Greek terms had different meanings!

Meat of a healthy clean animal is naturally undefiled.  But it became defiled or made common and unfit for holy use if the animal was lame, blind, or defective (e.g. De.15:21 & 17:1), or if eaten in idolatrous rites (Ex.34:15).  Pharisees racially considered clean meat defiled if it’s touched by gentile hands.

Ro.14:15 “For if because of food your brother is hurt, you aren’t walking according to love. Don’t destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.”  Don’t grieve or trouble his conscience.  This is similar to 1Co.8:11-13.  Ro.14:20 “Don’t tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things are indeed pure, but they are evil for the man who eats and causes stumbling.”  Everything God said is pure, is pure, and to those with a pure conscience.  Paul wrote in Ti.1:15, “To the pure, all things are pure; but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure, both their mind and conscience are corrupted”.

Ro.14:21 “It’s better not to eat meat or drink wine or anything by which your brother stumbles.”  (Paul said in Ro.9:31-32 that those stumbling were Jews.)  Don’t eat meat from the butcher shop or drink wine which might have been used in pagan libations, if eating would offend a brother or sister present.  Da.1:8, 16 in Babylon, the prophet Daniel had refused royal food and wine which was corrupted.  He lived on mostly vegetables and water.

Ro.14:22 “Blessed is he who doesn’t condemn himself in what he allows.”  Stay free from a doubting conscience.  v.23 “But whoever has doubts, yet still eats, is condemned, because his eating isn’t from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.”  Don’t eat it, if we can’t eat it with a clear conscience.  Have an assured belief that what we do is right.  This is a general maxim of the Christian faith.  Matthew Poole Commentary “By faith here is meant knowledge or full persuasion, not a wavering mind.”  It’s dangerous to ignore one’s conscience, and possibly fall back into old ways of sin.

Ro.15:1 “We who are strong ought to bear with the weaknesses of the weak, and not just please ourselves.”  Paul began this passage about dealing with “the weak” in Ro.14:1 (also it’s in 1Co.8:11).  Don’t let one’s choice of action offend or hinder the weak, regarding the source of food sold in markets.  We’d want others to bear with us in matters where we may be weak!  Ro.15:2 “Let each of us please his neighbor for what is good to build him up.” (as 1Co.10:24 “Let no one be forever seeking his own good, but that of others.”)  Accommodate ourselves to others (for good, not for evil).  Speak and act so as to build-up our brothers/sisters in the faith, whether they be strong or weak.

In reading through 1Co.8, 1Co.10, Ro.14, similarities are noted.  The center column cross-refs in many Bibles tie several Ro.14 verses to 1Co.8, and 1Co.10 too.  Paul’s overall subject is the same.  In Rome there were 400 pagan temples…it’s possible much of the meat sold in the marketplace had come from a temple sacrifice somewhere!  So for a weak Christian or Jewish Christian to avoid thinking of an idol when eating meat, a form of ‘second-hand’ idolatry to him…he’d just quit eating meat altogether!

Ro.14 doesn’t address the eating of clean or unclean creatures, about which Christ commanded in Le.11.  (see “Unclean versus Clean Food”.)

Nazarite vows were anciently taken (Nu.6), and occasional fasting is a good Biblical principle (e.g. Mk.2:20).  But the Ro.14 avoidance of possible leftovers isn’t asceticism.  Abstaining from okay wine-drinking, ref Jg.9:13 (in moderation), could be due to asceticism with some people.  In the Ro.14:6 “he who eats not does so to the Lord”, its doubtful Paul was referring to Pythágorean vegetarians among the gentile majority…since the abstaining in the church at Rome was “to the Lord” (cf. 1Ti.4:1-3 “doctrines of demons”).  JFB Commentary Ro.14:2 “Restricting himself probably to a vegetable diet for fear of eating what might have been offered to idols.”

The main issue in Ro.14, 1Co.8, 1Co.10 was…whether or not Christians should eat meat (and drink wine) thought to have been previously sacrificed to idols.

Conclusion: It would’ve been unacceptable to eat a sandwich at the Aphrodite Diner (1Co.8:10).  1Co.6:9 idolaters won’t inherit the Kingdom of God.  But it’s okay to eat at home or church or at a friend’s home…food purchased in the marketplace/shambles.  Such meat or leftovers might have come from Diana’s Deli adjacent to her temple, or from Aphrodite’s Diner.  The source is unknown.  That is, it’s okay to eat the food/leftovers at home…if doing so didn’t bother someone’s conscience.  But, Paul says that if there’s a conscience problem (because a gentile Christian had worshiped idols before conversion, or a Jewish Christian was overly concerned about a possible idol temple source of leftovers prior to their sale in the shambles)…don’t eat it.  That’s the gist of Paul’s guidelines.

Idolatry is still practiced in today’s world.  This principle of not inadvertently hurting a Christian’s conscience or resolve is applicable to other matters besides idolatry…e.g. certain holidays so-called (such as Halloween), avoiding wine in the presence of a recovering alcoholic, etc.

The Holy Spirit with the written word of God will educate and guide our consciences rightly.  And while we ourselves are engaged in this education process as part of our sanctification, we should be considerate of others’ consciences.  So we won’t cause unnecessary offense which might result in a brother or sister backsliding into a past sinful practice or losing faith in God.