Paul the Apostle (4) – Discrepancies

This is the series continuation of “Paul the Apostle (1) – Law and Works”, “Paul the Apostle (2) – The Chameleon?”, “Paul the Apostle (3) – Missteps”.  The material in those three Parts isn’t repeated here.  Those should be read first.  Although I’ve defended Paul in this series, my intent is to show an objective impartial view of his writings.  Here we’ll focus on Paul’s scriptural discrepancies and contradictions.

Ga.4:21-29 Paul’s allegory is flawed.  Allegories convey symbolic or further meanings, without nullifying or distorting the literal plain sense.  But Paul reverses the Old Testament (OT) lineage seen in both the Hebrew Masorétic text and the Greek Septúagint/LXX.  In scripture, Hagar was Sarah’s Egyptian maid.  Hagar and her son Ishmaél (Ge.16:1, 15) clearly weren’t the ancestors of Moses/Israel, to whom the Lord centuries later gave His covenant law at Mt Sinai.  The lineage of Moses, recipient of the law, was: Sarah – Isaac – Jacob/Israel – Levi – Koháth – Amrám – Moses.  Connect Ge.21:3, 25:26, 29:21, 34, 46:11, Ex.6:18-20, 19:20-ff.  God told Abraham the covenant wouldn’t be through Hagar – Ishmael, Ge.17:18-21.  But in Ga.4:24-25, Paul wrote that Hagar represents “Mt Sinai in Arabia”.  He contrasts Sarah & her son Isaac to Hagar.  Yet Sarah & Isaac were the literal ancestral predecessors of God’s Mt Sinai law, not Hagar & Ishmael!  Paul, being advanced in Judaism (Ga.1:14), would’ve known OT Genesis lineages.  Moses the lawgiver descended from Sarah, not Hagar!

David A. Brondos The Parting of the Gods, p.43 “Paul associates the Sinai covenant and the present Jerusalem with slavery and the sending away of Hagar. It is difficult to imagine other Jews in antiquity associating the covenant given at Sinai with a life of slavery.”  Ishmael wasn’t Jewish, nor would he be a slave.  Ishmael the ‘gentile’ would be as a “wild donkey” (Ge.16:11-12), roaming free.  Dr. Steve Moyise Paul and Scripture, p.45 “His [Paul’s] identification of those [Jews] insisting on circumcision with Ishmael must have been shocking.”  The Lord freed ancient Israel from slavery in Egypt; they were free at Mt Sinai and then in the Promised Land.  Ga.4:24 but Paul indicates the Sinai covenant begets/engenders (gennáo Strongs g1080, Greek), causes, bondage!  Paul’s take is noted in Meyer’s NT Commentary Ga.4:24. “This covenant…a state of bondage, namely through subjection to the Mosaic law.”  Paul’s (allegorized) view of the Sinai law is contrary to the OT.

Paul’s reversed allegory perhaps swayed pagan gentile converts in Galatia; many or most weren’t well-versed in the OT.  But today we have access to complete Bibles and the lineages therein.  We can verify whether or not New Testament (NT) writers, like Paul, were at variance with the (OT) scriptures.

Paul misquoted the OT in Ro.3:10. “As it is written, There is none righteous [díkayos g1342], not even one.”  But there were/are righteous men!  e.g. Noah, Abraham, Job, Daniel, John the Baptizer (Mk.6:20), Joseph of Arimathéa (Lk.23:50).  For Ro.3, Paul used the Greek OT (now our LXX).  Pulpit Commentary “Verse 10-18 [Ro.3] quoted from the LXX, though not all accurately.”  Cambridge Bible Ro.3:10 “The [quoted] words of Ro.3:10 are not found in the OT.”  Yet Ec.7:20 LXX “There is not a righteous [g1342] man in the earth who will do good and not sin.”  If Paul had written, Ro.3:10 ‘There is none sinless’ or ‘There is no righteous man who is sinless’, that would’ve echoed Ec.7:20.  But he didn’t.  Also in Ro.3:9-12, “There is none who does good [g5554]”.  Likely Paul had in mind Ps.14:1 LXX. “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’. There is none who does good [g5544].”  However, Ps.14 is about wicked infidel fools who don’t call on God and devour His people Israel (v.4).  Cambridge Bible “foreign oppressors” too.  If Paul was using Ps.14 as a basis to argue for ‘universal depravity’, he disregarded that it’s pointedly about anti-theists (atheists).  Whereas Ps.14:5 “God is with…the righteous [g1342]”!  Ps.14:1-5 doesn’t back Paul’s inclusion of every man, all mono-theist Jews too (and Greeks, Ro.3:9).  Nor does it back his assertion that there is “none righteous”.

Paul often misquoted or misapplied OT passages.  NT Professor Moyise op. cit., p.126 “Of 23 Isaiah quotations in Paul, only 4 can be said to be literal translations (no italics). About a dozen others have either additional words or significantly different words, while in 6 the meaning of the whole verse is different.”  Paul sometimes bent the scriptures.

Paul wrote in 2Co.13:1, “This is the 3^rd time I am coming to you. In the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses shall every word be established.”  Here Paul quoted De.19:15 LXX.  But De.19:15 means 2 or 3 separate individuals as witnesses!  In Mt.18:15-17 and Jn.8:16-18, Jesus’ reference to 2 or 3 witnesses meant testimonies of 2 or 3 different persons.  Not the same one person witnessing on 2 or 3 occasions!  But Paul equated his own 3 visits as 3 witnesses.  Gill Exposition 2Co.13:1 “They were to look upon his [Paul’s] several comings as so many witnesses.”  Pulpit Commentary “St Paul is representing his separate visits as separate attestations….”  At times, Paul slanted OT meanings.

David Woodington Paul’s Use of the Law of Witnesses in 2 Corinthians 13:1 “His subsequent visit will act as the 3^rd and final witness against their wrongdoing…validating the testimony of a single witness on three occasions. Paul employs the well-known principle of De.19:15 in a new way [rabbinic]. ‘Every other incidence of this principle in action involves multiple witnesses, but Paul thinks that he alone is sufficient to accomplish this (Dr. Margaret Thrall The Second Epistle).’ After all, we see him taking similar liberties elsewhere in his writings. He is often imaginative in his reading of the Scriptures. This extends even to the laws of the Torah. 1Cor.9:8-12 If Paul can adapt a statute concerning muzzling oxen into a lesson about the material support of an apostle, surely it would be little problem for him to turn human witnesses into his own visits.”  Paul wasn’t always forthright.  (Jacob neither, Ge.27:19.)

Parts of Romans 7 are incoherent.  Ro.7:1-6 “We have been released from the law, so that we serve in the newness of the spirit, not in the oldness of the letter.”  Ellicott Commentary Ro.7:4 “The argument can hardly be said to have a logical cogency.”  NT Professor Heikki Raisanen Paul and the Law, p.46, 61 “Rom 7:1-6…a rather tortured allegory, the application of which is lost in internal contradictions….The allegory is simply confusing; it suits neither the opening statement (v.1) nor the conclusion (v.4).”  Then Ro.7:12-14 “The law is holy, and the commandment is holy, just and good. The law is spiritual.”  It seems also Paul contradicts himself regarding ‘spirit’ and ‘spiritual’, v.6 and v.14.  (Aside: The temple, with its Mosaic regulations, is still standing when Paul wrote Romans ca 57 AD.)

In the gospels, zero red-letter words of Jesus are rendered ‘grace’!  (In Lk.6:32-34, 17:9 the Greek term cháris g5485 is rendered “thank, credit, favor”.)   Many Bible historians think Paul’s gospel promoted a new ‘law vs grace’ dichotomy, as Jews/Israel vs gentiles.  Yet God rescuing His people from slavery in Egypt was an act of unmerited grace…in the OT (ref De.4:7-8).  The Lord didn’t rescue Israel from Egyptian bondage to then sadistically subject them to a (misperceived) ‘bondage’ of His holy law!

Moyise op. cit., p.61 “In the Old Testament the law was viewed as a gift from God. Ps.19:7-9 ‘The law of the Lord is perfect’…He [Paul] is quite happy to live like a Jew in order to reach Jews, and live like a Gentile in order to reach Gentiles (1Cor.9:20-22).”  Did Paul customarily do what he basically rebuked Peter for doing in Ga.2:11-14, both trying to be “all things to all men”?  see “Paul the Apostle (3)”.

Paul wrote in Ga.3:11, “The just shall live by faith”.  He was quoting Hab.2:4, “The just shall live by his faith”.  Paul goes on to say in Ga.3:12, “The law is not of faith”.  However Ps.119:86 “All Thy commandments [mitzvót h4687, Hebrew] are faithfulness.”  The Lord’s commandments are integral with true faith!  Pulpit Commentary Ps.119:86 “They are an expression of the character of God.”  Poole Commentary Ps.119:86 “They are in themselves most just and true, and require justice and faithfulness from men.”  Paul’s opinion that God’s law isn’t of faith contradicts the OT.  Also Paul wrote in Ga.2:21, “If righteousness [g1343] is by the law, then Christ died in vain”.  But Ps.119:172 LXX “All Your commandments are righteousness [g1343].”  Gill Exposition Ps.119:172 “Being just and equitable in the highest sense.”  Barnes Notes “I must praise Thee for them.”  Therefore if Paul was referring to God’s written law, then his concern that Christ ‘died in vain’ is incongruous.

{Note: I won’t juxtapose Ro.3:28–4:3 against Ja.2:21-24, whether a man is justified by faith or works.  It is thought Paul had in mind the DSS 4QMMT ‘érgon nómou’ sectarian works.  see Paul (1).}

Had the unconverted murderer Saul/Paul himself been a past ‘child of the devil’?  While at Páphos on Cyprus, Barnábas & Saul encountered Elýmas the sorcerer.  Ac.13:6-11 “Saul, who also is Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, said…‘You child of the devil…the hand of the Lord is upon you and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.’ Immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand.”  Blindness had happened to Saul too (near Damascus)!

Saul’s conversion experience is in Acts 9.  v.8-9 “Saul got up from the ground; though his eyes were open, he could see nothing. And leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. He was 3 days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.”  The murderer Saul and the sorcerer both were blinded.

2Co.12:7-9 Paul was “given” [?] a continual angel/agent of Satan to afflict him.  (cf. Jb.2:7, Lk.13:16.)  To humble him?  Paul begged the Lord 3 times that it would leave him, to no avail.  But in the gospels, Jesus rescued from evil spirits and healed all who came beseeching Him!  Jesus didn’t say ‘No’ to their requests!  In the NT, of all those who besought the Lord for healing or deliverance…the only person named who Jesus denied was Paul!  Yet Lk.11:9-12 “Ask and it shall be given you….If a son shall ask bread from any of you who are fathers, will he give him a stone? Or if the son asks for a fish will he give him a serpent?”  Paul asked thrice, but still the messenger of that “old serpent called the devil and Satan” (Re.12:9) remained with him! (cf. Ja.4:6 “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”)

There are some today who believe in Jesus, but think Paul was a false apostle!  Noting Le.21:16-21, an OT priest having certain physical defects/deformities or was blind wasn’t to enter the Lord’s sanctuary.

Ephesus (g2181) was located in the Roman province of Asia (g773), W Turkey today.  Ac.19:1-10 Paul spent 2 ¼ years at Ephesus (ca 54-56 AD).  Then Ac.20:16 “Paul decided to sail past Ephesus, so he wouldn’t have to spend [more] time in Asia.”  He returned to Jerusalem in 57 AD.  At the temple, Jews from Asia accused Paul.  Ac.21:27-31 “This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against our people, and the Law, and this temple. For they had seen with him in the city Tróphimus the Ephesian.”

Later, in the 60s AD Paul wrote to Timothy.  2Ti.1:15 “This you know, all those in Asia turned away from me.”  It seems that Paul had lost his following in Asia!  Perhaps elsewhere too?  2Ti.4:16 “At my first verbal defense, no man stood by me, but all forsook me.”  That’s unsettling.  We may surmise what factors led to Paul coming into such disfavor in Asia.  Jesus spoke to the apostle John in vision, Re.2:1-2 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘I know your works…you have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and have found them false”.  Is that why believers in Ephesus/Asia turned away from Paul?  People today who view Paul as a false apostle tie-in the above verses.  Yet late in life Paul positively linked to Ephesus in 2Ti.4:12. “I have sent Tychicús to Ephesus.”

I like to believe that Paul’s sometime traveling companion Dr. Luke (Col.4:14) accurately recorded what he saw & heard (from Paul, et al.).  In the NT, no apostle personally advocates Paul’s gospel!

Raisanen op. cit., p.14 “For better or for worse, Paul has become a theological authority.”  But over the centuries, Paul has had many critics.  Following is a sampling among well-known writers:

Thomas Jefferson, writer of the Declaration of Independence, early-on was in the Church of England.  He was baptized & went to Episcopal services.  In 1803 he wrote to Benjamin Rush, “I am a Christian”.  In 1813 Jefferson wrote to John Adams, “The very words only of Jesus, the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which have ever been offered to man”!  He wrote to Adams of the Creator “God whom you and I both acknowledge and adore” (1823).  monticello.org/jeffersons-religious-beliefs “Jefferson was a devout Theist.”  But he opposed orthodox Christianity (and Calvinism).  Jefferson wrote to Ambassador William Short in 1820, “Paul was the first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus”!

Historian Will Durant Caesar and Christ (1944). “In essentials the synoptic gospels agree remarkably well, and form a consistent picture of Christ. Paul created a theology of which none but the vaguest warrants can be found in the words of Christ. Paul replaced conduct with creed as a test of virtue.”

Jewish philosopher Martin Buber Two Types of Faith (1951), publisher’s Summary. “He [Buber] offers a sincere and reverent view of Christ and of the unique and decisive character of His message to Jew and gentile.”  Buber wrote, “Not merely the Old Testament belief and the living faith of post-Biblical Judaism are opposed to Paul, but also the Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount [too reflects opposition].”

Danish theologian/philosopher Soren Kierkegaard The Journals (1849-1855). “When Jesus Christ lived, He was indeed the prototype. Imitate Christ, become a disciple. Not Christ, but Paul…threw Christianity away, turning it upside down.”

Leo Tolstoy My Religion, chap. 11 (1884). “The doctrine of Jesus is to bring the kingdom of God upon earth. Paul, who knew but imperfectly the ethical doctrine set forth in the Gospel of Matthew, preached a metaphysico-cabalistic [hidden/occult] theory foreign to the doctrine of Jesus.”

Lutheran Professor Brondos wrote of how some view Paul’s doctrine.  Op. cit., p.2 “Paul had regarded life under the Jewish law as ‘loss’ and ‘rubbish’ [Php.3:4-9]. Believers in Christ had been redeemed from their slavery and subjection to the law, which only brought death and condemnation. Any who rejected Paul’s gospel and insisted on clinging to the law were denying God’s grace and remained under His wrath & curse [Ro.4:15 & Ga.3:10]. How easily these negative portrayals fed into the conclusion that Jews should be eradicated, as the Nazi regime sought to do. Martin Luther [German theologian] had advocated violence toward the Jews of his day based on the same type of portrayal of Judaism.”

Paul wrote in 1Th.2:14-16, “The Jews…are not pleasing to God, and are hostile to all people. But God’s utmost wrath is come upon them.”  Noted evangelical scholar F.F. Bruce saw Paul’s passage as “an indiscriminate anti-Jewish polemic”.  (However, Paul’s tone re Jews sounds much different a few years later in Ro.9:1-3.)  Christian poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote, “How dearly Martin Luther loved St Paul. How dearly St Paul would have loved Martin Luther!”  Martin Luther On the Jews and Their Lies “Venomous beasts, disgusting scum, devils incarnate….We are at fault for not slaying them.”

Patrick Gray Paul as a Problem in History and Culture, p.123-4 “It is more common to hear him [Paul] described as a renegade Jew. ‘Jesus was a good guy, Paul was a bad goy’ expresses a view widely held. The Nazi horrors led many to find Christianity complicit in the murder of Jews. For many Christians as well as Jews, Paul’s comments about the law of Moses deserve the blame for centuries of anti-Semitism that came to fruition in Auschwitz & Buchenwald.”  Others tie back the Inquisitions too to Paul’s letters.

Brondos op. cit., p.41 “In Jewish thought, the [written] law didn’t kill people [2Co.3:6] or hold them under a curse. Nor did it restrict people as a disciplinarian kept a child under restraint [Ga.3:23-25], increase trespasses [Ro.5:20], or place those committed to living in conformity to it under God’s wrath. On the contrary, the law promised life to those who kept it [De.30:14-20]. Yet Paul repeatedly states this is precisely what the law did not and cannot do.”  Lutheran Pastor Raisanen op. cit., p.269 “Paul didn’t [?] realize that Scripture was not on his side.”  Zero NT verses show apostles preaching ‘Paul’!

Gray op.cit., p.203 “Exasperating is his [Paul’s] inconsistency between his words and his deeds. His chameleon-like flexibility in becoming ‘all things to all men’ (1Cor.9:22) which results in egregious instances of hypocrisy is not excused by his critics on the grounds that he thereby saves some of his listeners.”  Yet Gray’s bottom line, p.123 “Without Paul, history might have taken a turn for the worse”.  Yes, overall a world without Paul’s letters could conceivably be worse.

The old Greek version of the OT (now our LXX) was completed by 132 BC.  The scriptures were known in Paul’s homeland of Cilicía (Ac.22:3), SE of Galatia.  Possibly the epistles bearing Paul’s name did quote the OT accurately, but decades later a corrupt monopolistic church altered some words of his epistles?  At this point, that’s merely speculation, unproven.  However, centuries earlier Jeremiah wrote, “the lying pen of scribes has produced falsehood” (Je.8:8).

Dionýsius bishop of Corinth Letter to the Romans (ca 180 AD). “I wrote [my] letters when the brethren requested me to write. These letters the apostles of the devil have filled with tares, taking away some things and adding others, for whom a woe is in store. It is, then, not to be wondered at, if some have attempted to adulterate the Lord’s [NT] writings.”  Dionysius thought some NT verses had been altered.

Origen (185-253 AD) Commentary On Matthew, Book 15.14 “It is clear that many differences in the copies [NT manuscripts] have come about either from the lazy indifferences of certain scribes, or the misguided daring of some of the correction of the things written, who…added or subtracted those things according to their own opinions.”  Copyists had played loose with some original NT verses.

Judging from those statements by early church ‘fathers’, possibly Paul’s letters too contain alterations made by others?

In the NT, 13 epistles bear Paul’s name.  However, today NT scholars & critics attribute only 7 to him – Romans, 1Corinthians, 2Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1Thessalonians, Philemon.  They think Ephesians, Colossians, 2Thessalonians, 1Timothy, 2Timothy, Titus, Hebrews weren’t written by Paul.  If that’s the case, then some variances & discrepancies (vis-á-vis the OT) aren’t from Paul’s pen.  I still go by the assumption that 13 epistles were written by Paul, until they’re definitely proven otherwise.

The quandary remains regarding some of Paul’s views & teachings…in our Bible canon there’s no ‘2^nd or 3^rd witness’ validating them or his theology!  Which contradictions are we to believe, and which disbelieve?  The opinions of NT readers & Christians vary.  We may also ponder, ‘What separate 2^nd or 3^rd witnesses validated some of the tenets of Joseph Smith (Mormonism), Mary Baker Eddy, or Sun Myung Moon’?  Zero witnesses!  Or of dubious televangelists?  Paul’s writings aren’t infallible.  He acknowledged, not all early Christians were in the ‘church of Paul’, so to speak.  1Co.1:12 they were saying “I am of Paul’, and ‘I of Apollos’, and ‘I of Cephás”.  Yet a slanted ‘Paulinism’ is popular today.

Some evangelical Christians see several inconsistencies in Paul’s writings.  Gregory Robbins Paul On Trial “Paul was by his own admission all things to all men [1Co.9:20-22]. In his epistles, you can find a very large variety of doctrines, many of which contradict each other. Sinless perfection? It is there. Not yet perfect? It is also there. Free from the law? You will find it. You will also find that Paul both quoted & commanded verses from the law. Works not necessary? You will find it. Works ARE necessary? You will find that too. Eternal salvation? Yes, it’s there. You can lose your salvation? Yes, it’s also there. Paul was all over the map on his doctrine, and his actions.”  It can be perplexing for Bible readers.

Yet our faith is in God, not in Paul or in the vicissitudes of his writings!  Raisanen op. cit., p.268 & 228 “Paul gets involved in self-contradictions. In sum, I am not able to find any conception of the law which involves such inconsistencies or arbitrariness as does Paul’s.”  Paul the ‘chameleon’; see Paul (2).

Perhaps Paul was somewhat confused in his own mind, as he proceeded on his journey with the Lord?  Maybe the “angel” of Satan which tormented or harassed him (2Co.12:7) garbled his thinking to an extent?  It’s been conjectured that Paul possibly suffered from mood or bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, epilepsy, or even psychopathy.  1Ti.1:15 Paul, a past murderer, later said he’s the “foremost of sinners”.

We’re all imperfect, including Paul (Peter too).  I think the good Paul did and the good that has resulted from him outweighs the bad via his flaws & missteps.  e.g. Ga.5:22-23 Paul’s pen lists the figurative fruit of the Spirit!  Conceivably, he compromised or doctored actual meanings of OT passages so that his mission would sound more attractive to pagans.  The Bible is gradually being translated into all dialects.  Though Paul has caused skepticism and division too, the church at large has surely grown.

Many readers feel inspired by chapters of Paul’s writings.  I especially like Ro.8, Ro.12, Ro.16, 1Co.2, 1Co.12–13, 2Co.5, 2Co.10, Col.3–4, the books of Ephesians & Philippians!  I feel that the positive admonitions and instructions in Paul’s letters outweigh the discrepancies and contradictions which cause head-scratching among NT readers and Christian brethren.

 

Paul the Apostle (3) – Missteps

This is the continuation of “Paul the Apostle (1) – Law and Works” and “Paul the Apostle (2) – The Chameleon?”.  I encourage you to read Parts 1 and 2 first; the material won’t be repeated here.

The Bible New Testament (NT) says that only Jesus the God-man was sinless (1Pe.2:21-22).  We humans all make mistakes and sin.  A few Old Testament (OT) and NT incidents: Jacob deceived his father Isaac; Moses struck the rock the Lord told him to speak to; David committed adultery; Peter denied Jesus three times; Thomas doubted Jesus’ resurrection.

I’ve been defending Paul, in Paul (1) and Paul (2).  But Paul/Saul (Ac.13:9) too had his faults and made mistakes.  The Pauline epistles show that his understanding of scripture and of Jesus was incomplete.  Yet Paul and the letters attributed to him have had a huge impact on religion!  Wikipedia: Paul the Apostle “From Antioch [Ac.11:19-26] the mission to the Gentiles started, which would fundamentally change the character of the early Christian movement, eventually turning it into a new, Gentile religion.”

Let’s assess Paul’s character and actions.  Saul/Paul said he studied in Jerusalem “at the feet of” the famous Gamaliél (Ac.22:3).  Gamaliel was the first teacher given the title rabban (above rabbi).  Saul was an apt student, and surpassed his peers (Ga.1:13-14).  The unconverted Pharisee Gamaliel advised tolerance toward Jewish Christians (Ac.5:38)!  But the unconverted Pharisee Saul (Ac.23:6) ravaged and imprisoned Jewish Christians (Ac.8:1-3).  He threatened and murdered them (Ac.9:1).  Saul even sided with the rival Sadducee high priest (Ac.5:17, 7:1, 58-59, 9:1), in stoning Stephen!  What all were Saul’s motives, in that he didn’t follow the tolerant advice of his esteemed teacher, a fellow Pharisee?  It’s unclear.  Nevertheless Mic.6:8 “What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.”  (Mt.23:23 Jesus noted justice, mercy and faith, alluding to Mic.6:8.)  Gamaliel’s good advice also reflected mercy, but the actions of Saul didn’t.  It seems Saul/Paul disregarded his acclaimed tutor.  Though later Paul dropped Gamaliel’s name when defending himself as a believer in Jesus (Ac.22:1-3)!

Was Paul distantly related to Herod; further motivation?  Paul’s father was a Benjamite (Php.3:5).  Paul wrote in Ro.16:11, “Greet Herodíon [Strongs g2267, Greek], my kinsman”.  Paul was Herodion’s relative, who was perhaps kin to Herod’s family.  The Iduméan Herod 1 the Great was raised as a Jew.  Dr. Taylor Marshall Was St Paul Related To Herod? “Saul/Paul favored the theology of the Pharisees before his conversion, but his family connections relate him to the inner circle of Herod Agríppa. In the first century, Hebrews with Roman privilege were linked to the Roman appointed rulers of Palestine – the Herod’s. Saul/Paul gained his Roman citizenship by birth. The Pharisees and the Herodiáns worked together!”  Mk.3:6 “The Pharisees went and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians [g2265] against Jesus.”

The Jerusalem church leaders sent Barnábas to lead the early church at Antioch in Syria (Ac.11:22-26).  As it grew, Barnabas went to Tarsús in Cilicía to get the now converted Paul (ref Ac.9:1-22) whom he’d mentored (Ac.9:27), to assist him in Antioch.  Ac.14:12 the pagans at Lýstra called “Barnabas Zeus, and Paul Hermés”.  Zeus was the chief pagan deity; whereas Hermes was Zeus’ son, lesser.  Dr. Heikki Raisanen Paul and the Law, p.253 “For quite a long time Paul worked as junior partner of Barnabas.”

Paul considered both Barnabas & himself apostles, 1Co.9:5-6.  However, Paul didn’t witness Jesus’ resurrection.  1Cor.15:8-9 Paul acknowleged, “I am as one untimely born, the least of the apostles”.  He’s been called Jesus’ ‘after-taught’.  (Though elsewhere Paul said he reckoned he “isn’t inferior to the chiefest of the apostles”, 2Co.11:5.)  There’s no indication that Saul knew Jesus prior to Jesus’ ascension.

Due to Paul’s misunderstanding of eschatological timing, ca 55 AD he advised Christians in Greece not to marry, 1Co.7:24-31.  What?!  Paul wrongly presumed time was “short….the present form of this world is passing away”.  (cf. Php.4:5, Ro.13:11-12.)  Dr. Tony Garland Paul and the Imminent Return of Jesus “The apostle thought that the 2^nd advent of the Lord would take place in his time. He seemed so sure about it. He goes on to even dissuade marriages among Christians (provided they can exercise self-control).”  How could Paul, who asserted he was taught by Jesus in visions (Ga.1:12, 2Co.12:1), make a mistake so life-altering?

Unlike Jesus’ original apostles, Paul didn’t audibly hear Jesus’ Olivet prophecy, about “this generation shall not pass” (Mk.13, Mt.24).  We Christians believe Jesus is/tells the truth!  But Paul misunderstood the region & the scope, so Europeans best not marry.  Jesus’ relative James wrote ca 50 AD.  Ja.5:9 “The Judge [Jesus] is standing at the door.”  (Good News Translation “The Judge is near, ready to appear.”)  James, leader of the Jerusalem church; he understood.  JFB Commentary Ja.5:9 “The Lord coming to destroy Jerusalem is primarily referred to.”  Jesus ‘came’ as Judge against those Jews in Judea who opposed Him.

Dr. S.G. Wilson The Gentiles and the Gentile Mission, p.71-76 “What did Mark mean in 13:12-ff? It appears that he saw the destruction of Jerusalem as connected to the End. Lk.13:1-9, an impending judgment on Israel. He [Luke] could have meant the destruction of Jerusalem, prophesied elsewhere. This was probably Jesus’ meaning, an integral part of End events.”  Jerusalem/Judea and the temple would be destroyed in 70 AD.  But the “present form of this world” wasn’t passing away then.  Paul erred.

Jesus had told His disciples (Peter, James & John, Andrew) of the temple’s destruction back in Mk.13:1-4, 14, 30. “When you see the abomination of desolation, let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. I say to you, ‘This generation shall not pass until all these things take place.”  Jews living then.  In the parallel Mt.24:1-3, 15-20, Jesus told them to pray their flight from Judea wouldn’t be on the Sabbath day.  Also Lk.21:5-7, 20-22 “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, recognize her desolation is at hand. Let those in Judea flee to the mountains. For these are the days of vengeance.”  Vengeance is the Lord’s (De.32:41), coming as Judge against antagonistic disbelieving Jews in Judea.

The ‘mountains’ they fled to (east of the Jordan River) weren’t to be destroyed.  Greece wasn’t destroyed.  Wikipedia: History of Jews in Greece “The Jews of Greece didn’t participate in the First Jewish-Roman War [66-73 AD] or later conflicts.”  Paul could have sought counsel from Peter, John, or Barnabas’ relative Mark who wrote the gospel account.  They knew Jesus’ Olivet prophecy.  But there’s no indication Paul asked them.  His mistaken advice to Corinth against marrying wasn’t good.  In that, Paul contradicted God’s word of Ge.2:18 “It is not good for the man to be alone” and Gen.1:28 “Be fruitful and multiply”.  (All this isn’t to imply that Jesus won’t come again, e.g. Ac.1:9-11, 3:19-21. see “The Last Days” topic.)

Maybe Paul, in his mind, misapplied Je.16:1-4.  The Lord had told Jeremiah to “not take a wife” in Judea, prior to Nebuchadnézzar’s horrific siege of Jerusalem in 587 BC (Je.38:23, 39:1)!  cf. Ezk.24:18-21.  The Lord then told the Jewish exiles in Babylon to “take wives and beget sons and daughters” (Je.29:4-6).  And Paul was writing to Greece…not to Jerusalem/Judea which Rome would destroy in 70 AD.  (Paul’s outlook in 1Co.7:1, 26-27 also contradicts his allowance in 1Co.7:2.)  1Co.7:26-ff his advice may have caused a moral nightmare for church leaders in Greece, pertaining to unmarried sex!  And there’d be no family, no sons or daughters, as descendants for those Christians!  No son to help provide for those aging (social security didn’t pay much back then).  Paul gave them unwarranted bad advice!  Surely Jesus didn’t tell him to disfavor wedlock in Greece.  Yet Paul tried to reinforce his notion, v.40 “I think I have the Spirit of God”.

Paul’s advice wasn’t ‘inspired by God’.  De.18:22 “If his prediction doesn’t happen, the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not revere him [Aramaic Bible].”  Over the centuries, numerous Christian leaders have set wrong dates for Christ’s ‘return’.  But few of them erred as drastically as Paul; most all who thought ‘time was short’ didn’t advise their followers to stay single.  If a church leader today tells his followers not to marry, presuming ‘the end’ is near, he’d risk being labeled a wacky cult leader!

baptistnews.com Problems With Second Coming Theology “The apostle Paul was apparently convinced that Christ’s coming/parousía would happen soon. He told the unmarried in the church at Corinth it would be best if they stayed unmarried because the world as they knew it was about to end (1Cor.7:25-31)….And here we are two millennia later.”  Paul’s understanding was flawed.  Yet later in the 60s AD, in 1Ti.5:14 Paul advised “that the younger widows marry, bear children”.  Paul’s expectation changed?

Re.21:10, 14 the apostle John envisioned the wall of the city New Jerusalem having “12 foundation stones, on which were the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb”.  Jesus’ original disciples (11 men) plus Matthias, Judas’ replacement.  Cambridge Bible Re.21:14 “St Paul being excluded.”  Jn.15:27, Ac.1:21-26 the 12 walked with Jesus and witnessed His resurrection.  Mt.19:28 Jesus said, “When the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you shall sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel”.  Paul isn’t included in either scenario!  The 12 apostles would judge Paul’s tribe of Benjamin.  (Ge.49:27 “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf.”)  Ep.2:20 Paul himself said the church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets”.  Ellicott Commentary Ep.2:20 “As in Rev.21:14, ‘the foundations’ bear ‘the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb.”  The 12 knew Jesus prior to His ascension, heard His ‘Sermon on the Mount’, etc.!  Saul/Paul didn’t.

Yet Paul wrote in Ga.2:6-10, “Those who were highly esteemed added in conference nothing to me. James, Peter, and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship.”  Bible historians say Paul wrote Galatians 15–20 years after his conversion.  By then Paul should’ve known the gospel & doctrine of the 3 lead apostles, ‘pillars’ in the church (the eschatological figurative ‘temple’).  And from their broad experience of having walked & talked with Jesus, they could’ve added much understanding to Paul, the self-proclaimed “least of the apostles”!

Jesus had given the “keys of the Kingdom” to Peter (Mt.16:18-19), and James was Jesus’ relative (Ga.1:19); they both spent years with Jesus in the Land!  ref 1Co.15:4-9.  Peter, James, Barnabas were Paul’s seniors in the faith from the lead church, in Jerusalem (Ac.15:7, 13, 19).  Paul faults them.  In Ga.2 Paul substantiates his ministry; he accuses in regards to a past apostolic contention at Antioch.  Who was (more) at fault?

Paul rebuked Peter for racial Judaizing.  Ga.2:11-14 “When Cephás [Peter] came to Antioch [Ac.12:17?], I opposed him to his face, for he stood condemned. Prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the gentiles; but he began to withdraw, holding himself aloof, fearing the circumcision party. The rest of the Jewish Christians joined him in hypocrisy. Even Barnabas was swept along with them.”  But Peter had had his own experience, Ac.10, when uncircumcised gentile Godfearers at Caesárea received the Holy Spirit (HS).  Maybe some racism or superiority complex still existed in the psyche of Paul-Peter from Jewish oral law?  cf. Ga.2:15 Paul wrote, “We who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners”.

In the 1^st century, some non-Godfearer gentiles customarily ate meat from idol temples and set a place at the table for a pagan god.  Paganism was the norm at Lystra in Galatia; they sacrificed to idols (Ac.14:11-13).  Ga.4:8 “When you did not know God you were slaves to those who are no gods.”  learnreligions.com “In terms of morality, Antioch was deeply corrupt. The famous pleasure grounds of Daphne were located on the outskirts of the city, including a temple dedicated to the Greek god Apollo.”  Robertson Commentary Ac.11:20 “These Greeks in Antioch were in part pure heathen, not Godfearers like Cornelius [Ac.10:22].”  Bengel Gnomen Ac.11:20 “Cornelius had been a devout gentile, but these converts [Antioch] were Greeks, idolators.”  Ac.15:7 the first apostle God sent to gentiles was Peter (not Paul).  Peter had said in Ac.10:35, “Every person who fears Him [Godfearers] and does righteousness is accepted by Him”.  Raisanen op. cit., p.41 “Many Godfearers observe the sabbath and the food regulations.”  Peter ate with Cornelius, and boldly defended his action (Ac.10–11).  Peter hadn’t ‘feared’ the believing Jerusalem Jews who’d at first opposed his eating with Godfearers in Caesarea.

Possibly some Antiochian non-Godfearer converts were eating blood and meat sacrificed to idols?  The churches in Pérgamos (Re.2:12-14) & Thyátira (Re.2:18-20) ate sacrifices to idols.  Jews feared committing a form of ‘second-hand idolatry’; they didn’t know if leftover food had gone to the marketplace from pagan rites.  see the topics “Acts 15 – Four Prohibitions” and “Sacrifices To Idols and Romans 14”.

The “men from James” (from Jerusalem) would object to eating with such!  Peter & Barnabas quit eating with gentile converts.  Paul himself wrote in Ro.14:3, “Let not him who eats regard with contempt him who doesn’t eat”.  v.23 “Whoever has doubts, yet still eats, is condemned, because his eating isn’t from faith; whatever is not from faith is sin.”  The non-eaters in Antioch were Peter, Barnabas and all Jewish Christians!

It appears a difficult choice had to be made in Antioch!  Peter didn’t want to risk offending James’ “men”.  Paul didn’t want the converts of he & Barnabas to be offended or misled.  But Barnabas agreed with Peter.  And Paul also wrote in 1Co.10:32, “Give no offense, either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God”.

Paul went on in Ga.2:16, “Knowing that a man isn’t justified by works of the law [érgon nómos], but by the faith of Jesus Christ”.  Besides Galatians & Romans, “works of the law” is found elsewhere only in the Dead Sea Scrolls 4QMMT.  They were selected purity rituals, cooking pots, etc.  ref “Paul (1)”.  Possibly Jewish converts in Antioch & Galatia and “men from James” had concerns about impurity resulting from practices of/contact with those who hadn’t been Godfearers.  (cf. Jn.18:28 Jerusalem Jews didn’t enter the gentile Roman Praetorium for fear of becoming defiled for the Passover Chagigáh.)  If sectarian purity rites were the concern…then Paul’s objection seems valid.  Ac.15:9 God “purified their hearts by faith”.

However, eating with past pagans who didn’t do washings/míkvehs for personal hygiene and commonly ate creatures containing parasites would put group health at risk.  General life expectancy in the 1^st century Roman Empire was only 40-45 years!  And James urged purifications, Ja.4:8, Ac.21:24-26 Paul did so.

Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica 1-2, Q.103, Art.4, Reply Obj.2 “According to Jerome, Peter withdrew himself from the Gentiles by pretense, in order to avoid giving scandal to the Jews, of whom he was the Apostle. Hence he did not sin at all in acting thus. On the other hand, Paul in like manner made a pretense of blaming him, in order to avoid scandalizing the Gentiles, whose Apostle he was.”  Furthermore, Paul even claimed in 1Co.9:19-21, “to the Jews I became as a Jew”.  Peter did so at Antioch (Ga.2:11-12).

J. Christiaan Beker Paul the Apostle, p.295 “In Galatia, Paul is charged with distorting the ‘Jerusalem gospel’, because his law-free gospel is attributed to his deviance from the gospel of the mother church in Jerusalem….Although he claims to be an accredited apostle, he cannot be called a personal disciple of Jesus.”  Peter, James, John, Barnabas represented the ‘Jerusalem gospel’.  Dr. Raisanen op. cit., p.216 “The conflict over the law; Luke’s account [Luke-Acts] serves to underline that it is Paul who is the odd man out in early [NT] Christianity.”  Benson Commentary Ga.2:14 “Paul is single against Peter and all the Jews.”  It’s Paul vs 2 or 3 apostles et al.  Peter was an elder (1Pe.5:1).  1Ti.5:1, 19-20 Paul later told Timothy to not rebuke or accuse an elder without 2–3 supporting witnesses.  Yet solely Paul accused Peter (not privately, cf. Mt.18:15) in Antioch; the ‘witnesses’ backed Peter!  Paul himself counteracted what he’d instruct Timothy.

Wikipedia: Incident at Antioch “The outcome of the incident remains uncertain.”  It’s not in Luke’s history of Acts.  He’s generally for harmony.  Only Paul felt the need to relate it.  What did Paul want to achieve by telling churches in provincial or ethnic Galatia of Peter’s action in Syria?  Dr. L. Michael White From Jesus to Christianity “The blowup with Peter was a failure of political bravado.”  Did Paul consider Peter a rival?

Zero original apostles adopted Paul’s ‘version’ of Jesus’ gospel.  Raisanen op. cit., p.198-200 “Paul is alone in setting up a contrast between the Toráh with its demands on the one hand and God’s grace or man’s faith in Christ on the other. No one else [in NT] shares Paul’s radical association of the law with sin [e.g. Ro.5:20a].”  Some Bible scholars see Paul’s writings as antinomian, or partially so.

Barnabas and his assistant/co-apostle Paul also had a sharp disagreement about Mark, and separated, Ac.15:35-39.  Maybe the issue at Antioch factored in?  Ellicott Commentary Ga.2:13 “Antioch…The beginning of the breach which would soon afterwards lead to the definite separation of the two apostles seems to be traceable here.”  Lightfoot NT Commentary Ga.2:13 “A temporary feeling of distrust [at Antioch] may have prepared the way for the dissension between Paul and Barnabas.”  Barnabas and Mark then sailed to Cyprus.  It seems that Paul was wrong regarding Barnabas’ relative John Mark (Ac.12:11-12, 13:5, 13, Col.4:10).  Perhaps a young Mark had even met Jesus (Mk.14:50-52)?  2Ti.4:11 Paul later told Timothy, “Only Luke is with me. Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me in the ministry.”  Paul had a change of heart regarding Mark’s service value, or they both repented of the schism.

Luke (an eyewitness) indicated in Acts that Paul’s going to Jerusalem ca 57 AD disobeyed the Holy Spirit (HS).  Ac.20:22-24 the HS kept warning that bonds and afflictions awaited Paul if he went to Jerusalem.  But Paul was determined to go, regardless.  Ac.21:3-4 Christians at Tyre told Paul “through the Spirit that he should not go up to Jerusalem”.  v.8-15 then at Philip’s house in Caesarea the prophet Ágabus bound his own hands & feet with Paul’s belt, telling him “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt”.  Luke and the others besought Paul with tears not to go!

But Paul wouldn’t be dissuaded.  2020scripturalvision.com “God graciously warns him. God said no but Paul said go….a sin of omission.”  A martyr complex?  sermons.logos Paul Is Warned “Could our hesitancy to assign blame to Paul be an indication of our holding him in too high regard? Even Paul was capable of acting apart from God’s will.”  Ac.21:31-33 and at Jerusalem, the Roman chíliarch did bind Paul.

Pastor Ray Stedman Paul’s Mistake “Even Paul’s close associates recognized the voice of the Spirit, to which the apostle seemed strangely deaf. He refused to listen. Here we see what can happen to a man of God when he is misled by an urgent hunger to accomplish a goal which God has not given him to do.”  The afflictions Paul was to suffer (Ac.9:16) needn’t have included chains in Jerusalem.  Cambridge Bible Ac.26:17 “The mission to the Gentiles seems to have been made clear to Saul from the very first.”  Ac.22:17-21 in defending himself, Paul recounted how the Lord years ago had told him to “Make haste and get out of Jerusalem; they won’t accept your testimony concerning Me. Go! I will send you far away to the gentiles.”  That was still Jesus’ will.  Paul wasn’t to prove Christ to Jews in Jerusalem!

Paul’s disregarding the HS had grave repercussions!  According to the church historian Eusebius, Paul’s presence then in Jerusalem even factored into those Jews slaying Jesus’ relative James a few years later!

Eusebius (265-340 AD) Ecclesiastical History 2:23:1-2, The Martyrdom of James “After Paul, in consequence of his appeal to Caesar [Ac.25:11-12], had been sent to Rome by Festus [Procurator in Judea, succeeding Felix], the Jews, being frustrated in their hope of entrapping him [Paul]…turned against James, the brother of the Lord. They demanded that he [James] renounce his faith in Christ. He, before the whole multitude confessed that our Lord and Savior Jesus is the Son of God. But they were unable to bear the testimony of the man [James] who was esteemed by all as the most just of men, and consequently they slew him.”  Jesus had told Paul to go to gentiles (Ep.3:8), not to Jerusalem ca 57 AD.

Paul reminded Timothy in 2Ti.3:15-16, “From a child you have known the holy scriptures. All scripture inspired by God is useful.”  The scriptures Timothy had as a child was the OT.  Not Paul’s letters.  Zero OT books themselves are letters!  1^st century AD writers of epistles, such as Paul, wouldn’t have considered their epistles ‘holy scripture’.  (Paul’s letters are longer than most 1^st century letters, though not Rev.)  Tim Hegg The Letter Writer, p.157 “It is hardly possible that he [Paul] thought his own writings to be on the same canonical level as the books of Moses.”  Jesus’ red-letter spoken words were likely regarded as ‘scripture’, cf. 1Ti.5:18 & Lk.10:7.

2Pe.3:15-17 Peter said Paul’s letters are “hard to understand”.  Was Peter really raising them to the level of ‘God’s written word’!?  Paul acknowledged that some of his writing was just his own opinion (at times plainly mistaken, e.g. 1Co.7:26-31), not God-breathed.  ref 1Co.7:6, 12, 2Co.8:8.  Yet the elderly apostle Peter in 2Pe.3:15 spoke graciously of Paul as a “brother”, though not as an “apostle”.  christianquestions.com/doctrine “There is no written record of either God or Jesus confirming Paul’s apostleship [?]. We only have Paul himself saying he is an apostle, along with a claim by his friend Luke in Acts [14:14].”  In the NT text, Jesus’ original apostles don’t refer to Paul specifically as an “apostle”.  Ga.2:9 they did recognize Paul and previously Barnabas (Ac.11:22-24) as fellow-laborers.

2Pe.3:18 Peter went on to say that Christians are to “grow in the grace and knowledge” of Jesus.  Paul, and Peter too, ‘grew’ over the years.  While learning to walk with the Lord in His will, Paul, and we too, have misstepped; we’ve made mistakes.

But God is compassionate.  Ps.103:8, 12 KJV “The Lord is merciful and gracious. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”  Upon repentance, He forgives the mistakes and sins of Paul, of Peter, and of us.  Thanks be to God!

This topic is continued in “Paul the Apostle (4) – Discrepancies”.  There, are cited several scriptural discrepancies & contradictions found in the epistles that bear Paul’s name.

 

Genesis Principles Predate Moses

Several years ago I asked the Lord…How can we know which of His principles/laws apply to us today?

God impressed on me to look in His word prior to Moses to see which principles of God are evident that far back.  In the book of Genesis.  Before there was the nation of ancient Israel.  Before there was any Old Covenant (OC) or New Covenant (NC).  The name “Moses” doesn’t appear until Ex.2:10.

So I searched Genesis for (timeless) righteous principles of God…which we see carried-over into the OC in Exodus, and also apply to us Christians today and eventually to all mankind.

Predating Moses…God’s righteous standards for mankind and the Kingdom of God, and even glimpses of Christ’s gospel, are seen in the book of Genesis.  As we read between the lines of narrative, Genesis reflects examples of how to honor God and love our neighbor; how to live our lives, and how not to.  Lessons that apply to Christian living.

Reformed Church theologian Albertus Pieters’ Notes On Genesis “Whoever has learned the Genesis stories has learned all the chief things that can be known about God (apart from the incarnation of God in Christ)…of permanent institutions for the well-being of mankind; we have here the institution of the Sabbath, marriage, government, and worship.”  There’s much revealed between the lines of Genesis!

Genesis was written/compiled by Moses, inspired by the Holy Spirit (2Ti.3:16).  It tells of ancient gentiles.  Some of them applied God’s ways, while others violated principles of God and His Kingdom.

The Lord said of the gentile Abraham in Ge.26:5, “Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws”.  Also Wisdom of Sirach 44:20 KJV 1611 edition “Abraham kept the law of the Most High.”  Abraham was obedient to the Lord.  To be so consecrated in obedience, he surely had much faith/belief in God!  Jesus said to Jews who opposed Him in Jn.8:39, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham”.  Abraham the non-Jew applied God’s principles & laws, present in Genesis.  Long before Moses (400 years)!  Also ref the topic “Abraham Obeyed Which Commandments?”.

James Bruckner Implied Law in the Abraham Narrative, p.67 “Genesis is embedded with law.”

Later, God had Moses define, describe, elaborate on, and add to those godly moral principles/laws via codified injunctions.  Moses did so in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.

The Old Covenant for Israel/Jews contained God’s moral precepts & laws existing in Genesis, which Abraham obeyed.  But added for Israel were pilgrim feasts, tabernacle/temple rituals, sin & guilt offerings, etc.  (see “Added in the Old Covenant”.)  We read of no regularly recurring animal sacrifices prior to Moses/Israel.

However, in Genesis there’s no nation of Israel!  The first Jew (Judah) isn’t even born until Ge.29:35!

So the acts we read the gentiles in Genesis doing/not doing relate to principles of conduct for mankind in general (not solely for Jews)…predating by centuries the Old Covenant Law of Moses for Israel.

Doug Ward The Law of God in the Book of Genesis “This beginning portion of the Bible has quite a lot to say about legal matters. However, it often addresses these matters indirectly rather than in the form of explicit commands.”  There are laws of God present in Genesis between the lines.  cf. Ro.4:15, 5:12-13.

Here I’ll go through the book of Genesis, noting God’s principles revealed in it.  Again, Genesis reflects the Lord’s guidelines for man before there was a nation of Israel.  As we read Genesis, we’ll see actions, both good and bad, righteous and unrighteous…done by those ancient gentiles and non-Jews.

(As an exercise or for reference, you might divide a sheet of paper into two columns.  On the left side, list things/actions to AVOID.  On the right side, list things/actions that are scripturally right to DO.)

Ge.1:11-12 “Plants and trees bearing seed after their kind.”  From creation, kind is to produce kind in biogenesis (cf. v.21, 24).  Vegetation which may be eaten.  Hybrid crops weren’t authorized, nor are GMOs.  Genetically Modified Organisms pose yet unknown health risks; they may also affect allergies.

Ge.1:29 “I have given you every seed-bearing plant that is on the surface of the earth, and every tree which has fruit with seeds. It shall be food for you.”  Seed-bearing land crops are for food.  These do photosynthesis.  These aren’t funguses or algae/seaweed.  Mushrooms are a fungus e.g.; they live on rot.  Some mushrooms are carcinogenic.

Ge.1:27-28 “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion.”  God gives to man the mandate to beget children (if physically able), and maintain the environment of the earth.

Ge.2:2-3 “God ceased [or rested, shabáth Hebrew] on the 7^th day from all His work. God blessed the 7^th day and sanctified it.”  It’s the first thing God made holy!  The sabbath is created for man, Mk.2:27.  Sabbath day rest is the recurring weekly sign which identifies that God/Christ is the Creator.  see the series “Sabbath 7^th Day”.

Ge.2:17 “The tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For in the day you eat it you shall surely die.”  To disobey God will result in death (cf. 3:6, 24).  God is to be obeyed.  see “Life and Death – for Saints” and “Tree Symbolism in Scripture”.

Ge.2:24-25 “A man shall join to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. They were both naked, the man and his wife.”  Marriage and sex between male & female is ordained.

Ge.4:4 “Abel offered the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions.”  This righteous gentile Abel (He.11:4) didn’t eat the fat portions.  Fat (and organ meats) wasn’t authorized for human consumption (ref Le.3:3-5, 17).  Eating fat is unhealthy.  see “Unclean verses Clean Food”.

Ge.4:8 “Cain killed his brother Abel.”  Murder is a crime.  We all know that.  Here, long prior to Mt Sinai and the codified law given to Moses/Israel.  (also see “War & Killing and the Bible Christian”.)

Ge.4:14-15 “The Lord said, ‘Whoever kills Cain, will suffer vengeance sevenfold’. The Lord set a sign for Cain, lest any finding him should smite him.”  Personal vengeance isn’t allowed (legal authorities determine who executes God’s vengeance, e.g. Ge.9:6 & De.17:6-11.  see “Governmental Loyalty for Christians”.)

Ge.5:22 “Enoch walked with God.”  The faithful (non-Jew) Enoch’s life pleased God, He.11:5.

Ge.7:1-3 “Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and his mate; one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and his mate.”  The gentile Noah knew clean & unclean creatures differed.  God didn’t approve the unclean for sacrifice or as food; some are carcinogenic.  (Clean wild animals weren’t used for godly sacrifices…the six extra pairs of clean wild animals were for food!)  Ge.8:20-21 thanksgiving worship towards the Lord is done by Noah (through sacrifice).

Ge.9:3 “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you, as the green plants.”  However, as some green plants are poisonous, some moving creatures are unclean/harmful.  The only creatures for “food” are (clean) moving/live creatures, properly bled.  Not creatures which die of themselves (“strangled”, Ac.15:29 KJV), not carrion or road kill, which attract parasites.  see “Acts 15 – Four Prohibitions”.

Ge.9:4 “You shall not eat the flesh with the life, the blood.”  God forbad blood as “food” (cf. Le.3:17, Ac.15:29).  “The life of the flesh is in the blood.” (Le.17:11)  Blood transmits disease.  Drinking blood is toxic to our system.

Ge.9:5-6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed.”  A human justice system with governing law courts, even to include capital punishment, God authorized. (ref De.17:6-11, Ro.13:1-4.)

Ge.9:20-23 “Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. He became drunk.”  Farming and vineyards are fine.  But drunkenness/intoxication has bad consequences (cf. Pr.20:1).

Ge.9:24-26 “When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him.”  Dishonoring a parent or grandparent is wrong.

Ge.12:14-20 Pharoah.  Adultery is very wrong (cf. 20:1-18).  Adultery occurs when a married/betrothed woman has sexual relations with a man not her husband/fiancée.  see “Sexual Sins, Harlotry, Rape”.

Ge.13:13 “The men of Sodom were wicked, sinners against the Lord.”  Wicked sinners?!  Without law, there is no transgression/sin (Ro.4:15).  Evidently there was law and the transgression of it in Genesis!

Ge.14:18 “Melchisedek king of Salem brought out bread & wine; he was priest of the Most High God.”  Both king and priest.  This indicates there is no complete separation between state and church.  Here also is bread & wine, the forerunner of communion with Jesus.  (ref He.7:17 Jesus is priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.)  see “Melchisedek Order Priesthood” and “Bread and Wine in the Church”.

Ge.14:20 “Abram gave him [Melchisedek] a tenth of all.”  Tithing to God’s representative of church and state is done by the gentile Abram, the father of the faithful, Ro.4:16.  (cf. Ge.28:22 God hadn’t raised taxes in Jacob’s day; His rate is still just 10%.)  see “Tithe to Church and State”.

Ge.15:16 “The iniquity of the Amorites isn’t yet full.”  But if God didn’t have moral law in Genesis, they wouldn’t be guilty of iniquity.  Paul wrote, “Without law there’s no transgression”, Ro.5:12-13.

Ge.19:4-11 the men of Sodom said to Lot, “Where are the men [angels] who came to visit you tonight? Send them out so we can have sex with them’….Lot said to them, ‘Please don’t act so wickedly.”  Same-sex intercourse is wickedness (as is beastiality, sex with a different kind)!

Ge.20:7, 17-18 “Abraham prayed to God.”  Ge.25:21 so did Isaac.  Ge.24:63 Isaac meditated.  Prayer and meditation to God are good practices.

Ge.21:9-10, 14 Abraham sent away Hagár his wife (ref Ge.16:3) and their son Ishmaél.  Divorce may be done for just cause, as when continual disrespect/mockery or physical abuse is present. (cf. De.24:1)

Ge.25:8-10 “His sons buried him [Abraham].”  Isaac & Ishmael.  This reflects proper burial for the deceased.  Also seen in this passage is sons honoring their parents (ref Ex.20:12, Ep.6:2).

Ge.27:11-13, 19 Jacob lied to Isaac.  Lying is usually wrong; so is deception and notably false witness.  (cf. 27:34-36, 37:31-33, 39:14, 20, Ex.20:16, Col.3:9, Ac.5:1-11.)  see “Lying – Ananias & Sapphira”.

Ge.30:1-13 lists the four wives of Jacob (v.4), and their offspring.  Having plural wives simultaneously isn’t morally wrong, if they’re adequately provided for.  Jacob/Israel wasn’t an adulterer!  (see “Polygyny – Lawful in God’s Eyes?”.)

Ge.31:33 Jacob’s four wives had separate tents.  (However, having plural wives in most of today’s western world isn’t customary and isn’t recommended.)  Sexual orgies aren’t God’s way.

Ge.31:19 “Rachel stole the household idols that were her father’s.”  Stealing is wrong.  We know that.  Also, idolatry and having other gods is wrong (cf. Jsh.24:2)!

Ge.31:34-35 Labán wouldn’t search the saddlebags upon which Rachel sat during her period.  Again, blood transmits disease.  Contact with human uncleanness and sex during menstruation is to be avoided (ref Le.15:20, 20:18, Ac.21:25).  Menstrual sex can cause tubal pregnancy and cervical cancer.

Ge.31:32 “Anyone you find your gods with shall not live.”  Jacob was talking to Laban, Rachel’s father.  Speaking curses upon someone can have dire consequences…Rachel died young (Ge.35:16-19).

Ge.31:42 “The God of Abraham, the God of my father.”  The true God is noted here by Jacob.

Ge.34:1-2, 24-26, 30 Dinah.  Rape/seduction (not mutual consent or elopement) is wrong; violations may be a capital offense.  (see “Sexual Sins, Harlotry, Rape”.)  v.15-30 covenant-breaking is wrong.  (Here by Jacob’s sons; Shechemites did become physically circumcised.)

Ge.35:22 “Reuben lay with Bilháh his father’s concubine.”  She’s a secondary wife of Jacob, Ge.30:4.  Dishonoring your father is sin.  Sex with father’s wife is a wrong form of incest, Le.18:8 & 1Co.5:1.

{Sidelight: Yet lesser incest such as marrying your sister wasn’t disallowed.  Kindred endogamy was necessary for reproduction and environmental caretaking, as per Ge.1:28 & Ge.9:1.  However, it’s said that when Abrám married Sarah (his niece or half-sister), Ge.20:11-12, the gene pool was still deep and the risk of birth defects was less.  (Later, when the risk became greater, this too is prohibited, Le.18:9.)}

Ge.37:5-9 “Joseph had another dream.” (fulfilled in Ge.42:6.)  This shows that God gives valid dreams.

Ge.37:27-28 Joseph’s brothers sold him to traders.  Kidnapping is very wrong (cf. Ex.21:16).  Also, selling one into slavery against his will was evil (cf. Ge.50:20).

Ge.38:7-10 refusing to father a son for a deceased brother’s widow was a form of cruelty to women (the weaker sex).  A son would care for his mother in her old age.  Also seen here is wrong coveting.

Ge.39:7-12 adultery is a “great evil” (v.9).  Again, God’s moral laws existed in Genesis.  In this passage, a married woman tried to rape Joseph.  He knew adultery was sin (prior to the law of Moses).

Ge.45:4-15 Joseph and his brothers reconcile.  Forgiveness is seen; also respect and love of family.

Ge.48:5-6 from Jacob’s example, we see that inheritances for children/grandchildren are good.

Ge.50:21 “I will provide for you and your little ones.”  Joseph takes into account the welfare of others.

Ge.50:24-26 reflects honoring the memory of the deceased (Joseph, fulfilled in Jsh.24:32).

Even hints & prophecies of the Savior and the gospel predate Moses.  Ge.3:15 indicates the seed of the woman (not of the man) eventually would crush the serpent’s head…the future virgin birth of Christ the Lord is implied.  Also Ge.22:8, the Lord Himself to be the lamb/sacrifice.  That will be Jesus.

Also, 1Pe.3:20-21 relates baptism for Christian converts to the Genesis Flood (Ge.6–8).  By means of flood waters, Noah was saved from the evil so prevalent around him.  Peter ties this to the water of baptism saving believers, in the sense of figuratively cleansing their conscience.

Bruckner op. cit., p. 205 wrote, seen in Genesis is “…a full range of law implied and functioning from the beginning”.  Indicative of this are the three dozen godly principles I’ve noted in this topic survey.

These principles/laws are universal from Creation regarding gentiles; they predate Moses, the OC and the NC!  Since they are universal…Christians of all nations should ordinarily adhere to most today!

In Genesis we read of Godfearers who obeyed the Lord…non-Jewish men such as Abraham (Ge.22:12) and Joseph (Ge.42:18).  Job too was a Godfearer (Jb.1:8).  That was prior to the OC law for Israel, later codified in Exodus.  (also cf. Ac.10:1-2 Cornelius the gentile Godfearer.)

However, absent from Genesis (but part of the Levitical OC for Israel) were tabernacle procedures & ceremonies: e.g. sin/guilt offerings, pilgrim feasts, various washings.  Any such rituals aren’t seen or recorded by Moses in Genesis regarding righteous gentiles and non-Jews of old.

Yet God had moral laws from the beginning, in Genesis.  1Jn.3:8 “The devil sins from the beginning.”

This concludes our survey of God’s moral principles/laws seen in the book of Genesis.  The principles predate Moses’ later codification and they transcend the OC.

The topic “Ten Commandments in Genesis & Job” focuses specifically on the Decalogue/Testimony, as seen prior to Moses and the Old Covenant for Israel.

Polygyny – Lawful in God’s Eyes? (1)

This is a subject related to Biblical morality that most Christians and Western churches haven’t examined in-depth.  Before proceeding with it, please be advised…the subject is very controversial!  

This topic examines Christ’s Old Testament (OT) regulations concerning plural wives & concubines.  You may be shocked to read lesser-known marriage laws of Christ from the OT!  The topic may be hard to hear for those living in modern Western culture.

Our English term polygamy (from ca 1600 AD) includes polygyny (1780 AD), one man cohabiting with plural wives; polyandry (1780), one woman cohabiting with plural husbands.  Are these lawful options in God’s eyes?  The terms are derived from the Greek poly/many, gamos/marriage, gyne/wife.  Some today don’t differentiate between polygamy and polygyny, as if they’re interchangeable terms.

Our modern society is decadent.  Illicit sex, licentiousness, abortion, divorce are rampant.  Divorce & remarriage is a form of serial monogamy, called consecutive polygyny and consecutive polyandry.  

Greco-Roman society was monogamous on the surface.  Yet it had widespread prostitution, pederasty, sexual perversion, divorce, as we today.  A. Isaksson wrote, “In Rome divorces were so numerous, they constituted a serious social problem.”  The divorce problem wasn’t quite as bad in 1^st century Palestine.

Anciently, concubinage was a recognized arrangement; it loosely compares to a ‘mistress staying in the house’.  Concubinage was also present in the Mediterranean world, especially within the military.  S.M. Baugh Marriage and Family in Ancient Greek Society “Concubinage was widespread and commonly accepted among the Greeks and Romans.”  But it wasn’t legally fully marriage in Roman society.  Wikipedia: Concubinage “Concubinage was an institution of quási-marriage between Roman citizens who for various reasons did not want to enter into a full marriage.”

Roman Empire law didn’t include all the OT guidelines for marriage that Christ had revealed to His people ancient Israel.  However, 1^st century Jews (and Persians?) were allowed by Rome to continue practicing the OT laws & principles of their traditional marriages.  The Jewish historian Josephus (37-100 AD) wrote, Wars of the Jews 1:24:2, “It being of old permitted to the Jews to marry many wives”.

But regardless of cultural influences, God defines true morality.  He defines what is and isn’t sexual sin.  Laws of human governments and customs of nations may or may not reflect God’s morality! 

First, a blanket statement…scripture indicates that irresponsible casual sex isn’t God’s way.

Christ commanded in Ex.20:14 and Mt.5:27, “You shall not commit adultery”.  It’s a form of sexual sin.  Adultery is committed when a man has sex with a woman who is married or betrothed to another man.  Betrothal was a legal commitment, prior to consummation.  The adulterous man can be married or single; his marital status isn’t a factor.  Her marital status is the key!  The scriptures reveal that adultery always involves a wife or betrothed woman who broke wedlock; another man stole her, in a sense.  Moody Bible Institute Professor of Theology William F. Luck The Morality of Biblical Polygyny, p.14 “Adultery was always defined by the woman’s marital status, never the man’s.”  Thus it was impossible for an OT widow, divorcee, or otherwise single woman to commit adultery!

We’ll see that a man lawfully could live with plural wives.  It is authorized in scripture (if practiced responsibly).  That is, if he didn’t steal a wife from her husband.  Ex.20:15 “You shall not steal.”

Ex.20:17 LXX “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, you shall not covet your neighbor’s house, nor his field, his servant, his maid, his cattle…nor whatever belongs to your neighbor.”  Wrong coveting can occur regarding another’s wife, his male and female servants, etc.  But nothing is said about singles coveting another’s husband!  A man was allowed simultaneous wives in Christ’s theocracy.  So a single woman could rightly desire a married man.  (This indulgence is strange to our Western minds.)

Going back even prior to ancient Israel…Ge.20 King Abimélech of Gerár had a (free) wife and maid concubine wives (v.17).  v.2-3 then he took Sarah from Abraham her husband, thinking she was only his “sister”.  But God quickly revealed to him in a dream that she’s married.  v.4-ff Abimelech said, “Lord…in the integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands I have done this thing.’ God said, ‘I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this. Therefore I did not let you touch her. Restore the man’s wife.”  Abimelech had acted with integrity.  His sin wasn’t him having plural wives.  His sin was…the woman he took, Sarah, was another man’s wife.  Abraham and Abimelech both were gentiles/non-Jews.  (Note: Later, 1450 BC Núzi tablets found in northern Iraq evidence a man’s wife legally could be considered his sister.  Ge.13:8 also Abrám had called his nephew Lot his “brother”.)

Ge.12:10-20 the gentile/non-Jew Pharaoh of Egypt too mistakenly took Sarah for ritual purification, so she could become his wife.  After the Lord caused him to realize his mistake, Pharaoh even blessed Abram (Sarah’s husband) with livestock and male & female servants/maids!

Ge.16:1-9 the Egyptian maid Hagár became wife to Abram (v.3).  Their tie constituted marriage.  She was his concubine or secondary wife.  That isn’t immoral.  But strife arose…Sarah treated Hagar harshly, v.6; Ishmaél (son of Abraham-Hagar) lacked proper respect for Isaac (son of Abraham-Sarah), Ge.21:9-10.  Lack of respect resulted in…divorce (garásh Strongs h1644, Hebrew) the bondwoman wife!  (ref divorce/drive out h1644 in: Pr.22:10, Nu.30:9, Le.21:7, 22:13, Ezk.44:22, Ga.4:30.)

Ge.25:1-2 Abraham also took a concubine wife named Keturáh (1Ch.1:32), who bore him six sons.  Ge.25:6 “To the sons of his concubines, Abraham gave gifts while he was still living.”  Concubinage isn’t sin.  And according to the apostle Paul, Abraham is the father of the faithful (Ro.4:16; cf. He.11:8, 13).  Also Abraham’s brother Nahór had a concubine named Reumáh (Ge.22:23-24).

The OT Hebrew loan word translated concubine is peléhgesh h6370, occurring 37 times.  The Aramaic is h3904 (Da.5:2, 3, 23).  The corresponding term in the OT Greek LXX, g3825.1, occurs 41 times.

Jb.1:8 God said His servant Job (a gentile) was a blameless, upright man.  Yet in his trials, Job’s wife and surviving offspring didn’t console him.  Jb.19:17-18 LXX Job lamented, “I besought my wife, and earnestly entreated the sons of my concubines. But they rejected me.”  Righteous Job had concubines.

The earlier (gentile) Lámech, the first man in scripture with two wives, killed a man (Ge.4:19-24).  Therefore, some presume that all polygyny is wrong.  Tom Shipley Man and Woman in Biblical Law “The fact that Lamech was evil does not, and cannot, prove that his polygamy was evil, as well. The above syllogism [premise] is ‘reductio ad absurdum.”  (Good men too, in scripture, were polygynous.)

Ge.30:1-24 Israel’s 12 tribes descended from the patriarch Jacob and his four wives.  Leah & Rachel were his free wives, Bilháh & Zilpah his ‘secondary’ bond wives.  v.4 “Rachel gave Jacob her maid Bilhah as a wife.”  Jacob, whose name God changed (Ge.32:28) to “Israel”, wasn’t an adulterer! (cf. De.23:2)  Cohabiting with four wives, he was ‘one flesh’ with each.  The OT people Christ loved above all others, the 12 tribes of ancient Israel, weren’t illegitimately fathered by an adulterer!  (Note: A wife’s maid being given to the wife’s husband is also evident in the ancient Code of Hammurabi #146.)

So far, we see that having plural wives was morally acceptable to gentiles/non-Jews and Jacob/Israel!  Godly and ungodly men of the Bible had plural wives.  Later, during Moses’ time, Christ gave codified laws/regulations to His theocratic nation Israel.  (see the topic “Jesus Was The Old Testament God”.)  His laws define marriage in God’s sight, adultery, and prescribe consequences for violations.

De.22:22-27 shows the joint penalty for adultery, consensual sex with a woman married or betrothed to another man.  If the offender raped her, only he is guilty.  Le.19:20 the penalty for having sex with a bondmaid acquired for another man was less than that for a free woman.  (Less station & limited loyalty effected less penalty/fine for the bondmaid, not yet fully espoused.)  If a man, single or married, had sex with a virgin residing with her father, he’s to marry her, De.22:28-29 & Ex.22:16-17…not ignore her.

De.21:15-17 “If a man has two wives…”  Polygyny wasn’t unlawful.  This passage shows that (among free wives) the double-portion inheritance right of the eldest son was protected.  Pulpit Commentary De.21:15 “He mustn’t allow his love for the other [wife] to prejudice the right of the son.”  De.17:15-17 though plural wives & horses wasn’t sin, the king wasn’t to multiply to himself horses or pagan wives.  (Horses were used mostly for war.)  No large pagan harems!  Solomon later violated this, 1Ki.11:1-4.

But Christ/God forbad incestual polygyny.  Le.18:7-8 a man mustn’t have sex with his mother, nor with any other of his father’s wives (Ge.35:22, 49:4; 1Co.5:1).  Nor with his own daughter (Le.18:17, 20:14).

Jesus the Man didn’t repeat all these His commands.  Yet they still define His morality.  He said, “It is written!” Mt.4:4, 7, 10.  Polygyny is authorized, but polyandry is adultery.  Married prostitutes too are adulteresses.  (The topic “Sexual Sins, Harlotry, Rape” examines sexual immorality more in-depth.)

Ex.21:7-11 describes God’s law of concubines.  “If a man takes another wife, he must not reduce the food, clothing or conjugal dues of his first wife.”  Ellicott Commentary Ex.21:10 “Polygamy is viewed as lawful in this passage.”  That is, polygyny; it isn’t immoral in Christ’s theocracy.  Cambridge Bible Ex.21:10 “The case contemplated is that of a well-to-do Israelite who could have several concubines.”

Is.4:1 this prophecy too shows that polygyny isn’t adultery. “Seven women will take hold of one man in that day, saying, ‘We will eat our own food and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach.”  Many men had died in warfare, Is.3:25 (cf. Je.15:8).  Is.4:1 women were even willing to relinquish two of the supports the Lord designated in Ex.21:10, so long as her husband gives her conjugal dues!  JFB Commentary Is.4:1 “Foregoing the privileges, which the law (Ex.21:10) gives to wives, when a man has more than one. ‘Reproach’ – being unmarried and childless.”  An unmarried and childless woman later might lack sustenance in her old age.    

De.21:10-15 describes God’s law of war brides, so-called. “When you go to war against your enemies and God delivers them into your hands, and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and would take her as a wife for yourself….If a man has two wives….”  A war bride wasn’t to be raped.  The Israelite was to bring her to his house; she must renounce her heathen customs, and be allowed to mourn her mother & father for a month.  The month delay would reveal if she was already pregnant before her capture.  Only after the month would she become the Israelite’s concubine wife, and sexual relations then ensue.  Married into God’s theocracy, she could learn the ways of the true God.  If the man wasn’t pleased with her, she was to be given her complete freedom; he wasn’t to sell his concubine for money.     

Nu.31:18-ff virgins were among the spoils taken from the slaughter of God’s vengeance against Midián.  The Lord said in v.18, “All the girls who have never had sexual relations, keep for yourselves”.  v.27, 32-47 the total of virgins taken was divided into two halves, for the Israelite warriors and non-warriors.  A small % of the girls (0.2%) were for the priests, v.40.  (But the high priest could only marry a virgin Israelitess, not foreigners, Le.21:10-14.)  Gill Exposition Le.21:13 “Polygamy [polygyny] was practiced by the Israelites, even by the common priests.”  Christ’s OT Levitical priests weren’t celibate!

De.25:5-10 was Christ’s levirate law, so-called.  A brother-in-law or near relative, even if he’s already married, was to marry a deceased Israelite’s widow who had no son.  The Latin word levir meant ‘husband’s brother’.  Without children, a man’s family name was “blotted out of Israel”.  Widowhood could result in poverty for an aging woman with no son to help provide for her!  Maurice Nelson The Monogamy Lie! “Levirate marriage could be seen as a type of Life Insurance for a widow.”

Ruth’s Jewish husband had died.  Ru.4:1-10 Bóaz and the closer relative possibly were both married.  William Luck op. cit., p.21 “Polygyny was not immoral, per se; widow-neglect based on commitment to monogamy was.”  A widow was even authorized to spit in the face of a brother-in-law, single or married, who refused to marry her (De.25:9)!  Boaz married Ruth, and fathered a son for her (Ru.4:13).

Several godly men of faith had plural wives/concubines.  Joshua & Caleb were the two faithful spies, and survived into the Promised Land.  They were guided by the Holy Spirit (Nu.14:24, 30, 27:18; Jsh.14:13).  1Ch.2:46-49 Caleb had two concubines.  (Caleb’s daughter was Áchsah, cf. Jsh.15:16.)

Manásseh was the firstborn son of Joseph, and grandson of Jacob.  Of the 12 tribes, God allotted his tribe the largest area in the Land! (cf. Jsh.17.)  1Ch.7:14 Manasseh had an Aramean/Syrian concubine.

Wikipedia: Concubinage “Among the Israelites, men commonly acknowledged their concubines, and such women enjoyed the same rights in the house as legitimate wives.  2Sm.3:7 NASB footnote “A concubine was much more than a mistress. In a sense, she was a ‘secondary wife’ (Ex.21:8-10, De.21:11-13). She was considered a member of the household, by an official ceremony of appointment, and she had the rights of a married woman. Concubines were usually acquired by purchase or were captives taken in war. She could be ‘divorced’ summarily, but never as a slave.”  2Sm.3:7 King Saul had a concubine named Rízpah (and other wives – 1Sm.14:50, 2Sm.12:7-8).  A concubine lead-servant was to courteously submit to the first (free) wife, so she wouldn’t be jealous.

Most men were monogamous, having one wife in marriage (at a time).  Yet concubinage was a respected marital option in the OT and ancient world.  It resembles heterosexual civil union, as done in some nations today.  Our English word concubine comes from the Latin word concubina, meaning ‘to lie together’.  But our word concubine means more than that.  The meanings and customary practice of concubinage in various nations may differ from what God authorized millennia ago in scripture.

Jg.8:30-32 “Gideon had 70 sons, for he had many wives. His concubine in Shechém also bore him a son, Abimélech. Gideon died at a good old age.”  (The concubine is called his “maidservant” in Jg.9:18.)  Gill Exposition Jg.8:31 “His concubine, a secondary or half wife; generally taken from handmaids.”  Concubinage & plural wives isn’t adultery…Gideon wasn’t living in sin!  The warrior-judge Gideon was chosen and empowered by God to save Israel out of Midianite oppression (Jg.6:14, 34).  Gideon, who had “many wives”, is listed in He.11:32-33 among the faithful.  The Christian association Gideon’s International, which freely distributes Bibles, is named after this polygynist.

1Sm.1:1-3 Samuel’s father Elkanáh cohabited with two wives, Peninnáh and Hannáh.  Every year he took his family to sacrifice at the Lord’s tabernacle, at Shilóh.  Elkanah was a devout man; he wasn’t living in sin!  Samuel was the eldest son of Elkanah’s second wife Hannah.  Samuel was then fostered by Eli the high priest (1Sm.1:28, 2:11), and became a renowned prophet-judge.  Samuel was born in lawful wedlock, he wasn’t illegitimate!  De.23:2 none illegitimate shall enter the assembly of the Lord.

King Joásh of Judah had two wives.  2Ch.24:1-3 “Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the days of Jehoiadá the priest. And Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he had sons and daughters.”  The chief priest selected two wives for Joash!  Joash’s cohabitation with two wives didn’t contradict his doing “right in the eyes of the Lord”.  v.15-16 and Jehoiada the priest did well to Israel and to God; he was buried with honor.  Jehoiada hadn’t sinned by giving two wives to the king.

The scriptures reveal that monogamy and polygyny are both lawful marital options, according to Christ’s morality, in His theocracy.  Where He set the rules & regulations.  And Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever! (He.13:8)  He’s not fickle and His moral principles don’t flip-flop!

Lauren Heiligenthal writes in her book Evaluating Western Christianity’s Interpretation of Biblical Polygamy, p.17 “While scholars and missiologists [studiers of missions] may suggest that monogamy is God’s ideal, Scripture is neither forthcoming with this claim nor does it prohibit polygamy.”

Later, polygamy was legal throughout the Persian Empire (559–331 BC) of the Intertestamental Period.

But when Jesus the man incarnated, He didn’t set the rules in Roman Empire provinces of the 1^st century AD.  His followers too were and are subject to the (marital) laws of our various nations.  So normally God’s moral option of polygyny isn’t advised in nations where it’s disallowed legally.

Other polygynists are seen in the Bible.  But little is in view in the pagan Greco-Roman culture of the New Testament epistles, where most gentiles legally were to be monogamous.

This topic is continued and concluded in “Polygyny – Lawful in God’s Eyes? (2)”.

 

Melchisedek Order Priesthood

King David of ancient Israel was given a messianic prophecy in Ps.110:1-4.  v.4 “The Lord has sworn, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedek.”  The Lord (Jesus) would be ruling King and priest in the order of Melchisedek!  This topic discusses Melchisedek and priesthood.

True religion and the Judeo-Christian ethic includes the entire Bible.  Both the Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT) speak of priesthood.

What is a priest?  A priest performs religious rites, and mediates between God and humans.

Ancient nations and heathen cultures had priesthoods (ref Ge.41:45, Ex.3:1).  Wayne Jackson Exploring the Concept of Priesthood “The ancient Assyrians had priests, as did the Babylonians.”  OT Israel’s priests were of the Levitical order, from the tribe of Jacob’s son Levi.

Moses was a priest and a mediator (Ps.99:6; Ex.24:6, 29:26; Nu.7:1; Ga.3:19).  Then Moses’ brother Aaron and Aaron’s male descendants from the tribe of Levi were Israel’s priests (Ex.28:1).  Prior to the Levitical (Lev) Aaronic order of priests, in ancient Israel families/clans performed priestly functions (Ex.24:5).  The Aaronic priesthood was established in the wilderness (Ex.40:13-15), after the Israelites left Egypt.  But this Levitical priesthood didn’t exist in the books of Genesis or Job.

Jesus and His NT believers are of the order of Melchisedek, which both predates and postdates the Levitical order.  The person of Melchisedek (Mel) goes back to Genesis.  What does the Bible tell us about Melchisedek, and how does the order of Melchisedek compare to the Levitical order?

The mysterious Melchisedek/Melchizedek is thought by many to be a theophany or Christophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ the Son of God Most High (Lk.1:32).  The name “Melchisedek” means ‘king of righteousness’ (He.7:2).  And in Je.23:5, the Messiah/Branch (Jesus) is the prophesied righteous king.  Ge.18:1-33 the Lord as a Christophany appeared to Abraham.  Melchisedek appeared to Abrám in Ge.14.  Previously, in Ge.12:1-2 the Lord had said that He would bless Abram…“I will bless you.”  And then in Ge.14:18-21 Melchisedek said, “Blessed be Abram of God Most High”.  It is Mel who blessed Abram!  It appears that Mel was divine, as the pre-existent Word of God, the Lord Christ.  Jn.1:1, 14 identifies Jesus as “the Word” (the Lógos in Greek).

The Dead Sea Scrolls Melchizedek document 11Q13, dated circa 100 BC, indicates Melchisedek is divine.  Wikipedia: 11Q13 “11Q13 states that….Melchizedek is ‘Your Elohim [God]’ who will deliver the sons of righteousness from Belíal.”  In the 1st century AD, Philo said Melchisedek represented the Word/Logos and is a priest (Allegorical Interpretation 3:26:82, p.59).  Again, Jesus is the Word/Logos.

Melchisedek is the first priest mentioned in the OT.  In Ge.14:18, Mel served Abram (the father of the faithful, Ga.3:7) bread & wine.  Sharing bread & wine will become the sacred communion or eucharist for the NT church in the order of Melchisedek!  (also see the topic “Bread and Wine in the Church”.)

Ge.14:18 “Melchisedek, king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now He was priest of God Most High.”  Mel was both king and priest of God.  In ancient kingdoms there was no separation of church and state.  Their politics involved pleasing their deity, so the deity would protect them.  But Israel’s priestly Aaronites among Levites weren’t kings.  Judah, not Levi, became a kingly tribe (Ge.49:10).

The Lord changed Abram’s name to Abraham in Ge.17:5.  Was Abraham himself a priest, serving under Melchisedek?  Abraham knew the king of Sodom (Ge.14:21).  In Ge.18:23-24, it is plausible that Abraham was interceding to the Lord Christ as a priest on Sodom’s behalf.

The order of (King) Melchisedek includes the laws of the King.  e.g. in Ge.14 Abram tithed or paid 10% to the priest-king/church-state.  (see the topic “Tithe to Church and State”.)  Abraham obeyed God’s regulations.  The Lord said of Abraham in Ge.26:5, “Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws”.  Abraham had the faith to obey all that, without a codified Law of Moses!  (see “Abraham Obeyed Which Commandments?”.)

What are the laws taught by, or pertaining to, the order of Melchisedek?

Throughout Genesis, we read of gentiles (such as Abraham) obeying…or disobeying…God’s principles & instructions.  Also Job.22:22, God’s guidelines weren’t unknown to gentiles living prior to the Law of Moses.  (see “Genesis Principles Predate Moses” and “Ten Commandments in Genesis & Job”.)

1Enoch 99:2 “Woe to them who pervert the words of uprightness, and transgress the eternal law.”  1Eno.106:14 “Some of the angels of heaven…commit sin and transgress the law.” (ref 2Pe.2:4 & Jude 1:6.)  This indicates an eternal law existed even for the residents of heaven to obey, in order to dwell with God in harmony.  (Jude considered 1Eno.1:9 a prophecy, and quoted it in Jude 1:14.  1Enoch is included in a few Christian canons.)

Genesis reflects many similarities to the laws Christ later told Moses to codify & enact during the Levitical dispensation.  For example, in Genesis: 39:9 adultery is a great sin.  31:32 stealing is wrong.  2:2-3 God sanctified the 7^th day sabbath for mankind at Creation.  28:22 Abraham’s grandson Jacob also paid 10% to God.  7:2 only clean creatures are food.  Some try to claim the extra pairs of clean animals taken on Noah’s ark were for sacrifice.  But only domestic clean animals were sacrifices, not wild!  Yet Noah took seven pairs of wild clean animals too (there’d be plenty to eat)!  9:4 blood isn’t authorized as food (prohibited in the Ac.15:29 decree for the church.  see “Acts 15 – Four Prohibitions”.)

The Lord later commanded that the above laws (and other laws too), seen in Genesis for gentiles, be part of the Levitical code and Old Covenant for Moses/Israel.  (see “Added in the Old Covenant”.)

Albertus Pieters Notes On Genesis “Whoever has learned the Genesis stories has learned all the chief things that can be known about God (apart from the incarnation of God in Christ)…of permanent institutions for the well-being of mankind, we have here the institution of the sabbath, marriage, government, and worship.”  Yes, there’s much for the church found between the lines of Genesis!

The above examples from Genesis reflect some of the similarities between the order of Melchisedek and the Levitical order.  But there are also noticeable differences between them!  Such as…

In the order of Melchisedek, there’s no scriptural evidence of any physical tabernacle/temple ceremonial rituals (ref He.9:1, 10).  There’s no animal sin/trespass offerings.  There’s no Passover (before God ‘passed-over’ Moses’ Israel in Ex.12:23); there’s no other pilgrim feasts.  (Genesis does show voluntary non-temple burnt offerings.)  Also, we read of lesser incest…so they can obey God’s commands to reproduce (Ge.1:28, 9:1)…when the only humans available to marry there are relatives.

In the order of Melchisedek, there’s no lunar calendar (for determining pilgrim feast dates, e.g.).  Examining Ge.7:11 with Ge.8:3-4 indicates 30-day months of a solar calendar.  Also Re.11:2-3 reflects 30-day months of a prophetic solar calendar.  This calendar projects to add a 30-day leap-month seven times in each 40-year cycle…in years #6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 40.  Its variance from 365.2422 days per year is said to be only 4 hours 2 min over a span of 11,560 years!  Also a form of solar calendar is used in 1Enoch.  But the lunar aspect of the Levitical dispensation had 29 or 30 day months (for feasts)…and it’s less accurate.  (As another comparison, the estimated variance of the Gregorian calendar over 11,560 years may be around 80 hours, or 3 ⅓ days.  It too is less accurate than the ‘prophetic calendar’.)

Various lunar calendar and new moon reckoning dogmas for Levitical festivals can cause unnecessary division within the order of Melchisedek!  In 1Co.14:33, Paul says God is not of confusion/disorder!  Attempting to use a Levitical calendar in the Melchisedek order has resulted in a measure of confusion.

There’s a significant prophecy in Zechariah.  Again, Je.23:5-6 referred to the Lord/Messiah as the Branch.  Zec.3:8-9 the then Levitical high priest, named Yehoshúa/Yeshúa (Iesous or Jesus in the Greek LXX), was a symbol.  Zec.6:11-13 is about that ancient Yeshua. “Behold, a man whose name is the Branch. He will be a priest on his throne [kingly], and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices.”  That Yeshua had the same name as the future Branch; and back in 500 BC was a symbol of the Melchisedek priest/king!  A full 500 years prior to the Messiah’s human birth, God knew the Savior’s Name would be…Yeshua (in Hebrew & Aramaic)!

Let’s now read through Hebrews 5–7.  It’s about priesthood and Jesus in the order of Melchisedek.  The Levitical and Melchisedek priesthoods are further contrasted in these chapters.

He.5:1-11 there was much to say regarding the order of Melchisedek.  He.6:13-20 Jesus is high priest in the order of Mel.  6:18 the two immutable things God swore with an oath are found in 6:13-14 and 7:21.  That is, the Lord surely would bless Abraham and multiply his descendants, and Jesus is priest in the order of Mel forever.  (also ref 1Eno.69 regarding oaths.)

He.7:1-8 the priest-king Melchisedek had no genealogy, no beginning of days or end of life, and was made like the Son of God.  v.8 “He [Melchisedek] lives on.”  In Hebrews, Melchisedek isn’t portrayed as a mortal man!  Abraham was a mortal man.  Aaronite priests were mortal men with genealogy.

Wikipedia: Priesthood of Melchizedek “The basis of the Aaronic priesthood was ancestry; the basis of the priesthood of Melchizedek is everlasting life. That is, there’s no interruption due to a priest’s death (Heb.7:8,15-16, 23-25).”  The Levitical priesthood was hereditary.  ISBE “Melchizedek, a priest of highest rank, had neither predecessor nor successor in his great office.”

He.7:17 “You [Jesus] are a priest forever in the order of Melchisedek.”  Got Questions – Who Was Melchizedek? “This term ‘order’ would ordinarily indicate a succession of priests holding the office. None are ever mentioned, however, in the long interval from Melchizedek to Christ, an anomaly that can be solved by assuming that Melchizedek and Christ are really the same person.”

He.6:20 “Jesus…having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchisedek.”  Poole Commentary Ps.110:4 “Forever’, not to be interrupted or translated to another person.”  Jesus is high priest forever.  Yet He.7:3, speaking of Melchisedek, “…Being made like to the Son of God, does remain a priest continually [g1336].” (Youngs Literal Translation.)  According to the writer to the Hebrews, Melchisedek is priest on into perpetuity.  Vincent Word Studies He.7:3 “The tenure of his [Melchisedek’s] office is uninterrupted.”  Are we to believe there are two high priests serving continuously and uninterrupted?!  Taken literally…if Melchisedek isn’t Jesus, then there are presently two high priests simultaneously!

Hebrews 7 also compares Melchisedek to Abraham.  He.7:4 “Consider how great this [Being] was!”  (The term for ‘man’ isn’t in the Greek text of v.4.)  The Being Melchisedek is even called great!

Abraham was highly honored and eminent, the spiritual father of the faithful, according to Paul (Ga.3:7, 29).  The Lord had told Abram in Ge.12:2-3, “I will make you a great nation, and will magnify your name….In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  God would change Abram’s name to Abraham, magnify it, and his posterity would be renowned on earth!

Yet He.7:4 indicates Melchisedek is greater than Abraham!  He blessed Abram.  He.7:7 ESV “It is beyond dispute that the inferior [Abram] is blessed by the superior [Melchisedek].” (Other translations render the Greek term kreítton, Strongs g2909, as “better” or “greater”.)  Barnes Notes “Melchizedek was thus superior to Abraham.”  Cambridge Bible “The inferior is blessed by one who is the Superior.”

{Sidelight: Some think Melchisedek was a title (like Caesar or Czar), not a personal name.  A Jewish tradition says Melchisedek was Noah’s son Shem.  But according to Ge.5:32 & Ge.10:22, Shem did have a literal genealogy (unlike Melchisedek).  Shem had a beginning and an end, a mortal man.  Furthermore, in scripture Shem is of lesser status than Abraham (or Noah), not greater.  Shem’s name is seen less than 20 times in the Bible, whereas Abram/Abraham appears over 300 times!  Also, in the LXX and Samaritan Pentateuch chronologies, Shem was dead long before Mel met Abram in Ge.14.}

He.7:9-12 “The priesthood being changed, there takes place a change in the law also.”  A change has occurred in some written law/toráh; in the sacrificial & ceremonial aspects.  There’s no Levitical priesthood or temple; they’re now obsolete as far as the church is concerned.

It’s changed because…Jesus fulfilled all things written about Him (but not everything written in the OT).  Let’s first notice, in Mt.5:17-18 Jesus said, “I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill [g4137]”.  Then after His resurrection, Jesus’ words in Lk.24:44 refer back to the earlier Mt.5:17-18, with added detail. “My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled [g4137].”  Jesus came to fulfill all things written about Him in the Law, etc.  Furthermore, Luke noted in Ac.13:29, “They carried out all that was written concerning Him”.  Jesus didn’t abolish or “fulfill” in our place the Lord’s moral principles (seen way back in Genesis for gentiles/non-Jews even)!

Just because Jesus obeyed God’s principles doesn’t imply that He did so in our stead, and we may act like the devil!  In 2Co.5:10, Paul said that each of us must appear before the judgment seat…Ro.14:12 to “give an account of himself to God”.

He.7:13-28 Jesus wasn’t a Levite; He was from the tribe of Judah.  v.14 “Our Lord descended from Judah.”  Jesus didn’t have to qualify genealogically in the sense of the Levitical priesthood.  The fact that He was from Judah (was Jewish) through Mary didn’t disqualify Him in the order of Melchisedek, though He wasn’t qualified for the Levitical order.  The Levitical priesthood was based on genealogy…it consisted of only one clan (Aaron’s) within the tribe of Levi.

Continuing into Hebrews 8…the Old Covenant is of the Levitical order, the New Covenant is the order of Melchisedek.  He.8:6-13 the Lev dispensation principles, those which aren’t also part of the order of Mel, were vanishing.  v.13 “Whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.”

He.9–10 the Levitical order’s weaker animal sacrifices were continually repeated.  All their priests were sinning humans and were temporary (they kept dying, He.7:23).  The Lev order couldn’t transform hearts nor give ancient Israelites the Holy Spirit power to obey God.  (So they’d gone into captivity.)  Whereas the order of Mel transforms hearts via the Spirit, with the sinless Jesus high priest forever!

Fire from God fell to burn Levitical order animal sacrifices on the altar (Le.6:12-13, 9:24).  Tongues of fire fell on the heads of human “living sacrifices” of the Melchisedek order (Ac.2:1-3, Ro.12:1)!

He.10:9-14 Jesus’ one-time sacrifice ends the prior Levitical dispensation, with its ceremonial temple rites.  It establishes the succeeding order of Mel.  v.9 “He takes away the first, to establish the second.”

In Jn.6:4 & 7:2, John calls God’s OT Passover and Feast of Booths the “feast of the Jews” (not “feast of God”)…because the old Levitical dispensation, with its pilgrim feasts at the temple, is ending.  They don’t exist in the order of Melchisedek.

Mt.26:26-28 Jesus restored the order of Melchisedek with the symbolic sacred bread & wine of the New Covenant as its communion (from Ge.14:19 Melchisedek).  Jewish Christian historian Alfred Edersheim The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah 5:10:826-827 “With this celebration and new institution, the Jewish Passover forever ceased!”  The temple would soon be destroyed, and the pilgrim feasts at Jerusalem (their one authorized feast site then, never two simultaneously) would cease.

The OT Levites had no tribal land inheritance and were restricted in business (De.10:9; Nu.3:9, 18:20-21).  But leaders in the order of Melchisedek may work a common job, e.g. Ac.18:2-3.

The only Levitical injunctions and practices remaining…are those which are also present in the order of Melchisedek.  There are many.  Again, a detailed examination of Genesis shows that such injunctions (applicable for gentiles) existed prior to Moses and the Old Covenant.

He.13:10-14 “We have an altar which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.”  Disbelieving Levitical priests, at temple feasts of the Jews, had no right to partake of the bread & wine of the Lord in the order of Melchisedek.  Yet New Covenant believers partake.  And we needn’t be physically circumcised to take that communion!  Father Abraham (Abram) wasn’t circumcised when Melchisedek shared bread & wine with him as Abram in Ge.14!  (Whereas physical circumcision is commanded to keep a Passover, e.g. Ex.12:48-49.  see the topic “Circumcision in the Bible”.)

Few of us today have knowledge of/proof of family ancestry in the tribe of Levi or its priesthood.  1Pe.2:9 “You [Christians, 4:16] are a royal priesthood.”  Yet even us non-Levites/non-Aaronites are adopted (Ro.8:14-16) into royalty…and are become the royal priesthood in the order of Melchisedek!  Re.5:9-10 of saints from all nations, “You have made them a kingdom, and priests to our God”.

To conclude, the OT verse most often quoted in the NT is Le.19:18b. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  But the OT (short) passage most often referred to in the NT is Ps.110:1-4 (which began this topic). “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet….You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedek.”  David Seilaff Who Was Melchizedek? “In fact, Psalm 110 is referred to in the New Testament more than any Old Testament section of Scripture.”  The order of Melchisedek is of such significance for Christ’s church!

Jesus is both our high Priest (He.6:20), and “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Re.19:16)…in the order of Melchisedek and the Kingdom of God!  Praise the Lord!

Tent/Tabernacle of David (2)

This is the continuation and conclusion to “Tent/Tabernacle of David (1)”.  Part 1 should be read first.

The ark of God was the most important object in God’s tabernacle which Moses erected.  Christ, the God and good Shepherd of Israel, ‘dwelt’ above the ark between the cherubim (cf. Ex.25:22, Ps.80:1, Jn.10:11).  The ark resided in the Holy of Holies innermost room (Ex.26:34) of Moses’ tabernacle for 500 years.  From approximately 1611 BC – 1102 BC (except when it was taken into battle or in transport).

The Philistines captured the ark from Shilóh (1Sm.4:17), c 1102 BC.  Later, after King David subdued the Philistines, he wanted God’s ark brought up to Jerusalem (c 1030 BC).  1Ch.15:1 “In the city of David [on Mt Zion] he prepared a place for the ark of God and pitched a tent for it.”  That Hebrew term for “tent” is óhel, Strongs h168.  The Greek Septúagint/LXX term is skené g4633.

The tent enclosure David pitched in Jerusalem provided a home for the ark of God for nearly 40 years.  Until his son Solomon completed the temple (c 991 BC), and the ark was moved into it (1Ki.7:51–8:1).

King David brought only the ark into the tent.  The ark still contained God’s law of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments (even during Solomon’s reign, 2Ch.5:1-2, 10).  But absent from Moses’ Holy of Holies (then at Gibeón) was Aaron’s rod that budded, signifying priestly Aaronide authority in the Levitical order of ancient Israel.  Absent was the memorial jar of manna from their wilderness journeys.  (Perhaps Aaron’s rod and the jar of manna were lost when the Philistines captured the ark, c 1102 BC?)

In Part 1, we identified 8 or 9 possible reasons why David set up the “tent of David” at his palace.

It was in David’s heart to eventually build a permanent structure in Jerusalem for the ark (1Ch.17:1-ff).  However, the Lord said King Solomon would build the Jerusalem temple (on Mt Moriah, 2Ch.3:1).

Yet it was God’s will for David to first pitch a tent for the ark on Mt Zion!  see “Tent/Tabernacle of David (1)”.  (also see the topics about “Zion in the Bible” and “Ark of the Testimony – Journeys”.)

The physical tent David pitched disappeared from history after 991 BC.  Approximately 240 years after Solomon moved the ark from David’s tent into the finished temple of Solomon (c 991 BC, and stored Moses’ tabernacle from Gibeon, 2Ch.5:5)…the Lord gave Amos a remarkable prophecy:

Am.9:11-12 LXX “In that day I [the Lord] will raise up the tent [skene g4633] of David that is fallen, and will rebuild it.”  (Here the Hebrew term is sukkáh h5521, ‘booth’.  A booth was a temporary dwelling, not intended for reuse in other locations.)  The kingdom of Israel had divided; the northern sector became corrupt, and God would soon scatter it (v.8-10).  Yet the Lord said the day would come when He will again raise-up a “tent of David” (or “tabernacle of David”), which David’s physical tent foreshadowed as a type!  The tent David pitched for the ark…the Lord related it to the future.

Soon after Amos wrote, Isaiah also prophesied about the tent of David in Is.16:5 LXX.  “A throne will be established in mercy. One will sit on it in truth, in the tent [skene g4633] of David, judging, seeking justice, and swift to do righteousness.”  (The Hebrew Masoretic Text here has ohel h168 for “tent”.)

This verse too applied to the future…to Christ and His church!  Benson Commentary Is.16:5 “He [Isaiah] was carried forward to a contemplation of the kingdom of Christ.”  JFB Commentary Is.16:5 “Language so divinely framed as to apply to ‘the latter days’ under King Messiah.”  Gill Exposition “This was typical of the church of God, where Christ sits and reigns as King, see Amos 9:11.”

The New Testament (NT) reflects the realization of the Old Testament (OT) prototype “tent of David”.

At the Jerusalem council, around 49 AD, in Ac.15:12-17 the apostle James quoted Amos’ prophecy of God. “After these things I [God] will return, and I will rebuild the tent [skene g4633] of David, which is fallen…That the rest of men may seek the Lord, all the Gentiles [g1484 nations] who are called by My name.”  James understood the tent of David also prefigured gentiles coming to the Lord!

The ancient tent of David, called the tabernacle of David in many English translations…prefigured the growing NT church, consisting of Israelites & Jews with gentiles grafted-in (ref Ro.11:11-17, 25-27).  Let’s see in what ways the tent/tabernacle of David typed the church:

The ark of God resided in the tent at David’s sanctuary on Zion for 40 years (though he died c 1002 BC).  The only item in the ark then was God’s eternal law (later seen in heavenly Mt Zion, Re.11:19 & 14:1)!  God’s laws are figuratively written on the hearts of New Covenant Israelites (He.8:8-12) and gentiles.

After David brought the ark to Mt Zion, he composed many Psalms at the tent and instituted courses for praise & worship before it.  (In the Pentateuch we don’t read of that worship style at Moses’ tabernacle.)

Asáph and other Levites ministered and gave thanks before the ark with song and musical instruments, 1Ch.16:4-7, 37-38.  Ellicott Commentary 1Ch.16:4 “These Levites were to minister before the Ark in the sacred tent of Mt Zion.”  1Ch.16:6 “Beniaiah and Jahaziel the priests blew trumpets continually before the ark.”  Ps.50 was written by Asaph as he ministered praise & thanks at David’s tent (Ps.50:2).

Following are three Psalms (with Bible commentary notes) which tie to David and the tent on Mt Zion: David wrote in Ps.15:1, “O Lord, who may abide in Thy tent? Who shall dwell in Thy holy hill?”  Cambridge Bible Ps.15:1 “The tent’, which David pitched for the Ark on Mt Zion.”  Barnes Notes Ps.15:1 “Zion, regarded as the dwelling place of God.”  Benson Commentary “The psalmist alludes to the hill of Zion.”  Ps.24:3 “Who may ascend to the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place?”  Pulpit Commentary Ps.24:3 “At this time, the Mt Zion.”  Barnes Notes Ps.24:3 “Mount Zion; called the hill of the Lord, because it was the place designated for His worship, or the place of His abode.”  David also wrote in Ps.27:6, “I will offer in His tent sacrifices of shouts of joy”.  (Not animal sacrifices there.)  Cambridge Bible Ps.27:6 “The tent which David pitched for the Ark on Mt Zion must be meant.”

David himself actually sat before the ark!  1Ch.17:16 “David the king went and sat before the Lord.”  David enjoyed God’s Presence at the sacred tent on Zion.  (cf. Ps.21:6 “Thy countenance”.)  David could commune with Christ above the cherubim atop the ark (1Ch.13:6), as Moses had (Ex.25:22)!

But at Moses’ tabernacle, only the high priest was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies chamber where the ark/Christ had sat.  No one else!  And he only on the annual Day of Atonement, ref Le.16:2, 29, 34.

Dr. Ralph Wilson David Brings the Ark to Jerusalem “David is the great architect of worship before the Lord in Jerusalem.”  Worship there was unlike that at Moses’ tabernacle.  Ps.69:30-35 David wrote, “I will praise the Name of God with song, and magnify Him with thanksgiving…God will save Zion and build the cities of Judah.”  v.31 David’s praise to God in Zion was more pleasing than animal sacrifices.

I find no verses that say recurring animal sacrifices were done on Mt Zion!  (Regular animal offerings were done at Moses’ tabernacle in Gibeon.)  Recurring sacrifices at David’s tent were…praise & thanksgiving.  And praise & giving of thanks was typical of the NT church…no animal sacrifices.

David’s enclosure for the ark was a makeshift stationary tent, open and with an altar out front (1Ki.3:15 LXX).  There was no veil.  No items from Moses’ tabernacle used for ceremonial rituals were on Zion.

wildolive.co.uk The Tabernacle of David “David, who was obviously in the will of God, erected a tent in which people worshiped joyfully without being separated from the Ark by the Veil [cf. Ex.26:30-36]. Remember that the Veil in the Temple was torn in two when Yeshua [Jesus] died on the cross [Mt.27:51].”  The tent of David foreshadowed Christ and His church…there’s no veil of separation.

WicWiki Tabernacle of David “David’s tabernacle represented the grace of God and a way open into the very Holiest of All (see Heb.6:19, 8:1-2). As David’s tabernacle contained the Ark in open access, so the church, through Christ, has open access to the presence of God.”  The writer of the book of Hebrews said, He.10:19 “We have confidence to enter the Holy Place by the blood of Jesus”.

The Davidic style of worship was later done by Jewish returnees from captivity in Ezra & Nehemiah.  Ne.12:24 LXX “The heads of the Levites…were to sing hymns of praise, according to the commandment of David the man of God, course by course.”  Gill Exposition Ne.12:24 “They performed by turns…as David under divine direction ordered, see 1Ch.23:5.”  also ref Ezr.2:65, 3:10-11; Ne.12:27, 36, 45-47.

Davidic worship and Psalms was the forerunner of praise in the NT church.  R. Wilson op. cit. “The Psalms are designed to help us experience praise, to enter into it ourselves.”  The apostle Paul exhorted the church to worship God with song.  Col.3:16 “Teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thanksgiving in your hearts to God.”  Ep.5:19 “Singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.”  Praise music is an integral part of Christian worship.

2Sm.6:14 as King David was bringing the ark to Zion, he “danced before the Lord with all his might, and David was wearing a linen ephód.”  Although David was king, royalty, he wore the linen ephod of ordinary priests…even though he wasn’t a descendant of the Aaronide priestly line.  (Samuel had worn one as a boy, 1Sm.2:18.  cf. 1Ch.15:27; 1Sm.22:18.)  David was a type of Christ, who is the “son of David” (Mt.1:1, Lk.18:38).  David wrote Ps.110.  Some think Ps.110:4 “order of Melchisedek” refers to David too, as both king and a type of priest.  (Peter also called David a prophet, Ac.2:29-30).

tlchrist.info/tabernacle_david “David did an amazing thing in his time. The housing of the ark of God in the Tabernacle of David was an event of unusual importance, for it was celebrated by ‘all Israel’ with demonstrations of the most impressive character: ‘With shouting, and with sound of the cornet, and with trumpets and with cymbals’, while King David himself danced before the ark with all his might in the exuberance of his joy. It constituted a decided break with the Levitical ordinances given through Moses. The Old Testament way of reaching God was through the means of animal sacrifices. There were no [recurring] animal sacrifices there [David’s tent]. Chiefly, it is to be observed that this sojourn of the ark on Mt Zion is the foundation of the many references in the Psalms and the Prophets to Zion, as the dwelling place of Jehovah, and is what gives to the terms ‘Zion’ and ‘Mount Zion’ their high spiritual meaning. Never thereafter was Mount Moriah, where Solomon’s magnificent temple stood, referred to as Jehovah’s dwelling place, but always Mount Zion.”

Much later, animal sacrifices were done at the 1^st century temple of Herod.  Judaizers wanted to bring circumcised gentile proselytes into Herod’s temple.  But it was the tent of David, which had no regular animal sacrifices, that actually foreshadowed the gentiles coming in to the worship of the true God.

As Amos prophesied and James confirmed, God would rebuild the tabernacle/tent of David.  God isn’t rebuilding the obsolete temples of Solomon, Zerubbabél/Ezra (built 520-516 BC), or Herod!

Solomon’s temple (the 1^st temple) took 7 years to build on nearby Mt Moriah (using 30,000 workmen).  The 2^nd temple was Zerubbabel’s (also known as Ezra’s temple).  Herod’s structure was a 3^rd temple.

Herod’s Temple Is Really the Third Temple “Herod [the Great] decided that Zerubbabel’s Temple was too insignificant. So he presented a plan to the people to take down Zerubbabel’s temple and erect a newer, bigger and better one in its place. John 2:20 indicates that construction/renovation of this temple still wasn’t completed 46 years after it was begun.”  Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 15:11:1-3, wrote that the foundation of Zerubbabel’s temple (the 2^nd) was completely destroyed.  Herod’s sanctuary was finished in 1 1/2 years (without halting temple services), the courts in 8 years.  But it wasn’t finally all completed until 64 AD!  18,000 workmen were used!  This was much more than a renovation.  The Four Fold Gospel Jn.2:20 “Herod tore down the 2^nd temple and rebuilt it with a 3^rd structure in that site.”  It took 80 years to complete!  (All that remains today is a 1,600 foot section of the Western Wall, a retaining wall Herod built to expand the temple mount.)   William Whiston footnote to Antiq.15:11:1, “The fancy of the modern Jews, in calling this temple, which was really the 3^rd of their temples, the 2^nd temple, followed so long by later Christians, seems to be without any solid foundation”.

Biblical Archaeology Review Mar/Apr 2002: Herod’s Roman Temple “Actually, it was an entirely new structure, but it is still known in Jewish tradition and in the scholarly literature as the Second Temple.”

judaism.stackexchange “Herod removed Ezra’s Temple, stone by stone, right down to the ground, and then removed the foundations and built an entirely new Temple of his own….Herod didn’t rebuild a temple. He in fact completely reformed the temple mount.”  Herod’s new temple was the 3^rd temple.

The temples of Herod, Zerubbabel/Ezra, Solomon were built on Mt Moriah (2Ch.3:1).  The Hebrew term “Moriah” (h4179) occurs only twice in the entire OT!  (In 2Ch.3:1 and Ge.22:2; also in Je.26:18 the “mountain of the house” of the Lord refers to Mt Moriah.)  And “Moriah” never occurs in the NT.

Whereas the Hebrew term “Zion” (h6726 tsee-yóne) occurs 153 times in the OT!  (80 of those occurrences are in Psalms and Isaiah.)  The Greek LXX and NT term for Zion is Sion (g4622 see-ówn).  It occurs 7 times in the NT (Mt.21:5; Jn.12:15; Ro.9:33, 11:26; He.12:22; 1Pe.2:6; Re.14:1).

Comparing…based on the total Bible occurrences of “Zion” and “Moriah”, the tent/tabernacle of David pitched on Mt Zion has more enduring relevance than the 3 obsolete temples erected on Mt Moriah!

tlchrist.info/tabernacle_david “When God speaks by His prophets concerning things to come in the Kingdom of Christ, He never says, ‘I will build again the Temple of Solomon which I destroyed’, but ‘I will build again the Tabernacle of David which is fallen down’.”

Kevin Conner The Temple of Solomon, p. 206 “In 70 AD God allowed the whole Temple system to be totally destroyed, never to be restored again either in this age or any age to come.”

Religious Jews may attempt to build another temple like Solomon’s or Herod’s on Mt Moriah.  But God isn’t doing that.  The Lord God is building the tabernacle of David!  Not that it will be a literal tent erected by God.  Rather, James said the tent of David represents salvation for all races of men!

{Sidelight: The New Jerusalem temple vision of Ezekiel 40–48 has puzzled Bible readers.  It’s been described as a mix of idealism and allegory, having a figurative spiritual (non-literal) interpretation.  The Lord Christ, very God, sacrificed Himself in the 1^st century AD (not a literal Ezk.45:17, 22!).  There is nothing in the NT to indicate that the Lord will literally reinstitute inferior animal sin offerings as atonement for Himself or others in the future.  And there were no regular animal sacrifices at the tabernacle of David (that God is rebuilding).  Michael Battle What About Ezekiel’s Temple? “Those things which Ezekiel saw [includes animal sacrifices] were based solely on the pattern given to Moses, and was only a figure or foreshadowing of something much greater. With His own blood He [Christ] entered once for all into the holy place of the greater and more perfect tabernacle (in the heavens) [He.9:11-12], and has obtained eternal redemption for us!”}

In his book The Tabernacle of David, p.231, Kevin Conner lists other theological truths represented by the tabernacle of David.  The throne of David pointed to the throne of Christ (the “son of David”).  Earthly Mt Zion & Jerusalem pointed to the heavenly Mt Zion & Jerusalem above (Re.14:1, Ga.4:26).  David was king and a type of priest; Christ is king and priest in the order of Melchisedek (Ge.14:18, Ps.110:4).  After David did animal sacrifices once at the tent (2Sm.6:17), the cessation of any further animal sacrifices there by him pointed to Christ’s one-time sacrifice and the 70 AD end of sacrifices at Herod’s (obsolete) temple.  Instead, sacrifices of praise became the order of worship at David’s tent, as is done in the NT church; He.13:15 “Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise.”

The transfer of the ark (containing the 10 Commandments, so-called) from Moses’ tabernacle at Gibeon to David’s tent at Zion represented the transfer of the Lord’s righteous moral law from the Old Covenant to the minds & hearts of New Covenant Christians (He.8:10).

The tent of David types both…the Davidic kingdom culminating in Jesus with the Kingdom of God, and the Davidic style of worship.  The church with Gentiles enters into both.  James confirmed in Ac.15:14 that God was “taking from among the gentiles a people for His name”.  Gentiles weren’t to come in to the worship of God under the Old Covenant ritualistic system of the Levitical order.  Christians are now God’s priesthood in the order of Melchisedek.  Jesus is High Priest (He.4:14, 7:17).  Levitical Aaronide priests are obsolete.  The tent of David foreshadowed the at-large community of Christian believers.

As the Lord is gradually rebuilding the tabernacle of David, the Lord is gradually building His church.  Jesus said in Mt.16:18, “I will build My church”.  And the gates of Hades, the realm of the dead, will not prevail against God’s church!  Glory to God!

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)”.

Job and the Land Of Uz (2)

This topic was begun in “Job and the Land of Uz (1)”.  This Part 2 is a continuation.  Most of the material that was presented in (1) to identify the land of Uz won’t be repeated here in (2).

Let’s now look to identify the ancestry of Job’s four visitors, and associate the time period when Job lived.  The lineages of the four visitors differ, although it seems their common ancestor is Térah, father of Abraham.  All four are gentiles, descending from: Nahór, Abraham/Keturáh, Ishmaél, probably Esau.

Jb.2:11 LXX “When Job’s three friends heard of all the evil that had befallen him, they came each one from his own country: Elipház king of the Temanítes, Bildád king of the Shuhítes, Sophár king of the Mináeans.”  The LXX refers to these three friends as kings of their respective peoples.

Yet Job was the “greatest of the men of the East” (Jb.1:3), greater than his kingly friends.  Job had more wealth, power, authority and influence.  He said in Jb.29:25, “I dwelt as a king among his troops”.

After the three kings had conversed or argued with Job, Job’s fourth friend speaks up.  He is Elihú, Job’s younger countryman.  We’ll identify Elihu first.

Jb.32:2 LXX “Elihu the son of Baráchiel, the Buzite [Strongs h940 Hebrew], of the kindred of Ram [Arám?], of the land of Ausítis [Uz].”  In the Greek LXX, Uz is called Ausitis.  Job too was from Ausitis/Uz.  Jb.1:1 LXX “There was a man in the land of Ausitis [Uz] whose name was Job.”  Job, in the land of Uz/Ausitis, was one of the “men of the East”.  His fellow Uzite Elihu was too.

The Buzites probably descended from Buz, the son of Abraham’s brother Nahor (Nahor was discussed in Part 1).  Ge.22:20-23 “Milcáh has born children to your [Abraham’s] brother Nahor, Uz [h5780] his firstborn and Buz [h938] his brother, and Kemuél the father of Aram…and Bethuél.”  Ellicott Commentary Ge.22:21 “Buz – probably he was the ancestor of Elihu (Job 32:2).”  Benson Commentary Jb.32:2 “[Elihu] of the posterity of Buz, Nahor’s son.”  Book of Jasher 22:21 “The sons of Buz [Nahor’s son] were Barachiel….”  Elihu is descended from a Barachiel (Jb.32:2).  Pulpit Commentary Jb.32:2 “By ‘Ram’ we are probably to understand ‘Aram’, the son of Kemuel, a brother of Uz and Buz.”  In 2Chr.22:5, Araméans/Syrians are “Ram-mée (h7421 Ramites).  So Job and Elihu, dwelling in Uz/Ausitis, were probably Arameans geographically.  Both may descend from Abraham’s nephew Uz.  Nahor, the father of Uz, had dwelt in Arám-naharáim/Mesopotámia (Ge.24:10).

Job’s friend Bildad was king of the Shuhites (h7747, Jb.2:11).  Ellicott Commentary Jb.2:11 “Bildad the Shuhite probably derived his origin from Shúah, the son of Abraham by Keturáh.”  Shuah was one of the six sons had by Abraham and his concubine wife Keturah.  Ge.25:1-2 “Abraham took another wife, and her name was Keturah. She bore to him Zimrán, Jokshán, Medán, Midián, Ishbák and Shuah [h7744].”  (Moses’ wife Zipporáh descended from Midian.)  JFB Commentary Ge.25:2 “From Shuah, Bildad seems to be descended, Job 2:11.”

So Bildad too descended from Terah and Terah’s son Abraham.  Jasher 25:5 “The sons of Shuach [son of Abraham] were Bildad….”  Barnes Notes Jb.2:11 “The country of the Shuhites,’ says Gesenius, ‘eastward of Batanea.”  Batanea was the ancient land of Bashán, which lay NE of the Jordan River.

Job’s friend Sophar/Zophar was king of the Minaeans or Naamathites (Jb.2:11).  The Minaean region was in Arabia; they did extensive spice trade.  TimeMaps: History of Arabia “There is evidence for Minaean trading activity as far north as Gaza (in Palestine), and indeed as far afield as Egypt, and even Greece.”  The boundaries of the territory ruled by Sophar are uncertain.

ISBE: Naamathite “A dweller in Naaman’; ho M(e)inaion basileus.”  The king of Naaman/Minaean.  Smith’s Bible Dictionary: Naamathite “Probably the Naamah where he lived was on the Arabian borders of Syria.”  (Also, a Naamah was a town in the land which later was allotted to the tribe of Judah, Josh.15:41, “toward the coast of Edom southward”.)  Zophar’s territory & ancestry isn’t certain.

Some sources tie Zophar to Esau’s grandson Zephó.  Ge.36:15-16 “The sons of Eliphaz, the firstborn of Esau, are chief Temán, chief Omár, chief Zepho (Sophar LXX)….chief Amalék. These are the chiefs descended from Eliphaz in the land of Edom.”  Wesley’s Notes Jb.2:11 “Zophar is thought to be the same with Zepho (Ge.36:11), a descendant of Esau.”  W.H. Bennett Genesis “Zepho is Zephí in Chronicles [1Ch.1:36], or according to the LXX, Zophar, which is probably the original form, cf. Zophar in Job.”

Ge.36:11-12 “The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho [LXX Sophar], Gatám, Kenáz…and Amalek”  An Eliphaz was a son of Esau (Jacob’s twin brother).  A Sophar/Zepho was Esau’s grandson.  Job’s friend Zophar was perhaps this individual, the grandson of Esau.

If King Zophar of Jb.2:11 was the Zepho of Ge.36:11, then most likely the King Eliphaz of Jb.2:11 wasn’t the Eliphaz of Ge.36:11.  It would be unusual for a father and his son Zophar (of Ge.36:11) to be ruling two different kingdoms simultaneously.

Jasher 64:6, 25 “Zepho reigned over all the children of Chíttim [Italy or Cyprus]….Zepho the son of Eliphaz [Ge.36:11] the son of Esau king of Chittim, and Hadád the son of Bedád king of Edom [Ge.36:35], encamped together.”  This traditional book says Zepho (Zophar Ge.36 LXX) was a king and son of Eliphaz.  But it doesn’t indicate that his father Eliphaz (Esau’s son) reigned over any peoples.

Was Job’s friend Eliphaz, king of the Temanites (Jb.2:11)…a descendant of Esau, or Ishmael?  There’s no Eliphaz in Genesis before Ge.36:4 (a son of Esau).  But Temá occurs earlier in Genesis:

Tema h8485 “desert”; of foreign derivation.  5 usages: Ge.25:15, 1Ch.1:30, Jb.6:19, Is.21:14, Je.25:23.  Strongs Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary “Tema, a son of Ishmael, and the region settled by him.”

Tema h8487 “south”.  11 usages: Ge.36:11, 15, 42, 1Ch.1:36, 53, Je.49:7, 20, Ezk.25:13, Am.1:12, Ob.1:9, Hab.3:3.  These verses relate to Esau/Edom.

Temanite h8489 “south to the right”.  8 usages: Ge.36:34, 1Ch.1:45, Jb.2:11, 4:1, 15:1, 22:1, 42:7-9.

“Tema” first appears in Ge.25:13-16, “The names of the sons of Ishmael are Nebaióth [the Nábateans], Kedár…Tema [h8485].”  Ishmael (son of Abraham & Hagar) had 12 sons, one of whom was Tema.  The tribe of the Temanites descended from this Tema, the son of Ishmael and grandson of Abraham.

Jb.6:19a “The caravans of Tema [h8485] looked for them [streams].”  Ishmael fathered Tema.  JFB Commentary Jb.6:19 “N of Arabia Déserta, near the Syrian desert, called from Tema son of Ishmael (Gen.25:15).”  Barnes Notes Jb.6:19 “This was the country of Eliphaz, and the image would be well understood by him. The caravans from Tema, journeying through the desert, looking for those streams.”

Is.21:11-17 is the oracles concerning Edom, Arabia, the caravans of Dedanítes (Ge.25:3), the land of Tema (Ge.25:15), and Kedar (Ge.25:13).  These were 5 different tribes of peoples, all descended from Abraham.  e.g. Edomites weren’t Temanites originally.  Je.25:23-24 “Dedán, Tema, Buz.”  These are 3 different tribes.  Eliphaz was a Temanite (Elihu was a Buzite, Jb.32:2).

Pulpit Commentary Jb.2:11 “There was an Eliphaz, the son of Esau, who had a son Teman (Ge.36:4; 1Ch.1:35-36); but it is not supposed that this can be the person here intended [Job’s friend Eliphaz].”  Fathers precede their sons.  In Ge.36:11, Eliphaz was the father, Teman his son (not vice versa).  To refer to King Eliphaz as a Temanite, carrying his son’s name, isn’t patrilogical.  That’s backwards.  Whereas, the son Teman might be called an ‘Eliphazite’ or ‘Eliphazian’, after his father.

Christopher Schwinger Origin of the Book of Job “Eliphaz the Temanite is obviously not Eliphaz the father of Teman in Gen 36’s Edomite genealogy [Ge.36:11], unless the father is living in the city of Teman which his son established.”  But in Jb.2:11 LXX, Eliphaz was king of his “own country”.

Nave’s Topical Bible: Tema “A people of Arabia, probably descendants from Tema, Ishmael’s son.”  Easton Bible Dictionary: Tema “South; desert, one of the sons of Ishmael and father of a tribe so-called (Ge.25:15), some 250 miles SE of Edom in the N part of the Arabian peninsula, toward the Syrian desert; the modern Teymá.”  Wikipedia: Tayma “Tayma or Tema, located in NW Saudi Arabia, about 400 miles N of Medina. The Biblical eponym is apparently Tema, one of the sons of Ishmael.”

Ge.36:34b circa 1767 BC, Hushám from the land of the Temanites became king of Edom (for 20 years, Jasher 58:29).  He was from the land of Tema, the son of Ishmael (Ge.25:15).  Wikipedia: Land of Tema “The place where descendants of Ishmael’s son Tema dwelt. The Land of Tema was most likely in N Saudi Arabia, and has been identified with the modern Teima, an oasis. Noted people associated: Husham, Eliphaz the Temanite.”  They were both from the land of Tema, the son of Ishmael.

So Job’s friend Eliphaz probably was a Temanite descended from Ishmael, not an Edomite descended from Esau.  Jash.57:9 whereas Eliphaz the son of Esau as military leader was killed ca 1810 BC at age 83 in Rameses, Egypt.  That Eliphaz, an Edomite from Esau, wasn’t a Temanite.

Another people in the book of Job are the Sabéans.  Jb.6:19b “Travelers from Shebá [Sabeans LXX] search for them [streams].”  Joseph Jacobs Sabeans “In Job 6:19 the Sabeans are mentioned in close association with the Temeans, an Ishmaelitish stock (Gen.25:15) that dwelt in Arabia (Isa.21:14, cf. Jer.25:23-24). Sheba must be carefully distinguished from the Cushite or African Seba (Gen.10:7).”

Sheba, from whom the Sabeans are thought to have descended, was a son of Jokshan and a grandson of Abraham by his concubine wife Keturah (Ge.25:1-6).  JFB Commentary Jb.1:15 “Sabeans, descending from Sheba, grandson of Abraham and Keturah.”  Sheba’s brother Dedan was a grandson.  Shuah, from whom the Shuhites (Bildad) seem to be descended, was a son of Abraham & Keturah.  So was Midian.

The Sabeans (from Sheba) and Minaeans were Arabian peoples.  Joseph Jacobs op. cit.  “Sabeans territory was situated between those of the Mineans and Cattabanes [of Arabia].”  Catholic Encyclopedia, Arabia, p.665 “The two most important kingdoms of ancient Arabia are that of the Minaens and that of the Sabeans, whence the Queen of Saba [Sheba] came to King Solomon.”

To recap…The above sources indicate that Job’s four visitors most likely descended from: Nahor (Elihu), Abraham/Keturah (Bildad), Esau (Zophar/Zepho), Ishmael (Eliphaz).  And all are from Terah.

Let’s now turn our attention to dating the time period in which Job lived.  Job lived for 140 years or so after his ordeal (Jb.42:16).  The Lord blessed Job double afterwards (cf. Jb.1:3 & 42:12).  So God extended Job’s lifespan to perhaps 200 years (indicative of a patriarch).  Also, Job’s wealth was measured in livestock…reflective of the patriarchal age (see Part 1).  Jb.42:11 the qeesetáw (Hebrew) piece/weight of money is ancient…the term occurs elsewhere in scripture only in Ge.33:19 & Jsh.24:32.

Job lived in the land of Uz long after the Noachian Flood.  Cambridge Bible Jb.22:16 “The reference is probably to the Deluge.”  Job fathered 20 children (Jb.1:2, 42:13), in two families.  He was a patriarch.

Uz & Buz, and Ishmael were all three of the same generation.  From Dr. Martin Anstey’s chart in The Romance of Bible Chronology, p.8, Ishmael lived from 2031–1894 BC.  (see the topic “Chronology: Abraham to the Exodus”.)  Ishmael’s son Tema, progenitor of the Temanites, would’ve been alive in the 1900s BC.  So would Nahor’s son Buz, progenitor of the Buzites.  The Temanite (Jb.2:11) and Buzite (Jb.32:2) clans grew in the 1800s BC.  They had become peoples by the time Job lived.  So Job’s trials wouldn’t have been prior to the 1800s BC (before the Temanites & Buzites emerged as tribes).

Hyksos, Kings of Egypt and the Land of Edom: “Job speaks of ‘the troops of Tema’ (Jb.6:l9). Assuming that Tema is one of the tribes descended from Ishmael (Gen. 25:l5), we would then have positive proof that Job also lived after the time of Ishmael. At the same time Job speaks also of ‘the companies of Sheba’ [Jb.6:19] who would be descendants of Sheba, a half-brother to Ishmael. The orthodox view has been that the Book of Job belongs to the era before the Exodus.”  So Job lived sometime between the time of Ishmael (died 1894 BC) and Israel’s exodus from Egypt (ca 1612 BC).

In the Old Testament, the name “Job” (h347) appears only in the book of Job and in Ezk.14:14, 20.

Ge.10:23 the first Uz was a son of an earlier Aram.  Ge.10:26-29 & 1Ch.1:19-23: Jobáb (h3103) and a Sheba were 2 of the 13 sons of Joktan.  Jobab was a name similar to Job.  Joktan and Peleg were the two sons of Eber (the first “Hebrew”).  Joktan is considered the ancestor of many southern Arabian tribes.  This Jobab was the same generation as Peleg’s son Reu.  (Jobab and Reu were 1^st cousins.)  Reu was great-great-grandfather to Abrám.  That would place Reu and Jobab four generations before Abraham!

But since there were no Buzite, Ishmaelite, or Temanite tribes until at least a few generations after Abraham… it’s highly unlikely that the early Jobab (h3103) of Ge.10:29 is the man in the book of Job.

There may have been a Iob who was an Israelite, a grandson of Jacob.  Ge.46:13 lists the sons of Issachár (born ca 1870 BC) who went to Egypt with Jacob (ca 1827 BC), “Tolá, Puváh, Iob [h3102, Asum in LXX], Shimrón”.  Cambridge Bible Ge.46:13 “Observe that Iob is a different name than Job in Jb.1:1.”  And in Nu.26:24 & 1Ch.7:1, Issachar’s 3^rd son is named “Jashúb”, not Iob.  In Ge.46:13, “Iob” may be a transcription error (according to Strongs).  Whatever this man’s correct name, he could have been alive in the 1700s BC.

But Iob/Jashub the son of Issachar, having gone to Egypt with Jacob ca 1827 BC, would’ve died in Egypt prior to the exodus of ca 1612 BC.  Even if he was an infant in 1827 BC, and lived for 200 years, he wouldn’t have lived much past 1627 BC.  That’s before the exodus.  Also, Job was the “greatest of the men of the East”.  Job probably lived many years in “the East” to attain such status.  The tribe of Issachar (later) was allotted territory west of the Jordan River in the land of Canáan (Israel/Palestine).  They weren’t “men of the East”.  The land of Canaan itself wasn’t “the East” from the land of Canaan.

Catholic Encyclopedia: The Characters of the Poem “Job evidently didn’t belong to the chosen people [Israel]. He lived, indeed, outside of Palestine. Job belonged to the ‘people of the East’. Job seems to have been an Aramean.”  (see Part 1 for Aramean detail.)

So it’s unlikely that the book of Job is about an Israelite, a descendant of Jacob/Israel.

Next, a postscript which was added to the Septúagint version of the book of Job will be considered, as well as names & chronologies from the (supposed) Book of Jasher.

This topic is concluded in “Job and the Land of Uz (3).

Ten Commandments in Genesis & Job

This topic will focus on the Ten Commandments, as found in the books of Genesis and Job.  Prior to the time God gave the Ten Commandments (so-called) to Moses/Israel at Sinai in Exodus 20.

The books of Genesis and Job reflect most of the moral directives or laws that were later codified for Israel and the Jewish people in the Mosaic Law.  My topic “Genesis Principles Predate Moses” notes three dozen of God’s principles seen or implied in Genesis.  James Bruckner Implied Law in the Abraham Narrative, p.67 “Genesis is embedded with law.”

God’s righteous standards for mankind and the Kingdom of God, and even glimpses of Christ’s gospel, are seen in the book of Genesis.  Albertus Pieters Notes On Genesis “Whoever has learned the Genesis stories has learned all the chief things that can be known about God (apart from the incarnation of God in Christ)…of permanent institutions for the well-being of mankind; we have here the institution of the Sabbath, marriage, government, and worship.”  A careful reading of the Genesis narrative bears this out.

Genesis was written/compiled by Moses, as inspired by God’s Holy Spirit.  It tells of ancient non-Jews.  Some of them applied God’s ways, while others violated the principles of God and His Kingdom.

The Lord said of the gentile/non-Jew Abraham in Ge.26:5, “Abraham obeyed My voice, kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws”.  Also Wisdom of Sirach 44:20 KJV 1611 edition “Abraham kept the law of the Most High.”  Abraham, living ca 2000 BC, was obedient to the Lord.  Abraham followed God’s principles/commandments, known in Genesis.  (also ref “Abraham Obeyed Which Commandments?”.)

The book of Job shows that Job practiced the Golden Rule.  Jesus said in Mt.7:12, “However you want people to treat you, so treat them”.  Jb.1:1 “Job was blameless, upright, fearing God.”  Righteous Job (Ezk.14:14) cared for others (e.g. Jb.31:16-20)….ca 1700 BC.  Jb.1:8 the Lord called Job “My servant”.  Job was the greatest man in the East (Jb.1:3).  He wasn’t Jewish.  The patriarch Job lived for 200 years (cf. Jb.42:16).  Job’s trials probably were in the 1700s BC.  see “Job and the Land of Uz”.

Among the ancient gentile Godfearers who obeyed God…were Abraham (Ge.22:12) and Job (Jb.2:3).

In Genesis and Job, there’s no nation of Israel.  Later, the Lord had Moses codify the Decalogue or Ten Commandments, seen in Ex.20 & De.5.  The Old Covenant for Israel/Jews contained the Ten Commandments and other moral precepts/laws existent in Genesis, which ancient righteous gentiles such as Abraham & Job obeyed earlier.  (The Old Covenant also contained ceremonial rituals not seen in Genesis or Job.)

Expositor’s Greek Testament Ga.3:19 “The prohibitions of the Ten Commandments….these sins prevailed before the law [of Moses].”  A close reading of actions in Genesis and Job reveals both knowledge of and violations of the commandments which later became the Decalogue for Israel.

Evangelical Old Testament scholar Walter Kaiser wrote in God’s Promise Plan and His Gracious Law: “So endemic is the moral law to the whole of the Mosaic law that evidences for its abiding nature can be found in the fact that even before it was given on Sinai it was held to be normative and binding on all who aspired to living by faith. In fact every one of the Ten Commandments is already implicitly found in the Genesis record even before their publication on Sinai. Moses didn’t invent the moral law; God did, and He had already been holding men and women responsible for heeding it millennia before he finally wrote it on tablets of stone.”  Living by faith included living by God’s Ten Commandments.

We’ll now go through the Ten Commandments from 1 to 10, according to Ex.20:1-17.  As we go, we’ll also show them as implied in the books of Genesis and Job….obeyed or disobeyed…prior to 1700 BC.

#1) Ex.20:1-3 “God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I AM the Lord your God…You shall have no other gods besides Me.”  In Ge.1–2 the Lord God is identified as the Creator.  He is the true Deity.  God told Abram in Ge.15:7, “I AM the Lord who brought you out of Ur”.  Abraham’s servant said in Ge.24:48, “I bowed and worshiped the Lord; and blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham”.  Jb.1:21 “Job said, ‘Blessed be the name of the Lord.”  Jb.42:1-2 “Job answered the Lord, ‘I know that You can do all things.”  Abraham and Job knew the Lord God.  They didn’t worship pagan gods.  Ge.35:1-2 “God said to Jacob [Abraham’s grandson]…‘make an altar to God.’ So Jacob said to his household and to all with him, ‘Put away the strange gods which are among you.”  Jacob rid his house of other gods.

#2) Ex.20:4-6 “You shall not make for yourselves an idol or any likeness [graven image or petroglyph] of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath….you shall not worship them or serve them.”  The Lord forbad the worship of carved images or heavenly bodies.  Jacob’s father-in-law Labán was an idolator.  Ge.31:35 “He [Laban] searched, but didn’t find his idols [terraphím, Hebrew].  Again, Jacob and his household put away their own idols.  Ge.35:4 “Jacob buried them [idol gods] under the oak near Shechém.”  Job acknowledged in Jb.31:26-28, “If I regarded the sun in its radiance or the moon, so that I worshiped them with my mouth and hands, that would have been iniquity…I would have denied God above.”  Job knew that worshiping/idolizing heavenly bodies would’ve belied the true Creator God.

#3) Ex.20:7 “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.”  Abraham enjoined his servant in Ge.24:3, “I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth”.  Abraham’s requirement that his servant take a solemn oath in the name of the Lord indicates they understood the name of God isn’t to be taken in vain.  Abraham himself swore in Ge.14:22, “I raise my hand to the Lord God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth”.  Misusing God’s name can mean taking His name lightly, blaspheming or cursing Him.  Job’s wife berated Job in Jb.2:9-10, “Curse [or renounce, Cambridge Bible] God and die….In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips.”  In all his trials, Job didn’t take the Lord’s name in vain.  Job blessed God’s name (Jb.1:21).

#4) Ex.20:8-11 “Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them, and rested on the 7^th day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.”  In the Bible, the 7^th day was the first thing God made holy!  After Creation, Christ ceased or rested in Ge.2:1-3. “By the 7^th day God finished His work which He had done, and He ceased on the 7^th day. Then God blessed the 7^th day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which He had created and made.”  This was the beginnings of 7^th day sabbath rest.  JFB Commentary Ge.2:3 “The institution of the Sabbath is as old as creation.”  Pulpit Commentary Ge.2:3 “A 7^th day Sabbath must have been prescribed to man in Eden.”  Dwight L. Moody Weighed and Wanting, p.47 “The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since.  Matthew Henry Commentary Ge.8:12 “Having kept the sabbath with his little church, he [Noah] expected special blessings.”  JFB Ge.8:12 “Seven days – a strong presumptive proof that Noah observed the Sabbath in the ark.”  Ellicott Commentary Ex.16:23 “Much can be said in favor of the primeval institution of the Sabbath, and its having been known to the family of Abraham.”  Matthew Henry Ge.2:1 “Sabbaths are as ancient as the world; and I see no reason to doubt that the Sabbath…was religiously observed by the people of God throughout the patriarchal age.”  The patriarchal age included Abraham & Job.  The 7-day week, known by the ancients, was a customary time period for feasting (Ge.29:27) and mourning (Ge.50:10, Jb.2:13).  Ex.16:27-29 God’s 7^th day sabbath law already existed before He gave the Decalogue in Ex.20.  In the (supposed) Book of Jasher 70:47, a Pharaoh had decreed 7^th day rest for Israelites decades prior to the Exodus.  (also see the series, “Sabbath 7^th Day”.)

#5) Ex.20:12 “Honor your father and your mother.”  We see examples in Genesis of sons honoring, and dishonoring, their parents.  Ge.25:8-10 “His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him [Abraham].”  They gave their father a proper burial.  Ge.28:7 “Jacob obeyed his father and mother [Isaac and Rebekah].”  But Ge.9:24-26, “When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him.”  Dishonoring a parent or grandparent is wrong.  Ge.38:8-10 Onán disobeyed his father Judah, and the Lord took Onan’s life.  Job’s trials included the deaths of his sons & daughters (Jb.1:18-19).  Job was stripped of his honor and dignity; his relatives and associates avoided him (Jb.19:9-19).  However, respect or honor for elders in general is seen in Job.  Jb.32:4-7 “Elihú had waited to speak to Job because they were years older than he.”  The younger man Elihu deferred to Job and Job’s three friends, allowing them to speak first.  JFB Commentary “In deference to the seniority of the friends who spoke.”

#6) Ex.20:13 “You shall not murder.”  Murder was committed in Ge.4:8. “Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.”  Consequently, God cursed Cain from the land (v.9-13).  God commanded Noah in Ge.9:5-6, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man”.  Murder is a capital crime; it was condemned from the beginning.  Jb.24:14a “The murderer arises at dawn; he kills the poor and the needy.”  The poor may be cruelly killed, because they have no more that can be taken from them.  Job asserted himself against any charge of hypocrisy in Jb.31:39. “If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or caused the owners to lose their life.”  Pulpit Commentary “Either by actual violence or by depriving them of the means of support.”  Job was a wealthy man of renown.  But he didn’t kill others to take possession of their land (cf. 1Ki.21:18-19).

#7) Ex.20:14 “You shall not commit adultery.”  Adultery occurs when a man has sexual relations with a woman who is married or betrothed to another man.  The ancients knew adultery was sin.  Ge.20:6-9 conversing with Abraham, Abimélech referred to adultery as a great sin.  Also ref Ge.26:10-11, where sleeping with Isaac’s wife Rebekah would’ve brought guilt upon anyone who did so.  Ge.39:7-9 “The master’s wife looked with desire at Joseph and said, ‘Lie with me.’ But he refused and said to his master’s wife, ‘How could I do this great evil and sin against God?”  Joseph viewed adultery as a great evil!  Jb.24:15 “The eye of the adulterer waits for the dusk, thinking, ‘No one is watching us.’ He disguises his face.”  Also Jb.31:9-11 “If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or I have lurked at my neighbor’s door….it would be an iniquity.”  Having sex with a neighbor’s wife is iniquity.  Adultery was sin for gentiles/non-Jews too…long before Christ’s Decalogue was codified for Israel at Sinai.

#8) Ex.20:15 “You shall not steal.”  Regarding Jacob’s wages, Jacob said to Laban in Ge.30:33, “If I have any goats that aren’t speckled or spotted, or any lambs that aren’t black, it will be counted stolen by me”.  Joseph’s brothers asserted to his house steward in Ge.44:8, “How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house? If any of us has it, let him die.”  Many ancient nations had severe (or excessive) punishment for theft.  Jb.24:14b “At night he is as a thief.”  The Sabeáns and Chaldéans raided & stole Job’s livestock in Jb.1:14-17.  Theft was a crime from the beginning.  Robert Flockhart The Street Preacher, p.16 “Eve stole the forbidden fruit, and Adam partook of it [Ge.2:16-17, 3:6].”

#9) Ex.20:16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”  The Lord God said man would surely die if he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Ge.2:17).  But the serpent then spoke falsely to Eve about God’s declaration.  The serpent said in Ge.3:4, “You shall not surely die”.  In Ge.39:14-20, the wife of Joseph’s master falsely claimed that Joseph had tried to rape her.  Her false charge resulted in Joseph being sentenced to prison (perhaps for life).  False witness and lies can have grave consequences.  Job maintained his integrity, as seen in the following verses: Jb.6:28 “Please look at me, and see if I lie to your face.”  Jb.24:25 “If this is not so, who can prove me false and make my speech worthless?”  Jb.27:4 “My lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue utter deceit.”  Jb.31:5-6 “If I have walked with falsehood and my foot has hastened to deceit, let God weigh me on just scales.”  Jb.36:4 “Be assured that my words are not false.”  False witness and lies were wrong…before Sinai.

#10) Ex.20:17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”  To covet wrongly is to (illicitly) desire something we can’t come to rightfully have or obtain someday.  Ge.3:6 “The woman [Eve] saw that the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes, that it was desirable to make one wise.”  Eve coveted the fruit from the forbidden tree…and she ate from it.  Wrong coveting can lead to overt sins such as stealing, adultery, violence and murder.  Ge.6:5 “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great, and that every intent of the thought of his heart was evil continually.”  Coveting begins in the heart.  Laban coveted wealth and cheated Jacob (Ge.31:7), who worked for him.  Job said in Jb.31:7 ISV, “If my heart covets whatever my eyes see….”  Carteret Carey Theology in the Book of Job, p.27 “Covetousness is regarded in the light of idolatry (31:24-25).”  The apostle Paul tied coveting to idolatry in Col.3:5. “Covetousness [or greed], which is idolatry.”  Wrong covetousness was in Eden.  also see the topic “Coveting – Wrong and Right Desire”.

In the above paragraphs, we’ve found the Lord’s Ten Commandments (implied) in the books of Genesis and Job, for ancient gentiles/non-Jews.  Yes, God had moral laws in Genesis, from the beginning.  1Jn.3:8 “The devil sins from the beginning.”  Sin isn’t imputed when there is no law, according to Paul (Ro.5:13).  Barnes Notes Ro.5:13 “There must have been a law of some kind.”  God’s laws, which show how to love God and love our neighbor, existed from Creation…for all of mankind.

Bruckner op. cit., p.208-209 “Law is presented, in this first canonical book of scripture [Genesis], as part of the created order….The basis for all cultures and times. Thinking of Biblical law in the context of creation as prior to the Sinaitic covenant…establishes Biblical law as operative beyond the confines of a historical past or a single culture, and establishes it in the bone and flesh of created humanity.”

To relegate the Ten Commandments solely to the Old Covenant of Ex.20 for Israel, is short-sighted.  The principles of the Ten Commandments long predate both the Old Covenant and the New Covenant!  They are common to all mankind.

Between the lines of Genesis and Job are seen God’s righteous standards, including the Ten Commandments.  Re.22:14 KJV “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life.”  Gentiles and Jews who are obedient to God’s commandments, living forever with the Lord Jesus.  Praise God!

Added in the Old Covenant (2)

This Part 2 is the continuation of “Added in the Old Covenant (1)”.  Most of the background material in Part 1 won’t be repeated here.  In this topic, we’ve been addressing two main passages of scripture:

#1) The apostle Paul wrote in Ga.3:18-19, “For if the inheritance is based on law [Strongs g3551 nómos, Greek], it is no longer based on a promise, but God granted it to Abraham based on a promise. Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions [g3847 parábasis, seven New Testament (NT) occurrences: Ro.2:23, 4:15, 5:14, 1Ti.2:14, He.2:2, 9:15]…until the Seed should come.”

The majority of Bible students think the apostle Paul meant the Lord’s Old Covenant for ancient Israel was added.  Others think Paul mostly had in mind the detailed sacrificial system which was added.

#2) The prophet Jeremiah wrote in Je.7:22-23, “I didn’t speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey [hearken to, h8085 shemá, Hebrew] My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people.”

The Lord had said of Abraham in Ge.26:5, “Abraham obeyed [h8085] My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws”.  Due to transgressions of God’s pre-existing moral laws/principles (seen in Genesis), the Old Covenant Law of Moses was subsequently added for ancient Israel.  (ref Part 1)

God’s Old Covenant included His pre-existing moral laws that date from Adam (which Abraham obeyed)…plus pilgrim feasts, Levitical ceremonial tabernacle/temple rituals and the sacrificial system.  Gentiles in Genesis didn’t have pilgrim feasts or recurring animal sacrifices, sin/guilt offerings, etc.

Part 1 ended with two related questions: What prompted the Lord to command the detailed sacrificial system for ancient Israel?  Why did God add recurring burnt-sin-guilt sacrifices to the (pre-existing) moral precepts which He brought into the Old Covenant (OC) from Genesis?

God did so because…upon leaving Egypt, Israel proceeded to transgress and disobey God, and evidenced unbelief (prior to Ex.21 judgments at Sinai).  Let’s briefly trace their history leaving Egypt:

Ex.14:11-12 Israel rebelled at the Reed Sea (ref Ps.106:7).  The Lord parted the sea for them, and the pursuing Egyptian army drowned.  Ex.15:22-25 Israel then grumbled about water at Maráh.  So the Lord showed Moses a tree and Moses threw it into the waters; the waters miraculously became sweet.

Ex.16:27-28 Israel then broke God’s 7^th day sabbath.  (see the series, “Sabbath 7^th Day”.)  The Lord gave them manna to eat.  Ex.17:1-7 Israel tested the Lord at Massáh/Meribáh; they even wanted to stone Moses!  Moses obediently struck a rock and water gushed forth for them (ref Ps.106:14).  Ex.18:5, 16 in the wilderness, Moses made known to them pre-existing statutes and laws of God.

The Lord kept intervening for His people Israel…yet they kept sinning in unbelief.  Prior to Sinai.

Ex.20:1-18 at Sinai, Christ spoke the Decalogue.  (De.4:13 the Ten Commandments or ten “words”, h1697 debarim, was the heart of the OC.)  The people heard His voice!  Ex.20:19-20 but they’re afraid of God and only want to hear Moses, not God.  v.21 so Moses alone approached the Lord in the cloud.

The Lord won’t speak directly to His people after that; He speaks through Moses the mediator.

Then the Lord instructed Moses in Ex.21:1-ff, “These are the judgments which you are to set before them….”  Civil judgments and the sacrificial system are seen in remaining chapters of the Péntateuch.

In the beginning, Adam & Eve heard (h8085) the Lord’s voice…but they hid themselves, Ge.3:8.  Israel later didn’t hearken to (h8085) God’s voice.  Nu.14:22 the Lord said of Israel, “Ten times you haven’t listened to [h8085] My voice”.  De.4:12, 5:25, 18:16 the people didn’t want to hear (h8085) God’s voice at Sinai.  Later, Joshua wrote that those coming out of Egypt didn’t obey (h8085) God’s voice, Jsh.5:6.

Again, Je.7:22-23 “I didn’t speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey [h8085] My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people.”

Ge.26:5 father Abraham had obeyed (h8085) God’s voice.  After God miraculously provided water at Marah for Israel, Moses told the people in Ex.15:26, “If you will earnestly heed [h8085] the voice of the Lord, and do what is right in His sight and give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon you which I have put on the Egyptians”.  Obedience to God’s pre-existing moral principles was expected of them…in Ex.15:26 there is no sacrificial system for sin.

Before He gave the Ten Commandments, the Lord said to Moses/Israel in Ex.19:5, “If you will obey [h8085] My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all peoples”.  Later, De.5:2-3 “The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horéb [Sinai]. The Lord didn’t make this covenant with our fathers.”  The fathers Abraham, Isaac, Jacob didn’t have the OC (although they knew God’s moral principles/commandments, which later became part of the OC).  For example, A-I-J didn’t have individual sin or guilt/trespass offerings; none of those sacrifices appear in scripture before Le.4–6, given to Moses later at Sinai (ref Le.27:34).  see “Abraham Obeyed Which Commandments?”.

In Ex.24:7-8, Israel affirmed they would obey the Lord’s OC. “The people said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do and be obedient [h8085]!’ So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you.”  The OC was a blood covenant between the Lord and ancient Israel.  It was ratified.

But in Ex.32:1-10, Israel then held an idolatrous golden calf feast with burnt/peace offerings!  Ps.78:10-20 they disobeyed, didn’t keep God’s covenant.  Ps.78:17 “They continued to sin against Him.”

The Lord recapped in Je.11:7-8, “I solemnly warned your fathers in the day I brought them up from the land of Egypt, even to this day, saying, ‘Obey [h8085] My voice’. Yet they didn’t obey, but each walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart.”  Most of them repeatedly refused to hearken to God.

The Lord is holy.  God won’t dwell with sin.  Sin must be atoned.  God told Moses in Ex.25:8, “Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them”.  The tabernacle was the place of God’s Name, where Christ (the good Shepherd, Ps.80:1 & Jn.10:14) dwelt among His ancient people.  (also see “Jesus Was The Old Testament God”.)

A purpose of animal blood sacrifices at God’s tabernacle was to expiate sins.  see “Day of Atonement (1)”.  Thus the sacrificial system was instituted for a holy God to dwell with them.  However, 1Sm.15:22-23 “To obey [h8085] is better than sacrifice, to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.”  Obeying the Lord is much preferable to disobeying and then having to sacrifice to expiate the sin.  Where there’s no transgression or sin, there’s no need to offer an atoning sacrifice!

From Are Christians Freed from the Old Covenant?: “When Paul states, in Galatians 3:19, ‘It (the body of law governing sacrifices) was added because of transgressions,’ he is referring to a contractual provision, one that would not have been put into effect had Israel obeyed God. How do we know this? Notice Hosea 6:6: ‘For I (the Eternal) desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.’ (Also notice Psalm 40:6, 8.) But animal sacrifices were not instituted by God as an afterthought, any more than was Christ’s sacrifice.”  see “Sacrifices and Burnt Offerings”.

David wrote of God in Ps.40:6-8, “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire. To do Your will, my God, I desired. Your Law is within my heart.”  The Lord didn’t take pleasure in the flesh of sin offerings.  He desires obedience to His righteous moral principles (which predate the OC) more than animal sacrifices.

Again, the Lord said in Ho.6:6, “I desired mercy rather than sacrifice, and an acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings”.  By comparison, animal sacrifices were secondary in importance.  JFB Commentary Ho.6:6 “God valued moral obedience as the only end for which positive ordinances, such as sacrifices, were instituted.”  In Mk.12:32-34 of the NT, Jesus confirmed that to love God and to love one’s neighbor is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices!

Je.6:20 “Your burnt offerings are not acceptable. Your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me.”  At that time (ca 600 BC), Judah was offering them from an evil and insincere heart.  Barnes Notes “God rejects not the ceremonial service, but the substitution of it for personal holiness and morality.”

So after centuries of disobedience, God eventually sent His people into captivity…Israel to Assyria, and Judah to Babylon in 597 BC.  The Lord ceased to honor their feigned sacrifices, offered insincerely.

The fault was with the people…not with God’s Old Covenant!  He.8:8 “Finding fault with them….”  Not, “with it.”  A purpose of the OC was to reflect: the Lord’s standard of law, so crime wouldn’t run rampant in the streets…a standard of order, to prevent chaos in society.  The Law given to Moses/Israel also contained judgments and case law to govern an orderly society.

Again, Ga.3:19 “Why the Law [of Moses]? It was added because of transgressions.”

Paul said transgression, sin, law-breaking…doesn’t exist without law.  Ro.4:15 “Where there is no law, there is no transgression [g3847].”  And Ro.5:13, “For until the Law [of Moses], sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”  Ro.3:20 “Through law comes the knowledge of sin.”  So there must be some form of law in existence for there to be sin/transgression (of that law), as per Paul.

Earl Henn What Was the Law ‘Added Because of Transgressions’? “For years, people have wondered how anyone could have transgressed the laws before they were given. Simply put, Paul is talking about the laws of God which have been in full force since Creation! When he writes that the Old Covenant was added ‘till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made’, he means that the Old Covenant was temporary; Christ would replace it with the New Covenant. Rather than saying that God’s [moral] laws had become obsolete, he is explaining how important it was to preserve the knowledge of God’s laws in Israel….Paul is showing that the Old Covenant was an interim, temporary addition to the [prior] covenant made with Abraham. It was necessitated by Israel’s transgressions of God’s holy laws that had been—AND STILL ARE!—in full force and effect since Creation.”

James Bruckner Implied Law in the Abraham Narrative, p.207 “In the pre-Sinai narrative, Biblical law is set in the context of creation.”  p.67 “Genesis is embedded with law.”

John Sailhamer The Law Was Added Because of Transgressions “As Israel continued to transgress the laws given to them, God continued to give them more. God did not give up on His people. When they sinned, he added laws to keep them from sinning further….The laws were added to keep them from disappearing into the world of sin around them. It thus was the transgressions of the people that provided the motivation for God’s giving the Mosaic law.”

After 39 years of wilderness experience, Moses repeated to the next generation in De.13:4. “You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him, and you shall keep His commandments and obey [h8085] His voice, and remain loyal to Him.”  Although they didn’t obey then either…they eventually will obey God!

De.4:30 “When you are in distress, in later time, you will return to the Lord your God and obey [h8085] His voice.”  Eventually Israel will obey the Lord with a steadfast heart.  Benson Commentary De.4:30 “Particularly in the days of the Messiah.”  And Paul wrote in Ro.11:26, “All Israel will be saved”.

Animal sacrifices and the detailed sacrificial system for Israel are no more!  Yet there are righteous moral principles of God brought into the OC Mosaic Law which predated and transcend that OC.

As Paul wrote in Ro.8:4, “That the righteousness [g1345] of the Law may be accomplished in us, who live not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit”.  Gill Exposition Ro.8:4 “By the righteousness of the law, is not meant the righteousness of the ceremonial law, though that was fulfilled by Christ; but of the moral law, which requires holiness of nature.”

Yes, Christians are able to obey God’s moral principles (also contained in the Old Covenant), via the Holy Spirit (HS).  Whereas carnal-minded ancient Israel, most of whom didn’t have the HS, was unable to obey.  Ro.8:7 “The mindset of the flesh is hostile to God; it doesn’t subject itself to God’s law, because it is powerless to do so.”  But the HS will figuratively write God’s righteous principles, seen in Genesis also for gentiles, on the minds & hearts of New Covenant Christians (He.8:10).

Also Ro.2:26-27, “If the uncircumcised man keeps the righteousness [g1345] of the Law…if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you [Jews] who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor [g3848] of the Law?”  The HS enables uncircumcised gentile Christians to obey God’s moral laws.  Barnes Notes Ro.2:26 “It could not be supposed that a pagan would understand the requirements of the ceremonial law; but reference is had here to the moral law.”

That’s the moral laws, commandments and statutes which the gentile Abraham obeyed (Ge.26:5), and which Moses made known (Ex.18:16)…prior to Sinai and the OC.  Meyer’s NT Commentary Ro.2:26-27 “The uncircumcised person, who observes what the law has ordained, i.e. the moral precepts of the law, shall one day be awarded the same salvation….The standard of judgment remains the [moral] law of God.”  God’s moral principles/laws…seen even in Genesis for gentiles prior to Moses.  see “Genesis Principles Predate Moses” and “Ten Commandments in Genesis & Job”.

bible.org The Mosaic Law “The moral principles embodied in the law of Moses Paul calls ‘the righteousness of the law’ (Rom 8:4), and shows that such principles are the goal of the Spirit-directed life in the same context in which he teaches the believer is not under the Mosaic law (Ro 6–8).”

Jesus said in Jn.10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me”.  Unlike most of faithless ancient Israel, real believers do desire to follow and obey Christ the Lord.

The Christian isn’t under the Mosaic law as such…since it included sacrifices and Levitical rituals.  Those are impossible to perform without a tabernacle/temple.  Those are inapplicable today.

The Old Covenant was added for ancient Israel…added because of sins/transgressions of God’s prior eternal laws, Ga.3:19 (ref Part 1).  The OC also contains judgments which governed civil society.

The Lord isn’t an anarchist!  God’s moral principles/laws existed for gentiles prior to the OC.  And those just principles were then put into the OC for ancient Israel.  Those principles/laws of God are still valid for humanity/Christians today!  The HS enables the willing heart to obey them.  (see “Two Covenants – Heart of the Matter”.)  The character and principles of Jesus Christ, the God of ancient Israel, are the same…yesterday, today, and forever (He.13:8).  He is Lord and Master!