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.

 

Aramaic in the Bible (2) – New Testament

This Part 2 is the continuation and conclusion to “Aramaic in the Bible (1) – Old Testament”.  Material covered in (1) won’t be repeated here in (2); I suggest you read Part 1 first.

Prior to being taken captive by Assyria (721 BC) and Babylon (586 BC), Israelites & Jews had spoken Old Hebrew or Judahite (Jehudíth Strongs h3066) in the Land of Canáan.  But when Jews returned to the Land from captivity in the days of Zerubabbél (530s BC), and with Ezra & Nehemiah (c 450 BC), they spoke the Aramáic language.  They’d learned it in the East, during the time of the Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian (Chaldéan), and Persian empires.  Aramaic was the língua fránca of those empires.

Most Israelites & Jews no longer spoke Judahite ‘Hebrew’, the old “lip of Canaan”.  Ne.13:24 “As for their children…none of them was able to speak in the language of Judah [Jehudith h3066].”  Benson Commentary Ne.13:24 “The language which the [common] Jews then spoke was Cháldee; this language they learned in their captivity, and after their return never assumed their ancient Hebrew tongue.” 

The returnees and their descendants spoke Aramaic.  Some of the later chapters in the Old Testament (OT) timeline were written in Aramaic: Da.2:4b–7:28, Ezr.4:8–6:18, 7:12-26.  see Part 1.

Then Greek became the language of commerce for the Grecian and Roman empires.  Most historians say that at the New Testament (NT) time of Jesus/Yeshúa, Aramaic (also called Chaldee and Sýriac) was still the language spoken by the majority of common Jews in Judea.  In most Judean synagogues, the OT scriptures were read from Hebrew scrolls, and interpreters (meturganim) translated them into Aramaic for the hearers.  cf. Ne.8:8.  But there was no Aramaic text of the entire OT (there was an old Greek text).  So the Aramaic Tárgums were written. 

The Targums are OT paraphrases.  They were written in Aramaic, beginning in the 1^st century AD.  With them, Aramaic-speaking people could understand the OT text.  The Targum of Ónkelos (the Law) and the Targum of Jonathán (the Prophets) were composed prior to 200 AD.  They are official.  Another Targum of the Law/Torah/Péntateuch is the Jerusalem Targum (also known as the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan).  There’s also the Targum Neofití, for the Pentateuch.  And a few others.

Perhaps the Aramaic Targums wouldn’t have been necessary if most Jews still knew Hebrew.  But most no longer knew Hebrew.  They spoke Aramaic or Greek.  Bruce Metzger The Jewish Targums “Such versions were needed when Hebrew ceased to be the normal medium of communication among Jews.”

Whenever the Targums came to passages where YHVH was anthropomorphized or seen (appearing human), or where plural YHVHs are indicated…Targums substituted the “Word of YHVH” for “YHVH”!  The Aramaic term for “Word” is Mémra.  In Greek, “Word” is Lógos g3056, e.g. Jn.1:1.  The Targum Neofiti was written in Palestine before 200 AD.  Targ Neofiti Ge.1:1 “From the beginning with Wisdom the Memra [Word] of the Lord created and perfected the heavens and the earth.”  (Of note also is Targ Jonathan Is.52:13, “Behold My Servant the Messiah…!”  Disbelieving medieval rabbis claim “My Servant” here was the nation of Israel…but this earlier Targum indicated Is.52–53 refers to the Messiah an individual.) 

Again, a few chapters of the OT were written in Aramaic.  Ezr.5 is in Aramaic.  Ezr.5:2 “Yeshúa the son of Jozadák.”  Yeshua (a common male name) is also Messiah Jesus’ name in Aramaic.

The gospel writers record Jesus speaking Aramaic in red-letter text of our Bible, and they record places in Judea with Aramaic names.  Following are some of the Aramaic words in the NT:

Jesus called the brothers in Mk.3:17, “Boanergés, that is, ‘Sons of Thunder”.  Expositor’s Greek Testament “As pronounced by Galileans, in Syrian.”  Jesus said to the dead girl in Mk.5:41, “Taleetháh koómee (which translated means ‘Little girl, arise!’)”.  JFB Commentary “The words are Aramaic, or Syro-Chaldáic, the then language of Palestine.”  Jesus said to the deaf man in Mk.7:34, “Éffathah!’, that is, ‘Be opened!”  Cambridge Bible “The actual Aramaic word used by our Lord.”  Jesus prayed in Mk.14:36, “Abbáh! Father!”  Geneva Study Bible “The word Abba is a Syrian word.”  (The Hebrew word for Father is Awb h1, the Aramaic is Ab h2, also Abbah g5.)  Abbah is also seen in Ro.8:15 and Ga.4:6 of Paul’s epistles.  The above verses reflect (Western) Aramaic words.

Luke wrote, Ac.1:19 “In their own language that field was called Hakeldamáh, the Field of Blood.”  Luke recorded the Aramaic name of the field at Jerusalem purchased by Judas…“in their language”!  Poole Commentary Ac.1:19 “The Syriac language then in use after the Babylonish captivity.”

The Jewish historian Josephus (37-100 AD) was a priest born in Jerusalem.  His language was Aramaic.  Wikipedia: Language of Jesus “Josephus differentiated Hebrew from his language and that of 1^st century Israel. Josephus refers to Hebrew words as belonging to ‘the Hebrew tongue’ but refers to Aramaic words as belonging to ‘our tongue’ or ‘our language’ or ‘the language of our country.”

John recorded places at Jerusalem with Aramaic/Syriac names.  Jn.5:2 Bethesdáh.  Ellicott Commentary “Bethesda means ‘house of mercy’. The ‘Hebrew tongue’ is…what we ordinarily call Aramaic, or Syro-Chaldaic.”  Jn.19:13 ESV “A place called the Stone Pavement, which in Aramaic [Hebraistí g1447 adverb] is Gabbatháh.”  Gill Exposition “The Jews, who at this time spoke Syriac.”  Jn.19:17 CSB “The Place of the Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotháh.”  The NASB center margin notes the (bold) above terms as “Jewish Aramaic”…not Hebrew.  Strong’s Dictionary of terms, and the commentaries quoted above, say these NT words are Aramaic/Syriac/Chaldaic…not Hebrew.

Wikipedia: Aramaic “The Christian New Testament uses the Koine Greek phrase Ἑβραϊστί Hebraïstí to denote ‘Aramaic’, as Aramaic was at that time the language commonly spoken by the Jews.”

Jesus said to Peter, “Blessed are you Simon BarJonáh” (Mt.16:17).  Bar-Jonah means ‘son of Jonah’.  Cambridge Bible “Bar is Aramaic for ‘son.”  bar h1247.  But the Hebrew term for “son” is ben h1121.  So here Matthew records Jesus speaking Aramaic, not Hebrew.  The Aramaic BarAbbás = son of Abbáh (Mt.27:16).  Wikipedia op. cit. “Barabbas is a Hellenization of the Aramaic Bar Abba, literally ‘son of the father.”  Also: BarTholomew = son of Tolmai/Ptolemy (Lk.6:14); BarTimaeus = son of Timaeus (Mk.10:46); BarSabas = son of Sabas (Ac.1:23 & 15:22 – two men); Barnabas = son of encouragement (Ac.4:36); Barjesus = son of Yeshua (Ac.13:6).  Wikipedia ibid “The most prominent feature in Aramaic names is bar, meaning ‘son of’. Its Hebrew equivalent, ben, is conspicuous by its absence.”  Those NT personal names are strong internal evidence that Aramaic language use was predominant!

Aramaic too is a language used by God!  Stephen Missick The Language of Jesus, p.60 “Jesus is God incarnate and He spoke Aramaic.”  The hand from God wrote in Aramaic the “handwriting on the wall” in 539 BC…‘MÉNE, MÉNE, TÉKEL, UPHÁRSIN’ (Da.5:24-28)!

{Sidelight: We don’t know what language Jesus wrote at the scene of the woman taken in adultery, writing on the ground with His finger (Jn.8:6).  Jesus could’ve written in the common Aramaic, or perhaps He quoted the OT Hebrew or old Greek version.  Jn.8:6 “Jesus with His finger wrote on the ground.”  Maybe Jesus quoted or referred to Je.17:13 as He wrote the names of her accusers?  Je.17:13 “Those who depart from Me shall be written in the dirt.”}

Jesus and 11 of His 12 disciples were from Galilee (Judas Iscariót likely was from Keriot in Judea).  Galileans had a noticeable accent in their Aramaic dialect.  ccaugusta.org “Jesus principally spoke a Galilean dialect of Aramaic.”  A dialect of regional Western Aramaic.  aramaicnt.com “Early Galilean Aramaic, the mother tongue of Jesus.”  Ac.2:7 “Are not all these which speak Galileans?”  Pulpit Commentary Ac.2:7 “The Galilean accent was peculiar and well known.”  It is thought that their accent was more guttural or the gutterals (throat articulations) were blurred.  One of the bystanders said to Peter in Mt.26:73 NET, “You really are one of them; even your accent gives you away”.  Meyer NT Commentary Mt.26:73 “The natives were unable to distinguish especially the gutterals properly.”

Jn.11:1 the NT name Lázarus was Eleázar in Hebrew and Alázar in Aramaic.  The ‘A’ was dropped and the Latin declension ‘us’ was added, resulting in Lazarus in our NT.  Comparably, Englishmen today pronounce ‘Henry’ as ‘Enry’ (dropping the ‘H’).  An older occasion of pronunciation difference in Israel is in Jg.12:6, where the Ephraimites said sibbóleth, but couldn’t say shibbóleth (with the ‘h’).

Aramaic is called a metallic-sounding language.  The Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic (Mt.6:9-13):

“Abwoon d’Bwashmaya, Neet Kah Schmaakh

Teh Teh Malkutah, Neyweh Tzevyanah Aikhanah,

d’Bwashmayah Aph Buh Arh Ah Howlahn Lakhmah d’Soonkhanan Yaow Manah,

Wash Boh Klahn Kaow Behn, Wahktahehn,

Aikhanah Daph Knanahn Soobwoh-Khan Lahkhai Ah-Ben                                   

Welah Tahlah Le Nesyunah, Elah Patzan Min Bishah                                                 

Metohl Delakhih Malkutah, Whyallah Wateshbuktah, Lah-Allam, Allmin.”

It is said that Jesus’ red-letter words in the gospel accounts are powerful when they’re retroverted from Greek manuscripts into Aramaic!  But that they don’t back-translate as well into Hebrew.  John’s gospel is thought to have the strongest Aramaic flavor or substratum (underlying layer) of any gospel account, especially Jesus’ sayings.

In the gospel quotes above, Jesus spoke Aramaic words.  Also He likely spoke Greek in “Galilee of the gentiles” (Mt.4:15), and with Greek-speaking business clients there.  In the Nazareth synagogue (Lk.4:16-21), Jesus read from the scroll of Isaiah, either from the Hebrew OT or the old Greek version.  

Ac.21:40-ff Paul, in making his own defense, chose to address the crowd of Jews in Jerusalem in Aramaic (not Greek).  The NASB center margin notes the language Paul spoke here as “Jewish Aramaic” (Hebraís g1446 noun).  Robertson’s NT Word Pictures Ac.21:40 “The Araméan which the people in Jerusalem knew better than the Greek.”  

Interestingly, the OT never refers to the ancient language of the Israelites or Jews as the ‘Hebrew language’!  Rather, in the OT their tongue was called the “language of Canaan” (Is.19:18) or Judahite (Jehudíth: 2Ki.18:26-28, Is.36:11-13, 2Ch.32:18, Ne.13:24).  see Part 1.

Wikipedia op. cit. “A small minority believes that most of the New Testament was originally written in Aramaic.”  The Aramaic Primacy view.  At this point, that is speculation.

The Tálmud of rabbinic Judaism was written in Aramaic (200–500 AD).  Yehuda Shurpin Why is the Talmud in Aramaic? “The Western Aramaic languages were used largely in the area that was under Roman (and later Byzantine) rule. The Jerusalem Talmud, composed in Israel, is written in a Western Aramaic dialect. The Eastern Aramaic languages flourished in the Persian Empire, and as a result the Babylonian Talmud, written in Persian-dominated Babylon, is in Eastern Aramaic. The Talmud was written in Aramaic, the language of the masses, so that it would be accessible to all. ”

Aside from the sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) religious community, to date most surviving inscriptions of Jesus’ period on artifacts, tombs (Caiáphas’ tomb too), ossuáries/bone boxes, etc. in the Holy Land…are in Aramaic or Greek.  Some are in Hebrew.  Pieter van der Horst Jewish Funerary Inscriptions “In Jerusalem itself about 40 percent of the Jewish inscriptions from the first-century period (before 70 CE) are in Greek.”  (cf. Ac.6:1-5 Stephen was a Greek-speaking Jew in Jerusalem.)

Breakdown of DSS text scripts: Old/Paleo Hebrew 1%, Hebrew/Áshuri square 78%, Aramaic square 17%, Greek 3%, other 1%.  Historians say that some Hebrew language usage was redeveloping in Christ’s day in pocket areas (e.g. the DSS at Qumrán).  Some was known by the educated and priests.  Shurpin op. cit. “Hebrew was used for ‘holy’ matters, such as prayer, and not for ordinary activities.”      

Wikipedia: Language of Jesus “According to DSS archaeologist Yigael Yadin, Aramaic was the language of Hebrews until Simon Bar-Kókhba’s revolt [132-135 AD in Judea]. Yadin noticed the shift from Aramaic to Hebrew in the documents which had been written during the time of the revolt. Yadin said, ‘It seems that this change came as a result of the order that was given by Bar Kokhba, who wanted to revive the Hebrew language and make it the official language of the state’. Yadin points out that Aramaic was the lingua franca [common language] at the time.” 

Both Aramaic and Hebrew are classed as NW Semític Áfro-Asiátic languages; Hebrew is sub-classed a Canaanite language.  Much later, c 800 AD, vowel points were added to the Hebrew language.

Prior to 1948, (Ashkenázi) Yíddish was the language of most Jews.  The national language in modern Israel today is called ‘Hebrew’.  It’d been near 2,500 years since Judahite/Hebrew was the language of common people (am-harétz) in the Land!  But Modern Hebrew (Ivrít) has been influenced by Yiddish.  Yiddish is classed a Germanic Indo-European language, not a Semitic.  The tongue spoken today in Israel isn’t the ancient Canaanite/Hebrew “language of Canaan” (Is.19:18).  Amir Zeldes wrote, “Modern Hebrew is a hybrid language. Modern Hebrew never was exactly Biblical Hebrew, and in many ways it has been a very different language for as long as it has existed.”  Jewish Agency Jewish Languages “Only a minority of the Jewish people today can speak Hebrew…It is more common to use English.”

Aramaic was gradually superceded by the Semitic sister language Arabic during the Moslem conquest (c 700–1300 AD).  Arabic is the liturgical language of Íslam. 

Very few Aramaic dialects are spoken today.  It is an endangered language.  Some Christian groups in areas of Iraq, Syria, Iran, SE Turkey, speak an Aramaic dialect called Syriac.  Churches in the East still use Aramaic as their liturgical language.  Some refer to themselves as Assyrians or Chaldeans.

The prophecy of Zep.3:9 NASB, “I will give to the peoples purified lips [h8193], that all of them may call on the name of the Lord. From beyond the rivers.”  Including heathens too, outside the Holy Land.  Ge.11:9 the penalty for the sin at Babel was the confusion of the language/lip/shore (h8193).  But eventually there’ll be no more ‘idol’ tongues speaking idolatry.  Zec.14:9 “The Lord will be King over all the earth in that day.”  

In the tongues miracle of Ac.2:1-11, pilgrim visitors at Jerusalem heard them speaking in their own languages.  In many dialects.  v.11 “We hear them speaking the mighty deeds of God.”  In a sense, this heals the breach which occurred back in Ge.11!  The penalty is removed.  Words may be spoken from a pure heart/lips in any language.  Ps.22:27 “All the ends of the earth will turn to the Lord. All the kindreds of the nations will worship before Thee.”  Praise the Lord!  

 

Gehenna (2) – Lake of Fire

This topic was begun in “Gehenna (1) – Valley of Unquenched Fire”.  Part 2 here is the continuation and conclusion.  Part 1 should be read first; most of the material in (1) won’t be repeated here in (2).

Gehenna was a location, a historical place.  It’s a proper noun.  As such, it is better left untranslated, rendered as “Géhenna” (transliterated from the Greek Gé-en-na).  Gehenna isn’t a common noun.

Historians have located the steep Gehenna valley/ravine below the SW wall of ancient Jerusalem.  It was in the territory allotted to the tribe of Judah (ref Jsh.15:8), and converges with the Kidrón valley.

The term Gehenna came from the Old Testament (OT) valley of the son of Hinnóm, which occurs 13 times in the OT.  The 13 OT occurrences of Hinnom (Strongs h2011, Hebrew noun) are: Jsh.15:8 (2), 18:16 (2); 2Ki.23:10; 2Ch.28:3, 33:6; Ne.11:30; Je.7:31-32, 19:2, 6, 32:35 (39:35 Septúagint/LXX).  Hinnom means lamentation.  Hinnom is Ennom in the OT Greek LXX.

Cambridge Bible Lk.12:5 “The Valley of Hinnom…was a pleasant valley outside Jerusalem, which had first been rendered infamous by Molech worship, then defiled by Josiah with corpses; and lastly kept from putrefaction by large fires to consume the corpses and prevent pestilence.”  This valley also became a prophesied place of slaughter, filled with human corpses.  (see Part 1 for particulars.)

Traditionally, the ravine later became a place of refuse.  Barnes Notes Mt.5:22 “It was necessary to keep fires continually burning there. The extreme loathsomeness of the place, the filth and putrefaction, and the lurid fires burning by day and night, made it one of the most appalling and terrific objects with which a Jew was acquainted.”  Jews knew.  Gehenna also became interpreted as imagery…for “hell”.

There are 12 New Testament (NT) occurrences of the term Gehenna (Strongs g1067, Greek): Mt.5:22, 29-30, 10:28, 18:9, 23:15, 33; Mk.9:43-47; Lk.12:5; Ja.3:6.  Eleven occurrences are the words of Jesus found in the gospel accounts (mostly in Matthew).  The sole exception is Ja.3:6 (figurative).

The term Gehenna doesn’t appear in the book of Acts, nor in any of Paul’s letters, nor in other epistles (only once in James)!  That may seem like a strange omission?!  But Gehenna was traditionally the Jerusalem dump.  It wouldn’t have the same significance in the foreign cities of the NT epistles.

What about “hell”?  In several of our Bible translations, there are four original language terms commonly rendered as “hell”…Sheol (h7585), Hádes (g86), Tartaróo (g5020), Gehenna (g1067).  All four are places or realms.  All four are proper nouns (according to Oxford Dictionary), not common nouns.  Proper nouns are better left untranslated in English.  e.g. in Young’s Literal Translation (YLT) they’re untranslated.  “Hell” is too general a word to use for specific terms.  The above four are specific terms.  Steve Gregg All You Want To Know About Hell, p.86 “The English word ‘hell’ isn’t a translation, but an interpretation.”

Sheol is the Hebrew OT term for the place of the dead.  The root meaning of sheol is ‘unseen’.  Sheol corresponds to Hades in the Greek LXX and NT.  YLT leaves the term Hades untranslated.  YLT doesn’t use the word “hell”.  Again, both Sheol and Hades are better left untranslated.

The KJV OT often rendered Sheol as “hell” when conveying the fate of those who were bad or wicked!  ref KJV: Ps.9:17; Pr.5:5, 7:27, 9:18; Is.5:14, 14:9; Ezk.31:16-18, 32:27.  (In the OT, death and the realm of Sheol may be the result of God’s judgment.)  Yet the KJV often rendered Sheol as the “grave” when portraying the fate of those good or righteous!  ref KJV: Ge.37:35 (Jacob); Jb.14:13 & 17:13 (Job); Ps.88:3; SS.8:6 (ironically); Is.38:10 (Hezekiah).  Also cf. KJV Ho.13:14 with KJV 1Co.15:55.

In so doing, the KJV is biased.  There is a Hebrew OT term which means grave, h6913 qéhber, noun.  It occurs 67 times in the OT (also translated as sepulcher, burying-place.)  e.g. Ex.14:11; 1Ch.34:28; Jb.5:26; Nah.1:14.  It ties to bury h6912 qabár, verb.  Also, a less used OT term for grave is h6900 qeburáh, noun, occurring 14 times (e.g. Ge.35:20; Ezk.32:23.)  But Sheol/Hades was an unseen realm…not a grave.

Tartaroo was a holding place for angels who’d sinned.  2Pe.2:4 “God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into tartaroo [g5020] and committed them to pits of darkness [g2217] reserved for judgment.”  also ref Jude 1:6; 1Enoch 20:2 with 1Enoch 21:9-10.

However, the concept of endless torment was unknown in the OT scriptures.  (see Part 1 regarding mortal worms in Is.66:24.)

The 1995 Church of England Doctrine Commission said, “Hell is not eternal torment”.  Bible scholar F.F. Bruce wrote, “Eternal conscious torment is incompatible with the revealed character of God”.

Torment forever in hell-fire doesn’t fit with Christ’s OT retributive justice or lex talionis principle.  Rather, Christ’s capital punishment penalty was death.  Ex.21:23-24 life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, etc.  And Paul wrote in Ro.6:23, “The wages of sin is death”.  Not eternal life in hell-fire!

Later it was the Roman Catholic theologian Augustine (354–430 AD) of Hippo, Algeria who promoted the idea of eternal torment in hell-fire.

Jesus’ NT warnings (regarding Gehenna) were tied to national judgment upon Jerusalem/Judea, with corpses strewn in the valleys.  Even via “unquenched fire”.  (see Part 1.)

God Himself is figuratively depicted as fire!  Moses told ancient Israel in De.4:24, “The Lord your God is a consuming fire”.

A coal of fire purified the lips of the prophet Isaiah in vision, Is.6:6-7.  Cambridge Bible Is.6:6 “Fire is both a symbol of holiness and an agent of purification.”  Fire (and blood) purges and atones for sin & iniquity.  Gill Exposition Is.6:7 “Thy [Isaiah’s] sin purged, or ‘atoned for’ or ‘covered.”

And there are verses in the OT which allude to a Sheol fire in the afterlife.

The Lord said in the song of Moses, De.32:22 “A fire is kindled in My anger, and it burns to the lowest part of Sheol [LXX Hades g86]; and consumes the earth with its produce and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains”.  Perhaps this was the origin of volcanos?  Fire was in the lowest part of Sheol/Hades.  cf. Song Sol.8:6 “For love is as strong as death, jealousy is as unrelenting as Sheol [LXX Hades g86]. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord.”  Sheol/Hades was tied to fire.

In Lk.16:19-ff, Jesus told the parable of the rich man who’d failed to be a good steward of his wealth.  Lk.16:23-24 “In Hades [g86]….he cried out and said…I am in agony in this flame.”  There was a flame in that sector of Hades/Sheol; the realm of departed spirits beneath the earth’s surface.

Was the Gehenna valley also symbolic for the lowest part of Sheol/Hades?  Over the centuries, Gehenna became the figurative place of spiritual purification for wicked Jews.  The rabbis considered Gehenna a purgatory or a punishment where the wicked suffer until he’s atoned for his sins.

Jewish Encyclopedia: Gehenna “They are cast into Gehenna to a depth commensurate with their sinfulness.”  Jesus’ words in Mt.13:42, 50 “Cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth”.  However, this happened to Jerusalem in 70 AD, prophesied in Ezk.22:17-22.

Jesus also spoke of those cast out into outer darkness in three NT verses, all in Matthew: 8:12 (cf. Mt.13:38 “sons of the kingdom”), 22:13, 25:30.  Jude 1:13 refers to “blackest darkness”.  It may be a location or a state of being/mind.  It’s a place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth”, of anguish and despair.  1Jn.1:6 wrote of those who “walk in darkness”.  2Pe.2:17 refers to a “mist of darkness”.  To contrast, 1Pe.2:9 exhorts, “You should show forth the praises of Him [God] who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

cf. Mt.13:42, 50 with Jesus’ words in Mk.9:49. “Everyone will be salted with fire.”  Salt and fire both purify.  Pulpit Commentary Mk.9:49 “There’s a fire which is penal, and a fire which purifies.”  Mt.25:41-46 chastisement for not aiding the needy.  (Eternal torment seems overly severe for failing to do this!)  v.46 Dr. Spiros Zódiates “Kólasis conveys the notion of punishment for correction and betterment.”

Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 18:1:3 “Pharisees…believe souls have an immortal vigor, and under the earth there will be rewards or punishments…The vicious to be detained in that prison, virtuous souls to revive and live again.”  The apostle Paul also referred to those “under the earth” (Php.2:10).

Traditionally, the aftermath of spiritual purification in lower Sheol was…the person ascends to the world to come (Ólam Hába/Gan Eden), or else undergoes destruction.  Judaism 101: The Afterlife “The very righteous go directly to Gan Eden. The average person’s time in Gehinnom doesn’t exceed 12 months.”

Also, some have interpreted or compared Gehenna to/as the “lake of fire”!  Jewish folklore indicates the accursed Gehenna valley had a gate which led to a lake of fire.  (Views differ as to the gate’s location.)

Wikipedia: Lake of Fire “Such a lake also appears in Plato’s Phaedo, explicitly identified with Tartarus, where the souls of the wicked are tormented until it is time for them to be reborn, and where some souls are left forever.”

The book of Revelation is full of hyperbole & symbolism; and contains more variant readings from the Majority Text than do all the other NT books combined!  If our translation of Revelation is accurate…its lake of fire (at the bottom of or beneath Gehenna?) is seemingly the hell-fire of the afterlife.

“Lake of fire” occurs only in Re.19:20, 20:10, 14-15, 21:8.  The beast, the false prophet, the devil, death, Hades, and those not written in the book of life (ref the list in 21:8)…are cast into the lake of fire.  Re.19:20 “The lake of fire which burns with brimstone [g2303].”  Brimstone is sulfur.  Sulfur can purify.  Sciencing: Ancient Uses of Sulfur “Roman purifying rituals included fumigating a building or personal belongings with the smoke from burning sulfur.”

Does the lake of fire torment, consume, or purify?

Re.2:11, 20:6, 14, 21:8 speak of a “second death”.  Re.20:13-15 “Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”  Ellicott Commentary Re.20:14 “It is clearly figurative language, implying that Death, the last enemy is destroyed, together with Hades, who was personified as Death’s escort (Re.6:8). The lake of fire into which Death is thrown is the second death!…Very awful is that spiritual death.”

Also Expositor’s Greek Testament “Hades…naturally ceases to have any function.”

John wrote in Re.21:4, “There will be no more death”.  Death will die, in other words.  Paul in 1Co.15:26, “The last enemy to be abolished is death”.  He indicated in 1Co.15:55, there will be no more sting of death.  2Ti.1:10 “Our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death.”  Christ rendered death inoperative.

Some think the “lake of fire” means the second death for the incorrigibly wicked.  The concept of the “second death” also appears in the early AD Jewish Targums (Aramaic OT paraphrases).

Targum Is.65:6 “Their punishment shall be in Gehenna where the fire burns all day…deliver their bodies to the second death.”

Targum Is.22:14 “This sin will not be forgiven you, until you die the second death.”  Targum Is.65:15 “The Lord God will slay you with the second death.”

Yet based upon God’s principle of justice seen in De.19:21, “life for life”…there wouldn’t be a second death without a second life preceding it!

The Targum Neofití and fragments indicate the second death is the death the wicked die.  Targum Je.51:39 “They shall die the second death and not live in the world to come [in Olam Haba].”

These Targum paraphrases may relate to a final destruction of any remaining wicked.  More like an annihilation, an extinction…not everlasting torment through eternal life in hell-fire.

But is the second death a final separation from God…or was a spiritual purification meant?

The visions and near death experiences (NDE) many people have had of “hell”…are they true and valid?  Is what they claim to see everlasting or temporary?

It’s hard to imagine ruthless leaders such as Genghis Kahn, Bloody Mary, Idi Amin…and Adolph Hitler together with the numerous disbelieving Jews killed during WW2… all being tormented together (with those Jews) eternally in fire!

Also the untold millions of gentiles worldwide who lived prior to Jesus and didn’t know God or ancient Israel…are they doomed forever?  Is this reflective of a God of love (1Jn.4:8)!?  Or…why visit or help (unsaved) widows and orphans now, if God intends to annihilate most of them anyway?

Interestingly, the futuristic prophecy of Je.31:38-40 indicates that…Gehenna will be holy!  Je.31:40 “The whole valley [Hinnom/Gehenna] of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron…shall be holy to the Lord; it shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever.”  Cambridge Bible Je.31:40 “The valley of Hinnom, into which carcasses of criminals and of animals were cast.”

Today, it is a Jerusalem suburb with concerts and even fireworks nearby!  Israel’s Ministry of Tourism wants you to visit “hell” (Gehenna), so to speak!

The good news for Christians…we won’t be hurt by a second death!  Re.2:11 “He who overcomes shall not be harmed by the second death.”  The saved don’t have to undergo it.

The afterlife for saved Christians will be wonderful…Thanks be to God!  In addition, see the topics “Life and Death – for Saints” and “Rebirth to Physical Life”.

 

Stephen’s Stoning in Acts

A martyr is a person who chooses to suffer death rather than renounce his/her religious beliefs.  Justin (110-165 AD) was a Samaritan Christian given the honorary title ‘Martyr’ for not renouncing his faith that Jesus is Lord.  Following Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection and ascension, the first recorded (Jewish) Christian martyr was Stephen.  Stephen didn’t renounce Jesus.  The account is in Acts 6–7.

The initial Jerusalem church grew rapidly in the 30s AD (Ac.5:14).  Ac.6:1-7 Stephen was a Hellenist or Greek-speaking deacon there.  At this time, an estimated 10–20% of Jerusalem spoke Greek (rather than Aramaic, cf. Ac.1:19).  They used the Greek Old Testament, which became the Septúagint/LXX.  The early church was then composed of Jewish Christians only, no Samaritans, no gentiles yet.  Ac.6:5 Stephen was one of seven men chosen by the church to distribute food & alms to Hellenist widows (cf. Ja.1:27).  Ac.6:8 God worked miracles through Stephen, who was filled with the Holy Spirit (HS).

Ac.6:9-10 many in the Freedmen synagogue were emancipated captive or slave Jews & proselytes.  Also persons who’d come from Alexandria, Cilicía, and elsewhere.  Saul/Paul was from Tarsús in Cilicia (Ac.21:39), and likely he attended this Jerusalem synagogue.  Most weren’t (Jewish) Christians, and they began to argue with Stephen.  But the HS gave Stephen wisdom they couldn’t withstand.

Their arguments failed.  Ac.6:11 “So they secretly induced some men to say, ‘We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”  These claimed they heard Stephen blaspheme; that is, to revile God or sacred things.  v.12 “They stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes; they seized him and brought him before the Sanhédrin.”  For trial by the great court, sitting at Jerusalem.

They then hired lying witnesses to testify against Stephen.  Ac.6:13-14 “And they set up false witnesses who said, ‘This man incessantly speaks evil against this holy place and the Law. For we’ve heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and alter the customs Moses handed down to us.”

Ac.6:15 “All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and saw his face was like the face of an angel.”  This is reminiscent of Ex.34:29, where Moses’ face shined from God’s Presence.

Stephen was accused of speaking blasphemy against: God, Moses, the temple, the Law (Ac.6:11-13).  He’d probably taught that the days of God’s temple worship and sacrifices, based on ceremonial law given to Moses, would come to an end.  Disbelieving Jews in his synagogue wrongly viewed that as blasphemy.

They also claimed that Stephen said Jesus would destroy their temple and alter their customs (v.14).  600 years earlier Daniel had prophesied.  Da.9:26-27 LXX “The Christ will be cut off, and He will destroy the city and the sanctuary with the prince who is coming. And on the temple will be an abomination of desolation.”  Mk.13:1-2, 14 Jesus confirmed regarding their temple, “Not one stone shall be left upon another which shall not be torn down. When you see the abomination of desolation.”  Jn.2:19-21 Jesus also said to Jewish leaders in regards to His own body they would crucify, “Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up”. (cf. 2Co.5:1)  Yet in Mk.14:56-59, false witnesses testified against Jesus, saying He would destroy their temple.  But their testimony was inconsistent.

The accused in Israel had a right to a fair trial before sentencing.  De.17:2-7 “If in any of your towns a man or woman does what is evil, has served other gods or worshiped them; you shall investigate it thoroughly. If so, stone them to death. On the testimony of 2 or 3 witnesses shall he worthy of death be executed. The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him.”  If the case was too difficult for the local appellate court, it was taken to the central court/Sanhedrin.  v.8-10 “If any case is too difficult to decide, then you shall go to the place the Lord your God chooses. The Levitical priest or judge will declare the verdict.”  And the high priest is present (Caiáphas?, Mt.26:3) with the court at this trial, Ac.7:1.

The penalty for serving/worshiping pagan gods was death.  De.13:6-8 said to not join in service to other gods of even a relative!  If a guilty verdict is delivered at his trial, execute him.  v.9-11 “You shall stone him to death because he sought to lead you away from the Lord your God.”  A less relevant incident is Le.24:11-16. “The son of an Israelite blasphemed the Name and cursed. The Lord spoke to Moses, ‘Let all the congregation stone him. The alien as well as the native who blasphemes the Name shall be put to death.”  This applied to both Israelites and aliens in the Land.  (Note: Judaism forbad uttering the Name YHVH in common speech; so speaking the Name was discontinued, due to an extreme interpretation of this Le.24 passage combined with Ex.20:7.)

Also there was a rebel beating custom for cases which were perceived to be so obvious…an actual trial was thought unnecessary.  Nu.25:1-5 reflects Moses’ decision against Israelite leaders who joined in heathen worship (v.4-5).  Moses as judge authorized the execution of those guilty.  v.6-8 yet Phineás the priest’s act of slaying two who were engaged in a form of religious prostitution later became the prototype to vindicate the rebel beating practice.  That is, sentence or execution without an official verdict.  They would take the law into their own hands to administer ‘justice’ in their eyes.  To ref this practice unto death, see Jn.10:31-32 (below), and Lk.4:29 where Jesus’ opposers in the synagogue tried to throw Him over a cliff.  Also, Paul was the intended victim of a rebel beating in Ac.21:30-31.

Jesus said in Jn.10:30-33, “I and the Father are one’. The Jews took up stones to stone Him. The Jews answered Him, ‘We don’t stone you for a good work, but for blasphemy, because you make yourself out to be God.”  Those Jews understood Jesus’ implication.  In Jn.19:5-7 the Jewish leaders cried out to Pilate against Jesus, “Crucify Him! We have a law, by which He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God”.  To their understanding, Jesus had declared Himself to be (a false) God!

Lk.23:4-7 the Jewish leaders brought the accused Jesus before Pilate the Procurator (manager) in the province of Judea.  Pilate learned He was from Galilee (not a resident of Judea), in Herod’s jurisdiction.  So Pilate sent Him to Herod.  In Jn.18:31, the Jewish leaders in Judea claimed they weren’t permitted to put anyone to death.  Historical sources conflict regarding the extent of Sanhedrin power to execute in the 30s AD.  The right to execute convicted criminals in Roman provinces was held by the Governor (Pilate here).  Emil Schurer said a death sentence then must be ratified by the Procurator.  It’s also said the Sanhedrin was allowed to execute persons who violated the sanctity of the Jerusalem temple in Judea (destroyed 70 AD).  Jesus was from the province of Galilee, whereas Stephen lived in Jerusalem.

With that background, let’s return to Stephen’s case.  His trial will be for blasphemy and serving another god, according to disbelieving Jews there.  All of Acts 7 is Stephen’s lengthy discourse or justification as his defense.  In it, he relates scripture history about: the patriarchs, Moses, Israel’s disobedience to God, the temple would come to an end.

Then Stephen takes the offensive in Ac.7:51-53. “You men are stubborn and resist the Holy Spirit as your ancestors did. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered!”

The same Greek terminology is in Is.53:11 LXX. “The Righteous One shall bear their sins.”  Isaiah prophesied of Jesus.  (The traditional Martyrdom of Isaiah says Isaiah himself was sawn in half by Jewish leaders, cf. He.11:37.)  Also, after Saul/Paul had a vision of the ascended Jesus, Ac.22:14 Ananías said God had appointed Saul to see and hear the Righteous One.

Ac.7:54-56 “When the Sanhedrin heard this, they were enraged. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”  (This reflects the tri-unity of God.)  The prophet Daniel had referred to the Son of Man to come in Da.7:13-14.  Jesus called Himself the Son of Man more than 70 times in the New Testament, e.g. Mt.26:64.  He.12:2 & Col.3:1 says Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Yet in Ac.7:56, Jesus is standing at God’s right hand, perhaps in honor of Stephen’s testimony of Him!

In the opinion of the Sanhedrin/disbelieving Jews, Jesus was a dead man.  But here Stephen is indicating to them that the man supposedly dead is really…a live God!  They think Stephen is violating De.17 & 13 publically; that he’s putting forth the Son of Man Jesus as a false god!  With their own ears they heard/witnessed Stephen utter his vision, which they construed as blasphemy.

Ac.7:57-58 “They shouted loudly, covered their ears, and rushed upon him with one accord. And when they’d dragged him outside the city, they began to stone him. The witnesses left their coats with a young man named Saul.”  Taking Stephen outside the city, witnesses who heard him began to stone him…as per De.17:5-7 (& Le.24:14).  JFB Commentary Ac.7:58 “Saul, having perhaps already a seat in the Sanhedrin, some 30 years of age.”  Possibly Saul/Paul (of Stephen’s synagogue) was then married and recently become a member of the great Sanhedrin (ref Ac.9:1-2, 26:10-11, Ga.1:14); and he attested to the public slaying.  David Stern Jewish New Testament Commentary, conjectures “Shaúl was a member of the Sanhedrin.”

Ac.7:59-60 “They continued to stone Stephen while he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and said loudly, ‘Lord, impute not this sin to their charge.’ And having said this, he fell asleep.”  Just before Stephen’s body died or “fell asleep”, he asked the Lord to receive his spirit (ref Ec.12:7, Mt.27:50, He.12:23) and not hold against them their sin of stoning an innocent man to death.

In Mt.23:33-34 Jesus had called the leading scribes & Pharisees, who hated Him and wanted Him dead, vipers doomed to Gehenna.  Yet in Lk.23:33-34, Jesus asked Father God to forgive the Romans who ignorantly crucified Him!  (They will repent in the future.)  Jesus said to Governor Pilate, Jn.19:10-11 “He who delivered me over to you has the greater sin”.  The Jewish leaders’ sin of delivering Jesus to death was greater than the sin of Pilate…they knowingly framed & murdered the Son of God!

Stephen was a mere man, and he asked that his Jewish murderers be forgiven for martyring him.

It seems that Stephen’s case was a Sanhedrin trial which ended abruptly with a rebel beating unto death.  Jewish Christian Alfred Edersheim’s The Temple, ch. 3 “When the Lord Jesus and His martyr Stephen were before the Sanhedrin, in each case the sitting terminated in the rebels’ beating.”

Ac.8:1 “Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him [Stephen] to death.”  Saul/Paul and the Sanhedrin thought they’d judged and executed a blasphemy case.  They heard or witnessed the words about Jesus from Stephen’s own lips!  In their opinion, Jesus was a dead man and a false god.

Some of the proceedings at Stephen’s trial do seem to be in accordance with God’s Old Testament law.  After his conversion, in Php.3:5-6 Saul/Paul wrote of his earlier unconverted life. “As to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness of the Law, found blameless.”  And Paul’s own later self-defense in Ac.22:3, “I am a Jew born in Tarsus of Cilicia, brought up in Jerusalem at the feet of Gamaliél strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God”.

It’s unwonted that Saul the Pharisee (Ac.23:6) agreed with the hardline view of the Sadducean high priest (Ac.5:17, 8:1-3).  Saul’s esteemed teacher Gamaliel was a Pharisee with a tolerant approach toward Jewish Christian leaders, Ac.5:33-40!  If Saul had followed the precedent of his famous teacher, he wouldn’t have become their murderer!  Although the Sanhedrin & Saul/Paul perhaps thought they were upholding God’s injunctions in the judgment…their verdict was wrong.  Stephen wasn’t proclaiming a false god.  Christ was the God of Israel!  (see “Jesus Was The Old Testament God”.)

It seems the court ignored the Je.23:5-6 passage, where Messiah was prophesied to be both a descendant of David…and YHVH!  The Son of Man and Son of God!  And misinterpreted Ps.2:7. “The Lord said to Me, ‘You are My Son. Today I have begotten Thee.”  (Jesse, not the Lord, begat David, Ru.4:22.)

That was the Sanhedrin’s big mistake (aside from the false testimony of witnesses).  Stephen was really innocent of the blasphemy charge.  Jesus/Yeshúa isn’t a false god!  Actually it was the Sanhedrin who (indirectly) blasphemed in a sense…by denying that Jesus is the Son of the Most High God (Lk.1:32)!

Stephen died following his testimony about the living Christ.  Ac.8:2 “Devout men buried Stephen, and mourned deeply for him.”  He’d asked the Lord Jesus to receive his spirit (Ac.7:59).  In He.12:22-24 it is written of those who “have come to the heavenly Jerusalem, to myriads of angels, to the festal assembly of the church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, and to Jesus”.  Stephen asked that he too would be among the righteous with the Lord Jesus.  (see “Life and Death – for Saints” and “Spirits – Made by God in Light”.)

After Paul was converted, he must have been deeply affected in retrospect by his part in the stoning of Stephen.  Even Paul’s sermon as recorded in Ac.13:14-42, which includes some of Israel’s history, is somewhat reminiscent of Stephen’s final address in Acts 7.  And years later Paul himself would also be brought before the Sanhedrin (Ac.22:30–23:5)…according to the law (Ac.23:3).

Tradition says Paul was eventually martyred in Rome by Nero.  Around 66–67 AD, Paul wrote 2Ti.4:6 (perhaps the final chapter of all Paul’s epistles). “I am being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.”  v.17 previously he’d been delivered out of the “mouth of the lion”.  Rome is the composite fourth beast…Da.7:4, 7 and Re.13:1-2, “Its mouth was the mouth of a lion”.

Tradition says Peter was crucified upside-down, judging himself unworthy to die in the same manner Jesus had died.  ref Jn.21:18-19, 2Pe.1:14.  According to He.11:35-38, untold saints of Old Testament times suffered martyrdom; not renouncing their faith.  (also ref Foxe’s Book Of Martyrs.)

But for many of us Christians today, we’re called in our places of residence to live quiet and peaceable lives.  This is also good in God’s eyes.  Paul wrote in 1Ti.2:1-3, “That we may lead a tranquil and quiet life, in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.”  (Jesus the Savior is God.)  Also 1Th.4:11 “Aspire to lead a quiet life, minding your own business.”

Some are called to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in dangerous areas of the world, where they’ve suffered martyrdom.  Whatever our individual calling, the Lord will direct us in His will unto His Kingdom.  Paul concluded in 2Ti.4:18, “The Lord will deliver me from every evil work and will save me for His heavenly Kingdom; to whom be the glory to the ages of the ages! Amen.”

Lying – Ananias & Sapphira

An adage or maxim expresses a general truth.  Such as: Honesty is the best policy.  You reap what you sow (Ga.6:7).  What goes around comes around.  Your sin will find you out (Nu.32:23).

Actions and sins do have consequences.  Thankfully, it seems God is willing to hide some sins of a repentant heart.

Under stress or otherwise, we’ve all lied on occasion.  Paul admonished Christians in Col.3:9 (from Le.19:11), “Don’t lie to one another”.  Ps.119:163 “I hate and abhor lying, but Thy law do I love”

Lying takes various forms.  Maybe we wrongly coveted or stole something, and lied as a cover-up?  Or we boasted falsely of a gift or ability (Pr.25:14).  Maybe we then even tried to lie to God about it!  But that’s futile.  He.4:13 “There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to Him.”  God knows the intent of our heart.  2Ki.5:20-27 Elisha’s assistant Gehazí lied to greedily get some things from the Syrian general Naamán…but he got Naaman’s leprosy!  God knew Gehazi’s heart.

Lying can take the form of slander, misrepresentation of truth, exaggeration, deception, hypocrisy.  One lie may lead to another…and another…and another.  Becoming entangled in a growing web of lies.

God commanded Moses and ancient Israel in Ex.20:16. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”  This primarily refers to lying in court…a lying witness.  “In the mouth of two or three witnesses let every fact be established.” (De.19:15, Mt.18:16)  Pr.6:16-19 “There are six things the Lord hates, a lying tongue…hands that shed innocent blood, a false witness who utters lies….”  Not all lying is “false witness”.  They can differ.  Pr.14:5 “A faithful witness will not lie, but a false witness speaks lies.”  Ps.15:1, 4 here God was with that person who legally testified honestly to his own detriment.

Pr.19:5 “A false witness will not go unpunished.”  God even decreed that a false witness be punished as the accused would’ve been punished if found guilty, according to De.19:16-20. “If the witness has accused his brother falsely, then you will do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.”  The false witness shall suffer the penalty for the crime (instead of the accused).  This could even be death for a capital crime!  Later, the ruling of King Darius the Mede stretched this penalty.  Da.6:3-13, 24 “The king then gave orders, and they brought those men who had maliciously accused Daniel, and cast them, their children, and their wives into the lion’s den.”

Lying may or may not be a false testimony in court.  If a man lied about property in Moses’ day, the offender was required to make restitution to the victim, plus pay a fine of 20% of the property value (Le.6:1-7).  In addition, a trespass offering was required.  By this process, the offender’s sin was atoned for and he was forgiven.  If the offender didn’t confess and repay a theft before legal steps were taken, then Ex.22:1-ff stipulated he must pay back double the value or more, when convicted.

What if there’s extenuating circumstances?  Sarah was married to Abraham.  Abraham & Sarah withheld truth of this from Pharaoh (Ge.12:12-13) and king Abimélech (Ge.20:2).  Back then, adultery was considered worse than murder…those rulers greatly feared committing adultery!  If Abraham hadn’t said Sarah was just his sister, those rulers might have murdered Abraham…and still taken Sarah for a wife!  This is a case of ‘lying’ to protect a person from serious harm or death (Abraham).

And as a result of telling a half-truth…Abraham was blessed!  Ge.12:16 Pharaoh gave him many livestock plus male and female servants.  Similarly in Ge.20:14-16, “Abimelech took sheep and oxen and male and female servants and gave them to Abraham, and restored his wife Sarah to him”.

Jsh.2:3-6 Raháb lied to her king in Jericho to protect the Israelite spies’ whereabouts and further God’s purposes.  Consequently, Rahab was saved alive (Jsh.6:25) when God destroyed Jericho!  Abraham, Sarah and Rahab are all three noted in the ‘faith chapter’, in He.11:8, 11, 31, 39.  Also, in Ex.1:15-20 the midwives didn’t participate in Pharaoh’s infanticide of male Israelite newborns, and told a half-truth to Pharaoh.  God then blessed the midwives!

So it seems that a person’s ‘lie’ spoken outside of court to evil people or to non-believers actually could be spoken in faith.  Again, Moses and Paul instructed ancient Israelites and Christians accordingly to refrain from lying to one another.

Yet there is a scriptural account in Ac.4:32–5:11 where God put a husband & wife both to death after they lied (and it wasn’t false witness in court).  The Holy Spirit isn’t harsh or capricious, and doesn’t act on the whim of the moment.  Therefore why, or by what legal right, did God put Ananías & Sapphíra to death that very day…for lying to the Holy Spirit/God (Ac.5:3-4) about their property?!  And without trespass offerings as an option for them at the temple there in Jerusalem.

Perhaps God’s reaction against Ananias & Sapphira is disturbing or somewhat frightening to Christian readers because…we too have lied!  But their sin involved more than lying.

In Old Testament Israel there were 15–20 transgressions which (theoretically) got the death penalty.  Lying normally wasn’t punishable by death.  But sacrilegious irreverence to God brought death.

Le.10:1-2 for example. “Nadáb and Abihú [two sons of Aaron the priest] offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them.”  Also 2Sm.6:6-7, “Uzzáh reached out and touched the ark of God. And the anger of the Lord burned against Uzzah, and God struck him down there for his irreverence, and he died.”  In Ex.25:14 and Nu.7:9, God had given instructions about transporting the ark of God.  Nu.4:15 “That they not touch the holy objects and die.”  The Lord’s holiness and holy things weren’t to be treated as insignificant or commonplace!  Nadab & Abihu and Uzzah weren’t given opportunity to repent either.

Then there’s the matter of Achán at Jericho.  The lie of Ananias & Sapphira was a form of Achanism.  God commanded in De.7:25-26 that no one harbor value of/from an accursed thing which was devoted to destruction.  It was anáthema or under a ban, without hope of being redeemed.  Le.27:28-29 “Anything devoted to destruction [chérem Strongs h2764, Hebrew] is most holy to the Lord.”

The late Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, Dr. J.H. Hertz, identified three types of such devotions or bans…private, justice, war.  The ban on Jericho was the war type.  That city was anathema, devoted to God for destruction.

Ex.23:19 firstfruits of the Land belonged exclusively to God.  Jsh.5:10-13 Jericho was the first city the Israelites encountered in the Land.  De.13:12-18 were instructions regarding a city that became devoted to God, banned for utter destruction. De.13:17 “And nothing from that which is devoted [under the ban] shall cling to your hand.”  Then Jsh.6:17-21 “The city shall be devoted [accursed]. Only Rahab and those in her house shall live. Keep yourselves from the things under the ban, lest you covet them.”  v.24 they burned Jericho with fire.  Except its precious metals they put into God’s treasury.  It was devoted.

Jsh.7:1 LXX NETS “The sons of Israel committed a major offense and appropriated for themselves [Strongs g3557, Greek] part of what was devoted. And Achan took from what was devoted.”  v.10-26 Achan of the tribe of Judah kept valuables from a devoted city that was to be destroyed.  (Whereas later in Jsh.8:1-2 the booty from the city of Ái was shared.  Ai wasn’t the firstfruits of Canáan and not devoted to God.)  Jsh.7:25 so Achan was put to death for sacrilege (as Nadab & Abihu, and Uzzah).

The Greek term nosphízomai (g3557) was uncommon, used only in Jsh.7:1 LXX, Ac.5:2-3 (Ananias), Ti.2:10, 2Mc.4:32.  It meant to misappropriate or set apart for one’s own use.  Dr. Spiros Zódiates said the term was “applied by Greek writers to public treasures”.  e.g. Athénaeus: Pilfering gold to the god Apollo.  2Mc.4:32 (ca 175 BC) “Meneláus pilfered [g3557] some of the gold vessels from the Temple.”

So Achan and his family were put to death, as ordered by the Lord (Jsh.7:15).

The sin of Ananias & Sapphira was analogous to Achan’s sin.  Barnes Notes Jsh.7:1 “The accursed thing, that which had been devoted. Achan in diverting any of these devoted things to his own purposes, committed the sin of sacrilege, that of Ananias & Sapphira.”  How might Achan’s transgression typify that of Ananias & Sapphira?

Mal.4:4-6 Malachi prophesied that Elijah would come…and if their hearts didn’t turn to the Lord, then a ban of destruction (h2764) for the Land.

Lk.1:13, 17 John the Baptizer came as the prophesied Elijah, to return the peoples’ hearts to God.  Jesus said of John the Baptist in Mt.11:13-14, “This is Elijah, who was to come”.  (see the topic “Rebirth to Physical Life”.)  But most hearts in Jerusalem & Judea didn’t return or repent to their God!

Consequently, the devoted city came under the ban, as prophesied in Malachi!

Jesus lamented in Mt.23:37-38, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets. Your house is being left desolate.”  Jesus continued in Mt.24:1-2, saying the temple buildings would be destroyed.  Furthermore, in Lk.19:41-44 Jesus wept over Jerusalem and said it would be razed to the ground, because they didn’t recognize His visitation!  As a matter of historical record (e.g. Josephus), that ban of destruction upon Jerusalem occurred in 70 AD!  And the site was indeed leveled to a plain (by 135 AD), as Jesus said!

In Mt.19:21-22, Jesus told the rich young ruler in Judea, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor”.  The man owned much property.  That land would later have little value to them in the siege of Jerusalem.  Ac.2:44-46 Jewish Christians in Jerusalem “Began selling their property and possessions, sharing them with all”.  They believed Jesus’ prophecy…destruction was coming!  Peter then said in Ac.3:6, “I don’t possess silver and gold”.  Regarding the believers in Ac.4:32-37, “All who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sale to the apostles”.  This sell-off occurred in the area of Jerusalem/Judea…doomed to destruction, according to Jesus.

Lk.21:20-22 “Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.”  Traditionally the Jerusalem saints made the flight to Pella in 66 AD, taking with them the spoils of doomed Jerusalem.  This is reminiscent of Ex.12:36, when Moses and their ancestors left with the spoils of the destroyed Egypt.

After the Jewish leaders blasphemed and murdered the Son of God, Jerusalem was devoted to destruction (cf. De.13:13-18).

Again, Ananias & Sapphira wrongly coveted and lied about property.  This normally wasn’t punishable by death, according to God’s law.  Yet the Lord had said to Joshua & Israel in Jsh.7:12, “I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the accursed from among you”.

Ananias & Sapphira likewise must die, as Achan must die (Jsh.7:25).  The sold property of Ananias & Sapphira in Jerusalem was devoted to God.

God’s character is just!  His law is just!  God doesn’t violate His own word and put someone to death for a non-capital offense!

Were Ananias & Sapphira (secretly) Judaizers who disbelieved the words of Jesus and Malachi, that the Land would be destroyed if the people didn’t repent?  Or perhaps Ananias & Sapphira thought they could re-purchase Jerusalem property later in a windfall-type deal?  Whatever, they greedily retained value which was devoted to God for the royal priesthood (Ac.5:2, 1Pe.2:9).  Similarly, Achan retained value which should have gone into God’s treasury (Jsh.6:19).  The Lord didn’t just impulsively smite them in a fit of anger because they told one lie about the proceeds of a piece of property they’d owned!

I’m not defending lying.  Jn.8:44 Jesus said the devil is the father of lies in general.  The serpent lied to Eve in Ge.3:4. “You shall not surely die.”  De.18:20 lying prophets and those who prophesied in the name of other gods were to be put to death.  Pr.19:9, Re.21:8 habitual liars (including the devil, Re.20:10) go into the lake of fire!  This is the ultimate consequence of lying (unrepented)!

In contrast is He.6:18. “It is impossible for God to lie.”  Also Paul said in Ti.1:2, “God cannot lie”.  Lying isn’t in God’s character.  And in Ep.4:25, Paul said of us in the church (quoting the Old Greek/LXX Zec.8:16), “Speak truth each of you with his neighbor”.

However, extraordinary circumstances of not telling the whole truth or telling a half-truth to heathens or evil men or enemies…may protect someone from needless harm or can advance God’s will!

The Lord commanded ancient Israel to exterminate the seven totally corrupt enemy “nations” of the Land of Canaan in De.7:1-ff.  Yet Jesus said to love your neighbor and your enemies (Mt.5:43-44).  And to treat Samaritans as their neighbor (Lk.10:29-37).

Nevertheless, for example, to divulge (under duress) the identity of a Christian brother/neighbor to radical Muslims who will kill him isn’t showing love to either the neighbor or those Muslims!  Better to tell a half-truth or lie to help keep our neighbor/brother alive…as did Abraham, Rahab, the midwives of Ex.1.  (Military ethics for Christians who may kill national enemies is beyond the scope of this topic. see “War & Killing and the Bible Christian”.)

To bring this closer to home…we need God’s continual mercy (e.g. in areas where we may be weak).  Though we’ve wrongly lied occasionally, don’t let lying become habitual.  We’re to repent and confess.  1Jn.1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins.”

The account of Achan and Ananias & Sapphira shows that the Lord surely isn’t to be trifled with!  We should have a right fear of God, fearing to disobey Him.  It’s not a dread…but more a reverence, an awe!  Ps.25:11-14 “Pardon my iniquity. Who is the man who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way he should choose. His soul will abide in good. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him.”  And Ps.33:18 “The eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy.”

Finally, a curse was to be upon the man who rebuilt Jericho (Jsh.6:26, 1Ki.16:34).  But unlike Jericho…Zec.14:10-11 “Jerusalem will rise. And people will live in it, and there will be no more curse [h2764], for Jerusalem will dwell in security.”  Jerusalem will be no longer devoted to destruction!

And unlike Achan and Ananias & Sapphira who wrongly coveted, stole devoted forbidden things, and lied…Ps.84:11 “No good thing will God withhold from them that walk uprightly.”  Thank You, Lord!

Evangelism in the Apostolic Church

Very few scriptures in the Old Testament (OT) directly refer to God as a Father, except metaphorically as one of many titles.  The God Being instructed Moses to tell the Israelites His Name in Ex.3:13-15. “I AM who I AM…this is My Name forever.”  Who is this God, this I AM?

In Jn.8:56-58 & Jn.18:2-8, Jesus identified Himself as I AM (and His hearers fell to the ground)!  Furthermore, in the song of Moses, De.32:3-4 “Ascribe greatness to our God! The Rock! His work is perfect!”  In 1Co.10:1-4, the apostle Paul identified the Rock. “That Rock was Christ.”  (see the topic “Jesus Was the Old Testament God”.)

Without citing more passages here to that effect, the executive spokesman God of the OT, the great I AM and ‘Rock Of Ages’…was God the primordial Word (Jn.1:1).  Later, ancient Israel’s God became Jesus Christ in the flesh (Jn.1:14).  We don’t directly know Jesus’ Father God from reading the OT.  Rather, when the Word came to earth as Jesus, He revealed the Father (Jn.1:18).

But the disbelieving Jewish religious leaders indicted their God come in the flesh, and Roman soldiers crucified Him.  Yet Father God resurrected Jesus/the Word from the dead.  Now Jesus rules eternally beside His Father (Ep.1:20-22) in the Kingdom of Heaven or Kingdom of God (KOG).

The Lord destined for humanity to receive salvation, to learn of and become part of that KOG.  That is God’s grand purpose for which we were born.  How does humanity learn of His purpose?

One primary means is through Christian evangelism.  The gospel (euangélion Strongs g2098, Greek noun) about His Kingdom will grow to eventually encompass the earth.  Is.9:7 “There will be no end to the increase of His government and peace…over His Kingdom to establish it and uphold it.”

The New Testament (NT) begins with Jesus’ ancestry and His human birth.  Later is the account of His adult water baptism by John the Baptizer (Lk.3:16, 21-22).  After that we read where Jesus went about teaching, healing, delivering from demons, and preaching the KOG in Galilee…Mk.1:14-15, 32-34, Lk.4:31-37.  The gospel or good news began in Galilee.  And on into Judea, Lk.4:43-44.

Lk.6:12-19 contains the names of the first 12 disciples (apostles) who Jesus chose, as He spent all night in prayer.  Perhaps He spent one hour praying for each (cf. Jn.11:9)?  A significant parallel…there had originally been 12 tribes of Israel.  In Re.21:10-14, the names of the 12 tribes of Israel and the names of the 12 apostles are written on the gates and foundation stones of the holy city New Jerusalem.

The 12 disciples/apostles were all Galileans except for Judas Iscariot, likely from Cariot in Judea.  Although all 12 were Jewish, they had their differences.  Several were fishermen.  Matthew the Levite was a government tax collector (Mt.9:9).  Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus.  (see “Jesus’ Twelve Apostles”.)

Then in Lk.9:1-2, Christ sent forth the 12 to heal, deliver and proclaim the KOG.  Jesus Himself continued to do the same.  Lk.9:6 they went among the villages preaching the gospel.  This resulted in more disciples for Jesus.  The Kingdom was beginning to slowly increase, as a mustard seed, Mt.13:31-32.  (A mustard seed is smaller and hotter than other seeds.)  also see “Kingdom of God”.

Lk.10:1-11 Jesus then sent out 70 others as missionaries to heal, deliver, and advance the Kingdom.  In Nu.11:16, Moses had selected 70 elders from among the Israelites to assist him.  (Jesus was a Prophet like unto Moses, De.18:15 & Ac.7:37-38.)  Jn.4:1-2 Jesus’ disciples water baptized more than John did.

Luke wrote in a beautiful Greek to Theóphilus, a Greek-speaker (Lk.1:3).  Luke quotes the Jewish old Greek version of the OT (as did the other NT writers).  The old Greek became the Septúagint.  It made God’s word readable and understandable in the Grecian and Roman Empires.  Not coincidentally, the Septuagint is also known as the LXX.  In Roman numerals, LXX = 70.

Lk.10:17 the 70 missionaries were given power over demons in Jesus’ Name.  They were to travel along (v.4), living at the same standard as those who housed them, and weren’t to keep seeking better accommodations (v.7-8).  These 70 prepared the way in towns Jesus would Himself visit.

Mt.4:23-25 as the 70 prepared the way for His visits, multitudes from all over the Holy Land came to hear Jesus.  The good news about Jesus and His healings & miracles spread beyond the Jordan River, to the Decápolis and into Syria!  Also into Samaria (Jn.4:39-42).

Again, this Jesus, the great I AM/the Rock of OT Israel come in the flesh, was indicted by the rulers of His own people.  Around 30 AD or so, the Jewish religious leaders set Him up for crucifixion in Jerusalem at the hands of the Romans.  Jesus died.

But Father God raised Him from the dead (Ac.2:24)!  After Jesus rose, His disciples saw Him alive.  They knew He was risen!  In Jn.20:20-22, Jesus gave them a foretaste of the Holy Spirit (HS) to come.

After Christ’s resurrection, in Mk.16:15-19 He commissioned His apostles to go preach the good news to all the known inhabited earth.  Attesting miracles would accompany true believers.  Also Mt.28:18-20 records where Jesus commissioned them to go teach and make other disciples in all nations.  Jesus said in Mt.16:18, “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it”.  (also see “Church Structure and Member Functions”.)  This is to be done without Jesus physically on earth.

Initially they were comparatively powerless without Jesus on earth.  But during the 40 days while Jesus was appearing to them after His resurrection…Jesus promised they would soon be baptized with the HS, Ac.1:1-5.  Ac.1:8-9 the HS would empower them to be Jesus’ witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and far distant areas (in that order).  Jesus Himself appeared to over 500 people post-resurrection, mostly during the 40-day period (1Co.15:6).  Ac.1:15 Peter is with 120 believers in Jerusalem before Péntecost.

Ac.2:1-12 then they were filled with the HS (as tongues of fire)!  They suddenly received spiritual power & gifts, and boldness.  (see “Spiritual Gifts and Tongues”.)  This wonder was a great sign to the many Jews from near and far who’d come to Jerusalem for Pentecost!  v.14 Peter stood up boldly with the 11 disciples/apostles.  v.38 then Peter proclaimed, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”.  3,000 persons were baptized that day, v.41!  (see “Baptisms and Washings”.)

So the gospel/good news was proclaimed in Jerusalem.  Ac.6:7 “A great many [Levitical] priests became obedient to the faith.”  Also those pilgrim Jews who’d come to Jerusalem for Pentecost returned to their respective lands and told of what they’d seen & heard!

In Ac.8:1-5, the gospel spread to Judea and Samaria (initially not by the first apostles, v.1.)  The Samaritan people practiced physical circumcision, ate clean, and kept the 7^th day sabbath (as did Jews).  Phillip too had been empowered by the HS, and many Samaritans believed and received the Spirit when Peter & John came to them (v.12-17).  Philip preached Jesus to the Ethiopian Jew or proselyte who’d been appointed a court eunuch, and water baptized him (v.34-40).  Philip continued to preach the gospel from Ázotus (the OT Ashdód) to Caesárea, 60 miles north of Jerusalem.

Then in Acts 10, God revealed to Peter in a vision that the gospel of Christ is also for uncircumcised gentiles.  They too can be saved, in their respective countries!

The inclusion of gentiles opened the door for tremendous growth for the KOG (e.g. Ac.28:28-31).  Many converted gentiles had been God-fearers (e.g. Ac.10:2) who’d frequented the periphery of synagogues on the sabbath…believing the God of the Jews truly is God.

Ac.11:19-21 in Antioch of Syria, a large number of Jews and gentiles believed and turned to the Lord in that ‘3^rd city of the Empire’.  Ac.15:35 Paul, Barnábas and many others taught & preached the word of the Lord in Antioch.

The gospel spread to other cities throughout the Roman Empire, as the KOG kept increasing (Is.9:7).

Php.1:14 in the Roman garrison of Phílippi, many brethren boldly spoke the word of God without fear.  In 2Ti.2:2, Paul exhorted Timothy who was at Ephesus. “The things which you heard from me, these entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”  Teaching the Lord’s salvation, His way of life, and how to love God and one’s neighbor.  The gospel of the Kingdom as a mustard seed was taken to the nations by believing individuals whom the HS gifted.

Personal evangelism (as done by those who have that gift) is a key to a living and growing church.

Col.1:18-23 Paul wrote, that by the mid-60s AD “The hope of the gospel was proclaimed in all creation under heaven”.  It had been preached throughout the Roman Empire and much of the known world.  To both Jews and gentiles.  God was reconciling to Himself people from all nations and cultures, as they became believers in salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus the Son of God.

Over the centuries AD, the gospel has continued to be preached to the nations, on all continents.  In the nearly 2,000 years since the Apostolic Age of the church and the Bible canon ended (latter 1^st century), Christianity has grown astonishingly!  Of the estimated 7.0 billion people on earth today, 2.2 billion believe Jesus is the Lord and Savior of their life.  It is estimated that there are approximately 160 million Christians in China; most are in the tens of thousands of house churches not registered with the Chinese government TSPM.  God’s Kingdom government is increasing greatly!

As part of His ‘body’ and church at large, Christians become willing to prioritize Kingdom values above all nationalism of men.  And above cultural traditions and even religious traditions (not in God’s word) which may retard Kingdom growth and peace (Is.9:7).  (also see “Governmental Loyalty for Christians” and “Doctrinal Disunity Impacts Evangelism”.)

The first disciples/apostles saw the risen Lord with their own eyes.  They believed…and became personal witnesses of His resurrection!  However, Jesus said to Thomas and those disciples in Jn.20:29-31, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who didn’t see, and yet believed.”

Those things about Jesus, what He said and what He did, were recorded in the NT by the apostles John & Matthew, and others.  So that we who didn’t see the resurrected Jesus, and the whole world since then…may believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God…and receive eternal life in His Name!  Jesus is Lord (Ac.2:36)!  Do you too believe?