Patriarchs’ Bronze Age Languages

This topic discusses languages of the Bronze Age (approximately 3300–1200 BC) in the Ancient Near East (ANE), relative to the time of the Biblical patriarchs.

We don’t know what the language of Adam was (cf. Ge.2:19-20).  Many historians think Sumérian is the oldest written language.  Sumerian is called an isolated language, with no ancestor tongue.  But loan words have been identified in Sumerian writings.  So Sumerian as the first language is questioned.  Encyclopaedia Brittanica “The Sumerian language…first attested about 3100 BC in S. Mesopotamia.”

Wikipedia: Writing System “The Sumerian archaic cúneiform script closely followed by the Egyptian híeroglyphs are generally considered the earliest writing systems, both emerging out of their ancestral proto-literate symbol systems from 3400 to 3200 BC with earliest coherent texts from about 2600 BC.”

Dating from pre-3000 BC Súmer, pictograph was pictures that represent a word or idea.  Cuneiform script was wedge-shaped marks or symbols, on clay tablets.  Cuneiform was adapted from pictograph.

The sons of the patriarch Noah were Shem, Ham and Jápheth (Ge.9:18).  The family survived the Flood.  The Septúagint/LXX dates Noah’s Flood circa (c) 3200 BC.  After the Flood, his descendants migrated from old Armenia (Ge.8:4), to Shinár (Ge.10:10), and so on.  The Ge.10–11 account, with the tower of Babél zíggurat, coincides with the development of language families from a primitive root language.

Post-Flood, Ge.11:1-9 “The whole earth was of one language [lip, shore, Strongs h8193 Hebrew]. They found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said, ‘Let us build a city & tower whose top is in heaven.’ Its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language [lip/shore], and scattered them over the whole earth.”  Wikipedia: Tower of Babel “The Akkadian name of the city was Babilim, meaning ‘gate of God.”  Shinar (Sumer, or Sínjar?) was an area in Mesopotamia (Ac.2:9, 7:2; it included ancient Babylonia).  Shinar means ‘two rivers’.  Mesopotamia (Greek) means ‘land between the rivers’, the Tigris and Euphrates.  Mankind spread out over the land; other languages emerged.

Language families developed through Noah’s descendants (ref Ge.10:1, 5, 20, 31).  Carlos Quiles From Adamic or the Language of the Garden of Eden Until the Tower of Babel “The language spoken by Noah and his descendants, whether the original Adamic language or the derived Chaldáic [?], split into 70 or 72 languages, according to the different traditions.”  People dispersed upon the earth through extended family lines, clans, languages.  It is said that 14 major language families exist today (e.g. Indo-European, Áfro-Asiátic the oldest).  Dialects developed within the major language groups/tree models as humanity spread geographically; numerous dialects of descent are within each.

Ge.10:6 “The sons of Ham were Cush, Mízraim [Egypt], Phut and Canáan.”  The Egyptian people descended from Ham.  Ge.10:22 “The sons of Shem were Elám, Asshúr, Arpachshad, Lud and Arám.  These were grandsons of Noah.  Semític languages are named from Shem.  (The Aramaic language would be named from Aram.)  Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 1:6:4 “Elam…the Elamites, ancestors of the Persians [Iranians]. Asshur lived at the city Nineveh, and named his subjects Assyrians. Arpachshad named…the Chaldéans. Aram…called Syrians. Lud…Lydians [W Turkey].”  (see the topics “Aramaic in the Bible” and “Chronology: Septuagint versus Masoretic Text”.)  Aram & Arpachshad were brothers.

Wikipedia: Arpachshad “Arpachshad was understood by many Jewish and Muslim scholars [pre-1920] to be an area in northern Mesopotamia. This led to the identification of Arpachshad with Urfa-Kasid, a land associated with the Khaldis.”  Wikipedia: Chalybes “The Chalybes and Chaldoi were…peoples living in N. Anatolia [Turkey]. Their territory was known as Chaldia.”  (Later they’d move south.)

Ge.10:24 LXX “Arphaxad begot Kaínan (not Canaan), Kainan begot Shélah, Shelah begot Éber.”  (The Hebrew people would be named after Eber, Josephus ibid.)  Eber was the great-grandson (or grandson) of Arphaxad.

Sumerian of Iraq is an extinct linguistic isolate.  At Ur in S Mesopotamia, the writings on the mud-brick walls of the Great Ziggurat (2000–2100 BC) are Sumerian cuneiform.  The ancient Elamite language of SW Iran, dating from c 2600 BC and now extinct, is also considered a language isolate.  Although Elamite was named from Shem’s son Elam (Ge.10:22), it isn’t considered a Semitic language.

There were multilinguals in Mesopotamia, speaking Sumerian, Akkádian…then other dialects.  Akkadian is an extinct E Semitic Afro-Asiatic language.  Ge.10:10 Akkád was in or near the land of Shinar (the exact location hasn’t been discovered).  Akkadian names are seen in Sumerian writings, dated c 2500 BC.  Wikipedia: Akkadian Empire “Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere around 2000 BC.”  Near the commencement of the Middle Bronze Age.

Ge.11:10-27 Abrám descended from Arphaxad.  v.31 Abraham (born c 2100 BC) likely came from Ur/Urfa/SanliUrfa/Edessa, or Urkesh, in N Mesopotamia.  He migrated approx 25 miles S to Harrán (Akkadian ‘Harránu’, ‘crossroads’) in far S Turkey, 10 miles above the N Syrian border.  The region of Aram in Upper Mesopotamia.  Ancient Urkesh (Tel Mozan today) in NE Syria was 100+ miles E of Harran.  Abram later would migrate SSW through Damascus; cf. Ge.15:2 his “Eliézer of Damascus”.

Ge.11:16-27 the names of early Hebrews (descendants of Eber and ancestors of Abraham) are seen in the names of towns located in the vicinity of Harran, Turkey.  Péleg, the city of Paliga; Serúg, the city of Sarugi; Nahór, Nakhur in the valley; Abraham’s father Térah, Til-Turakhi (‘mound of Terah’).

Rudolph Klein Abraham’s Chaldean Origins and the Chaldee Language “He must have been literate & fluent in Sumerian, Akkadian, various other Semitic languages (e.g. Amorite), probably Egyptian as a trade language. His descendants would adopt the language of…Canaan [Phoenícian/old Hebrew].”

Mark D. Kaplan The Languages of the Bible “One of the earliest ancient cities was Akkad in Mesopotamia (Ge.10:10). Perhaps Abraham originally spoke an Akkadian dialect in Ur. Abraham went south to Canaan…the Canaanites were descendants of Ham [Ge.10:1, 6 Noah’s son]. In Canaan Abraham picked up the local language. His clan’s version of Canaanite became known as Hebrew [much later].”  (Hebrew is classed as a Canaanite NW Semitic Afro-Asiatic language.)

Eblaite, named after the city Ebla (Tel Márdikh today] in N Syria, is an extinct E Semitic Afro-Asiatic language dating from the (latter) 2000s BC.  Ebla was approx 90 miles SW of Harran & 190 miles N of Damascus.  Wikipedia: Ebla [3000–1600 BC] “At its greatest extent, Ebla controlled an area half the size of modern Syria, from Ursaum in the north [S Turkey] to around Damascus in the south, and from Phoenícia and the coastal mountains in the west to Haddu in the east. It is probable the inhabitants of 3^rd kingdom Ebla [2000–1600 BC] were predominantly Amorites, as was most of Syria at that time.”

Wikipedia: Eblaite Language “Similarity to Hebrew, Ugarític, or Phoenician.”  Eblaite is an E Semitic sister language to Akkadian.  Jeff Benner The Archives of Ebla and the Bible “The tablets were written [2300 BC at Ebla] with a cuneiform script, like Úgarit [N Syrian coastal city]. The Eblaite language shares many similarities to the Hebrew language.”  Kevin Drendel The Ebla Tablets Confirm Biblical Accounts “The tablets include Sumerian Eblahite vocabularies with thousands of translated words. Also an ancient language…related to [the later] Hebrew and Phoenician.”

Abram was also probably familiar with Hurrian, an extinct N Mesopotamia language dating from 2300 BC.  And Elamite (cuneiform).  Ge.14:1-17 Abram defeated Chedorlaómer, the powerful king of Elam.  Bible patriarchs knew Akkadian, some Eblaite & Hurrian.  And Amorite too, an extinct NW Semitic Afro-Asiatic language (and an ancestor of Ugaritic?).  Ge.10:15-16 the Amorites descended from Ham’s son Canaan.  Abram dwelt in the plain of his ally Mamré the Amorite (Ge.14:13), near Hebron.

Ge.12:10-20 while in Egypt, Abram perhaps spoke Middle Egyptian (an Afro-Asiatic language) with Pharaoh.  Ge.20:1-18 Abraham and an ancient Abimélech, king of Gerár (capital city), dialogued SE of Gaza (Ge.21:32-34).  There they possibly spoke an early form of Proto-Sináitic?  So-called “Philistine” territory was the SW coast of Canaan.  Those Philistines descended from Mizraim/Egypt, son of Ham.  Ge.10:13-14 “Mizraim begot Pathrúsim and Caslúhim, from whom came the Philistines, and Caphtorím.”  Josephus op.cit. 1:6:2 “All the children of Mizraim, eight in number, possessed the country from Gaza to Egypt; though it retained the name of one only, the Philistim.”  Ge.21:34 “Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines many days.”  Gill Exposition “For many years.”

Later the Israelites would say of their ancestor in De.26:5, “My father was a wandering Araméan [Arammíy h761, Syrian]”.  Referring to Abraham or Jacob.  Ge.14:13 “Abram the Hebrew” (Ibríy h5680) and grandson Jacob were from Eber’s line.  Abraham and Jacob (born c 1950 BC) had spent years in N Syria; both would have known Akkadian, Amorite, and Jacob the developing Proto-Aramaic.

Abraham told his servant, Ge.24:1-4 “Don’t take a wife for my son from the Canaanites, among whom I live; but go to my country to my relatives and take a wife for Isaac.”  v.10 “He went to Arám-of-the-two-rivers, the city of Nahór.”  Wikipedia: Aramaic “Ancient Aram…Syria”.  The city of Abraham’s brother Nahor was in N Mesopotamia, Syria-Turkey, 400 miles distant.  The servant brought back Rebekah for Isaac.  Ge.25:20 “Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuél the Aramean of Paddán-Arám, the sister of Labán the Aramean [Arammiy].”  Ge.22:20-23 Bethuel, the son of Nahor, was Abraham’s nephew.  90 years later, Ge.28:5 “Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-Aram, to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean.”  A form of primitive Aramaic was likely the dialect at the ‘plain of Aram’.  Jacob brought his wives Leah & Rachel from the old country to the Land of Canaan.

Laban was an Aramean.  Pre-Aramaic and pre-Hebrew are reflected in the same verse in Ge.31:43-48. “They took stones and made a heap, and ate there. Laban called it Jegár sahaduthá, but Jacob called it Galéed.”  They made a “heap of witness” c 1865 BC at Mizpáh of Gilead, E of the Jordan River.  Laban called the memorial by a proto-Aramaic name, but Jacob called it by a precursor of Hebrew.  Barnes Notes “Here is the first specimen of Aramaic, as distinguished from Hebrew.”  Jacob would’ve learned both dialects in Canaan, Proto-Canaanite pre-Hebrew and his mother’s primitive Paleo-Syrian.

Codex 99 Proto-Sinaitic “Around 1900 BC the Proto-Sinaitic script began to appear in Egypt, the Sinai and the Levánt. Associated with hieroglyphic or hierátic signs. It was adopted by the Canaanites (hence Proto-Canaanite) and later by the Phoenicians.”  Omniglot: Proto-Sinaitic/Proto-Canaanite “Proto-Canaanite is a version of the Proto-Sinaitic script as used in Canaan, modern Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and parts of western Syria. It is also used to refer to an early version of the Phoenician script as used before 1050 BC, or an ancestor of Phoenician.”  Phoenicia was a 150-mile coastal region, Lebanon today.  (cf. Mk.7:26 “The woman was a Syrian-Phoenician.”)  Phoenicia included the cities of Tyre, Byblos, Sidon.  Ge.10:15 Sidón was the firstborn son of Canaan.

Ge.40:15 Jacob’s son Joseph was from the “land of the Hebrews”, peoples racially disliked by the Egyptians (Ge.43:32).  Descendants of Eber lived in N Syria and then Canaan.  After Pharaoh made Joseph a ruler in Egypt, Jacob/Israel and his sons’ families moved from Canaan to Egypt c 1827 BC.  see “Chronology: Abraham to the Exodus”.  Ge.42:23 an interpreter was necessary, since the Middle Egyptian language and the Proto-Canaanite (and the Akkadian of the Old Assyrian period) differed.

Joseph died in Egypt c 1757 BC.  The Amorite Hammurabi (1810-1750 BC) wrote his famous law Code between 1755–1750 BC in Akkadian cuneiform text at the ancient Babylon city-state.  He was the 6^th king of the First Babylonian Empire (1894-1595 BC), ruling Mesopotamia.  (Later, after Israel exited Egypt, two Amorite kings in NE Canaan c 1575 BC were Sihon and Og. ref De.31:4.)

While in Egypt, the descendants of Jacob/Israel became slaves and learned Middle Egyptian.  Ac.7:22 “Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians; he was mighty in words and deeds.”  Ex.2:16-19 Reuél’s daughters (1600s BC) in the land of Midián thought Moses was Egyptian, from his speech & dress.  Moses spent years in Midian near Mt Sinai, where he was called by God (Ex.3:1-ff).

Ex.31:18 after the Israelite exodus from Egypt, the Decalogue at Mt Sinai was written by the finger of God.  In Canaano-Akkadian, Proto-Sinaitic/Canaanite script, Eblaite, hieroglyphic or hieratic scripts?  The Lord’s Old Covenant too.  F.F. Bruce Who Wrote Genesis? “A man [Moses] ‘learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians’ would have been conversant with the Egyptian hieroglyphic and hieratic.”

John C Lennox Seven Days That Divide the World, p.126 “The scribal use of cuneiform script spread from Mesopotamia as far as Canaan, Hazor [in Upper Galilee], and even Hebron [between Jerusalem and Beershéba] by the 17^th century BC.”

In the Land of Canaan after 215 years in Egypt, the Israelites/‘mixed multitude’ (Ex.12:37-38) of 1550 BC likely took on Proto-Canaanite.

Andre H. Roosma The Written Language of Abraham, Moses and David “The Paleo-Hebrew script developed from a script that was used in the W Semitic area during the 2^nd millennium BC. It is often referred to as Proto-Canaanite or Proto-Sinaitic script.”  The Israelites would then use the developing Old/Paleo Hebrew (and Phoenician) in the Land of Canaan.

The Amarna Letters (1360-1332 BC) are 382 tablets found in Upper Egypt, but written in Akkadian cuneiform script (not in Egyptian).  They’re correspondence between the kings of Canaanite cities and Pharaoh.  Wikipedia: Amarna Letters “The letters, though written in Akkadian, are heavily colored by the mother tongue of their writers, who probably spoke an early form of Proto-Canaanite.”  Not long before the time of Gideon in the book of Judges (6:11-ff).  see “Chronology: the Exodus to Samuel”.

There’s no indication that Paleo-Hebrew was spoken in Mesopotamia.  Cambridge Bible Ge.11:1 “That Hebrew was the primitive language….has been disproved by the scientific comparative study of languages, and of Hebrew and the Semitic languages in particular.”  Wikipedia: Canaanite Languages “Hebrew, Phoenician…derived from the Proto-Canaanite alphabet to record their writings.”

That brings us to the approaching end of the ANE Bronze Age, c 1200 BC.  Further archaeological findings may bring to light other ancient dialects and/or revisions to those discussed here in this topic.

The Paleo-Hebrew (Old Hebrew alphabet) script would become the language of south Canaan.  Is.19:18 “language of Canaan”.  Language historians say the Phoenician language was spoken in NW Canaan.  Old Hebrew and Phoenician were very similar; both contained the same 22 letters.  (Aramaic too has 22.)  Wikipedia: Paleo-Hebrew Alphabet “Like the Phoenician alphabet, it is a continuation of the Proto-Canaanite script, which was used throughout Canaan in the Late Bronze Age. There is no difference in Paleo-Hebrew vs Phoenician letter shapes.”

For more on Aramaic & Hebrew in the ensuing centuries of the Iron Age, see “Aramaic in the Bible”.

Paul the Apostle (4) – Discrepancies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Mountaintop Experiences With God

Though God is with us Christians down in the figurative valleys of our lives, we long for those rarefied mountaintop experiences with Him.  Those days, hours or minutes when the Lord’s Presence seems so real, so close to us!  This topic is a revelation from October 2022.

In the pages of the Bible, we read of literal mountaintop experiences that saints of old had with God.

Let’s begin with Noah.  As the Noachian Flood subsided, Ge.8:4 the ark settled “on the mountains [har Strongs h2022, Hebrew] of Ararát” in old Armenia.  After exiting the ark, Noah worshiped God on the mountain.  Ge.8:20-21 “Noah built an altar to the Lord [YHVH h3068], he took of every clean animal and clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.”  Ge.9:1-ff God blessed Noah, and then hung His unstrung bow in the clouds, rainbow covenanting He would never again bring such a Flood.

Abraham had more than one literal mountaintop encounter with God.  When Abrám came into the land of Canáan, he surveyed the Land.  Ge.12:8 “He proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethél and pitched his tent…there he built an altar to YHVH and called upon the name of YHVH.”  Abram worshiped there.  ‘Bethel’ means ‘House of God’.  It was situated 10 miles N of Jerusalem in the territory that’d later be allotted to the Israelite tribe of Ephráim (Jsh.16:1, 5).  After Abram’s sojourn in Egypt, he returned to the sanctuary near Bethel and again worshiped the Lord at the altar (Ge.13:1-4).

In Ge.22:1-18, Abraham is on Mt Moriáh (v.2, 14).  There the Lord promised him, v.17-18 “I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of heaven. And in your seed [or offspring] all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”  YHVH so blessed Abraham on Mt Moriah!  In Ga.3:16, the apostle Paul tied that “seed/offspring” to Jesus Christ.

Moses had a mountaintop experience with God at the burning bush in Ex.3:1-6. “Moses was pasturing the flock of his father-in-law Jethró, the priest of Midián. Moses led the flock and came to Horéb, the mountain of God.”  Midian was S of Israel, in the NW Arabian peninsula E of the Gulf of Áqaba.  There YHVH made Himself known to Moses!  Barnes Notes Ex.3:1 “Horeb, a name given to the northern part of the Sináitic range.”  Bible historians think Horeb and Mt Sinai: were two names for the same sacred mountain (cf. Ex.3:1, 12, 19:18, De.4:15, Ex.31:18, 1Ki.8:9); or they were twin peaks in the same range; or one was the name of the entire range and the other was one peak in it.

Following the exodus of Israel from Egypt, Moses returned to Mt Sinai.  Ex.19:18-20 “Mt Sinai was covered with smoke, because YHVH descended upon it in fire; the whole mountain quaked violently. The Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.”  This was the great encounter where the Lord Christ told Moses His Ten Commandments/Decalogue/Testimony for His people!  We can only imagine how Moses must have felt atop the mountain!  Perhaps a minor earthquake occurred to signify that awesome event and the Presence of God to the people below.

Moses would again go up Mt Sinai, Ex.33:18-23.  Then YHVH said in Ex.34:1-8, “Come up in the morning to Mt Sinai and present yourself to Me on the top of the mountain”.  Ex.34:27-30 “The skin of Moses’ face shone because of his speaking with Him.”  After fasting for 40 days on the mountain in the Lord’s Presence, Moses’ face had become so radiant that the people then feared to come near him!

In Jsh.8:30-35, Moses’ successor Joshua was at Mt Ebál in the Promised Land. “Joshua built an altar to YHVH the God of Israel, in Mt Ebal. They offered burnt offerings to YHVH and sacrificed peace offerings. And he wrote there on stones a copy of the law of Moses.”  Joshua’s actions fulfilled the instructions of De.27:1-8.  There on stones in the Land, the Lord’s precepts could be read & understood.

Some Bible historians think only the Ten Commandments were inscribed on those plastered memorial stones.  Others think the inscription consisted of only the blessings & curses that are contained in the Law; not the entire Toráh/Péntateuch.  However, a copy of the earlier 1750 BC Code of Hammurábi’s 282 laws contains 4,130 lines of Akkádian cúneiform text all engraved on a 7-ft tall basalt stéle.

Mt Zión too is called God’s mountain.  Ps.48:1-2 “Great is the Lord. In the city [Jerusalem] of our God, His holy mountain; is Mt Zion.”  Later in Israel’s history, the tabernacle of David was pitched on Mt Zion.  The Lord said in Ps.2:6, “I have installed my king on Mt Zion, My holy mountain”.  There near his palace, king David worshiped the Lord and wrote many Psalms.  He actually sat before the holy Ark of God in the sacred tent on Mt Zion, in His Presence!  1Ch.17:16 “David the king went and sat before YHVH.”  (see “Tent/Tabernacle of David” and “Zion in the Bible”.)  Ps.125:1-2 “They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mt Zion; which cannot be moved, but abides forever.”  Barnes Notes “The mountain which David fortified.”  Gill Exposition “Mount Zion is immovable, and continually abides.”

David later sacrificed burnt & peace offerings to the Lord at his altar on adjacent Mt Moriah, at the then site of Ornán/Araunáh’s threshing floor (2Chr.3:1).  1Ch.21:18, 26 “David called to YHVH and He answered him with fire from heaven on the altar.” (see “Fire From Heaven!”)  There at that mountain!

The Lord’s temple was constructed by Solomon on Mt Moriah.  2Chr.3:1 “Solomon began to build the house of YHVH in Jerusalem on Mt Moriah, where YHVH had appeared to his father David.”  At the temple dedication, the priests, Levitical singers and instrumental musicians praised the Lord.  God’s glorious Presence became so great that the priests couldn’t stand up!  2Ch.5:12-14 “The priests couldn’t stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.”  Awesome!

2Ch.7:1-3 “Now when Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of YHVH filled the house. And the priests couldn’t enter in because the glory of YHVH filled YHVH’s house. And all the sons of Israel bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and worshiped and gave praise to YHVH!”  Praise the Lord!

1Ki.18:19-ff is the account of the prophet Elijáh versus the priests of Baál at Mt Carmél in N Israel.  v.30-37 Elijah built an altar there, made a trench around it, pieced an ox on it, and prayed a 30-second prayer.  v.38-39 “Then the fire of YHVH fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and stones and dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when the people saw it they fell on their faces and said, ‘The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God.”  God showed up with fire!  (Baal didn’t.)

1Ki.19:7-10 in the aftermath of the phenomenon at Mt Carmel, the Messenger of YHVH told Elijah to eat prior to his journey to Horeb, the mountain of God.  The place where Moses had the burning bush experience (Ex.3:1-ff).  Elijah then lodged in a cave at Mt Horeb.  YHVH told him in 1Ki.19:11, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord’. And behold, the Lord was passing by.”  v.12-21 in a soft whisper, YHVH gave him His instructions.  Elijah left Mt Horeb and anointed Elishá as prophet.

Later Isaiah prophesied in Is.2:1-3. “In the last days, the mountain of the house of YHVH will be established as chief of the mountains, and all nations will flow into it. Many peoples will say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. That He may teach us His ways, and that we may walk in His paths.’ For the law will go forth from Zion.”  (cf. Mic.4:1-2.)  The time would come when Jews and gentiles will universally seek YHVH.  Benson Commentary Is.2:2 “The times of the Messiah, which are always spoken of by the prophets as the last days.”  More about this in the New Testament (NT).

The scene of Ezekiel’s grandest vision (approximately 572 BC) was on a high mountain!  The prophet Ezekiel was exiled to the river Chebár in Babylonia (not the 2Ki.17:6 Khabór in Assyria).  Ezk.40:1-2 “In the visions of God, He brought me into the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain. And on it to the south was a structure like a city.”  It is thought the mountain could be Moriah.  Ezk.43:12 “This is the law of the house [temple]. On the top of the mountain the whole border around it shall be most holy.”  Ezekiel’s mountaintop vision comprises all of his book’s final chapters, Ezk.40–48.

Mountaintops on earth were the points (symbolically) nearest to God Most High in heaven!  Wikipedia: Sacred Mountains “The most symbolic aspect of a mountain is the peak because it was believed that it is closest to heaven or other religious realms.”  And majestic mountain scenery can naturally inspire a sense of awe!  Ps.121:1-2 “I lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence my help shall come. My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.”  YHVH dwelt ‘above’ the most elevated topography of earth, the mountains.  In that sense, mountain summits approached the heavenly realm.  Bengel’s Gnomen Mt.5:1 “A mountain, as being a lofty part of the earth, and thereby nearer to heaven, is best suited for the most holy actions.”  Atop mountains, heaven and earth seemed to overlap or merge.

In the NT, Jesus, the Son of the Most High (Lk.1:31-32), communed with Father God on mountains and hills.  Just prior to selecting His twelve disciples/apostles, Jesus prayed at a mountain.  Lk.6:12-13 “He went out into a mountain [óros Strongs g3735, Greek] to pray, and spent the whole night in prayer to God. When daylight came, He called His disciples and chose twelve from them, whom He also named apostles.”  JFB Commentary Lk.6:12 “Here we find the Lord Himself in prolonged communion with His Father in preparation for the solemn appointment of those men.”  Perhaps Jesus spent close to 12 hours (cf. Jn.11:9-10) in prayer that night in the mountainside, praying one hour about each of the 12 disciples selected?

Most Christians know of Jesus’ famous ‘Sermon on the Mount’, when He spoke eight ‘Beatitudes’ or ‘Blessed Attitudes’.  Mt.5:1-10 “Seeing the multitudes, He [Jesus] went up into a mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. He taught them, saying….”  Jesus spoke to them from a “level place” (Lk.6:17-22) in the mountainside.  That specific mountain is thought to be near the N shore of the Sea of Galilee, but to date it hasn’t been identified.  Barnes Notes Mt.5:1 “This mountain, or hill, was somewhere in the vicinity of Capernaúm, but where precisely is not mentioned.”

After He fed the 5,000, Jesus sent His disciples on ahead of Him in a boat to Bethsaidá on the other side of the Sea.  Mk.6:44-51 “After bidding them farewell, He went away to the mountain to pray. The wind was against them [in the boat]; at the fourth watch of the night [3-6 AM] He came to them, walking on the sea.”  They were frightened and amazed.  But when Jesus got in the boat with them, the wind & waves ceased!  This amazing event was immediately preceded by Jesus praying on a mountain.

Jesus’ ‘Transfiguration’ occurred traditionally either on Mt Tábor (Lower Galilee) or else Mt Hermon (Lebanon), according to Bible scholars.  Mt.17:1-5 “Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and brought them up to a high mountain by themselves. He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun and His garments became as white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking to Him. And a voice out of the cloud, saying ‘This is My beloved Son [Jesus], with Whom I am well-pleased.”  That incredible encounter occurred on a mountain!  Later, Peter wrote, 2Pe.1:18 “We were with Him on the holy mount.”  There they actually heard God’s audible voice!

{Sidelight: In scripture, only three persons fasted for 40 days and 40 nights.  Moses on Mt Sinai, Elijah while enroute to Mt Horeb, and Jesus in the wilderness at the beginning of His ministry.  ref Ex.34:27-28, 1Ki.19:8-9, Mt.4:1-2.  It’s more than coincidental that the same three were seen together on a “high mountain” in the ‘Transfiguration’ account!  Moses represented the ‘Law’, Elijah the ‘Prophets’, and Jesus has been called the ‘Living Word’ (tying the sections of scripture).}

Another of Jesus’s famous teachings is His ‘Olivet Discourse’.  It is seen in all three synoptic gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke.  Wikipedia: Mount of Olives “A mountain ridge east of and adjacent to Jerusalem’s Old City. Several key events in the life of Jesus, as related in the Gospels, took place on the Mt of Olives.”  The Mt of Olives is one of the ‘Seven Hills of Jerusalem’.  Mk.13:3-4 “As Jesus was sitting on the Mt of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked Him privately, ‘Tell us, what is the sign that these things are about to be accomplished?”  Also Jesus would later ascend to heaven from the Mt of Olives (Ac.1:9-12).

After His resurrection, Jesus met with His disciples again on a mountain.  Mt.28:16-18 “The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain Jesus had designated. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him.”  This may have been a mountain familiar to them together with Jesus.  Pulpit Commentary Mt.28:16 “Some have fixed [Mt] Tabor as the scene of this revelation, others the Mt of the Beatitudes.”

Our Bible ends with John’s vision of Revelation, given by God (Re.1:1).  At the end of the book, an angel showed John a future city.  Re.21:9-11 “He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.”  The final vision of scripture was set on a high mountain!  (succeeding Ezk.40:2-ff.)  There John viewed the Bride of the Lamb, the Church triumphant!  The antitypic heavenly Mt Zion/Sión (He.12:22-24).  also see the topic “God Tabernacles With Humans”.

It may have come as a surprise to you that so many notable events in the Bible occurred on mountains.

We too may feel closer to the Lord when we’re up on a physical mountain, in quiet.  e.g. There’s a Mt Zion in Clallam County of Washington state.  Its 4,278-ft peak is a hike in the Olympic National Forest.

If we will continue to obey the Lord and follow His ways, He blesses & guides us His people to live our lives on the figurative high places!  De.32:13 “He made him ride on the high places of the earth.”  We’re watched over by God Most High.  Ps.121:8 NIV “The Lord keeps watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore.”

Perhaps you too have had a rarefied mountaintop experience(s).  We’d like those special times with the Lord’s Presence to recur in our lives often.  But we don’t have it that way now.  Yet we can cherish the memory of those precious occasions when God was so near, so real!  And seek to draw close again.

I’m reminded of the Don Potter song (also sung by Paul Wilbur) Show Me Your Face: “Moses stood on a mountain, waiting for You to pass by. You placed Your hand over his face, in Your Presence he wouldn’t die. All Israel saw the glory, and it shines down through the age. Now You’ve called us to boldly, seek Your face. Show me Your face Lord, show me Your face. Then gird up my legs, that I might stand in this holy place. Show me Your face Lord, Your power and Your grace. I could make it through the end, if I can just…see Your face.”

Someday we will all see Jesus’ glorious face!  1Jn.3:2 “We will see Him as He is.”

By the grace of God, by His Son, and the lead of the Holy Spirit…may we remain faithful, unto the end.

 

Levites and the Exodus Multitude (2)

This Part 2 is the continuation and conclusion of “Levites and the Exodus Multitude (1)”.  Part 1 should be read first.  Little of the background material in (1) will be repeated here in (2).

In Part 1, three questions were posed:

#1. How did the lineage branch of Levi’s son Koháth (Jacob’s grandson), reckoned from that 1 man, become 8,600 male descendants early in the wilderness…after only 4 generations?!  Nu.3:27-28 “Of Kohath…the numbering of all the males from one month old and upwards, was 8,600.”  That’s an astounding increase in so few generations!  cf. 1Ch.6:1-3.  The lineage was traced in (1).

Levi and his 3 sons Kohath, Gershón, Merarí and their families moved with Jacob/Israel from the Land of Canáan to Egypt (Ge.46:6, 11) circa/c 1827 BC.

#2. How did the tribe of Levi, grown from his 3 sons, become 22,000 or 22,300 males from age one month and up…during that same period (215 years)?!  Nu.3:39 “All the numbered men of the Levites, from a month old and upward, were 22,000.”  An astounding increase!

Furthermore, during that same period, the initial 75-85 males (Ge.46:27 Septúagint/LXX) with Jacob & Joseph in Egypt increased to 603,550 non-Levite warriors age 20 and up, early in the wilderness (Nu.1:45-47)!  Exiting Egypt, Ex.12:37-38 “The sons of Israel journeyed…600,000 men on foot. And a mixed multitude went with them.”  Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 2:15:1 “The entire multitude of those who went out, including the women and children, that were of a fit age for war, were 600,000.”  Philo On the Life of Moses 1:27:147 “The men of age to bear arms were more than 600,000 men.”

#3. How did the 75-85 males become 600,000 after only 4 generations?!  Another astounding increase in only 215 years!  (ref Part 1 for the timeline.)  Could near 600,000 be accurate?  also see the topics “Chronology: Abraham to the Exodus” and “Israelites Identification”.

Following Jacob’s move into Egypt, Ge.47:27 “Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the Góshen region, and became very numerous”.  Egypt’s Pharaoh said in Ex.1:7-9, “The people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we”.  ref Ps.105:23-24.  Perhaps they really did outnumber the Egyptians!?  Ex.1:22 so Pharaoh commanded for all Hebrew male babies to be cast into the Nile River.  Ex.2:2-3, 10 when Moses was three months old, his mother placed him in a basket and put him in the Nile.  Ac.7:19-21 confirms the infants were put out to die.  (Infanticide reduced somewhat the Hebrew population.)

Ex.18:21 Moses, early on the way to the Promised Land, was advised by his father-in-law Jethró  to divide all the departees according to thousands of people, or clans.

Yet in Ex.23:29-30 the Lord told Moses that He would drive out the wicked inhabitants of the Land of Canaan little by little, so the Land wouldn’t become desolate and wild animals be too numerous.  Apparently the approximately 2 million people (including women & children) coming in from Egypt to replace the wicked occupants wouldn’t fill the Land area.  Comparatively, in 2020 AD the population of modern Israel was 8.5 million…6 million more than the total exodus population approaching that Land.  Though ‘Hebrews’ had outnumbered Egyptians, the Canaanites outnumbered the exodus population.

Prior to entering the Land, in De.11:23 Moses told the next two generations, “The Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you”.  In those days, a force of 600,000 men would itself be a great army!  But others had greater renown.  The combined armies/peoples of the seven “nations” were greater (De.7:1).  Nu.13:31 the Israelite spies said, “We can’t attack those people, for they are stronger than we”.  So they feared the Land occupants.

In Nu.20:17 & 21:22, it seems unrealistic that 2 million people (including women & children) could’ve traveled on the King’s Highway en masse.  Even if they walked on the road plain in ‘rows’ of seventy, the line of people would have stretched for miles!

Nu.3:16-20, Ex.6:16-25 and 1Ch.6:1-4 attest to the same number of few Levite generations, beginning with Levi.  There’s no indication that any generations were omitted/skipped.  see Part 1.

So, in light of the above passages (and those referenced in Part 1)…were there really 600,000 Israelite warriors, 22,000 Levite and 8,600 Kohathite males early in the wilderness?  That many?!  It is somewhat disconcerting that to date little or no evidence of a mass exodus totaling 2 million people in the wilderness has been found.  Perhaps continued archaeological efforts will unearth more evidence?

Following are three possible explanations for the large population numbers in the exodus/wilderness:

1.) Biblical numbers could’ve been misread or misunderstood by translators.  If so, there weren’t really as many as 8,600 Kohathites, 22,000 Levites, plus 600,000 soldiers then.  The Hebrew term for thousand is éleph (Strongs h505).  Eleph is also translated family in Jg.6:15 KJV.  But Jg.6:15 LXX, “Gideon said to Him, ‘My thousand [family KJV] is weakened in Manasseh”.  Did eleph really refer to a troop/family (instead of 1,000)?  For detailed analyses of this possibility, ref: John W. Wenham Large Numbers in the Old Testament, Colin J. Humphreys The Number of People in the Exodus From Egypt, Jim Snapp The Quest for the Historical Census, Clark Morledge Did An Army of 600,000 Israelites Conquer the Land of Canaan?, David M. Fouts A Defense of the Hyperbolic Interpretation of Numbers in the Old Testament, Ben-Zion Katz Recounting the Census.  It’s possible the numbers 600,000, 22,000, 8,600 were mistakes in translation from the ancient Hebrew.  However, 2,000 years ago the Jewish historians Josephus & Philo both said the number of exodus soldiers was 600,000.

2.) There were brothers or half-brothers in the generations, not listed by Moses in the Péntateuch.  For example, the later 1Ch.23:20 listing of Issiáh as a son of Moses’ uncle Uzziél may indicate that was the case.  Ge.5:3-30 said the ancient antediluvians had other unidentified sons & daughters.  Abraham had at least 6 additional identified sons not born to Sarah (Ge.25:1-2).  Some Bible historians and yeshíva teaching think the large population in the exodus resulted from polygyny.  e.g. c 1300 BC, Jg.8:30-32 “Gideon had seventy sons, for he had many wives. His concubine in Shechém also bore him a son, Abimélech. Gideon died at a good old age.”  (see “Polygyny – Lawful in God’s Eyes?”.)

3.) There were others besides Israelites in the exodus.  Included with the approximately 600,000 fighting men leaving Egypt (Nu.11:21) was a mixed multitude of people.  Adding women & children would’ve brought the total to 2,000,000 or so!  Nu.1:45-47 “All the numbered men were 603,550. The Levites weren’t numbered among them.”  Who all comprised this mixed multitude?

Ex.12:37-38 “A mixed multitude of people went up with them, along with flocks and herds.”  Others also left Egypt with biological Israelites.  JFB Commentary Ex.12:38 “A great rabble’ (see also Nu 11:4; De 29:11); slaves, persons in the lowest grades of society, partly natives and partly foreigners, bound close to them as companions in misery, and gladly availing themselves of the opportunity to escape.”  Ellicott Commentary “Some may have been Egyptians, impressed by the recent miracles; some foreigners held to servitude, like the Israelites, and glad to escape their masters.”  LXX NETS “A great mixed crowd went up with them.”  So many non-Israelites also left Egypt in the exodus.

Cambridge Bible Note “Non-Israelites of various kinds are meant; e.g. Egyptians who had intermarried with Israelites.”  Since Israelite newborn males were thrown into the Nile River, there’d be a surplus of Israelite females to marry Egyptians or others.  In Le.24:10, Moses wrote of a man in the camp whose mother was an Israelite but whose father was an Egyptian.  So, Egyptian blood was present in Israelites.

The Bible uses patrilineal reckoning from the fathers (not the traditional Jewish matrilineal reckoning from mothers).  Nu.1:18 “They registered by ancestry in their families, by their father’s households, according to the number of names.”  Not according to the mothers.  Philo op.cit. “Among the mixed multitude were those born to Hebrew fathers by Egyptian mothers, who were enrolled as members of their father’s race. And some, also, who had come over to them by reason of the magnitude of the incessant punishments which had been inflicted on their own countrymen [Egyptians].”

Also, we read of intermarriage by Joseph c 1837 BC, 225 years prior to the exodus.  Ge.41:45 Pharaoh had given Joseph an Egyptian wife named Asenáth, the daughter of the priest of On (LXX Heliópolis).  So Joseph’s sons Ephráim & Manasséh were both half Egyptian (Ge.46:20).

Did Ephraim & Manasseh likewise take Egyptian wives?  If so, then Joseph’s grandchildren had mostly Egyptian blood!  (Ephraim & Manasseh were first cousins of Kohath, the son of Levi.)  Ge.46:27 LXX says Joseph had nine sons.  Jacob prophesied that the names of Joseph’s other (half-Egyptian) sons would be attached to the inheritances of Ephraim & Manasseh (Ge.48:5-6).  Early in the wilderness, the soldiers of Ephraim & Manasseh numbered 72,700 men (Nu.2:18-21).  Although they became two of the twelve tribes of Israel in the Land of Canaan, there was (much) Egyptian blood in their ancestry.

Note: Ge.50:23 Manasseh’s son was Machír.  Machir’s son Gilead (Joseph’s great-grandson) was of the same generation as Moses & Aaron.  Nun, the father of Joshua, was the same generation as Gilead.  Zelophehád (son of Hépher) was Gilead’s grandson. (see 1Ch.7:14-27, Nu.26:28-37, 27:1, Jsh.17:3.)

Ex.30:11-16 Moses was to levy a poll tax on the men of military age.  (This became the basis for the later temple tax.  cf. Mt.17:24-27.)   Ex.38:25-26 “The silver from those of the community who were numbered was 100 talents and 1,775 shekels. A half-shekel a head for those who were numbered from age 20 and up, for 603,550 men.”  This half-shekel tax for the tabernacle was taken from all non-Levite soldiers. (A shekel weighed approximately ½ ounce.)  Barnes Notes “The talent contained 3,000 shekels.”  So 100 talents of silver = 300,000 shekels.  Add the 1,775 shekels, and the total = 301,775 shekels.  This amount is exactly 603,550 half-shekels (békahs)!  It matches the population figure of Nu.1:45-47.  The amount of silver taken as tax appears to confirm the number of Israelite/mixed multitude fighting men.

{Sidelight: However, the 1,000,000 talents in 1Ch.22:14 would equal 3 billion shekels (at the rate used in Ex.38:25-26)!  But 1½ billion ounces of silver is unrealistic…it would be enough to build Solomon’s temple of solid silver!  Also, the 10,000 talents of silver in Est.3:8-9 would equal 30 million shekels!  That’s 15 million ounces or nearly 1 million lbs. of silver personally owned by Hamán!  An unrealistic amount.  It’s likely the weight of the shekel or talent had changed since Moses wrote Exodus.}

Early in the wilderness is Nu.3:39-43. “All the Levites from one month old and upward were 22,000….All the firstborn males from one month old and up were 22,273.”  The difference was only 273 males.  v.44-45 “The Lord spoke to Moses saying, ‘Take the Levites instead of the firstborn among the sons of Israel.”  The firstborn, who had belonged to the Lord (Ex.13:1-2), were redeemed…replaced by the 22,000 Levites.

But Nu.1:46 says there were 603,550 warriors from their tribes, age 20 and up.  If only 22,273 out of the more than 603,550 were firstborns…those were huge families!  603,550 ÷ 22,273 = 27.  Did each family average more than 27 sons?  Add an equal number of daughters, and that’s over 50 children per family!  But… most of those 603,550 weren’t ‘purely’ Israelites.

In the wilderness 39 years later is Nu.26:57-62. “These are those who were numbered of the Levites….23,000.”  So during 39 years, the number of Levite males increased from an approximate 22,000 to 23,000.  That’s an increase of only 1,000 in that generation.

Note: The male Israelites/mixed multitude age 20 and up (born in Egypt) died in the wilderness, except for Joshua & Caleb (Nu.14:27-30).  Excluded were Levites (Nu.1:47), males under age 20, and women.  Aaron’s grandson Phineás, in the 4^th generation of Kohathites after Kohath, was probably born around the time of the exodus.  Phineas’ bold intervention in Nu.25:7 didn’t occur until the 40^th year of their wanderings.  Phineas’ father Eleazár (Aaron’s son), the high priest, even outlived Joshua in the Land (cf. Nu.20:28 & Jsh.24:29-33).

What about past servants among the mixed multitude in the exodus?  Going back several generations….

In Ge.12:5, 16, 20:14, Abrám had many servants.  Ge.14:14 in Abram’s household (before the birth of Ishmaél) were 318 fighting men.  Plus he had other ‘house’ servants and those watching the livestock!

Ellicott Commentary Ge.14:14 “This large number of servants born in his house…added to the older men left to defend and take care of the cattle, proves that Abram was the chieftain of a powerful tribe.”  Barnes Notes “Abram had now a company of 318 trained men, born in his own house; which implies a following of more than 1,000 men, women and children.”  Pulpit Commentary “The children of his own patriarchal family, neither purchased nor taken in war, 318, implied a household of probably more than 1,000 souls.”  Abraham’s household was very large!  Ge.17:26-27 all the males were circumcised.

Ge.26:12-14 Isaac’s great substance.  Cambridge Bible Ge.26:14 “A large number of slaves and attendants.”  Ge.32:5-6 Jacob’s large household.  (Ge.34:13-15 indicates they’re circumcised.)  Ge.36:7 Jacob and Esau’s property was too great for them to dwell together.  Barnes Notes Ge.36:7 “What remained in the hands of Isaac was virtually Jacob’s, though he had not yet entered into formal possession of it.”

Ge.45:9-10 & 46:5-7, 26 “All the direct descendants of Jacob who went to Egypt with him were 66 in number; this does not include the wives of Jacob’s sons.”  Gill Exposition Ge.46:7 “No mention is made of servants, though no doubt many came along with him.”  James B. Jordan The Moses Connection “Abraham had 318 trained fighting men in his sheikdom. Estimates range up to 3,000 or more for his complete household. These servants multiplied and became those of Isaac and Jacob. It might have been 10,000 people who moved to Goshen.”  So…numerous servants also went to Egypt c 1827 BC.

Francis Peloubet Select Notes, v.27, p.319 “Also the servants, ‘Who were reckoned as part of the household, and were admitted to the covenant [of circumcision, Ac.7:8], and recognized as Israelites.”

William R. Harper The Old Testament Student, v.6, p.248 “Jacob took to Egypt the whole body of his servants and retainers. These dependents…were all included in the covenant of circumcision, gradually blended while in Egypt, with the blood-kindred of Jacob, so that all alike were reckoned Israelites.”

Jacob’s entire household, including circumcised descendants and servants, had numbered perhaps 7,000 to 10,000 souls.  They too went with Jacob to his son Joseph in Egypt (Ge.47:11-12) c 1827 BC.  There they intermarried with Egyptians & other peoples, and “multiplied exceedingly” (Ge.47:27 KJV).

Jacob died 17 years after moving to Egypt (see Part 1 timeline).  A great funeral cavalcade, including Egyptian dignitaries, then traveled 300 miles to bury him east of the Jordan River (Ge.50:7-10).

The people multiplied in Egypt (Ex.1:5-9, 12, 20).  They became a great mixed nation (De.26:5).  The exodus “nation” of ancient Israel/mixed multitude was comprised of a motley group of people, not one pure race.  They’d increased to 603,550 soldiers, excluding Levites, early in the wilderness (Nu.1:46).

As for question #3 posed at the beginning: With mixed marriages, the assimilation of servants, concubines to bear children, Egyptians and others who left Egypt in the exodus…the 603,550 number of males early in the wilderness seems feasible.

The apostle Paul wrote in 1Co.10:1-5, “All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea”.  The entire mixed multitude, and their children, were symbolically “baptized” in the Reed Sea.  They ate the manna in the wilderness.  (Nu.11:4 is the last direct reference in the Pentateuch to the mixed group.)

There were 601,730 males 39 years later (Nu.26:51), after those over age 20 had died in the wilderness.

That younger generation of motley peoples (children of the mixed multitude) born during the 40 years in the wilderness, weren’t circumcised.  So after crossing the Jordan River, Joshua had all the males circumcised at Gilgál (Jsh.5:2-8).  Whatever their ancestry, the 601,730 males all became circumcised!  cf. Ge.17:26-27 Abraham’s large household of servants, etc., not of his ancestry, had all become circumcised.  (see the topic “Circumcision in the Bible”.)

The children of the circumcised mixed multitude then received tribal territory when Joshua apportioned the Land of Canaan for the tribes of Israel (Jsh.13–19).  There, more intermarriage ensued among tribes.

As for questions #2 and #1 about the number of Levites and Kohathites: With past servants and other peoples having been assimilated into Levite and Kohathite households (in Egypt)…it seems feasible the males among them could total approximately 22,000 and 8,600 respectively (Nu.3:27-28, 39).

In the Land of Canaan, the Levites/Kohathites (including Aaronide priests) would live within the various tribal areas (Jsh.21).  There, Levites intermarried with those tribes.  Samuel was a Kohathite (fostered or ‘adopted’ by the high priest Eli) who lived in Ephraim c 1100 BC (1Sm.1:1, 25-28, 1Ch.6:22, 26-28).  When the Lord split the united monarchy (1Ki.12:20-24) in the 900s BC, most Levites joined with Judah & Benjamin as the southern kingdom of Judah…the Jews.

Ro.3:29-30 Paul said that God is the God of both Jews and gentiles, circumcised and uncircumcised.  Again, Israel with the mixed multitude were all “baptized” in the Sea, and they all ate the manna (1Co.10:1-3).  The Lord didn’t discriminate in that regard.  Ga.3:27-29 “There is neither Jew nor Greek…you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed.”

Today Jewish Christians and gentile Christians are to be as one, all baptized in the name of Jesus.

As was the large ancestral mixture of peoples who exited Egypt, Christians today are a racial mixture. (see “Gentiles in the Bible”.)  And our numbers are increasing.

Re.7:9-12 “I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, and tribe, people and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.”  A mixed multitude from all nations cries out loudly, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb. Amen.”

The mixed multitude with ancient Israel was a historical type of the great mixed multitude of humanity to whom our God is giving salvation.  Praise God!

Levites and the Exodus Multitude (1)

This topic traces the ancient Israelites – starting with Jacob’s relocation from the Land of Canáan to Egypt, their population growth…into the exodus & wilderness with the mixed multitude.  My focus here is on the growth of the Levites and, in detail, the descendants of Levi’s son Koháth, the Kohathites.

The Bible characters in this topic lived far back in history.  Dating for their births & deaths is inexact.  The dates used are approximate, to place the Levite lineage in historical perspective.  The chronological framework is taken from Dr. Martin Anstey The Romance of Bible Chronology, v.2.

The patriarch Jacob, whose name God changed to Israel (Ge.32:28), had 12 sons (Ge.35:23-26).  Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, etc…Joseph, Benjamin.  The descendants of those 12 became the 12 tribes of Israel.  (also see the topics “Chronology: Abraham to the Exodus” and “Israelites Identification”.)

Jacob’s 3^rd son was Levi.  Levi himself had 3 sons.  Ge.46:11 “The sons of Levi: Gershón, Kohath and Merarí.”  These 3 sons and their descendants became the Levites, descended from Levi.

Moses and his brother Aaron descended from Levi & Kohath.  They were Kohathites.  Moses was a priest (Ex.24:6, 29:26, Nu.7:1, Ps.99:6).  Later, only Aaron and his descendants among the Levites were priests.  Not all Levites or Kohathites became priests (Nu.4:17-20, 16:1-3); only the clan of Aaron did.

Ge.41:41 Jacob’s 11^th son Joseph became ruler of Egypt under Pharaoh.  Ge.46:5-27 Jacob, his sons and their families, went to join Joseph in Egypt circa (c) 1827 BC.  Ge.41:27 Septúagint/LXX “The sons of Joseph, born to him in Egypt, were 9; all the souls of the house of Jacob who came with Joseph into Egypt, were 75.”  Ac.7:14 has “75 souls”.  (Males, not counting wives.)  Ge.47:9 Jacob was 130 years old then.  His son Joseph was 39 or 40 (cf. Ge.41:46-47 with Ge.45:6), having been born c 1867 BC.

Ge.46:8, 11 Levi’s young 2^nd son Kohath and his two brothers (Gershon & Merari) went to Egypt with their father Levi & grandfather Jacob.  Joseph, age 40, would live on for 70 more years, until age 110 (Ge.50:26), until c 1757 BC.  Kohath was in Egypt during those 70 years that Joseph was still alive.

Nu.26:57-59 “Kohath became the father of Amrám…Jochébed bore to Amram: Aaron and Moses and their sister Miriám.”  Kohath was Moses’ grandfather!  Kohath wasn’t a distant ancestor.  So Moses wasn’t born all that long after Joseph’s death.

Ex.2:1 “A man [Amram] from the house of Levi married a daughter of Levi.”  This may reflect the line of Levi as ancestral, not Levi as her immediate father.  Ellicott Commentary “A descendant of Levi, not a daughter in the literal sense.”  However, cf. Zec.1:1 “Zecharíah, the prophet, the son of Berechíah, the son of Iddó”, versus Ezr.5:1 “Zechariah the son of Iddo”.  Ezra’s account skipped one generation.  Moses’ Exodus account could’ve skipped generations, but it seems unlikely (as we’ll see below).

In scripture, Moses & Aaron were the great-great grandsons of Jacob.  Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 2:9:6 “Moses….Abraham was his ancestor, of the 7^th generation.”  Philo On the Life of Moses 1:2:7 “Moses is the 7^th generation from the original settler in the country [Abraham].”

Abraham–Isaac–Jacob–Levi/Joseph–Kohath–Amram–Moses/Aaron…the 7 generations.  No skips.

1Ch.23:15 Moses had 2 sons, Gershóm (not Gershon) and Eliézer.  Ex.6:23 Moses’ brother Aaron had 4 sons: Nadáb, Abihú, Eleazár, Ithamár.  When Aaron later died in the wilderness, Eleazar replaced him as the high priest (Nu.20:28).  Eleazar’s son was Phinehás (Ex.6:25).

(Kohath)–Amram–Aaron/Moses–Eleazar–Phinehas…that’s only 4 generations of Kohathites, born after Jacob or Israel moved to Egypt.  Ex.18:1-6 soon after the exodus, Moses’ Midianite wife Zipporáh and their 2 sons rejoined Moses in the wilderness.  Moses’ sons Gershom & Eliezer were half-Midianite.

After the exodus, Nu.3:27-28 is early in the wilderness. “Of Kohath…the number of all the males from one month old and upwards, was 8,600.”  What!?  That’s an astounding increase in so few generations!

Here’s a question: How could the branch of Kohath (Levi’s son), reckoned from that 1 man, increase to 8,600 male descendants…after only 4 generations?!  Continuing with the Levite Kohathites….

Ex.6:18, 20 “The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhár, Hebrón, Uzziél. The years of Kohath’s life were 133 years….Amram married Jochebed, and she bore him Aaron and Moses.”  Moses’ mother Jochebed was a relative (LXX 1^st cousin) of her husband Amram.  “The years of Amram’s life were 137 years [LXX NETS 136].”  Levi/Joseph–Kohath–Amram–Moses…that’s 4 generations.  1Ch.6:1-3 confirms those 4.

Humans were longer-lived in those days than now.  Of Kohath’s 133 years, again, 70 of them were spent with Joseph in Egypt (c 1827–1757 BC).  The traditional (supposed) Book of Jasher 68:29 indicates that elderly Kohath was still alive in the 1690s BC (when Moses was named)!  So perhaps Kohath was born c 1830 BC.  If so, he would’ve been age 3 when they went from Canaan to Egypt c 1827 BC.  That would make Kohath age 73 when his uncle Joseph died c 1757 BC.

Kohath’s firstborn son Amram (Moses’ father) may have been born c 1811 BC, when Kohath was 19.  If so, Amram’s death at age 136 or 137 was c 1675 BC (still decades prior to the exodus).  Amram would’ve been age 54 when Joseph died c 1757 BC.  Pulpit Commentary Ex.6:18 “Amram would have been contemporary with Joseph for above 50 years.”

Dead Sea Scrolls 4Q545 “The writing of the words of the vision of Amram, son of Qahat [Kohath], son of Levi, all that he has explained to his sons…on the day of his death in the year 136 – the year of his death [Amram’s]. In the year 152 of the exile of Israel in Egypt. Also it came to him to call Uzziel, his younger brother, and gave him Miriam his 30-year-old daughter for wife. He sent to call Aaron his 20-year-old son [3 years older than Moses]…I will explain to you your names that he wrote for Moses.”  Accordingly, 152 years after the 1827 BC relocation from Canaan to Egypt was 1675 BC.

The birth of Moses, Amram’s youngest child, c 1692 BC, was only 65 years after Joseph died (c 1757 BC)!  Philip Mauro The Wonders of Bible Chronology, p.40 “The interval between the death of Joseph and the birth of Moses was 64 years.”  Calculating the above 4Q545 elapsed time, Amram would’ve been age 106 when Miriam was born, 116 at Aaron’s birth, 119 at Moses’ birth!  Miriam was around 13 when she spoke with Pharaoh’s daughter at the Nile River regarding baby Moses, Ex.2:1-10.

For those ancient Levites to father children at such advanced ages seems too old by today’s standards.  But people lived longer in those days, and could maintain their life force.  Jacob died at age 147, Levi at age 137 (Ex.6:16), Kohath at age 133, Amram at 136 or 137, Aaron at 123 (Nu.33:39).  De.34:7 “Moses was 120 years old when he died; his eye was not dim nor his vigor abated.”  Even at age 120, Moses didn’t experience the infirmities of age that are prevalent today.  He maintained his vigor!  For that matter, Isaac was 60 when his twins Jacob & Esau were born (Ge.25:26).  Jacob was 90 when he fathered Joseph, and near 100 when he fathered Benjamin!  (ref Ge.47:9 Joseph was near 40 when his father Jacob, at age 130, came to Egypt.)

Ex.12:40 LXX “The children of Israel, while they sojourned in the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan, was 430 years.”  The Masoretic text omits “and the land of Canaan”.  But the accounts in the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Talmud and Josephus all agree with the LXX.  Josephus op. cit. 2:15:2 “They left Egypt 430 years after Abraham came into Canaan, but 215 years only after Jacob removed into Egypt. It [the exodus] was the 80^th year of Moses.”  They stayed 215 years in Canaan and 215 years in Egypt.

Gill Exposition “Certain it is, that Israel did not dwell in Egypt 430 years.”  JFB Commentary “The period of sojourn in Egypt did not exceed 215 years.”  Mauro op. cit., p.34 “The 430 years began with God’s promise to Abram, made at the time he entered into Canaan at the age of 75 (Gen.12:1-4).”

Since lives were longer back then, producing 4 generations over 215 years may be believable.  But producing only 4 generations over 430 years is unbelievable!

If Abrám was born c 2117 BC, he arrived in Canaan in 2042 BC at age 75 (Ge.12:4-5).  At age 100, Abraham fathered Isaac (Ge.21:5), c 2017 BC.  At age 60, Isaac fathered Jacob & Esau (Ge.25:26), c 1957 BC.  When Jacob was 130 (Ge.47:9), he and his moved from Canaan to Egypt, c 1827 BC.

Abram’s arrival in Canaan (c 2042 BC) until Jacob’s departure from Canaan (c 1827 BC) = 215 years in Canaan.  And Jacob/Israel’s arrival in Egypt (c 1827 BC) until the exodus (c 1612 BC) = 215 years in Egypt.  The total of both = 430 years…2042–1612 BC.  (see “Chronology: Abraham to the Exodus”.)

Also, 4 generations of Kohathites lived during the 215 years in Egypt.  Kohath–Amram–Aaron/Moses–Eleazar (and into the wilderness).  Returning to the Levite/Kohathites….

Nu.3:19 “The sons of Kohath: Amram and Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel.”  Besides Amram (the father of Moses & Aaron), Kohath had 3 other sons.  Kohath’s 2^nd son was Izhar (uncle to Moses & Aaron).

Nu.16:1-4 also confirms 4 generations.  (No skips.)  “Now Kórah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi…incited rebellion against Moses and Aaron, and said, ‘Why do you exalt yourselves?”  Izhar’s son Korah was Moses’ 1^st cousin!  Korah, being a near relative, thought he should have more input or authority.  But because of his insurrection, Korah died in an earthquake or sinkhole (Nu.16:32).

Nu.3:27-29 “Of Kohath was the family of the Amramites, the family of the Izharites, the family of the Hebronites and the family of the Uzzielites.”  To repeat, Kohath’s 4 sons (born in Egypt) were: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, Uzziel.  Kohath’s grandsons, which include Moses & Aaron, were also born in Egypt.  Kohath’s great-grandsons, which include the 6 sons of Moses/Aaron, also were born before the exodus.

Again, the (priestly) line in 1Ch.6:1-3 confirms the generations of descent from Levi & Kohath. “The sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath and Merari.  The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. The children of Amram were Aaron, Moses and Miriam. And the sons of Aaron were Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.”  The Kohathite Aaron and his descendants became the priests in Israel.

So these genealogies in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, 1Chronicles agree.  It appears that no generations were skipped in those scriptural accounts.

Early in the wilderness, the Kohathites from the ages of 30 to 50 totaled 2,750 men (Nu.4:34-37).  And Kohathites from the age of one month and up totaled 8,600 men (Nu.3:27-28).  Again, Kohath’s branch (which included Aaron & the priests) had increased from 1 to 8,600 males after only 4 generations!

Tracing further the Levite Kohath’s descendants…Ex.6:20-21 Moses/Aaron’s uncle Izhar had 3 sons; Korah (Nu.16:1), Népheg, Zichrí.  Ex.6:22 & Le.10:4 Moses/Aaron’s uncle Uzziel had 3 sons; Mishaél or Micháh, Elzaphán, Sithrí.  Perhaps a 4^th son of Uzziel was Issiáh (1Ch.23:20)?  I’ll include him in the count.  1Ch.23:19 Moses/Aaron’s uncle Hebron had 4 sons; Jeriáh, Amariáh, Jahaziél, Jekámeam.

So Moses & Aaron had 11 male paternal first cousins, most or all of whom lived into the exodus.

Including Moses & Aaron, this would result in only 13 male Kohathites in Moses/Aaron’s generation!  Kohath was their grandfather.  The 13 male first cousins were: Moses, Aaron, Korah, Nepheg, Zichri, Mishael or Michah, Elzaphan, Sithri, Issiah (possibly), Jeriah, Amariah, Jahaziel, Jekameam.

Female paternal cousins, daughters of one’s father’s siblings, would become part of whatever clan they married into (unless she married her own cousin, a grandson of Kohath).  Female maternal cousins, daughters of one’s mother’s siblings, wouldn’t be Kohathites (unless an aunt married one of Kohath’s four sons).

The Bible uses patrilineal reckoning from the fathers (not the traditional Jewish matrilineal reckoning from mothers).  Nu.1:18 “They registered by ancestry in their families, by their father’s households, according to the number of names.”  Not according to the mothers.

Again, the Kohathite generation previous to Moses/Aaron consisted of Amram, Izhar, Uzziel, Hebron.  Those 4 brothers most likely died in Egypt; none of them living into the exodus & wilderness.

The 13 male Kohathites in Moses & Aaron’s generation had sons.  1Ch.23:15 Moses had 2 sons; Gershom, Eliezer.  Ex.6:23 Aaron had 4 sons; Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, Ithamar.  Ex.6:24 cousin Korah had 3 sons; Assír, Elkanáh, Abiasáph.

The cousins Moses, Aaron, Korah had 9 sons between them.  Scripture doesn’t tell us the number of sons had by the other 10 first cousins.  We can speculate or estimate that 10 other cousins had maybe 40 sons between them?  If so, there were close to 50 males in the next generation of Kohathites.

Possibly the 13 males in Moses/Aaron’s generation all lived into the wilderness.  (Nu.16:32 Korah died in the wilderness earthquake or sinkhole.)  Add to the 13 the perhaps 50 sons they had…the males still alive from 3 generations of Kohathites then totaled only 63.  Amram’s generation = 0; Aaron/Moses’ generation = 13; Eleazar/Gershom’s generation = est. 50.  Total = est. 63.

We don’t know how many grandsons Moses, Aaron and the other 11 first cousins had.  Ex.6:25 Aaron’s son Eleazar had a son named Phinehas.  Nu.25:7 “Phinehas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest.”  Only a few grandsons of the 13 Kohathite cousins are identified in scripture.

Even if the 13 first cousins had 50 sons who had 350 sons of their own (7 sons each!)…that’s only 413 total Kohathites.  413 = 8,187 less than the 8,600 male Kohathites of Nu.3:28, early in the wilderness!

Let’s now look at the other two Levite branches, besides the Kohathites.  Again, Ge.46:11 Kohath had two brothers…Gershon (not Gershom) and Merari, sons of Levi.  There were 3 branches of Levites.

{Sidelight: The 3 branches of Levites later had specific duties in the wilderness.  The Gershonites were on the west side of the tabernacle and carried its tapestry (Nu.3:23-26).  The Merarites camped on the north side and transported the tabernacle frames & support system (Nu.3:35-37).  The Kohathites were on the south side and transported the holy furnishings (Nu.3:29-31).  Moses and the priests (Aaron and his sons) camped to the east and served the sanctuary (Nu.3:38).}

Nu.3:18 “These were the names of the sons of Gershon by their clans, Libní and Shiméi.”  Gershon had  2 sons.  Nu.3:20 “The sons of Merari by their clans, Mahlí and Mushí.”  Merari also had only 2 sons.  Nu.3:19 again, Kohath had 4 sons.  All the Levites named here in Nu.3:17-20 died prior to the exodus.

I won’t trace the lesser lineages of Gershon and Merari.  (ref e.g. 1Ch.23:6-24.)  Yet early in the wilderness the total male Gershonites were 7,500 (Nu.3:21-22).  And the total male Merarites were 6,200 (Nu.3:33-34).  Adding in the 8,600 Kohathite males…there were 22,000 (or 22,300) total Levite males.  Nu.3:39 “All the numbered men of the Levites…from a month old and upward, were 22,000.”

Another question: How did the tribe of Levi, tracking from his 3 sons, become 22,000 or 22,300 males from age one month and up, during that same period (215 years)?!  What an increase from only 3 men!

Furthermore, during the same period of time, the 75-85 males (Ge.46:27 LXX) who were in Egypt with Jacob/Joseph increased to 603,550 non-Levite warriors age 20 and up, early in the wilderness (Nu.1:45-47)!  Josephus op. cit. 2:15:1 “The entire multitude of those who went out [from Egypt], including the women and children, that were of a fit age for war, were 600,000.”  Philo On the Life of Moses 1:27:147 “The men of age to bear arms were more than 600,000 men.”

So a related third question: How could the 75-85 males increase to more than 600,000 after only 4 generations?!

Were there strong aphrodisiacs in Egypt to heighten libido?!  Did each woman have dozens of children?

This topic about the Levites/Kohathites and the number of mixed multitude who comprised the exodus from Egypt is continued in “Levites and the Exodus Multitude (2)”.

 

Genesis Principles Predate Moses

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Polygyny – Lawful in God’s Eyes? (2)

This Part 2 concludes the topic “Polygyny – Lawful in God’s Eyes? (1)”.  Before continuing, I urge you to first read Part 1; it contains the foundational verses.  Please be advised…the subject is controversial!  

This topic is highlighting Bible characters and God’s laws concerning plural wives & concubines.  It doesn’t discuss the morals or differing marital laws of modern nations.  (Western customs fall short.)

Regardless of cultures, God defines true morality in His word.  He determines what is and isn’t sexual sin.  Laws of human governments, customary practices, beliefs of churches…may or may not reflect God’s morality.  (see the topic “Sexual Sins, Harlotry, Rape” for more about sexual immorality.)

Part 1 identified relative terms.  Our English word polygamy includes polygyny, one man cohabiting with plural wives; polyandry, one woman cohabiting with plural husbands.  The terms derive from the Greek poly/many, gamos/marriage, gyne/wife.  Polygyny was seen as a lawful option in God’s eyes; polyandry wasn’t!  (That’s not to say practicing polygyny is advised in modern Western nations.) 

Many men in the Bible were monogamous, one man cohabiting with one wife (at a time).  Divorce & remarriage is a form of sequential monogamy, otherwise called consecutive polygyny/polyandry.

Concubinage, from the Latin word concubina, was a respected polygynous marital option in the Old Testament (OT) and the ancient world.  It resembles heterosexual civil union, or having a mistress, as done in some countries today.  A mistress doesn’t have sex with plural partners (unlike a prostitute).

Godly and ungodly men of the Bible had plural wives.  In Part 1, we saw that Abraham, his brother Nahór, Abimélech, Pharoah, Job…cohabited with plural wives & concubines!  Jacob did too.  Those men were born prior to the OT nation of Israel. 

Christ was the God of OT Israel.  (ref the topic “Jesus Was The Old Testament God”.)  During Moses’ time, Christ gave codified laws/regulations to His theocratic nation.  Christ’s laws define His morality and marriage in God’s sight, adultery, and prescribe consequences for violations.

Part 1 noted: Christ’s law of concubines, war brides, levirate law so-called, and some Israelites who cohabited with plural wives/concubines…Manásseh, Caleb, Saul, Gideon, Samuel’s father, King Joásh.

John Milton (1608–1674) was an English theologian, statesman and poet.  His best-known work is the epic poem Paradise Lost.  Milton was a Puritan; they generally held very strict morals.  But some of his personal Bible beliefs were ‘unconventional’.  To quote from the manuscript of Milton’s theological treatise De Doctrina Christiana: “Either polygamy [polygyny] is a true marriage, or all children born in that state are spurious; which would include the whole race of Jacob [Israel], the twelve holy tribes chosen by God.”  Ancient Israel, the people Christ loved, didn’t come from a progenitor living in sin!

Here in Part 2, we’ll note a few other polygynists in scripture, and look at New Testament (NT) verses. 

Moses had more than one wife.  Ex.2:21 he married Zipporáh, daughter of the priest of Midián (Ex.3:1).  Midianites descended from Abraham and his concubine wife Keturáh (Ge.25:1-2, 1Ch.1:32).  Nu.12:1 “Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because of the Cushite (Strongs h3571) woman he had married.”  Zipporah and Miriam both came from Shem→Abraham…whereas the Cushite/Ethiopian wife was from Ham (Ge.10:6).  Moses was mighty and learned in the ways of Egypt (Ac.7:22).  Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 2:10:2 “Tharbis was daughter of the king of the Ethiopians; she saw Moses as he led the army [of Egypt]. She fell deeply in love. Moses consummated his marriage.”  She was his Cushite wife.     

Jer.13:23 “Can an Ethiopian (h3569) change his skin, or a leopard his spots?”  Leopard spots are black.  Black-skinned Ethiopians.  Miriam sounded racist in Nu.12:1.  In return, the Lord struck her skin with leprosy, as white as snow (Nu.12:10)!  John Milton op. cit. “It is not likely that the wife of Moses, who had been so often spoken of before by her proper name of Zipporah, should now be called by the new title of a Cushite; or that the anger of Aaron and Miriam should at this time be suddenly kindled.” 

Samuel Dennis Marriage from the Bible Alone “Moses [had] at least 3 wives: Zipporah (Ex.2:21); an Ethiopian woman (Nu.12:1); another…daughter of a man called Hobáb who wasn’t Zipporah’s father (Nu.10:29, Jg.4:11).”  The names aren’t completely certain.  However, Kenites preceded Abraham’s son Midian/Midianites (Ge.15:19, 25:2).  And Moses also had a Kenite father-in-law & wife (Jg.1:16, 4:11).

David was a great hero, Israel’s most famous king.  He had God’s Holy Spirit (HS).  ref 1Sm.16:13, 2Sm.23:1-2, Ps.51:11, Mk.12:36, Ac.1:16, 4:24-25.  This enabled David to walk in Christ’s statutes & commandments (1Ki.3:14).  1Ki.15:5 “David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and hadn’t turned aside from anything He commanded him, except in the matter of Uriáh the Hittite.”  David habitually obeyed the Lord (except in that one serious matter).     

Yet King David had many wives/concubines (2Sm.5:13, 1Ch.3:1-9).  His cohabiting with plural wives didn’t violate God’s morality!  It wasn’t sin in God’s eyes.  And Christ blessed David!  2Sm.12:7-9 the Lord gave David the wives of the deceased King Saul…the Lord would’ve even given David a larger palace and more wives!  And when David was old & weak, a beautiful girl warmed him at night (1Ki.1:1-4).  David loved the Lord (Ps.18:1); he was “a man after God’s own heart” (Ac.13:22).

John Milton op. cit. “The very argument which is used toward David [2Sm.12:8], is of more force when applied to the gift of wives, than to any other – you ought to have abstained from the wife of another person [Uriah].”  Christ’s gift of wives to David.

David’s son Solomon also had wives/concubines (Ec.2:8 NASB, JPS Tanakh, etc.).  1Ki.11:1-4 but King Solomon multiplied heathen wives through political marriages.  De.17:15-17 the king of Israel wasn’t to maintain a large harem of heathen women!  John Milton ibid “Deut.17:16-17 is so far from condemning polygamy [polygyny]… and only imposes the same restraints upon this condition which are laid upon the multiplication of horses, or the accumulation of treasure.”  A king was expected to have more than one horse, more than one ring/bar of gold…or wife!  Parallelism.  Solomon erred by marrying ungodly foreign women.  As a result, his heart later sought pagan gods.  Whereas the heart of his father David remained devoted to the Lord (1Ki.11:33-34), even though David had several Israelite wives.

Esther the Jewess was the king of Persia’s favorite wife, in the 400s BC.  Est.2:8-17 she became queen of Persia.  v.14 he also made many concubines of the virgins.  Polygyny was an accepted legal practice in the ancient Near East.  In scripture, neither the Persian king nor Esther committed adultery.

Christ, the God of OT Israel, Himself had two wives!  What?!  The Lord declared of Israel and Judah in Je.3:11-14 KJV, “I Am married to you”.  God Himself became figuratively married to two nations.  Is.54:5 “Your Maker is your Husband…the Holy One of Israel.”  The word of the Lord came in Ezk.23:  v.1-4 “There were two women. Their [allegorical] names were Oholáh the elder and Oholibáh her sister. And they became Mine, and bore sons and daughters.”  But God’s two OT wives became adulteresses (v.36-37).  So the Lord gave Israel a bill of divorce (Je.3:8, De.24:1), and later sent away Judah captive.

Daniel I. Block wrote in his OT Commentary, p.736 “Yahweh’s bigamy is all the more striking.”  Maurice Nelson The Monogamy Lie! “God’s polygyny is figurative, not literal…The church finds itself in a bit of a quandary, when God claims, in the Bible, that He is engaging in a supposedly ‘sinful’ act [polygyny]. It is ludicrous to believe that God would portray Himself participating in a sin as a method to teach us not to sin. God [was] the polygynous husband of two women who have cheated [Ezk.23:36-37] on their Husband (God) by pursuing other gods.”  Christ Himself is a figurative polygynist!

Moody Bible Institute Professor of Theology William F. Luck The Morality of Biblical Polygyny, p.51 “If it is a sin to be a polygamist, then God has referred to Himself as a Being with a character flaw.”

Ps.45:6-15 is a Messianic psalm (v.6-7 is quoted in He.1:8-9), and types Christ and His church.  Ps.45:14 relates to Est.2:8-17, virgins going in to the king.  Cambridge Bible Ps.45:9 “One of the wives takes precedence of the rest.”  Benson Commentary “As the queen is the church in general, so these honorable women are particular believers, added daily to the church.”  Jesus is figuratively betrothed to each believer!  2Co.11:2 Paul the apostle wrote to the church, “I betrothed you to one husband, Christ”.

Many theologians view the Song of Solomon not only as a human love story but also as a type of the spiritual love Christ has for His Bride, the church.  SSol.6:8-9 “There are 60 queens and 80 concubines, but my dove is unique.”  Christ marrying His Bride(s) was here typified by Solomon and his 141 wives!  John Milton op. cit. “In Canticles 6:8-10 [SSol.6:8-10], the queens and concubines are evidently mentioned with honor.”  This minimally prefigures 2Co.11:2.  Eventually Christ ‘marries’ way more than 141 Christians!  (Note: Again, Solomon later wrongly engaged in political marriages with pagan women who drew him to other gods; 1Ki.11:1-4 indicates 1,000 total women, not just 141 Israelitesses.)

Paul wrote in Ep.5:30-32, “For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”  The Greek term for church is ekklésia (g1577), a feminine compound noun which means a group or gathering or assembly of people.  cf. a ‘flock of sheep’.  Christ doesn’t marry only one person.  Each Christian becomes His figurative Bride, each spiritually becoming “one flesh” with Him.   

“One flesh” refers to unseparated or organic union.  Paul wrote in 1Co.6:16-17, “Don’t you know that a man who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her? For God says [Ge.2:24], ‘The two will become one flesh.”  In regards to a harlot even, who has many partners!  As a harlot has plural partners, a man could have plural wives.  Samuel Dennis op.cit. “So the married man who sleeps with a harlot is now ‘one flesh’ with his wife, and ‘one flesh’ with the harlot. He is ‘one flesh’ with two women. The ‘one flesh’ relationship isn’t limited to a monogamous couple only.”  It’s not exclusive. 

It is apparent “one flesh” in scripture isn’t only confined to ‘a man with only one woman’.  That was a sham restriction of pagan Roman culture (which in actuality was licentious).  Paul and Jesus referred to Ge.2:24 LXX, Adam & Eve as “one flesh”.  Jesus said in Mt.19:5 Good News, “A man…will remain united with his wife, and the two shall be one flesh”.  Ge.2:23 Adam said Eve is “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.”  Ge.29:14 Laban said his nephew Jacob is “my bone and my flesh.”  Yet Esau too is Laban’s nephew!  Jg.9:2 Abimelech said via his mother’s relatives (plural), “I am your bone and your flesh”.  The (idiomatic) expression “my/your bone and flesh” didn’t mean a monogamous marriage.       

Mt.19:3-ff is about divorce, about remaining united, not about monogamy.  Lauren Heiligenthal Evaluating Western Christianity’s Interpretation of Biblical Polygamy, p.49 “Ultimately, Mat.19:3-9 does not explicitly emphasize the monogamist ideal nor does it exclude polygamy.”  (However, Jesus’ words in v.5 also indicate that for a marriage, plural wives aren’t mandatory; one wife is enough.) 

Moses wrote Ge.2:24.  He knew what God meant by “one flesh”.  Christ chose Moses to record His laws which authorized & regulated polygyny!  (see Part 1.)  And Moses himself had more than one wife.

1Co.12:27 “You [the church] are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.”  Each believer is His Bride, a spiritually chaste virgin to be one with Christ (2Co.11:2).  Mt.25:1-13 is Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins.  Five were wise.  Jesus is the Groom/ Bridegroom, and they are His Brides (plural)!  v.10-12 “The door was shut” refers to the entrance to the bridal chamber where a marriage was consummated.  (also see “Wedding Pattern in Bible Holydays”.)  In Mt.25 too, Christ depicts Himself as a polygynist.

Re.19:9 “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”  Christ figuratively marries virgins.  The typology corresponds to OT plural marriages (SSol.6:8-9).  Perhaps this makes more understandable 2Sm.12:7-8 where the prophet Nathan said the Lord would have given King David even more wives.  The King of kings, Christ Himself…had two OT wives, plus numerous NT Brides!    

Clyde L. Pilkington The Great Omission, p.62 “The [Bible] text speaks of the relationship between God and Israel, and later between Christ and the church, in polygamous terms.”  (Some writers use the terms ‘polygyny’ and ‘polygamy’ interchangeably, though there’s a difference in today’s English.)

The ancient Near East was polygynous.  Pagan Greco-Roman society marriages were monogamous.  But Rome allowed 1^st century Jews (and Persians?) to continue the (OT) laws & customs of their traditional marriages.  David I. Brewer writes, “Polygamy [polygyny] was undoubtedly part of life in 1^st century Judaism. It is now known that the middle classes also practiced polygamy. It is likely that there were few polygamous marriages outside Israel, because they wouldn’t be recognized in Roman law.”

The NT epistles were written to gentile areas which were under Roman law.  Paul was a Roman citizen (Ac.22:27-28).  As such, he didn’t put himself at risk by faulting Roman law or its ostensible marital monogamy.  And faulting might have increased division between Jewish & gentile Christians in areas.

Nathan Braun The History & Philosophy of Marriage, p.71 “The first Christians, while they themselves were scarcely tolerated, were not inclined to attempt a social revolution by opposing the established [Roman] system of monogamy; but they attempted to oppose only its vices, and to remove them.”

{Note: The NT repudiates religious prostitution, incest, homosexuality/lesbianism, adultery, polyandry, some consecutive polygyny (divorce & remarriage), pornéia or sexual immorality in general.}

Paul wrote in 1Ti.3:2, 12, Ti.1:6 that church leaders (Jewish & gentile) should be the “husband of one wife”.  This advice wouldn’t put leaders at odds with Roman monogamy laws for gentiles.  David Brewer “There would have been a few converts with more than one wife. These were allowed to keep their wives, but could not serve as leaders.”  It’s not that polygyny is immoral according to God’s laws.

William Luck op. cit., p.46 “If we cannot find a prohibition of polygyny up to this point of the inspired text, we are in trouble (hermeneutically speaking) finding it here [1Ti.3:2, Ti.1:6]. Second, we should remember that polygyny was considered barbaric by the Greeks and had not been practiced in Ephesus or Crete (where Timothy and Titus lived) [1Ti.1:3, Ti.1:5]….”  Paul wrote to the Greco-Roman world.

However, the way many churches interpret “one wife” in 1Ti.3:12…Abraham the father of the faithful, and David “a man after God’s own heart”, couldn’t even serve as deacons today!  The Christian Bible distributor Gideon’s International is named after a polygynist (Jg.8:30) who couldn’t even be a deacon?  

Polygyny is a moral marital option of God, a choice; but He didn’t explicitly command it.  However, in 1Co.7 we glimpse the allowance for its practice among Christians (laymen only?).  1Co.7:10-11 the Lord said a wife who’d separated from her husband should reconcile with him, or else remain unmarried.  And a man shouldn’t divorce his wife.  Then Paul said in v.27-28, a man who was released from a wife and had remarried, wasn’t in sin.  And if his 1^st wife was to later reconcile with him, as the Lord said in v.11, this man would then be cohabiting with two wives.

The historian Josephus (37–100 AD) wrote of his Jewish people in Antiquities of the Jews 17:1:2. “It is the ancient practice among us to have many wives at the same time.”  1Co.7:39 & Ro.7:2-3 pertain to wives, not husbands.  Because God allowed a man to add a 2^nd wife while his 1^st was alive with him.    

George Joyce Christian Marriage “Justin Martyr [100–165 AD, a gentile] makes it a reproach to Trypho [a Jew] that the Jewish teachers permitted a man to have several wives. When in 212 AD, the lex Antoniana de civitate gave the rights of Roman citizenship to great numbers of Jews, it was found to tolerate polygamy among them. On the other hand, the Romans were strictly monogamous.”  Augustine (354–430 AD) later wrote in Treatises on Marriage and Other Subjects, “According to Roman law it is not permissible to marry a 2^nd wife as long as he has another wife living”.  In 1563 AD, the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) made polygyny anathema at the Council of Trent.  Polygamy was condemned.

Maurice Nelson op. cit. “Polygyny was prohibited by the Roman Catholic Church, not by God. A monogamous society criminally punishes men for relationships allowed by God.”

The society of pagan Rome was morally corrupt.  Juno, the wife of Jupiter, was the Roman goddess of love & marriage.  The 6^th month of Caesar’s Julian calendar (46 BC) was Iunius, the ‘month of Juno’.  Our present Gregorian calendar comes from the Julian calendar.  Western society today resembles decadent Roman society in some respects.  And our ‘June’ is the most popular month for weddings.

Our modern society too is corrupt…illicit sex, licentiousness, abortion, is commonplace.  Prostitution and divorce rates are high in Western nations which have marriage laws based upon the Greco-Roman model and proliferated by the RCC.

Wikipedia: Marriage in Ancient Rome “Marriage was a strictly monogamous institution. It is one aspect of ancient Roman culture that was embraced by early Christianity, which in turn perpetuated it as an ideal in later Western culture.”

“Polygamy is not forbidden in the OT. The NT is largely silent on polygamy. Polygyny is legal in 58 out of nearly 200 sovereign states. Polyandry is illegal in virtually every country.” (Wikipedia)  In the Bible, polyandry is adultery.  William Luck op. cit., p.56 “The husband functions as the head [1Co.11:3], while the woman functions, let us say, as the arm. The head may control more than one arm at a time. But to have two heads [husbands] attempting to control the same arm would be monstrous.”

Many nations today don’t adhere to the Western practice of solely monogamous marriages.  Polygyny is legal in much of Africa.  It’s been said that some peoples there have no vocabulary term for ‘prostitution’!  And African plural wives generally have high social status.  Some Christians too practice polygyny in nations where it’s legal (African & Asian).

Wikipedia: Polygamy in Christianity “Although the Old Testament describes numerous examples of polygamy among devotees to God, most Christian groups have historically rejected the practice of polygamy and have upheld monogamy alone as normative. Nevertheless, some Christian groups in different periods have practiced, or currently do practice, polygamy.”

There are African pastors who resent Western church attempts to compel African churches to disallow what God showed was lawful in the OT!  A lead pastor in Ghana, Stephen Boateng, says, “There’s no single quotation in the Bible that forbids polygamy, even God favors it”.  His colleague, Daniel Eshun, said rhetorically, “At what point did polygamy become a sin?”  1Ti.3 & Ti.1, not written before the 60s AD, would be late for God to somehow change His mind and suddenly rule that polygyny is sin!       

John Milton op. cit. “I argue as follows from Heb.13:4: Polygamy is either marriage, or fornication, or adultery; the apostle recognizes no fourth state…so many patriarchs were polygamists…whoremongers and adulterers God will judge, whereas the patriarchs were the objects of His especial favor.”

It is possible for a man to simultaneously love more than one woman.  Adriana Blake Women Can Win the Marriage Lottery “Why should we think that it is possible to love only one person as a mate? We acknowledge that we can love more than one child and more than one parent.”

The premise that monogamous families produce better-adjusted children is disputable.  Yes, contention did develop between polygynous Abraham’s sons Ishmael & Isaac and between the two wives of Samuel’s father Elkanáh.  But many monogamous families too are contentious.  For example, the twins Jacob versus Esau!  Adam & Eve was a monogamous couple…yet their firstborn son Cain became a murderer, killing his brother Abel (Ge.4:8)!

God the Father is a monogamist.  He’s not a single parent; single parenthood isn’t God’s ideal! ref “Godhead in Prehistory”.  Christ, the Husband of two OT nations and of Christians…is a polygynist.

However, Jesus the man didn’t come to be made physical king (Jn.6:15) or lead a rebellion against Rome and its laws.  His purpose wasn’t to enact Roman legislation regarding morality, to meet His higher standards.  It wasn’t time for His laws to be implemented in their government (Jn.18:37, Re.19:16).

Marrying someone while still legally married to another is bigamy.  Christian men shouldn’t break laws prohibiting bigamy and risk imprisonment.  (Yet polygyny may be viable in some circumstances.)

God made men with more testosterone, whereas wives may not want to be bothered with sex.  A wife shouldn’t feel compelled to have sex!  In the OT, God authorized a solution to satisfy the realistic needs of both sexes and extend the family lineage & wealth. 

The content of the NT, with the words of Jesus, shouldn’t be separated from the OT roots of Christ’s words to His nation Israel.  Christ’s morality isn’t a double standard!  Mal.3:6 “I, the Lord, do not change.”  His laws regulate, not prohibit, polygyny.  And it should go without saying that the 1^st century laws & customs of men in pagan Rome, which we glimpse in the NT, are inferior to Christ’s OT laws!  Beware self-righteousness, based on the customs/traditions of (religious) men.

Modern society can glean true concepts and standards of God’s morality from Christ’s OT guidelines!  He, His character and morality, is “The same yesterday, today, and forever” (He.13:8).

The ultimate and highest determinant of morality is God’s word, not mans’ customs.  Jesus & Paul affirmed God’s word, saying, “It is written”.  And 1Pe.1:25, “The word of the Lord abides forever.”

Polygyny – Lawful in God’s Eyes? (1)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Rebirth to Physical Life (2)

This is the conclusion to “Rebirth to Physical Life (1)”.  Part 1 should be read first, before continuing with this Part 2.  Also, I suggest you read “Universal Christian Salvation”, before proceeding here.

In “Rebirth to Physical Life (1)”, we read about God’s future for the men of ancient Sodom, and for men in both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah in the light of Ezk.37:1-14.  A physical rebirth.  The apostle Paul wrote in Ro.11:26, “All Israel shall be saved”.  Not just a remnant!

We considered the book of Job, when he was suffering.  Jb.1:21 Tanakh KJV Septúagint “Naked came I forth from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there.”  Job indicated he could later be reborn from a mother’s womb, his spirit indwelling a human newborn!  Job symbolically compared himself to the ancient phoenix bird (Jb.29:18 Tanakh), which would live again after a cycle of 500 or 1,000 years.  (see Part 1.)  cf. Re.20:5 “The rest of the dead lived not again until the 1,000 years were completed.”  Re.20:8 the dead, resurrected and returned to physical life, would inhabit “nations” of the earth.

Where in the Bible do we read of an individual, a human spirit, indwelling a second physical body…a personality who later did return to a mother’s womb (as Job indicated) to live another physical life?

The prophet Elijah lived in the early 800s BC.  He was a famous character in Israel’s history.  There’s no scriptural record of Elijah’s death.  2Ki.2:1-14 he was translated into heaven by a whirlwind.

{Sidelight: Elijah’s immediate successor Elisha then received a double portion of God’s Holy Spirit, unlike other “sons of the prophets”.  Elisha performed miracles (ref 2Ki.2:9, 15, 1Co.12:28-29).  Poole Commentary 2Ki.2:9 “Elisha seems to have had a greater portion of the prophetical and miraculous gifts of God’s Spirit.”  Elisha still had his own human spirit of course; it wasn’t replaced by Elijah’s spirit!}

In the 400s BC the Lord said in Mal.3:1, “Behold, I will send My messenger; he will prepare the way before Me”.  Mal.4:5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and dreadful day of the Lord.”  Consequently, the Jews expected a bodily return of Elijah.  Alfred Edersheim The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, p.100 “The coming of Elijah…he was to appear personally.”  Traditionally, each spring they’d set a place for Elijah at the Passover Seder table and leave the door open for him.  Rabbi David Kimchi “When God shall bring him [Elijah] to life in the body, He shall send him to Israel.”  He’d be sent from God, bodily.

John the Baptist was a man “sent from God” (Jn.1:6).  Lk.1:13, 24-27 John was born 6 months before Jesus.  John’s mother was Mary’s aunt Elizabeth.  Mk.1:1-4 John “prepared the way” for Jesus’ ministry.

Jesus identified John the Baptizer as the Elijah who was to come!  Jesus said of John in Mt.11:13-14, “This is Elijah”.  John the Baptist was the Elijah who had lived approximately 900 years before!  Jesus said later in Mt.17:12-13, “Elijah has already come, and they didn’t recognize him. Then His disciples understood He was talking to them about John the Baptist.”  Cambridge Bible Mt.17:12 “[Many Jews] didn’t recognize him as the Elijah prophesied by Malachi.”  Mk.9:13 re John, “Elijah has indeed come”.

The angel Gabriel foretold Zacharias re John his son to be. Lk.1:14-17 “He will go before Him [Jesus] in the spirit and power of Elijah”.  The same human spirit in Elijah was in John the Baptizer.  Both were empowered to call the people to repentance.  Jews believe Elijah will return bodily.  He did.

Let’s now notice several similarities between the lives of Elijah and John the Baptizer:

Both dwelt in the wilderness east of the Jordan River (1Ki.17:2-6 & Mt.3:1-3, Lk.1:80).

Both characteristically wore a shaggy cloak and a leather belt (2Ki.1:8 & Mt.3:4).

Both were witnesses for the true God (1Ki.18:37 & Jn.1:14-15).

Both mocked their opponents who displayed a form of religion (1Ki.18:27 & Mt.3:7-9).

Both reproved their wicked king who disobeyed God (1Ki.18:17-18 Aháb & Lk.3:18-19 Herod Ántipas).

Both were wanted dead by the king’s evil wife (1Ki.19:2 Ahab/Jezébel & Mk.6:17-24 Herod/Herodiás).

Both endorsed their replacement, Elisha and Jesus (1Ki.19:16, 19 & Mk.1:9, Jn.3:28-30).

John the Baptizer even ministered at the same site on the east bank of the Jordan River from where Elijah had been taken up into heaven 900 years before (2Ki.2:1-14)!  Scripture reflects too many similar characteristics for it to be just coincidence.  They were the same personality, the same human spirit.

Ja.5:17 Elijah was a man with faulty human nature, as we.  He made mistakes, one serious.  1Ki.18:4, 13 Israel’s evil queen Jezebel had killed prophets of the Lord.  Elijah took vengeance by killing Jezebel’s false prophets.  1Ki.18:40 “Elijah said to them [Israel], ‘Seize the prophets of Báal [450 men, v.22]; don’t let one of them escape.’ They seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishón and slew them there.”  Ellicott Commentary 1Ki.18:40 “The ruthless slaughter of Baal’s prophets.  Pulpit Commentary 1Ki.18:40 “It is true that the spirit of Elijah was not the spirit of Christianity (Lk.9:56); because our religion instructs us to leave it to Him who has said, ‘Vengeance is Mine.”

Elijah wasn’t a civil authority.  Yet he made the decision to kill the false prophets without having the authorization to kill/stone false prophets (cf. De.18:20, 13:6-11).  The Lord didn’t tell him to kill them.  Elijah chose to kill them…with the sword.  1Ki.19:1 “He had killed all the prophets with the sword.”

1Ki.19:2-3 after slaying the prophets, Elijah fled for his life in fear.  He escaped from evil queen Jezebel.

However, 900 years later John the Baptizer died by the sword, at the behest of evil queen Herodias!  ref Mk.6:17-29.  v.27 the king’s executioner had John “beheaded in the prison”.

Elijah, as John, eventually reaped what he’d sowed!  Ga.6:7 Paul wrote, “Whatever a man sows, this he will also reap”.  Cause and effect.  Elijah killed with the sword…John the Baptizer died by the sword.  Mt.26:52 Jesus said, “All who take up the sword will perish by the sword”.  What goes around, comes around.  Oba.1:15 “As you have done, it will be done to you.”  Ps.7:16 “His violence shall come down upon the crown of his own head.”  Barnes Notes Ps.7:16 “He’d be treated as he had designed to treat others.”  God is just.  Karma?  John reaped the payback for Elijah’s unauthorized ruthless treatment of the false prophets.  Although Jezebel failed to kill Elijah, Herodias succeeded in having him/John slain.

Jesus said John the Baptizer was Elijah.  Jn.1:21 but John didn’t think he was Elijah.  It seems that God mercifully causes amnesia to set in before or by the time children mature.  So a person (like John) isn’t tormented with guilt from any memory of his previous life when he’d committed major crimes or sins.

Elijah was considered a great prophet.  In the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), Moses typified the Law and Elijah typified the Prophets…the “Law and the Prophets”.  And in Lk.7:28, Jesus said there’s no greater prophet than John/(Elijah)!  Mt.17:3-4, 10-13 in the Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus.  The representatives of the Law and the Prophets were two witnesses to Messiah Jesus’ upcoming death (Lk.9:30-31).  Note that the Transfiguration occurred after John the Baptizer was beheaded (back in Mt.14:10).  Elijah couldn’t have been present in the Transfiguration if John was still alive in Judea.

The commission given to John the Baptizer as “My messenger” (Mal.3:1, Is.40:3 & Mk.1:2-4) came to pass in the 1^st century AD, although unconverted Jews still don’t think John was the prophesied Elijah.

Rebirth to physical life was a common belief in Bible times.  Elijah was expected to personally appear on the scene.  Philo Judaeus (ca 20 BC – 50 AD) wrote of the Lógos (Greek), the Word of God.  Works of Philo: The Special Laws 1, p.541 “Now the image of God is the Logos [Word], by which all the world was made.”  The apostle John affirmed in Jn.1:1-4, 14, all things came into being through the primordial Logos/Word who became Jesus in the flesh.  Philo preceded the apostle John.

Philo also wrote in On Dreams 1:138-139, “Now of souls some descend upon the earth with a view to be bound in mortal bodies. Of these, those which are influenced by a desire for mortal life, and familiarized to it, again return to it.”  According to Philo, some Jews returned to a physical life and others didn’t.  (This wasn’t the false New Age belief of transmigration of souls into lower animal bodies!)

Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 18:1:3-5 “Pharisees believe souls have an immortal rigor, and under the earth [cf. Paul’s Php.2:10] there will be rewards or punishments. Virtuous souls have the power to revive and live again, the vicious to be detained….The doctrine of the Sadducees is that souls die with the body…The Essenes teach immortality of souls and esteem that the rewards of righteousness are to be earnestly striven for.”  Pharisees & Essenes thought there was life after death.  Paul had been a Pharisee.

Roman author Pliny (23–79 AD) wrote admirably of the Essenes.  Biblical Archaeology Review Spring 2020, p.49 quotes Pliny. “So fruitful for them [Essenes] is the repentance which others feel for their past lives. Natural History 5:17:4.”

Jews who encountered Jesus thought He too had lived previously.  Some mistakenly thought Jesus was the expected Elijah to come, or that Jesus was John the Baptizer reincarnated.  Mk.6:14-16 “People were saying, ‘John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in Him [Jesus].’ But others were saying, ‘He is Elijah.’ When Herod heard of it, he kept saying, ‘John, who I beheaded, has risen!”  Evidently Herod didn’t hold to the Sadducean doctrine of no resurrection.

Others thought Jesus was an Old Testament prophet (other than Elijah) returned to life.  Jesus asked His disciples in Mt.16:13-14, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ They answered Him, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the Prophets.”  Some of Jesus’ countrymen thought He was Jeremiah (lived ca 650–570 BC) physically alive again.  Why Jeremiah?  Jeremiah had prophesied of the future Messiah (Je.23:5-6) and New Covenant (Je.31:31-ff).  Both Jeremiah and Jesus were persecuted by Jewish leaders who opposed them (cf. Je.20:7-10).  JFB Commentary Mt.16:14 “Jeremiah…suggested by a supposed resemblance between the ‘man of sorrows’ [Is.53:3 Messiah] and the ‘weeping prophet’ [Je.9:1, 13:17]?”  Jeremiah’s book of “Lamentations” means “weeping”.  So it is perhaps understandable why some would (wrongly) think Jesus & Jeremiah were the same human spirit.

Jn.9:1-3 Jesus’ disciples asked Jesus about the man born blind from birth.  “His disciples asked Him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he should be born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents, but in order that the works of God might be displayed in him.”  Jesus then displayed the works of God by miraculously giving sight to this man.

We understand, a human embryo or fetus in the womb doesn’t commit sin.  Jesus’ disciples assumed the man sinned in a past life and his blindness in this life was the payback; he was reaping what he’d sowed.  Or else the man’s blindness was caused by some sin committed by his parents.  Jn.9:34 Pharisees who opposed Jesus accused this man of being “born entirely in sin”.  Although sin wasn’t the cause with this man, Jesus didn’t tell His disciples that a person couldn’t have sinned in a prior physical body.

Gill Exposition Jn.9:2 “The disciples asked whether this man had sinned in a pre-existent state when in another body. This notion, Josephus says, was embraced by the Pharisees.”  Barnes Notes “Many of the Jews believed…that the soul of a man, in consequence of sin, might be compelled into other bodies, and be punished there.”  The nature of the past life sins may not be capital crimes or wholly evil.  Ellicott Commentary ties Jn.9:2 to the apocrypha book Wisdom of Solomon 8:20. “Being rather good, I came into a body undefiled” (KJV 1611 edition).  He’d been more good than evil; his rebirth body had no congenital defects.  (In Mt.12:42, Jesus referred to the “wisdom of Solomon” 6:1.)  Jesus didn’t tell His disciples that belief in a rebirth from a mother’s womb (as Job believed, Jb.1:21) was erroneous.

Jn.5:28-29 Jesus said that from the graves there is resurrection to eternal Life (Strongs g2222, Greek) for those who did good, and resurrection to judgment for those who didn’t.  Judgment involves evaluation.  Ac.24:15 Paul said there shall be “a resurrection of both the just and the unjust”.  Cambridge Bible Jn.5:29 “This passage and Ac.24:15 are the only direct assertions in the New Testament of a bodily resurrection of the wicked.”  (also cf. Da.12:2 with Je.23:40.)

He.11:35 a resurrection to eternal Life with a spiritual body is better than resuscitation, and better than resurrection to another physical life.  1Co.15:44 that which is planted a natural physical body is raised a spiritual body.  Paul is referring to the just who believed, repented, and lived by the Holy Spirit.  (see “Life and Death – for Saints”.)  The just were “firstfruits” (Ja.1:18, Re.14:4), rising to eternal Life.  The just who sowed good works reap a spiritual body to be with the Lord.

He.9:27 all die at least once physically.  cf. deaths: He.11:35, Jn.11:44, 1Ki.17:22, 2Ki.4:35.  Re.20:14 a second death which terminates consciousness is indicated for the very few.  (see “Gehenna (2) – Lake of Unquenched Fire”.)  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!  To hear the name Jesus, believe, repent.

Alfred Edersheim The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, p.1064 “It is at least conceivable that there may be a purification or transformation of all who are capable of such…and that in the end of what we call time, only that which is morally incapable of transformation, be it men or devils, shall be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone.”  (Also, some few view the lake of fire as a refiner’s fire of purification.)

So what do the scriptures reflect will be the final result when every human, BC and AD, has had ample opportunity to hear of salvation via Jesus’ sacrifice, and time to show belief and repentance from sin?

Re.5:11-14 “And every [g3956] created thing – which is in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, in the sea, and all [g3956] that are in them – I heard saying ‘To the One who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb [Jesus], be blessing and honor and glory and dominion to the ages of the ages. Amen.”  Ellicott Commentary Re.5:13 “The whole universe joins in this grand acclaim.”  Barnes Notes “Ascribing praise. All worlds seem to join in it.”  JFB Commentary “The universal chorus of creation.”  Every creature.

So this is total.  At this time all will worship, giving honor and praise to the Lord.  This is done of their own free will.  2Ti.1:10 Jesus has “abolished death”!  There are none left in a hell agony, resisting God!

John envisioned in Re.21:1, 4 “I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist. He [God] shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death will not exist any more; or mourning or crying or pain; for the former things have ceased to exist.”  There’s no cries of pain & torment from a hell-fire!  Gill Exposition Re.21:4 “There will be nothing to afflict the mind.”

What great news this is in regards to our ancestors, family members, friends & loved ones who died unconverted/unsaved!  Their ultimate fate isn’t eternal conscious torment in hell!  The same goes for “all Israel” (not just a remnant).  And for the unnamed multitudes who lived in BC times.  God is so good!

Needless to say, Christians should hope that Universal Salvation for all through Jesus will eventually be a reality in the ages to come.  God’s loving, impartial plan for mankind, created in His image, is greater than we’ve thought!  Praise the Lord!

Spirits – Made by God in Light

What is spirit?  Spirit is non-material essence.  Merriam-Webster Dictionary shows fourteen definitions for “spirit”.  The first two are: “An animating or vital principle held to give life to physical organisms; a supernatural being or essence.”  Scientific theories regarding aether, vacuum energy, neutrinos, which some relate to “spirit”, won’t be discussed here.  This topic mostly discusses supernatural spirit beings.

God is Spirit.  Holy.  Jesus said in Jn.4:24, “God is (a) spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth”.  Father God is Self-Existent spirit.  God isn’t physical matter.  No physical object or image can adequately depict God.  The Godhead or God Family is spirit essence…invisible (1Ti.1:17), ethereal.  2Co.3:17 “The Lord is that Spirit.”  The ascended Jesus is spirit at His Father’s right hand in heaven (He.1:3).  In Lk.24:39, Jesus said that a spirit being doesn’t have flesh and bones.

God is Light.  1Jn.1:5 “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”  Jesus said in Jn.8:12, ”I Am the Light of the world”.  cf. Jn.12:46.  The Old Testament (OT) prophecy quoted in the New Testament (NT) Mt.4:16 refers to Jesus. “The people who sat in darkness [in Galilee] saw a great light.”  1Ti.6:16 God dwells on His heavenly throne in brilliant light which physical human eyes cannot behold or approach.  (Also see the topics “Godhead in Prehistory” and “Jesus Is God…Jesus Has a God”.)

Psalm 104, written by David, is about God’s Creation.  Ps.104:1-3 Septúagint/LXX “Bless the Lord. You are very great. Who robes Thyself with Light [Ge.1:3] as with a garment; spreading out the heaven [Ge.1:8] as a curtain.”  Compare the Creation account sequence in Ge.1:1-8.  After Light was brought forth, lesser spirit beings were then made.

God makes His angels spirits.  After Light, continuing with Ps.104:4 LXX, “Who makes His angels spirits”.  The angelic order is composed of spirit beings.  Cambridge Bible “It is clear that the spiritual nature of angels isn’t in question here.”  He.1:7 of the NT quotes the Ps.104:4 LXX “angels”.

God’s heavenly host includes angels.  Ne.9:6 “You are the Lord, who has made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host. The host of heaven worships You.”  Cambridge Bible Ne.9:6 “Most probably means the created spirits.”  Benson Commentary “All the inhabitants of heaven.”  Poole Commentary “The angels, who are so called.”  Ps.148:2-4 “Praise Him, all His angels; Praise Him, all His hosts! Praise Him, sun and moon; all stars of light! Praise Him, highest heavens!”  Angelic voices on high praise the Lord.  At Jesus’ human birth, in Lk.2:13 the heavenly host was seen extolling God. “Suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God.”

Angels serve as messengers, agents, and helpers. They can make themselves visible to man as need be, appearing as humans.  The writer to the Hebrews admonished in He.13:2, “Don’t neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for some have entertained angels without knowing it”.

The Hebrew term rendered angel in our OT is maláwk, Strongs h4397.  It means messenger.  The term malawk occurs over 200 times in the OT.  It also refers to human messengers and the Messenger of YHVH.  (see “Michael in the Bible”. The only archangel so-named in scripture is Michael, Jude 1:9.)

The Greek term for angel in the LXX and NT is aggelos g32 (pronounced ángelos).  It occurs 185 times in the NT.  It can also refer to human messengers. (e.g. Ge.32:3 LXX, and John the Baptizer in Mt.11:10.)

The Lord Christ shared in the Creation.  Col.1:16 “By Him [Christ the Son] all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, rulers or authorities.”  The Creation includes the heavenly host of beings, normally not visible to human eyes.  JFB Commentary “Invisible – the world of spirits.”  Barnes Notes “The angels we cannot see. Inhabitants of distant worlds we cannot see.”  Gill Exposition “Angels were made by him, Heb.1:7; and, as the Jewish writers say, on the 2^nd day of the creation, though some say on the 5^th.”  Benson Commentary Col.1:16 “The different orders of angels, both those that stood and those that afterward fell.”

According to Jn.1:1-14, Jesus was the primordial Word or Lógos (Greek) of God.  Jn.1:3-9 “The Word was God. All things came into being through Him [Christ the Word/Logos]…That Word was the true Light [g5457].”  “All things” included lesser spirit beings.  Bengel’s Gnomen Jn.1:3 “All things, which are outside of God, were made; and all things which were made, were made by the Logos [Jesus, v.14].”  Expositor’s Greek Testament Jn.1:3 “In 1Cor.8:6 Paul distinguishes between the Father as the primal source of all things and the Son as the actual Creator.”  Christ the Light was Executive Creator.

He.12:9 God is the “Father of spirits”.  Barnes Notes He.12:9 “God is Himself a Spirit [Jn.4:24]. Angels and human souls [or spirits] may be represented as especially His offspring.”  JFB Commentary “God is a spirit Himself, and the Creator of spirits like Himself, in contrast to men who are flesh.”  Meyer’s NT Commentary “God, who is Father in regard to the higher spiritual domain of life.”  Pulpit Commentary “It isn’t human spirits only that are here in view. God is the Father of all ‘the spirits.”

The cherubim (plural) or cherúbs were another class of spirit beings.  Telus.net: Cherubim “Cherubim are spiritual beings.”  They serve as God’s guardians.  The Hebrew term cherub (h3742) occurs 90 times in the OT.  Ge.3:24 God cast Adam & Eve from the garden of Eden, and then stationed cherubim on the east side to guard the way to the Tree of Life.  Scripture doesn’t depict cherubs as chubby human babies with wings flying around!

Ex.25:16-22 Moses was to construct the mercy-seat of God’s Tabernacle with two winged golden cherubs atop the Ark of the Testimony; there the Lord ‘dwelt’ with ancient Israel.  Ellicott Commentary Ge.3:24 “The office of the cherub here is to guard the Paradise [Garden], lest man should try to force an entrance back; and so too the office of the cherubs upon the mercy-seat was to protect it, lest anyone should impiously approach it, except the high-priest on the Day of Atonement.”  In 1Ki.6–8, figures of cherubim were later carved & embroidered (2Chr.3:14) in Solomon’s Temple.  (This wasn’t idolatry.)  In the Greek NT, cheroubim g5502 occurs only in He.9:5.

Ezk.10 is Ezekiel’s vision of cherubs at the Lord’s portable throne.  Ezekiel calls them “living beings”.  Ezk.10:20 LXX “This is the living being [g2226] that I saw below the God of Israel by the river Chobar, and I knew they were cherubs [g5502].”  How did they appear to Ezekiel?  Ezk.1:1, 5 “I was by the river Chebár among the exiles. There were figures resembling four living beings.”  Ezk.1:10 “The likeness of their faces was the face of a human…the face of a lion…an ox…and an eagle.”  Compare the appearance of the four living beings (g2226), but having six wings, that John envisioned at God’s throne in Re.4:6-9…lion, ox, man, flying eagle.  The Nature and Purpose of the Cherubim “These cherubic forms combine the excellencies of these four chiefs of God’s terrestrial creation.”

Winged sphinxes resembled cherubs.  Wikipedia: Sphinx Both the Egyptian and Greek sphinxes “were thought of as guardians, and often flank the entrances to temples.”  An ancient sphinx composite had the head of a human, the paws & tail of a lion, the hind body of an ox, and the wings of an eagle.  Dr. Raanan Eichler What Kind of Creatures Are the Cherubim? “The prevailing opinion is that the cherub is a winged sphinx…such as that depicted on the sarcophagus of the late 2^nd-millennium BC Phoenician king Ahíram.”  William Finck Cherubs Are Sphinxes “A sphinx is a variation on a cherub.”

Fiery seraphim (plural), seráphs h8314, were another class of spirit beings.  They’re celestial attendant worshipers of God, having three pairs of wings.  In the OT, seraphs only appear in the vision of Is.6:1-7.

They were around the Lord’s throne, praising. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.”  Then with a glowing coal of fire from the altar, a seraph figuratively purged Isaiah’s unclean lips & iniquity.  Fire purifies.  Ellicott Commentary Is.6:2 “This is the only passage in which the seraphim are mentioned as part of the host of heaven. ‘Burning ones’…with six wings.”  cf. Rev.4–6.  Gill Exposition Re.4:8 “Cherubim…like the seraphim in Is.6:2.”  Nu.21:6-9 Moses made something like a bronze replica of a seraph, and set it on a pole to aid in healing Israelites bitten by serpents.

The watchers (Da.4:13-17, 23) were another group of spirit beings.  They are discussed in the two-part topic “Watchers and Gen. 6 ‘Sons of God”.

Also there were “24 elders” at God’s throne in heaven.  They are mentioned specifically in Re.4:4, 10; 5:8; 11:16; 19:4.  The apostle John envisioned them in Re.4–5.  Re.4:4 “Around the throne were 24 thrones. On the thrones were 24 elders sitting, dressed in white garments, with crowns of gold on their heads.”  Theologians and Bible commentators have put forth various explanations as to their identity.

The elders wear crowns of gold.  Barnes Notes Re.4:4 “These elders…are of a kingly order. They are human beings.”  In the Bible, elders refer to men.  Gill Exposition “In allusion to the 24 courses of the priests, into which they were divided by David [1Ch.24:4-19].”  Re.5:10 Young’s Literal Translation “And [the Lamb] did make us to our God kings and priests.”  They were as a royal priesthood (ref 1Pe.2:9).

Compellingtruth.com “Information in scripture most likely identifies these 24 elders as representatives of the church.”  Expositor’s Greek Testament Re.4:4 “Heavenly beings, angelic figures corresponding to the ‘thrones’ of Col.1:16. The significance of the doubled 12 has been found in the 12 patriarchs or tribes [of Israel] plus the 12 apostles, or in the 24 classes of the priests.”  Cambridge Bible Re.4:4 “They act as priests in Rev.5:8.”  Pulpit Commentary Re.4:8 lists possible interpretations, including…“The 24 elders represent the great and minor prophets; higher angels – the celestial priesthood”.

Could the 24 elders be redeemed humans who are spirit beings serving on God’s heavenly council or court?  I’ll leave the choice of interpretation to the reader.  (see “Heavenly Host Authorities and Powers”.)

[Aside: Hierarchical angelologies (and demonologies) developed over the centuries in the traditions of Judaism, kabbálah, and medieval Christianity.  That, and other ‘gods’, isn’t discussed here.]

God has given each of us humans our human spirit, the “breath of life” (Ge.2:7).  Is.42:5 God the Lord gives breath to people on earth, “and spirit to those who walk on it”.  Job’s countryman Elihú said in Jb.32:8, “There is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding”.

The human spirit is a vital incorporeal component within our body which imparts consciousness and intellect to our brain.  We are a spirit, dwelling in a physical body on earth.  1Th.5:23 man is made up of “spirit, soul, and body”.

We communicate with God through our spirit.  At conversion, the Holy Spirit (HS) of God joins with our human spirit.  1Co.6:17 “The person who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”  Paul wrote to Timothy in 2Ti.4:22, “The Lord be with your spirit”.  The HS becomes part of our persona.  1Co.3:16 “The Spirit of God dwells in you.”

At physical death, our human spirit is to “return to God who gave it”, Ec.12:7.  The dying Stephen said in Ac.7:59, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”.  (Ja.2:26 “The body without the spirit is dead…our physical body is then a corpse. Also see the topic “Life and Death – for Saints”.)  Php.1:23 Paul said it was better to depart our physical body and “be with Christ” in heaven with a spiritual body (1Co.15:44, 50).

Jesus prepares our heavenly abode for us.  He said in Jn.14:2-3, “I go to prepare a place for you”.  He.12:22-24 dwelling in heaven are the spirits of men (righteous).  Lk.16:22 God’s holy angels will escort our spirit too, returning it to God who gave it…for His disposition and use.  Lk.16:8-9 as the “sons of light”, we’re welcomed into eternal dwellings.  Our spirit returns to the Light.  1Jn.1:5 God is Light [g5457].  Paul/Saul saw it from afar…Ac.9:3 “Suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.”

Jn.3:20-21 those who do truth don’t fear the Light.  But the spirits of those who do evil or are unbelieving are afraid to go to the Light at death, to return to God (Ec.12:7).  They stumbled in darkness (Jn.11:10), not receiving the HS.  These may remain for a time as earthbound spirits (ghosts), stuck.

Those who believe in Jesus and repent of sin won’t abide in darkness (Jn.12:46)!  Ps.36:9 “In Thy Light, we shall see light.”  After death, we shouldn’t fear to return to God…going to the Light!  Trust in His destiny for our human spirit.  God is good (Lk.18:19)!  Medical personnel confirm numerous Near Death Experience (NDE) cases where patients saw the light.

Ja.1:17 God is the “Father of lights [g5457]”.  He made spirit beings, and human spirits (and stars too).  Bengel’s Gnomen Ja.1:17 “He is the Father even of the spiritual lights in the kingdom of grace and glory.”  Pr.20:27 LXX “The spirit of man is a light [g5457] of the Lord.”  Gill Exposition Pr.20:27 “The spirit of man…was a bright and burning light at first, but through sin is become a very feeble one.”

Yet Christians whose human spirit is joined to God’s HS are able to figuratively “shine as luminaries [g5458] in the world” (Php.2:15).  Jesus exhorted the disciples with Him in Jn.12:36, “While you have the Light [g5457], believe in the light, in order that you may become sons of light”.  It’s our destiny too!

Re.22:5 “The Lord God has given them light, and they shall reign forever.”  Col.1:12 Father God “has enabled us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light [g5457].”  Prepared by God, it is the future for our spirits on into eternity…in His heavenly Light!