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.”

Wedding Pattern in Bible Holydays (2)

This Part 2 is the continuation and conclusion to “Wedding Pattern in Bible Holydays (1)”.  Part 1 should be read first.  Most of the symbolic material in Part 1 won’t be repeated here in Part 2.

This two-part topic is tying ancient Israel’s traditional wedding pattern for betrothal & marriage to the sequence of the Lord’s Old Testament (OT) holydays, and to New Testament (NT) writings.  We’re discussing their wedding customs, and typing them to Christ and His church.   

In the NT, Jesus portrays Himself figuratively as a Groom or bridegroom (Mk.2:20), and the church is His Bride.  In 2Co.11:2, Paul the apostle figuratively betroths the church/Bride to Christ.  (I’ll capitalize the words Groom and Bride when they refer to Christ marrying His church.)

There were seven annual God-ordained holy occasions for Israel.  Here’s a list of the Lord’s annual days and the time of year in which they occurred, from Leviticus 23:

Their sacred year began near the spring equinox of March 20.  Le.23:5 Passover was 14 days later, in early April.  v.6 Passover began the seven Days of Unleavened Bread.  v.15-16, 21 Pentecost/Shavúot occurred 50 days later, near June 1.  v.24 the Day of Trumpets/Shouting, Rosh Hashánah (“Beginning of the [civil] Year”, Ezk.40:1a), occurs near the autumnal equinox of September 21.  v.26-28 the Day of Atonement or Yom Kíppur fast is ten days later, around October 1.  v.33-36a the 7-day Feast of Tabernacles (FOT)/Sukkót/Booths began in October, five days after Yom Kippur.  v.36b the Last Great Day 8, called Shémini Atzerét, culminated the FOT.  (also see the topics “Days Israel Observed – God-Ordained” and “Feasts of the Lord and the Jews”.)

So far, in Part 1 we tied the traditional Jewish wedding pattern only to the OT sequence of Passover, Days of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost/Shavuot.  A shared cup of wine, to seal the betrothal or érusin, linked to Passover.  After the prospective groom went away to “prepare a place” for his betrothed at or near his father’s house (Jn.14:1-3), she would begin purifying herself.  That loosely ties to the Days of Unleavened Bread.  While the groom was away, he would send gifts to her.  That custom is reflected in Pentecost, when the gift of the Holy Spirit (HS) was given to the church/Bride, Ac.2:38 etc.  see Part 1.   

However, the betrothed groom & bride didn’t know the date of the actual wedding or nisúin.  It was for the father of the groom to decide when his son had the wedding chamber (húppah Strongs h2646, Hebrew) and house sufficiently prepared for her.  Only the father knows the time for his son/groom to come back for her!  Jesus said of His return in Mk.13:26, 32 “No one knows the day or hour, but My Father only”. 

{Sidelight: Paul said he was taught by Christ’s revelation (Ga.1:12).  Did Paul ever ask or wonder, ‘When are you coming back, Lord’?  If Paul did, he wasn’t told the date.  For that matter, none of the apostles knew the date.  Though in 2Pe.1:14, Peter knew he himself would soon die.  Mk.13:32 Jesus Himself didn’t know an exact date for His return; only Father God knows!  After Jesus’ resurrection, He told His disciples in Ac.1:5-7…it’s in His Father’s authority.  Those verses indicate that the date of Jesus’ coming was something He did not then know.  Israelites and saints, such as Peter, have kept fulfilling the number of their given days on earth, Ex.23:26b.  (However, as Jesus prophesied in Mk.13, Jerusalem & the temple were destroyed in 70 AD when Jesus ‘came’ as Judge, Ja.5:9b.)}

The betrothed Jewish bride would wait in faith that her groom will return and take her to the place he’d prepared.  He.11:1 “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.”  Though he was absent, she trusted that he would come for her!  We in the church too must maintain faith.

It’s said that ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’.  She may not have known him all that well.  Peter wrote of Jesus in 1Pe.1:8. “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you don’t see Him now, you believe in Him.”  The betrothed bride believed her groom would return to take her away.

Customarily the groom came at midnight!  Mt.25:1, 5-6 “In the middle of the night there was a shout, ‘Behold the groom! Come out to meet him.”  The shout would identify that her groom wasn’t a real thief stealthily intruding.  Mt.25:10-13 “Watch therefore, for you do not know the day or the hour.”  Lk.12:40 “Be you also ready, for the Son of Man comes at an hour when you think not.”  The groom usually would return at a late night-time hour.  But leading up to his return….

As the months elapsed with the groom absent, the bride would lie awake watching for him night after night.  Then she’d fall asleep!  Paul wrote the church in 1Th.5:1-2, 10 “You know the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. That whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.”

At last…her groom would come and ‘steal’ her away!  She’d been veiled since betrothal.

At betrothal, customarily the marriage contract or ketúbah was signed by two witnesses. cf. Re.11:3.  John the Baptizer was a witness for the Groom, Jesus (Jn.1:6-7, 15, 32).  Jn.3:26-29 John called himself the “friend of the Groom [bridegroom]”.  At the groom’s return, one of the two witnesses or the groom himself would shout (Mt.25:6).  Her family then knew he’s not a real thief on her father’s property!

1Th.4:16 “The Lord Himself [Jesus] will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.”  v.15 the saints who are alive shall not precede those who had “fallen asleep”.  That is, the saints who’d died precede those who will read Paul’s letter.  Jesus said in Jn.5:25, “An hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear shall live”.  Deceased saints, “fallen asleep”, are taken away by Jesus the Groom.

This coming of the groom was typed by the Day of Trumpets/Shouting.  Le.23:24 Yom Téruah.  This holyday occurs on the 1^st day/new moon of the sacred 7^th month, 1 Tíshri.  They knew the season, but didn’t know whether the moon’s first visible crescent to mark the new month would appear on the 29^th or 30^th day of the old month.  Our Ancient Days: Yom Teruah “The day and the hour that no man knows.”  Jesus said in Mk.13:32, “But of that day and hour no one knows”.  Only the Groom’s Father.

Ancient Israel would watch…then a new moon sighting traditionally had to be confirmed by two witnesses.  The new moon is almost entirely dark.  It’s just a thin sliver.  cf. Mt.24:29-31 “…The moon will not give its light. Then they will see the Son of Man [Jesus] coming.”  The Day of Trumpets/Shouting was also known as the ‘Day of the Concealed Moon’, Yom Kéhseh, the ‘hidden day’.

Mal.4:2 “For you who fear My name, the Sun of righteousness [Christ] will arise with healing in His wings, and you will go forth.”  Jesus is here depicted by the Sun, and the moon’s first visible crescent too reflects the light of the Sun/Son!  Benson Commentary Mal.4:2 “Christ, who is fitly compared to the sun. The church is described as ‘clothed with the sun’, Re.12:1, adorned with graces communicated to her from Christ.”  Again, the groom while absent would send gifts to his betrothed bride.  (see Part 1.) 

{{Sidelight: The 1^st day of the 7^th month, Rosh HaShanah, was also known as the ‘Day of Remembrance’, Yom HaZíkaron (Le.23:24 memorial/zikarón h2146), as birthday of the world.  And as Yom HaDín, the ‘Day of Judgment’.  The sealing/execution of the judgment was then signified by Yom Kippur, ‘Day of Atonement’, occurring ten days later.  see the topic “Day of Atonement (2)”.  (Note: Also there are plural layers of meaning within the concept of Jesus’ Coming.)}}

It’s dark when the saints close their eyes in sleep or death!  A symbolic Day of Trumpets/Shouting is typed in 1Co.15:51-52. “We will not all sleep…for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible.”  Although it wasn’t known exactly when the first sliver of the moon will be visible, the very ill and those advanced in age know that death is near.  (ref 2Pe.1:14 Peter, 2Ti.4:6 Paul.)

Again, the Groom comes in the night for His Bride.  Then she will no longer reside in her father’s house.  Ps.45:10-11 Septúagint “Hear, daughter. Forget your people and your father’s house. Because the King has desired your beauty.”  When the Father of the Groom decided, He would send His Son to take the Bride from her childhood home (earth).  Paul the aged said of himself in Php.1:23, “To depart and be with Christ is much better”.  SSol.2:10 “Arise, My darling, come away with Me.”  She is veiled. 

With a procession, the bride was taken to the huppah bridal canopy, at/near his father’s house.  The ketubah marriage contract was read at a night ceremony.  Customarily included in the reading was Ps.118:26 (Mt.21:9). “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”  The contract was given to the bride by the groom or by the two witnesses.  (see Joel 2:16 for more groom/bride/huppah language.) 

Is.61:10 the groom decks himself with ornaments and the bride is adorned with jewels.  Gill Exposition Is.61:10 “A bridegroom puts on the best clothes he has on his wedding day.” 

Now her veil is removed.  At the wedding nisuin…the bride and groom finally stand face-to-face! 

Ge.32:24, 29-30 “Jacob said, ‘I have seen God face to face, yet I am still alive.”  Traditionally, Jacob saw the face of Christ the Messenger of YHVH on Yom Kipper.  ltradio.org “Face-to-face’ is an idiom for the Day of Atonement.”  Only once a year, on the Day of Atonement, did Israel’s High Priest dimly come face-to-face with the mercy seat of Christ (Le.16:2), amid smoke in the Most Holy Place.    

The typological Day of Atonement (At-One-ment) holyday was the 10^th day of the 7^th month, 10 Tishri.  (It follows Rosh HaShanah.)  Ge.2:24 a husband and wife become one flesh; they become figuratively as one.  Paul wrote of the espoused church/Bride in 1Co.13:12, “Now we see dimly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known.”  When the Bride is face-to-face with Jesus, she then really gets to know the Groom!   

David wrote in Ps.17:15, “I shall behold Thy face in righteousness”.  Behold the face of the Lord.  The disciple John wrote in 1Jn.3:2b, “We will see Him as He really is”.  The Groom/Son of God.  SSol.6:3 “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.”  v.3-9 represents a type of Christ and His gifted Bride(s).

After the wedding, the bride and groom would spend 7 days in the wedding chamber or booth.  Only then was the marriage consummated!  (They’d been apart from the betrothal date until he came for her.)  Laban spoke of his daughter to his son-in-law Jacob in Ge.29:27, “Complete the week of this one”.  Jdg.14:17 Samson was with his new bride for 7 days. 

Weddings were often held either in June or near the 7-day Feast of Booths in the 7^th month, after the Day of Atonement.  The 7 days in the canopied huppah or chamber is typed by the FOT/Booths. 

A wedding was a big celebration!  Mt.22:9-11 guests were expected to wear attire customarily suitable.  A wedding feast was held (cf. Ge.29:21-22, Jdg.14:12).    

The marriage feast for Jesus and His Bride(s) culminates at His Father’s house in heaven.  Re.19:1, 7-9 “I heard a loud voice of a multitude in heaven. The marriage of the Lamb [Jesus] has come and His Bride has made herself ready. Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”  

After the celebratory wedding feast, the couple would go to their new home, usually built at/near the house of the groom’s father.  They hope to live ‘happily ever after’.

The 8th Day Shemini Atzeret was the next day (22 Tishri), immediately following the FOT.  That ends God’s sacred holydays for the year.  That day is thought to foreshadow the new heaven and the new earth.  (Note: There were some traditional variations in wedding custom details and typologies.)

After Christ’s marriage feast of Re.19…Re.21:1 “I saw a new heaven and a new earth.”  The Bride(s) will live forever with her/(their) Husband, the Lord Christ.  (see “Polygyny – Lawful in God’s Eyes?”.)

And for those presently alive on this earth, Re.22:17 “The Spirit and the Bride say come”.  All should believe in Jesus for salvation!

Few of us know in advance the total number of our days/years.  But elderly saints and the terminally ill are closer to completing their days here.  Then they, and eventually we too, will close our eyes for the last time, as have all the saints who went before. 

We anticipate then becoming part of that great cloud of witnesses who preceded us!  He.12:1, 22-24 “We have a great cloud of witnesses. The general assembly and church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, the spirits of righteous men made perfect, and Jesus.”  cf. Ec.12:7.  (1Co.15:44 we too will have a spiritual body.  see “Life and Death – for Saints” and “Rebirth to Physical Life”.)

In OT times, the Lord was the figurative Husband of ancient Israel, Je.3:14.  (see “Jesus Was the Old Testament God”.)  His name YHVH was engraved upon the mitre plate on the high priest’s forehead, Ex.28:36-38.  Re.22:4 then we shall see His face and His name shall be in our foreheads.  A bride is given the name of her husband.    

The ancient wedding typology presents a beautiful and meaningful picture!  Only Father God knows when to say to His Son, ‘The hour has come, go get your Bride’.  At the time we take our final breath, may each of us be ready.

 

Wedding Pattern in Bible Holydays (1)

Marriage is ordained by God.  Ge.2:18 “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make a suitable companion to help him.”  Adam & Eve were husband & wife.  A relationship between Christ & ancient Israel and Christ & the church is that of a figurative husband & wife(s).    

Christ the Lord, in type, had married His people Old Testament (OT) Israel.  Je.31:32 “I was a husband to them’, declares the Lord.”  In the New Testament (NT), Jesus referred to Himself as a Groom or bridegroom.  Mk.2:20 “Jesus said, ‘The days will come when the Groom will be taken away from them.”  Jn.3:29 Jesus’ cousin John the Baptizer called himself the “friend of the Groom/bridegroom [Jesus]”.  (I’ll capitalize the words Groom and Bride when they refer to Christ marrying His church.)

Christ, as spiritually joined to Christians, used marriage symbolism.  2Co.11:2 Paul the apostle said, he figuratively “betrothed you [the church] to one Husband, like a pure Bride chosen only for Christ”.  Jesus spiritually marries His church.  Paul wrote in Ep.5:31-32, “A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife. This mystery is profound, in regards to Christ and the church.”

Ancient Israel’s wedding model for betrothal & marriage can be seen from the Lord’s OT holydays and NT writings.  This topic discusses Israel’s wedding customs, and types them to Christ and the church.

Archaeologists have found evidence of Jewish wedding customs.  My Jewish Learning: Ancient Jewish Marriage “At the beginning of the 20^th century, an actual Jewish marriage record during the period from the return of the Babylonian exile was discovered – the oldest marriage contract in Jewish history.”  The wedding pattern of Bible times adds symbolic meaning to scripture and God’s holydays.

There were seven annual God-ordained holy occasions for Israel.  Here’s a list of the Lord’s annual days and the time of year in which they occurred, from Leviticus 23:

Their sacred year began near the spring equinox of March 20.  Le.23:5 Passover was 14 days later, in early April.  v.6 Passover began the 7 Days of Unleavened Bread.  v.15-16, 21 Pentecost/Shavúot occurred 50 days later, near June 1.  v.24 the Day of Trumpets/Shouting, Rosh Hashánah (“Beginning of the [civil] Year”, Ezk.40:1a), occurs near the autumnal equinox of September 21.  v.26-28 the Day of Atonement or Yom Kíppur fast is ten days later, around October 1.  v.33-36a the 7-day Feast of Tabernacles (FOT)/Sukkót/Booths began in October, five days after Yom Kippur.  v.36b the Last Great Day 8, called Shémini Atzerét, culminated the FOT.  (also see the topics “Days Israel Observed – God-Ordained” and “Feasts of the Lord and the Jews”.)

We’ll tie the annual sequence of holydays to ancient Israel’s traditional wedding model.  In the model, the Day of Trumpets/Shouting, Yom Kippur, and the FOT are addressed in Part 2 of this topic. 

Jesus, the Son of God the Father, portrayed Himself as a Groom.  Again, the NT church is the Bride (2Co.11:2).  Ro.7:2-4 Paul showed that the church is to be “joined” or Married to the ascended Christ.            

In the ancient Near East, the father of the groom would choose or obtain a bride for his son.  The father of the groom would go to the house of the father of the bride to begin the arrangements.  Ge.24:4 father Abraham sent his servant to the old country to bring back a wife for Abraham’s son Isaac.

Ge.34:4-6 the young man Shechém wanted Jacob’s daughter Dinah.  Shechem asked his father Hamór to make arrangements for their marriage.  Hamor then went to Jacob to discuss the matter.  

Jdg.14:1-7 Samson saw a young Philistine woman in Timnáth and wanted her.  He asked his father and mother to get her as a wife for him.  The three of them went to Timnath to make the arrangements.

The father of the groom (or the groom himself) and the father of the bride were often the matchmakers.  A bride didn’t do the initial choosing, but she’d give consent to the proposed match (cf. Ge.24:58).  A mutual commitment or shíddukin between the bride & groom then led to a formal betrothal or érusin.

When the groom’s father (or the groom) went to the house of the chosen bride’s father, they arranged a binding marriage contract or ketúbah. (cf. Tobit 7:14.)  It set the conditions of the marriage covenant. 

Customarily two witnesses would sign the ketubah contract (cf. Re.11:3).  Jn.1:6-7, 32 John the Baptizer (Elijah, Mt.11:13-14) was a witness for Jesus.  Jn.1:15 “John bore witness of Him.”  Jn.3:26, 29 John, as witness for Jesus, called himself the “friend of the Groom”.  A modern counterpart may be the ‘best man’.  (For Christ’s marriage to OT Israel, Moses was traditionally the ‘friend/witness of the Bride’.  Mt.17:3 the two witnesses, Moses and Elijah, were seen in the Transfiguration.)

The prospective bride was a productive member of her father’s household.  Her marriage will result in a loss of labor/income for the household.  So a bride price or móhar was determined, and then paid to her father/family.  It could be items of gold or silver money, or service.  Ge.24:53 precious things were given to Rebekah’s family to ‘purchase’ her for Isaac.  Ge.29:20 Jacob served Rachel’s father Laban for 7 years, as her bride price.  A free wife brought a dowry into the marriage, a bond wife didn’t.  Ge.29:24, 29 some Bible interpreters view the maids Zilpah & Bilháh as the dowry of Leah & Rachel.

Shared cups of wine (or bírkat érusin) confirmed that her bride price was accepted by the groom, and sealed the betrothal, the erusin.  Commonly the betrothed groom was age 16-20, the bride age 13-16.

In this imagery, Father God is both the Father of the Groom (Jesus) and the Father of the Bride (the church).  Father God is the Father of all, of everyone, including Jesus. 

Jesus the man was Jewish, from the tribe of Judah (He.7:14).  This Groom came to earth, the home of the Bride(s).  Jesus’ heavenly Father chooses us as a Bride for His Son.  Ep.1:3-4 “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…chose us.”  The elect (Brides) then consent to the future Marriage.  1Jn.4:19 “We love Him because He first loved us.”  Father God, as Father of the Bride, gives His elect to Jesus.

The Bride was purchased.  Ep.1:14 KJV the Bride is Jesus’ “purchased possession”.  Paul wrote of the church in 1Co.6:20, “You have been bought with a price”.  This Bride price was exceedingly costly!    

This Bride price was the Groom’s lifeblood!  1Pe.1:18-19 the price wasn’t “perishable things like silver or gold, but the precious blood of Christ”.  At Jesus’ final Passover meal, His Last Supper, Jesus took a cup of wine and said to His disciples in Lk.22:20, “This is the new covenant in My blood”.

The New Covenant (marriage) agreement was made at Passover in Jerusalem.  This was the 1^st holy occasion of the sacred year.  It occurred on 14/15 Abíb, the 1^st month.  Traditionally, the groom drank from a cup of wine.  If the chosen bride accepted His offer, she then drank from the cup.  Their action sealed the marriage covenant.  Although the Lord hadn’t commanded wine at Passover, wine was added as a traditional custom in the Roman Empire.  The Talmud Pesachim tract about Passover rituals, “They should not give [a man] less than four cups of wine”.  Jesus and His chosen disciples drank the cup.    

A betrothal was thus sealed.  Betrothal was viewed as marriage, unconsummated.  It could be annulled only if he gave her a legal certificate of divorce (De.24:1), traditionally called a “get”.  Mt.1:18-20 Joseph’s betrothed Mary became pregnant by the Holy Spirit; initially he wanted to divorce her.

After the betrothal ceremony and the mohar or bride price paid, the groom would return to his father’s house for an indefinite time (even up to two years).  At or near his father’s house, the groom would prepare an addition or home for his bride.  Some Israelites lived in cluster homes with a courtyard.  Also the groom would build there the wedding chamber, the húppah (Strongs h2646, Hebrew).  

Jn.14:1-3 was the promise commonly spoken by Jewish grooms after betrothal, “I go to prepare a place for you”!  Jesus the (resurrected) Groom then went to His Father’s house.  Jn.20:17 “I ascend to My Father and your Father.”  God is Father of the Groom and Bride both.  Jn.14:2-3 “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places. I will come back and take you to be with Me.”  Jesus promised to come back for His Bride and take her to the place He’s prepared for her in the heavenlies, where His Father dwells.

The betrothed bride, now veiled, begins to purify herself.  Est.2:12 Esther’s beautification process to prepare her for the king consisted of one year of oils & fragrant spices.  Is.1:18 “Says the Lord, ‘Though your sins were as scarlet, they will be white as snow.”  SSol.4:7 “You are altogether beautiful my love, and there is no blemish in you.”  The Bride/church is portrayed as purified, clothed in pure white linen.  Re.19:7-8 the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints, those invited to the marriage.

This cleansing process of the bride is loosely typed by the Days/Feast of Unleavened Bread (which began at Passover).  Paul wrote in 1Co.5:7-8, “Cleanse out the old leaven, even as you are unleavened. For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us. Let us therefore keep the feast, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with unleavened sincerity and truth.”  Sin can spread in a person’s life.  Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary: Leaven “Here, leaven symbolizes sin that defiles the believer.”  The Bride is to put out sin and pride which puffs us up, as leaven.

While betrothed, the groom and bride lived separately.  After the groom returned to his father’s house to prepare the place for his bride, he would customarily send gifts to her.  Jesus told His disciples in Jn.16:7, “It is to your advantage that I go away”.  After Jesus paid the Bride price (His lifeblood!), He ascended to His Father in heaven.  Ep.4:8 “When He ascended on high…He gave gifts to humanity.” 

The bride’s mother would teach her the wifely responsibilities.  Mother and daughter usually would become closer during this time while the groom is absent. 

Jesus, in heaven, now sends the Holy Spirit (HS) or Comforter to His betrothed Bride.  Ac.2:1, 4 at the Pentecost following Jesus’ ascension, the gift of the HS was sent to the Bride.  Ac.2:38-39 at Pentecost Peter proclaimed, “Repent and be baptized, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”.  Paul wrote of spiritual gifts to the church.  1Co.12:4 “There are various kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.”  1Co.12:7-11 Paul then lists several gifts of the HS which are distributed to the church/Bride(s).  Like a good mother, the indwelling HS teaches & leads Christians while our betrothed Lord is away in heaven.

This gift-giving was typified by Pentecost, which occurred near June 1^st, 50 days or so after Passover.

However, the groom and bride didn’t know the date of the actual wedding or nisúin.  It was for the father of the groom to decide when his son had the huppah wedding chamber & house sufficiently prepared for the bride.  Only the father knows the proper time for the son/groom to return to get his bride!  Jesus said of His return in Mk.13:26, 32 “No one knows the day or hour, but My Father only”.

The betrothed bride would wait in faith that her groom will return and take her to the place he’d prepared.  He.11:1 “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.”  Her longing and anticipation would grow.  Though he was absent, she trusted that he would come for her!  Likewise, we in the church are to keep the faith (Col.1:2-4); we continue to trust Jesus…as we wait.

The topic is continued and concluded in “Wedding Pattern in Bible Holydays (2)”.  Part 2 links ancient Israel’s wedding model to the latter four God-ordained holy occasions of the sacred year.

Watchers and Gen. 6 ‘Sons of God’ (1)

Several types and classes of spirits/spirit beings are seen within the pages of the Bible.

First, God is (a) spirit, Jn.4:24.  Of spirit essence.  God is holy.  The ascended Jesus is spirit, at Father God’s right hand in heaven (He.1:3).  God is the “Father of spirits” (He.12:9); His created heavenly host is composed of spirit beings.  God “makes His angels spirits” (Ps.104:4 Septúagint/LXX, He.1:7).  One class of spirit beings are the cherubim/cherúbs (Ge.3:24).  Another class is the seraphim/seráphs (Is.6:1-7).  Also there were 24 elders seen at God’s throne in heaven (Re.4:4).  And God has given each of us humans our human spirit (Is.42:5).  “There is a spirit in man” (Jb.32:8).  See the topic “Spirits – Made by God in Light” for description of those spirits/spirit beings.

The Watchers were another group of sprit beings.  Wikipedia: Watcher “Watcher is a term used in connection with Biblical angels.”  The Hebrew Old Testament (OT) term rendered “watcher” in our English Bibles is iyr, Strongs h5894.  It occurs only 3 times, all in Daniel chapter 4…Da.4:13-17, 23.

The term “watcher” may reflect their job description or ready alertness as a sentinel.  Da.4:13 LXX “I saw in the night vision a watcher, a holy one [hágios Strongs g39, Greek], came down from heaven.”  JFB Commentary Da.4:13 “Called a ‘watcher’, because ever on the watch to execute God’s will.”  Daniel calls this watcher a “holy one”, a saint.  Poole Commentary Da.4:13 “A watcher is meant an angel, the instrument of God…to execute His judgments, which they watch constantly to perform.”  Gill Exposition “One of the holy angels that never sinned, nor left their first estate [cf. Jude 1:6 KJV].”

Da.4:17 “This sentence is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand is a word of the holy ones.”  Watchers were given mandate to execute decrees.  JFB Commentary Da.4:17 “A solemn council of the heavenly ones is supposed (cf. Job 1:6, 2:1), over which God presides supreme. His ‘decree’ and ‘word’ are therefore said to be theirs (cf. Da 4:24 ‘decree of the Most High’).”  Barnes Notes Da.4:17 “The watchers…as entrusted with the execution of the high and important designs of God.”

Ps.89:6-7 “Who in the heavens compares to the Lord? Who among the sons of God [El h410] is like the Lord? A God [h410] greatly feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all who are around Him.”  In God’s heavenly council are “sons of God” the “Father of spirits” (He.12:9).  Ellicott Commentary Ps.89:6-7 “Sons of God’ – i.e. angels. For a picture of the court of heaven see Job 1:6.”  Cambridge Bible Ps.89:6 “The angels form the council of the great King.”  JFB Commentary Ps.89:7 “The congregation of saints or holy ones; that is, angels.”  Watcher angels were among the holy ones.

But according to scripture (and other ancient sources), some angels or watchers committed trespass.

Jb.15:15 “Behold, He [the Lord] puts no trust in His holy ones; the heavens are not pure in His sight.”  Heavenly angels had sinned!  Pulpit Commentary Jb.15:15 “As in Job 5:1, speaks not of holy men, but of holy angels.”  Poole Commentary Jb.15:15 “His angels, as appears by comparing Job 4:18.”

Jb.4:18 “He [God] charges His angels [h4397 maláwk] with error.”  Compare Jb.4:18 in the LXX. “He perceives perverseness in His angels [g32 ággelos].”  This verse too shows that angels had committed folly.  JFB Commentary Jb.4:18 “Imperfection is to be attributed to the angels, in comparison with Him [God]. The holiness of some of them had given way (2Pet.2:4).”  Some angels were no longer “holy ones”.  Gill Exposition Jb.4:18 “They must be understood of angels, as the following clause explains it [Jb.4:19].”  Cambridge Bible Jb.4:18 “His [God’s] heavenly ministers.”  Not all the watchers had continued as “holy ones”.  Not all were good and righteous, entirely devoted to God.  Benson Commentary Col.1:16 “…Orders of angels, both those that stood and those that fell.”

New Testament (NT) writers also wrote of angels that had fallen from holiness, having sinned.  2Pe.2:4 “God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them down to the abyss [Tártarus, Greek] in chains of darkness, to be held for judgment.”  When did their sin occur?  Ellicott Commentary 2Pe.2:4 “What sin is meant? Not that which preceded the history of the human race. More probably, to distinct and frequent statements in the Book of Enoch that certain angels sinned by having intercourse with women.”  Cambridge Bible 2Pe.2:4 “The degradation of their nature by sensual lust, as in Gen.6:2…it seems probable.”  Compare Ge.6:1-17, the prelude to Noah’s Flood.  Meyer NT Commentary 2Pe.2:4 “What sin the apostle refers to is only faintly hinted at…the example of the flood immediately follows [v.5]. It cannot be doubted that the sin meant here is the same as that of which Jude speaks.”

Here’s the parallel passage in Jude. Jde.1:6 “Angels who did not stay within their own principality, but abandoned their proper dwelling, He kept in eternal chains under darkness.”  This verse also is thought to relate to the watchers in 1Enoch.  (Jde.1:14-15 even quotes 1Eno.1:9!)  Expositor’s Greek Testament Jde.1:6 “Cf. Eno.12:4 of the Watchers (angels) who abandoned the high heaven and defiled themselves with women.”  Pulpit Commentary Jde.1:6 “The sin suggested by the context is… a sin against nature. That some angels, yielding to the beauty of the daughters of men, forsook their own kingdom, and entered into unnatural relations with them.”  Angel spirit beings are a different kind, not human flesh.

Scottish theologian William Barclay (1907-1978) said, “Some angels with the glory of heaven as their own had come to earth and corrupted mortal women with their lust (Gen.6:2). Indeed, if Jude and 2 Peter were not referring to Genesis 6, then, pray tell, to what are they referring?”  Barclay’s comment reflects the traditional majority view of Genesis 6 held in the early centuries of the church.

Barnes Notes Da.4:13 “He was one of the class of ‘watchers’ who were ranked as holy, as if there were others to whom the name ‘watcher’ might be applied who were not holy.”  A number of angels or watchers had sinned, according to other ancient writings too.

Cambridge Bible Da.4:13 “Watcher’…is of frequent occurrence in the Book of Enoch [1Enoch], where it is applied usually (1:5, 10:9, 15, 12:4, 13:10, 14:1, 3, 15:2, 16:1-2, 91:15) to the fallen angels, but it is also (12:3, and perhaps 12:2) used of the holy angels.”  The (somewhat fragmentary) book of 1Enoch is included in the Bible canons of the Ethiopian and Eritréan Orthodox churches (again, cf. Jude 1:14).

The book of 1Enoch contains 108 chapters.  Wikipedia: Book of Enoch “The older sections (mainly in the Book of the Watchers [chpts 1–36]) of the text are estimated to date from 300–200 BCE. A short section of 1 Enoch (1:9) is cited in the NT Jude 1:14-15, and is attributed to ‘Enoch the seventh from Adam.”  Jude numbered Enoch’s generation directly from 1Eno.60:8 where Noah said, “My grandfather [Enoch] was taken up, the seventh from Adam”.  Jude also said Enoch “prophesied” (Jde.1:14).

Let’s look at some of the verses in 1Enoch applicable to this issue.  1Eno.1:4-5 “The eternal God will tread upon the earth….The Watchers shall quake.”  1Eno.6:1-2, 6 “When the children of men had multiplied, in those days were born unto them beautiful daughters. The angels, the children of heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: ‘Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children….And they were in all 200; who descended in the days of Jared [Enoch’s father, Ge.5:18-19] on the summit of Mt. Hermon.”  200 Watchers took human ‘wives’.

1Eno.12:2-4 “His [Enoch’s] activities had to do with the Watchers, and his days with the holy ones. The Lord of majesty said to me: ‘Enoch, you scribe of righteousness, go declare to the Watchers who have left the high heaven, and have defiled themselves with women, and have done as children of earth do, and taken to themselves wives.”  Enoch said in 1Eno.14:1-3, “The holy Great One…has given me the power of reprimanding the Watchers, the children of heaven”.

Celestial beings weren’t to marry or beget children on earth.  In Mk.12:25, Jesus implied that angels in heaven aren’t to marry.  Compare Mk.12:25 with the Lord’s remark to sinful Watchers in 1Eno.15:6-7. “You were spiritual, living the eternal life…and therefore I have not appointed wives for you.”  But any capability of angels to have sexual relations with women isn’t addressed by Jesus.  It seems those Watchers engaged in a form of incubus with women.  (cf. Tobit 6:14 “A wicked spirit loves her”; Ge.19:1, 4-7 sex with a different kind.)

1Eno.7:1-6 “They [the Watchers’ human wives] became pregnant, and bare great giants. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. They began to sin against birds, beasts, reptiles and fish, and to devour one another’s flesh and drink the blood.”  (Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum…the blood?!)  The watchers’ human wives bore hybrid children of mixed kind.

1Eno.88 relates to the punishment of those Watcher angels.  1Eno.88:3 “…Bound them all hand & foot and cast them in an abyss of the earth.”  Then 1Eno.91:15 “There shall be the great eternal judgment, in which He will execute vengeance among the angels.”  1Eno.20:2 “Uriel, one of the holy angels, is over the world and over Tartarus.”  1Eno.21:9-10 “Uriel answered me [Enoch]…This place is the prison of the angels.”  The Watchers who sinned were imprisoned in the Tartarus abyss.

Ref 2Pe.2:4 again. “For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them down to the abyss [Tartarus, Greek] in chains of darkness, to be held for judgment.”  This verse ties to the account in 1Enoch.  We saw that Jde.1:6, 14-15 also ties to the book and prophecy attributed to Enoch.

But what of the Watchers’ offspring, the giants?  The Lord said to Enoch in 1Eno.15:8, “The giants, who are produced from the spirits [Watchers] and flesh [women], shall be called evil spirits upon the earth”.  v.11 “The spirits of the giants afflict…and work destruction upon the earth.”  The giants fate….

1Eno.10:1-2 “The Most High sent Uriel to the son of Lamech [Noah, Ge.5:28-29]…‘A deluge is about to come upon the earth.”  Noah’s Flood will drown the giant offspring of the union between Watchers and women.  v.9 “To Gabriel said the Lord, ‘Destroy the children of the Watchers from among men.”

Ge.6:1-4 relates to the giants.  v.4 “The Nephílim [LXX giants] were on the earth in those days, and also afterwards, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men.”  The Hebrew term “Nephilim” is Strongs h5303.  It meant ‘giant, bully, tyrant’.  The root term is naphál h5307, meaning ‘to fall’.  The term nephilim h5303 only occurs in Ge.6:4 and Nu.13:33.

The Jewish translators of the Hebrew OT into the Old Greek version (now the LXX) used the term “gigántes” Strongs g1095.2…“giant”.  It occurs 30 times in the LXX: Ge.6:4, 10:8-9, 14:5; Nu.13:33; De.1:28; Jsh.12:4, 13:12; 2Sa.21:18, 22; 1Ch.1:10, 11:15, 14:9, 13, 20:4-8; Jb.26:5; Ps.19:5, 33:16; Pr.21:16; Is.3:2, 13:3, 14:9; 49:24-25; Ezk.32:12, 21, 27, 39:18-20.

Cambridge Bible Nu.13:33 “If the Nephilim were thought of as superhuman or semi-divine beings, the spies may have used the name to heighten the effect of their description of the ‘sons of Anák’ (v.28).”  Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 3:14:2 “They [the spies] told them also that they found at Hebrón the posterity of the giants.”  Israelites viewing the land of Canáan were affrighted at the sight of them!

This topic is continued & concluded in “Watchers and Gen. 6 ‘Sons of God’ (2)”.  There we’ll examine more the expression “sons of God”, as found in the OT.  And we’ll look at surviving documentation from other ancient sources to see their interpretation.  Did they understand those “sons of God” to be human men…or angels?

 

Doctrinal Disunity Impacts Evangelism (1)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jewish Sects of the 1st Century (1)

Harvard’s late renowned scholar Jacob Neusner wrote in Judaism When Christianity Began, p.5, 50, “Judaism divides into Judaisms….Judaisms that flourished in Second Temple times, before 70 CE, when the Temple was destroyed.”  ‘Judaisms’ plural.  There were several ‘Judaisms’ in the Holy Land.

This two-part topic identifies seven main Jewish religious sects or groups extant in the Land in the 1^st century.  The time when Jesus lived as a Jew and the temple still existed.  Part 1 discusses the Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees.  Part 2 discusses the Heródians, Zealots, Éssenes, Nazarenes.

#1 SCRIBES: grammateús Strongs g1122, Greek noun.  The term is seen in the Old Testament (OT) Greek Septúagint/LXX, and occurs 67 times in the Greek New Testament (NT).  The OT Hebrew term is Sópherim Strongs h5608 (h5613 Aramaic).

Scribes or Sopherim were writers/recorders, learned in the scriptures.  2Sm.20:25 Shevá was scribe when Zadók was priest in the days of King David.  1Ki.4:3 Shishá’s sons were Solomon’s scribes.  2Ki.18:18 Shebná was scribe for King Hezekiáh of Judah.  2Ki.22:8-13 Shaphán was scribe to Josiáh.

Jewish Encyclopedia: Scribes “The royal officials who were occupied in recording in the archives the proceedings of each day were called scribes….the term ‘scribe’ became synonymous with ‘wise man.”  Scribes were literate, unlike the general populace of Israel and Judah, and more knowledgeable.

The first order of Levitical scribes may have been set up by David, Solomon, or Hezekiah (cf. Pr.25:1).  2Ch.34:13 “Some of the Levites were scribes, officials, and guards.”  Barnes Notes 2Ch.34:13 “A distinct division of the Levitical body has been instituted. The class itself probably originated in the reign of Hezekiah.”  100 years after Hezekiah, Barúch the son of Neriáh was the faithful scribe of Jeremiah the priest (Je.45:1), ca 600 BC.  He’s the traditional author of the apocryphal Book of Baruch.

Previously Israel’s ten tribes disobeyed the Lord’s commandments and consequently were deported into captivity in 721 BC.  Judah was taken captive in 597 BC.  (Prophesied in De.28:15, 36.)  After their Babylonian exile, King Cyrus of Persia allowed Jews to return to the Land with Zerubbabél, ca 538 BC.  Ezra returned ca 457 BC as a royal commissioner from the Persian Empire.  He was sent to investigate conditions in Judea, with authority to administer God’s Law/Toráh to Jewish returnees.

The role of scribes then changed somewhat from that of monarchial Israel & Judah prior to captivity.  Jewish Encyclopedia op.cit. “In the time of Ezra, the designation [‘scribe’] was applied to the body of teachers who…interpreted the Law to the people.”  Scribes/official secretaries became teachers.

Ezra (the name means ‘help’) was a priest and a scribe (Ezr.7:11).  Ezr.7:6 “Ezra…was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses.”  Ezra led reforms, and instructed the people (ref Ne.8:1-18).

Jews who’d returned to the Holy Land didn’t want to suffer another captivity due to ignorance of, or disobedience to, God’s laws.  The synagogue system was set up to teach the (common) people.

Ezra is traditionally credited with establishing the ‘Men of the Great Assembly/Synagogue’.  It consisted of scribes, sages and a few prophets (120 men?).  This was a legislative body.  They codified the Hebrew scripture canon (OT).  The Great Assembly was succeeded by the judicial Great Sanhédrin (70 men), which arose during the Intertestamental Period and was the Jewish supreme court in the Land.

Scribes, though no longer royal officials, became leaders of society during the time of the Maccabees (post-167 BC).  Scribes were an institution and governing religious class, serving on Sanhedrin courts.  Scribes were ‘guardians of the Law’.  Much of the society was illiterate; scribes were the authorities.

Smith’s Bible Dictionary “Scribes gave attention to study of the Torah, its interpretation, historical interpretation, doctrinal issues, and teaching.”  They helped other Jews learn and obey God’s precepts.

Scribes established organized schools in towns, some adjacent to synagogues.  School teachers were considered ‘Masters’ or ‘Rabbis’.  The “Law and the Prophets”, and the Hagiógrapha/“Writings”, were taught in schools.  (But the “Writings” usually weren’t read in synagogues.)  Obtaining a doctor’s degree from schools resulted in a rabbinical ordination.

These schools still existed in Jesus/Yeshúa’s time.  (also see the topic “Synagogue Influence on the Church”.)

Alfred Edersheim The Life And Times of Jesus the Messiah, p.67 “The Great Assembly had disappeared from the scene. The Sopherim [scribes] had ceased to be a party in power….[their] task was purely ecclesiastical, to preserve their religion.”  Their religion initially was based on the Lord’s OT.

But the scribes overreached in their interpretations of scripture.  They began to add man-made religious traditions & regulations to God’s written word.  They valued their add-ons more than scripture!  Jesus said of scribes and Pharisees in Mt.15:1-ff “You invalidate the word of God for the sake of your tradition”.

Scribes of Jesus’ day were egotistical elitists & bureaucrats (Bible.org: The Scribes)…and they opposed Jesus.  He cautioned His disciples in Lk.20:46-47. “Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and love respectful greetings in the marketplace, and chief seats in the synagogues, and places of honor at banquets; who devour widow’s houses and for appearance’s sake offer long prayers; these will receive greater condemnation.”  The role and attitude of scribes had changed over the centuries.

Yet 600 years earlier Jeremiah noted “the lying pens of the scribes” (Je.8:8).  Some scribes as recorders & copyists were disregarding God’s written word to advance their agenda even back then.

{Sidelight: The 1^st century scribes/Sopherim were later succeeded by the Masorétes, (rabbinic) scribal scholars.  Masoretes preserved and copied the OT books from ca 550–1050 AD.  This was done in Jerusalem, Babylon, Tiberius, and in the diáspora (dispersion).  They began adding vowel points ca 800 AD, as no Hebrew alphabet letters served solely as vowels.  Masoretes developed the “Masoretic Text” (from the Hebrew masoreth/masórah, meaning ‘tradition’).  The oldest manuscripts date from the 800s AD.  There were two rival versions of the Masoretic Text, the ben Asher and the ben Naphtali (both done at Tiberius on the W shore of the Sea of Galilee).  Wikipedia: Masoretes “The halákhic authority Maimónides [Rámbam] endorsed the ben Asher as superior, although the Egyptian Jewish scholar Saádya Gáon had preferred the ben Naphtali system.”  There’s more than 850 differences between the two versions.  Dr. Paul Wegner, Professor of Old Testament at Kings College in London, writes “Eventually the ben Asher tradition won out”.  The Hebrew Bible Aléppo Codex (900s AD) and Leningrad Codex (1008 AD) both contain the ben Asher version of the Masoretic Text.  (Note: Most OT verses quoted by the NT writers are from the BC old Greek OT, not the later Masoretic Text!)}

#2 PHARISEES: Pharisáios g5330 Greek noun; it occurs 100 times in the NT.  Their opponents called them Perúshim/Pharisees, derived from an Aramaic term meaning ‘separated ones’.  But they took to themselves the OT name Hasídim (h2623), ‘the pious’.  In Psalms, the Hasidim are rendered the saints or godly ones, e.g. Ps.4:3, 31:23.

Pharisees were called ‘the separated’ because ca 145 BC they resisted the Hellenization (Greek cultural influence) of Antíochus Epíphanes from 165 BC.  Alfred Edersheim op. cit., p.5 “Phárisaism…made no secret of its contempt for Hellenists, and openly declared the Grecian far inferior to the Babylonian ‘dispersion.”  Conversely, the Sadducees accepted Hellenization.  And while the Pharisees claimed to be ‘the pious’, the rival Sadducees claimed to be ‘the righteous’ (Edersheim, p.224).

While trying to protect God’s written law from Greek influence, the resisting Pharisees sought to ‘build a fence around the law’.  The fence was a so-called ‘oral law’ which they (wrongly) supposed God had given to Moses, and was handed down.  Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 13:10:6 “Pharisees have delivered to the people a great many observances by succession from their fathers, which are not written in the law of Moses; for that reason the Sadducees reject them.”  Many traditional practices.

Paul exhorted Titus in Ti.1:14 to “not pay attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth”.  Oral law is the commandments of men…not God.  Jacob Neusner wrote of the “explicit myth of the dual torah, written and oral. A heretic is someone who rejects the duality”.  The Talmudic Qiddushin 3:16, “A heretic is someone who rejects the duality of torah.”  see the topic “Paul the Apostle (2)”, regarding oral torah.  Pharisees made mandatory both the written and oral torah.

And Pharisees gave these unwritten rules or “traditions of the elders” (Mk.7:5) the priority, as even more binding than the Lord’s written Law!  Mk.7:1-9 they substituted mans’ rules for God’s commands.  Jesus said of them in Mt.23:23…their tithing of garden plants was right; but their forsaking (written) Torah for traditions was wrong.  (However, their oral law instruction wasn’t mandatory for women.)

The oral Torah also tried to explain how-to-do written Torah.  It added details so that sacrifices, rituals, etc., could be performed in an orderly manner.  That part of oral law tradition seems reasonable.

Josephus Antiquities 17:2:4 says there were “above 6,000” strict Pharisees.  (Probably the Pharisees outnumbered the Sadducees.)  Pharisaism was the strictest Jewish sect, Ac.26:5.  They kept aloof from others who weren’t as conscientious about cleanliness.  The Pharisees were less political (compared to the Sadducees).  Pharisees appealed to the masses, to most of the scribes, to the synagogues.

Ac.23:6-10 it’s Pharisees vs Sadducees in the Sanhedrin.  Pharisees believed: the annual Péntecost was on Siván 6 of the Hebrew calendar (not always a Sunday), in resurrection, in the existence of angels with wings, and spirits.  Pharisees had a broad angelólogy and demonology.  (Supposedly they believed that demons at human fingertips liked water.  cf. Lk.8:33 demonized swine ran headlong into the lake.)

Although the Pharisees had their differences with the Sadducees and the Herodians (see Part 2), they joined together against Jesus, who they all viewed as their common enemy.

Mt.23:1-3 Jesus said the scribes and Pharisees seated themselves in Moses’ seat (but Jesus exhorts that they fail to practice what they teach).  Encyclopedia of the Bible: Seat of Moses “The name given to a special chair of honor in the synagogue where the authoritative teacher of the law sat.”  (And conveyed administrative judgments.)  Although most scribes favored the Pharisees, “scribes” and “Pharisees” weren’t synonymous.  Edersheim p.65 “Although generally appearing in company with ‘the Pharisees’, he [Scribe] is not necessarily one of them; for they [Pharisees] represent a religious party, while he [Scribe] has a status and holds an office.”  Scribes were Torah scholars & teachers, and copyists.

In Mt.23, Jesus went on to castigate the scribes and Pharisees with seven woes!  v.4-8 they liked being called “Rabbi”, derived from “rabi” which meant ‘My Master’ (‘Great One’).  It was a title of respect or accolade for Torah scholars.  v.27-28 but Jesus said figuratively they were like whitewashed graves.

Pharisees wrongly claimed that Jesus violated the sabbath, Mt.12:1-13.  Then v.14 “The Pharisees went out and counseled together how they might destroy Him.”  Jesus was drawing people away from them.

Before Paul’s conversion, he’d been a Pharisee, Ac.26:3-5.  Many NT readers today are perplexed when reading Paul’s epistles, in which a written law/oral law mix was sometimes meant.  see “Paul the Apostle (2)”.  The Jewish historian Josephus was a Pharisee.  Jn.3:1 also Nicódemus.  Ac.5:34-40 and Gamaliél.

After 70 AD, Pharisees gradually faded away.  But their doctrine/dogma survives.  Got Questions: “The Pharisees’ legacy lived on. In fact, the Pharisees were responsible for the compilation of the Míshnah, an important document with reference to the continuation of Judaism beyond the destruction of the temple.”  They thought that past temple worship could be substituted by continued study in local Jewish synagogues.  Jewish Virtual Library “They [Pharisees] are the spiritual fathers of modern Judaism.”

#3 SADDUCEES: Saddoukáios g4523 Greek noun, meaning ‘the righteous’.  It occurs 14 times in the NT.  The Sadducees supposedly descended from Sadóc/Zadok (g4524 Greek, h6659 Hebrew).  1Ki.1:39 he was the priest who’d anointed Solomon as king, ca 1000 BC.

The Sadducáic sect arose during the 400-year Intertestamental Period, probably after 150 BC.  They were a more Hellenistic group, having adopted the increasing Greek influence of the Grecian Empire.

No actual Sadducee documents survive.  We learn of them from the writings of their opponents.  And in the NT we see that they opposed Jesus and His disciples.

The Sadducees were political.  They appealed to the: Sanhedrin court, wealthy upper class, priests and temple authority.  Ac.4:1 “As they [Peter and John] were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came upon them.”  Sadducees put Jesus’ apostles in jail in Ac.5:17-18. “The high priest rose up along with all his associates from the sect of the Sadducees, and were filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles and put them in public custody.”

The Sadducees looked only to the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses) as their law source, although they accepted the entire OT.  Sadducees claimed to adhere to the written Law of Moses, not to oral torah, so-called.  But it seems their diligence was sorely lacking dedication.

The Sadducees bitterly opposed the Pharisee party.  In 85 BC, six years of civil war ensued between the Pharisees and the Sadducéan Alexander Jánnaeus, King & High Priest of Jerusalem.  50,000 Judeans were killed before he succumbed.  His widow Salóme turned affairs over to the Pharisees in 76 BC.

A civil war between Alexander’s two sons, Hýrcanus and Aristóbulus, resulted in them going to the Roman General Pompey in Syria in 63 BC.  They wanted him to invade Palestine and slaughter their (Pharisee) opponents.  Some think this is how Rome came into power there, and it remained in power during Jesus’ time.  During His time, Sadducees and Pharisees were able to bearably coexist in the Land.

Sadducee and Pharisee beliefs differed in some respects.  Sadducees observed the annual feast of Pentecost on a Sunday (Pharisees didn’t).  Sadducees didn’t believe: in spirits, in angels as winged heavenly beings, in resurrection or the afterlife.  Lk.20:27 “Sadducees deny there is any resurrection.”

According to Edersheim op. cit. p.220, a basic difference between the Sadducees and Pharisees was…Sadducees emphasized man’s free will, the Pharisees God’s predestination.  Sadducees rejected fate.

Sadducees also objected to the Pharisees’ detailed concerns with ceremonial defilements and purity.

The Sadducees were conservative scriptural literalists; aristocrats (educated) friendly with Rome, and they controlled the temple.  However, not all temple priests were Sadducees.  The Pharisees interpreted more by tradition; they appealed to the common people & women, and controlled the synagogues.

Jesus and John the Baptizer took issue with both sects.  Jesus said in Mt.16:11-12, “Beware of the leaven [teaching] of the Pharisees and Sadducees”.  Mt.3:7 “When He [John the Baptizer] saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he exclaimed to them, ‘You generation of vipers.”

The Pharisees and Sadducees tried to prove that Jesus was evil or make him appear so (cf. Mt.16:1-12).

Jesus disapproved of the example set by both the Pharisee and Sadducee sects.  He had more run-ins with the Pharisees, perhaps because of their preference for the oral law above God’s written word.

Which party had the most control?  Eerdmans Bible Dictionary “The views of the Pharisees prevailed among the common people…the Sadducean priests were compelled to operate according to the Pharisees’ views.”  Another source said “Pharisaical Hillelítes were in control when Messiah walked the earth.”  (Hillél 1 and Shammái founded the two main Pharisaical schools.)  Also Edersheim wrote that Sadducees who held positions generally conformed to the practices of Pharisees.  From his Sketches of Jewish Social Life, p.220, “The Sadducees had to…reckon Pentecost as did their opponents [Pharisees].”

Roman support ended during the Roman–Jewish War of 67–73 AD.  With Rome’s 70 AD destruction of Jerusalem, the Sadducees conclusively lost any control.  (Sadducees were Sad-you-see!)  There was no longer a temple nor an official priesthood.  And by 135 AD, Rome had destroyed much of the Jewish nation.  The Jewish priesthood and upper class who’d favored the Sadducee party became non-existent.

Wikipedia: Sadducees “Their sect is believed to have become extinct some time after the destruction of Herod’s Temple in 70 CE; but it has been speculated that the later Karaítes may have had some roots in, or connections with, Sadducaic views.”

Few followers of Sadducaic principles remained after Jerusalem & Judea fell.  A remnant or offshoot of Sadducee beliefs may be the sect of Karaite Jews today.  Karaites consider themselves as ‘Adherers to the Text’.  Both Sadducees and Karaites reject the oral torah of (rabbinic) Judaism as binding.

This two-part topic about Jewish religious sects and groups is continued & concluded in “Jewish Sects of the 1^st Century (2)”.  In it are discussed the Herodians, Zealots, Essenes, Nazarenes.

‘Thousand (Years)’ in the Bible – (2)

This topic is Part 2 to “Thousand (Years)’ in the Bible – (1)”.  Most of the many verses quoted in (1) won’t be repeated here in (2).  I suggest you read Part 1 before continuing.

We’ve been examining Bible verses & terms that reflect “thousand” and “thousand years”.

From Part 1…The New Testament (NT) passage that prompted the topic is Re.20:1-5.  The apostle John wrote: “I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while. Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom authority to judge was given. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.”

In the extended passage of Re.20:1-7, “thousand years” appears 6 times.  Is the thousand years meant literally or approximately or as a rounded number?  Or is the 1,000 years figurative or representative?

Figurative language is…using a word or phrase to picture something other than the literal or natural meaning.  We normally interpret literally, actually,…unless the literal sense implies untruth, absurdity, impossibility, contradiction of other verses.  In that case…the meaning is figurative, metaphorical, symbolic, allegorical, hyperbolic, a simile, parable, idiom, a personification…not interpreted literally.

Words can be representative…to denote, signify, portray, or indicate something (else).

In the Re.20:1-7 passage, the NT Greek term for “thousand” is chílioi, Strongs g5507.  Our English word kilo (multiplication by 1,000) is derived from this term chilioi.

In the Greek Old Testament (OT) LXX and Greek NT, chilioi g5507 is the term translated “thousand”.  It can be the precise number one thousand/1,000.  There are 11 NT occurrences: 2Pe.3:8; Re.11:3, 12:6, 14:20, 20:2-7.  Chilioi g5507 can be a precise symbolic, representative, rounded, or literal 1,000.

The term chiliás g5505 is used in plural thousands.  There are 23 NT occurrences: Lk.14:31; Ac.4:4; 1Co.10:8; Re.5:11, 7:4-8, 11:13, 14:1, 3, 21:16.  In the NT, chilias g5505 is never used for the precise number one thousand/1,000.

However, Hebrew had only one term for “thousand”…éleph h505.  It occurs 500 times in the OT.  Eleph is used: for the precise number one thousand/1,000, in numbers exceeding one thousand/1,000 (usually, e.g. 22,273 in Nu.3:43), and for plural “thousands”.  There’s no distinction in the term itself.

In Part 1, we began a lengthy survey of many verses to see how “thousand” was meant in scripture.  Only a couple verses were found (so far) where one thousand/1,000 is clearly literal.

We’ll now continue this in-depth survey and conclude the topic.  I’ve been mostly referencing the LXX for the OT; the Greek LXX language better compares to our Greek NT.

Jb.9:3 “He [man] can’t answer Him [God] one time in 1,000 [g5507] times.”  Benson Commentary “One accusation against 1,000 which God might produce against him.”  But man couldn’t answer charge 1,001 from God either!  Here, 1,000 basically denotes a large number.

Jb.33:23 “If there is beside him an angel [or messenger], an intercessor, one among a thousand, to show to man what is right for him.”  Here too, “a thousand” denotes a large number.

Ec.7:28 he found one upright man out of 1,000 (g5507), but not one woman.  JFB Commentary Ec.7:28 “Solomon, in the word ‘thousand’, alludes to his 300 wives and 700 concubines [1Ki.11:3].”  Perhaps the approximate total of women in his harem was 1,000; many became negative experiences.

Ps.105:8 “God has remembered His covenant forever…to 1,000 [g5507] generations.”  If a generation is 20 years, then 1,000 generations spans 20,000 years.  40-year generations would span 40,000 years!  After 20,000–40,000 years…at generation 1,001 God wouldn’t fail to keep His covenant!  Here, 1,000 denotes a large number.

Ps.50:10 God says, “Every animal of the forest is Mine, the cattle on 1,000 hills.”  (v.10b isn’t in the LXX.)  If God owns the cattle on only 1,000 hills, then who owns the cattle on hill 1,001 and all the other hills!?  Mathew Henry Commentary “Even the cattle which feed upon innumerable hills.”  Here, 1,000 clearly represents an unknown immeasurable number.

Da.5:1 “Belshazzár the king held a feast for 1,000 [h506 Aramaic, g5507 LXX] of his nobles.”  Perhaps 965 or 1,035 nobles were there, or more?  Barnes Notes Da.5:1 “The term 1,000 here is doubtless used to denote a very large number.”  A version of the LXX reads “2,000 lords” (Pulpit Commentary).

Da.7:10 “A thousand thousands (g5505) attended Him, 10,000 times 10,000 stood before Him.”  This verse reflects 1,000 (h506 Aramaic) & 10,000 multiplied.  1,000,000 & 100,000,000!  Gill Exposition Da.7:10 “An innumerable company of angels.”  Thousand is symbolic.  cf. Re.5:11 (g5505).

In the above instances…the number 1,000 would allow for 975, or 999, or 1,001, 1,025, or more.  God owns the cattle on the 1,026^th hill too!  Ps.24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”

Ezk.40-48 is Ezekiel’s grand allegorical vision.  Ezk.47:3-5 records four measurements, each of 1,000 (g5507) cubits, in the water that became a river.  Symbolic 1,000s.  cf. Jn.7:38-39 where Jesus spoke of “rivers of living water” of the Spirit.

In Part 1 and Part 2, so far we’ve examined verses where “one thousand/1,000” refers to people or things.  The Meaning of Numbers: the Number 1,000 “In scripture, the term ‘thousand’, when in reference to time, is always used symbolically. It represents any predetermined time that God chooses. In other cases, it is always used symbolically for a large number of people or things.”  That is, referring to the precise number one thousand/1,000.  Now the verses where “one thousand/1,000” relates to time:

In Da.12:11-12 are the 1,290 days and 1,335 days.  Not a precise 1,000 days.  Both periods are g5507 in the LXX.  Many commentaries relate the two periods to the rule of Antíochus Epíphanes, ca 164 BC.  However, there isn’t complete agreement for conclusively tying the two periods of days to specific months then.  Others relate the two periods to Titus’ siege of Jerusalem leading up to 70 AD.

The 1,260 (g5507) days of Re.11:3, 12:6, (13:5)…also aren’t a precise 1,000.  The various interpretations won’t be discussed here.  Bible historians have tied this period of days to 66–70 AD, ending with the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome.  (For comprehensive detail, see Josephus’ Wars of the Jews.)

Ps.84:10 KJV “A day in Thy courts is better than a thousand [elsewhere]. I’d rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God.”  (LXX has plural “thousands”, g5505.)  “Thousand” represents countless days.

Now for the verses where the precise number “1,000” refers to years (not “days”).  The expression “thousand years” is found only in Ec.6:6; Ps.90:4; 2Pe.3:8; Re.20:2-7.

Ec.6:3-6 “If a man begets 100 children and lives many years….Even if the man lives 1,000 [g5507] years twice over and does not enjoy good things….”  Pulpit Commentary Ec.6:6 “What has been said would still be true even if the man lived 2,000 years.”  It’s true even if he lived 980 or 1,020 or 2,020 years…or if he begat 90 or 110 or more children.  The 1,000 years (and the 100 children) are symbolic.

Ps.90:4 LXX “1,000 [g5507] years in Your [God’s] sight are as yesterday which is past.”  Cambridge Bible “The longest span of human life is but a day in Thy sight, though a man should outlive the years of Methuselah.”  The 969 years Methuselah lived (Ge.5:27)…or 1,039 or 1,069 years…are also as yesterday.  As one day.  1,000 years are symbolically as one day.

2Pe.3:8 KJV “Beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as 1,000 [g5507] years, and 1,000 [g5507] years as one day.”  The usage of “1,000 years” in this verse is somewhat similar to Ps.90:4.  Benson Commentary 2Pe.3:8 “A thousand years, yea, the longest time, is no more delay to the eternal God than one day is to us.”  Matthew Poole Commentary 2Pe.3:8 “By a synécdoche, 1,000 years is put for any, even the longest revolution of time.”  Bengel’s Gnomen 2Pe.3:8 “He [God] wonderfully exceeds all measure of time.”  In this verse too, “1,000 years” is figurative.

Returning now to our beginning passage of Re.20:1-ff…Re.20:2 “He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and satan, and bound him 1,000 [g5507] years.”  Barnes Notes Re.20:2 “The notion of a millennium as such is found in this passage alone [Re.20:1-6].”  Millennialism is also known as chiliásm (from the Greek term g5505 for “thousand”).  No other passage shows millennium!

JFB Commentary Re.20:2 “A thousand implies perfection. Thousand symbolizes that the world is perfectly leavened and pervaded by the divine.”  Matthew Poole Commentary Re.20:2 “It is probable that it signifies an uncertain, indefinite time.”  Pulpit Commentary Re.20:2 “The best interpretation seems to be that this phrase expresses a quality, and does not express a period of time. ‘1,000’ signifies completeness.”  Ellicott Commentary Re.20:3 “The same applies to the duration of the imprisonment; it is not to be understood literally.”  Kenneth L. Gentry He Shall Have Dominion, p.347 “The thousand is no more literal here than that which affirms God’s ownership of the cattle on 1,000 hills (Ps.50:10).”   Anthony A. Hoekema The Bible and the Future, p.226 “The book of Revelation is full of symbolic numbers. The number ‘thousand’ in this passage ought not to be interpreted in a strictly literal sense.”

In the Bible, “one thousand/1,000 years” refers to a large period of time.  Interpreting the years as an approximation is even a stretch.

The precise number 10,000 (see Part 1) represented a large indeterminate amount.  So did the precise number 1,000 (to a lesser degree or less emphatically).  Spiritual Meaning of Thousand “In the Word, a thousand signifies much and countless.”  Andrew of Caesárea Commentary on the Apocalypse, p. 206 “By the number 1,000 years by no means is it reasonable to understand so many years. For neither concerning such things of which David said, ‘The word which he commanded for 1,000 generations’ (Psalm 105:8) are we able to count these things as 10 times 100; rather they mean many generations.”

Yet there are others who did/do interpret the “1,000 years” of Re.20:1-ff literally.  As the date 1000 AD neared, all over Europe there was needless terror and alarm, because they supposed that satan would be loosed 1,000 years after Jesus’ birth!  (ref Mosheim’s Institutes of Ecclesiastical History, p.340.)

{Sidelight: In 1071 AD the Seljúk Empire of Sunni-Muslim Turks & Persians took Judea and Jerusalem.  This led to the First Crusade. (see Wikipedia: Seljuk Empire.)  History.com “Christians in Jerusalem were increasingly persecuted by the city’s Islamic rulers, especially when control of the holy city passed from the relatively tolerant Egyptians to the Seljuk Turks in 1071. In 1095 Pope Urban publically called for a crusade to aid Eastern Christians and recover the holy lands.”

The date 1071 AD was 1,001 years after the 70 AD destruction of Jerusalem.  Some Bible readers literally relate Re.20:7-8 to the hostile Seljuk control of Jerusalem.  Re.20:7-9 “When the 1,000 years are completed, satan will be loosed…and will deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, and gather them for war…And they surrounded the beloved city.”  Turkey has been tied to the historical Gog and Magog.  Later Ottoman Turks controlled Jerusalem until 1917 AD.  But after 1,000 years of restraint, a next period of 846 years, from 1071–1917 AD, isn’t a “little while” comparatively (Re.20:3)…it’s near to another 1,000-year period!  So this view as fulfillment is doubtful.}

Interestingly, an ancient Greek & Roman belief was…the spirits of the dead dwelt in Hades for 1,000 years, and then were reincarnated or resurrected to earthly life. (for Hades: ref Lk.16:23; Re.1:18, 20:13-14.)

The Roman poet Virgil wrote ca 20 BC Aenéid, lines 735-751 “The dead are disciplined in purgatory….Each of us finds in the next world his own level….All these souls, when they have finished their 1,000–year cycle, God sends for…They may revisit the earth above and begin to wish to be reborn again.”  Ancient Greek Mythology For Kids “The River Ácheron carried the good souls from the Underworld [Hades] that were sent back to earth after 1,000 years to be reincarnated as mortals.”

Wikipedia: Millennialism “The concept of a utopian millennium, and much of the imagery used by Jews and early Christians to describe this time period, was most likely influenced by Persian culture.  Zoroástrianism describes history as occurring in successive thousand-year periods, each of which will end in a cataclysm of heresy and destruction. These epochs will culminate in the final destruction of evil by a triumphant messianic figure.”

Job said in Jb.29:18 JPS Tanakh, “I thought I would end my days with my nest [family], and be as long-lived as the phoenix”.  The Tanakh is the Jewish (OT) scriptures.  Bereshith Rabba Traditionally, only one bird, of all creatures, didn’t eat from the tree of forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden.  Barnes Notes Jb.29:18 “Herder observes that the phoenix is obviously intended here….Jannai adds that ‘this bird lives 1,000 years, and in the end of the thousand years, a fire goes forth from its nest, and burns it up. But there remains an egg, from which again the members grow, and it rises to life.”  1,000-year symbolism.  Also ref 1Clement 12:2-6 (25:2-ff in some translations) regarding the phoenix. (cf. Ec.6:6.)  also see the topic “Rebirth to Physical Life (1)”.

Belief in a 1,000-year period had also existed in ancient Egypt.  The Works of Voltaire, v.3 “The belief …in this period [1,000 years] was also in great credit among the Gentiles. The souls of the Egyptians returned to their bodies at the end of 1,000 years.”

The apostle John and readers/hearers of Revelation in Asia Minor likely would have known of existent beliefs about Hades and 1,000-year periods.  It seems that Re.20:1-ff superimposes upon those ancient beliefs the true reign of messiah Jesus with His saints in the Kingdom of God.  (see the topic “Kingdom of God”.)  While the mustard seed of the Kingdom grows & progresses (Mt.13:31-33), some think satan is being progressively bound and is only effective in a decreasing percentage of humanity.  (Someone in bonds and restrained may still have an effect to a degree, as Paul did have, e.g. Phm.1:10.)

Over the centuries there have been churches which make dogma with definite time limitations, and prognosticators make (false) predictions or so-called prophecies…based on the “1,000 years” of Re.20.

John Whiteford If Satan Is Alive, Why Not Millennialism? “We’ve seen similar heresies with millennialist eschatology in more recent times, with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, 7^th Day Adventists, Mormonism, the Jim Jones cult, and Branch Davidians.”

The purpose of this topic isn’t to analyze or criticize church groups.  Or eschatologies…e.g. historicist, futurist, amillennial, premillennial, postmillennial, preterist, partial preterist, etc.  For more on timing in the Bible, see “The Last Days”, “Babylon the Great’ in Revelation”, “Two Witnesses in the Bible”.

The scriptures we examined indicate that “1,000 (years)” meant a large number or a long undefined time.

Postmillennialist Kenneth L. Gentry The Beast of Revelation, p.133 “The number ‘1,000’ is frequently used in scripture as an indefinite, yet significantly large, number (Pss.90:4, Dan.7:10, 2Pet.3:8).”

OT scholar Erhard Gerstenberger, “For ancient Israelites, the numbers 1,000 and 10,000 were regarded as immense and immeasurable”.

Conclusion: In Part 1 and Part 2, the precise number “one thousand/1,000” people or things was seen in several verses as an approximation or a rounding.  But very few verses were found where “one thousand/1,000”…no more, no less…was meant to be taken completely literally.  Of all the verses surveyed in Part 1 and Part 2…the precise number “one thousand/1,000” appears clearly literal only in Ge.20:16 and SS.8:11-12.  Possibly 1,000 is literal in 1Ki.3:4 and Nu.31:4-6 (see Part 1).

We began by quoting the “1,000 years” of Re.20:1-ff.  The other 3 verses where “1,000 years” appears in the Bible, Ec.6:6; Ps.90:4; 2Pe.3:8…aren’t to be taken literally.  If the “1,000 years” of Re.20:1-ff is to be taken completely literally…it would be one sole canonical witness, standing alone.  Our Bibles don’t contain two or three passages as witnesses to a “millennium”.

‘Thousand (Years)’ in the Bible – (1)

This topic will examine Bible verses & terms that reflect “thousand” and “thousand years”.

The New Testament (NT) passage that prompted the topic is Re.20:1-5.  The apostle John wrote: “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while. Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom authority to judge was given. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.”

In the extended passage of Re.20:1-7, “thousand years” appears 6 times.  Is the thousand years meant literally or approximately or as a rounded number?  Or is the 1,000 years figurative or a representation?

Figurative language is…using a word or phrase to picture something other than the literal or natural meaning.  We normally interpret literally, actually,…unless the literal sense implies untruth, absurdity, impossibility, contradiction of other verses.  In that case…the meaning is figurative, metaphorical, symbolic, allegorical, hyperbole, a simile, parable, idiom, a personification…not interpreted literally.

Words can be representative…to denote, signify, portray, or indicate something (else).

In the Re.20:1-7 passage, the NT Greek term for “thousand” is chílioi, Strongs g5507.  Our English word kilo (multiplication by 1,000) is derived from this term chilioi.

In the Greek Old Testament (OT) LXX and Greek NT, chilioi g5507 is the term translated “thousand”.  It can be the precise number one thousand/1,000.  There are 11 NT occurrences: 2Pe.3:8; Re.11:3, 12:6, 14:20, 20:2-7.  Chilioi g5507 can be a precise symbolic, representative, rounded, or literal 1,000.

The term chiliás g5505 is used in plural thousands.  There are 23 NT occurrences: Lk.14:31; Ac.4:4; 1Co.10:8; Re.5:11, 7:4-8, 11:13, 14:1, 3, 21:16.  In the NT, chilias g5505 is never used for the precise number one thousand/1,000.

A chilí-ar-kos g5506 was a commander/captain of 1,000 men.  (A centurion was leader of 100 men.)  e.g. in 1Sm.18:13 LXX, Saul appointed David “captain of 1,000 [g5506].”  (A military commission under general Abner.)  cf. 1Ch.12:14 LXX commanders of 100 (g1540) and of 1,000 (g5507) men.

The term múr-e-oi g3463 means “ten thousand/10,000”.  There are 3 NT occurrences: Mt.18:24; 1Co.14:19.  1Co.4:15 “Though you have 10,000 instructors in Christ.”

The term mur-é-as g3461 is plural 10,000s; also it’s rendered an innumerable multitude.  There are 9 NT occurrences: Lk.12:1; Ac.19:19, 21:20; He.12:22; Jde.1:14; Re.5:11, 9:16.

However, Hebrew had only one term for “thousand”…éleph h505.  It occurs 500 times in the OT.  Eleph is used: for the precise number one thousand/1,000, in numbers exceeding one thousand/1,000 (most often, e.g. 22,273 in Nu.3:43), and for plural “thousands”.  There’s no distinction in the term itself.

Let’s survey many verses to see how “thousand” was meant in scripture.  I’ll mostly reference the LXX for the OT; the Greek LXX language better compares to our Greek NT.  First, numbers exceeding 1,000:

Nu.3:43 LXX “All the male firstborn, from a month old and upwards…were 22,273 [g5505 is within].”  In this verse, “thousand” is a numeral which is part of a precise larger literal number.

Ezr.2:7 the children of Elám who returned from Babylonian captivity were 1,254 (g5507 is within).  v.14 of Bigvái 2,056 (dis-chilioi, g1367) .  v.35 of Senaáh 3,630 (tris-chilioi, g5153)   v.39 of Harím 1,017 (g5507 within).  v.65 there were 7,337 (eptakis-chilioi, g2035) male & female servants.  In these verses, “thousand” is a numeral which is part of a precise larger literal number.  Not an approximation.

Nu.1:46 All that were numbered were “603,550” (g5505 within).  That’s the literal precise number of warriors age 20 and up.  In Ex.12:37 & Nu.11:21, “600,000” (g5505 within) men is a close rounding.

Ex.38:26 the half-shekel tax in silver for each of the 603,550 men totaled 100 talents plus 1,775 (g5507 within) shekels.  Here, 1,775 shekels is a literal amount.  (100 talents @3,000 shekels each = 300,000).

Nu.31:32-40 the numbers in thousands (g5505 within) of animals and persons taken as booty are all roundings: 675,000, 72,000, 61,000, 32,000, 337,500, 36,000, 30,500, 16,000.

Jsh.8:25 LXX “They that fell in that day were 12,000 (dodeka chilias g5505) men and women; all the inhabitants of Aí.”  Here, 12,000 is an approximation or a rounding.

The 5,000 in Ac.4:4, 23,000 in 1Co.10:8, 7,000 in Re.11:13…(g5505) are roundings or approximations.

2Ch.13:17 Judah slew of Israel 500,000 chosen men.  Here, thousand the numeral is g5505.  Ellicott Commentary “A numerical expression…that Jeroboám [Israel’s king] lost more than half his warriors.”

{Sidelight: This topic won’t discuss interpretations of the 144,000 (g5505) persons in Re.7:4-8, 14:1-3.  Commentaries view 144,000 as a symbolic number.  Pulpit Commentary Re.7:4 “No one has ever said that the number should be taken literally.”  Vincent Word Studies Re.7:4: “Not literally, but the number symbolical of completion.”  Barnes Notes Re.7:4 “The whole scene is symbolical.”  cf. Re.21:16-17.}

In the above examples are numbers exceeding 1,000.  Following are many verses which show the precise number 1,000:   

Ge.20:16 “Abimélech told Sarah, “I have given your brother 1,000 [g5507] pieces of silver.”  This precise number 1,000 is thought to be a literal amount.  (cf. 1,100 pieces of silver in Jg.17:2.)

SS.8:11-12 Solomon leased out his vineyard to tenant farmers.  Each paid “1,000 [g5507] pieces of silver” in exchange for its fruit.  Perhaps it had around 1,000 vines?  1,000 pieces may be the literal fee.

Ezr.1:9-10 the number of holy vessels was “30 gold dishes, 1,000 [g5507] silver dishes, 29 knives, 30 gold bowls, 410 silver bowls, 1,000 other vessels.”  A (near) literal inventory of items?

1Ch.29:21 LXX “David sacrificed to the Lord…1,000 [g5507] calves, 1,000 rams, and 1,000 lambs….”  At this momentous occasion, perhaps such large precise numbers are literal.  Or approximate?

2Ch.30:24 “Hezekiáh gave the congregation 1,000 [g5507] calves…and the rulers gave 1,000 calves.”  For the reinstitution of Passover, perhaps these precise numbers too are literal, or approximate.

1Ki.3:4 LXX “Solomon offered a whole burnt offering of 1,000 victims on the altar in Gibeón.”  Such a large number may be literal; else approximate, perhaps indicative of special respect for the site.

Nu.31:4-6 “So 1,000 [g5507] were recruited from each Israelite tribe…12,000 armed for war.”  This  precise number 1,000 may be near literal.  JFB Commentary Nu.31:5 “An equal amount from each tribe, to prevent mutual jealousy or strife.”  Gill Exposition Nu.31:5 “A small number to go against so considerable a nation; but this was done to show that the war was of the Lord.”  However, in 2Sm.10:6, “Ammonites hired 20,000 Aramean foot soldiers…the king of Maacáh with 1,000 [g5507] men, and 12,000 men of Tob.”  Here, the 12,000 and 1,000 (and 20,000) warriors are approximations.

1Sm.13:2 “Saul chose 3,000 men of Israel; 2,000 were with Saul and 1,000 (g5507) with Jonathán.”  These precise numbers are roundings or approximate.  Same with 2Sm.19:17, 1,000 men of Benjamin.

1Sm.25:2 Nabál owned 3,000 sheep and 1,000 (g5507) goats.  A man’s substance was described by the general size of his flocks and herds.  The precise 3,000 and 1,000 both are rounded or ballpark numbers.

Jb.42:12 “14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 oxen, 1,000 female donkeys.”  Approximate doublings of the numbers of Job’s livestock in Jb.1:3.

Jg.9:49 “All in the tower of Shechém died, about 1,000 (g5507) men and women.”  Approximately.

In Jg.15:16, Samson killed 1,000 (g5507) men with a donkey’s jawbone.  Possibly Samson killed an even 1,000 (not 985 or 1,015).  But, more likely, 1,000 indicates ‘about 1,000’, approximately.

De.1:11 “May the Lord increase you 1,000 [g5507.1] times and bless you.”  Starting 40 years after the exodus, to increase the population of OT Israel a thousand-fold.  The Greek LXX term is an old form of chilioi g5507; a number literal, figurative, or representative.  Here, 1,000 represents a large multiple.

De.7:9 “God keeps covenant with those who do His commandments to 1,000 [g5507] generations.”  Or, “to the 1,000^th generation”.  If a generation is 20 years, then 1,000 generations spans 20,000 years.  40-year generations would span 40,000 years!  After 20,000–40,000 years, at generation 1,001 God wouldn’t fail to keep His covenant, would He?!  Here, 1,000 basically denotes a large number.

1Ch.16:15 “Be always mindful of His covenant which He commanded to 1,000 [g5507] generations.”  This reminder was given several generations later (since De.7:9).  Again, 1,000 denotes a large number.

De.32:30 “How could one [enemy] chase 1,000 [Israelites] and two rout 10,000?”  The LXX terms are g5507 for 1,000 and g3461 for 10,000.  The numbers are figurative.  One might chase 990…or 1,010+!

Jg.1:4 the men of Judah slew 10,000 (deka chilias g5505) men.  Cambridge Bible Jg.1:4 “10,000 – a common round number.”  In Jg.3:29, “about 10,000” (hosei deka chilias g5505) men of Moab were slain.  In both verses, 10,000 is an approximation or indicative of a large number.  cf. Lk.14:31.

Jsh.23:10 “One of you [Israelites] chased 1,000 [g5507]; the Lord fought for you.”  A figurative 1,000.

Is.30:17 “1,000 [g5507] shall flee at the threat of one man.”  1,000 is figurative/representative here too.

In the above three verses with 1,000…Moses, Joshua, Isaiah all were using representative or figurative language.  Barnes Notes Is.30:17 “The number ‘1,000’ is for a large indefinite number.”  Ellicott Commentary Is.30:17 “The hyperbole is natural and common enough.”  cf. 1,000 (g5507) in Am.5:3.

Ps.91:7 LXX “1,000 [g5505 copyist error?] shall fall at your side, and 10,000 at your right hand; but it shall not come near you.”  This is hyperbole.  If 1,001 or 10,001 were to fall, would you then fall too?

2Sm.18:12 “Even if I had 1,000 [g5507] pieces of silver in my hand, I would not raise my hand against the king’s son….”  Here, 1,000 is hyperbolic.

This survey of verses which reflect “one thousand/1,000” is rather detailed.  So far, only a couple verses have been referenced where one thousand/1,000 is clearly literal.

This topic is continued and concluded in “Thousand (Years)’ in the Bible – (2)”.

Two Covenants – Heart of the Matter

The heart is used figuratively in the Bible as man’s moral, emotional and sometimes intellectual center.  Jesus said emphatically in Mt.22:37, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind”.  Jesus was quoting De.6:5 of the Old Covenant (OC).  In this topic, we’ll look at the Old Covenant and the New Covenant (NC), in relation to the heart.

Our Bible forms an integrated whole, a standard for the church.  2Ti.3:16 all scripture is given by the inspiration of God.  Yet Christians and others overlook some of God’s (enduring) principles, because they were cited in the OC.  Many speak of the OC with disdain, not considering that moral principles therein were evident in Genesis for gentiles…and that was before there ever was a nation of Israel or an OC!  see the topics, “Added in the Old Covenant” and “Genesis Principles Predate Moses”.

Most of ancient Israel didn’t like the laws of God.  Neither do some NC Christians.  In that regard, it seems these Christians somewhat resemble the mindset of OC Israelites/Jews!  They dislike, or ignore, or may even be hostile towards some of God’s written laws (purposed for the good of society)!

There is only One true Lawgiver.  Ja.4:12 “There is one Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy.”  God the Lawgiver had His morality and justice recorded for humanity and the Kingdom of God!

But from the beginning, man opted to establish his own laws and ways, thinking that man of himself innately knows right from wrong.  But a just determination of good & evil is a prerogative solely of God the Lawgiver, not man.  If man tries to ascertain what’s good vs evil on his own, he does so from the wrong tree of the knowledge of good & evil.  ref Ge.3:3-6.  (see “Tree Symbolism in Scripture”.)

God’s theocracy of ancient Israel was given His just laws.  Moses asked the rhetorical question in De.4:7. “What great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God?”  None.  No other nation on the face of the earth!  Old Testament (OT) Israel was given God’s very own principles of morality and His commandments.  Le.22:31 “You shall keep My commandments and do them; I Am the Lord.”  God isn’t unfair.  He didn’t require the ancient nation He loved to do that which wasn’t doable!  God’s commandments are doable!  But their heart wasn’t in it.

Who specifically gave God’s divine laws to Moses/Israel?  Jesus said that no human in OT times had heard Father God’s voice or seen His form.  ref Jn.1:1, 14, 18, 5:37, 6:46.  John indicated it was Jesus the Word of God who the Jewish prophet Isaiah had seen in vision on the Throne! (cf. Is.6:1-ff with Jn.12:41-44.)  De.32:3-4 “Ascribe greatness to our God! The Rock! His work is perfect.”  The Rock of Israel, who went with them in the wilderness…“That Rock was Christ”, according to Paul (1Co.10:4)!  It was Christ who’d personally visited Abraham (Gen.18).  It was Christ who spoke to Moses, gave Israel the Decalogue (Ex.20), and then established the OC (ref Ex.24:1-8).  Moses and the elders of Israel saw the preincarnate Christ (Ex.24:9-12)!  also ref the topic “Jesus Was The Old Testament God”.

Orthodox Study Bible, p.652, quotes church historian Eusebius writing about OT saints. “It is obvious that they knew God’s Christ Himself, since He appeared to Abraham, instructed Isaac, spoke to Jacob, conversed freely with Moses and the Prophets who came later.”  Christ/the Word was the God who spoke with mankind in the OT!  And He.13:8…“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

During their OT history, Israel rebelled against Christ the Lord and His laws, and later corrupted God’s precepts with their own man-made religious traditions.  Je.17:9 “The heart of man is deceitful above all, and corrupt.”  The human heart is deceitful.  Most of ancient Israel didn’t have the Holy Spirit (HS).  So under the OC, the HS wasn’t impressing God’s principles on their hearts.  The last verse of the book of Judges sums it up.  Jg.21:25 “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”  Apart from God’s laws, man does what seems right in their own conscience or circumstances…an ancient form of humanism.

(Some Christians seem to do this too, yet may attribute their actions to the HS leading them…as if Christ or the HS isn’t consistent, and contradicts God’s written word or moral principles from the OT!)

As a result, God sent disobedient Israel and Judah into captivity…for bloodshed, idolatry, incest, usury, sabbath-breaking, oppressing the weak, etc. (ref Ezk.22:1-16).  The law of God wasn’t in their heart.

Some from the southern kingdom of Judah later returned to the Holy Land.  These Jews wrote selected OT verses in small boxes or phylácteries.  They literally strapped them to the arm & forehead.  De.6:4-9 “Hear O Israel! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. These words shall be on your heart. And you shall bind them on your hand.”  But their literal practice became a pretense; they did it mostly to impress others.  Jesus said in Mt.23:2-5, “The scribes and Pharisees…do all their deeds to be noticed by men, for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.”  (De.6:8 a literal physical binding of scriptures in phylactery or téfillin boxes wasn’t the meaning of the verses anyway.  For example, Pr.3:3 & 7:2-3, “binding” God’s commandments on necks, fingers and hearts…was metaphorical only, not to be taken literally.  They weren’t to tie them onto the fingers!)

Jesus called them hypocrites (or stage actors) in Mk.7:6. “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.”  Most Jews who returned from captivity didn’t “write” upon their hearts the principles of God, which Christ and the HS had given Moses.  Jesus accused Jews who opposed Him in Jn.7:19. “None of you carries out the Law.”  They disliked Christ’s OT laws.  Those Jews considered God’s written commandments a burden.  But 1Jn.5:3 “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.”  According to John, real love involves keeping God’s commandments…and they’re not a burden!  (see “Love – Godly Love”.)

However, there was a minority of OC Israelites who honored and even loved God’s written principles, and desired to obey them.  King David was such a man.  Ac.13:22 (quoting 1Sm.13:14) David is called “a man after God’s own heart”!  1Ki.11:34 “David observed My commandments and My statutes.”  Only in the matter of Bathsheba/Uriah did David turn aside from what God commanded him.  1Ki.15:5 “David did what was right in the sight of the Lord.”  David made mistakes, a few very serious, but his overall intent was to obey the Lord.  [Note: Mic.5:2 is a prophecy of Bethlehem, David’s birthplace (1Sm.20:6, 17:58) and Jesus’ birthplace.  Lk.2:4 the family ancestry was there.  Mt.9:27 Jesus is the son of David!]

David’s name appears over 1,100 times in the Bible.  Interestingly, both the first and the final name mentioned in the New Testament (NT), except for “Jesus”…is “David” (in Mt.1:1 and Re.22:16)!

In some respects, David was a forerunner of real NC Christians!  1Sm.16:13 the HS was mightily on David from that day when Samuel anointed him!  Jesus said in Mk.12:35-36, “David himself said in the Holy Spirit….”  The following two verses, written by David, reflect how he viewed Christ’s principles and laws: Ps.19:7-8 “The law of the Lord is perfect”.  Ps.40:8 “Thy law [toráh Strongs h8451, Hebrew] is within my heart.”  The HS figuratively wrote God’s laws on David’s heart.

Therefore we might call David a prototype of He.8:8-11 (prophesied in Je.31:33-34). “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel’, says the Lord. ‘I will put My laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. All shall know Me.”  In the NC, God writes His laws upon human hearts.

God made the NC with Israel and Judah…other Christians are grafted-in, according to Paul.  ref Ro.11:13, 17, 23-27 all of ‘spiritual’ Israel will be saved, via the NC (not via Judaism).  As God’s laws are being written on our hearts in the inner man, we shouldn’t habitually sin.  We should be able to say with David, “Thy law is in my heart” (Ps.40:8).

Similar to Je.31:33 (Je.38:33 LXX), is Ezk.36:26-27. “I will give you a new heart…I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and observe My ordinances.”  Real Spirit-filled Christians allow God to write His laws and principles on their hearts & minds!  The apostle Paul said in Ro.3:31 e.g., “Do we nullify the Law through faith? God forbid! We establish the Law”.

David wrote of the righteous man in Ps.37:31. “The law of God is in his heart; his steps do not slide.”  David, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Paul essentially are saying the same thing in the verses quoted.  Paul wrote in Ro.7:12-14, “The law is holy, and the commandment is holy, just and good. We know that the law is spiritual.”  Yes, the Holy Spirit had given it to Moses.  Paul goes on in v.22-25, “I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man….I myself with my mind am serving the law of God.”  According to the NC (He.8:10), God was writing His laws upon the apostles’ minds and hearts too.  2Co.3:3 Christ’s moral laws are no longer written on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.

Other ways of describing the heart on which God can write His laws are…a new heart (Ezk.36:26), an exchanged heart, a circumcised heart.  These are interchangeable terms for that heart which is willing to obey the Lord.  De.30:6 was Moses’ prophecy of a future (non-physical) heart circumcision which God would do (to the hearts of both men and women).  Paul wrote in Ro.2:29, “Circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit”.  Not the physical circumcision operation of the foreskin done by men.  Col.2:11 “In Him you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands.”  God does it (this fulfills De.30:6).  These persons will allow God’s principles to be written on their heart by the HS.  (see the topics “Circumcision in the Bible” and “Holy Spirit-Filled”.)

Ten years ago I had the opportunity to hear a Christian speaker from Mozambique.  This man had reportedly resurrected a dozen people from the dead in the name of Jesus!  He related to us a vision he’d received.  In the vision, he was shown people with trees growing out of their heads!  He said the Lord told him the vision represented modern society (including the church) partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good & evil (Gen.3:6)!  Even the church appears humanistic, many churchgoers attaching Jesus’ Name to that wrong tree, not desiring God the Lawgiver’s definition of good & evil on His terms.

On another occasion, a pastor from Uganda was invited to speak at a church in my city.  He told of closing himself off for three days in his room to seek the Lord for the topic.  He said God told him to address Ezk.22:26. “Her priests have violated My law, they make no distinction between the holy and the profane, or between the unclean and the clean; and they hide their eyes from My sabbaths.”  That visiting pastor spoke courageously!  But his sermon was hard for some to hear.

Is.8:20 “To the law and to the testimony [the Decalogue, Ex.31:18]! If they don’t speak according to this word, it is because they have no light.”  Too many Christians (perhaps unknowingly) are attaching Christ’s Name to man’s laws and justice system from the wrong tree of humanism…as if man is God.

It can feel more comfortable to be religious or follow denominational traditions which may not honor God’s written word.  That’s what the majority of OC Israel/Judah did, and the Pharisees did in Jesus’ day.  Paul wrote of them in Ga.6:13. “Those who are circumcised [physically] don’t even keep the law.”  Those Jewish religious leaders who contended with Jesus weren’t keeping God’s written laws.  Mt.15:18 “The things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart.”  The scribes & Pharisees who spoke against Jesus…God’s written principles weren’t on their hearts.  (Jesus was law-abiding).

Let’s us not be pharisaic NC Christians by resembling OC Israelites/Jews that disrespected God’s laws.  Sectarian church traditions or the views of so-called church ‘fathers’ (e.g. some Roman Catholic Church tradition) shouldn’t be placed above the written word of God.  That practice can also be a cause of division in the Body of Christ.  (also see “Doctrinal Disunity Impacts Evangelism”.)

The Lord exclaimed in De.5:29, “Oh, that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and keep My commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons forever”!  But such a heart wasn’t in most of those OC Israelites, and they failed to be a right example to the nations.

In conclusion…God saves the upright in heart (Ps.7:10).  We too can be real NC (grafted-in) Christians, having God’s righteous moral principles written on our hearts and minds!  And they’re not burdensome (1Jn.5:3).  And as the gospel spreads, obedient NC Christians will reflect the righteousness and true heartfelt love of God to the world!  To God be the glory!!

Jesus Was the Old Testament God

The Bible indicates the Godhead is a tri-unity…Father, Holy Spirit, and Son Jesus.  Many if not most Bible readers think the God who was seen and active in the Old Testament (OT) was the God whom Jesus referred to as His “Father”.  Most readers view this OT God as being strict and more judgmental than their perception of Jesus in the New Testament (NT).  Here we’ll look at scriptures which reveal the identity of the Deity who was seen and heard by humans in the OT.

Jn.1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”  v.14 “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”  The Word (Lógos in Greek, Mémra in Aramaic), who was also God from the beginning, later became Jesus in the flesh.  Jn.17:5 God the Word had glory with the Father before the world existed.  Jn.17:24 Jesus spoke of, “My glory which You [Father] gave Me”.  What do the scriptures show of God the Word in the OT before He became Jesus in the flesh?

In the Song of Moses, De.32:3-4 “I proclaim the name of YHVH; ascribe greatness to our God! The Rock.”  v.18 “You [Israel] neglected the Rock who begot you, the God who gave you birth.” (cf. 2Ki.22:2 Septúagint/LXX.)  The apostle Paul identified their figurative Rock in 1Co.10:4. “That Rock was Christ.”  Continuing, 1Co.10:9 “Neither let us test Christ, as some of them also tested Him, and were destroyed by serpents”.  This incident to which Paul referred was in Nu.21:5-6. “YHVH sent fiery serpents and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.”  The primordial Word of God, who became Jesus the Christ…was YHVH, the OT God/Rock whom His people tested, according to Paul!

Isaiah wrote in Is.6:1, 5 “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted. My eyes have seen the King, YHVH of hosts.”  Isaiah saw God.  In Jn.12:41-44, John identifies specifically who Isaiah saw. “Isaiah saw His glory, and he spoke of Him. Many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they weren’t confessing Him lest they be put out of the synagogue. Jesus said, ‘He who believes in Me.”  According to John, Isaiah saw the pre-incarnate Jesus, the Word of God, as King on the throne!  Isaiah didn’t see Father God.  Jesus said, no man other than He has seen Father God….

Jesus declared in Jn.6:46, “No man has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father”.  Jesus said in Jn.1:18, “No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten God [Jesus] has explained Him.”  Only the Word who became Jesus Christ has seen awesome Father God!

Yet God was visibly seen on many occasions in the OT!  Ex.24:1-11 “Moses went up with 70 of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel.”  After Moses wrote down the Old Covenant, which the God of Israel gave them, they saw God.  According to Jesus, the Father was never seen.  Also, YHVH said in Nu.12:7-8, “My servant Moses, with him I speak mouth to mouth, he beholds the form of YHVH”.  Jacob said in Ge.32:30, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved”.  This wasn’t the Father who was seen in these OT passages…it was the pre-incarnate Christ, the Rock.

Abraham saw God and two angels in Ge.18:1-ff. “YHVH appeared to him by the oaks of Mamré. He [Abraham] looked, three men were standing opposite him. They did eat.” (v.1-3, 8)  The three even shared a meal with Abraham!  The Lord remained talking with Abraham, while the two angels went on to Sodom (Ge.19:1).

Jesus told the Jews in Jn.8:56-58, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it. Truly I say to you, before Abraham came into being, I AM.”  The Word/Jesus, not Father God, is the I AM who appeared as a human seen by Abraham.  (God also appeared to Abrám in Ge.12:7.)  God said to Moses in Ex.3:14, “You shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you”.  Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, and others in the OT saw the pre-incarnate Jesus, who was also YHVH/I AM of ancient Israel.

Joshua was told to remove his sandals in the presence of the Commander of the Lord’s host in Jsh.5:13-15. “For the place you are standing is holy. Joshua did so.”  Jesus/the Word, who commands His host of angels (Mt.13:41, 26:53), was seen there…not the Father.  Compare Ex.3:4-6, 14 where Moses too must remove his sandals in the presence of God/I AM.  (also see the topic, “Michael in the Bible”.)

Prior to the Word Jesus being seen as God in the OT, He and the Holy Spirit (HS) were the Creators (under the overall direction of the Father).  Ps.33:6 “By the Word of YHVH the heavens were made, and by the Spirit of His mouth all their host.”  Jn.1:1-3, 10 “All things came into being by Him [the Word]. He was in the world and the world was made by Him.”  Col.1:16 “All things have been created through Him [the Son/Word] and for Him.” also see He.1:2.  The Word/Jesus/Light was Creator God.

Ge.2:1-3 “By the 7^th day God completed His work which He had done, and He ceased/rested on the 7^th day. Then God blessed the 7^th day and sanctified it.”  It was Jesus who ceased or rested from creating on the 7^th day.  It was Jesus who set apart the 7^th day (not the 1^st day or the 6^th day), ordaining it as holy time.  Therefore Jesus is truly Lord of the sabbath, as He said in Mk.2:27-28. “The sabbath was made for mankind. The Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.”  (Jesus never revoked His 7^th day holy time.)

The following two passages are more evidence that Jesus Christ was the Lord God who appeared in the OT.  Quotes are from the Greek LXX/Septuagint; we can compare the same Greek terms in our NT:

Moses told Israel in De.10:17 LXX, “The Lord your God, He is Lord [Strongs g2962] of lords [g2962]”.  The God of Israel was “Lord of lords.”  Re.17:14 “The Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord [g2962] of lords [g2962].”  Jesus the Lamb is “Lord of lords”…same as the OT God of Israel!

God declared in Is.45:21 LXX, “I AM God, and there is not another besides Me; a Savior [g4990], there is none but Me”.  1Jn.4:14 “The Father has sent the Son to be the Savior [g4990] of the world.”  Jesus the Son is the Savior…and He was the God/I AM in the OT, seen by Isaiah!  There’s no other Savior.

1Co.1:1, 5:7 the Jewish Christian Paul (with the Corinth synagogue ruler Sosthénes, Ac.18:17) wrote of “Christ our Passover”.  YHVH told Moses in Ex.12:13, “When I see the blood I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you”.  In mercy, YHVH/“Christ our Passover” passed over the houses of the Israelite firstborns.  And it is this Christ who was the solid Rock of OT Israel, according to Paul.

In Ex.20:6, the Lord God said He is “Showing love to a thousand generations who love Me and keep My commandments”.  Jesus said in Jn.14:21, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and I will love him”.  The Word/Jesus is Lord in the OT, and He spoke the Decalogue.

In Jn.1:18, the Son Jesus said that He declares the Father.  Jesus came to reveal His nature.  Jesus said in Jn.17:25-26, “Righteous Father, the world has not known You. I have made Your name known to them”.  OT Israel hadn’t known the Father.  The OT term for “Father”, referring to God, rarely occurs.

Jesus said in Jn.5:37, “The Father who sent Me has borne witness of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.”  Father God was visibly unseen and audibly unheard in the OT.  (Not until Jesus & John the Baptizer heard the Father’s voice bear witness of Jesus at His baptism.)  Yet De.4:33, Israel heard God speaking at Sinai.  Christ the Word, not the Father, was seen & heard in the OT.  (also see the topics, “Tri-unity of God” and “Jesus Is God…Jesus Has a God”.)

Again, according to John, it was the Lord Jesus who Isaiah saw high & lifted up.  Je.1:4-5 LXX “The Word/Logos [g3056] of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Before I formed you in the belly I sanctified you.”  v.9 “The Lord stretched out His hand and touched my mouth.”  The word of God came to other prophets, such as Ezekiel & Zechariah, and they delivered the message.  None but Jesus has seen the Father.  It was Christ the Word/Lord who came to Jeremiah, spoke in 1^st Person, and touched his lips!

Ex.19:9-11 Christ the Word came down on Mt. Sinai.  All the Israelites were aware of Him.  v.16 a thick cloud protected them from seeing His glory (ref De.4:12).  Ex.20 Christ spoke His Decalogue or so-called Ten Commandments (including His weekly 7^th day Sabbath command), which He inscribed on tablets (Ex.31:18).  Following in Exodus 21–23, Christ spoke His judgments to Moses.  Then in Ex.24 Moses wrote them down in the book of the covenant (v.4-7)…and he with 70 elders saw God the Word (v.9-11)!  (However, man’s flesh is limited and cannot fully see His glory, e.g. Ex.33:18-23.)

After Exodus, the entire 27 chapters of Leviticus are the instructions of Christ the Word, the God they’d seen!  Christ gave Moses those instructions while they were still at Sinai (Le.27:34).  Including His law in Le.11 (v.46) regarding the clean & unclean creatures He created.  Jesus knows which ones are fit for human consumption!  The gentile Noah also had been aware of God’s distinction (Ge.7:2).

Lk.1:32 Jesus is the Son of the Most High God.  Ac.17:23-31 the Most High Father was an “Unknown God”.  The OT writers were aware a Most High God exists (ref Ge.14:18, Ps.7:17, 110:1), but He was generally unknown to all but a few.  Ac.7:48-49 “The Most High doesn’t dwell in sanctuaries made by hands.”  (The Father’s residence was in heaven, Jn.14:2-3).  It wasn’t the Father who spoke mouth-to-mouth with Moses (Nu.12:7-8) and sat above the cherubim on the ark in Israel’s man-made sanctuary.

Ps.80:1 “O Shepherd of Israel, You who sits between the cherubim.”  That Shepherd who communed with Moses was…Christ the Word!  Jesus said in Jn.10:11, “I Am the good Shepherd”. (ref 2Ki.19:15, Zec.13:7, 1Pe.2:25, Is.37:16.)  Christ was the God of Israel, the Rock and Shepherd.  (Josephus Wars of the Jews 5:5:5 indicated there were no sculptured cherubim in Herod’s temple…the sanctuary was entirely empty!  Jesus was out ministering in the Land; He no longer ‘sat’ between the cherubim then.)

He.13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”  The Word/Jesus said in Mal.3:6, “For I AM YHVH, and change not”.  The Word/Jesus doesn’t change His character; nor did He change the moral principles He gave to ancient Israel.  Re.14:12 speaks of “the perseverance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God”.  They were Jesus’ commandments in Ex.20, His command of the 7^th day sabbath, His commands for ecosystem balance of clean/unclean, in Leviticus, Numbers, etc.  (see the “Sabbath 7^th Day” series, and “Unclean versus Clean Food”.)

But Israel as a whole didn’t like Christ the Rock’s commandments.  Le.26 the Word warned ancient Israel of His punishments for disobedience.  Israel disobeyed anyway.  So Jesus sent them into captivity…the northern kingdom of Israel to Assyria, then the southern kingdom of Judah to Babylon in 597 BC.  Later when the Word/Jesus came in the flesh, the leaders of the Jews (of the people He’d loved and rescued from ancient Egypt) even wanted Him killed (e.g. Jn.5:18)!  They set Him up to die!

Some Bible readers and critics consider the God of the OT a cruel God.  Márcion (85–160 AD) was from Póntus, located at the southern coast of the Black Sea (today northeastern Turkey).  He didn’t think YHVH was the same God spoken of by Jesus, so he didn’t accept the YHVH of the OT.  To Marcion, the God active in the OT wasn’t Jesus or Jesus’ Father.  Marcion’s ‘canon’ was only 11 books…10 epistles of Paul plus part of Luke’s gospel.  Marcion ‘picked and choosed’; he was extreme.

It’s a misconception to view the OT God as harsh or cruel.  The Word/Christ was the Executive and Spokesman God seen in the OT.  Christ wasn’t harsh, cruel, impulsive, or changeable.  Christ would have spared ancient Sodom, had only 10 righteous people been found there (Ge.18:32)!

Though Jesus wasn’t harsh, He was just.  Jesus’ justice system for His ancient theocracy perhaps did reflect a measure of tough love.  For example, Jesus acknowledged even in Jn.8:7, “Let him cast the first stone”.  Christ’s penalty for adultery was death (though a ransom may be paid instead).  The laws and morality given to Moses/Israel are Jesus’ laws and morality.  The OT too is Christ-centered.  His morality may seem strict to some.  But His are the laws of the Kingdom of God!

For that matter, the NT book of Revelation has much killing…it’s even been called horrific!  Re.6:16 “Hide us from the presence of the wrath of the Lamb [Christ].”  Yet the Lamb’s love exceeds His wrath.

Ancient Israel was Jesus’ theocracy.  Many or most of His ritualistic prescriptions cannot be done apart from Jerusalem (temple).  In the NT, the Jewish people had come under Roman jurisdiction; they were no longer governed by Jesus’ theocracy.  And the NT writings (e.g. Paul’s) reflect changed living conditions under Roman rule of law.

The pre-incarnate Word of God wasn’t just sitting in heaven judging harp music day after day prior to His becoming Jesus in the flesh!  He was the God active in the OT.  Jesus wasn’t a rebellious son who came to do away with His Father’s commandments.  They are YHVH the Savior’s commandments too.  The Father and Son are of like-mind.  Jesus did and said what His Father taught Him (Jn.8:28).  De.30:10-14 the principles of Christ, the Rock of Ages, are doable.

Have we been deluded by false teaching to think that Jesus came to do away with the morality of laws He gave ancient Israel?  Jesus said in Mt.5:17, “Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I didn’t come to abolish but to fulfill [g4137].”  Christ didn’t come to abolish His OT moral laws and principles of living!

Jesus referred to His Mt.5:17 remarks later after His resurrection in Lk.24:44. “My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled [g4137].”  It was the things prophesied and written about Jesus the coming Messiah that must be fulfilled…not His morality/laws which can govern and regulate society and the Kingdom!  As recapped in Ac.13:29 concerning Jesus, “When they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross”.

Surely, Jesus didn’t think Roman laws or the laws of the nations of this world are superior to the laws He gave His theocracy!  Jesus’ morality & character is the same yesterday, today and forever (He.13:8).

Christ’s OT laws prohibiting blasphemy, murder, adultery, theft, etc. are truly moral and just today.  The holy time of His 7^th day sabbath still comes & goes every week since Creation…man cannot stop time.  Unclean creatures carrying worms & parasites are still unfit for humans to eat…as in Noah’s day.

But all the OT ceremonial jots & tittles regarding the obsolete Levitical priesthood can no longer be done.  He.7:12 “The priesthood being changed, there must be made also a change of the law.”  Jesus said the temple was to be destroyed (e.g. Mk.13:1-2).  After He fulfilled prophecy, dying as the final sacrifice…there’s no more need for animal sacrifices, tithing to a Levitical priesthood, pilgrim feasts with temple rituals.  Attempting to do those ceremonial things elsewhere or on one’s own terms would actually be disobeying Christ’s specific OT statutes!  The Kingdom is now the order of Melchisedek.

Ps.119:142 “Thy righteousness is everlasting, and Thy law is truth.”  v.151 “All Thy commandments are truth.”  v.172 “All Thy commandments are righteousness.”  That’s all the commandments of the Word Jesus…in both the OT and NT.  In the NT, Jesus or the HS reiterated some, but not all, of Christ’s OT commandments.  OT sins such as beastiality, cannibalism, fathers marrying their own daughters, e.g., are still sins for Christians…even though those prohibitions aren’t repeated in the NT.  To only accept Jesus’ NT commands as valid, while ignoring His OT commandments, is short-sighted.

However, it requires a circumcised heart to do His commandments.  Most of ancient Israel didn’t have the HS.  They failed to be a right example to the nations.  The rhetorical question of De.4:8-9, “What great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law? Therefore take heed lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and they depart from your heart.” (see “Two Covenants – Heart of the Matter”.)  No other ancient nation received such grace as did Israel, so blessed with Christ’s righteous laws/justice system!

But they stumbled over the Rock of Israel, who Peter (and Paul) said is Jesus.  1Pe.2:8 “A stone [g3037] of stumbling [g4348] and a Rock [g4073] of falling; for they stumble because they are disobedient.”  In Is.6:5, Isaiah saw Christ the Lord.  Is.8:13-14 LXX “Sanctify the Lord. You shall not come against Him as a stumbling [g4348] stone [g3037], neither as against the falling of a rock [g4073]; but the houses of Jacob are in a snare.” (also Ro.9:32-33.)  Most Jews opposed and rejected their Lord come in the flesh.

Yet for New Covenant Jewish Christians and gentiles grafted-in, God said in Je.31:33 (LXX Je.38:33) and He.8:10, “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts”.  The HS writes Christ’s just laws/morality (Jesus the same yesterday, today and forever) on the hearts & minds of willing Christians.  His laws will thus become our morality, and won’t depart from our hearts.  Thereby we won’t fail, unlike ancient Israel.

Jesus is Lord!  He was “the LORD” active in the OT.  As we repent and keep obeying Christ the Word…we will be those “who keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Re.14:12).  And we’ll be those who have right to the tree of life (Re.22:14)!  Thank You, Lord.