March 2014

The Epistles of Paul - Romans, Part 1 (with a discussion of the history and purpose of the Christogenea New Testament), Christogenea Internet Radio 03-28-2014

Beginning a presentation on the epistles of Paul, I am going to first reiterate a lengthy explanation of some of the basic principles and methods which I have sincerely attempted to adhere to since I began my theological journey nearly 18 years ago. Even though this marks the mid-point of the New Testament Commentary which I hope to complete here on these Friday evenings, which I had begun in early 2011 with the Gospel of Matthew, a translation of Paul is where I actually began the work which had eventually become the Christogenea New Testament, about 15 years ago.

The translations found in the Christogenea New Testament began as an endeavor to present the letters of Paul in a manner as true to the common usage of the Greek language as was possible for me, in concert with a full consideration of the entire Biblical context and the history of the people of the Book, and in English as plainly and as clearly as my ability afforded. The translations are not expected to be perfect. The Greek manuscripts themselves are far from ideal, and for that reason alone no New Testament translation can achieve perfection. They reflect my best effort, based upon not only the resources that I have used, but also upon a full acceptance of the historicity of the Old Testament and the validity of the prophets, selected extra-Biblical writings, and ancient history as recorded by the various branches of our race: for history certainly does not conflict with the Bible, once its peoples are properly identified and its context properly understood.

The Prophecy of Micah, Part 5

In the first three chapters of Micah, we saw the prophet pronounce the judgments of God upon Israel, and also upon Judah, for the many transgressions they committed against both Him and their kinsmen. For those transgressions they would lose all of which they had, because they dealt deceitfully with their God and their nation. From Micah 1:6 and 9: “6 Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof. 9 For her wound is incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.” The Assyrians did take away all of Israel and all of the fenced cities and towns of Judah, but they were stopped at the gate of Jerusalem. While Micah also prophesied later, at the end of his third chapter, that “Jerusalem shall become heaps,” that judgment was reserved for execution until the time of the later Chaldaean invasion.

The names of the towns of Judah which Micah prophesied against also told a story in their meanings, from which we can gather deeper insight. For instance, the beginning of sin for Israel was their belief that they were invincible because their God was with them, an idea encapsulated in Micah's utterance concerning Lachish and which is also stated explicitly at Micah 3:11 where it says of the false prophets that “yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.”. The children of Israel cannot sin and feel that they can prevail simply because their God is with them, but this was the attitude which Micah ascribes to them. It must also be observed, that that those who understood and were sorrowful over Israel's sin had hoped for good, but Israel was only worthy of Yahweh's judgment, an idea which we see encapsulated in Micah's utterance concerning Maroth.

The Prophecy of Micah, Part 4

In Micah chapter 4 we see that Yahweh God in the time of His choosing ultimately prevails over all of His enemies, because even though His people Israel were going into captivity, they would indeed be established as a great nation which in the “last days” would be exalted above all other nations. However we also saw that first the children of Israel must go to Babylon, and there they must await their redemption, where suffering many things they were portrayed as a woman in travail. We discussed how Babylon in that vision is not a reference to the place itself, but rather it must be a reference to something which transcends geography. That woman, we pointed out while discussing Micah 4:10-11, is the same woman as the woman of the visions in Revelation chapters 12 and 17, where Israel the bride flees into the wilderness, for which we can also compare Micah 4:7, and later becomes the whore of Babylon. Yet Micah chapter 4 holds out a promise of hope for the children of God, that they shall one day indeed “arise and thresh”, to be the instruments by which Yahweh gathers His enemies as “sheaves to the floor”.

However here in Micah chapter 5 the focus of the prophecy seems to once again be on the more immediate trials which the children of Israel must face, where a siege is laid against them and where the “judge of Israel”, which must be a reference to God Himself, is smitten upon the cheek. Yet this would be an incomplete assessment. Rather, here in Micah chapter 5 apparently we see a prophecy of the more immediate results of those judgments which were pronounced upon Israel by the prophet in the first three chapters of his writing, however the elements of this chapter are also relevant to Micah chapter 4, and what we have here is a Hebrew parallelism. Parallelism is a common element of Biblical literature, whereby the same subject is described twice using somewhat different terms. A simple form of parallelism is found in Psalm 119:105: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” The phrases “lamp unto my feet” and “light unto my path” both essentially mean the same thing, and both describe “thy word”, but the parallelism is a poetic device used for emphasis, which can also make for beautiful poetry. The Bible, both New Testament and Old, is replete with such language. From Revelation 1:8: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” Here we shall hopefully see that while much of Micah chapter 5 is pertinent to the time immediate to Micah and what was to befall Israel at the hand of the Assyrians, elements of it are also parallel to the prophecy of Micah chapter 4, the Assyrians being a type for the nations to be gathered against Israel in the “last days”. This is parallelism on a grander scale that the simple one-verse forms which we have just illustrated.

The Prophecy of Micah, Part 3

In the first three chapters of Micah we saw pronouncements of judgment upon Israel and Judah, judgment which would carry all the way to the “gate of Jerusalem”. We discussed the fulfillment of those judgments in the Assyrian invasions which were not long after Micah had begun preaching. The kingdom of Israel would be lost, and the people of Israel had no recourse in the matter: they would lose all of their possessions and be carried off into captivity. Much of Judah was also decreed by Yahweh to suffer likewise, and they were also carried into captivity by the Assyrians. However in this fourth chapter of Micah the focus of the prophet changes, and his prophesies move from the imminent destruction of ancient Israel and Judah to a vision foretelling what it was that would befall them in their future.

Micah 4:1 But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.

The phrase “the last days”, as it is often rendered in the King James Version, contains the Hebrew word achariyth, Strong's Hebrew Lexicon number 319, and it is defined by Strong to mean “the last or end, hence the future; also posterity”. For reason of its meaning it was translated in the King James Version in a wide variety of ways, but it does not only pertain to the very end of the age, which in the Christian worldview means the time imminent to the Second Advent, although achariyth is generally and wrongly interpreted in such a manner. In fact, the apostles called their very own time the “last days” (Acts 2:17, Hebrews 1:2, 1 John 2:18), while at the same time they also considered the “last days” to be far off in the future in relation to their own time (2 Timothy 3:1, James 5:3, 1 Peter 1:5, 2 Peter 3:3, Jude 18). Therefore the meaning of the phrase is relative to its context. This is also evident in Genesis chapter 49, where in Jacob's prophecy concerning his sons he says “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.” If the things that befell Jacob's sons happened throughout all of the time immediately subsequent to Jacob and continued to happen well into the future, then the same thing is true here, and the references to “the last days” in Micah and in Isaiah, where we find a similar prophecy, began in the period of time following the judgment and deportations of ancient Israel.