Douglas - Section 60 (Habakkuk 2:4 & 5)

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<Section #60> Clayton Douglas states: “... This prophecy mentions Paul by name in the original Hebrew. The Hebrew did not use diacritical vowel markings. In Hebrew the word for ‘Hades’ or ‘The Grave’ is ‘Sheol’ meaning simply the Neatherworld [sic]. It is not synonymous with ‘Hell’ which is ‘Geyhenum’ or the ‘Pit.’ The name ‘Sheol’ (and ‘Sha’ul’) or ‘Saul’ as English renders it, are identical terms in Hebrew. As well, to those who understand the true origins, nature and identity of Paul, they will understand the full prophecy of Habbakuk as relating to this figure, who all the Prophets since the time of Noah have warned their people of.

“In an interpretation of the above Habakkuk 2:4, the Dead Sea Scrolls (found only 50 years ago, in caves near Jericho) tell us its interpretation ‘Concerns all doers of the Torah in the House of Y’hudah (Judah), whom El (God) will save from the House of Judgment because of their works and their Faith in the Teacher of Righteousness.’ Habakkuk Pesher 7:17-8:3

“The ‘Teacher of Righteousness,’ or ‘Rightous [sic] Teacher,’ leads a Messianic Movement befuddled by ‘The Spouter of Lies, who leads many astray in order to build his city of vanity on blood and erect an Assembly upon Lying, for the sake of his glory, tiring out many with a worthless service and instructing them in works of Lying, so that their works will be of Emptiness. And they will be brought to the same Judgments of Fire with which they insulted and vilified the Chosen of God.’ Habakkuk Pesher 10:9-13”

In reply to section <#60>: Since Douglas apparently failed to include “this prophecy” in his article, which is evidently Habakkuk 2:5, we shall repeat it here from the A.V.: “Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people.” Douglas here asserts that the word “hell” in Hab. 2:5 should read “Paul”. I must comment, that it is odd that Douglas cited Hab. 2:4 rather than 2:5, for 2:4 ends “... the just shall live by his faith.” How could Douglas pay so much attention to the one verse, yet despise the other?

Now let us read Habakkuk (Ambakoum in Greek) 2:5 from the Greek Septuagint, to see how the earliest translators understood it, from Brenton’s translation: “But the arrogant man and the scorner, the boastful man, shall not finish anything; who has enlarged his desire as the grave, and like death he is never satisfied, and he will gather to himself all the nations, and will receive to himself all the peoples.” The word “grave” here is the Greek word “Hades”, which Brenton chose to translate “grave”. Now taken out of context, I can see where Douglas may want “hell” to read “Paul” in the A.V. version. Yet let’s read Hab. 2:6-8, still from the LXX: “Shall not all these take up a parable against him? and a proverb to tell against him? and they shall say, Woe to him that multiplies to himself the possessions which are not his! how long? and who heavily loads his yoke. For suddenly there shall arise up those that bite him, and they that plot against thee shall awake, and thou shalt be a plunderer to them. Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the nations that are left shall spoil thee, because of the blood of men, and the sins of the land and city, and of all that dwell in it.” Reading the entire prophecy, it is obviously incredulous that the subject of verse 5 could be Paul of Tarsus, because the subject doesn’t change through verse 8, and the subject of verse 8 certainly can’t be Paul of Tarsus! The subject of this prophecy is surely “the arrogant man, and the scorner, the boastful man”, which is here an epithet for Satan, the Adversary in a collective sense, the children of the devil who have plundered every city and nation throughout history.

We have seen that the Peshers in the Dead Sea Scrolls use the epithets “Man of the Lie”, “Man of Lies”, or “Spreader of the Lie”, and that these terms were used to describe Satan, or the Adversary, and not Paul. This was discussed at length in section <#43> of this response beginning on p. 98, where all of the Peshers where these epithets were used by the Qumran sect were discussed, and not just this one verse in Habakkuk, which Clayton Douglas excises from its context in order to mold it into his twisted theory. It is evident that there is no limit to Clayton Douglas’ subterfuge.

Another aspect which may be taken into account here is the grammar of Hab. 2:5, whether we examine the A.V. or the LXX. The phrase “as the grave”, or “as hell” in the A.V., is an adverbial clause, and by no means can it be the subject of the sentence, even if it did say “as Paul”, as Douglas desires it to say.

Douglas’ plot here takes advantage of the fact that in Hebrew, the words Sheol, which is the Hebrew equivalent to Hades, and Saul, which was also the name of the first Israelite king, are spelled alike in palaeo-Hebrew (old Hebrew used no diacritical marks), at least on many occasions in the Hebrew which we know today. There were, according to Strong’s concordance, two spellings for sheol (# 7585): שאול or שאל . Saul is spelled שאול . Strong defines sheol: “from 7592; hades or the world of the dead (as if a subterranean retreat), including its accessories and inmates” and Saul: “passive participle of 7592; asked; Shaül, the name of an Edomite and two Israelites.” So we see that both of these words are derived from another word, a verb, 7592, spelled שאל (sha’al), and this is exactly how the alternative form of sheol is spelled. Strong defines sha’al: “a primitive root; to inquire; by implication to request; by extension to demand.”

So we see that not only are sheol and Saul spelled alike, but both words are derived from sha’al, and sometimes sheol and sha’al were spelled alike. But that doesn’t mean that these words are interchangeable, wherever doing such may offer us a convenient interpretation. Because Hebrew had no proper vowels, many words were spelled identically, and nearly every Hebrew name, if not every one, is also a word with a meaning in the Hebrew language. Imagine the confusion in English, with words such as fan, fen, fin, fine, fun and fauna, or gam, game, gem, gum and gym, if we had no vowels. Douglas could find thousands of word-substitution games to play in the Bible, because context matters so little to him!

Let us look at Hab. 2:5 one more time, from the A.V.: “Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people”. It is obvious that the proud man – and no one in particular – is compared to hell and to death, not to Saul and to death, an interpretation utterly out of context! Now from The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition by Florentino Garcia Martinez and Eibert J.C. Tigchelaar, volume 1, p. 17, from the Pesher to Habakkuk, 1QpHab Column VIII, where the Qumran sect comments upon Hab. 2:5-6, we have this: “Surely wealth will corrupt the boaster, and not will he last, he who widens his throat like the abyss, and he, like death cannot be satisfied. All the peoples ally against him, all the nations come together against him.” Now is this, as Douglas claims, really describing Paul? Can we take “the abyss” and substitute “Paul” here, because in the Hebrew that is the word sheol, and would it make sense to do so? Or is Clayton Douglas weaving a web of deceit? And how many other things have we observed Clayton Douglas lie about? No sleight-of-hand magic trick is too risky for Douglas to attempt. Douglas quotes from the Habakkuk Pesher interpretation of Hab. 2:4, but the word sheol does not appear in Hab. 2:4! The word sheol only appears in 2:5! Douglas is trying to pull off a “bait and switch”! Like a ‘good’ jew, he’ll go to any length to misrepresent Paul, and discredit Christianity in the process!

[Now if you are approached by a person promoting Paul-bashing, be prepared to give that person a quick and solid Scriptural answer so that he/she will never bring up the subject to you again. As 2 Tim. 4:2 instructs, “... be instant in season, out of season ...”  Refer that person expeditiously to Rev. 2:1-7, where Christ Himself commends the assembly at Ephesus for their “works”, “labor”, “not bearing them which are evil”, “putting on trial false and lying apostles”, “borne with patience and labored for Yahshua’s name, fainting not.” Point out posthaste that the only mark Yahshua had against them was that they had “lost their first love”, which indicates that when Paul founded the assembly at Ephesus, at its inception, their love was not wanting. Thus in Christ’s own (red-letter) words, He gave Paul a perfect score for his effort. Ask this would-be Paul-basher: “Could you do as well as Paul?” Maybe one ought commit Rev. 2:1-7 to memory so one might be “instant” with or without a Bible at hand. In short, the would-be Paul-basher must call Yahshua Christ a liar in order to support his/her theory. – Clifton A. Emahiser]