TruthVid's 100 Proofs that the Israelites were White, Part 38: 51, Malachi and the corrupted priesthood, continued

TruthVid's 100 Proofs that the Israelites were White, Part 38

In our last presentation in this series we began to discuss the admonitions of a corrupted priesthood in the words of the prophet Malachi, and again we should note how that corresponds with the warnings of Peter and Jude, that a certain caste of intruders and infiltrators had corrupted the assemblies and doctrines of the people of God in ancient times. They also warned that they would continue to do so in the Christian era. As we have also recently discussed, both Paul of Tarsus and the apostle John had described those same infiltrators in different terms, even labeling them as Satan and as Antichrists. Now, in keeping with this same theme, we are going to continue our discussion of the prophecy of Malachi and the corruption of the priesthood for which he had admonished the priests of his own time several centuries before the ministry of Christ. Doing that we may see that Malachi prophesied concerning the very circumstances in Judaea of which Christ had spoken, for which He condemned His adversaries and of which the apostles of Christ had written. As we shall also see, some of these prophecies were fulfilled quite explicitly during the ministry of Christ.

51) Malachi and the corrupted priesthood, Part 2

Once again, many of my notes here this evening are condensed from parts 2 and 3 of my early 2017 commentary on the prophet Malachi, which were titled The Corrupted Priesthood and Universalism Rebuked. Last week we discussed Malachi chapter 1, and now we will discuss chapter 2 in respect of this same topic, the corrupted priesthood. Once we see how the priesthood was corrupted, we must once again acknowledge the racial message of the Scripture, which leads to the conclusion that the Israelites were White. This will not be an entire commentary, which is far too long for our purposes here.

We have already given the historical background necessary to understand the words of the prophet, how Jacob, speaking of the people collectively, had greater concern for Esau than for himself, how the priests had become contemptible and how Yahweh God would no longer accept their sacrifices, how they have operated in their priesthood for their own gain, just as Christ had condemned the priests of His Own time. We discussed the conversions of the Edomites to Judaism as many as 160 years before the start of the ministry of Christ, and how even many of the priests were also Edomites. However the race-mixing fornication perpetrated by the priests had actually started long before that, in the days of both Nehemiah and later Ezra, and although those men made many admonishments, the correction never lasted long. So with this we begin Malachi chapter 2:

2:1 And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.

The first five verses of Malachi were relative to all of Israel. Then the prophet had explicitly addressed the priests throughout the balance of chapter 1, and he continues to address them here in this chapter. This chapter explains how the behaviour of the priests has degenerated as Malachi had described in chapter 1. Malachi is alluding to events which had already occurred, while also describing the circumstances of his own time, all while also issuing warnings and making a prophecy of things which would unfold in the future.

2 If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.

Some time during the inter-testamental period, the priests had even forbid anyone from writing or expressing the Name of Yahweh. Here Yahweh already stated explicitly that he would no longer accept their sacrifices. So ultimately, as we explained in our earlier discussion how the name of Yahweh would be glorified, this is a challenge to the priests to accept the Gospel of Christ. Not that they all could, as Christ Himself had told His adversaries that “You do not believe Me because you are not My sheep”, but that if they did not then we would understand why, as this prophecy unfolds.

So in chapter 1 it appeared as if the priests had no opportunity to repent, and here it seems that they are being challenged to do so. But in truth, at least many of them had no such opportunity at all. Throughout Scripture, the enemies of God are challenged to do good, and they always fail. So later here in Malachi chapter 2 we shall also see why these priests ultimately could never repent. For that reason and others, Yahweh now says to them:

3 Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.

The King James translation is not as clear as that found in the New American Standard Bible: “Behold, I am going to rebuke your offspring, and I will spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it.” So according to the prophet Malachi, all of the Jews of today who claim to be Kohanim, or priests, are a corrupt seed, an offspring which Yahweh would rebuke. The corruption of their seed was a punishment from Yahweh, and may be likened to the sin that cannot be washed off which is how a bastard is described in Jeremiah chapter 2. That dung would be spread upon their faces is an analogy for the shame which they would bear in future generations. So if Christ later says to them, as He did in John chapter 10, that “You do not believe Me because you are not of My sheep”, Malachi is explaining exactly how they were not of His sheep, because they were bastards – which is evident throughout this chapter.

For this reason, the rabbis of the Jews, as well as the jews themselves, should be understood by Christians to be a cursed and corrupted seed. This manifests itself not only in their deeds, but also in the multitude of peculiar genetic diseases which they transmit to their offspring in every generation. So even today Christians should regard all those who deny Yahshua Christ – as if they have dung spread upon their faces. Now we see an explicit statement, that these priests are not of Levi, because if they had accepted Christ they would no longer be Jews or priests in a Levitical or Rabbinical sense:

4 And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.

If the offspring of the priests were going to be corrupted, and Yahweh says “ye shall know… that my covenant might be with Levi”, then the priests which the prophet addresses in this manner could not have been maintaining the tribal distinction of Levi, and the command for the tribe of the priests to remain separate. The priests of the time of Nehemiah and Ezra were Levites, who had several times already been chastised for their race-mixing fornication. The words of Malachi are prophetic – he is apparently addressing priests who were Levites, but in their own race-mixing and their disdain for Yahweh their God, their seed would be corrupted as the result of their sin, and they would know from their sin that Yahweh’s covenant was with Levi, meaning that the covenant could not be inherited by their own corrupted seed.

These priests whom Malachi censures had no fear of the name of Yahweh their God, and once their seed is corrupted, all hope of repentance is lost. Now they are contrasted to Levi where it says:

5 My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.

In chapter 1 Yahweh charged the priests and said “O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?” Then an analogy was made, that they despised His table and His altar, sacrificing upon it things unworthy to be sacrificed. Here the meaning of the analogy begins to unfold, as the priests themselves are warned that they will have corrupted seed.

Malachi must be speaking of priests of his own time, who are Levites and disdain the law of God, accepting the persons of the other races in communion and marriage as we had seen in Nehemiah chapter 13 and Ezra chapters 9 and 10. Then the result of their punishment is a prophecy that their seed, which are the future generations of these same priests, shall be corrupted.

Not all of the Levites were priests, but the priests were the Levites of the descendants of Aaron, and the balance of the tribe of Levi were given other administrative duties in the kingdom outside of the service of rituals in the temple. However the priests were held to the highest standards in the law. They were forbidden from taking wives of other tribes, or who were divorced, or who were not virgins, although other Israelites were not expressly forbidden those things.

Here in Malachi, this punishment is announced and it says “that my covenant might be with Levi”, so the priests are told that their punishment is due because they forsook these laws of marriage, and had begun taking wives of other tribes. It makes no sense that Yahweh punished them so that they know “that my covenant might be with Levi” unless they were marrying outside of their own tribe. They committed this sin on several occasions, in the days of Nehemiah and again only a few decades later in the time of Ezra, and had apparently repented on both occasions. But this time they are being cursed, and as the prophet had written in verse 3 of this chapter, for that reason dung will be spread upon their faces and their seed will be corrupted.

As an organized group, it seems that all hope is lost for the priesthood, as in chapter 1 of Malachi the Word of Yahweh had announced that His Name would be glorified among the nations in spite of these sins of the priests. But here it seems that individuals from among the priests are given a chance to remain in the grace of God, where it says in verse 2 that “If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you...” Now in the subsequent verses of this chapter of Malachi we shall see the fate of the priests who disobey the law in this regard, and we will also see a parable for what was about to happen to the 70-Weeks Kingdom as the remnant of Judah was destined to mingle with the Canaanites and Edomites of Palestine.

First, the words of the prophet continue to describe Yahweh’s relationship with Levi:

6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.

This seems to be more descriptive of the tribe of the Levites than it is of Levi himself, as the names of the patriarchs are used in Malachi to represent the tribes of their descendants, as Jacob and Esau were in chapter 1. Here this view is substantiated:

7 For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.

Levi himself never received the law, but his descendants received it and were given the responsibility of administering it to the people. During the Kingdom period, the priesthood of Aaron was the chosen vessel through which Yahweh spoke to His people, they possessed the breastplate of judgment, the Urim and the Thummim, and they were the primary keepers and teachers of the law, while the Levites of the various communities throughout the countryside also had a role in that task at the weekly sabbath congregations and where they served as judges of the people. Most of the prophets of Scripture did not mention their tribe, but many of those which can be identified were of Levi. Daniel and Amos are apparent exceptions, and of course David and Solomon, who should also both be accounted as prophets.

Malachi compares the ideal presented to the priests who are the subject of his prophecy, and we must remember that since this is a prophecy, the priests he intends to describe may be his contemporaries, but they may also be in his future:

8 But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.

So once again it is stated that the covenant of priesthood between Yahweh and Levi was corrupted, ostensibly because the priests were mingling with the surrounding Canaanite races. Where Yahweh had said in verse 5 “that my covenant might be with Levi”, it is fully evident that the priests were being punished for attempting to allow people who were not of Levi into the priestly covenant. Even worse, by causing many to “stumble at the law”, it seems that the priests were condoning other sins beyond this, and beyond the priesthood.

While the special relationship which Yahweh had with Levi began to develop in the Book of Exodus, and was apparent throughout the Book of Numbers, it is summarized in Deuteronomy chapter 10: “8 At that time the LORD separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister unto him, and to bless in his name, unto this day. 9 Wherefore Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his brethren; the LORD is his inheritance, according as the LORD thy God promised him.” This is representative of the covenant which Yahweh had with Levi.

Where the warning of punishment continues, it seems to indicate that a process is about to unfold by which these priests would fall into a degraded and contemptible state:

9 Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.

There is a little noticed aspect of the New Testament period of Judaea which indicates that the people did hold the priesthood in contempt. We see, for instance, in the book of Ezekiel or in Acts chapter 16 in Philippi, that where there was no proper assembly, the Hebrew people were accustomed to gathering by the rivers to pray. So if the first century Judaeans distrusted the priests in their temples and synagogues, that would explain why John the Baptist, and later Christ and His apostles, were so successful in finding willing listeners by the rivers of Judaea on the Sabbaths.

The prophecy of Malachi represents the last words of Yahweh God among those which were preserved in the Old Testament, and demonstrably they are the last of the inspired words of Yahweh between the time that the 70-Weeks Kingdom was initiated and the time of the birth of Christ. So the Levitical priesthood as it stands in the New Testament must be seen through this lens, that the priests of the time of Christ were suffering from this very punishment which Yahweh had announced through the prophet Malachi. Therefore, if over four hundred years before the birth of Christ, the Word of Yahweh had warned the priests that “I will even send a curse upon you… I will corrupt your seed [or perhaps, rebuke your seed], and spread dung upon your faces… and I will carry you away at the same time.”, and then four centuries later these same priests had despised and opposed the very Messiah which was promised to them in the Scriptures, and if in turn that Messiah informs them that “ye are not of my sheep,” because the priestly covenant was with Levi, then it is not hard to [or even, hard not to] perceive that the priests who opposed Christ must have been the corrupted seed of these same cursed priests, as they were the descendants of these priests.

And if the seed of the priests was to a great extent corrupted, and the whole nation joined to the Edomites and Canaanites, we cannot expect better of the seed of the people – many of whom the priests themselves had “caused… to stumble at the law”. The priests, being partial in the law, were not keeping the whole law but were choosing for themselves what to adhere to and what to neglect, just as Christ had accused them throughout the Gospel of hypocritically pretending to keep the law. Now what follows in verse 10 of this chapter is an allegorical dialogue representing the results of their hypocrisy, where the Word of Yahweh attributes to these same priests rhetorical questions which asks:

10 Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?

And here in Malachi we actually have a prophecy of the very dispute which became manifest in the ministry of Christ. This prophecy in Malachi presages the events recorded in the Gospel in John chapter 8, where we see a lengthy exchange of words between Christ and His opponents, who were chiefly from among the priests, and He says “32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” So we read their response: “33 They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?” The children of Israel throughout their history had recorded their bondage, first in Egypt and then in Assyria and in Babylon. No Israelite escaped the bondage of Egypt, and very few escaped that of the Assyrians and Babylonians. These priests did not seem to understand the history to which they claimed a heritage, or that they had no part in. Even the Edomites were in bondage to the kings of Judah for many centuries, as were the remnants of the Canaanites, but these priests seem oblivious to the history of Israel which cannot be denied.

A little later on in John 8, Christ admits that they are descendants of Abraham, and He tells them: “37 I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.” The Edomites were of Abraham’s seed, as were the children of Ishmael, Keturah, and all three of Judah’s sons, and while all of them are children of the flesh, that does not make them all the children of the promise. For instance, in Romans chapter 9 where he is speaking of the apostates in Judaea, Paul of Tarsus expresses concern for his “kinsmen according to the flesh”, for those “who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises”, and then he says “6 Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel”, and immediately after that, comparing Jacob and Esau, Paul explains for us the implications of what we find in the histories of Josephus and Strabo, that the Edomites became mingled with the Judaeans and had adopted all of the customs and identity of the Judaeans.

In this same manner, Christ could admit that they were Abraham’s seed, which is offspring, and then He could deny that they are His sheep. Paul says likewise in that same chapter of Romans: “7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.” So of all the sons of Abraham, which include the children of Sarah, Hagar and Keturah, only the sons of Isaac are counted for the seed, and in that same place Paul immediately goes on to explain that of the children of Isaac, that only those of Jacob inherited the promises, being vessels of mercy, while those of Esau were hated, being vessels of destruction. In Genesis chapters 26 through 28, because Esau took wives of the Canaanites, Isaac had told Jacob to marry a wife of his own people, and the promises to Abraham would come to him, so that is what he did.

Making that comparison, Paul cites this very prophecy of Malachi, repeating the Words of Yahweh where it says “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” So while the Ishmaelites, Edomites and others of the children of Abraham are children of the flesh, only the children of Israel are the children of the promise who, as Paul says, “are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises…” If everyone in Judaea were an Israelite, Paul would have said none of those things.

Then in the next passage of John chapter 8, where Christ admits they are of the seed of Abraham, Christ denies them any status as children of God, where He said: “38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. 39 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. 40 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. 41 Ye do the deeds of your father….” So while the opponents of Christ may have been physical descendants of Abraham, at least in part, they were not actually Abraham’s children. Reading the accounts of Jacob and Esau, the only thing that Esau had done which displeased his parents was to take wives of the Hittites. That account begins in Genesis chapter 26, but we shall not repeat it here.

But in the end, in the opening verses of Genesis chapter 28, it is fully apparent that Esau despised and lost his birthright for the sole reason that he married wives from outside of his own race, and selling it to Jacob for a bowl of porridge really only commemorated the loss. Paul of Tarsus substantiates this observation in Hebrews chapter 12, where he calls Esau a “fornicator, or profane person”, the word fornicator being a label for a race-mixer. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10 Paul called the episode where the sons of Israel joined themselves to the daughters of Moab fornication, and in Jude 7 the apostle describes fornication as the “going after of strange flesh”, where the word strange refers to different flesh. The Biblical requirement for proper marriage is found in Genesis chapter 2, where Adam had no suitable wife and Yahweh created Eve: “23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”

In the balance of John 8:41, after Christ had denied them status as children of God, the priests protested and it says: “Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.” So here we see the very historical fulfillment of this prophecy of Malachi where we read in Malachi 2:10, after the priests had transgressed against the law and the covenant of Levi: “Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?” Being mixed with the Edomites and Canaanites, they were indeed born of fornication, but did not recognize it because they were partial in the law.

As for their treachery, even against other Levites, Flavius Josephus wrote, speaking of the high priests of his own time in Antiquities Book 20: “181 And such was the impudence and boldness that had seized on the high priests, that they had the hardiness to send their servants into the threshingfloors, to take away those tithes that were due to the priests [the true Levitical priests], insomuch that it so happened that the poorest sort of the priests died for lack of food. To this degree did the violence of the seditious prevail over all right and justice.”

The questions of Malachi 2:10 are rhetorical, and unless one understands rhetoric, he may take an assumed but incorrect answer for granted. This is what most commentators do with this verse. So where it asks “10 Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?”, the answer to each question is “No”, and that is evident in the verses of Malachi which follow. Then where it asks “why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?” the answer is also evident, that they were bastards, and not true Levites, because they are the corrupted seed which had issued from those priests who broke the covenant of Levi. This is evident in the verse which follows:

11 Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.

Judah married a Canaanite woman several hundred years before the Israelites ever had control of Jerusalem, so this verse is not speaking of Judah in particular. Rather, it is referring to the tribe of Judah, although it is also using the sin of the patriarch Judah as a type for how the remnant of the tribe of Judah in Jerusalem had later transgressed. So the questions are answered in Malachi 2:11, where it says that Judah married the daughter of a strange god. There is the answer of Yahweh, that we do not all have one father, and one God has not created all of us.

As Christ told His opponents, “Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” Therefore there must be people here on earth which Yahweh did not create. Certainly Yahweh created all things – all of those things which are described in Genesis chapter 1 – but He is not to be held liable for the sins of men and angels, and He did not create bastards. Therefore Malachi chapter 2 is also a complete rebuke of universalism, once it is seen in its proper light along with the words of Christ in John chapter 8.

The truth, speaking of those priests who opposed Christ in John chapter 8, is that God was not their father, and that God did not create them, ostensibly because they must have been bastards, as all of the Edomites and Canaanites were bastards. They only descended in part from Abraham, so they were not truly his seed even if they could claim to be his seed. So Christ rebukes them again where we next read in John chapter 8: “42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. 43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. 44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him….”

The only “murderer from the beginning” was Cain, and to be children of this murderer, the opponents of Christ must have been descendants of Cain as well as of Abraham. It is not that they worshipped Cain, or sinned in the manner of Cain, but rather that they were the children of Cain – an accusation which Christ repeated in Luke chapter 11. Where Christ often called them “offspring of vipers”, He was calling their parents vipers, and not merely His adversaries themselves. For these first century Judaeans, there were two main avenues by which this could be, and we have only discussed one of them, while in verse 12 of Malachi chapter 2 the Word of God shall reveal the other, an avenue which is much older and even more treacherous because it strikes much closer to the substance of many of these people of Judah, and was not as readily evident even to them.

12 The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts.

This evokes the words of Christ as they are recorded in Luke chapter 13, in a passage which in turn evokes the children of Israel taken into captivity for idolatry, who nevertheless remained the children of God: “25 When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: 26 Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. 27 But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. 28 There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. 29 And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.”

That second avenue by which the priesthood, and Judah, was corrupted is through Judah himself, as the descendants of his Canaanite son remained attached to Judah throughout the Kingdom period of Judah. So in the apocryphal portion of Daniel, in Susanna when the prophet exposes two corrupted priests, he also declared them to be the “seed of Canaan, and not of Judah”, something which is further substantiated in Jeremiah chapter 2 and Ezekiel chapter 16.

So now we read in Malachi 2:13:

13 And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.

This ties back to the rejection of the priests sacrifices in Malachi chapter 1, and further reveals the deeper reason for the rejection of those sacrifices. Repeating the accusation found in verse 11: “Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.” Now Malachi says: “This they have done again.” They did it in the days of Nehemiah, they did it in the days of Ezra, and here they have done it yet again. The priests of the second temple in Jerusalem committed fornication and race-mixed, and that is the reason for their rejection in the time of Christ. That rejection was mutual. Christ had rejected them just as they rejected Christ, and they had no hope of repentance, as we read in John chapter 10, “25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. 26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”

In the closing verses of Malachi chapter 2, the priests are accused of dealing treacherously against the “wife of thy youth”, the wife of the covenant. The priests were fulfilling the role of Yahweh the husband of Israel in their service to the children of Israel. Then there is a similar personal message, because customarily parents arranged for wives for their sons from of their own kinsmen, yet these priests in their maturity took strange wives. Then there is a reference to Yahweh’s seeking a “godly seed”, which is offspring, so we see again that the bastards would ultimately be rejected by Him.

This prophecy of Malachi is a notice as to why the priests were rejected by Christ. But as we have also said before, the names of the patriarchs in this prophecy are being used to represent the tribes themselves. So at the same time, Malachi is prophesying of what is to become of the priests of the intertestamental period, and also the whole nation of Judaea, that as Judah joined himself to a Canaanite, the nation in turn was to marry the daughter of a strange god, and absorb the Edomites and Canaanites of Judaea into their polity. That is precisely what began to happen in the days of Hyrcanus, around 129 BC. The people whom we now know as Jews are those whom Christ had said were not His sheep, and who for that reason they had rejected Him, because they are Edomites and Canaanites, and they are all bastards.

If Adam was the son of God even in his fallen state, as Luke attests in chapter 3 of his Gospel, then Adam is the son of God because God created him, and not because of his obedience – since he remained the son of God at the time when he fathered Seth and in spite of his disobedience. And if the children of Israel are still the children of God in their idolatry, as we may see attested in Isaiah and in John chapter 11, then the reference to God as the Father and Creator here in Malachi and later in John chapter 8 is not religious, but it is racial, since the Israelites were wholly descended from Adam and Seth, but the Edomites and Canaanites were partially descended from Cain, who was a devil, and partially from the Rephaim, who were in turn from the Nephilim or “fallen ones”. That is the reason why the genealogies in both Old and New Testaments are so important in the first place.

Jeremiah chapter 2 and Ezekiel chapter 16 attest to the race-mixing of ancient Judah, and if the reference to the sin of Judah is the answer to the question “Have we not all one father?”, and if the reference to the sin of Judah is the answer to the question “hath not one God created us?”, once it is seen that Judah took a wife of the Canaanites, for which reason she was the “daughter of a strange god”, we see that this is a racial reference, and not a religious one. There is no indication in Scripture as to what god Judah’s wife had worshipped, so this cannot be a reference to idolatry. But there is every reason to believe that she was a bastard, and therefore the people of Judah were not all of one god, and they did not all have the same father.

Furthermore, the sin of Judah also explains why, at the time of which Malachi prophecies, the people are depicted to say, “we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers”. As the Greek poet Aeschylus once said, the bastard is always the enemy of the true born. In that same manner did Cain despise and murder Abel, which was at the beginning, and in that same manner Christ said that they sought to kill him, because they did the deeds of their father who was a murderer from the beginning. Then if at least some of the priests who mingled with the Edomites and Canaanites were not truly Levites in the first place, that would explain the reason for the attitudes of the people which are reported by the prophet, that there are such divisions in the priesthood. And here is the root of the problem, because Judah had “married the daughter of a strange god”. Judah’s first wife was a Canaanite, with whom he had three sons, a story which is related in Genesis chapter 38. The surviving son Shelah was not eligible for the birthright, as it fell to Pharez and Zarah. So we can also discern that Shelah was not considered a legitimate son, regardless of his being attached to Judah. Ostensibly, on account of the promises to his father Jacob, Yahweh had mercy upon Judah even though he sinned after the manner of Esau, upon whom Yahweh did not have mercy. Paul also mentioned this difference in the mercy dispensed by God in his comparison of Jacob and Esau in Romans chapter 9. So Judah himself is a primary example of a vessel of mercy in Israel.

So the patriarch Judah took as a wife “the daughter of a strange god”, a woman who was not of the race of Adam, and here Malachi warns that those of Judaea who had done what Judah also did, by accepting the seed of Canaan and committing fornication with them, their children are bastards and they will be cut off forever. Several centuries later, Christ informs us that the sacrifices of these bastard priests who contended with Him are never accepted, He said He did not know where they were from, and they are doomed regardless of their presumed piety or their apparent good deeds. They themselves show what Christ had meant when they replied that they were not born of fornication, esteeming themselves to be legitimate descendants of Abraham, but they were not, they were mixed-race bastards.