Matthew Chapter 12

Matthew Chapter 12 - 2011-06-17

XII 1 At that time Yahshua had gone through the planted fields on the Sabbaths, and His students hungered and began to pluck and to eat the grain. 2 Then the Pharisees seeing it said to Him: “Look! Your students do that which is not lawful to do on a Sabbath!” 

This account is paralleled in Mark 2 and Luke 6. The law which enabled the apostles to pick another's grain to feed themselves is found in Deuteronomy 23:24-25: “24 When thou comest into thy neighbour's vineyard, then thou mayest eat grapes thy fill at thine own pleasure; but thou shalt not put any in thy vessel. 25 When thou comest into the standing corn of thy neighbour, then thou mayest pluck the ears with thine hand; but thou shalt not move a sickle unto thy neighbour's standing corn.”

The law which the Pharisees accused them by must have simply been the law of the Sabbath found at Deuteronomy 5:14: “But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.”

Exodus 20:10-11: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

An example of the extreme to which the jews took this commandment is found at John 5:10: “The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.” Should the man have just left his only bed where he was healed?

3 And He said to them: “Have you not read what David did when he and those with him had hungered, 4 how he entered into the house of Yahweh and they ate the bread of presentation, which was not lawful for him nor for those with him to eat, except only for the priests? 

Yahshua refers to 1 Samuel 21:1-6: “1 Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee? 2 And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place. 3 Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present. 4 And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women. 5 And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel. 6 So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken from before the LORD, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.”

5 Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbaths the priests in the temple profaned the Sabbath, yet they are guiltless? 6 Now I say to you that a greater than the temple is here! 7 But if you had known why it is ‘Mercy I desire and not sacrifice’, you would not have condemned the guiltless! 

From a practical viewpoint, it is observed that the priests in the temple labored on the Sabbath in order to accomplish what is necessary to fulfill the rituals. The letter of the law is therefore violated by the priests sworn to uphold it. The letter of the law is not meet for every situation, and therefore we see that no legislation could ever be perfect in itself. That is why legislation in the hands of man forever continues to grow. But with the legislation of God one's brother should be treated mercifully when he is in a difficult position. The Pharisees consistently failed to do that. It amazes me, that today in Christian Identity, we still have many Pharisees, who would attempt to employ the Old Covenant Law in order to exalt themselves and to rule over their brethren.

Yahweh said at Hosea 6:6: “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”

8 For the Son of Man is Prince of the Sabbath!”

Of course, Yahweh created the Sabbath, so He is its Lord and not the other way around. This statement must have really vexed the jews because here Yahshua asserts Himself to be Yahweh. At Mark 2:27 Yahshua is recorded as having said that “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath”.

9 And passing over from there He came into their assembly hall. 10 And behold, a man having a withered hand. And they questioned Him, saying: “So is it lawful to heal on the Sabbaths?”, that they may accuse Him. 11 But he said to them: “What man shall there be from among you who shall have one sheep and if this should fall into a pit on the Sabbath he would not take hold of and raise it? 12 So how much better is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath!” 13 Then He says to the man: “Extend your hand!” And he extended it and it had been restored to health as the other. 14 Then departing the Pharisees took counsel against Him, how they could kill Him.

Here I shall quote one Dead Sea Scrolls passage which proves that the sect at Qumran was not a Christian sect, and also demonstrates for us the mentality of the people at the time, in a country dominated by Pharisaical thought. From the scroll designated 4Q271, Fragment 5, Column I, a portion of what is commonly known as the Damascus Document: “No-one should help an animal give birth on the Sabbath day. And if it has fallen into a well or a pit, he should not take it out on the Sabbath ... And any living man who falls into a place of water or a well, no-one should take him out with a ladder or a rope or a utensil.” Words similar to Matt. 12:9-13 are also found at Luke 14:1-6, and we see that Yahweh would surely want us to help even an animal, but especially a man.

The Pharisees, as well as the Qumran sect (who were not Pharisees – they actually despised the Pharisees as agents for Rome), judged men according to their own self-righteousness and not with mercy. Here we see that Yahweh despises that judgement. Do not judge your brother self-righteously, seek first to understand his troubles and his predicament and to help him. The Pharisees wanted to kill Christ because He made manifest their hypocrisy, and threatened the perception of authority they had in the eyes of the people. The Pharisees did not care about righteousness, but only about their own power. The plot against Christ begins to culminate in Matthew 22:15-16.

15 But knowing it Yahshua withdrew from there, and many followed Him, and He healed them all. 16 And He admonished them that they should not make Him manifest, 17 in order that that which was spoken through the prophet Isaiah would be fulfilled, saying: 18 “Behold, My Son whom I have chosen, My beloved who has pleased My soul, I shall set My Spirit upon Him, and He shall announce judgment to the Nations. 19 He shall neither quarrel nor cry out, nor shall one hear His voice in the streets. 20 A crushed reed He shall not break, and a smouldering cord He shall not quench, until He should issue judgment in victory, 21 and in His Name shall the Nations have hope.”

Christ did not want attention, yet He also wanted the people to have the opportunity to understand that He was indeed the Messiah promised by God. So we shall see in verse 23 that “all the crowds were astonished and said 'Could this man be the Son of David?'”

The words at verses 18 to 21 seem to quote Isaiah 42:1-4, but do not precisely follow the translations which we have. That may, however, be due to the prophecy having a double meaning. In one aspect, it seems to apply to the Israelites going off into captivity – the isles of the west being addressed in this section of Isaiah. In another aspect, it is a Messianic prophecy looking forward to the Christ.

KJV Isaiah 42:1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. 2 He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. 3 A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. 4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.

LXX Isaiah 42:1 Jacob is my servant, I will help him: Israel is my chosen, my soul has accepted him; I have put my Spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. 2 He shall not cry, nor lift up his voice, nor shall his voice be heard without. 3 A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench; but he shall bring forth judgment to truth. 4 He shall shine out, and shall not be discouraged, until he have set judgment on the earth: and in his name shall the Gentiles trust.

22 Then a blind and mute man possessed by a demon had been brought to Him and He healed him, even for the mute to speak and to see. 23 And all the crowds were astonished and said “Could this man be the Son of David?” 

The people must have been referring to the Messianic prophecies found in Isaiah chapters 9 and 11. Here we shall read them in part:

Isaiah 9:6-7: 6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

Isaiah 11:1-4: 1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; 3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: 4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.

24 And hearing, the Pharisees said “This man does not cast out demons except by Beelzeboul the ruler of demons!” 25 But knowing their reasonings He said to them: “Any kingdom divided against itself is desolate and any city or house divided against itself shall not stand. 26 And if Satan casts out Satan, against himself he is divided. Therefore how shall his kingdom stand? 

We may be able to take this as an indicator of when mystery Babylon may finally fall, when we see the enemies of God divided against themselves. Therefore we should be watchful.

27 And if I by Beelzeboul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason they shall be your judges! 

And they shall be, for the people of Judaea who at a later time had observed and supported the priests at the trial of Yahshua then exclaimed that “His blood be on us and our children”. When the day comes, those children will surely curse their fathers.

There is a difference in the earliest manuscripts, whether the spelling of this idol's name is Beelzebub or Beelzeboul. The oldest of the Great Uncials, the codices Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, here agree on Beelzeboul. Either way, the meaning is equally repulsive. For according to Thayer's lexicon Baal zebub means “lord of flies”, while Baal zeboul is “lord of dung”.

28 But if by the Spirit of Yahweh I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of Yahweh has overtaken you! 

If these were His people, Christ would not have asserted that the Kingdom has “overtaken” them, because they would have every expectation to be a part of that kingdom. In truth, He certainly knew that they were not His people, they had no expectation in His kingdom, and He told them as it is recorded in John chapter 10 that “you believe not, because you are not of my sheep”.

The King James Version has here “come unto you”, however the verb is φθάνω, which Liddell & Scott define as to come first or before others, to overtake, outstrip, and in the passive to be overtaken. There are many ways in Greek to say “come unto”, but with the use of this particular verb that is certainly not the inference here. This morning I looked this passage up on the internet, just out of curiosity, and I found that the NET translates this passage “then the kingdom of God has already overtaken you”, which is also good. Both the King James Version and the NAS fall short here.

29 Now how is one able to enter into the house of the strong man and plunder his equipment, if he could not first bind the strong man? And then he shall plunder his house! 30 He who is not with Me is against Me, and He not gathering with Me scatters!

I am not going to comment on this passage here. Rather I am going to let Clifton Emahiser comment on it, by quoting from his paper, Biblical Canaanites, Who are They? :

THE BINDING OF THE STRONG MAN

There seems to be an agreement among the many commentaries that Satan is the “strong man”, to which I must agree, but I may have just a little different view on it. The best passage on this subject is found at Luke 11:21-23: “21 When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: 22 But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. 23 He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.”

If therefore the strong man is Satan, then Satan is the Canaanite-bad-fig-jew! While there were still a few pure-blooded Judahites and Benjaminites, and a smattering from the other tribes in Judaea at the time of Yahshua Christ, by-and-large the Edomite-Canaanite element had taken over the government and Temple offices, and had Rome inclining to their whims. On the other hand, Yahshua Christ is the “stronger than he” to “overcome him” (Satan). And because the Romans were by-and-large Israelites of the house of Zarah-Judah, the twin brother of Christ’s own household of Pharez-Judah, the Romans became, in essence, Christ’s feet to tread on Satan as Paul had predicted at Romans 16:20. The Romans even allowed a short period for the Christians to leave Judaea before the treading took place, leaving only the satanic Canaanite-jews to receive the iron feet of Rome. So Rome represented Christ as the “stronger than he” to bind the strong man (Satan), which Josephus describes in such great detail! Rome was not out-of-place by playing this part, as a near relative is needed as a revenger of blood (Numbers 35:16-19). How many are there that know the founding families, including the Julian clan of the Caesars of Rome, descended from the Trojans, who in turn descend from Zarah-Judah?

John, in his Revelation speaks of this very same binding of the strong man in a little different allegorical language at Rev. 20:1-3: “1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.” Once we understand that John 3:3 says “born from above” rather than “born again”, we can begin to comprehend that we White Israelites are of a heavenly race. Therefore it is not out-of-place for John to refer to the Roman descendants of Zarah-Judah as angels, which in the Hebrew is elohim, and can mean judges, angels or the Almighty Himself. So the Roman heavenly angels bound the strong man Satan, sometimes also called the serpent, the dragon, or the Devil, and the Canaanite bad-fig-jews are devils in shoe leather, and the bottomless pit represents the ghettos to which they were restricted; just what the Canaanites deserved!

Some will argue that this can only apply to the Sephardic line of jews, and that the Ashkenazi line are a different people. But if one will do a little checking, he will find that anthropologically speaking the Ashkenazi jews have Hittite features, thus are Canaanites, just like Esau’s wives! For example, just take a good look at Barbra Streisand, for in doing so, one is looking at a Hittite, nose and all! Yes, the Ashkenazi are Canaanites also!

Well, John said at Revelation 20:2 that Satan would be bound for a thousand years, and it did happen but everyone is looking for the binding of the satanic-Canaanites way off in some indefinite future, while Satan, collectively, already has been bound and loosed from the ghettos and has become the world’s banker of today, and as verse three indicates have gone forth to deceive the nations, and their seat of government is the so-called “United Nations”! Today all ten planks of the Canaanite Karl Marx manifesto are alive and well in nearly every country of the world. One might call them Satan’s ten commandments:

1) ABOLITION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY.

2) HEAVY PROGRESSIVE INCOME TAX.

3) ABOLITION OF ALL RIGHTS OF INHERITANCE.

4) CONFISCATION OF LAND.

5) CENTRAL BANK.

6) GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF COMMUNICATIONS & TRANSPORTATION.

7) GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP OF FACTORIES AND AGRICULTURE.

8) GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF LABOR.

9) CORPORATE FARMS, REGIONAL PLANNING.

10) GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF EDUCATION.

Try and fight any one of these Canaanite-satanic planks and one will find himself behind bars. Communism was Canaanite-jewish from the very get-go, but today they call it “democracy”. One could debate at length just when the Canaanite-satanic-jews were bound in their bottomless pit, but we have a better idea when they were loosed. It was in the year of 1776, that the Canaanite-jews would organize their money power into an organization known as the Illuminati. And from the Illuminati would come the Council On Foreign Relations and later the Trilateral Commission. From these organizations the Canaanite-jews control all monetary, political and religious activity, promoting Satan’s agenda for all-out racial miscegenation in the name of “Christianity”. Some might argue that Satan’s binding is to happen in a so-called “future millennium”, but Rev. 20:4 indicates that Satan made his appearance amid the French Revolution with the beheading of “souls” through the use of the guillotine. Thus, shortly after the satanic-Canaanites gained economic power, off came the heads.

“31 For this reason I say to you, every error and blasphemy shall be remitted for men, but blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be remitted. 32 And whoever should speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be remitted for him, but whoever should speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be remitted for him, neither in this age nor in that which is coming!

There are people who claim to be Christian Identists, who deny the words of Paul where he says that “all Israel shall be saved”, or of Isaiah where he wrote Yahweh's promise that “all the seed of Israel shall be justified, and shall glory”. These are those same Pharisees who want to throw their own Israelite brethren into the lake of fire, while they themselves do such things as engage in usury, trade jewish securities and enrich negroes in business. They need to extract the beams from their eyes. Here Christ says, and I will quote the King James Version, that “All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.”

The Greek word ἅγιος, in the Biblical context means separated and devoted to the purposes of God. This is the word translated “holy” in the phrase Holy Spirit. We can see from passages found in the Bible at Exodus 19:5-6, 1 Kings 8:53, and 1 Peter 2:9 that this mandate for Israel to be a separate people never changed. In the Old Testament the word for “holy” comes from the Hebrew word qodesh, Strong's number 6944, which primarily means apartness. The phrase is found in the Old Testament at Psalm 51:11 and Isaiah 63:10-11. From these passages it seems to refer both to the presence of the Spirit of God and the Spirit which God bestowed upon the Adamic man. This is what Christ and the apostles refer to when they tell us that we are not of the world, and as John explains in the fourth chapter of his first epistle, that those who are not of the Adamic race have indeed been created by the world, and not by God, John message in its context being for the children of Israel exclusively. John also mentions a sin which is “unto death”, where he says at 1 John 5:16, from the KJV: “If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask [meaning to ask in prayer], and he [meaning God] shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.” For this reason I believe that “blasphemy of the Spirit” is the promotion of integration and race-mixing, and this is the “sin unto death”. This sin causes the death of the Adamic race, which is in turn an act of war against that Spirit which God bestowed upon Adamic man.

33 Either make the tree good and its fruit is good, or make the tree rotten and its fruit is rotten. From of the fruit the tree is known. 

The tree represents the family tree, as it often is used for such an allegory in Scripture, from Genesis chapter 2 all the way through to Revelation chapter 22. In Ezekiel chapter 31 the Assyrian is called “a cedar in Lebanon” and at Ezekiel 31:8 it says that “The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chesnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.” Here we see that trees are used allegorically of Adamic families, and the “garden of God” is a metaphor for the oikoumenê, the dwelling-place of Adam-kind.

Yet there are also bad trees, and here we see that they can only produce bad fruit. Do not ever expect a bad tree to produce good fruit – whoever insists that can happen is a liar. Therefore John the Baptist professed, as we have already read in Matthew chapter 3, that “now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” Note that John said “the axe is laid unto the root of the trees”. Every person of every family not found written in the Book of Life (the Gospel of God) shall indeed be cast into the Lake of Fire. I would challenge the frauds who want to save the world to find those born of the world where they are written into that book.

34 Offspring of vipers! How are you able to speak good things, being evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks! 

Christ is calling His enemies “offspring of vipers”. The word is γέννημα and according to Liddel & Scott it primarily means that which is produced or born, a child. Contrary to judeo-Christian deception, this is indicative of their parentage, not of their attitudes. Christ is telling them that their parents were vipers! This is only true of they were of the seed of the serpent, and not of the seed of the woman, of Genesis 3:15.

35 The good man from out of the good treasure issues good things, and the wicked man from out of wicked treasure issues wicked things. 

Even if an evil man says something which appears to be good, God knows his motives better than men know his motives.

36 Now I say to you that every idle word which men shall speak, they shall give an account for it on the day of judgment. 37 For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned!”

We should remember this when we seek to condemn our brethren, because we shall be judged with the judgement by which we have judged them, as Christ says at Matthew 7:2: “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”

38 Then some of the scribes and the Pharisees replied to Him, saying: “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from You!” 39 But replying He said to them: “A wicked and adulterous race seeks a sign, and a sign shall not be given to it except the sign of Ionah the prophet. 40 For as Ionah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, thusly shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. 

They had already seen a sign, and many signs, in all of those people which He healed and in all of those demons which He expelled. Yet they still did not believe Him – and instead they sought to ridicule Him, telling Him that He cast out demons by Beelzeboul. He knew that no matter what He did, they were not supposed to believe Him! Therefore at the end of the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus, Christ exclaims at Luke 16:31 that: “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”

41 The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this race and they shall condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Ionah, and behold: a greater than Ionah is here! 

There are people in Christian Identity, ignorant of Scripture, who insist that Jonah must have went to preach to Israelites in Nineveh. Such an insistence is absurd. We find Jonah mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25 which states “He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gathhepher.” The reference is to a fulfillment of prophecy which occurred in the reign of the second King Jeroboam of Israel, who ruled approximately 793-753 BC, years before the deportation of the Israelites. Jonah had evidently at a prior time prophesied that land taken by the Syrians would be restored to Israel, and here we see that it was. So Jonah prophesied long before any children of Israel could have inhabited Nineveh in significant numbes – as we find mentioned much later in the book of Tobit.

The truth of the matter, is that the first promise of salvation comes to the entire Adamic race in Genesis 3:22-24: “22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”

Having this promise, we see that the rest of our race shall also be in the Resurrection – even though they are not Israelites and do not have that special relationship with God that Israel has. A second witness to this is Peter, who in his epistles said that Christ went to preach the gospel to the “spirits in prison”, those Adamic people destroyed in the Flood of Noah. None of them were Israelites either.

The men of Nineveh were Assyrians. They descended from Asshur of Genesis 10:22. Asshur was the brother of Arphaxad, from whom later descended the Hebrews.

42 The queen of the south shall be raised in the judgment with this race and shall condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold: a greater than Solomon is here!

This reference is certainly to the Queen of Sheba, who visited Solomon in Jerusalem as related in 1 Kings chapter 10 and 2 Chronicles chapter 9. Note that in 1 Kings chapter 10, it says that this woman was shown all of Solomon's house and riches, but she was not taken to the temple. Of that she was only shown “his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the LORD”. Only Israelites could enter the temple.

The Queen of Sheba was also a White Adamic woman. Sheba appears to be the kingdom uncovered by archaeologists which is located in what is now Yemen. Of course, the present-day inhabitants of the area are mixed-race Arabs, and not Adamites. Sheba was either of Ham or of Shem, since the name is found twice, at Genesis 10:7 of the Sheba who was a son of Cush the son of Ham, and in Genesis 10:28 where another Sheba was a son of Joktan, the brother of Peleg and son of Eber. Which Sheba this is can be argued, however on the grand scale of things it is also relatively immaterial.

“43 Now when the unclean spirit departs from a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finds it not. 44 Then it says ‘I shall return to my house from where I departed’, and coming finds it vacant, swept clean and ornamented. 45 Then it goes and takes to itself seven other spirits more wicked than itself and entering in dwells there. And the ends of that man become worse than the beginnings! Thusly shall it be also with this wicked race!”

There is a lot of controversy concerning interpretations of this parable. Yes, it is a parable, an allegory which is not to be taken literally. I believe that it refers to what preceded, it is not a disconnected thought, and that it is saying that those who deny Christ, even if there are times when they seem to do good, setting their house in order, yet they shall in the end do eight times more wickedly than at the first. If a bad tree cannot produce good fruit, then there is no such thing as a good Edomite – a good jew is an oxymoron since there cannot be a good anti-Christ.

46 While He yet spoke to the crowds, behold, His mother and brethren stood outside seeking to speak with Him. 47 And someone said to Him: “Behold, Your mother and Your brethren stand outside seeking to speak with You!” 48 But replying He said to him speaking: “Who is My mother and who are My brethren?” 49 And extending His hand over His students He said: “Behold My mother and My brethren! 50 For he who would do the will of My Father who is in the heavens, he is My brother and sister and mother!”

So much for Romish Catholic Mary-worship. Just because a person has the honor of being chosen by God for a particular purpose in life, does not make that person special above the rest of God's people. It is obvious that Yahshua certainly did not exalt His earthly mother above others.

The Catholics also deny the plain meaning of the phrase “your mother and your brethren”, instead promoting a lie concerning Mary's alleged perpetual virginity. Yet here and in several other New Testament passages it is quite clear that Yahshua had earthly siblings through His mother Mary. After Yahshua Himself was born, Mary must have had other children by her earthly husband Joseph. Yet if these were only brethren in the faith, as the Catholics would have it, then the phrase would be meaningless since the person speaking said to Him “Your brethren”, when there were obviously a multitude of people of the faith present who were not considered to be His brethren in that fashion. The idea of brothers and sisters who are so only in the faith alone is a false idea which is meant to diminish the racial meaning of the words as they are used in the Bible. A brother or sister can only – in its original Greek meaning – be one of the same family. While the New Testament writers often used the words brother and sister in a slightly wider sense than the Greeks did – to encompass all members of the tribes of the Israelite nations, the word still cannot be stripped of its familial meaning. Furthermore, the Christian faith is by definition the faith belonging to those to whom the covenants belong, and therefore a brother or sister in the faith can only include Israelites, since by the definition of the faith, all others are excluded, the covenants being made only with Israelites.