Biblical Commentary

The Epistles of Paul - Romans Part 13, 07-04-2014: Jacob and Esau, continued

Before continuing with the second part of our presentation of Paul's discussion of Jacob and Esau in Romans chapter 9, there are a few prophecies which we already presented concerning Esau, or the Edomites, which we should further consider. In our first part of this presentation on Romans 9 we cited parts of Ezekiel chapters 34 and 35 [I had erred, only attributing chapter 34 while quoting from both chapters] in order to understand how it was that the Edomites had come to be fellow-citizens of the Israelites in first century Judaea, both politically and in their religion. In that presentation we also presented much historical evidence from the works of Flavius Josephus which corroborates these prophecies. Now we shall address an even greater prophetic aspect of this prophecy, and that of Malachi chapter 1 which Paul cites in the last verse we had read, Romans 9:13.

The Epistles of Paul - Romans Part 12, 06-27-2014

In the last segment of our presentation of Paul's epistle to the Romans, we completed Romans chapter 8, which, as we explained, summarized many of Paul's statements in the chapters which precede it. Paul ended Romans 8 by stating that nothing could separate the love of Christ away from the creation of Adamic man, which in its entirety and without exception awaits liberation from the bondage of decay. Tonight we shall present Romans chapter 9, where after explaining these things Paul turns his attention to his kinsmen Israelites in Judaea.

One cannot truly understand Romans chapter 9 without understanding the demographic makeup of the Roman province of Judaea during the time of Christ. This is because an understanding of Paul's statements in this chapter, and the chapters beyond where he continues the same topic he presents here, hinges on two statements which are made by Paul in the opening verses. These are in verse 3 where he expresses a deep concern “for the brethren, my kinsmen in regards to the flesh”, and then he goes on to say that “not all those who are from Israel are those of Israel”. Seeing this, there are a few things which are clearly obvious, the first being that Paul is a racist concerned only with Israelites in regards to the flesh, whether or not they have accepted the Gospel, and secondly that not everyone in Israel at Paul's time is of that flesh, since not everyone in Israel is an Israelite!

The Epistles of Paul - Romans Part 11, 06-20-2014

There is no disparity between the Word of God and the Creation of God. If you are an Adamic man, you have an eternal spirit from God and for that reason you should seek to do the works of your father. If you are not an Adamic man, you have not one chance in hell of ever getting into heaven, as we saw in our last presentation of Romans that resurrection is through the spirit, and as Paul explained in his epistles to the Corinthians, that spirit is transmitted through the natural body, being sown in that same seed. In this next segment of our presentation of Paul's epistle to the Romans, we shall see that the Adamic man is a unique creation, and when the apostle used terms such as “the whole creation”, he was referring only to the creation of the Adamic man. Corruptions of Yahweh's creation have corrupt spirits, and the apostles considered them to be clouds without water which are twice dead, not having the spirit. That is why both the apostles Peter and Jude considered the infiltrators among the children of Israel in their own time to be spots and blemishes in their feasts of charity, feasting themselves without fear among the Israelite Christians with designs upon fornication and adultery. So it was in the first century, and it has not changed today except that White Israelite Christians refuse to recognize the problem, where by helping the devils they imagine themselves to be helping God.

The Epistles of Paul - Romans Part 10: The Gift of the Spirit is Genetic, 06-13-2014

In Romans chapter 5 Paul described how not only the children of Israel but even the entire Adamic race has a sure promise of eternal life in Christ. In chapter 6 Paul explained that obedience to the law remains necessary in spite of the fact that men would not be judged by the law. In chapter 7 Paul explained how Israel was freed from the law in Christ, and also explained how the law should encourage men not to sin, how by it men should learn the nature and consequences of sin, and how it should help men to understand their own sinful nature whether they succeed or fail on any given occasion, as opposed to their spiritual nature by which they can overcome sin and the weaknesses of the flesh. The law being spiritual, those with the Spirit of Yahweh can indeed conform themselves to the law, and agree with it even though there may be times when they fail, being in the flesh. These things are necessary to recall, since Romans chapter 8 in its entirety is a long conclusion to the several chapters which precede it. Romans chapter 8 both concludes and also confirms many of the things which Paul had said in the previous chapters.

The Epistles of Paul - Romans Part 9, 05-30-2014: The Two Natures of Adamic Man

In Romans chapter 1 Paul explained that the sinful state of man was due to a departure from Yahweh their God and the corruption of society which that departure had summoned. In Romans chapter 2 Paul credited the Romans with building a society founded on the rule of law, and contrasted those who had the law of God but did not keep it with those who did not have it and yet maintained the morality found in the precepts which the law represented. Yet Paul explained in Romans chapter 3 that all men sinned, and therefore the righteousness of Yahweh was mercy towards men even in their state of sin. So while men were not judged by God according to the law, it was nevertheless necessary for men to uphold the law.

Paul explained in Romans chapter 4 that the promises of the faith in Christ represented the ongoing fulfillment of the promises which Yahweh had made to Abraham. Paul also explained that the Romans, being descended from Abraham, were a part of that fulfillment. In that chapter Paul further explained that those promises made to Abraham transcended the Levitical law, that they were apart from and were not reliant upon the law. In Romans chapter 5 Paul asserted that eternal life was the promise of the entire Adamic race, which was also apart from the law. With this he explained that sin existed outside of the law, but that sin was not imputed because the law had not been given.

The Epistles of Paul - Romans Part 8, 05-23-2014: Israel as a Nation was and is the Bride of Yahweh

The Bible itself tells us that it is the book of the race of the Adamic man, in Genesis chapter 5. But very little is given of what is, at least by the Septuagint chronology, a 2,200 year history from the Creation of Adam unto the Flood of Noah. Then we have a table of Nations in Genesis chapter 10, and these Adamic descendants of Noah are the White nations of ancient history. They are all identifiable as such in Scripture and in archaeology and classical history, in spite of the fact that the Canaanites who are also listed are set apart as being accursed and as being race-mixers, fornicators and sodomites later in Scripture. With the establishment of these nations there are, by an approximation taken once again from the Septuagint, over 1500 years until the event which is commonly known as the Call of Abraham. None of the history of this 1500 years is recorded in Scripture. While very little of it is known from history or archaeology, from the records found on clay tablets and other inscriptions which have been dug out of the ground in Mesopotamia we can indeed tell the accuracy of what Scripture does provide.

Scripture records that during these first 3,700 years, Yahweh God had made promises to our entire race, such as those which are recorded in Genesis chapters 3 and 9, and those promises have never been revoked. The promises of God are, as Paul says in Galatians, irrevocable. However very little of nearly four thousand years of Adamic history before the birth of Jacob are mentioned at all. From the time of the Call of Abraham, the entire scripture has been focused upon one man's family, and the promises to Abraham which were transmitted to his offspring through Jacob-Israel. From that time, the other White Adamic nations are only mentioned where they come into contact with Israel. Wherever non-Adamic peoples are referenced in Scripture, it is only in relation to something wicked, or to some plague or some curse.

The Epistles of Paul - Romans Part 7, 05-16-2014: Israel and the Law

Before beginning Romans chapter 6, I would like to take a few minutes to discuss the word sin and why I avoided it in my translations, even though the word's use is so ubiquitous in Christian dialogue that it is impossible to avoid in daily discussion. When I was a child in Catholic grade school, we were taught that sin was some sort of black stain on your soul, and if you collected enough of them, you were going to suffer in flames for eternity. That was the nearly indelible picture left on my childhood mind by the nuns who educated me through the 4th grade. [It was certainly not unusual to me that black and evil were directly associated.] The nuns taught us that sin was something which resulted from certain actions, and the nature of those actions were usually and popularly described by the extreme cases, such as murder or stealing. However to a young boy with no ill intents sin seemed to be something which existed outside of the everyday routine of life, because the concept of what constituted sin was mystical or ethereal, and therefore its consequences were imagined to be disconnected from everyday reality. This was even more so the case because my parents were neither churchgoers nor Bible readers, and although they both had Christian upbringings and they were hard workers and usually decent people, they themselves were basically apostates. Catholics generally did not read the Bible, and that was the one aspect of Catholicism to which they evidently adhered. For quite some time we had a Bible in our home, but it was certainly never opened.

From 5th through 8th grades (1971 through 1974) I went to a Catholic school without nuns, and the concept of sin became even more obscure. The new school taught a substitute for Christianity which was comprised mostly of pop-culture Dharma and 1960's style hippie love which were totally disconnected from the associated parish church. During these years the Catholic religion itself was a schizophrenic institution, and by the time I got to 7th grade I too was an apostate. By the time I was a teenager, sin was not even thought of as a moral concept. Sin was a church word, and if there was no church, then there was no sin. Because sin was not connected to Yahweh's law in my childhood, except for perhaps a brief acquaintance with the ten commandments which I was never really taught, government law and peer approval became the controlling moral authorities of life, and not necessarily in that order.

The Epistles of Paul - Romans Part 6, 05-09-2014

In Romans chapter 4 we saw the substance of the faith of Abraham as it was explained by Paul of Tarsus himself, that the gifts of the promises of God are for those nations which sprung from the seed of Abraham, from Abraham's loins, as the promises of the Old Testament which Paul cited certainly attest. Those promises are not conditional upon the keeping of the law, since they were delivered long before the giving of the law and since they were made without condition. However on the other hand, with the passing of the Levitical priesthood and the end of the rituals, Paul had also explained that those nations descended from Abraham should by nature keep the laws which Yahweh God had written upon their hearts.

The scoffers and Judaizers sought to keep Christians bound to the rituals of the law, and under their own thumbs since they pretended to be the experts in the law. The apostles, however, responded negatively to this. Peter is recorded as having said, in Acts chapter 15: “9 And distinguishing nothing between both us and them, by faith He cleanses their hearts. 10 Therefore now why tempt Yahweh to place a yoke upon the necks of the students which neither our fathers nor us have been able to bear?” Likewise James is recorded in that same place, “14 Sumeon has declared just how at the first Yahweh considered to take from among the Nations a people in His Name [which according to the prophets are all those scattered Israelites who would turn to Christ]. 15 And with this the words of the prophets agree just as it is written: 16 After these things 'I shall return' and 'I shall rebuild the tent of David which has fallen and I shall rebuild its ruins and I shall set it up again, [David ruled over all twelve tribes, which split apart and followed Baal after Solomon died, and this is the tent to be rebuilt in Christ] 17 that those remaining of men [the remnant of Israel] seek Yahweh, and all the Nations whom have My Name labeled upon them [the Nations of the promise to Abraham], says Yahweh doing these things 18 known from of old [the reconciliation of Israel was known from of old because it is written in the prophets].' 19 On which account I judge not to trouble those from among the Nations who turn to Yahweh, 20 but to enjoin them to abstain from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from that which is strangled and from blood. 21 For Moses from generations of old has those who are proclaiming him in each city in the assembly halls, being read each and every Sabbath.” Of course, the summons to keep the ten commandments were already a part of the Gospel, and there are evident cultural reasons why the apostles added these few things which we see here. But we must note that Paul was in agreement with the apostles concerning the laws of Moses, and the epistles of James and Peter are also found to be in agreement.

The Epistles of Paul - Romans Part 5, 05-02-2014

From Romans chapter 1 where he cited the words of Habakkuk, that “the just shall live by faith” through Romans chapter 3, Paul had argued that justification before God was not by the rituals, or the “works of the law”. Discussing those arguments we cited many of the statements of Yahweh God by the prophets which certainly support Paul's position. Here in Romans chapter 4 Paul offers Abraham himself as an example in order to further illustrate his argument that justification is not by works, or rituals. However there is more to consider in the fabric of Paul's discourse than justification alone.

Firstly, in Romans chapters 2 and 3 Paul also drew a distinction between the Laws of Moses and the laws which were prophesied to have been written on the hearts of the children of Israel, as Yahweh had promised in the words of both Jeremiah and Isaiah. These laws, as it is related in Jeremiah, bear a direct relation to the New Covenant, and we saw that Paul explained as much in his epistle to the Hebrews as well. From this discussion it was hopefully elucidated that the basic ten commandments as well as the other moral laws of God transcend the Law of Moses which were imposed as a condition of the marriage relationship between Yahweh and Israel, and that while the Levitical laws and the associated priesthood are no longer in force, that Christians nevertheless have an obligation to uphold the basic commandments and the other moral laws of God.

The Epistles of Paul - Romans Part 4, 04-25-2014

Discussing Romans chapter 2 we saw that the prophets of Yahweh announced the failure of the law of God on the part of the children of Israel because they refused to keep it. With that, Yahweh God Himself also announced that the ritual sacrifices, feasts and other works of the law conducted by the children of Israel would no longer be acceptable to Him. Establishing these things, we cited lengthy passages from 1 John chapter 1, Isaiah chapter 1, Hosea chapter 8 and Jeremiah chapter 6. All of these prophets were found to be in agreement with Habakkuk, whom Paul had quoted in Romans chapter 1, where that prophet said that the law had failed because Israel did not keep it, and for that reason “the just shall live by faith”, as Paul had quoted. We must always bear in mind that none of this is about the failure of God, but rather it is about the education of His people.

With such an understanding, we may then perceive why Paul told the Romans “for as many as have done wrong without law, without law then are they cleansed; and as many as have done wrong in the law, by the law they will be judged”, at Romans 2:12. The prophets had also clearly foretold that the dispersed children of Israel, who no longer had the Levitical law, would be cleansed of their sins by Yahweh apart from the law. So apart from Yahshua Christ there is no propitiation for sin, and those many Judaeans of the first century who rejected Christ would be judged by the law. For that same reason Christ told them that they would die in their sins.

The Epistles of Paul - Romans Part 3, 04-18-2014

Before continuing with our presentation of Paul's epistle to the Romans, it is necessary to be reminded of the scope of the epistle, which includes an understanding of who it was written to, for whom Paul's words were intended. We cannot imagine that we may pick up and read a letter written to one particular party, and that we can then substitute any other party in its references unless the letter itself makes such an explicit allowance in its own expressions.

Paul's epistle was addressed to Romans, and these Romans were pagans, and not merely Judaean (meaning Jewish in this instance) inhabitants of Rome. This is apparent as Paul states that they had “reverenced and served the creation rather than the Creator” because they had fashioned idols out of living creatures, and such things could not be said of Judaeans. However it is also quite evident that the Romans themselves were of the ancient dispersions of Israel, since Paul tells them “that which is to be known of Yahweh is visible among them, since Yahweh has made it known to them”, and those things may only be said of ancient Israel. Paul also told them that “knowing Yahweh, they thought of Him not as God, nor were they thankful” and that “they changed the estimation of the incorruptible Yahweh into a resemblance of an image of corruptible man, and birds, and four-legged animals, and reptiles”, things which could only be said of ancient Israelites who at some point turned to paganism, which is indeed explained of ancient Israel in the books of the Old Testament. So Paul was writing to Romans, and the Romans were descended from Abraham through Jacob-Israel, and his own writing in his epistle is proof enough of the truth of that statement. There is much more in the chapters to come, and these things can also be demonstrated from an examination of the Old Testament and ancient history.

The Epistles of Paul - Romans Part 2, 04-04-2014

Presenting the first half of Romans chapter 1 last week, we left off with verse 17 and Paul's citation of Habakkuk 2:4 where he says that “the just shall live by faith”. In commenting upon that citation, we established that in the context of the original remark as it is found in Habakkuk, the statement intends to describe the righteous of those of the children of Israel who were going to be taken into Babylonian captivity. Because the Law had failed when the rulers and priests of Israel began to deal unjustly, the people were fated to be oppressed and forced to live under the laws of Babylon, a situation which was to endure for an appointed time. In Ezekiel chapter 21 we have corroboration for this interpretation, where Yahweh said He will cut off from the land of Israel both the righteous and the wicked. From Habakkuk chapter 2: “3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. 4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.” In the epistle to the Romans, Paul was teaching the fulfillment of these words in Habakkuk, which is assured where the prophet wrote “in the end it shall speak”, meaning that the fulfillment would indeed become evident. Paul is showing us that fulfillment is in the turning of the dispersed children of Israel to Christ. This is why, in the next several chapters of this epistle, Paul demonstrates that those of Israel who are just in the eyes of God are not manifest in a keeping of the rituals of the Law, but instead they are manifest by a turning to the faith of Christ along with an exhibition of the law which Yahweh promised would be written in their hearts. The next few verses of this first chapter of Romans fully demonstrate that the children of Israel, and no others, certainly remain the focus of the Gospel message.

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.

The Prophecy of Micah, Part 2

In Micah chapter 1, we saw that the prophet had been chastising Israel for their sins, among which were their intercourse with other nations and their oppression of the poor of their people. We saw parallel prophecies in the writings of the contemporary prophets Isaiah, Hosea and Amos, all of whom were announcing different aspects of the same basic messages. By the many different ways in which their prophecies corroborate one another, as well as by all of the clear fulfillments of these prophecies, we see that these men were truly prophets of God, while at the same time there were many false prophets among the people whose works have not endured. We shall see more of that here in Micah chapters 2 and 3.

Furthermore, in the opening chapter of Micah the prophet uttered oracles against Israel and Samaria and against certain cities of Judah, and then he warned that the judgment of God would come “unto the gate of Jerusalem.” It may be ascertained from the historical portions of Scripture, and from history itself, that the Assyrians who were about to invade Israel in fulfillment of these oracles would indeed take captive all but some small scattered remnants of the Northern kingdom of Israel, and also much of Judah – especially those northern towns of Judah which Micah explicitly mentioned – but that the Assyrians would indeed be stopped at the gate of the Jerusalem, and not take the city itself. Most notable, however, is that the names of the towns of Judah which Micah prophesied against also have meanings, and an understanding of those meanings adds a much greater depth to his message, because they are pertinent to the purpose of his prophecy. Here we shall repeat this portion of Micah chapter 1, from verses 10 through 15, and offer some interpretation. However we will not repeat many of the things which we offered from the Septuagint in our full presentation, although they should not be ignored if one truly wants to study the prophecy in depth:

The Prophecy of Micah - Part 1

The prophecy of Micah parallels those of Isaiah, Hosea, and Amos, who were all prophets of the 8th century BC. The ministries of all four of these prophets were focused on forecasting God's impending judgment of the ancient northern Kingdom of Israel, although they all also prophesied of other things, such as the sin and impending judgment of Judah and Jerusalem, of Christ, and of Israel's eventual restoration. The prophet Jonah is earlier than any of these, but he was not concerned with the destruction of Israel. Rather, Jonah sought the preservation of Israel, imagining that Yahweh would destroy the encroaching Assyrians instead. It was demonstrated in our presentation of Amos that Assyria and Israel had been struggling back-and-forth for over a hundred years before the final destruction of Samaria. For instance, we had demonstrated from correlating the Bible with certain ancient Assyrian inscriptions that the restoration to Israel of Hamath, Damascus and the northern plain by Jeroboam II which is mentioned in 2 Kings chapter 14 was in response to earlier Assyrian subjugation of that area. Even earlier than that, we saw in Assyrian inscriptions that the Israelite king Ahab had sent a force of 10,000 foot-soldiers to join a mostly Syrian coalition army against Assyrian expansion into the Levant, something which is not mentioned in the Bible. Ahab was over a hundred years before Jotham, the king of Judah when Micah began his ministry. The lesson of the gourd in Jonah is that Yahweh was indeed going to use Assyria's expanding empire to preserve Israel by taking Israel into captivity. Jonah recorded the lesson of the gourd, but he evidently did not understand it.

The next prophet after Micah is Nahum, a prophet of the 7th century who was indeed focused on Yahweh's revenge against the Assyrians, something which Isaiah also prophesied about at length. The prophet Joel, usually and incorrectly dated to an earlier period, was also a prophet of the 7th century BC, as the third chapter of his book demonstrates. Obadiah is also usually dated to have been written at an early time, but his prophecy could not have been written until after the fall of Jerusalem (verses 10-14). Scholars who dispute the prophecies concerning Edom do not understand who Edom is in the world today, and therefore they cannot understand Obadiah. Aside from these and a few other less significant questions, the King James translators were fair in estimating the proper order of the minor prophets.

Book of Acts Chapter 28 - 01-24-2014

The end of Acts chapter 27 left us at the end of a shipwreck, as after several weeks of struggling through apparently early Winter storms, the ship carrying Paul, Luke and Aristarchus is finally run aground on an island. The nature of the wreck indicates to us the size of the ship, as evidently it could not get very close to the shore since the men had to make a swim for it, and they were not certain whether they could all make it safely. One manuscript, the Codex Vaticanus, tells us that 76 people were on board, and the Codex Alexandrinus tells us 275, however the preponderance of the manuscripts tell us that there were 276 men on board the ship. Some of these were crewmen, and some were soldiers in the company of the centurion, Julius.

There were, ostensibly, more prisoners on board than the three which Luke names, which are himself, perhaps, and also Aristarchus and Paul. We can imagine the possibility that Luke was a prisoner, as some of his language indicates, since he never tells us explicitly that he is. While in his second epistle to Timothy Paul seems to infer that Luke's presence with him was voluntary, that is not necessarily the case. Although Rome certainly seems to have been much more liberal in its attitude concerning public contact with prisoners than the modern tyrannies are, it seems that Luke would never have been able to have been Paul's constant companion throughout this ordeal if he were not also a prisoner.

Book of Acts Chapter 27 - 01-17-2014

In Acts chapter 26, Paul was afforded the opportunity to address a rather large crowd, at what Luke depicted as a rather festive gathering, concerning his Christian profession. As we discussed at length while presenting that chapter, Paul did not necessarily speak for the benefit of Herod Agrippa, who was an Edomite and certainly not a candidate for the Christian profession. Rather, Paul addressed Herod as a matter of protocol, and used the occasion in order to witness to the many hundreds of others who must have been present. We pointed out that Paul himself explained his philosophy in these matters in the first chapter of his epistle to the Philippians, where he attested “... that those things concerning me have gone still more to the advancement of the good message, so that my bonds in Christ have become manifest to the whole Praetorium and to all the rest; and most of the brethren among the number of the Prince, trusting in my bonds, venture more exceedingly to speak the word of Yahweh fearlessly. Some indeed even because of envy and strife, but some also by approval are proclaiming the Christ. Surely these out of love, knowing that I am set for a defense of the good message, but those out of contention are declaring the Christ not purely, supposing to stir up tribulation in my bonds. What then? That in every way, whether in pretext or in truth, Christ is declared, and in this I rejoice. And surely I will rejoice.”