Biblical Commentary

The Prophecy of Amos, Part 2

The prophecy of Amos begins with oracles against both Israel and Judah, and also against the Edomites, Syrians, Moabites and Ammonites and certain of their cities. In the first segment of our presentation of the Book of Amos we began to discuss the fates of these places, and presented much of what can be seen of these things from ancient Assyrian inscriptions. This helps to demonstrate that the Biblical account of the history of this period certainly is true, and also to show that these prophecies indeed had the beginning of their fulfillment in the years subsequent to the time of the prophet. Here we shall repeat these oracles against Damascus and against Gaza, and continue with our theme from last week.

3 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron: 4 But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Benhadad. 5 I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden: and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir, saith the LORD.

The Prophecy of Amos, Part 1

Many students of the Bible fail to realize, or at least easily forget – and I also at times have probably been guilty of this same thing – that the promise to Abraham that his seed would possess all of the land from Egypt to the Euphrates was indeed fulfilled in the days of King David. Even the Jews often deny the fact of this fulfillment, hoping themselves to be the heirs of this land in modern times and pointing to the prophecy in order to justify their treachery – and in spite of the fact that they are not genetic Israel. Here it is in Genesis 15:18-21: “18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: 19 The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, 20 And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, 21 And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

Now it is clear from Scripture that the children of Israel did not exterminate all of the tribes of Canaan as they were so commanded. But that does not mean that they did not possess the land. The fulfillment of this promise of Genesis 15:18 is evident in 2 Samuel chapter 8...

The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 24 - 12-28-2012

While presenting these gospel accounts it has often been said that the perspectives of all four gospel writers are needed in order to be able to piece together a more complete picture of the events surrounding the life, ministry and passion of Christ. That is especially true when trying to determine the chronology of the last week of His pre-Resurrection life and of the Resurrection itself.

The popular perception of the chronology of the death and resurrection of Christ comes from a calendar which was evidently made to suit the Roman church, however it does not agree with the Gospel. From John 19:31 we see of the Sabbath which was also the Passover that “that Sabbath day was an high day”. So we learn that Christ was placed into a tomb at the end of a preparation day for a high Sabbath, and not necessarily the day of the regular seventh-day Sabbath, and that He was in that tomb on a Sabbath day, and that he was found to have been arisen by dawn of the first day of the week, which is the day immediately following a Sabbath day. From three of the four gospels, from Matthew 27:55 and 61, from Mark 15:47, and from Luke 24:1, we see that the women who were with Christ had observed His death and burial right up to where He was placed into the tomb. From all four gospels, from Matthew 28:1, from Mark 16:2, from Luke 23:55 and from John 20:1, we find that the first thing Mary Magdalene and some of the other women did on the day immediately after a Sabbath – even before the sun had risen completely – was to go to the tomb of Christ and find that He had already arisen. If that day were the Passover Sabbath, it seems that they would hardly have had time to go shopping.

The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 23 Part 2 - 12-28-2012

Last week at the end of the first part of this presentation of Luke chapter 23, we addressed what was seen as two ages-old Christian Identity heresies, both of which are unnecessary innovations. The first belongs, so far as I know, to Wesley Swift, who told a fantastic story about Barabbas called The Blue Tunic Army Of Christ, a story which is not substantiated in history and which is refuted by the words of the Gospel writers alone. Barabbas was a mere robber, and not the great leader of an army for God. The second is the misconception concerning Luke 23:34, where some perhaps well-meaning but poorly studied individuals like to claim that the first sentence of that verse should be read in part “Father forgive them not, for they know what they do.” Yet the Greek sentence in question is correctly translated as it is found in the King James Version, where it reads “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” The Greek grammar proves that the King James Version translation of the sentence is correct, where in all of Luke's writing wherever a verb is accompanied with a negative particle, forming a negative verb, the negative particle precedes the verb which it negates, and never follows it.

However concerning this passage, in truth the earliest manuscripts are divided, and it is not found in the majority of them. Therefore it is most likely that the passage is an interpolation, and for that reason it is not found in the Christogenea New Testament. Many Identity Christians who have not known this have wondered how Christ could forgive his murderers. However even the context is obvious, that the verse saying “And casting lots they divided His garments” refers to the Roman soldiers, and not at all to the Judaeans who brought Christ before Pilate. Therefore if the statement concerning forgiveness is admitted into the narrative it can only refer to the Roman soldiers, and not to the Judaeans. The Judaeans knew what they were doing, as even Pilate knew they wanted Christ executed out of envy (Matthew 27:18, Mark 15:19), and the Roman soldiers were truly ignorant of the entire situation and were only following orders. Christ Himself told Pilate “You do not have any authority over Me if it was not given to you from above. For this reason he who delivered Me to you has greater fault”, fully indicating that the jews alone were primarily responsible for His execution.

The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 23 - 12-21-2012

We saw Luke chapter 22 end with the mock trial of Yahshua Christ in the court of the high priests. That trial was not a real trial, but probably only served so that the Judaeans could draw up the charges which they would present to Pilate, since in Judaea at the time only the Roman authority had the lawful power to try capital offenses. The first Herod had that power, when Judaea was a kingdom. However under Herod Archelaus Judaea was reduced to the status of an imperial province and the local rulers lost that authority.

All four gospels offer quite different perspectives on the mock trial of Yahshua before the high priests. It must be noted that the four quite different perspectives of the events of both trials and the crucifixion of Christ was probably the result of the disciples being scattered after Christ was seized in the garden, which is seen at Mark 14:50. One thing that is apparent in all four gospels, however, is that there were really no charges of substance worthy of a capital or even a minor offense which could have been brought, except that the high priests and scribes cared not for justice but for expediency, so they merely invented charges. As Mark wrote in his version of the account, “56...many had testified falsely against Him, and the testimonies were not the same. 57 And some arising gave false testimony against Him saying 58 that: “We heard Him saying that ‘I shall destroy this temple made by hand and after three days I shall build another not made by hand!’” 59 Yet not even thusly was their testimony the same.” Matthew said “59 Then the high priests and the entire council sought false testimony against Yahshua, that they may kill Him, 60 yet they found not many false witnesses coming forth. But later two having come forth 61 said 'He said this: ‘I am able to destroy the temple of Yahweh and in three days I will build it!’” While on the surface the accounts seem to conflict because of the differing perspectives, in many ways they compliment and corroborate one another. Luke did not record the matters concerning the temple, but all three gospels generally agree where Luke records the high priests as having asked “67 'If You are the Christ, tell us!' And He said to them: 'If I should tell you, you shall not believe it, 68 and if I shall ask, by no means will you answer. 69 But from this time the Son of Man shall be sitting at the right hand of the power of Yahweh.'” The apostle John in his gospel did not record any of the charges which the high priests and their followers had contrived before bringing Yahshua before Pilate.

The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 22, Part 2 - 12-07-2012

Satan is not in heaven. In his mailing this month, Clifton Emahiser sent out my reply to the assertions of Don Spears which had been presented here as a foreword with the presentation of Luke chapter 8 last July 7th. Since Don is a former Baptist preacher, his opinions on the issue generally reflect those which are held by Baptists on this matter. Unfortunately a very few people understand that once one comes to the truths of Christian Identity, one cannot put the new wine of these truths into old skins. Rather, one must put the new wine into new bottles, in order that the truth be maintained.

With this dispute in mind, we will begin our presentation of the second part of Luke chapter 22 with some of that which we had left off last week, with Luke 22:31 and the admonishment of Peter by Christ.

31 “Simon, Simon, behold! The Adversary demanded you, for which to winnow you as grain! 32 But I made supplication concerning you, that your faith would not fail. And when you have turned about, you must strengthen your brethren.”

The Baptists would insist that the Adversary, or Satan, of Luke 22:31 is a spirit demon, however that is not necessarily the case. The precedent Scripture with which to understand just what Peter was prevented from is found in the story of Job in the Old Testament. Yet the Baptists would insist that the Satan of Job was a spirit demon, and not an bodily one. They would then claim that this Satan had access to both heaven and earth, and reference the story of Jacob's Ladder in order to justify that claim.

The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 22, Part 1 - Christogenea on Talkshoe 12-07-2012

Last week, in presenting the second half of Luke chapter 21, we saw that the so-called diaspora of the jews, which in reality did not occur for the most part until after the Bar Kokhba Rebellion against Rome circa 136 AD, was really the diaspora of the enemies of God and Christ. We saw that in the language used not only by Christ Himself in Luke chapter 21, but where the same language was used of all those people of Judah who were to be given over to the “bad figs” described in Jeremiah chapters 24 and 29, the remnant of Judah in Jerusalem which was not taken away earlier by the Assyrians, but had been taken later by the Babylonians. These people who were to be given over to the bad figs are, ostensibly, those people of Judah who later race-mixed with the Kenites and Canaanites and Edomites who were the bad figs which had infiltrated the Kingdom from the earliest times. The Jews are not the people of God, they are the enemies of God. For this same reason the apostle Paul, in Romans chapter 9, distinguished between the true Israelites in Israel and those which were not of Israel, between the Israelites who are the vessels of mercy, and the Edomites who are the vessels of destruction. 

The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 21 part 2 - 11-30-2012

20 “But when you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, then you know that her desolation has come near. 21 Then those in Judaea must flee into the mountains, and those in her midst must leave the land, and those in the countryside must not enter into her!

Two weeks ago, in our presentation of the first half of Luke chapter 21, we saw how these words recorded by Luke were perfectly fulfilled in history just as they were recorded. Jerusalem was surrounded by armies during the siege of Cestius Gallus in 66 AD, and then Cestius withdrew from the city for no apparent reason. A couple of years later the Roman armies under Titus besieged and destroyed the city. In the interim, as Josephus attests, many of the better people fled the city for good. Josephus also attests to the vile nature of all those who remained behind, who were for the most part destroyed by Titus' armies. Now we shall present the second half of Luke chapter 21, where we left off discussing verses 22 through 24 and had introduced the parable of the good and the bad figs from Jeremiah chapter 24.

The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 21 - Christogenea on Talkshoe 11-16-2012

1 Then looking up He saw those casting the gifts of their riches into the treasury. 2 And He saw a certain needy widow casting two lepta there.

Lepta (singular λεπτόν, 3016) are very small coins. The Codex Bezae (D) inserts the explanatory phrase “which is a quadrans” (κοδράντης, 2835) into this verse. That manuscript also substituted κοδράντης for λεπτόν at Luke 12:59, where we see an example of a liberality taken in the copying of manuscripts in order to satisfy a difference in the vernacular, whether of the region or period. Evidently another copyist of the scrolls which led to the Codex Bezae meant to clarify lepton here by adding a note rather than changing the word. Marginal notes have often been known to eventually find their way into the texts, and here that process is evident.

3 And He said “Truthfully I say to you that this poor widow has cast more than all! 4 For all of them from their abundance have cast in the gifts, but she from her want has cast in all the substance she had!”

The Codices Alexandrinus (A), Bezae (D), Washingtonensis (W), and the Majority Text have “the gifts of God”; the text of the Christogenea New Testament follows the Codices Sinaiticus (א) and Vaticanus (B).

The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 20 - Christogenea on Talkshoe 11-09-2012

1 And it came to pass on one of the days of His teaching the people in the temple and announcing the good message, there appeared the high priests and the scribes with the elders 2 and they spoke, saying to Him “Tell us, by what sort of authority do You do these things? Or who is it who has given to You that authority?”

The Codices Alexandrinus (A), Washingtonensis (W) and the Majority Text have merely priests, rather than high priests. The text follows the Codices Sinaiticus (>א), Vaticanus (B), Ephraemi Syri (C) and Bezae (D).

3 But replying He said to them “I also shall ask you a question, and you must tell Me:

The word λόγος (3056) is rendered as question here, but it most literally means a word.

4 The immersion of Iohannes, was it from of heaven or from of men?”

The Pharisees had not gone to John because they thought of being baptized by him. They really went to see what he was doing, and why he thought he had such license to baptize. In Luke chapter 7, after Christ explains to the people that John was indeed a prophet, we see these words: “29 And all the people heard, and the tax-collectors deemed Yahweh just, being immersed in the immersion of Iohannes. 30 But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the counsel of Yahweh in regard to themselves, not being immersed by him.” Here Christ challenges them concerning this, which is also recorded in Matthew chapter 21and Mark chapter 11. From here we can also see that it is not improper to answer a question with a question in return, a rhetorical device eschewed by many today.

The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 19 - Christogenea on Talkshoe 11-02-2012

1 Then entering in He passed through Iericho, 2 and behold, a man by name called Zakchaios, and he was chief tax-collector and he was wealthy. 3 And he sought to see Yahshua, who He is, and was not able because of the crowd, for he was small in stature. 4 Yet running ahead to the front he went up into a mulberry tree that he may see Him, since He was about to pass through there. 5 And as He came by the place, Yahshua looking up said to him: “Zakchaios! Hurry, you must come down! For today it is necessary for Me to stay at your house!” 6 Then hurrying he came down and welcomed Him rejoicing. 7 And all those seeing it murmured, saying that “With a sinful man He has entered in to lodge!” 8 Then stopping Zakchaios said to the Prince: “Behold, half of my property, Prince, I give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything of anyone, I return it fourfold!” 9 And Yahshua said to him that “Today has preservation come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham! 10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which has been lost!”

This account of Zakchaios the tax-collector only appears in Luke. Note the exclamation of Yahshua in verse 9, “Today has preservation [or salvation] come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham!” We are not told whether Zakchaios is an Israelite, however he must be, for he is already a son of Abraham, and that is why salvation came to his house. Salvation did not come to the house of Zakchaios because he was repentant. Salvation did not come to the house of Zakchaios because he offered to give away his property. Rather, Christ is salvation, and Christ chose to come to the house of Zakchaios because Zakchaios is a son of Abraham!

The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 18 - 10-19-2012

1 Then He spoke to them a parable, in reference to the necessity for them always to pray and not to falter, 2 saying: “There was a certain judge in some city who feared not Yahweh and respected not man. 3 And there was a widow in that city and she began saying to him ‘Exact vengeance for me from my opponent.’

The verb ἄρχω (756, 757) is merely “to begin” here. Used with the Participle “saying”, it implies that the woman “began and continued”, which Liddell & Scott explain in their definition of the word at ἄρχω I., 5.

4 Yet for a time he desired it not. But afterwards he said to himself, ‘Even if I do not fear Yahweh, nor do I respect man, 5 indeed on account of this widow causing me trouble I shall avenge her, lest in result of her coming she wears me out.’”

The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 17 - 10-12-2012

In Luke chapter 16, Christ is recorded as having given a lengthy discourse concerning wealth and the love of mammon, or riches. Beginning with a parable which warns concerning the behavior of the “sons of light” as opposed to the “sons of this age”, He continued with a warning about those forcing their way into the Kingdom of God, and then presented another parable in an example of a wealthy man who had failed to extend assistance to the poor man, Lazarus. All of this actually presents diverse parts of a consistent moral lesson concerning the behavior of the “sons of light”. That they should not act as the “sons of this age” in pursuit of unrighteous riches, wealth obtained through unjust means, that they should be wary of those outsiders forcing their way into the Kingdom of God, and that if they were to become wealthy, they risk losing their own reward in the Kingdom in the event they forsake their brethren as the rich man had not considered the needs of Lazarus.

Studying the history of Christian Europe one should recognize that many from the noble classes thought that it was beneficial to have the anti-Christ jewish usurers around for the sake of commerce. Kings used these jews in the hopes of they themselves profiting from jewish vice and usury. In the meantime the jews acquired great wealth, having the business of usury and capital exclusively to themselves since Christians were barred from such practices. If Christians had only heeded the words of Christ in Luke chapter 16, they may have recognized the connection between the pursuit of wealth and the infiltration and corruption of the Kingdom of God, which has led to the very situation which we suffer today.

The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 16 - 10-05-2012

Two weeks ago, following the presentation of Luke chapter 15, I had given an outline of the reasons for the translation of Luke chapter 16 verses 8 and 9 as they appear in the Christogenea New Testament. Here we will summarize the explanation of the Parable of the Unrighteous Steward once more, and begin by reading the verses in question: “8 And the master praised the unrighteous steward because he did wisely, because the sons of this age are wiser than the sons of light are towards their own race. 9 And I say to you, shall you make for yourselves friends from the riches of unrighteousness, that when you should fail they may receive you into eternal dwellings?”

In summary, in verse 8 of the chapter there are two Greek words which practically all, if not all, of the popular translations of Luke fail to render properly. These are αἰών, which here is rendered as age, and γενεά, which is rendered as race. The Greek word αἰών is the word from which we have the English eon. It represents a period of time, and not of space. Therefore it cannot be properly translated as world the way in which we generally understand the word world as it is used today.

The notes to this podcast are already contained here in papers written years ago, Divorce in the Bible and The Divorce Discourse: Luke 16:16-18

The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 15 - 09-21-2012

1 Then all of the tax-collectors and the wrongdoers were approaching Him to hear Him. 2 And both the Pharisees and the scribes were murmuring saying that “He receives wrongdoers and eats together with them!” 3 So He spoke to them this parable, saying: 4 “Which man from among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave behind the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go for that which is lost until he should find it? 5 And finding it places it upon his shoulder rejoicing, 6 and coming to the house will call together friends and neighbors saying to them ‘Rejoice with me, because I found my sheep which is lost!’ 7 I say to you that thusly there shall be joy in heaven upon the repenting of one wrongdoer rather than upon ninety-nine righteous who have no need of repentance!

A lot may be said of this allegory, aside from the illustration of how valuable each and every one of the sheep are to their Shepherd, which is yet another illustration that all Israel shall indeed be saved. There are a hundred sheep, comparatively, and the ninety-nine are left in the wilderness while the one which is lost is pursued. Note that the ninety-nine are not in the stables (i.e. in Jerusalem) or in some civilized safe haven, but in the wilderness. Note also that the sheep do not seek the Shepherd, but rather that the Shepherd seeks the sheep....

The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 14 – September 7th, 2012

1 And it happened while He entered into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread that they were watching Him closely.

The opponents of Christ had been watching to entrap Him since the “time if His coming forth”, as it says in Luke chapter 11, “laying in wait for Him to catch something from His mouth.”

2 Then behold, there was a certain edematous man before Him.

The word ὑδρωπικός (5203) is an adjective, “dropsical” (Liddell & Scott), an “edematous man” here. From ὕδρωψ, “dropsy” (Liddell & Scott), the word is an archaic term for edema, “an excessive accumulation of serous fluid in tissue spaces or a body cavity” (The American Heritage College Dictionary), and derived from ὕδωρ “water”.

The Gospel of Luke, Chapters 13 – Christogenea on Talkshoe, August 31st, 2012

1 Then there were some present at that time who reported to Him concerning the Galilaians whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 And replying He said to them: “Do you suppose that those Galilaians had been wrongdoers beyond all the Galilaians, because they suffered these things? 3 No, I say to you, but if you do not repent, all of you likewise shall be destroyed!

Luke often took pains to make his accounts historically accurate, as for example in Luke chapter 3 where he lists those ruling over the various districts of Palestine at the time of the birth of Christ. Yet there is no other record outside of Luke of the event at the tower of Siloam seen mentioned in verse 4, and neither is there any other account of the destruction of these Galilaians which is mentioned here. Yet there were other similar events recorded by Josephus which described the many problems that occurred during the tenure of Pilate in Judaea, mostly due to the inevitable clash of Judaean and Roman cultures and the relatively new religion of the worship of the emperor which began to rise in the days of Augustus. However there seems to be a certain civil discord and unrest which is evident in history wherever a Canaanite-Edomite element takes a predominant role in society, as was evident in America during the 1960's and 70's. An example is in Josephus' Wars of the Judaeans, in Book 2, chapter 9, sections 2 through 4, as Whiston numbered his edition:

The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 12 – Christogenea on Talkshoe, August 24th, 2012

In the last two chapters of Luke we have seen Christ demonstrate that His opponents were of the race of Cain – because only Cain could be held responsible for the blood of Abel - and that the serpents of the time of Christ were indeed related to the long-ago fall of satan, the “angels” which had rebelled from God and had gone off into iniquity. The blood of the prophets is found in Mystery Babylon, for which see Revelation 18:24. This understanding agrees perfectly with the statements in John, in chapter 10 of his gospel where we see that the Judaeans opposing Christ were not of His sheep, and in chapter 8 of his gospel where we see that those opposed to Christ were of their “father, the devil”, who was a “murderer from the beginning”, and only Cain could be called a “murderer from the beginning”. With certainty, Cain was a devil for the same reason that the Edomite Judas Iscariot was a devil, because he too was of bastard seed. All of this also agrees with the first epistle of John, where it insists that Christians love one another, contrasting Cain where it says “12 Not as Kain who was from of the Wicked One and slaughtered his brother; and with delight he slaughtered him, because his deeds were evil, but those of his brother righteous.” Now there is no evidence that Cain was ever a student of the serpent, but there is plenty of evidence that Cain was the offspring of a serpent! The mystery of iniquity is genetic, and opposed to that is the first law of Yahweh our God, which is that of kind after kind.

The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 11 – August 17th, 2012

1 And it came to pass, while He was in a certain place praying, as He had stopped, one of His students said to Him: “Prince, teach us to pray, just as Iohannes had also taught his students.” 2 So He said to them “When you pray, you say: ‘Father, Your Name must be sanctified. Your kingdom must come. 3 Give to us each day our daily bread. 4 And forgive us our errors, for we also forgive all those indebted to us. And do not bring us into trial’.”

The word ἐπιούσιος (1967) is defined by the 9th edition of the Liddell & Scott Greek-English Lexicon “either, sufficient for the coming (and so current) day... or, for the day” and aside from Matt. 6:11 and here, only very obscure references are given for the word, and they also explain that it was a “very rare word in Origen’s day”. The word surely seems to mean upon being and may have been written necessary, and so here as it is in the King James Version, it is simply daily.

The Codices Alexandrinus (A), Ephraemi Syri (C), Bezae (D), Washingtonensis (W), 070, and the Majority Text, and therefore the King James Version, all insert at the end of this verse: “...but deliver us from the evil one.” The text of the Christogenea New Testament, which does not include the clause, follows the third century papyrus P75, and the Codices Sinaiticus (א) and Vaticanus (B). The clause does appear in all of the early manuscripts of Matthew's version of the prayer, in Matthew 6:9-13.