The Epistles of Paul - 1 Corinthians Part 1, The Corinthians and Dorian Greek Origins; The Proof of the Anointed


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The Epistles of Paul – 1 Corinthians Part 1

The ancient city of Corinth sat in the Peloponnesus a few miles southwest of the nearly four-mile wide Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow neck of land that connects the Peloponnesus to mainland Greece. The Greek word ἰσθμός means neck, as describing a narrow passage. In the mid-19th century, the Greeks built modern Corinth much closer to the coast of the Adriatic Sea than the ancient city had once stood. The archaeology of the original site of Corinth indicates that there were people settled in the area in very ancient times. However the archaeology also indicates that the site of the city was only sparsely inhabited when the Dorian Greeks first settled there around 900 BC, if indeed it was inhabited at all. Like all Greek cities, myths were developed surrounding its founding, part of which are fascinating and surreal and part of which seem to represent historical facts. Most such myths put the founding of cites in the hands of the gods, the idols of a pagan people, and very often they were also developed for purposes which were political as well as cultural. In any event, the city of Corinth became a notable city among the Greeks by the end of the 8th century BC.

In the 7th century BC Corinth, like other large Greek cities, began to search out other inhabitable lands and to create colonies abroad. Among the more famous of the earliest Corinthian colonies are Arta which was in what is now northern Greece, Epidamnus which was halfway up the coast of modern Albania on the Adriatic Sea, Corcyra and Ambracia which were on islands in the Adriatic Sea to the west of northern Greece, Syracuse which was on Sicily, which became one of the larger and most famous Corinthian colonies, Apollonia in what was later known as Illyria, and Potidaea which was on a peninsula on the far northern coast of the Aegean Sea. The settlement and elements of the early history of these colonies are known from Greek writers themselves. Other tribes of the Greeks, as well as the Phoenicians who also settled diverse parts of Greece, were even more energetic and successful than the Corinthians were in the founding of colonies in these directions, and the Dorian Spartans had various colonies as well.

Note that where we have accounts of early Greek colonies, meaning those made before the Persian War, whether they were on the northern shores of the Aegean or the Adriatic, or in the northern regions of the Black Sea or the Danube River valley, the histories never relate accounts of any interference or resistance to the founding of such colonies by other tribes, such as those which are often imagined to be in the north already. If there were already Aryan or Germanic tribes in the north, there are no early records of them having resisted the early Greek colonists, nor of any of them in turn encroaching upon the cities of the south. The descriptions of Germanic or Keltic tribes encroaching upon the Greeks or Romans to the south are set in a context which places them in the fifth century BC and later, with the exception of Homer's mention of the Cimmerians, which can be dated to the end [correction: middle] of the 7th century BC. The historical records refute the idea that the Aryan tribes of the Mediterranean had their origins in the north. They also refute the idea that Germanic tribes were well-settled in the north before the beginning of the Classical period. The general narrative found in the historical records corroborates Christian Identity assertions concerning the origins of the tribes of Europe.

Of course, the modern historians and anthropologists never could find that elusive so-called original Aryan homeland that they like to imagine being in the north of Europe. However in many ancient stories the origins of various Greek tribes are said to be in Asia or Egypt or in the islands of the sea. We then see their historic accounts which describe the various foundings of their many colonies in the north, and in their histories we see the spread of Greek and Roman peoples and civilizations northward and westward from their Mediterranean coasts. As for the Germanic peoples who are later found in the north, they can be traced as having migrated westward from Asia in those same histories, and they appear in the north and west at relatively late and diverse times. Diodorus Siculus states that the people of the Galatae, later called Germans by the Romans, first became known to the Greeks in the 4th century BC (Library of History, 17.113.2). When Livy wrote of the appearance of the Gauls in northern Italy late in the 5th century B.C., in his account the Roman historian calls them a “strange race, new settlers” (History of Rome, 5.17.6-10).

However historians both modern and ancient assert that the Dorians came “from the north”, and point to the stories concerning the Dorian Tetrapolis, four cities (Erineus, Boeum, Pindus and Cytinium, for which see Strabo's Geography, 9.4.10) which lie west of Phocis and north of Delphi on the Greek mainland, as evidence of this. While it is true that both Herodotus and Thucydides imagined this to be the origin of the Dorians who later invaded and conquered the Peloponnesus, they offer no accounts more elaborate than their singular statements and they do not agree with the earlier poet Homer. Diodorus Siculus gives an account in which he says that the Dorians had inhabited these places, but they were expelled by the Cadmeans, referring to the Phoenicians of Thebes, and only later returned to dwell in the cities of the aforementioned Tetrapolis (Library of History 4.67.1). With this Strabo seems to agree, as does Herodotus, although Herodotus also calls the Dorians an “excessively migratory” people, speaking of those earliest periods (The Histories, 1.56). All of these statements concern things which are prehistoric, and are not supported by the earlier Epic Poets. It cannot be taken for granted that even if the Dorians had a settlement in mainland Greece at an early time, that it was their homeland for very long before their invasion of the Peloponnesus.

The modern historians also claim that all Aryans came “from the north” into the ancient world at one time or another, yet they are consistently in error. Homer is given much credit by Strabo for his knowledge and accuracy in describing the peoples of the οἰκουμένη and the regions where they lived, and the poet is constantly cited by the geographer. It is difficult to perceive that Homer, going out of his way to sing of the tribes of the Greeks, would omit the Dorians from Greece entirely. This is especially true since Homer often mentioned Delphi and Olympus, both of which are in northern Greece, and he was writing at a time when the Dorians were a very significant people in Greece. It is apparent that Homer made no mention of Dorians in Greece, because there were no Dorians in Greece at the time of the Trojan War.

The following is a quote from Strabo's Geography, from Book 1 chapter 1 paragraphs 10 and 11, which contains Strabo's attestation and defense of Homer's knowledge of geography:

“10 Homer, then, knows and clearly describes the remote ends of the inhabited earth and what surrounds it; and he is just as familiar with the regions of the Mediterranean Sea. For if you begin at the Pillars of Heracles, you will find that the Mediterranean Sea is bounded by Libya, Egypt, and Phoenicia, and further on by the part of the continent lying over against Cyprus; then by the territory of the Solymi, by Lycia, and by Caria, and next by the seaboard between Mycale and the Troad, together with the islands adjacent thereto; and all these lands are mentioned by Homer, as well as those farther on, about the Propontis and the Euxine Sea [the Black Sea] as far as Colchis and the limits of Jason's expedition; more than that, he knows the Cimmerian Bosporus, because he knows the Cimmerians — for surely, if he knows the name of the Cimmerians, he is not ignorant of the people themselves — the Cimmerians who, in Homer's own time or shortly before his time, overran the whole country from the Bosporus to Ionia. [From this testimony along with that of Proclus, Eusebius and Tatian, Homer can be dated to have been just before the middle of the 7th century BC (correction made March 21st 2015 - WRF). Homer did know of the Cimmerians, but the Crimea was only later called by their name. It is clear from other sources that the Cimmerians crossed Anatolia and ravaged Phrygia, Lydia, and Ionia in Homer's own time, crossing the Bosporus and settling in the north.] At least he intimates that the very climate of their country is gloomy, and the Cimmerians, as he says, are "shrouded in mist and in cloud, and never does the shining sun look upon them, but deadly night is spread o'er them." Homer also knows of the River Ister [this is the Danube], since he mentions Mysians, a Thracian tribe that lives on the Ister. More than that, he knows the sea-board next to the Ister, on the Thracian side, as far as the Peneus River; for he speaks of Paeonians, of Athos and Axius, and of their neighbouring islands. And next comes the sea-board of Greece, as far as Thesprotia [near the border of modern Albania], which he mentions in its entirety. And yet more, he knows the promontories of Italy also, for he speaks of Temesa and of Sicily; he also knows about the headland capes of Iberia, and of the wealth of Iberia, as I have stated above. If between these countries there are some countries which he leaves out, one might pardon him; for the professed geographer himself omits many details. And we might pardon the poet even if he has inserted things of a mythical nature in his historical and didactic narrative. That deserves no censure; for Eratosthenes is wrong in his contention that the aim of every poet is to entertain, not to instruct; indeed the wisest of the writers on poetry say, on the contrary, that poetry is a kind of elementary philosophy. But later on I shall refute Eratosthenes at greater length, when I come to speak of Homer again.

“11 For the moment what I have already said is sufficient, I hope, to show that Homer was the first geographer. And, as every one knows, the successors of Homer in geography were also notable men and familiar with philosophy. Eratosthenes declares that the first two successors of Homer were Anaximander, a pupil and fellow-citizen of Thales, and Hecataeus of Miletus; that Anaximander was the first to publish a geographical map, and that Hecataeus left behind him a work on geography, a work believed to be his by reason of its similarity to his other writings.”

While, according to Strabo, Homer left out some details, Homer was also writing of a time long before his own, so he attempted to portray the world as it may have been at the time of the Trojan Wars, ostensibly as best as he could. There are, nevertheless, a few anachronisms in his work, especially concerning the Cimmerians. However, because the Greeks certainly knew when it was that the Dorians appeared to invade the Peloponessus, and that they did not invade it until after the Trojan War, Homer never mentioned the Dorians in the Peloponnesus. But Homer, the earliest of all these Greek writers, had never mentioned the Dorians in Greece at all. Homer described all of the people of Greece, and practically all of the peoples and places known to the Greeks in the period which he wrote about. Yet Homer makes no mention of the cities of the Tetrapolis, or of Dorians in Greece, or of Dorians anywhere in the north. The Dorians, who by all accounts had invaded Greece by sea (which was hardly necessary if they came from the north) and overran the Danaans in the Peloponnesus, and later founded their mainland cities, are only mentioned by Homer as being on Crete (in his Odyssey, Book 19). If the Dorians really originated in northern Greece, why would Homer only mention them as being on Crete? Homer is writing at a time when the Dorians were a powerful people in Greece, and accounts them as being virtually insignificant to one of the most important events of early Greek history in his epics, not even mentioning them or their cities in his famous Iliad, and only giving them one brief mention in the Odyssey. The truth is simply that those Dorians cities were not yet extant, because Dorians were not yet in Greece.

According to the accounts of all the Greek poets, the sons of Heracles, called the Heracleidae, were ejected from the Peloponnesus by the Danaans. Some time later they returned by sea with a mighty people called the Dorians, who then conquered the Peloponnesus from the Danaans, and settled there in large numbers founding many cities. By most accounts, this seems to have happened just a couple of generations after the Danaans had defeated the Dardans and sacked their cities in the Trojan War.

The following is based on a paper at Christogenea entitled Classical Records of the Dorian & Danaan Israelite-Greeks:

It is my contention that the Dorians actually came from Dor in Palestine, a city on the coast of the land of Manasseh, and where many ancient “Greek” artifacts have been found by archaeologists.... These artifacts show a “Greek” presence at Dor as early as the seventh century B.C., and are certainly much earlier than the Hellenistic period. The seventh century B.C. is the time of the last recorded Assyrian military campaigns in Israel (see Ezra 4:2, Esarhaddon reigned from 681 B.C.), and the last of the major deportations of the Israelites which happened about 676 B.C.... If the Dorians migrated from Palestine, rather than from the north, Crete is a logical place to begin settling en route to the west. Further evidence that the Dorians were Israelites is found in Josephus, in his record of a letter written by a Lacedemonian king. Sparta was in Lacedemonian and they were also Dorian Greeks. This letter was written to the high priest in Jerusalem about 160 B.C., and it is found in Antiquities 12.4.10 (12:226-227):

“Areus, King of the Lacedemonians, To Onias, Sendeth Greeting. We have met with a certain writing, whereby we have discovered that both the Judaeans and the Lacedemonians are of one stock, and are derived from the kindred of Abraham. It is but just, therefore, that you, who are our brethren, should send to us about any of your concern as you please. We will also do the same thing, and esteem your concerns as our own, and will look upon our concerns as in common with yours. Demotoles, who brings you this letter, will bring your answer back to us. This letter is foursquare; and the seal is an eagle, with a dragon in his claws.” That this account of the letter, and its contents, is factual is verified by the reply to it recorded by Josephus in Antiquities 13.5.8 (13:163-170), by Jonathan the high priest. [This letter and the reply to this letter are also described in 1 Maccabees chapters 12 and 14.]

In this epistle of Paul to the Corinthians it is manifest that Paul also believed the Dorians to have been of the stock of the ancient Israelites. This is certainly explicit in its 10th chapter, but it is evident in the language which Paul uses in other places as well. Some of that language is in the very first chapter of this epistle.

Ancient Corinth, sitting near the base of the isthmus connecting the Peloponnesus to the mainland, was convenient to the large ports which the city possessed on each side of Greece, Kenchreae on the east and Lechaeum on the west. The city sat at a crossroads and as a notable center of trade, and rivaled Athens and the other notable Greek cities for its wealth. Like other Greek cities, Corinth had many temples to the famous pagan idols. However it was most noted for its temple to Aphrodite, and for the prostitution business which that temple conducted. While female prostitutes were more famous and a greater attraction, the temple prostituted boys as well as girls and women. Catering to every perversion, in the Classical period Corinth became a Greek proverb for luxury and a synonym for fornication. Its name was used as a synonym for prostitution and whoremongering by Aristotle and other writers. The term Corinthian woman became a euphemism for a whore. To “play the Corinthian” was to act like a whore. The Roman poet Horace is often quoted where he said "Not everyone is able to go to Corinth", but the proverb appeared in the Greek classics as well. Aside from the fornication which is found in prostitution, fornication of a somewhat different sort is also a theme in this very epistle, where in chapter 5 we see that Paul describes a problem facing this Christian assembly in Corinth, where a man had evidently bedded his father's wife, and the assembly had not handled the matter appropriately.

What we know as the first epistle to the Corinthians is not the first letter which Paul had written to them. In 1 Corinthians chapter 5 Paul had reminded his readers that “9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators”, so we see that he had written to them on at least one occasion before this letter. However we shall continue to refer to this epistle as 1 Corinthians because it is the first one which we have, and it is unlikely that the earlier one will ever be discovered. There are 14 ancient Great Uncial manuscripts which attest to significant portions of this epistle and which date to the 4th through the 6th centuries AD. Additionally, two ancient papyri dating to the 6th century and two others, P15 and P46 which both date to the 3rd century or earlier, all attest to portions of this epistle.

Paul wrote this first epistle to the Corinthians from Ephesus (1 Corinthians 16:8, 19), during the three-year period that he had stayed in Ephesus as it is described in Acts chapter 19. In 1 Corinthians chapter 16, in verse 8, Paul wrote “now I will remain in Ephesos until the Pentecost”. Then in verse 19 he said in his salutation “the assemblies of Asia greet you”. Both of these verses show that he was certainly in Ephesus when this epistle was written. In verse 11 of the first chapter of this epistle, it is manifest that Paul was receiving letters from the Corinthians as well.

With this, we shall commence with the text to 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

1 Paul, a called ambassador of Christ Yahshua, by the will of Yahweh, and Sosthenes the brother,

The Codices Alexandrinus (A), Claromontanus (D) and P61, which is a papyri dated to circa 700 AD, all want the word called in this first verse.

As for Sosthenes, while we had overlooked mention of this man here in our presentation of Acts chapter 18, a man of the same name appears in verse 17 there, in the account of Paul before the judgment seat of Gallio where he appeared upon the accusations of the Judaeans. Sosthenes was described as the leader of the Judaean assembly hall at that time, and when Paul was accused by the Judaeans Gallio did not care to hear the charges, so the Greeks took Sosthenes and beat him before the court. Ostensibly, Sosthenes was beaten because he was bringing charges before the court which Gallio dismissed with ridicule. If this is the same Sosthenes, then perhaps Paul was able to bring the man to Christ before departing from Corinth, for according to Acts 18:18 Paul had “tarried there yet a good while” after the judgment of Gallio. If that is the case, then Sosthenes must have become a companion of Paul's in Ephesus, where he wrote this epistle. He is not mentioned again.

2 to the assembly of Yahweh that is in Korinth, having been sanctified in Christ Yahshua, called saints, with all those calling themselves by the name of our Prince Yahshua Christ in each place, theirs and ours: 3 favor to you and peace from Yahweh our Father and Prince Yahshua Christ.

The word for called in the phrase “called saints” is an adjective, and may have been rendered as chosen or elect. As for the phrase, “calling themselves by the name”, ἐπικαλουμένοις τὸ ὄνομα, this clause may have been read “calling upon His name”, and arguments can be made that either reading is correct. However we would rather interpret the word according to its most literal sense, since appearing in the Medium (or Middle) Voice, properly the subject of the verb both produces and receives the action. We described this use of the verb at length where the same word, ἐπικαλέω, appears in similar clauses and is discussed in the first part of our presentation of Acts Chapter 2, and in our presentations of both Acts chapters 9 and 22. Our rendering reveals the fulfillment of prophecies concerning this very act, that followers of Christ were calling themselves Christians, such as that prophecy which is found in Isaiah chapter 43: “1 But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.... 5 Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; 6 I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; 7 Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.” Acts 11:26 informs us in part, “And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.”

The phrase ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ is commonly translated “in every place”, but here it is “in each place”. The King James Version and others actually move the phrase from its original position in the Greek so that it precedes the reference to Christ, and in doing so they corrupt Paul's original intent. We have often asserted that the Greek word πᾶς, of which the form παντὶ is the dative singular, is used in this manner. While πᾶς (Strong's # 3956) literally means “all, the whole”, Liddell & Scott (at πᾶς, A., III.) explain that the word has an idiomatic usage equivalent to ἕκαστος (Strong's # 1538), which is each or every.

Here Paul does not mean to describe all people anywhere who call on the name of Jesus to be the objects of his words and thoughts in this epistle. However several of the popular translations corrupt this verse to reflect that idea. Rather, Paul qualifies the scope of the phrase ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ with the words which follow in the Greek, and which are translated literally as “theirs and ours”. Many of the popular translations also add words to this phrase in order to support their corruption. Rather, Paul only seeks to announce his blessing to the Christians in his place, where he and Sosthenes are, and to the Christians in the place which he is addressing, which is the assembly at Corinth. The Douay-Rheims 1899 American edition of the New Testament, translated from the Latin Vulgate, reads very similarly where it has the end of verse 2 to read “in every place of theirs and ours.”

4 I thank my God [א and B want “my”] at all times concerning you, in reference to the favor of Yahweh that is being given to you among the number of [literally “in”] Christ Yahshua, 5 seeing that in all you have been enriched in Him, in all thought and all knowledge, 6 just as the proof of the Anointed has been confirmed in you,

The phrase τὸ μαρτύριον τοῦ χριστοῦ is “the testimony of Christ” in the King James Version. Here it is “the proof of the Anointed”. The Greek word μαρτύριον (Strong's # 3142) is “a testimony, proof... [or] evidence”, according to Liddell & Scott, and we shall soon see in this very chapter sufficient evidence that Paul used the phrase ὁ χριστός, or “the Anointed” as a reference to the body of Christians collectively as well as to Christ Himself. Here it is interpreted as referring to the body of Christians, who are of Israel, the anointed people of God. The Codex Vaticanus has θεός rather than χριστός, but the reading in the text of the Christogenea New Testament agrees with the 3rd century papyrus P46 and the Codices Sinaiticus (א), Alexandrinus (A), Ephraemi Syri (C), Claromontanus (D) and the Majority Text.

If Christ needs men to confirm His testimony, as all of the mainstream versions render this verse, then Christ is not God. The translation of this passage in the Christogenea New Testament reflects an understanding of Christian doctrine which is impossible to grasp without first having an understanding of the Christian Israel Identity message of the Scriptures. But it is a clear message of Scripture nonetheless. Here we shall examine several passages of Jeremiah chapters 30 and 31 and Isaiah chapters 49 and 54 to elucidate this message, and it must be noted that both Isaiah and Jeremiah were writing from a post-captivity perspective:

From Jeremiah chapter 30:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 Thus speaketh the LORD God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book. 3 For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. 4 And these are the words that the LORD spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah. 5 For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. 6 Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? 7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. 8 For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke [the yoke of their captivities] from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him: 9 But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king [a type for Christ], whom I will raise up unto them. 10 Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid. 11 For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.... 22 And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. 23 Behold, the whirlwind of the LORD goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked. 24 The fierce anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it.” In these latter days Identity Christians are indeed considering the ancient casting-off of Israel, and their reconciliation to Yahweh through Christ.

From Jeremiah chapter 31: “1 At the same time [meaning after Israel was cast off and before and while Israel is being regathered], saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. 2 Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. [Therefore grace, which his usually rendered as favor in the Christogenea New Testament, is a matter of Biblical prophecy, and it is prophesied to come to those same cast-off Israelites. This is the favor of Yahweh which Paul speaks of in his epistles here and elsewhere.] 3 The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.... 7 For thus saith the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O LORD, save thy people, the remnant of Israel. 8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither. [The language here demonstrates that Israel would be a people spread throughout the coasts of the earth, and from ancient Mesopotamia we only find that in the Kimmerian and Scythian people.] 9 They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. 10 Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock. [Yahweh gathers Israel to Himself in Christ .] 11 For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.... 31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: 33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. [Only Israel had the law, therefore sin requiring forgiveness was peculiar to Israel, and therefore the forgiving of sin is only for these same Israelites.] 35 Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: 36 If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. [Israel is not a church made out of many disparate nations, but rather Israel is a nation in the sense of being a kindred people. Though they were also prophesied to become many nations, they were still all the same Israel people.] 37 Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD. [Israel is not a church of disparate nations. This is a parallelism. The children of Israel are forever the same seed of Jacob to whom the promises of Yahweh God were originally made.]

Still referring to the “proof of the Anointed”, from Isaiah chapter 49: “Isaiah 49:1 Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. 2 And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me; 3 And said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. 4 Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my God. 5 And now, saith the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength. 6 And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth. 7 Thus saith the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the LORD that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee. 8 Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages”.

The “proof of the Anointed” is found in the fact that the Word of Yahweh God had prophesied that the nations of dispersed Israel would accept and comply with the Gospel of Christ, and they did. That is what Paul is telling the Corinthians in this very verse, as Yahshua Himself said, “My sheep hear My voice”. For that same reason Paul wrote in chapter 15 of his epistle to the Romans that “18 Indeed I will not venture to speak anything of which Christ has not fashioned through me, regarding the compliance of the Nations, in word and deed, 19 by power of signs and wonders, by power of the Spirit of Yahweh, consequently for me from Jerusalem, and in a circuit as far as Illurikon, to have fulfilled the good message of the Anointed.” The Gospel message seeks the compliance of the Nations of Israel to Yahweh their God. In chapter 4 of that same epistle Paul had explained that the Nations to which he brought that Gospel were the same Nations descended from Abraham.

In Isaiah chapter 53 we read from the first verse a question which is certainly in reference to the Gospel, because it is followed with a clear Messianic prophecy, and it says “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?” Paul quoted this very same verse in relation to the Gospel in his epistle to the Romans, in chapter 10. However many readers miss the fact that Isaiah chapter 54 is meant to be an answer to this question posed at the beginning of chapter 53, and we shall read from it in part: “1 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.... 4 Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. 5 For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. 6 For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. 7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. 8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.... 13 And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children. 14 In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee.” The children of Israel are established in righteousness when they believe the report, when they accept the Gospel of the Christ, and that is the “proof of the Anointed”, because it is prophesied that they would do so.

7 consequently you are not to be wanting in even one favor, anxiously expecting the revelation of our Prince, Yahshua Christ, 8 who will also secure you until fulfillment, void of offense in the day [D has “at the presence”] of our Prince, Yahshua Christ.

There are several witnesses in the Old Testament prophets, that the mercy of Christ was to forgive all of the sins of the children of Israel. For that reason Paul later tells the Corinthians, in chapter 15 of this epistle, “22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive”, which also summarizes what he had expressed in relation to that same topic in chapter 5 of his epistle to the Romans. Here are three Old Testament witnesses, that all of the sins of Israel are to be forgiven without exception:

From Micah chapter 7: “18 Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. 19 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. 20 Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.”

From Jeremiah chapter 33: “7 And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first. 8 And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me. 9 And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it.”

From the Messianic prophesy of Isaiah chapter 53: “4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

There are no exceptions in the prophets concerning the salvation of the children of Israel, or the cleansing of the sins of the children of Israel.

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