Commentaries and Podcasts

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.