Commentaries and Podcasts

The Epistle of James - 01-13-2012

II 1 My brethren, do not with respect of the stature of persons hold the faith of our Prince Yahshua Christ of honor. 2 For if perhaps a man should enter into your assembly hall with a gold ring in a shining garment, and a beggar should enter in a filthy garment, 3 then you should look upon he wearing the shining garment and say “You sit here comfortably”, and to the beggar you should say “You stand there”, or “Sit beneath my footstool”, 4 have you not made a distinction among yourselves and become judges of evil reasonings? 

“Respect of persons” is respect for the stature or the status of persons in judgement. The Greek word προσωπολημψία comes from πρόσωπον, literally the face, and a verb which means to receive. The use of the term by James reflects that same idea which Paul often infers where the King James Version translates the Greek word προσωπολημψία, which is literally the receiving of a man's appearance, and related words and phrases as “respect of persons”. 

The Epistle of James, Chapter 1 - 01-06-2012

I do not see how the Hebrew name Ya'aqob, the Greek Iakobos, could have possibly become James in English. At first I pondered the notion that the translators of the King James Version were purposefully flattering the king who commissioned them. However that cannot besince the spelling of this name in the 1560 Geneva Bible is Iames, which today we would write as James. Wanting instead to be faithful to the Greek, when I translated the New Testament I spelled it Iakobos, leaving it as it appears in the Greek Nominative case. The English name James seems to have come from the French word for leg, which is jambe (the 'b' is silent). A related French word jamon, refers to a leg of ham. King James Version apologists strive to connect the two terms since Iakob does come from a Hebrew word with a meaning connected to the heel of the foot. But Ya'aqob (Strong's # 3290) means "heel holder" and therefore allegorically it means "supplanter", and that has nothing to do with a pig's leg.  

The prophecy of Obadiah is a prophecy concerning Edom, that nation which descended from Esau, Jacob's brother. In order to understand the prophecy concerning Edom, one must understand all of the history of the nation, and its relationship to Israel and to God, from the days of Jacob and Esau.

The angels that left their first estate, left it because they decided to race-mix with men, and also with many other species, something we find only in apocryphal literature but which our Bibles as we know them today do not sufficiently explain. When Adam was placed into the Garden of Eden, that tree of the knowledge of good and evil – the results of that first rebellion against God – was already in the garden. These were a race of people (or angels if you must) who at one time knew good, and then knew evil – when they had rebelled against God. Their creation is not explained in Genesis, although Christ tells us in Luke chapter 10 and in the Revelation at chapter 12 that they fell “from heaven”.

The fall of Adam was the partaking by him and his wife of this tree of the knowledge of good and evil – they race-mixed with that person represented by the epithet of “serpent”. Cain was the result of this union, and in spite of the corrupted text we currently know as Genesis 4:1, it can be discerned in several other ways that Cain was not the son of Adam, although he was the son of Eve. Later on in the New Testament, but also often in the allegories of the Old Testament, are the descendants of Cain often referred to as “serpents”.

The Book of Jonah - 12-23-2011

2 Kings 14:16-27: 16 And Jehoash slept with his fathers [perhaps around 798 BC], and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel; and Jeroboam his son reigned in his stead. 17 And Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah lived after the death of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel fifteen years. 18 And the rest of the acts of Amaziah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 19 Now they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem: and he fled to Lachish; but they sent after him to Lachish, and slew him there. 20 And they brought him on horses: and he was buried at Jerusalem with his fathers in the city of David. 21 And all the people of Judah took Azariah, which was sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah. 22 He built Elath, and restored it to Judah, after that the king slept with his fathers. 23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years. 24 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. 25 He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gathhepher. 26 For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel. 27 And the LORD said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven: but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.

 So Jonah the prophet, the son of Amittai, lived and prophesied before the time of Jeroboam the son of Joash of the kings of Israel. Jeroboam II was king in Israel for about 40 years, from about 793 BC, so Jonah definitely prophesied before 753 BC, and possibly before 793 BC – although that is not certain from the text here in 2 Kings 14. This places Jonah as one of the earliest of all of those prophets of the Bible from Isaiah to Malachi which can be dated. 

Mark Chapters 15 and 16 - Christogenea on Talkshoe 12-16-2011

Last week we concluded with the end of Mark chapter 14, and the unlawful trial of Yahshua Christ in the court of the high priest. There we saw that while they wanted to have Christ executed, they had a problem with consistent witnesses establishing a charge worthy of a capital offense. Therefore the high-priest himself provoked Christ in order to instigate a charge that satisfied those taking part in the judgment against Him.

XV 1 And immediately at morning making counsel the high priests with the elders and the scribes and all the council, binding Yahshua they led Him off and turned Him over to Pilatos.

Here we see that after the mock show-trial in the home of the high priest, they still required a meeting in order to work up a plan by which they could convincingly present Christ to Pilate as a criminal who was worthy of execution. When Judaea was designated a kingdom, up until the time of Herod Archelaus, the king had the privilege of trying capital offenses. However when Judaea was reduced to a province, and a Roman governor was set over it by the emperor, the local political leaders lost that privilege, and only the Roman governor could try capital offenses. Christ having had many followers, the high priests could not risk politically the murder of Christ by themselves. In Matthew chapter 26, verses 3 through 5, we learn that the high priests had been planning for a way to execute Christ, while avoiding a “tumult among the people”. Since it was the feast, Jerusalem was typically very crowded at this time, and a major disturbance would have invited an inquiry by the Roman officials. They had to pressure the Roman governor into complying with their wishes. A Roman citizen, such as Paul of Tarsus, would have the right to appeal to Caesar. We see in Acts chapter 27 that Paul, not wanting to trust either the Judaeans or a possibly corrupt governor with his fate, exercised that right. However Christ, not being a Roman citizen, did not have that right.

Mark Chapter 14 - 12-09-2011

XIV 1 And it was Passover and the feast of unleavened bread after two days. And the high priests and the scribes sought how seizing Him with guile they could kill Him. 2 For they said “Not on the feast, that at no time shall there be an uproar by the people!”

Christ not only had thousands of followers, winning the hearts and minds of the people, but He was also winning the battle of ideas. His expositions of scripture and a proper application of the Law, judgement and mercy, kicked the foundations out from under the pedestal of legalism upon which the Pharisees pretended their authority. Not wanting to lose their status and titles and position, but realizing that Christ continually exposed them, rather than repenting they sought to kill Him.

From John chapter 11 we can read a fuller account: “47 Then the high priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said 'What do we do, seeing that this man makes many signs? 48 If we should leave Him thusly, they shall all believe in Him, and the Romans shall come and they shall take both our place and our nation!' 49 Then a certain one from among them, Kaiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them: 'You do not know anything, 50 nor do you consider that it is advantageous to you that one man should die on behalf of the people, and the whole nation not be lost.' 51 (Yet he did not say this by himself, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Yahshua was about to die on behalf of the nation, 52 and not only on behalf of the nation, but that also He would gather into one the children of Yahweh who had been dispersed. [Here is a parenthetical statement by John, and if Yahweh can use Balaam's ass to express His will, then the Edomite Sadducee high priest is not much different.]) 53 Therefore from that day they determined that they would kill Him.”

Mark Chapter 13 - 12-1-2011

During the first half of this podcast we discussed the chronology of Daniel's 70-Weeks prophecy, found in Daniel chapter 9, with great detail from the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and from the history of Persia. (Click here for the notes to that part of the program.) Now we may proceed with Mark chapter 13, repeating a few of the things which we discussed last week when we began this chapter, and hopefully after seeing the prophecy of Daniel, the marvel of these prophecies will be that much more meaningful to us.

XIII 1 And upon His going out from the temple one of His students says to Him: “Teacher, behold what quality stones and what quality buildings!” 2 And Yahshua said to him: “You see these great buildings? By no means should there be left here a stone upon a stone which would not be thrown down!”

Here Christ forecasts the destruction of Jerusalem which was to come nearly 40 years later. At the end of Matthew Chapter 23, which Mark did not record, Christ exclaimed to the Judaeans “Behold, your house is left to you desolate!” Daniel 9:27 once again, says of the ministry of Christ that “he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”

Mark Chapters 12 and 13 - Christogenea on Talkshoe 11-25-2011

In Mark chapter 11, we saw the cursing of the fig tree, which we related to the parable of the fig tree and the explanation of the fruitlessness of Christ's mission in Jerusalem. We then related how this was the final fulfillment of the dispersion of the Bad Figs of Jeremiah chapter 24, which is proven when comparing the language of Jeremiah to that of Christ concerning Jerusalem in his prophecy of its impending destruction as it is recorded in Luke chapter 21. We will discuss that at length here again next week, since it is also a subject of the latter half of Mark chapter 13. All of these prophecies and parables are part of a related theme, and so is the Parable of the Vineyard which we are about to read here in Mark chapter 12.

XII 1 And He began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a vat and built a tower and let it out to husbandmen, and he traveled abroad. 2 And he sent a servant to the husbandmen at the appropriate time, in order that he would receive from the husbandmen from the fruits of the vineyard, 3 and taking him they cudgeled him and sent him away empty. 4 And again he sent to them another servant, and him they hit on the head and dishonored. 5 And he sent another, and him they slew, and many others, some then being cudgeled, but some being slain. 6 Yet he had one beloved son. He sent him to them last saying that ‘They shall respect my son!’ 7 But those husbandmen said to themselves that ‘This is the heir! Come, we should kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours!’ 8 And taking him they killed him and cast him outside of the vineyard. 9 So, what shall the master of the vineyard do? He shall come and destroy those husbandmen and let the vineyard out to others!