Messianic prophesies 2 Adversary – Root of the first prophecy

The first human beings had chosen to go their own path. As any good father would do when his children had done something wrong, God punished them. But as a loving Father He in His great mercy promised for a solution and preserved David’s bloodline and the Messianic promise.

Mankind had chosen Yet, we each must recognize the adversary’s strategy to lure us into desiring and acquiring pride, glory, power, anything more than God Himself — and understand the dire consequences of choosing to follow those desires.

In Scriptures we can find sayings which should come to recognise the one who God sent to the world to show the Way to God and to brake the curse of death which came over Adam and Eve. God provided some one, people can follow as an ideal example, namely the Messiah, who we shall see is Jeshua, who in certain countries is better known under the name Jesus, or Jezus, Jésus, Jeesus, Chesu, Jezis, Xesus, Isus or Ishi/Isha.

Throughout the Brit Chadashah, we find satan tempting, prowling, seeking whom he can destroy. That sent one from God became even his primary target. God is the only one Who cannot be tempted, but all other beings can be tempted. Also Jeshua or Jesus Christ was tempted more than once, but he resisted every temptation even during great physical weakness.
How? He confronted every satan he encountered with the Word of God, while being full of the Spirit of God. In doing so, he exited the wilderness victorious and empowered and left Peter ashamed.

When he did not succeed in destroying Jeshua, the adversary focused his slander and deception toward luring others away from God’s Word and His Kingdom. Knowing what went on and what shall come, we should not have to fear the serpent‘s schemes to destroy our eternal destiny.

Though we will certainly die physically, we don’t have to die spiritually. God placed hope for our spiritual victory over death back in the first pages of Genesis.

Who Is Our Hope?

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring [seed/ zera] and her offspring [seed/ zera]. He will pound your head, and you will bite his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

In the previous posting you could already read how God first revealed the hope for all mankind against the adversary when he promised that Eve’s seed / offspring (zera) would pound or crush the head of the serpent.

When we talk about an offspring, literally “those who spring off (someone,)” from off + springan “to spring” (see spring (v.)) we think of progeny coming from Old French progenie (13c.) and directly from Latin progenies “descendants, offspring, lineage, race, family,” from stem of progignere “beget,” from pro “forth” (see pro-) + gignere “to produce, beget” (see genus) and look at descendants or a posterity.

It can be that it is about a (singular) person’s child or the young of a person, an immediate descendant or descendants of a person or animal. Though it also may mean more than one person of one pair of people, in that instance talking about a lot of people, such as a nation of Israel or all humankind. When we look at Jewish theologians or scholars their writings we may find lots of debate going on about that.

For most Christians the seed mentioned several times in the Pre-Messianic Scriptures or Old Testament refers to a coming Messiah — Jeshua (Jesus Christ). To know for sure we shall look not only at the first mention of such seed but look at the further writings given to mankind to get to know what God His Plan is with mankind and in which The Master Maker reveals how we can see who shall be the Messiah.

The first five books (the Chumash or Pentateuch), written by Moses speaks of a male. Also in other ancient Jewish sages we find the mention of a “he”. enlightened by the Highest Ruach (the Power of God) Moses did not only wrote about the beginning of times. In 1300 BCE, Moses wrote about the last days (acharit-hayamim, בְּאַחֲרִ֥ית הַיָּמִֽים), which indicates that he likely understood a final deliverance and deliverer would one day arrive. (Genesis 49)

“So now, here, I am going (back) to my people; come, I will advise you as to what this people will do to your people in future days.”
(Numbers 24:14 SB)

“When you are in distress because there befall you all these things, in future days, you shall return to YHWH your God and hearken to his voice.”
(Deuteronomy 4:30 SB)

At the days of Jeshua people also got to hear what God said in the Garden of Eden

“I put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed: they will bruise you on the head, you will bruise them in the heel.”
(Genesis 3:15 SB)

They heard it in their common language of Aramaic, the language Jesus also spoke. In that language we can still find it in the translation, known as Targum Yonatan [Targum Jonathan (תרגום יונתן בן עוזיאל)], the official eastern (Babylonian) targum to the Nevi’im. In that “Translation,” or “Interpretation” Book (hence “Targum”) unlearned Jews to whom the Hebrew of the Old Testament was unintelligible, could hear how we all are in a power struggle with the adversary in choosing to do good while resisting our selfish, evil desires. When Scripture was read aloud in the synagogue, it was translated aloud by a meturgeman, or professional interpreter, for the benefit of the congregation. The translator tried to reproduce the original text as closely as possible, but since his object was to give an intelligible rendering of the biblical text, the Targums eventually took on the character of paraphrase and commentary, leaving literal translation behind.  The read text was utilized as a vehicle for conveying homiletic discourses, traditional sayings, legends, and allegories is abundantly illustrated by the later Targums, as opposed to the more literal translations of the earlier Targums. In both of them there is also spoken of that time to come and more in particular of that person to come. The Targum Jonathan affirms that the world was waiting for the coming of “King Meshiha” (Messiah in Aramaic) to heal the wounds caused by the adversary when we sin, and to win us an everlasting freedom.

It is from the Targum Yonatan that several Jews in later years also came to see a Messiah in certain people, like we may find followers of Simon Bar Kokhba, Nehemiah ben Hushiel also known as Mashiach ben Yoseph or Messiah ben Joseph, of als Mashiach bar/ben Ephraim, Sabbatai Zevi or Sabbatai Zebi/Shabsai Tzvi, Jakob Frank (Jankiew Lejbowi) or the contemporary adored Menachem Mendel Schneerson. They and their followers where taken by the text

“they shall make a remedy for the heel in the days of the King Meshiha.” (Genesis 3:15, Targum Yonatan, which is attributed to the work of Jonathan (Yonatan) ben Uzziel, c. 50 BC)

Today still like in the past, Orthodox worshippers pray, sing, play the violin, and dance in the synagogue at what they consider King David’s Tomb.

Title page, Midrash Tehillim

When we look at the first and second century Rabbinic commentary (known as a Midrash) the seed as Messiah is defined as:

“Rabbi Tanchuma said, in the name of Rabbi Samuel: Eve had respect to that seed (“offspring”) which is coming from another place. And who is this? This is the King Messiah.” (Midrash Genesis Rabbah 23:5)

A millennium later, the European scholar of the Hebrew language whose writings on Hebrew lexicography and grammar became standard works in the Middle Ages, David Kimhi or Kimchi (RaDaK) also seems to point to the seed as Messiah, writing:

“As You went forth for the salvation of Your people by the hands of Meshiha, the Son of David, who shall wound satan, who is the head, the king and prince of the house of the wicked…” (Commentary on Habakkuk 3:13)

And yet, with all this evidence pointing to a single man, the Messiah, as the seed, some Bible translations have led us toward a very different understanding of “the seed.”

Altered Identity

A problem with certain translations is that sometimes translators did not have an equivalent for the Hebrew word in their language or thought something to be a particular figure or person, instead of a situation or any person who took on a certain attitude, like a satan who is an adversary but became in many translations the Satan, a devilish figure. Or the temptation “nachash” , our battle or struggle against inner thoughts, (the fencing in life) becoming a literal snake or serpent.

Concerning the seed certain writers or bible-translators where too much carried away by their own doctrinal visions and tried to translate  their version from that doctrinal viewpoint, hereby creating confusion, like for example using the word Lord for Jehovah God as well as for Jesus, the son of God, so that people could not any more see clear about whom was be spoken and could come to consider Jesus to be the same as God, which he naturally is not.

Sometimes, ideas about the identity of the seed are so deeply held that, to support those ideas, even basic Hebrew words are mistranslated in Jewish Bible versions.

One such translation tells us the seed is not a single person:

“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; they [in Hebrew, hu] shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise their [instead of ‘his’] heel.” (Jewish Publication Society (JPS), 1917)

Even though the original Hebrew text uses the word “hu”, which means “he”, the JPS Bible version uses the word “they.”

So, instead of a single man doing the bruising and being bruised, we read that a multitude of people, the nation of Israel, are involved in the struggle with the serpent as well as the victory over him.

Though most Jewish translations do not make this grave translation error, it illustrates how important it is to diligently search for the truth of God’s Word and how it is best not to stick to just one translation or even not to just one language.

This is true regarding Christian translations of the Bible as well.

St. Jerome, who, in 382 CE was commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Vetus Latina (“Old Latin”) collection of biblical texts in Latin then in use by the Church > widely adopted and eventually eclipsed the Vetus Latina and, by the 13th century, was known as the “versio vulgata” (the “version commonly-used”) or, more simply, in Latin as vulgata or in Greek as βουλγάτα (“Vulgate”).

Page from the Dutsch Professorenbijbel (“Professors Bible”), a translation of the Latin Vulgate of the Books of the New Testament. This part, covering the Pentateuch, was published in 1904. – De Heilige Boeken van het Oude Verbond. Vulgaat en Nederlandsche Vertaling met Aanteekeningen, part I – Petrus Laurentius Dessens (1851-1929)

When we look at the early Church’s official translation of the Bible completed in 400 CE by Jerome, we read in that Latin Vulgate translation that “he” has even become a “she”, though in the Vulgate of Hieronimus we find ‘yours’ (though also referring to “the seed of the woman” allowing it to be male or female):

“inimicitias ponam inter te et mulierem et semen tuum et semen illius ipsa conteret caput tuum et tu insidiaberis calcaneo eius” (Genesis 3:15 VULGATE)

“I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed and she [in Hebrew, hu] shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.” (Douay-Rheims Bible, which is based on the Latin Vulgate manuscript)

Here again we have to note that looking at the Hebrew text which uses the word “hu” (meaning “he”) the Latin Vulgate and those working form that work translate it to “she.”

Protevangelium of James, pseudepigraphal (noncanonical and unauthentic) work written about the mid-2nd century ad to enhance the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in Christian tradition. Mary crushes the serpent.

Several of the early Church fathers, such as Justin Martyr (160 CE) and Irenaeus (180 CE) regarded this verse “as the Protoevangelium, the first messianic prophecy in the Old Testament.”

For centuries, the above mentioned one little pronoun change led to the false teaching that Miriam (Mary) either on her own or as a co-redemptrix with her son Jeshua, crushed the serpent and claims the victory. In many Christian denominations we find such confusion and paintings referring to that crushing by the “blessed” virgin Mary.

Fortunately, more recent translations of the Catholic Bible correct this error. The 1997 Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd edition) tries to correct it as well by stating:

“This passage in Genesis [3:15] is called the Protoevangelium (“first gospel”): the first announcement of the Messiah and Redeemer, of a battle between the serpent and the Woman, and of the final victory of a descendant of hers.” (Par. 410)

From the masculine singular Hebrew pronoun in Genesis 3:15, we see that the seed of the woman is a man, to whom may be referred to in in Romans 16:20 him being called a god, or higher/important person of peace, which identifies him as the Jesus Christ.

Romans 16:20 NHEBJE  And the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Those who look at the offspring and hers find that it is all about human beings and may find that

for in context it describes those who “by smooth talk and flattery” “deceive the minds of naive people”. Particularly, this may mean the Judaizers, who sought to draw other believers — esp Gentile believers — away from their freedom in Christ into an enforced bondage to the Law of Moses. {Agora commentary on Romans 16:20}

To do away with all doubt and confusion over the identity of the seed, we can go to the apostle John who clearly tells us who the victor of the adversary is:

1 John 3:8 NHEBJE  He who sins is of the devil [diabolos], for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil.

Behemoth and Leviathan, by William Blake

The committer of sin being of the adversary is at the origin or reason to have a foreseen figure having Jehovah with His relentless, large, strong sword will bring judgement on Leviathan, the fleeing and twisted serpent, slaying the monsters of this world

Isaiah 27:1 NHEBJE  In that day, Jehovah with his fierce and great and mighty sword will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the twisted serpent; and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.

And unclean men might have questioned what that man from Nazareth, born from the Essene woman Miriam, came to do in the temple, though there was one who told it to those around him. And there was the moment the adversary would fall.

Mark 1:24 NHEBJE  saying, “What do we have to do with you, Jesus, you Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know you who you are: the Holy One of God!”

Luke 10:18 NHEBJE  He said to them, “I saw Satan having fallen like lightning from heaven.

The Nazarene saying to his disciples that he gave them the authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, them having to know if they believed in him they should not worry because nothing at all would harm them.

Luke 10:19 NHEBJE  Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will in any way hurt you.

For Jesus it was clear that the voices which came from the heavens declared who he was and came, not for him, but for those around Jesus and for us. First there was the Pneuma or Spirit of God telling that he was the only begotten son and secondly there where the angels telling that at the moment, the judgement is of this world, having its own ruler. But that ruler of the world shall be cast out, whilst the seed of the woman shall be lifted up from the earth and will draw all people to himself.

John 12:30 NHEBJE  Jesus answered, “This voice hasn’t come for my sake, but for your sakes.

The world has to come to understand that we have man going wrong from the beginning, i.e. sinning, and that it is for this purpose that the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of evil and the trespassers or aggressors.

1 John 3:8 NHEBJE  He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil.

In the next postings you shall come to see how through later prophecies we can discover that only Jeshua could be the seed of Genesis 3:15 and the one to restore our relationship with the divine Creator, our heavenly Father, and what the importance is of that Nazarene man, who we have to recognise as the Son of God, and not a god son, God dwelling in him, so that God also may dwell in us and we in Him.

1 John 4:15 NHEBJE  Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God.

The Victory Is Ours to Share

The 1st Adam, being made in the image of God, was followed up by the 2nd Adam, also made in God’s image, like we are made in God’s image. All being children of flesh and blood, having our own weaknesses. Jesus also a man of flesh and blood who also shared in our humanity, put his own will aside so that he might destroy the originator of evil, the tempter or nachash, the ‘serpent‘ who holds the power of death, most people do know by the name “devil”. By his ransom offer Jesus could free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Hebrews 2:14-15 NHEBJE  Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,  (15)  and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

It is by Christ offering himself for all mankind that we are liberated and have a prospect for a better future.

“When Christ [Messiah] died for our sins, Satan was disarmed and defeated. The one eternally destructive weapon that he had was stripped from his hand — namely, his accusation before God that we are guilty and should perish with him,”  {John Piper (Desiring God)}.

Conclusion

We have seen how the first human beings (the man and mannin) already early at the beginning of times rebelled against their Maker. They had gone in into their own false thoughts that God would withhold something for them, or on purpose kept certain things secret for them,so that they would not get the same power as God. They had everything they could wish for but wanted more.

Having gone wrong they had to learn that there was a severe consequence of obeying the slanderer, destroyer, and adversary of God. It has been mandatory and expensive, namely the separation from direct contact with God, not always seeing and feeling the love of God.

We as descendants of the offspring of the progeny of those who came in the lineage of the children of Adam and Eve, we too have the defects of the damaged cake mould. Today we do have to make our own choice like Eve and Adam had to choose. Today we should be able to come to see who the bruiser is and who the one man is who can bring salvation for us.

While there may also be consequences in our lifetime to obeying the adversary, the eternal consequence of trusting in the Nazarene rabbi Jeshua, son of man and son of God, as our Messiah and Deliverer shall bring us the hope to enjoy a magnificent security, safety, and God’s chesed (merciful love) that can never be taken away from us, even when so many around us may try to destroy us or to make our life agony. whatever may happen to us, serious accidents, horrible things, when we trust Jesus we shall have the assurance of the hope, and then there shall be nothing able to separate us from the love of God that is in Messiah Jeshua our lord.

Romans 8:38-39 NHEBJE  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,  (39)  nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

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Preceding

Necessity of a revelation of creation 1 Works of God and works of man

Necessity of a revelation of creation 4 Getting understanding by Word of God 2

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 4

Out of the seed of Eve

Messianic prophesies 1 Adversary – Root of the first prophecy

A solution for a damaged relationship 3 Insight and prophesies given

First mention of a solution against death 3 Tempter Satan and man’s problems

First mention of a solution against death 4 A seed for mankind

First mention of a solution against death 5 Evil its law of death

First mention of a solution against death 6 Authority given to the send one from God coming out of the woman

First mention of a solution against death 7 Human sacrifice

Not trying to make the heathen live like Jews #1

Not trying to make the heathen live like Jews #2

Necessary to be known all over the earth

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Additional reading

1. Creator and Blogger God 3 Lesson and solution
2. A Tool to shed light over the qualities in our life 2 Jews for a Messiah
3. An other tool bringing words for understanding and wisdom
4. Reading to grow and to become wise concerning the most important thing in life 3 Light and wisdom in words
5. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #1 Beginning of everything
6. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #7 Promise and solution
7. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #8 Looking for the 2nd Adam
8. A “seed” for the blessing of all mankind would come through the family of Abraham
9. Seeds and weeds for being the greatest nation
10. The language of Jesus and the title of God
11. Revival of Jesus’ language at Oxford
12. The Sabbatean Prophets
13. Sabbatai Zevi (Jewish Convert To Islam)
14. Converso Involvement in the Sabbatai Zevi Movement

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Further literature of interest

1. Tell me a story [43a]
2. Adam and Eve
3. I don’t want to be a gardener
4. Genesis 3
5. Lingering: Genesis 3:1-2
6. Daily Verse Reading – Genesis 3:9-15,20
7. It Took an Apple to Create Murder (figuratively)
8. Desire of the Woman
9. Eden Another Perspective [77a]
10. Eden Another Perspective [77b]
11. Eden Another Perspective [77c]
12. In The Beginning, Part III
13. Eve and Adam not Adam and Eve says Anthony Sargeant
14. What is the big mistake of Adam and Eve? (part 2)
15. A Serpent and a Savior
16. Born of a Woman
17. Jesus the Better Adam
18. Day 19: The Snake-Stomping Baby
19. Conversation
20. Questioned by a Serpent
21. The Serpent
22. Why did Satan use a Serpent? (1 of 2)
23. Why did Satan use a Serpent? (2 of 2
24. Did Adam’s Garden Have a Talking Snake?
25. The Talking Serpent
26. Fear?
27. The Endowment of Free Will in Spiritual Things
28. A Serpent and a Savior
29. Serpent Destroyed
30. The Fall of the Deceived
31. Enmity
32. The serpent trail [133b]
33. The serpent trail [133c]
34. Give Me A Minute – Who Is The Devil?
35. Accurate Answer
36. Answer with Truth
37. Bereishis – Why the Snake was Punished — By Ben
38. Battling the Serpent
39. The First Superstition
40. Judge Not
41. Have You Been Bit and Don’t Know It
42. Scripture at Sunrise 1.11.2017Ephesians 6:12
43. The Bible Tells One Story – Andrew
44. The Creation story 2
45. Satan will be cast out in the end by Me – December 19, 2016
46. Good & Evil: Battle Continue
47. Be Skeptical of the One Who Offers You Power
48. He Shall Bruise You on the Head
49. What Broken Fellowship With God Is Like
50. An Enemy Of God
51. ‘enmity’ ….. mentioned in the Holy Bible (KJV)
52. Christ Crucified: The Seed of the Woman
53. End – Time Prophecy
54. Raising Tyrants
55. The Signs of Revelation – Part V: The Animal Symbols of the Battle
56. Human Sins
57. Second Death

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Related articles

• Would you Adam & Eve it? Fruit may have been the making of mankind
• Rule #5: Ponder the Brevity of Life (8 Rules for Growing in Godliness)
• Sunday reflection: Matthew 4:1-11
• INSPIRATIONAL: You Can’t Return to Eden
• What Exactly Is Written About You?
• Mark the start of Easter holy week with a Palm Sunday salad
• For Getting to know Jesus
• The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #5 Temptation, assault and curse
• Out of the seed of Eve
• Messianic prophesies 1 Adversary – Root of the first prophecy

Messianic prophesies 1 Adversary – Root of the first prophecy

Do you know where in the Bible we find God‘s first promise to send the Messiah?

The answer is foundational to our faith because within this first Messianic Prophecy mentioned in the Bible lies our fate of eternal separation from God. Too many christians limit the Bible to the second main part, the Messianic Writings, forgetting about the first main part which already tells everything we should know.

That big first block of writings also reveals our Father’s promise to send someone who will restore us back into eternal life with Him. All people should be able to find the  clues to come to recognise who that promised one, the Messiah might be.

Let’s look at this prophecy in Genesis 3:15 that some Christians for that first mention of the Saviour calls it also the First Gospel.

In that book by Moses, about the beginning of times, telling what went wrong in the Garden of Eden, we find God telling the tempter or serpent:

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring [seed/ zera] and her offspring [seed/ zera]. He will pound your head, and you will bite his heel.” (Artscroll Tanach)

Of course, followers of Jeshua believe the seed refers to him as the coming Messiah and Deliverer. there is the Most High Deliverer Who has provided a deliverer on earth, which we as Christians do believe to be the sent one from God, rabbi Jeshua.

In the coming chapters we shall show you how we can see or find out why that master teacher Jeshua is this deliverer. When you follow the texts in the Pre-Messianic Scriptures or Old Testament you shall see that every prophecy about the Messiah that follows clarifies his mission and reveals a little more about when, where, and how he will be born, live and die.

But many modern Rabbis today believe that the idea of a Messiah did not begin until the late eighth century BCE, about 500 years after Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible.

In the following writings I hope to show you how already from Moses time people came to hear from Adam and Eve their descendants there could be hope and from the messengers of God who also gave them signals to look out for a liberator.

I hope to unravel the many ancient prophecies through Jewish literature and Christian thought and hope you too shall discover who is the seed that would pound on the head of the serpent.

Painting from Manafi al-Hayawan (The Useful Animals), depicting Adam and Eve. From Maragh in Mongolian Iran. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the previous chapters or blogwriting you could find how Eve got in her the doubt growing of God’s right to govern everything and how she heard a voice wondering

“Did God actually say, ‘You are not to eat from any tree of the garden’?”

That question made Eve ponder the serpent’s question. Though God told her not to eat from that one tree in the centre of the garden, lest she die, she came to pick its fruit, examining it, and considering the serpent’s words:

“You surely will not die,” he says. On the contrary, “your eyes will be opened and you’ll become like elohim.”

The Divine Creator had given each of His creation the free choice. She could have let her thoughts pass but thinking God was hiding something for her she wanted to see what He hold back from her. She did not trust Him any more and followed her own feelings of distrust.

Though God had warned them, the consequence is expensive.

Obey God’s word and live. Disobey and die.

 

“Why did it have to be snakes?”

asks Indiana Jones.

The Hebrew word for serpent is nachash (נָחָשׁ). If we look at the original word pictures for each of these letters, we can get some insight into the serpent’s mission and purpose.

• The picture for nun (נ) is a seed or fish and means life or activity.
• The picture for chet (ח) is a fence or wall and means separation or private.
• The picture for shin (ש) is teeth and means to destroy, consume, or sharpen.

In this light form of word study, we find that nachash can represent the fencing in of a life for the purpose of destroying it.

Too many people want to see a literal “serpent” or “snake” here and do not see the Hebrew language and “way of speaking” of Moshe (Moses). We must understand that man, created in the image of God, having received a will or way of thinking, able to make their own free choices, it was up to Eve to make choices when she was somewhere or wanted to do something.

She, like anybody now, was free to dream and to have ideas in her head. But when she had certain ideas which went in against the Will of God it was up to her to decide to follow them or to put them away.

In the Bereshit is told how already at the beginning of times, man by letting their thoughts wander got lured into disobedience, the nachash fenced in humanity, placing us in bondage to his world, and sentencing us to separation from God forever.

In Genesis 3:1, we discover that his success as nachash comes by being crafty and cunning:

“Now the serpent [nachash] was craftier than any wild animal in the field which Yehovah God had made.”

We are told in Jewish literature that this serpent is none other than satan, the adversary of God like we can find such adversaries like Peter or the one who “rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.” (1 Chronicles 21:1; as described by the medieval French Bible philosopher and grammarian Rabbi David Kimhi (Kimchi or Qimḥi) CE 1160–1235, known by the acronym RaDaK, in his commentary on Genesis 3:15).

Lots of Christians have taken the Hebrew word for adversary satan, as a name instead of a subject or title. Lots of people tend to make Satan a proper name by capitalizing it, in Hebrew, it is usually used as a common noun throughout the Tanakh (Old Testament) to mean “adversary.”

In the Brit Chadashah (New Testament) the Greek words satanas (satan) and diabolos (devil) are used interchangeably. In the Kethuvim Bet we do find those people who make false or malicious reports or those who bring injurious deflamation by spoken words or by looks, signs, or gestures, being called diabolos or slanderer. In the garden those thoughts which came up in Eve‘s mind where there to falsely accuse God to malign and destroy His position. Of course, lying about God is part of any adversary of God or satan’s strategic success as well.

Though the adversary won a great victory over humanity in seducing Eve to disobey God, he did not stop there. She having done a fault, having lured Adam also in her conspiracy against God, both broke the good relationship with God and having such fault this came also over their children and their descendants.

The adversary of God having made its entrance in the world of man would further turn its attention to destroy the lineage of the first woman or mannin Eve, and preventing this seed from arriving. In the following years we can even find a by God chosen anointed King David from whose lineage the Messiah would come (see Micah 5:2) to move his heart toward glorifying himself (1 Chronicles 21:1–17) and even having some one being killed so that he could have that man’s wife. By counting how many men under his command were fit for war, David could for a moment forget that God provided these men for His own glory, not David’s. David’s choice to take a census of Israel was free for him to make. The consequence to Israel was mandatory and expensive.

Seventy thousand men in King David’s kingdom died.

Throughout history we see how many adversaries or satans stood up to fight God and lovers of God. Many tried to defame or to calumniate like a diabolos the Most High Elohim. But the many Bible books show us how the God of gods always was mightier than the other gods or opponents.

From the beginning God gave man (Adam and Eve) just a few rules, to which they had to keep. They could have kept them but choose not. For that it can well be that The Most High has a way of removing from our lives that which we desire more than Him.

We always should remember that God is not a cruel dictator and potentate. Some Christians let others think that by saying that no man is able to live up to the commandments of God. God never required more from man than what they could cope. He even for those who went wrong provided solutions to come back on track.

In His great mercy, though, God preserved David’s bloodline and the Messianic promise.

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Preceding

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 1

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 2

Out of the seed of Eve

First mention of a solution against death 1 To divine, serpent, opposition, satan and adversary

A solution for a damaged relationship 2 Sinful nature

A solution for a damaged relationship 3 Insight and prophesies given

First mention of a solution against death 2 Harm or no harm and naked truth

First mention of a solution against death 3 Tempter Satan and man’s problems

First mention of a solution against death 5 Evil its law of death

First mention of a solution against death 6 Authority given to the send one from God coming out of the woman

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Additional reading

1. Messenger of Satan
2. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #4 The Fall
3. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #5 Temptation, assault and curse
4. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #6 Curse and solution
5. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #7 Promise and solution
6. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #8 Looking for the 2nd Adam
7. Gaining Christ, trusting Jehovah
8. A birthday passed nearly unnoticed
9. Nazarene Commentary Matthew 4:1-4 A Wilderness Temptation
10. Nazarene Commentary Matthew 4:5-7 – A Temptation to Test God
11. Nazarene Commentary Matthew 4:8-11 – A Temptation to Gain World Rule
12. Heavenly creatures do they exist
13. Christendom Astray The Devil Not A Personal Super-Natural Being
14. Satan the evil within
15. Epicurus’ Problem of Evil
16. The Soul confronted with Death
17. Marriage of Jesus 8 Wife of Yahweh
18. Autumn traditions for 2014 – 2 Summersend and mansend
19. Autumn traditions for 2014 – 3 Black Mass, Horror spectacles and pure puritans
20. Autumn traditions for 2014 – 4 Blasphemy and ridiculing faith in God
21. 2015 the year of ISIS
22. Signs of the Last Days
23. Lord in place of the divine name
24. Another way looking at a language #3 Abraham

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Other writings

1. Lusts of the Flesh
2. Brains and Brawn
3. Temptation
4. The Mystery of Replenish and Subdue
5. The Great Controversy
6. Wrong Things People Say About the Devil
7. How a “Good Thing” Can Be a Stumbling Block
8. March 20 – Know God, No Temptation
9. A Truth about the devil? [135a]
10. A Truth about the devil? [135d]
11. Is Lucifer a bastard? (III)
12. Devils Feed on Blood and Slander
13. A letter from Satan
14. Legion
15. Delivered
16. Moshia Our Deliverer
17. Knowing War? Knowing God!
18. Whose Shadow Are You Under?
19. What’s Your Excuse?
20. Walking Circumspectly and Fuzzy Boundaries!
21. Fighting To Win
22. Pope Francis’ 13 Warnings against Satan
23. “Be Alert For Satan’s Devices” 03/23
24. Wretched Sinners and Spiritual Death
25. Satan Tempts Jesus, Accidentally Reveals the Character of God
26. Is Satan a Christian?
27. God Tests Us, Satan Tempts Us
28. Is there demonic activity today?
29. Practical Proverbial, from Hebrews, 21 March 2017
30. Satan’s Control
31. “Like” A Lion
32. Spiritual Warfare

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Related articles

• Sunday reflection: Matthew 4:1-11
• PROOF: Scandal-Ridden Obama Punished Conservatives As He Favored Satanists
• Finding Solitude Among the Written Lines of the Highway
• Hotbed of Satanism or the Satanic capital of Britain
• Iranian preacher creating more hatred between religious groups
• Spite houses: How to annoy your neighbors
• Five Ideas for How to Say No

Not trying to make the heathen live like Jews #2

In the previous postings we have seen that man had to be reminded to his own choice to be without God as their Commander and because off that choice got a reminder of their mortality.

We by know should see the significance of the introduction of the Sabbath commands being associated with the provision of manna.

For many people Mosaic law in the Bible can be confusing and often also in Judaic groups we can find lots of debates about certain laws to be followed in what sort of way. Many Christians do not like to talk so much about those laws and which ones we have to follow.

Critics of Christendom and Christianity and non-believers often question how there can exist such a god who is so demanding.  Some even find that Judaism, Christendom and the Muslim world do have a very cruel and petty god.

In many religious groups the question is posed which laws we still do have to follow.

According to some

” There are definitely some bizarre statutes, such as not being allowed to mix two kinds of fabric, or not cooking a goat in its mothers milk. There are also all the dietary restrictions of not being allowed to eat certain “unclean” animals such as pigs, not to mention all the sacrificial laws to atone for sin. These things seem drastic and at the very least, unnecessary. Now obviously most Christians don’t follow any of these. So what are we supposed to do with it? We know that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So what has changed? {What are we gonna do with this Torah?}

The fall of man (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the previous postings we have shown that all relates to mankind’s decision to take a certain attitude to God. We need to understand that because of sin we were not able to relate to God as he intended it. By man’s own choice he became separated from his own Creator. For this reason god made a structure so that they could often enough be reminded of Him Divine Creator.

In the previous writings you could see that God provided physical and spiritual food for man and gave them rules to follow so that they could have an easier life. He also demanded from them to respect Him as the Only One True God and not to make any graven images of Him.

We also could see how God provided already from the beginning of the fall of man, a solution in the person of Jeshua, Jesus Christ, the sent one from God who could bring salvation by showing the world a man was able not to do his own will but to rightly follow the Will of God.

Before the placed one on earth

Before the only begotten son of God was placed on the earth, all believers where still in a situation to be compared with God’s people in Egypt. But now we do have Jesus, God’s faithful Son who is called out of Egypt, filling up what was lacking in the first faithless son, Israel.

First Israel, God’s son, broke the covenant and deserved God’s wrath. Like at the beginning in the Garden of Eden, God‘s promise brings the one and only working solution for mankind. It is not by doing certain works that the liberation shall come over us. It is by the Gift of Grace that we receive freedom, but that would not liberate us from following certain orders made by God.

Galatians 4:3-5 NHEBJE  So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental principles of the world.  (4)  But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law,  (5)  that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children.

Completion of Israel’s designation

God his only begotten Son Jesus Christ (Matthew 3:17), whom God loves and with him God is well pleased, is the one who came to complete all that Israel was designed to perform. Some Jews got to see that, but also some non-Jews. Therefore the Jews started wondering if those new converts also had to fulfil all the requirements of the Jewish or Judaic and Mosaic Laws.

Those Jews who had chosen to follow their Master–teacher Jeshua as the Messiah had also some who came to compare the old Jews and the new ‘Jews’ or converted goyim, people from all nations and all sorts other religions. The news of the conversion of the Gentiles is received with joy (Acts 15:12). They could see how many thousands of Yehuḏim there had come to be ardent for the Torah.

Torah and morality for man to follow

For generations since Moses the Jews had their preachers in every town, and it was been read aloud in the synagogues every Sabbath how to conduct oneself. As such it was questioned what the new converts had to avoid. Had they to worry about anything that has been contaminated by idols, immorality, the meat of strangled animals, and the tasting of blood?

The Jews had their Mosaic Law as a great bulwark of morality, and there was excuse for wondering whether pagans could keep its moral precepts, without observing it entirely. So this party, which did not represent the church at Jerusalem, (Acts 15:13 ff.), came to Antioch and insisted that circumcision and the Law were necessary for those who wished to enter the Messianic kingdom on earth, and be saved. The Judaizing party had evidently little following outside Jerusalem.

Gentiles, Judaizing Christians and Jews

In Jerusalem many thought that Paul was teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs. Therefore they requested the assembly to meet. Concerning the Gentiles who believe, the apostles have written and decided that they should observe no such thing, except that they should keep themselves from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. Then Paul took the men, and the next day, having been purified with them, entered the temple to announce the expiration of the days of purification, at which time an offering should be made for each one of them.

Acts 21:17-26 NHEBJE  When we had come to Jerusalem, the brothers received us gladly.  (18)  The day following, Paul went in with us to James; and all the elders were present.  (19)  When he had greeted them, he reported one by one the things which God had worked among the Gentiles through his ministry.  (20)  They, when they heard it, glorified God. They said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Judeans of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law.  (21)  They have been informed about you, that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children neither to walk after the customs.  (22)  What then? They will certainly hear that you have come.  (23)  Therefore do what we tell you. We have four men who have taken a vow.  (24)  Take them, and purify yourself with them, and pay their expenses for them, that they may shave their heads. Then all will know that there is no truth in the things that they have been informed about you, but that you yourself also walk keeping the Law.  (25)  But concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written our decision that they should keep themselves from food offered to idols, from blood, from strangled things, and from sexual immorality.”  (26)  Then Paul took the men, and the next day, purified himself and went with them into the temple, declaring the fulfillment of the days of purification, until the offering was offered for every one of them.

An elaborate list of “do” and “don’t” items

A turn was made in history of man when the sent one of God had proven that man could do the Will of God and presented himself as an offering for all sinners. Jesus himself also knew that said that the Sabbath was made for man. (Mark 2:27).

Mark 2:23-28 NHEBJE  It happened that he was going on the Sabbath day through the grain fields, and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of grain.  (24)  The Pharisees said to him, “Behold, why do they do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath day?”  (25)  He said to them, “Did you never read what David did, when he had need, and was hungryhe, and those who were with him?  (26)  How he entered into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the show bread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and gave also to those who were with him?”  (27)  He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  (28)  Therefore the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

The Fall of Man (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jesus reminded the Pharisees about their attitude concerning observing religious rituals; like they declared that joy was more important than observing religious rituals, but could not see how on the Sabbath certain things could be done. The gleaning on the fields by the apostles was not considered stealing according to Deuteronomy 23:2, but the rabbis were more concerned about the day on which it happened and felt it belonged to an act of their elaborate list of “not to do”  items relevant to the Sabbath. For them it was a serious violation of one of the items on this list.
When the disciples began to pluck the heads of grain, in the eyes of the religious leaders they were guilty of 4 faults: reaping, threshing, winnowing, preparing food.

At this time, Rabbis filled Judaism with elaborate rituals related to the Sabbath and observance of other laws. Ancient Rabbis taught that on the Sabbath, a man could not carry something in his right hand or in his left hand, across his chest or on his shoulder. But you could carry something with the back of your hand, with your foot, with your elbow, or in your ear, your hair, or in the hem of your shirt, or in your shoe or sandal. Or, on the Sabbath, you were forbidden to tie a knot – except a woman could tie a knot in her girdle. So, if a bucket of water had to be raised from a well, you could not tie a rope to the bucket, but a woman could tie her girdle to the bucket!
{Guzik commentary on the Gospel of Mark}

What they did not understand is that Jeshua never violated the mitzvah or God’s commands in any way. He took time to study God’s Word and did everything to live according to it. Jeshua with his disciples went to different places and wherever they came they took time to worship God and to observe the Sabbath.

For this sent one from God, who did not want to do his own will (which he would have done in case he himself was God, like some think)would not have approved of his disciples violating God’s commands to observe the Sabbath. But for him there was a big difference between the laws of God and the laws made by man. He could see that by time man added rules had come in the Jewish tradition, which had more to do with man made legalistic ways than with God His Ways.

Human need more important than religious ritual

A very often overlooked issue is the one of the needs of man and of the regulations for man in this time of age.

We do live in a world where man can reign, but where man has also many needs. People do have to eat and to be taken care for, every day and not just one day of the week not. When people would not be treated one day in the week it could well be that they would die that day, because of not having had the right treatment. But not only for life matters it was important to recognise that man could and should be able to do certain things which he would or would not do on the other days of the week. It could be for relaxation, for entertainment, or for making himself wiser, etc..

Also people had to take care for others, and our of love should also sometimes do things which would demand work.

Can you imagine those who do believe in God and do find we do have to keep Sabbath, but take a taxi or public transport, watch television, want to have shops open for getting what they want, want to go to the theatre and have people working for them, so you could say they are not concerned that those people then would do something against the Will of God and would loose their life? This would be very unloving and very selfish.

Sabbath from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset

Those who say Christians do have to keep to the Sabbath Law should then keep Sabbath from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset and should abstain of any form of work but also of any relaxation which would have others working, like watching television, going on the internet, wanting medical care, etc.

Those who say the Sabbath is Sunday should look at Jeshua which day he kept. That was the Jewish Sabbath and not what they call the Lord’s Day. God’s Day of rest was from what we now call Friday-night until the time sun goes down on Saturday and not when the clock strikes 12 on Saturday night until Sunday 12 pm..

It is not by days that we can be separated from God, but by our acts of doing wrong. It is sin which alienates us from God not the keeping of one or an other day in a different way than the other days.

To remind our position in the universe of God

God had given the Law to Moses so that people could be reminded of their Creator and of their position in the creation. God’s law shows us that we are not able to attain righteousness through laws, but by making our own right choices like the sent one from God made the right choices from his own, not pushed by any other person.

The first Adam did not keep to God His Wishes and his descendants were not better. Though the descendant of the tribe of David, showed he also had could reason to be a beloved son of God. As the second Adam he also could not attain righteousness through the law. He like any man could sin, something only God can not, but he always made the right choices, following not his own will but the Will of God.

Because of being infected by the fall of man we are unable to be without spot. For us week human beings it is difficult to keep to God’s standards. His ordinances may be set apart from the human rules, but that does not yet mean that we can’t be able to become set-apart our selves (being holy).

Fulfiller of Law

By only doing God’s Will and not the one of his own, Jesus proofed to God and to mankind that man is able to keep to God’s Will. By his way of living and giving himself for mankind he opened the way for a restored relationship between God and mankind.

For centuries man had tried to live according to God’s regulations, but did not seem to succeed. Now there was this Nazarene man who succeeded. By doing so he fulfilled the law and liberated all others from the Old Ordinances bringing them under a New Covenant, a New Regulation. By the sealing of his death a start was given to a New World.

Jesus died as a perfect payment for all the past, present, and future sins of all people. Though now people do have to recognise that sacrificial offering and have to come to see that Jesus is the Way to God now.

Matthew 5:17 NHEBJE  “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

In a certain way do we not need the Mosaic Law any more, when we accept Jesus as our new law giver. God gave him authority to teach the world and to judge the world. We are by Christ Jesus Justified by faith. So it is up to people to follow Jesus or either to ignore him like many ignore Jesus his heavenly Father, the Only One God.

Through Christ Jesus righteousness is granted to us, and not any more by the Mosaic Law. He nailed the law and its consequences unto the stake. Through Jesus the sacrificial laws have been nullified and the temple curtain has been torn to allow all who know God to come to him, unrestricted, through the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 2:8-16 NHEBJE  (8)  for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,  (9)  not of works, that no one would boast.  (10)  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.  (11)  Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “uncircumcision” by that which is called “circumcision,” (in the flesh, made by hands);  (12)  that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.  (13)  But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ.  (14)  For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition,  (15)  having abolished in the flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace;  (16)  and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility thereby.

Ordering works and ways of living

From the Jews there were ordered works of Torah, but those who came to Christianity should have to see that Jesus nailed the Old Covenant to the stake and as such did not have to keep to certain laws of food and customs.

Paul had also come to see that certain Jews did more live like gentiles and therefore questioned a.o. Cephas how he who lived not like a Jew, could force the Gentiles to live like Jews.
The Jews by birth who followed Jeshua understood that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. Jeshua’s followers believed in the Nazarene man to be the Messiah, the promised sent one from God. They were convinced that by works of the law no one will be justified.

From the 1° Adam onwards all man had been with sin except Christ Jesus. Jeshua did not become a servant of sin. Those converts to the teachings of Jeshua died to the Mosaic Law so that they might live to God. They should walk and live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us all.

Galatians 2:14-21 NHEBJE  (14)  But when I saw that they did not walk uprightly according to the truth of the Good News, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live as the Gentiles do, and not as the Jews do, how can you compel the Gentiles to live as the Jews do?  (15)  “We, being Jews by birth, and not Gentile sinners,  (16)  yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law.  (17)  But if, while we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found sinners, is Christ a servant of sin? Certainly not!  (18)  For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a law-breaker.  (19)  For I, through the law, died to the law, that I might live to God.  (20)  I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.  (21)  I do not make void the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”

False teachings unsettling minds and burdens

In the early times of Christianity already false teachers could be found and people who disturbed others by their teaching and unsettled others their minds. The assembled meeting of Jewish brethren unanimously resolved to select representatives and send them to the ecclesiae so that they could hear how the view was made under the direction of the Holy Spirit after prayer and wise consult. By word of mouth the message was given to the other ecclesia.  They agreed that it was for the Holy Spirit and their meeting that had decided not to lay upon others any burden but this indispensable one,  that they had to avoid whatever has been sacrificed to idols, the tasting of blood and of the meat of animals that have been strangled, and immorality. They in first instance had to keep themselves free from these things.

Acts 15:24-29 NHEBJE  Because we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, to whom we gave no commandment;  (25)  it seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose out men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,  (26)  men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  (27)  We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who themselves will also tell you the same things by word of mouth.  (28)  For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay no greater burden on you than these necessary things:  (29)  that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality, from which if you keep yourselves, it will be well with you. Farewell.”

As such old customs like bringing certain offers, tithing, were not necessary any more, because even by the Jews there were ones who did not like it and tried to escape from it.

From several parables and sayings form Jeshua, Jesus Christ, we do know that it is much more important to live according to the spirit of the Law, be it Mosaic or any other law, than to the letter.

End of the law

Those people who say they are Christian should follow the teachings of the master-teacher, rabbi Jeshua, and should accept his words about himself, his heavenly Father and about how we do have to live.

He also gave a golden rule which should guide us through our life and be our goal to love God and God His creation, like Jesus loved us we should love ourself and one another.

John 13:34-35 NHEBJE  A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also must love one another.  (35)  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

John 15:12-13 NHEBJE  “This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you.  (13)  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

John 14:21 NHEBJE  One who has my commandments, and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.”

Romans 10:4 NHEBJE  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Colossians 2:6-17 NHEBJE  (6)  As therefore you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, walk in him,  (7)  rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving.  (8)  Be careful that you do not let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ.  (9)  For in him all the fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily,  (10)  and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power;  (11)  in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ;  (12)  having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.  (13)  You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,  (14)  wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us; and he has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross;  (15)  having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.  (16)  Let no man therefore judge you in eating, or in drinking, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day,  (17)  which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ’s.

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Preceding articles:

Not trying to make the heathen live like Jews #1

Genesis – Story of creation 6 Genesis 3:13-24 Enmity and curse

Creation of the earth and man #3 Of the Sabbath day #1 the Seventh day

Creation of the earth and man #4 Of the Sabbath day #2 Days 1,7,8 and 50

Creation of the earth and man #5 Of the Sabbath day #3 Ceasing from the works of the flesh

Creation of the earth and man #6 Of the Sabbath day #4 Mosaic codes, Sabbaths and Sunday

Creation of the earth and man #7 Of the Sabbath day #5 Respecting the day on which Christ Jesus rose from the dead

Creation of the earth and man #8 Of the Sabbath day #6 If it be necessary to keep Sunday

Were Gentiles excluded from entering the synagogue?

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Additional reading

1. Condemnation of the World and Illustration of Justification
2. Why Sabbaths or Sabbath plural “shabbatot”
3. Holy Sabbath
4. Do we need to keep the Sabbath
5. Are Christians required to keep the seventh day Sabbath?
6. The Sabbath: Is it a special day for Christians?
7. Sunday and the Sabbath (Pdf doc)
8. We’re allowed to willfully break the Law of Moses
9. Seven full weeks or seven completed Sabbaths and ascension of Jesus
10. Communion and day of worship
11. More looking for similarities
12. Bible, helmet of health, salvation and sword of the spirit
13. Solution for Willing hearts filled with gifts
14. Promise given in Garden of Eden
15. The one who set the standard
16. Mediator
17. Actions to be a reflection of openness of heart
18. Atonement and the race been bought
19. Running the battle
20. Glory of God appearing in our character
21. Get Your Wonderful Disease-proof Human Body

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Further reading:

• Did Jesus teach the Law of the Old Testament to the Jews?
• What are we gonna do with this Torah?
• A Case For Sabbath Observance
• Keeping the Old Testament Law
• You Are Judged According to Your Beliefs
• Tithing
• Shabbat Nachamu (thejc.com)
  The Shabbat after Tishah b’Av is called Shabbat Nachamu, meaning the Shabbat of comfort. It is named after the first words of the haftarah from Isaiah 40, “Comfort, comfort my people”.
  After the deepening mourning of the three weeks for the Temples’ destruction leading up to Tishah b’Av, (culminating in not eating meat or bathing in the days preceding the fast), this Shabbat brings comfort and relief.
• Parsha Emor: Is There A Shabbat In Other Realms? (jewishpress.com)
  In our Torah reading for holidays, we not only recite the laws of holidays, we include Shabbat, and oddest of all, some laws about sacrificing animals. What do all these laws have to do with one another? In this video, Rabbi Fohrman makes a fascinating argument about how Shabbat works and shows that there are shabbatot in different realms.
• Shabbat Chol Hamo’ed Pesach (thejc.com)
  In general, it is fair to characterise the Torah commentators of the Middle Ages such as Rashi, Avraham ibn Ezra or Ramban as looking to provide the real meaning of the text.
  This contrasts with the Chasidic writers of the last 300 years, who often afford themselves considerable latitude and allow the words of the Torah to soar and lead us to a truth and meaning well beyond the original context. Such interpretations may not obviously explain the literal meaning of the words but can be powerful insights into our spiritual lives.
• The Early Christians of Philippi (catholicexchange.com)
  Lydia was a business woman who dealt in purple cloth – she is therefore sometimes referred to as “Lydia Purpuraria” – Lydia the Purple-Seller.  She evidently had roots in Asia Minor (Turkey) for she was said to be of Thyatira … an ancient city there (in a region curiously called “Lydia”).  After being baptized, Lydia generously let her home in Philippi be
• Note on the Physical Land of Israel: Who Inherits the Land of Israel – Christian or Jew? (ilyston.wordpress.com)
  This irrevocable promise to the seed of Abraham has been expanded.  It is no longer bound to the land of Palestine.  In Romans 4:13, we find that Paul states that Abraham is the “heir of the world.”  This is also stated in Psalms 25:13: “His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth” (Cf. Psalm 37:9, 11, 27).   Thus, it would seem that the promise of the land has extended to the entire world.
  This is not merely a Pauline distinctive.  We also find this idea in Jewish intertestamental writings.

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God-breathed prophetic words written torah and the mitzvot to teach us

Here you can find the bible verses by the previous article:

Necessary to be known all over the earth

 

 

“23  but the words, “it was credited to his account…, ”were not written for him only. 24 they were written also for us, who will certainly have our account credited too, because we have trusted in him who raised Yeshua our lord from the dead-” (Romans 4:23-24 CJB)

“for everything written in the past was written to teach us, so that with the encouragement of the Tanakh we might patiently hold on to our hope.” (Romans 15:4 CJB)

“16 all Scripture is god-breathed and is valuable for teaching the truth, convicting of sin, correcting faults and training in right living; 17 thus anyone who belongs to god may be fully equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 CJB)

“19  yes, we have the prophetic word made very certain. you will do well to pay attention to it as to a light shining in a dark, murky place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 first of all, understand this: no prophecy of Scripture is to be interpreted by an individual on his own; 21 for never has a prophecy come as a result of human willing – on the contrary, people moved by the  Ruach haKodesh spoke a message from god.” (2 Peter 1:19-21 CJB)

“he has to remain in heaven until the time comes for restoring everything, as god said long ago, when he spoke through the holy prophets.” (Acts 3:21 CJB)

“{A: v, S: iv} “these words ADONAI spoke to your entire gathering at the mountain from fire, cloud and thick mist, in a loud voice; then it ceased. but he wrote them on two stone tablets, which he gave to me.” (Deuteronomy 5:22 CJB)

“8 you are to write on the stones all the words of this torah very clearly.” 9 next Moshe and the cohanim, who are L’vi’im, spoke to all Isra’el. they said, “be quiet; and listen, Isra’el! today you have become the people of ADONAI your god. 10 therefore you are to listen to what ADONAI your god says and obey his mitzvot and laws, which I am giving you today.”” (Deuteronomy 27:8-10 CJB)

“2 “the spirit of ADONAI spoke through me, his word was on my tongue. 3 the god of Isra’el spoke; the rock of Isra’el said to me, ‘A ruler over people must be upright, ruling in the fear of god; 4 like the morning light at sunrise on a cloudless day that makes the grass on the earth sparkle after a rain.’” (2 Samuel 23:2-4 CJB)

““isn’t my word like fire,” asks ADONAI, “like a hammer shattering rocks?” (Jeremiah 23:29 CJB)

“then he answered me, “this is the word of ADONAI to Z’rubavel: ‘not by force, and not by power, but by my spirit,’ says ADONAI-Tzva’ot.” (Zechariah 4:6 CJB)

“yes, they made their hearts as hard as a diamond, so that they wouldn’t hear the torah and the messages that ADONAI-Tzva’ot had sent by his spirit through the earlier prophets. this is why great anger came from ADONAI-Tzva’ot;” (Zechariah 7:12 CJB)

“David himself, inspired by the Ruach haKodesh, said, ‘ADONAI said to my lord, “sit here at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.’” {#Ps 110:1}” (Mark 12:36 CJB)

““brothers, the Ruach haKodesh spoke in advance through David about Y’hudah, and these words of the Tanakh had to be fulfilled. he was guide for those who arrested Yeshua—” (Acts 1:16 CJB)

“but this is how god fulfilled what he had announced in advance, when he spoke through all the prophets, namely, that his Messiah was to die.” (Acts 3:18 CJB)

“(12:14) by a prophet ADONAI brought Isra’el up from Egypt, and by a prophet he was protected.” (Hosea 12:13 CJB)

“in my distress my comfort is this: that your promise gives me life.” (Psalms 119:50 CJB)

“for the mitzvah is a lamp, torah is light, and reproofs that discipline are the way to life.” (Proverbs 6:23 CJB)

“but displaying grace to the thousandth generation of those who love me and obey my mitzvot.” (Exodus 20:6 CJB)

“ADONAI said to Moshe, “come up to me on the mountain, and stay there. I will give you the stone tablets with the torah and the mitzvot I have written on them, so that you can teach them.” (Exodus 24:12 CJB)

“observe the charge of ADONAI your god to go in his ways and keep his regulations, mitzvot, rulings and instructions in accordance with what is written in the torah of Moshe; so that you will succeed in all you do and wherever you go.” (1 Kings 2:3 CJB)

“so be wholehearted with ADONAI our god, living by his laws and observing his mitzvot, as you are doing today.”” (1 Kings 8:61 CJB)

“all the more does he say this for our sakes. yes, it was written for us, meaning that he who plows and he who threshes should work expecting to get a share of the crop.” (1 Corinthians 9:10 CJB)

“these things happened to them as prefigurative historical events, and they were written down as a warning to us who are living in the acharit-hayamim.” (1 Corinthians 10:11 CJB)

“for ADONAI corrects those he loves like a father who delights in his son.” (Proverbs 3:12 CJB)

“he must hold firmly to the trustworthy message that agrees with the doctrine; so that by his sound teaching he will be able to exhort and encourage, and also to refute those who speak against it.” (Titus 1:9 CJB)

“the sexually immoral – both heterosexual and homosexual – slave dealers, liars, perjurers, and anyone who acts contrary to the sound teaching” (1 Timothy 1:10 CJB)

“if anyone teaches differently and does not agree to the sound precepts of our lord Yeshua the Messiah and to the doctrine that is in keeping with godliness,” (1 Timothy 6:3 CJB)

“follow the pattern of the sound teachings you have heard from me, with trust and the love which is yours in the Messiah Yeshua.” (2 Timothy 1:13 CJB)

“and it’s true! for this reason, you must be severe when you rebuke those who have followed this false teaching, so that they will come to be sound in their trust” (Titus 1:13 CJB)

“also you have forgotten the counsel which speaks with you as sons: “my son, don’t despise the discipline of ADONAI or become despondent when he corrects you.” (Hebrews 12:5 CJB)

“(his talmidim later recalled that the Tanakh says, “zeal for your house will devour me.”) {#Ps 69:9}” (John 2:17 CJB)

“it is the spirit who gives life, the flesh is no help. the words I have spoken to you are spirit and life,” (John 6:63 CJB)

“23 Yeshua answered him, “if someone loves me, he will keep my word; and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 someone who doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words—and the word you are hearing is not my own but that of the father who sent me. 25  “I have told you these things while I am still with you. 26 but the counselor, the Ruach haKodesh, whom the father will send in my name, will teach you everything; that is, he will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 “what I am leaving with you is shalom —I am giving you my shalom. I don’t give the way the world gives. don’t let yourselves be upset or frightened. 28  you heard me tell you, ‘I am leaving, and I will come back to you.’ if you loved me, you would have been glad that I am going to the father; because the father is greater than I. 29 “also, I have said it to you now, before it happens; so that when it does happen, you will trust. 30 “I won’t be talking with you much longer, because the ruler of this world is coming. he has no claim on me; 31 rather, this is happening so that the world may know that I love the father, and that I do as the father has commanded me. “get up! let’s get going!” (John 14:23-31 CJB)

“so Yeshua gave them an answer: “my teaching is not my own, it comes from the one who sent me.” (John 7:16 CJB)

“for I have not spoken on my own initiative, but the father who sent me has given me a command, namely, what to say and how to say it.” (John 12:49 CJB)

“10 don’t you believe that I am united with the father, and the father united with me? what I am telling you, I am not saying on my own initiative; the father living in me is doing his own works. 11 trust me, that I am united with the father, and the father united with me. but if you can’t, then trust because of the works themselves. 12  yes, indeed! I tell you that whoever trusts in me will also do the works I do! indeed, he will do greater ones, because I am going to the father. 13 in fact, whatever you ask for in my name, I will do; so that the father may be glorified in the son. 14 if you ask me for something in my name, I will do it. 15  “if you love me, you will keep my commands; 16 and I will ask the father, and he will give you another comforting counselor like me, the spirit of truth, to be with you forever. 17 the world cannot receive him, because it neither sees nor knows him. you know him, because he is staying with you and will be united with you. 18  I will not leave you orphans—I am coming to you.” (John 14:10-18 CJB)

“while others refused to believe. so they left, disagreeing among themselves, after sha’ul had made one final statement: “the Ruach haKodesh spoke well in saying to your fathers through Yesha‘yahu the prophet,” (Acts 28:25 CJB)

“10  finally, grow powerful in union with the lord, in union with his mighty strength! 11 use all the armor and weaponry that god provides, so that you will be able to stand against the deceptive tactics of the adversary. 12 for we are not struggling against human beings, but against the rulers, authorities and cosmic powers governing this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm. 13 so take up every piece of war equipment god provides; so that when the evil day comes, you will be able to resist; and when the battle is won, you will still be standing. 14 therefore, stand! have the belt of truth buckled around your waist, {#Isa 11:5} put on righteousness for a breastplate, {#Isa 59:17} 15 and wear on your feet the readiness that comes from the good news of shalom. {#Isa 52:7} 16 always carry the shield of trust, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 and take the helmet of deliverance; {#Isa 59:17} along with the sword given by the spirit, that is, the word of god;” (Ephesians 6:10-17 CJB)

“but since we belong to the day, let us stay sober, putting on trust and love as a breastplate and the hope of being delivered as a helmet. {#Isa 59:17}” (1 Thessalonians 5:8 CJB)

“it is the spirit who gives life, the flesh is no help. the words I have spoken to you are spirit and life,” (John 6:63 CJB)

“see, the word of god is alive! it is at work and is sharper than any doubleedged sword – it cuts right through to where soul meets spirit and joints meet marrow, and it is quick to judge the inner reflections and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12 CJB)

“then he is rid of his duty to honor his father or mother.’ thus by your tradition you make null and void the word of god!” (Matthew 15:6 CJB)

“thus, with your tradition which you had handed down to you, you nullify the word of god! and you do other things like this.”” (Mark 7:13 CJB)

“you have been born again not from some seed that will decay, but from one that cannot decay, through the living word of god that lasts forever.” (1 Peter 1:23 CJB)

“the emissaries and the brothers throughout Y’hudah heard that the Goyim had received the word of god;” (Acts 11:1 CJB)

“another reason we regularly thank god is that when you heard the word of god from us, you received it not merely as a human word, but as it truly is, god’s word, which is at work in you believers.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13 CJB)

“when we say this, we base it on the lord’s own word: we who remain alive when the lord comes will certainly not take precedence over those who have died.” (1 Thessalonians 4:15 CJB)

“having made his decision, he gave birth to us through a word that can be relied upon, in order that we should be a kind of firstfruits of all that he created.” (James 1:18 CJB)

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Several Bible-translations on the Bookshelf

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Preceding:

Necessary to be known all over the earth

• Necessity of a revelation of creation 3 Getting understanding by Word of God 1
• Necessity of a revelation of creation 4 Getting understanding by Word of God 2
• Necessity of a revelation of creation 5 Getting understanding by Word of God 3
• Necessity of a revelation of creation 6 Getting understanding by Word of God 4
• Necessity of a revelation of creation 7 Getting understanding by Word of God 5
• Necessity of a revelation of creation 8 By no means unintelligible or mysterious to people
• Necessity of a revelation of creation 9 Searching the Scriptures
• Necessity of a revelation of creation 10 Instructions for insight and wisdom
• Necessity of a revelation of creation 11 Believing and obeying the gospel of the Kingdom of God
• Bible, God speaking words profitable for doctrine, for reproof and for correction

A Tanach (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Additional reading:

1. Are you looking for answers and Are you looking for God
2. People Seeking for God 3 Laws and directions
3. People Seeking for God 6 Strategy
4. The Right One to follow and to worship
5. Fear of God reason to return to Holy Scriptures
6. We may not be ignorant to get wisdom
7. Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #6 Words to feed and communicate
8. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #4 Transitoriness #2 Purity
9. Challenging claim 4 Inspired by God 3 Self-consistent Word of God
10. Showing by the scriptures that …
11. Looking for wisdom not departing from God’s Word
12. True God giving His Word for getting wisdom
13. Bible Word of God, inspired and infallible
14. Eternal Word that tells everything
15. God’s Blog recorded in a Book
16. Creator and Blogger God 10 A Blog of a Book 4 Listening to the Blogger
17. Creator and Blogger God 11 Old and New Blog 1 Aimed at one man
18. Bible Word from God
19. Bible guide
20. Bible in the first place #1/3
21. Bible in the first place #2/3
22. Bible in the first place #3/3
23. True God giving His Word for getting wisdom
24. Words to inspire and to give wisdom
25. Coming to understanding from sayings written long ago
26. Appointed to be read
27. Bible, God’s Word to edify (ERV)
28. Unread best-seller
29. Statutes given unto us
30. Bible, God speaking words profitable for doctrine, for reproof and for correction
31. Bible, sword of the Spirit to come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man
32. Bible, helmet of health, salvation and sword of the spirit
33. Bible, helmet of salvation, God’s Words put in the mouth of prophets for perfecting, to reprove and correct
34. Hearing words to accept
35. Absolute Basics to Reading the Bible
36. Cleanliness and worrying or not about purity
37. Scripture alone Sola Scriptora
38. May reading the Bible provoke us into action to set our feet on the narrow way
39. The manager and Word of God
40. Feed Your Faith Daily
41. We should use the Bible every day
42. For it is no empty word
43. Incomplete without the mind of God
44. Increase our zeal for the Holy scriptures
45. Believing in the send one and understanding that one does not live by bread alone
46. Bric-a-brac of the Bible
47. Incomplete without the mind of God
48. Hidden Treasures
49. Those who love Jesus
50. The holy spirit will bring back to your minds all the things told
51. God who knows the heart
52. A treasure which can give me everything I need
53. Congregate, to gather, to meet
54. Teach children the Bible
55. Engagement in an actual two-way conversation with your deities
56. Not able to make contact with God because to busy

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Related articles

• “Friends and Neighbours” Parashat Acharei Mot – Kedoshim 5775 (blogs.timesofisrael.com)
• Living the Mitzvot (israelnationalnews.com)
• How to be Noble Person (idkh.org)
• You may speak in tongues if …. (atwistedcrownofthorns.com)
• Pentecost (catholicjules.net)
• Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1956msbess.wordpress.com)
• Bible sayings about God (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)