John 14:6, the Theology of the Cross

John 14:6 And Jesus said, "I am the Truth":

Greek: εγο ειμι η οδος και η αληθεια και η ζηωGreek Transliteration: ego eimi ay hodos kai ay h'aleitheia kai ay zoe
English: I AM -- the Way and the Truth and the (living) eternal Life:

Greek: ουδεις ερχεται προς τον πατερα ει μη δι εμου.
Greek Translit.: oudeis erchetai pros ton patera ei may dee emou.
English: no one comes up to/ alongside the Father except through Me.
“ Jesus saith unto him,
I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life:
no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me”(King James Version).


The Way

Jesus said, I Am the Way:

In the Greek above, we see the word used for “way” is “hodos”. “Hodos” is that “path”, “way”, or “road” which leads one to an acknowledgeable end-destination. For example, at Beth Shean, if you were to follow the caravan route north, you would traverse into the “hodos” of the Sea of Galilee. The “hodos” of the Sea will then lead you directly to Capernaum. If, from Beth Shean, you were to take the “hodos” through the western Valley, it would eventually round over to the north and into Galilee. That “hodos” would be more direct in relation to attaining Nazareth, Sepphoris, and Cana.

If you left Beth Shean and took the “hodos” south, you would attain Jericho, and then from Jericho, take the winding “hodos” up to Jerusalem. Like modern travel, “hodos” may simply be a collection of paths that get you from here to there; yet, it is reflected back upon as a whole, or as a singular path, a singular journey.
When we find Christ, we find that the goal and attainment of the person and the destination are one and the same. Yet, we all start off from different vantage points: physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. The “hodos” upon which we travel is nothing we can ever really call tangible in this life; but rather, it is an intangible grappling with the finer points of what is and what is not the true and greater reality before us. We are called to stay true to a course that is beyond sight and other sensory perceptions. So when we read that Christ calls Himself the “hodos”, “The Way”, we can know and appreciate that regardless of this life’s outcome, our destination and our hope is in Him: in YHVeH Messiah -- Jesus Christ.


And Jesus said: I Am the BA

If we were to translate this verse into Hebrew, the most appropriate translation of “hodos” would be “BA”. Now, let us for the moment, accept without question that Christ is the “ba”. If we reverse these two letters of Beth and Alef, we see then what He is the “Way” to: “AB”, which means “the Father”. By proclaiming Himself as “the Way”, Christ claims exclusively, only through Him -- through His own person -- lays “the Way” to “the Father”.

In a closer examination of the Greek, often the word “hodos” projects the word-picture ‘of that path or way which leads to the DOOR of a house or Temple.’ This Greek word differs from the Hebrew counterpart of “Ba” in this respect: whereas “hodos” is inclusive of an entire journey from point A to its end-destination of point B, the Hebraic “Ba” is simply inclusive only of ‘the immediate path or road that leads to the end-destination’ of the door at point B. This is because, technically, “Ba” means a path that traverse through a Door-way. Because of this, most translators tend to utilize “DeReK”,
the “wide course” or “wide way”, instead of the path that leads you to a specific end destination. This translation easily contradicts both Jesus teachings and clear intent. Derek is like arriving at a great metropolis, yet still having no clue how to locate a person living there, and having no other address for the person whom you are seeking.

As for “DeReK”, I reject this translation as used by some Messianics of John 14:6, because it neither fits the teachings or intent of Christ. Further, in Gematria, “ba” is the ideal to what Christ teaches; “natib” would be secondary. Even “Mecillah”, “the raised or exalted highway” of Isaiah and John the Baptist’s usage, would still be far more preferable in translating “hodos” in John 14:6, rather than using “DeReK’: “the wide course or way”.
Jesus said,
“Enter you in the Strait Gate:
for wide is the gate, and broad is the Way that leads to destruction,
and many are they who go in thereat:
because the gate which leads to LIFE is Strait, and the Way is narrow,
and there are few who find it.”
(Matthew 7:13-14) KJV

The word that Jesus uses for “broad”, in Matthew 7:13, is “euruchoros” (ευρυχωρος) in the Greek. This word conveys the picture of a wide and vastly open countryside. Imagine yourself on a flat plain of a wilderness, and that your 360 degree field of vision is literally nothing but hundreds of miles of barren wasteland. Furthermore, the only reason you don’t see more barren land is because it slopes out of view upon the horizons on all sides of you. This is “the Broad Way” of euruchoros, where you can choose any which and every way, what ever is right in your own eyes, and still be assured of your own demise and destruction. This is similar to the Hebraic “Derek”. For example, in Genesis 16:7’s “the Way to Shur”, and in Isaiah 9:1’s “the Way of the Sea”, both use “Derek” after the sense of a broadly sweeping plain or valley. In Exodus 13:17, even the entire land mass and width of Sinai between the Mediterranean and Red Sea is implied in its use of “Derek”. Christ, on the other hand, wishes to identify Himself and the way to Life as narrow, pressed in, and constricted.


The Course of the Mecillah (pronounce as mesilah)

“The Voice of one crying in the Wilderness of the Desert:
Prepare you the Course -- the Route -- of YHVeH! [“Course” - Derek]
Make His exalted and embanked Road straight!” [“Road” - Mecillah]
(Isaiah 40:3, translation mine)

The Hebraic “Mecillah” is likened to a levee wall along a riverbank. In Numbers 20:19, “mecillah” is used to the effect of being a high plain or plateau passage between mountains in the border regions of Edom (cf. Numbers 20:23). In 2 Chronicles 9:11, “mecillah” is translated in English as “steps” in some translations; however, the application should render it as “a high or exalted way”. The word picture is of the (think boat) pier of algum trees in the outer Temple Court, the which stretched from near the Eastern Gate to near the Beautiful Gate in Solomon’s Temple. This pier, probably being only several feet high, was supposed to be traversed only by the coming Messiah. We are called to the word picture of such an exalted path in Proverbs 16:17, and to keep and maintain a higher code of conduct. Yet, even as the thoughts and ways of GOD are higher than man’s ways (Isaiah 55:8-9), so also is His “mecillah” higher than our “mecillah”. In the last Days, we shall see that the Path of YHVeH lies across the spectrum of the heavens, and that the war in Heaven will be fought along this road above (Judges 5:20, Revelation 12:7a).

In Matthew 3:3, John the Baptist declared, in regards to the “Mecillah” of YHVeH, “Straight make the paths of Him.” (Literal translation from Greek)

John preached this at Bethabara on the Jordan River. Bethabara was the location through which, in 1511 B.C., Joshua and the children of Israel entered into the Promised Land. It was from here that, through the command of Joshua (i.e. ‘Jesus’), that the waters rolled up and receded north (and back upon itself) past the city of Adam. The Israelites then took memorial stones from the dry riverbed from which the water receded, and placed them on the west bank of the Jordan, to make this location as a place of remembrance (Joshua 3:15 - 4:9). These were stones that were as though dead and buried: forgotten. They were lifted up out of an allegory of being dead in trespasses and sins, and elevated into the Promised Land as “living stones” that would ever be alive in remembrance to the Children of Israel, generation after generation after generation. These stones, in and of themselves, were not level and perfectly formed; but they brought forth into remembrance, into the mind of the people, of He who is “straight”, or “level and true” (“YaSHaR, of Isaiah 40:3). These stones, in a “living way”, pointed the people to the remembrance of YHVeH their GOD and Deliverer through Joshua (who in the Greek is “Jesus”).

In respects to the teachings of Gematria and of “Mecillah” being “straight and true”, or “YaSHaR” [Yod-Shin-Rosh] if we make the first letter (the yod, י, which represents GOD’s NAME), and make it last, following the Rosh [which means "head"]; then we read of man’s sinful nature as being - ShaRaY: of being hostile, according to the reason of his head, and the exaltation of his own works of piety first, so that his first concern is ever the desiring to take over and exercise dominion.

It is the call of GOD’s prophet, John the Baptist, to be straight, level, and true, in a call to humility before our GOD and Savior. If we seek the “Righteousness” ש (the Shin) --of “YH” י (the Yod) -- before our own mind or “Head” ר (the Rosh): then we are given SHiYR -- “the ability to sing in our circumstances”. But if we place our own “mind” or “head” ahead of YH and His Righteousness, the we end up with RiYSH : “ a poverty of the soul”. To which Jesus tells us to seek ye first the Kingdom of YHVeH and His Righteousness, that all the good that He mentions, might be added unto the one seeking such things as He mentions (Matthew 6:33; cf. Matthew 5:3 ff.)

In fact, if we secure the mind which is like Christ and following GOD’s will, (the Yod before the Rosh), then it seems natural that the fruit, which follows, is righteousness (the Shin). Thus, YaReSH (even after the Gematriac test), means that: “righteousness”. This, therefore, is the path of GOD -- the BA (the Way) which leads on up to AB (the Father): it is through the means of the Cross, which is the act of grace -mercy - and love by the person of YHVeH Messiah, Jesus Christ. Christ is the only source to which reconciliation between Holy GOD and unholy mankind can be made.

In Genesis 6:9, Noah is called a righteous ("tsaddiq") man. This word is a variant of Tsedaqah, which means “to make straight.” In Leviticus 19:15, we see Tsaddiq as the straightness of a scale (with the emphasis on the rod), and its ability to weigh evenly and fairly in judgment for all, be they rich or poor, small or great. Thus, the implication of a narrowness along the lines of Matthew 7:13’s stenos στενής as Messiah taught. In Leviticus 19:36, Tsaddiq is translated as “honest(y)” in the act of measuring, of being free from the predisposition to defraud one’s neighbor. In Psalm 145:17, we read of YHVeH being “Tsaddiq (strait and righteous) in all His Ways, and loving to all He has made.”

Jesus says in Matthew 7:13 that not only is the Way narrow, but its gate is as narrow as the Way is. In other words, the Gate is also an end destination in itself, as well as THE WAY. And what is the pules πυλης, this Gate or Door which is the type that accesses to a kingdom or dominion, not being a common door as “thura” is in the Greek? This DOOR or “pules” is YHVeH Messiah Himself, its width is the width of his body, arms outstretched wide, and its height is that of the Cross on which he was hung.

Why is all this so important, you might ask? The revelation of the DOOR as Christ is so important, that the Pharisees killed James, the half-brother of Christ, after telling him to address the Passover crowds and explain what is meant by it, and upon seeing that conversions over to Christ were taking place (Eusebius, History of the Church, 2.23).

If it is important enough to martyr a man in the process of converting multitudes on a single short analysis, then how important do you think it should be to us to examine, even in our own day? May you trust in Christ Jesus as YOUR LORD and Saviour today, and accept his gift of eternal life in the world to come freely. Peace. Amen.