Celtic Women for the holidays. Merry Christmas, each and every day.

Starting off with a Swing version of "Let it Snow"



Followed by the more traditional holiday music.
















MERRY CHRISTMAS.  

Don't be afraid to say this greeting.  Spread the Word.  Amen.

Carbon 14 dating at Jericho with its 110 to 150 calibration, places the Exodus entry into the land year I propose -- 1511 B.C. -- as well within the margin of error

For years, I have been able to accurately propose and apologetically defend what I beieve will eventually be known as the almost certain fact that 1511 B.C.(as we know and calculate it) was the entry date of Israel to the lands of Canaan, consistently and vigourously, with confirmation by both Josephus and those Early Christians citing Greek historians.

 I have posted a few times to that effect also on this blog and to that regard, such as at these links here:
http://brianroysinput.blogspot.com/2009/11/patristic-etc-revising-of-exodus-of.html

http://brianroysinput.blogspot.com/2009/11/redating-hebrew-exodus-part-2.html

http://brianroysinput.blogspot.com/2009/11/redating-hebrew-exodus-part-3.html

http://brianroysinput.blogspot.com/2009/11/redating-hebrew-exodus-part-4.html

http://brianroysinput.blogspot.com/2009/11/outline-of-chronology-1551-1180-bc-from.html

http://brianroysinput.blogspot.com/2009/11/antiquity-of-chaldean-factor.html

http://brianroysinput.blogspot.com/2009/11/more-data-and-considerations-on-dating.html


On Aug 07, 2008...Bryant G. Wood PhD reported the following data on Jericho's Carbon 14 dating that supports my thesis in dating Jericho's destruction to 1511 B.C. to being more within the margin of error than those who date to the 1400s B.C. and later:

Initially, a C14 date of 1410 +/- 40 B.C. (done by the British Museum) was published for charcoal from the destruction level of Jericho (Jericho V [1983], p. 763).


This was later found to be in error and corrected from 3080 +/- 40 BP to 3300 +/- 110 BP (Radiocarbon 32 [1990]: 74; BP = before present), which calibrates to 1590 or 1527 +/- 110 B.C., depending on how one reads the calibration curve (Radiocarbon 35 [1993]: 30).


Additional tests were done on six grain samples from the destruction level resulting in dates between 1640 and 1520 B.C. and 12 charcoal samples from the destruction level resulting in dates between 1690 and 1610 B.C. (Radiocarbon 37 [1995]: 217).


Carbon 14 Dating at Jericho

This Carbon-14 dating reported in 1995 is thought to be more reliable than the previous data.  One of the things that is seemingly left out in the Carbon-14 debates is contaminations, and cross-sourcing.

For example, there is data that shows that when a modern animal is fed old and rotten vegetation, the animal can soon Carbon-14 date to whatever you would misdate the rotten food to, because the rate of decay throws off the effectiveness of Carbon-14's accuracy. So in that respect, decomposition (its rate and state of) needs to be factored in in carbon-14 dating.

In contrast, the Jericho data suggests a suspension of decomp in the grain and charcoal samples. The difference in the charcoal dates to the 1600s B.C., may relate to the age of the wood or tree when it was cut (some may argue). Even if this were true, we again are looking closer to a 1511 B.C. destruction than any other proposed date for the fall of Jericho under Israel's entry into the Land.

SCIENCE (magazine), back in 1983 with Keith and Anderson's 'Radiocarbon dating: Fictitious results with Mollusk Shells' (August 16, vol. 141, No. 3581, pp. 634-636) showed that Mollusks could generate fictitious results of Carbon-14 dating by up to 3000 years, depending on what muddy river bottom they were feeding off of. And if river mud can alter mollusk Carbon-14 dating...in what other living creatures or once living organisms could they affect? Could deer or other animal antler growth, for example, reflect this in C-14 data? Strangely enough, this very example done in 1957 is often used in debates between young and old earth advocates, even though 3 stages of the same antler growth reflects a difference of some 5,000 years in C-14.

Hence, 5,000 years and more can be fictitiously attributed to C-14 dating. Thus, we can virtually bring the Holocene era into the Bronze Ages in one stroke via one example of a past Yale University testing on the subject. And even though advances have been made in Carbon-14 analysis; if the data going into the program is flawed...the resulting data that comes out will simply reflect that same flaw. Unfortunately, most and nearly all "scientists" simply take the C-14 results of others at face value and hypothesize by faith rather than "science", never testing and analyzing the sample and data themselves to see if the same result will happen again and again (which is what a scientist is "supposed" to do).

In regard to site dating found in material, using Carbon 14, we should always ask...Where would the best organic matter for use in dating that is the oldest but the freshest cut and least contaminated be found, and did we find it?

Even so, for me, it is yet a happy event for the above Jericho dating to be along the lines of placing 1511 B.C. within the oft cited C-14 150 year margin of error.  The same error margin of which allows for a simultaneous Hyksos expulsion and Israel's Exodus from ancient Egypt, (Egypt at that time, being known by another name),
http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2006/09/debunking-the-exodus-decoded.aspx

Was the Sodom of the Bible found north of the Dead Sea? The answer is definitively NO.

A while back, this question was posed to me:
Was the Sodom of the Bible found north of the Dead Sea?

Firstly, by referring to a Sodom "North of the Dead Sea", the debate usually immediately shifts to Tall el-Hammam, in the nation of Jordan, some 8 miles NORTH of the Dead Sea, and and some 8 miles EAST  of the Jordan River.


http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2010/04/14/CSI-Hammam-The-Fifth-Season-of-Investigating-a-Biblical-City.aspx

http://www.tallelhammam.com/

Is that location Sodom, or ANY location north of the Dead Sea Sodom?


The answer is No to both of these. Tall el-Hammam is just a ruse for its excavators to gain notoriety and funding, and further, the Sodom that exists in the Biblical historical accounts has not yet been found, nor is it likely to ever be.

The location of Tall el-Hammam is the only sight to which I am aware where serious lazy scholarship has by scholarly consensus in failure to reasearch the topic, leaned to accepting as Sodom by a successful con in the last few years.  The contention focused upon is that it rests on a peculiar 13 by 13 mile kikar or disc of land, but unfortunately for the theorists, that kikar is of the same valley basin that Joshua led the Children of Israel westward through into the Promised Land in 1511 B.C., and the same lands which Israelites of 2 1/2 tribes amounting to no less than 300,000 souls settled.  That is, an average of at least 1775 Israelis per square mile of the Kikar settled there...in a place that was allegedly cursed as uninhabitable forever.  Wherein, comes the con...for suckers and those wishing to be part of a cult mentality to believe in the personality excavating and theorizing wrongly, and not the Bible.   I say this from the experience of having debated with these at length...the leader of the excavation, his immediate assistant, and other excavators of Tall el-Hammam (TEH).   I explored from both pro and con possibilities, and offered various Northern Sodom Theory (NST) allowances to varying extremes, in order to sort out all the possibilities from the possible probabilities, and the possible probabilities from the likelihoods and facts...so that the end result was the best answer, ruling out as much error as possible, given what can be known.

However, I have concluded in the years since the debates, that it is most likely that Sodom will never be found, although one of the borders its country and the general vicinity of its town can be ascertained, prophecy declares it will never be lived in ever again...and therefore, this must also include archaeologists excavating and camping overnight there as well.

Ruling out the NST
 From about the times of Solomn to the Assyrian conquest, much of the valley basin on the north of the disc around the Jordan River was forested, a vastly wooded area.  During those same times Tall el-Hammam was a land full of life, habitations; Tall el-Hammam being a major influence east of the Jordan. 

Prior to its Iron Age settlement, the disc, and most particularly the plain on which Tall el-Hammam is settled is, is 9 times referred to as  "the plains of Moab":  Numbers 22:1, 26:3, 26:63, 31:12, 33:48, 33:49, 33:50, 35:1, 36:13.  There is NO MENTION OF SODOM, even though later in Deuteronomy we read that the land and country of Sodom is uninhabitable...

Deuteronomy 29:23 - The whole land shall be burned with brimstone and salt; it shall not be sown, nor shall it sprout; nor shall there be any herb in it. It shall be like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which Jehovah overthrew in His anger and in His fury.

Deuteronomy 32:32 - For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and their grapes of the fields of Gomorrah, grapes of gall; they have bitter clusters.

...that was not the case with the plains of Moab through which the children of Israel crossed in the Exodus, which was in the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1550-1200 B.C., as stated by Tall el-Hammam excavators).  In fact, the plains of Moab east of the Jordan, where Tall el-Hammam was, was so fruitful, that the lands of the disc east of the Jordan were able to sustain "a great multitude of cattle"  and 2 1/2 tribes...the number of them as listed in Numbers chapter 1 and chapter 32.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+1&version=KJV
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+32&version=KJV

The excavators of the Tall el-Hammam mound further state that the site, once reinhabited after an absence from extinction in the Middle Bronze Age (they cite as 2000-1550 B.C.), lasted from the Iron Age 1 (1200-1000 B.C.) or most certainly by the beginning of Iron Age 2 (ca. 1000 B.C.)  until after the Muslim conquest in the 700s A.D.  That is, starting generally around 1100 B.C. and then for 1800 more years, under one name or other, Tall el-Hammam flourished at a time when the Bible again called the lands of Sodom as a current barren and salted wasteland, where even nomads refused to stop and rest if they found themselves in it. 

The Bible says that in the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses every word shall be established.  So we have Moses and Deuteronomy, but the Tall el-Hammam excavators won't believe Moses in Deuteronomy 32. 

I therefore will call forth twice the necessary witnesses needed to slam the door shut on the Northern Sodom Theory hoax in which Tall el-Hammam, a flourishing fruitful and well populated land with fresh waters, is put forth as Sodom by modern excavators using it as a con for fundraising a different civilization altogether.


Witness #1 -

In circa 760 B.C., Sodom is a destroyed place:

Amos 4:7 – it a place of no rain

In verse 9 – it a place of blasting and mildew [hence, moisture of some sort] and the creeping locust

In verse 10 - it is a place forsaken like the plague

In verse 11 – Sodom is an overturned [the use of the word “Hapak” or turned upside down, a plain now a valley in its use] place, a place of burning.

------Hence, Tall el-Hammam -- being inhabited -- is disqualified.



Witness #2 - In circa 735 B.C., Sodom was a place ruined since its overthrow over 1200 years earlier, and set forth as an example.

Isaiah  1:7 speaks of how the land of Israel, ravaged by war,  is a desolation; and its cities burned with fire.

Isaiah 1:9 Except Jehovah of Hosts had left a remnant for us, a few, we would be as Sodom; we would be as Gomorrah

Isaiah 13:19 uses mahpekah to describe Babylon’s overthrow, to describe a destruction as complete as Sodom and Gomorrah…the word picture being to the effect of:  'it shall be taken down with great violence and poured out as liquid from a flask' as the emphasis of the violence of its overthrow.  The word picture in reference to Sodom and Gomorrah, suggest volcanic lava or like activity as being the demise of Sodom and Gomorrah.  The overthrow of Babylon will be as complete as if Creation and a volcanic disaster had wiped that city out. 

Isaiah 13:20 tells us that as of Isaiah’s day, Sodom and Gomorrah were UNINHABITED, and in a place where the Arabian was UNABLE to pitch his tent, and flocks (though they might perhaps step upon), were unable to lie down there. In other words, Sodom and Gomorrah, even under a receding sea due to drought, could well have been known to be under even amounts as little as about a foot or less of water of the Dead Sea consistently in Isaiah’s day.

This points us by markers to the southern regions of the Dead Sea, in a valley that was depressed to be even lower than the Jordan Valley proper, ceasing the river’s former run to the Gulf of Aqaba.

-----Hence, Tall el-Hammam -- being inhabited -- is disqualified.


Witness # 3 - In circa 620 B.C., Sodom is desolation and uninhabited:

Zephaniah 2:9 …surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the sons of Ammon like Gomorrah, a possession of nettles, and a pit of salt, and a ruin forever

-----Hence, Tall el-Hammam -- being inhabited -- is disqualified.


Witness # 4 -
In circa 590 B.C., Sodom is still a destroyed place, having only bitter and poisonous waters, and visibly ruined: Jeremiah 23:14 “They are all of them like Sodom to Me, and those living in her like Gomorrah.

Jeremiah 23:15 So Jehovah of Hosts says this concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them wormwood, and make them drink poisonous water…”

Jeremiah 49:17 And Edom shall be a ruin, everyone who goes by it shall be amazed and shall hiss at all its plagues.

Jeremiah 49:18 As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, and its neighbor, declares Jehovah, no man shall remain there, a son of man shall not live in it."

-----Hence, Tall el-Hammam -- being inhabited -- is disqualified.


Witnesses #5 and #6 -
In circa 47 and 57 A.D., at the very time period of when the Tall el-Hammam excavators claims that their city thrived under the name of “Livias”, and was greatly inhabited, Jude and the Apostle Peter both testify that Sodom is a current example (current in the 1st Century A.D.) of everlasting destruction upon a location, suggesting its ruins were both still visible and uninhabited, and example of what everlasting fire will do:

Jude 1:7 “as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, in like manner to these, committing fornication, and going away after other flesh, laid down an example before-times, undergoing vengeance of everlasting fire.”

2 Peter 2:6  "and covering the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah with ashes, He condemned them with an overthrow, setting an example to men intending to live ungodly.”

According to the historical testimony of 2 Peter 2:6, all the cities of the Sodomic Pentapolis are designated as being covered and/or reduced to ashes in the use of  tephrosas.  The cities were covered with ashes and condemed. In order to FIND Sodom, it must be located from under a great coat of "ashes".

 -----Hence, Tall el-Hammam -- being inhabited -- is disqualified.



The Southern Sodom Theory alone fulfills this covered with great ash heaps requirement, because ashes are 20-30 feet deep at the southern bed of the Dead Sea, and 2-3 feet deep at Bab edh-dhra at the Lisan Peninsula of the Dead Sea further north, and of an irrelevant amount north of the Dead Sea here Tall el-Hammam is found.  Therefore, the place with the greatest ash depths, is SOUTH of the Dead Sea in the droughted lake beds and amongst the SALTIEST section of any body of water on Earth, is geologic evidence (according to the Bible and its historic witnesses) of where we should look for Sodom. 

It seems to me, that any who wish to propose the Northern Sodom Theory with Tall el-Hammam as Sodom, fall in one of 3 categories:
1) They have not properly researched the subject in any depth, whatsoever.
2) They wish to be deceived
3) They know it to be a lie and wish to deceive others.


[This ends what I intend to be part 1 of a multi-part answer regarding Sodom]

Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789 by George Washington

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:





Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.






And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.


Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.














I wish all an early Happy Thanksgiving Day, which falls on Thursday November 25, 2010, wherever in the world you might be reading or viewing from.  May all fellow believers into Christ Jesus rest and comfort in G-D's love, tender mercies and loving-kindness. 

Let each and every day have a measure of Thanksgiving to G-D for blessings great and small, and even just for living...and joy and communion be found everlasting for all, whosoever will, come to and believe into Christ Jesus our L-RD, who came down from Heaven, was made man, paid for our sins at the Cross, died as was raised the Third Day, walked the Earth for a month and a half more before ascending into Heaven before many witnesses.  A Testimony uncontested by those ancients, even the most hostile of them, of the same generation as these events occurred in. 

May you worship and give thanks to G-D wherever you are, and may G-D smile upon and bless you as according to your needs, through riches in glory in Christ Jesus. 

May all we who believe into Jesus Christ, and proclaim Him as the Only Way, Truth, and Life offered by the Father unto the world, unite in prayers of Thanksgiving on this day and all days...be we Gentile (of the nations) or Jew (the blessed first chosen of G-D's favor, to be honored by the saints when fellow believers into Yeshua/Jesus among us, and still to be shown greater patience and understanding/intelligent courtesy otherwise).

Shalom.

Matthew 13:33 mused upon...when leaven is seen as part of the design and as a good thing.

Matthew 13:33 Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.



αλλην παραβολην -  Another parable

{ ελαλησεν αυτοις } -  {He spoke to them}

ομοια εστιν  - 'Like is

η βασιλεια των ουρανων - the Kingdom of Heaven

 ζυμη -  leaven  {i.e., into heat fermenting and expanding}

 ην λαβουσα - which actively taking (and receiving)

γυνη ενεκρυψεν - a woman hid

εις  - into

αλευρου σατα τρια  - meal measures three

εως ου εζυμωθη ολον -  until was leavened /heated and expanded    the whole (of it). 

Some thoughts on the matter:

      Elsewhere, the Gospel in the Greek can seemingly be used to make the point that the unbelievers are like those who are shriveled back in soul and spirit, as if a cup or pitcher's worth of  their spirit /soul as compared to the huge rain barrel size of their spirit's/soul's  original state.   This comes by example whereas the Greek word xeros, as used of the body or body part, such as the hand in its shriveled state (e.g. Matthew 12:10), is linked to xestes.  But that explanation in detail may be saved for another time, but suffice the reference here.

 By example, it seems as there is indication that the souls of all unbelievers (if they were to be seen) are to be likened to dried up prunes, or  a fraction in size and intellectual and spiritual potential of the design they were meant to be in their unfallen state.  Perhaps it might be described as if the souls or spirits were reduced to a semi-living entity that appeared as if tar or syrup residue substances (in their spiritual form, as it relates only to unbelievers)   of what they were originally intended...and that in their restored state, it may be argued that the souls of the born again are restored to be a reflection of a perfect outward copy of themselves as they were meant to be. 

 Though fermentation is used in the context of "corruption" and "evil" in various biblical passages used by Paul (Galatians 5:9 and I Corinthians 5:6)...here in this Gospel passage and in context, it is NOT.  In fact, the process of adding yeast into the flour or grounded wheat or barley meal in order to leaven it, is used to illustrate and help those who wish to know, how that G-D operates in their lives when the new believer lets G-D come and indwell them, placing the Kingdom of Heaven within them.

For this reason, Jesus says:
"The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you."

Zume, or the leavening process, creates its own heat and air; causing an expansion and growing of the meal to that which the process was designed for.

 In effect, the expansion is much like the spiritual process.  No one honestly says that a loaf of French or Italian bread was meant to look like and eat like a flat cracker.  Nor was the believer designed to be void of G-D's presence in their life, as though flat, spirit or airless creatures.

 In Creation, by example,  we are designed to be inflated with water and air...as if physical manifestations of the words "of water and the spirit".   It is with each and every breath we breathe in and out the very NAME of the Most High:  G-D ALMIGHTY.  And that name is of YHVeH Messiah, or Christ who is G-D (Lamentations 4:20), and He who in Genesis 2:7 gave us our the spiritual DNA/RNA that is passed down along with our physical DNA/RNA, but now our souls and spirits are in a fallen state though our first father's lack of faith, until regenerated or reignited (John 1:9) by faith / belief into Him for that restoration and salvation unto eternal life.   In the Bible this NAME of G-D that we breathe constantly is written as it sounds and is the Tetragrammaton. 

Thus, the design of the Kingdom of G-D placed in one's life  -- much like the intentional design of bread is meal that has been leavened by yeast --  is designed to help us spiritually grow into maturity, and be restored to that which is G-D's original and perfect design, even as the plants are now looked upon by G-D as puny and in their shriveled form, as Patristics inform us that Jesus once said: 

“The days will come when the vines will grow, each having 10,000 shoots; and on each shoot 10,000 branches; and on each branch 10,000 twigs; and on each twig 10,000 clusters; and in each cluster 10,000 grapes; and each grape when crushed will yield 25 measures [ca. 150 gallons].


And when one of the Saints takes hold of a cluster, another cluster will cry out,
‘I am better. Take me. Bless the L-RD through me.’


Similarly, a grain of wheat will produce 10,000 heads; and every head will have 10,000 grains; and every grain (will yield) 10 pounds of fine flour, white and clean.


And the other fruits, seeds, and grass will produce in similar proportions -- and all the animals feeding on these fruits produced by the soil, will in turn, be harmonious toward one another, and fully subject to man.”

-- Papias…who was a hearer of John and…saw John the disciple of the L-RD, recalled having heard how the LORD used to teach about those times…and he goes on to say [that Jesus, the L-RD, said]:

‘These things are believable to those who believe.’

And according to John, ‘when Judas the traitor did not believe, and asked, ‘’How then, will such a growth be accomplished by YHVeH?’’, the L-RD said, ‘’Those who live until those times will see.’’ “

Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.33.3-4 (2nd generation student from John)

-----------------------------------

That same kind of growth and fullness, like the meal intentionally built up and expanded by leaven, finds completeness in that source placed within us...and we who believe and trust Christ Jesus to our eternal salvation Spiritually grow into that greatness and design that was intended for us to be and become, as we grow into the likeness of Christ Jesus (I John 3:2).

 But no matter how near or far we come ...or even can dare think we come...in this mortal life, we cannot acheive anywhere near any full and absolute spiritual  growth on our own.   That doesn't mean we don't keep trying, because those who love G-D want to manifestly be more like Him (kind, loving, merciful, gracious, etc.).   To one day be made entirely complete, in the Resurrection, in mind and body and spirit and soul to our full unfallen state and fullest potential, it is a gift that G-D gives us to be fully made complete when we pass from this life into the next, and from Judgment into eternal life through Christ Jesus, the Son of G-D.  It is also a gift for we believers in Chrsit Jesus to also look forward to, but in addition to the primary of that fact that we shall one day be with Him .

"...whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

For G-D so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
...And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
...If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be..."(John 3:16, 14:3,  12:26a).  Amen.

John Warwick Montgomery, 1988-1989. A Recommended Modern Scholar of Christian Apologetics

Search Amazon.com for John Warwick Montgomery

Though the Youtube tape is dated 1989, I personally find that John Warwick Montgomery is as good and fun a scholar to watch and listen to in 2010 as he was in the ff. when it was recorded in 1988 and apparently aired in 1989.

To me, when a scholar in speaking is able to transcend time, and be as fresh today as in the decades ago time he spoke...that is a real treat, and no trick. Hope you enjoy this and other entries by Mr. Montgomery available through the John Ankerberg Theological Research Institute.

http://www.jashow.org/TV/ankjasrm-hist-jesus-wmv.html#AP1


















Enjoy!

 http://www.jashow.org/wiki/index.php/The_Evidence_for_the_Resurrection_of_Jesus_Christ/Part_1

 http://www.jashow.org/wiki/index.php/The_Evidence_for_the_Resurrection_of_Jesus_Christ/Part_2

Understanding more on the Roman Centurion who was commended by Jesus

Luke 7  (King James Version)

1 Now when He had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum.


2  And a certain centurion's servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die.


3 And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant.


4 And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this:


5 For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue.


6 Then Jesus went with them. And when He was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof:


7 Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.


8 For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.


9  When Jesus heard these things, He marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.


10  And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick.

My Comments:
     In the First Century A.D., the primary training center for new recruits into the Roman Army was located on the island of Sardinia (cf. Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 18.3.5).  There they drafted generally between the ages of 12-15 years of age.  Thereafter, the boot camp and combat training was for 5 years of unrelenting combat training and drilling.  That's 5 years.  Boys became molded in mind and body into fighting men like machines, until they could rigourously and daily endure 5 hours of non-stop combat exercises.  That is 5 hours of pretend battle practice every day, by men who came out of 5 years of training at the ages of 17-20 and then served a 5 year hitch at some location where they were sent, which made the average Roman soldier on first tour an age of 22-25 years of age when he finished, and 27-32 years of age when his second tour was over (after which most were released).  

     So in the case of the above passage in Luke, the Centuion is somewhere between 22 and no more than 32-37 years old (after which, even centurions were retired from service involuntarily) due to the extreme physical exertions, strength and cardio-vascular endurances required.  Josephus relates that those that call the Roman Army's every day "exercises as unbloody battles, and their battles as bloody exercises" (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, 3.5.1) were NOT AT ALL mistaken in so saying.

    In this time in Israel's history, the Roman Centurion was usually placed in charge of outpost stations, such as having the charge of calvary and troop assignments as a sort of military sortie and policing action station, and would also have discretion and just enough autonomy to direct and order (under full Roman Military authority) an equal number of carpenters, masons and slaves, as the number of his troop assigned under him. 
The exception being when the officer of command of 400-600 Roman troops, such as a chiliarch, or higher would so direct...and these when they made their outpost rounds, or were of those chiliarch and higher permanently stationed 6 months at a time in Jerusalem or 6 months in Caesarea.

In other words, this Roman Centurion of Luke 7, who decided to join himself to the nation of Israel by faith, and be incorporated into the tribes of Israel by circumcision, profession, and good works toward the tribes of Israel...this one would likely have had as many as 20 Calvary, 60 foot-soldiers, 40-60 skilled workers and 20-40 slaves at his command and disposal.  By employing the 40-60 skilled carpenters and masons, skilled at building trenches and walled forts overnight, and then hewing out and making seige engines, etc., rapidly (cf., Josephus, WOJ, 3.5.1-2) to build a Temple for the Jewish Leaders, this Roman Centrion would have had even a great stone synagogue erected (from start to finish) in under 30 days, at Rome's own expense.  Indeed, this would have marveled the elders of the Jews, and made such a one as this -- even a Roman -- a righteous Gentile and one welcomed into the company of Jews as if one of the tribes of Israel.

In these times, Jews were careful to NOT associate with non-Jews, except by absolute necessity in business, government tax or plea requirements, and so forth.  Great prejudices of non-association were required toward outsiders...so much so, that preaching Judaism to non-Jews was considered a betrayal of the faith, regardless of that spoken by the prophets like Isaiah.

In Rome, a city of about 3 millions (at the time), there were only about 8,000 Jews living there Josephus, AOJ, 17.11.1 and WOJ 2.6.1)...most likely in one primary location near major commerce, being primarily in merchant and related trades.  Most of these 8,000 Rome located Jews also held Roman citizenship, a privilege not taken away from Jews until the administration of Florus in Judea in the 60s A.D.  Under Roman Law, Jews who were "Roman Citizens" and also closely observant to their faith as Jews, were grant royal exemptions from having their sons drafted into the Roman Army (Josephus, AOJ 14.10.11-19).

        By the wording of the above passage in Luke, we can clearly see that this Centurion was not originally Jewish by blood,
-- remember Jesus said: "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 15:24)  --
nor was this Centurion represented as having anything other than a profession of faith with works, and was being accepted by a group of at least 7 Jewish judges or elders as ritually clean and accepted into and/or among the tribes of Israel as a righteous Gentile convert; hence, now part of the House of Israel with an official proclamation by at least 2 or 3 of those Jewish elders of a Sanhedrinal support ruling stating the above was so factually correct.  

By such a proclamation, we would have confirm that this Centurion is a "Ger", a "convert"...though the King James Version often translates this as "stranger" in the Torah (the 5 Books of Moses: Genesis to Deuteronomy).

Being sanctioned, this Centurion likely ordered his Command-post to be free of leaven during Israels annual 8 days of Unleavened Bread (Exodus 12:19); commanded that they observe Shabbat/Sabbath (Exodus 20:10, 23:12); that he personally attended Jewish services on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:29); that he personally had gone to Jerusalem and as a Ger offered sacrifices to be made on his behalf (Leviticus 17:8); that he did not offer or allow idols or those things which ascended oneself in puffy pride or vanity within his own personal household or living space within his command (Leviticus 20:2, and the wordplay on the spelling of Mem-Lamed-Kaf).

As a result, as a As I stated previously, the Ger who loved Israel, he had the following rights:


1) To not be driven away or mistreated, nor oppressed by those of the 13 tribes of Israel (Exodus 22:21).

2) To be able to eat of the corners of farmer field's in Israel without harassment or accusation of theft (Leviticus 19:10, 23:22)

3) The right to be judged fairly and as equally with that of natural borns of the tribes of Israel of lineage through the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Deuteronomy 1:16).

4) The right to be loved by G-D -- the G-D of Israel -- (as though a child by adoption in inference);

and when in Israel, to be clothed and fed by the charity of the sons of Israel (Deuteronomy 10:18-19).

5) The right to be given any ritually clean animal possessed by the sons of Israel, who were forbidden to eat such, for food. It was not traif (i.e., not ritual unclean) for the Ger to eat such an animal (Deuteronomy 14:29).

6) The right to personally partake of the food tithes offered for the priest, the widow, fatherless, when offered once every 3 years (Deuteronomy 14:28-29).



So indeed, this Centurion was adopted into the companionship of Israel in a way that no non-convert Roman soldier ever would.

The statement of faith made by the Centurion that he also believed into Christ as the Son of G-D by revelation (preceding the revelation given to Peter from G-D the Father) is found in this passage as

"...say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.   For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it."

-- comes from an exposure to Genesis Chapter 1, and an acceptance that Jesus is the Son of G-D from Heaven. 

Genesis 1:3  And G-D said,
                    Let there be light: and there was light.

Genesis 1:9  And G-D said,
                     Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and
                     let the dry land appear:
                     and it was so.

And repeatedly, throughout Genesis's opening verses, "And G-D said" and then it is followed by how that the very words were so (instantly, immediately, by mere thought and command).

This resonated with the Centurion who identified Jesus, the very one who could speak a word of command, and it was so that someone was healed of blindness, deafness, being maimed, or even of being dead.  A simple word of command that only a Son of G-D would have the direct authority to do, even as the Roman centurion himself had the command and authority received in himself by rank to say to one of his soldiers "go" and he goes, or to a servant, "come" and that servant comes. 

In fact, the Roman Centurion knew that where  Jesus was, because He is the Son of G-D, he neeeded only to utter the word of Command into the air, and the Creation (including all spirits) made by G-D would have to obediently carry out His command and His will.  Like in Genesis 1, all the Son of G-D needs do -- and by this he means Jesus -- is speak the word only, and like Genesis 1, it will be as "and it was so."

It is a Faith that is so obvious and so simply apparent from Jesus miracles, that no one in Israel "got it"...no one else YET understood, but this righteous Gentile who joined himself, by faith, to G-D and the House of Israel.

The message for us is to also believe into Christ Jesus simply and fully, understanding mature that the simplicity of Great Faith is often like that most revealed in understanding like that of a child, instead of making it so complicated and laden with something we so often (and wrongly) feel we must add to it.

Jesus is much more that an historical figure, back there, for those who are genuine Christians...born-again.  Jesus is the ETERNAL Living G-D (cf. John 1:18, 14),  who was with the Father before anything that was ever created was created, and spoke the Universe into existence by the thought and words of command (John 1:1-3).

Hard sayings of Jesus: The conditional fulfillment by John the Baptist as Elijah revealed

Most Christians are already familiar with John the Baptist and how that he quotes the passages from Isaiah 40 about a voice crying in the wilderness, and that every hill shall be made low or flat, and every valley uplifted, etc.   Or so it says in the Hebrew via a word picture exposition.

I wish to introduce the readers here to a "conditional" something about Elijah being applied to John the Baptist that Jesus referred to.

 Technically, this "conditional" prophecy is so stated as conditional by Jesus...."if you will receive it", He says.  It must also be noted that this "conditional" so acts as a more general fulfillment that will specifically so apply as a first (shorter term prophetic) means of answering a prophecy dually.  In this instance, the latter day or second fulfillment becomes a specific literal in which Elijah himself is expected to fulfill the prophecy.  Irregardless, it is clear that even the "conditional" Elijah prophecies are dual prophecies.

  Dual prophecies may often refer to nations such as Babylon in the short term, and of the last days Babylon in the end of days...or may refer to a person who is punished short term, and to the anti-Christ in the end of days having the same nature, general actions, characteristics, or what have you.  Studies of which are often met with hostile resistance or apathy and disinterest by those within the Church.  So much so, that if we have even 10% of those professing to be born-again Christians in the United Staes actually raptured, even that high a percentage (as low as that number is) might be in itself a miracle. 

  The short term coming of John the Baptist as Elijah, was in that he (John) was the last Old Testament prophet; and he, John, closed the Old Testament era.   In effect, John was in himself a type of sum figure of all the Old Testament Prophets who looked toward the coming of Christ / Messiah or "Messhiach".  The nation of Israel in the late 20s A.D. counted John as a Prophet of the G-D of Israel.  Even years after his death, they attributed calamities or were told to attribute calamities to his martyr's death and innocent blood being shed, in order to deflect believing into Yeshua / Jesus the Messiah whom he (John) so proclaimed, and whom was never disproven to be Messiah in their generation, nor the one following. 


Matthew 11:11-15 (King James Version)

{Jesus speaking}
11  Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

12  And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

13  For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.

14  And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.

15  He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.



Matthew 17:1-12a  (King James Version)

1  And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart,

2  And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.

3  And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.

4  Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.

5  While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.

6  And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid.

7  And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid.

8  And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only.

9  And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.

10  And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come?

11  And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.

12  But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed…


Can a case be made that such an interpretation would have been acceptable among the sons of Israel in that time period?  Yes. 
About 1000 years after the above text, Rashi in his commentary on Genesis 9:12  reads the verse and then comments a relevant understanding to our revealing the above text:

Genesis 9:12 -  And God said: "This is the sign of the covenant, which I am placing between Me and between you, and between every living soul that is with you, for everlasting generations.

"for everlasting generations:
 It [the word דֹרֹת] is written defectively [without the letter “vav”] because there were generations that did not require the sign..."

Rashi uses the word "oth"/ "sign", or more precisely "L'oth" / "the sign"
לאות

in discussing prophetical significance of future signs of the heavens when the lights of the heavens that shine upon the Earth are stricken in regards to the "oth" of Genesis 1:14. 

The writing of a Biblical word with the absence of the "vav" when the Biblical it was normally written with a "vav"

ו

was termed a "defective" by the rabbis. But in reality, the "defective" in which the "vav" or "hook" was stricken from the name Eliyahu,

אליהו


so the it reads EL-YH   [G-D YH....or Jehovah G-D]

אליה

 translated still as Elijah, is "the sign" or "oth" that reveals future events concerning this one and his proto-type. 

In Revelation 19:10 c, the angel informs John that "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy".  Or inverse, "the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus".  The entire Bible, both Old and New Testaments,  and all its prophecies centers on or revolves around and finds fulfillment in Jesus.

In the Hebrew of Genesis 1:1, there is an arugument that can be made that the Alef-Tav which follows Elohim (G-D) refers to Jesus, the Alef-Vav-Tav ("oth" - sign) that "is to come".  An "oth" is viewed by the rabbis in prophetical translation as a signal, a banner, a miracle that is to come in the distant future


The root word "to come" / "athah" in Hebrew is spelled as Alef-Tav-He. If taken in that context...we can jump to Revelation 1:11 with Jesus declaring himself as the Alpha and the Omega, the extreme beginning and origin as well as the extreme finality or end, and apply the same equivalent of the Hebraic Alef-Tav as found in Genesis 1:1. Hence...from the very Beginning...the Bible speaks of an oft passed over "Oth" or "sign" that the creating of both the Heavens and the Earth was clearly and specifically meant to testify as G-D's sign "to come" is revealed as having been fulfilled in Jesus, with Jesus, and through Jesus as also testified to in John 1:1.

The significance of Elijah is not that he was "just a prophet" or that he performed miracles, but that prophecy designates such a one to precede the coming of the Messiah,

"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the L-RD" (Malachi 4:5)

and that Messiah whom Elijah of the defective writing of the name precedes, is He whom is identified as the very one who spake with Moses on Mount Sinai,

"Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the L-RD, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His Temple, even [He]...whom ye delight in: behold, He shall come, saith the L-RD of Hosts."

and the one who breathed into Adam the breath of lives (Lamentaions 4:20, Genesis 2:7), and gave Adam both a living soul and "reason" (an impartation of the logos into his very being, unlike any animal or creature upon, above, or under the face of the earth.).
See also:
http://brianroysinput.blogspot.com/2009/11/psalm-114s-incarnation-prophecy-et-al.html


Jesus declared that if you will receive this saying, John the Baptist, who came fasting regularly ("neither eating or drinking") fulfilled the prophesy of Elijah in Malachi 4:5. John the Baptist fulfilled all the Old Testament prophets,
http://brianroysinput.blogspot.com/2009/09/luke-1616-and-easier-entering-into-g-ds.html
 and must precede the one whose goings forth were not only from of old, but eternity...born and clothed with human flesh at Bethlehem of Ephratah in Judea (Micah 5:2, et al.).

But we will also need to look at other passages where the defective of Elijah as "El-YH" is written:

1)    But the Angel of the L-RD 
      [G-D or YHVH who spoke with Moses from the midst of the Burning Bush]
     said to Elijah      אליה
    the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them,
    Is it  not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baalzebub the god of  Ekron?   (2 Kings 1:3)

As Elijah heard from G-D via the Holy Spirit upon him (like Ezekiel's example), so too would John the Baptists communed with and heard from G-D via the Holy Spirit.


2)   Now therefore thus saith the L-RD, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art
      gone up,  but shalt surely die.
    And Elijah  אליה
    departed.
    (2 Kings 1:4)

As Elijah had the power to prophesy on life and death, so too, would have John the Baptist the same ability as G-D's announcer of the Messiah.


3)   And they answered him,
      He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins.
      And he said, It is Elijah אליה
      the Tishbite.
      (2 Kings 1:8)

In this instance, we see that John the Baptist was hairy like Esau in Genesis 27:11,16.  Where Esau had hair like a goat covering his flesh from head to foot, and Elijah likewise was so marked...John the Baptist was covered in a coat of natural hair like that of a Camel (like Elijah and Esau before him).  In effect, the passage of Matthew 3:4 probably should read (in light of the Elijah prophecies) that John the Baptist had himself a natural clothing out from himself like the hairs from a camel, and that his only external clothing was a a belt of leather about his loins.  In other words, Esau, Elijah, and John the Baptist had a sheen of hair that made their bodies look more like the skins of animals than that of humans.  Perhaps this un-natural natural condition led to mythologies about those who were half-human and half animal.  Labeled currently as hypertrichosis, at least  50 cases have been known in the last 1,000 years, and these are often labeled as wolf people, and their condition shunned as a genetic disease.  
(Cf. article translated from German at: 
http://www.ummah.com/forum/showthread.php?48769-hypertrichosis-The-Curse-of-the-Hair
)

4)  And Elijah  אליה
     answered and said unto them,
     If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty.
    And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.
    (2 Kings 1:12)  

Because John was sent to announce the Messiah, and the good news, it is unlikely that he would have called fire down from heaven.  If he did, we have no record of it.  Such a miracle is not precluded by the absence of its mention, because the disciples of Jesus were cognizant of such a demonstration, but it is uncertain if it was also a current awareness via John like Elijah, or just the Old Testament passages, and the desire to see a demonstration of such miracle powers regardless of who besides them might have suffered from such a judgment.  After the resurrection, then Jesus disciples truly understood what "spirit" they were to be of, and what message they were to preach, and the gentleness by which they were to go about delivering that good news / Gospel.

5)   And Elijah  אליה
      said unto her,
      Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first,
      and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.
     (1 Kings 17:13)


Based on the conditional prophetical, and the fact that John was proclaiming good news as the forerunner of Messiah...it seems to me that (and this is my opinion and speculation based on the biblical texts and prophecies) John the Baptist would have likely been able to also have been used to manifest a smaller scale miracle of food multiplication by prayer as Elijah experienced, and on a much smaller scale than the Messiah Jesus performed.   But if he did, it is not mentioned, and can only be presumed as possible.

In the Gospel of John, John 10:41,  there were many of those who claimed that John the Baptist did no miraculous sign  ("semeion"), but in the context of the passage in which it is found, we cannot rule out all miracles or signs as unperformed by John.  Only that if he did so, they were not performed for the masses as Jesus did; but on a much smaller scale, if, he did so perform miracles.  I believe that this is the correct context of the Scripture, even as within the context of Elijah with the widow and her son in 1 Kings 17:13 above, and a literal fulfillment after that sense.  Because John the Apostle does NOT state that John the Baptist did no miracles, only that crowds who came out and were at one time baptized by John the Baptist stated that they themselves in mass gatherings in throngs of hundreds of thousands going to be baptized in John the Baptist's sight and within the sound of his voice...that such as these at such events or before, neither themselves heard or  saw any miraculous signs being done by John the Baptist at any time.  This does not rule out that some could have been done privately among his disciples and recipients, and John the Apostle makes no mention of what he or others (including actual John the Baptist disciples like the Apostle Andrew, or even the L-RD Jesus)  knew about whether or not John the Baptist did or did not do

I state this in such a way, because I neither wish to add to -- nor to take away from Scripture.  Many have strayed in the faith by taking broad commentaries on a level as being more authoratative than the Scriptures themselves.  When in doubt, check and rely on the Scriptures. In all likelihood, John performed no "public" miracles during his ministry, miracles expected of Elijah...but I cannot say that this is absolutely so, even as I cannot absolutely say that it was NOT so at a lesser known or unknown event to the individuals that made their declarative utterance to Jesus that they themselves  neither  heard or saw any miraculous signs being done by John the Baptist at any time.

Why is this clarification necessary?   For even Jesus...who multiplied the bread loaves and the fishes for many thousands from a very few which he broke by hand, or raised the dead, or healed those blind from birth, healed even the maimed, and struck those who sought to kill Him with the blindness that was stricked upon the Sodomites at Lot's House...even the miracles of Jesus were as brushed aside by Pharisees and Sadducees as if no signs or miracles.  We see this same callous attitude in Matthew 16:1-4, where even the miracles of Jesus are brushed aside as if "no signs", but only a "sign from Heaven" or in the sky would be accepted.  Of couse, even then, they would be the still unbelieving "hypocrites" that Jesus said they would be.   Indeed, these same Pharisees and Sadducees would later get the moon of blood and the black sun for 3 hours at the Cross; but in Matthew 16:1-4, the true "miraculous sign", says Jesus, would not be the one that the hypocrites would see and then rationalize away, but rather the true miraculous sign would be the sign of the prophet Jonah.  That is, of the one who was cast away and sealed for three days and nights in the depths, and who came forth again by G-D's will.  The resurrection, not the signs of blood and fire and vapor of smoke, the resurrection would be the seal that Christ is true. 

The spirit of prophecy in Scripture must always give tesimony of Jesus in some way (cf. Revelation 19:10c).




6)  Behold, I will send you Elijah  אליה
     the prophet before the coming
     of the great and dreadful day of the L-RD.

  which should literally be translated into English as

   Lo / Behold, I am sending to you Elijah the prophet,
   Before the coming of the day of  YHVeH
   The great and the fearful.
   (Malachi 4:5, KJV and a literal translation)

As we have seen, in the prophecies of John the Baptist, hidden in the spelling of Elijah after the defective (without the "u" sounding vav -- instead of a "v" in this instance -- on the end of Eliyahu), John the Baptist meets the "conditional fulfillment" as being in the spirit of Elijah.  But if we were to take the verse of Malachi literally, we might read EL YH instead as its literal of "Jehovah G-D".


Lo / Behold, I am sending to you Jehovah G-D the prophet,    Before the coming of the day of  YHVeH
   The great and the fearful.

In effect, this would lead us to a dual fulfillment of John the Baptist and Jesus before the Day of the Cross, and eternal atonement;  as specified by Jesus in Luke 4:18-19 in stopping short on the Isaiah 61:1-2 prophecy,

and a later fulfillment at the end of days when the Elijah who was raptured in 2 Kings chapter 2 returns at the end of days as one of the 2 Great Witnesses of Revelation, before the Great Judgment Day of the L-RD's Wrath in which the Earth's population will likely dwindle to well less than 1 billion people, and perhaps less than 100 million as specified by the continuation of the Isaiah 61:2 prophecy as divided and specified by Jesus himself.


Luke 4:16-21

16 And he  [Jesus]  came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.



17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,


18 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,


19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.'


20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.

21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Isaiah 61


1 The Spirit of the Lord G-D is upon me; because the L-RD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;


2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;"

Jesus did not come to proclaim the Day of Vengeance, nor to comfort those who mourn as if mourning for an only son they had lost, as is spoken in Zechariah 12:10 ff.

Zechariah 12: 10-14

10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.


11 (And) IN THAT DAY shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.

12 And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;

13 The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart;

14 All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.

That time of "mourning" is for the end of Days, after that of Elijah the Tishbite's return, death, the following Day of Wrath for 3 1/2 years (ca. 1335 days upon the Earth), and the return of Christ and the period of mourning over humanity's having rejected Him in the form of religious ritual, and so forth.

  It is too difficult to at this time discern, other than that the Earth's population will at Christ's Mount of Olives return AFTER 3 1/2 years of total Judgment and wrath, be NO MORE than a billion in number it seems to me,  and likely not near that much.  The Bible indicate that the majority of those repopulating will likely be the Russians and Eastern and Middle Europeans, those of Gog and Magog, so I would expect the numbers to be perhaps even under 50 million for those in humanity surviving, or perhaps those at least able to procreate after nuclear and biological wars, and so on. 
    These comparatively few by today's near or past 7 billion population standards,  these surviving few as it were, along with the children of Israel's tribes regathered,  will be those who will repopulate the Earth and have the life expectancies of their children  -- for those who become believers into Jesus -- multiplied by as many as ten-fold so that a child who is born in the Kingdom of Christ might grow at such a slower rate, that at 100 years old, they are as a child of 10 in our day, and age at such a rate. But the Bible specifies that unbelievers will age at our current rate, and call those who still will not believe, as accursed.  And yes, there will be some, even many in the Kingdom of Christ, who will still be unbelievers and untrusting into Him, though living under His Sovereignty and Laws in that Day, because even then, man will still be allowed the grace of having free will and suffering damnation in this life and after death. 
 
As it even specifies and infers in  Isaiah 65:20  There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.
 
Even in the Kingdom, there will be those who live as accursed, and multiply and rebel and are entirely removed only at the very end.   But that is for another discussion.


But regarding the former (peaceful / good news / i.e., the Cross) condition of the Malachi 4:5 prophecy:
Lo / Behold, I am sending to you Elijah the prophet,

Before the coming of the DAY of  YHVeH
The great and the fearful.


Jesus said, that:
"Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My Day: and he saw it, and was glad." (John 8:56)

Again we should ask:  What if the prophecy was more specifically geared to the coming of the Messiah and his Day upon the Cross in which He paid for the sins of all mankind, rather than a focus on Elijah?  What if the rabbis actually got it wrong, and incorporated a looking for Elijah in the Pesach / the Passover Seder as a means of replacing a looking for the Messiah who already came?

It may be argued that Paul revealed a rabbinical belief present in the First Century A.D., that G-D raised Isaac from the dead after that his heart was once pierced by the knife of Abraham and stopped its beating upon the wood of the altar of sacrifice, and that Abraham was stopped from striking a second blow (much like the rod of Moses upon the Rock later, Abraham obeyed and did not strike, where Moses in his anger struck when told to speak to the rock).

17  By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac:
      and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,
18  Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called:
19  Accounting that G-D was able to raise him up, even from the dead;
      from whence also he received him in a figure.
                                                (Hebrews 11:17-19, the Gospel of Paul as written down by Luke)

From where did the well-spring of resurrection life come forth, but from within, because of a trusting faith into G-D upon His promises when G-D himself called for it? Isaac, therefore, was a type of the Christ who was to come...innocent, sacrificed, and who rose from the dead after paying the obligations of another.

Thus as Revelation 1:5 puts it, when we properly translate and understand proto-tokos:
"...Jesus Christ the Faithful Witness,
before the birth / the First-born
out of the dead...."

Before the birth, the One from eternity (Micah 5:2) and the first in pre-eminence and order thereafter as well...He who was before the birth called by prophecy and in the mind and will of G-D, who now is and is to come ever the pre-eminent and first in order out of the dead ones...Christ Jesus the Faithful Witness and Messenger, the Logos of the Father and G-D with the Father and the Holy Spirit.   He it is whom is coming again for HIS Church:


 Psalm 68:4 Sing unto G-D, sing praises to His name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name YH, and rejoice before him.

Thus, we see, that John the Baptist and the Day of Jesus announced in Malachi 4:5, is revealed by a more thorough knowledge of both Hebrew and Rabbinic Judaism...and the insight G-D gives to show us where Rabbinic  Judaism gets it wrong because they have ignored and persecuted both their Messiah and their G-D in order that they might have the inheritance and ruler-ship of and among themselves, themselves, instead of yielding to their G-D and their Messiah, Christ Jesus: i.e., Yeshua.

Sanctus Real: Everything About You

An exceptional Christian Rock Worship song.

Mark 1:41 and the first 66 of the "P" classisfied (2nd - 4th century AD) Biblical manuscript fragments

Mark 1:41 And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. (KJV)

Was it really compassion, or was anger first used, and then changed to mean something else?

A similar remark or challenge (as stated in the above question) was made to me about Mark 1:41. And there is a vaguery in my recollection at this time as to whether the person attacking Mark 1:41, whether they had either stated or made the direct inference that Mark 1:41 was part of the P45 fragment, or simply used a generalization of THE earliest Mark (fragment or otherwise), which P45 is.

But for whatever reason, I decided to pursue the Mark 1:41 accusation, as it is now used by some trying to uncovert Christians to an apostasy without Jesus, and at least several people referenced (by an organization that shall remain nameless, with whose leader I had traded several e-mails with years ago) had chosen to deny Christ and damn their souls...and every soul who believes into Christ is so precious to G-D, that their names are written and announced in Heaven before the angels, and joyful shouts of approval sound forth for each and every name (Luke 12:8, 15:10; Revelation 3:5, 5:11, et al.). How many will there be whose names were read and blotted out later, and angels and loved ones who heard the names look for their arrival and find that they chose not to come to Heaven to be with the L-RD? Even one is "one too many", it seems to me.

P 45 is basically a surviving incomplete early portion of the New Testament Gospels, and has been displayed in Dublin and in Vienna, and may or may not still be at the Chester Beatty library. Various early 200's A.D. dates have been assigned to it, sometimes late 100's A.D. But leaving any argument for an even earlier dating aside, P45 does NOT have a portion of Mark 1:41 to it (as was emphasized by my counter-missionary anti-New Testament opponent in our discussion, as I recall).

Manuscript fragment P45 contains Mark 4:36-40; 5:15-26; 5:38-6:3,16-25,36-50; 7:3-15; 7:25-8:1,10-26; 8:34-9:9,18-31; 11:27-12:1,5-8,13-19,24-28; Luke 6:31-41; 6:45-7:7; 9:26-41; 9:45-10:1,6-22; 10:26-11:1,6-25,28-46; 11:50-12:12,18-37; 12:42-13:1,6-24; 13:29-14:10,17-33

There are currently P assignments to 126, and none of them contain Mark 1:41. I will list the first 66 of the P fragments so that the reader can get an idea of what bits and pieces of the New Testament made up the pre-collection wholesome copies or collections of the 4th Century in the Alexandrian Vaticanus, Sinaiticus, and Byzantine.

In regards to seeking Mark 1:41 in its oldest extant (still existing) form , we would next seek out the ca. 325 AD (Alexandrian) Vaticanus, which reads: και σπλαγχνισθεις εκτεινας την χειρα αυτου ηψατο και λεγει αυτω θελω καθαρισθητι


The mid-300s AD (Western) Sinaiticus reads: και σπλαγχνισθεις εκτινας την χειρα αυτου ηψατο και λεγει θελω καθαρισθητι

The late-300s AD (Byzantine) Alexandrinus reads: ο δε ις σπλαγχνισθεις εκτεινας την χειρα ηψατο αυτου· και λεγει αυτω θελω καθαρι̣σθητι·

After doing thus, we may best compare these to the Received 1881 Westcott-Hort Text reads: και σπλαγχνισθεις εκτεινας την χειρα αυτου ηψατο και λεγει αυτω θελω καθαρισθητι and see that Westcott and Hort follow the Vaticanus.

Stephanus in 1550 and 1551 followed the Byzantine Alexandrinus of the later 300s A.D., as did Scrivener in 1894.

What did the earliest souces look like? The Codex Sinaiticus, by example, has pages or leaves 15" x 14", listing Scripture in 4 columns by 48 lines to the column, ca. 12-16 letters to the line jammed together without spacings within the column. http://www.earlham.edu/~seidti/iam/tc_codexs.html

Previously I was able to refer others to be able to pull up the specific folio copies online, but now the link does not work. But I digress.


The (Western) Codex Bezae, dates to the 5th Century (ca. AD 450) and is the first to contain the entire Gospel of Mark as we now have it; however, this still precedes the entire Old Testament (including the 5 books of the Torah), in manuscript form, (which dates no earlier than AD 900) by some 450 years or more. So, even with a ritual worship and preservation of the Old Testament books in the last 2,000 years by observant Jews of the dispersion (diaspora) among the nations, we still have only an earliest manuscript extant that does not precede ca. 1110 years ago.

But the question was: Was Jesus angry only and did Christians "change" the Biblical text to one of compassion to cover up Jesus' being "angry"? The answer is: No.

The essential act of pity, even if there are synonymous anger overtones, in the Koine Greek are not contradictory. We can compare -- splagchuistheis, the second word in all but the (Byzantine) Alexandrinus in the three 4th Century and the 1881 W-H examples above.

By example, we see that this same word is also used in Luke 10:33 where the good Samaritan binds up the Jew's wounds. The anger is at the sin of those who are so callous as to act inhumanely toward one of their own, and follow their own code of ethics; but the pity is upon the victim of the sin as well.

So again, we see that when anti-Christians "go off" and rant and rail on the Bible as being full of contradictions or errors, we most often find by careful examination, that the error and the hypocritical double-standards lies with the accusers...not with the Biblical Texts themselves.

P Fragments will commonly not have complete verses; nor is this uncommon with Greek and Roman fragments. The secular and other manuscript fragments of the ancient Greek and Romans are categorized much like the Biblical fragments of the New Testament.
http://www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/ifa/NRWakademie/papyrologie/Karte/band1.html

Manuscript Fragment Reference: P 1 - 66 below.


P 1 Matthew 1:1-9.12; 1:14-20.23

Matthew 1:1-9.12;
http://images.library.upenn.edu/mrsidsceti/bin/image_jpeg2.pl?coll=manuscripts;subcoll=e2746;image=e2746_wk1_body0001.sid;level=1;degree=0

Matthew 1:14-20.23
http://images.library.upenn.edu/mrsidsceti/bin/image_jpeg2.pl?coll=manuscripts;subcoll=e2746;image=e2746_wk1_body0002.sid;level=1;degree=0

P 2 Matthew 12:12-15

P 3 Luke 7:36-45; 10:38-42

P 4 Luke 1:58-59,62-2:1,6-7; 3:8-4:2,29-32,34-35; 5:3-8; 5:30-6:16


P 5 John 1:23-31; 16:22-30; 20:19-20, 22-25
John 1:33-40; 16:14-22; 20:11-17

P 6 John 10:1-2, 4-7, 9-10; 11:1-8, 45-52

P 7 Luke 4:1-3

P 8 Acts 4:31-37;6:8-15
Acts 5:2-9; 6:1-6

P 9 1 John 4:11-12;
1 John 4:14-17

P 10 Romans 1:1-7

P 11 1 Corinthians 1:17-22; 2:9-12,14; 3:1-3,5-6; 4:3-5:5,7-8; 6:5-9,11-18; 7:3-6,10-14

P 12 Hebrews 1:1

P 13 Hebrews 2:14-5:5; 10:8-22; 10:29-11:13; 11:28-12:17

P 15 1 Corinthians 7:18-32;
I Corinthians 7:33-8:4

P 16 Phillipians 3:10-17;
Phillipians 4:2-8

P 17 Hebrews 9:2-14;
9:15-19

P 18 Revelation 1:4-7

P 19 Matthew 10:32-40;
Matthew 10:41-11:5

P 20 James 2:26-3:9;
http://www.princeton.edu/~dcskemer/APISJames1.html

P 21 Matthew 12:24-26, 31-33.
http://faculty.bbc.edu/rdecker/classes/p21.htm

P 22 John 15:25-16:2;
John 16:21-32
http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/treasures/papyrus.html

P 23 James 1:10-12;
James 1:15-18

P 24 Revelation 5:5-8;
Revelation 6:5-8

P 25 Matthew 18:32-34
Matthew 19:5-7,9-10

P 26 Romans 1: 1-16
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?view=entry;subview=detail;cc=apis;entryid=X-3991;c=apis;start=1

P 27 Romans 8:12-22,24-27;
Romans 8:33-9:3,5-9

P 28 John 6:8-12;
John 6:17-22

P 29 Acts 26:7-8;
Acts 26:20

P 30 1 Thessalonians 4:12-13, 16-17; 5:3, 8-10, 12-18, 25-28; 2 Thessalonians 1:1-2

P 31 Romans 12:3-8

P 32 Titus 1:11-15;
Titus 2:3-8

P 33 Acts 7:6-10; 15:21-24
Acts 7:13-18; 15:26-32

P 34 1 Corinthians 16,4-7,10;
2 Corinthians 5:18-19, 19-21; 10:13-14; 11:2;
2 Corintians 11:4, 6-7


P 35 Matthew 25:12-15;
Matthew 25:20-23

P 36 John 3:14-17,34-35
John 3:17-18,31-32

P 37 Matthew 26:19-37;
Matthew 26:37-52
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?g=archaeol-ic;med=1;c=apis;q1=P.Mich.inv.%201570;rgn1=apis_inv;size=50;start=1;type=boolean;view=thumbfull


P 38 Acts 18:27-19:6
Acts 19:12-16


P 39 John 8:14-18;
John 8:18-22

P 40 Matthew 18:32-34; 19:1-3;
Matthew 19:5-7; 19:9-10

P 41 Acts 17:28-18:2, 18:17-18,22-25,27; 19:1-4,6-8,13-16,18-19; 20:9-13,15-16, 22-24,26-38; 21:1-4,26-27; 22:11-14,16-17

P 42 Luke 1:54-55;
Luke 2:29-32

P 43 Revelation 2:12-13,15

P 44 Matthew 17:1-3, 6-7; 18:15-17, 19; 25:8-10; John 9:3-4; 10:8-14; 12:16-18

P 45 Matthew 20:24-32; 21:13-19; 25:41-26:39; Mark 4:36-40; 5:15-26; 5:38-6:3,16-25,36-50; 7:3-15; 7:25-8:1,10-26; 8:34-9:9,18-31; 11:27-12:1,5-8,13-19,24-28; Luke 6:31-41; 6:45-7:7; 9:26-41; 9:45-10:1,6-22; 10:26-11:1,6-25,28-46; 11:50-12:12,18-37; 12:42-13:1,6-24; 13:29-14:10,17-33; John 4:51,54; 5:21,24; 10:7-25; 10:30-11:10,18-36,42-57; Acts 4:27-36; 5:10-21,30-39; 6:7-7:2,10-21,32-41; 7:52-8:1,14-25; 8:34-9:6,16-27; 9:35-10:2,10-23,31-41; 11:2-14; 11:24-12:5,13-22; 13:6-16,25-36; 13:46-14:3,15-23; 15:2-7,19-27; 15:38-16:4,15-21,32-40; 17:9-17

P 46 Romans 5:17-6:3; 6:5-14; 8:15-25,27-35; 8:37-9:32; 10:1-11:22,24-33; 11:35-15:9; 15:11-33; 16:25-27; 16:1-23; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9:2; 9:4-14:14; 14:16-15:15; 15:17-16:22; 2 Cor 1:1-11:10,12-21; 11:23-13:13; Galatians 1:1-8; 1:10-2:9,12-21; 3:2-29; 4:2-18; 4:20-5:17; 5:20-6:8,10-18; Ephesians 1:1-2:7; 2:10-5:6; 5:8-6:6,8-18,20-24; Phillipians 1:1,5-15,17-28; 1:30-2:12,14-27; 2:29-3:8,10-21; 4:2-12,14-23; Colossians 1:1-2,5-13,16-24; 1:27-2:19; 2:23-3:11,13-24; 4:3-12,16-18; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 1:9-2:3; 5:5-9,23-28; Hebrews 1:1-9:16; 9:18-10:20,22-30; 10:32-13:25;

P 47 Revelation 9:10-11:3; 11,5-16:15; 16:17-17:2

P 48 Acts 23:11-17; 23:23-29

P 49 Ephesians 4:16-29; 4:31-5:13

P 50 Acts 8:26-30 (col. 1), 10:30-31 (col. 4) and
8:30-32 (col. 2); 10:26-27 (col. 2,); 10:27-30 (col. 3)

P 51 Galatians 1:2-10; 1:13,16-20

http://163.1.169.40/cgi-bin/library?a=q&r=1&hs=1&e=p-000-00---0POxy--00-0-0--0prompt-10---4------0-1l--1-en-50---20-about---00031-001-1-0utfZz-8-00&h=ded&t=1&q=POxy+2157&ifl=l

P 52 John 18:31-33; http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/specialcollections/collections/stjohnfragment/recto/

John 18:37-38
http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/specialcollections/collections/stjohnfragment/verso/

P 53 Matthew 26:29-35v; Acts 9:33-38
Matthew 26:36-40; Acts 9:40-10:1

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?g=archaeol-ic;med=1;c=apis;q1=P.Mich.inv.%206652;rgn1=apis_inv;size=50;start=1;type=boolean;view=thumbfull

P 54 James 2:16-18,22-23; and 2:24-26; 3:2-4.
http://www.princeton.edu/~dcskemer/APISJames2.html


P 55 John 1:31-33; 1:35-38

P 56 Acts 1:1-5; 1:7-11

P 57 Acts 4:36-5:2; 5:8-10

P 59 (14 fragments)
John 1:26,28,48,51; 2:15-16; 11:40-52; 12:25,29,31,35; 17:24-26; 18:1-2,16-17, 22; 21:7,12-13,15,17-20,23.

P 60 (20 fragments) John 16:29-30; 16:32-17:6,8-9,11-15,18-25; 18:1-2,4-5,7-16,18-20,23-29,31-37,39-40; 19:2-3,5-8,10-18,20,23-26

P 61 Romans 16:23-27; 1 Corinthians 1:1-2,4-6; 5:1-3,5-6,9-13; Phillipians 3:5-9,12-16; Colossians 1:3-7,9-13; 4:15; 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3; Titus 3:1-5,8-11,14-15; Philemon 4-7

P 62 Matthew 11:25-30

P 63 John 3:14-15,16-18; 4:9,10

P 64 / P 67 (5 Fragments) Matthew 3:9,15; 5:20-22,25-28; 26:7-8,10,14-15,22-23,31-33

P 65 1 Thessalonians 1:3-10; 2:1,6-13

P 66 John 1:1-6:11; 6:35-14:26,29-30; 15:2-26; 16:2-4,6-7; 16:10-20:20,22-23; 20:25-21:9

P 66 Dates to style in use by the end of Trajan's reign (Roman Emperor Trajan died ca. 8 August 117 A.D.), to as early as 115-116 A.D.

Some early epigraphers had dated P66 to Hadrian in the 130s A.D. The question of P66 among Conservative Scholarship is whether it was within 20 years of John's death, or within 40 years.

The question of P66 for the Liberal apostates who wish to date P66 as late as 200 A.D. and then pooh-pooh the gap of a single century (by their own pretentions) is "what better examples have they got of ancient works, even fragments that virtually coincide with their ancient Roman or Greek authors in anywhere near the closeness as P66 with John"? Knowing that they cannot even bridge the gap of 300, or 500 years, they have no room to criticize the New Testament where a manuscript fragment may be within 20 years of the author to whom it was attributed or as far along as 102 years from the author to whom it was attributed.

The New Testament had some 24,000 plus whole and fragmentary manuscripts (inclusive of lectionaries) still in existence, which have now increased beyond 25,000 with the Albanian National Archives find of 2007. Some of the Middle Ages Albanian copies may be viewed via links at:
http://www.csntm.org/manuscript