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.

John the Baptist's Isaiah 40:3-4 Proclamation, and the coming Azal highway of HASHEM

Isaiah 40:

3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the L-RD, make straight in the desert a highway for our G-D.

4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:


The above is the traditional translation. But the Hebrew word pictures and amplification offers us a little something extra that most people aren't even aware of.

[Hebrew] English Translation

[Qol] “(The) Voice
{Qura] Urgently calling out, encountering and confronting
[BaMidbar] at the mouth and entryways of: oases (and their towns or cities), the open fields, the pasturelands, the alluvial plains,
the deserts, and all manner and sort of uninhabited lands.

In the Old Testament, the Wildernesses associated with locations of nearby oases with their villages or cities included:
1) Beer-sheba Genesis 21:14
2) Paran Genesis 21:21
3) Zin Numbers 13:21
4) Sin Numbers 16:1
5) Beth-aven Joshua 18:12
6) Gibeon 2 Samuel 2:24
7) Damascus I Kings 19:15
8) Kadesh Psalm 29:8

In regard to Wildernesses of whole territories, some Old Testament examples will include:
1) Egypt Exodus 20:35
2) Sinai Numbers 1:19
3) Judah Judges 1:16
4) Edom 2 Kings 3:8

[Panu] “Prepare: face, turn and look (to)
[Derek] (the) wide open and general course
[****] (Of the) L-RD!

[Yasaru] make straight, upright, level, and even
[B’arabah] in the desert plains,
among the Steppes,
in the disorder and confusion of night,
(even) in (and amongst) the Poplars
[Mesilah] a road on a raised and exalted embankment
[L’elohaynu] for our G-D.

Every Valley shall be borne up, lifted and raised;
And every mountain and hill shall crouch and bow down to lowliness;
And the foothills shall become a straight and level place,
And the banded up, the impassable and rough places, a plain.

(Isaiah 40:3-4, fully amplified and reiterated from the Hebrew with word pictures)


Commentary:

We see in the Hebrew word pictures a deeper insight than that left us in the Greek of Matthew 3 and Luke 3 in quoting this passage. For this reason, a return to the language which something was spoken or written can often, when correctly pursued, open our mind's eye from a black and white picture to one of color, or transform a mono sound to that in stereo. In regard to John the Baptist, BaMidbar and B'Arabah are surround-sound stereo words often heard in mono-tone...while Mecillah is also a mono-tone that needs a stereo sound to it.

There are three specific definitions regarding the Hebrew Arabah: Deserts, including desert steppes; as Ereb or Erev, suffixed, it deals with the time and disorder of darkness or night-time; and it is the word used for the poplar (inclusive of the Aspen) tree.

The poplar
http://www.2020site.org/trees/poplar.html
is used only twice in the Bible. In Genesis 30:37, Jacob uses the interior white of a green branch, and it acts like Viagara and Cialis to the sheep and cattle, where the animals are suddenly brought into heat. But Jacob makes sure only those troughs of water and those animals he selects are given the "potency" assist. In Hosea 4:13, the Israelites were having sexual orgies under the shade of the poplars (specifically on the tops of the mountains), and also sacrificing to idols.

We are called to prepare the Way or Genereal Course of the L-RD...to exalt His ways, not ours, even if His ways run right through and amongst our sexual proclivities in pro-creation with the opposite sex marraige partner. In the above, I listed the places that John's ministry probably took him to, before staying and remaining in the Jordan River Valley Basin (betwen the Dead Sea and the Sea of Gallilee) in the last year(s) of his ministry. I believe that prophecy in and through the Hebrew, is telling us that John indeed had once traveled to all these definitions of the wilderness as listed in the Old Testament, and the several others I left out, until he actually did Baptize. Hence, he probably began with a proclamation at the walls and beginnings or endings of the Wilderness locations, until one year, he proclaimed to all Israel to spread the word and come instead to the Jordan River, and be baptized for the remission of sins.

The Locusts testify of John's holding to a vow of poverty in the Wilderness ministry, and that poverty with kosher adherence gave him great credibility

John was so poor, that he ate the kosher diet of those having no money...locusts. (Even with honey to kill the taste...Yuck!) John the Baptist ate the “Desert Locust”, native to the region. In general, he probably ate one or several of these biblical varieties:
The red locust (Hebrew: Arbeh)
The yellow locust (Hebrew: Salam)
The spotted gray locust (Hebrew: Chargol)
The white locust (Hebrew: Chagav)

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

When John the Baptist preached in the Wilderness, he preached Isaiah 40:3 in which we are told to go into the desert and build up a straight exalted embankment for our G-D. Why?

At the Second Temple, we know that there was a bridge that stretched forth across the Kidron Valley in direct line to the Holy of Holies...beginning on Moriah and ending eastward on Mount Olivet. At the end of that bridge, the Red Heifer was offered up and sacrificed. John was preaching Isaiah, and telling Israel that a truly prepared Israel would build an exalted embankment -- not just across the Kidron Valley -- but all the way into the Desert and to Mount Nebo itself!

In Deuteronomy 33:2 we see the descent of a warring Yeshua in Revelation 19:11-16 with supplementing passages such as Zech. 9:14 and Psalm 18:13-14.

"HASHEM came from Sinai [northward],
and rose up from Seir unto them;
He shined forth from Mount Paran,
and He came from the myriads of the holy ones at the Right Hand
as His FIERY HILLSIDES [ashedath] went out to meet them." (Devarim 33:2)

Although the singular "ashed" is used only in Numbers 21:15, "ashedot" (pluralized as -"ravines" and "valley slopes") is used of that area around Nebo's peak of Pisgah (Deut. 3:17, 4:49; Joshua 10:40, 12:8). Therefore, though it might be translated as 'fiery law" in Devarim 33:2, the more correct Hebrew Word picture is hooked to a WAY or PATH...the Mesillah of Isaiah 40:3.

At the end of Days, with Jesus' return at the end of the 7 Year Trib and Great Trib Period, will the valleys and hillsides become molten, and prepare a fiery Mesillah (an exalted embankment) in a straight line from Nebo/Pisgah to the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem. Over this straight line will be a ramp of clouds, also in a straight descent, from Nebo to Olivet.

The last obstruction to be cleared in that line of sight, Olivet, will be split wide open -- north and south -- by Messiah's own feet (Zechariah 14:4). In effect, if I understand all of this correctly, a path perhaps like molten glass will be created in the earth that serves as a visible example of a "path" or "way of Law". This will in turn perhaps be in a slight but direct line valley, and eventually covered by waters flowing from the side of Messiah, even from beneath His coming throne, through the newly made Valley of Azal (at that time), ending at Mount Nebo / Pisgah.

In the Kingdom, there will be HASHEM in the Holy of Holies, ever beholding (for 1,000 years) Mount Nebo/Pisgah, as a type of Mizpah -- a type of holy heap, a witness of the scales of Heaven. This is holy heap of Nebo will act as a testimony of the Mosaic Torah, until the Messianic Age of the 1,000 years ends, and even the very concept of Time (apparently) is removed, and the Judgement of the Damned begins.

The Mesillah will run from Nebo to Jerusalem, not built up by the people, but built up by the L-RD Himself. The Law and the L-RD are inter-connected by faith and obedience done in the heat of love, and strengthened in the resolve of legacy. Not our legacy, but the L-RD's legacy. We live, and die, and are for the most part, forgotten. But the WORD of our G-D shall endure forever.

Thus, the difference is, that the One who was sacrificed as our True Passover and True Red Heifer -- that is, our True Redeemer, HASHEM Christ Jesus -- will also be the One beholding (and upholding) that molten perfectly level and even memorial Mesillah (exalted levee like embankment) that will one day run from Jerusalem to Nebo/Pisgah until all is fulfilled. And we who believe will see and behold, and think on Isaiah 40:3-4, as well.

Zacharias, father of John the Baptist

On the 9th of Av, 6 B.C.

Scripture
In the days of Herod, the king of Judea, there was a certain priest -- by name,
Zacharias -- of the daily (Temple) service: Abijah.

His wife was of the daughters of Aaron -- her name, Elizabeth. In the sight of GOD, they were both righteous,
walking in all the commandments and ordinances of YHVeH, blameless(ly).

No child was theirs, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were well advanced in their days. (Luke 1:5-7)


Observation on Luke 1:5-7

In the Gospel of Luke, the history starts out with a parallel between Zacharias and Elizabeth with that of Abraham and Sarah. The Greek word for well advanced is probebaikotes (προβεβηκοτες).

In the Septuagint, or Greek manuscripts of the Old Testament, the low end use of this word probebaikotes appears to apply to a 70 year old King David in I Kings 1:1. The age continues upward to the more ancient, such as the 110 year old Joshua (Joshua 23:1,2; cf. 24:29).

Therefore, in spite of the priestly limits of age 60 for Temple Service, Zacharias served beyond the age a priest was supposed to serve in the Temple. In 6 B.C., the Temple had only been in "serviceable" use for about 6 years on a regular basis. The outer courts and colonnades were still under-going additions and changes. It is possible, that the Levites who were doing the work were being tapped out with priests who were of age in each of the courses or patristic house / lineages. If that is so, Zacharias, like Abram, may well have been about 84 at this time, and his wife perhaps about 10 years younger; neither being less than 70 years old.


Scripture
It came to pass, namely in his serving as priest, in the order of his daily course (at the Temple) before G-D.

According to the custom of the priests, (his) lot
was to burn incense -- entering into the Temple House of YHVeH.

It was the hour of incense, and all the multitude were outside, praying. But to him, the Angel of HASHEM appeared standing out, on the right, from the altar of incense.

Seeing (this), Zacharias was stirred up emotionally with great alarm and dread, and quaking fear fell upon him.
(Luke 1:8-12)


Observation on Luke 1:8-12

The course of Abijah in the summer months would have fallen for service on Tisha B’Av: the commemoration of the destruction of the Jewish Temple by Nebuchadnezzar. The custom of the priests was to draw lots for who was to serve in what capacity.

For example, when Simon the Cyrenian came in from the wilds of Judea (Mark 15:21) through the dung gate of the Hinom Valley, he had drawn the Levitical lot that told him he was to be a disposer of blood. The very word disposers, was also the translation of "gods" or "theoi" among the Greeks (Herodotus, 2.52). Simon the Cyrenian's participation with the Cross appears implied in Psalm 82, but that is another topic.

It was the duty of Zacharias to enter the Holy Place, and to offer prayer, and to purify the area with the smoke of incense prior to the offering of the Daily Sacrifice. He was chosen by lot, and his skin was required to be blemish free; allowing him to pass behind the outside Altar of 3 Fires.

Again, because of a shortage of those of the course of Abijah, the age factor of service ending at age 60 was waved. Zacharias was to enter alone, make his rounds, and exit alone. The ritual should have perhaps taken him a total of 7 -10 minutes max inside the Holy Place.

When Zacharias entered, he immediately experienced the same inward feeling of great fear, dread, and inward corruption as did Daniel in the presence of Michael in Daniel 10:7ff. The Greek word that Luke uses here with Zacharias is etarachthe (εταραχθη).

The Septuagint uses it in place of the Hebraic Mehuma (מהומה) some 6 times. Its usage suggest that the body undergoes uncontrollable tremors, like an earthquake that won’t stop. The flesh will roll back and forth, and boils will formate and disappear, formate and disappear.


Scripture
The Angel said to him, Do not tremble with fear, Zacharias, your request and petition has been heard. Your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son.

You shall call his name Yochanan. [John]. He shall be your joy and exultation, and many will rejoice over the birth of him. He will grow greater and greater in the sight of HASHEM. Wine and intoxicants he may not at all drink.

The Holy Spirit will fill him while he is yet in the womb of his mother. He will turn many of the Sons of Israel on towards HASHEM their GOD. He will go ahead before Him in the spiritual power of Elijah: to turn the hearts of the fathers upon (their) children, the disobedient to just wisdom, making HASHEM prepared for a people already having been made ready. (Luke 1:13-17)


Zacharias said to the Angel, By what shall I know this? I am quite old, and my wife is well-advanced in her days.

Answering, the Angel said to him, I am Gabriel -- the one standing before GOD. I was sent to speak up alongside with you, to give good news to you of these things. Look and see! You will be silent, not able to speak, until the day these things begin to come into existence,
because you believed not my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.(Luke 1:18-20)

[Note Gabriel’s words in the first person -- my words, which will be fulfilled in their time. Not G-D’s words to you, but my words to you.]


The multitude(s) were expecting Zacharias, and they marveled in his delay of coming out of the Temple. He was not able to speak to them, but they knew that he had seen a vision in the Temple: he was signaling (this) to them, but remained a mute.

And it came to pass, when the days of his service were fulfilled, he went away to his house. After these days, his wife Elizabeth conceived, but she hid for 5 months, saying, Thus has HASHEM done to me in the time which He saw (fit) to remove the reproach of me (from) among men.
(Luke 1:21-25)

So often, the Church misses the miracle of Yochanan / John, for his birth was miraculous like Isaac born of Abraham and Sarah. It is also reminiscent of King David.

Every generation from Abraham to Jesse, that within the Messianic line, had those sons who would carry the messianic lineage when the parent was an average of 84 years old at the time of the child's birth. But now, with John, not only was the father likely in his 80s, but the mother also. With this news, people KNEW Messhiach was about to come! Simeon and Anna regularly began to seek the newborn Messiah at the temple...both being of an age in the neighborhood of 100 to 116 years old or thereabout each. And in December of 5 B.C., having lived through all that they had lived through and seen in their lifetimes: they were NOT disappointed.

John the Baptist and the limits of Archaeology, Part 2

The Davidic kingship is a concept carried through in history as a real family from a real Patriarchal Kingship. Modern scholars like Israel Finkelstein may live in a state of utter denial of David being a real figure in real history, but the entire nation of Israel would not have wrestled with this issue over 2000 years ago in always adhering and teaching compliance of kingship to David’s House alone if it were mythical…nor would there be a total acceptance of David’s historicity by both Jews and Christians, as witnessed in their writings in the succeeding 5 centuries from this Lukan (A.D. 50) passage.

In fact, the lawyers who exalted themselves in the Sanhedrin some 2000 years ago -- had David been mythical -- would have cast the entire sacrificial system of Judaism aside and formulated their own government and own worship system with the help of the Caesars or various Roman emperors, casting off the old and leaving some new and alien tradition (for posterity) behind to justify their legal view. No Sanhedrin faction or persons (so far as history is known) so allied with Rome or any other Occupation Nation, to cast off David and openly wrest kingship away from David in great antiquity...even philosophically.

Whether or not we have an artifact as yet, stating "King David" dating to the era of David's reign is somewhat irrelevant to whether or not there is veracity to his existence. That evidence will someday come. But until then, as with the issue of the Hittites and other finds only taken on Biblical assurance just 200 years ago, we need to trust the Biblicalarchaeological guidebook that led to those kinds of finds. And that guidebook of archaeology hasn't changed...it's still the SAME Holy Bible now as it was then, 200 years ago before the age of modern archaeology.


The Temple and Religious Service

As we study the building of the Temple, we are able to better identify what those who viewed a still thriving and existing Temple (the first hearers and readers of Luke’s Gospel) knew. Zacharias received the pre-dawn lot to carry incense into the Holy place, and thereafter, his assignment was to come just outside the door, and lower and raise (cleanse and fill) the washing laver on a loud pulley system, out of view of the foremost group of waiting priests assigned with him.

We are left this knowledge by literary historical sources from as little as 900 years ago, dating back to that preserved from the First Century Era. And using that data left by Maimonides and others, Biblical archaeologists are also instructed and educated as to what they should be looking for and where...rather than making guesses as to religious ritual in antiquity that may or may not be factually correct without the literary support to verify the claims made upon the past.

The New Testament is clear that despite John's pedigree as a Kohen, John the Baptist was reared as a Nazirite (as well as a Temple priest) by Zacharias. John also had the advantage of being an ordained Semikah rabbi (by the laying on of hands and accepted by Jewish authorities in Jerusalem), taking to himself disciples. As a recognized prophet, in Josephus and in the New Testament, it may be safe to say that there may have been a touch of the miraculous in his ministry. What the bounds and scope of that miraculous was ... we don't know, except that it could not rival the healings and miracles performed by Jesus that were by the thousands at a time, and beyond every medical dispute.


As a Nazirite, John the Baptist's and even Jesus' appearance of living 33 years without a hair-cut or trim isn't readily envisioned.

[cf. Hegesippus on James in Eusebius History 2.23
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.vii.xxiv.html

cf. Numbers 6:1-21,
http://www.hebrewoldtestament.com/B04C006.htm#V1

and Babylonian Talmud. tractate Nazir
http://comeandhear.com/nazir/index.html ]

In fact, this very issue of Nazirite practice is lost upon most western minds and representations of Jesus, and of John the Baptist. Did or did not Jesus ever drink wine? He is accused of wine drinking by mere presence of being with others who did so. But it appears that His ministry was more of a residing overseer conducting sober ceremony, rather than any imbibing (Luke 22:17-18,20).

Therefore, we ought not only to look at John the Baptist, but at Jesus as having the right of free access to the Temple’s Holy Place, especially since Jesus apparently enjoyed visiting the Temple often and was respectedeven by his enemies with an authority exceeding the scribes. Perhaps, in part, because of Jesus' Nazirite separation -- as well as being a Semikah rabbi next in line to the Throne of David.

John the Baptist chose the wilderness areas to call the people out of Jerusalem, and make them a people having hearts made ready for the appearance of a G-D Messiah or YHVeH Messiah ... A concept of G-D as the Messiah that is clearly Biblical and known then, but debated by those who have been wrongly swayed otherwise…and refuted by the archaeological literary evidence coming to light, such as the Hazon Gabriel stone, which invokes the Isaiah prophecy in the name Eliakim (the G-D who rises / resurrects [as from the dead, like Jesus would later do]).

Isaiah 22:20-23
"And it shall come to pass in that day,
that I will call my servant Eliakim [the G-D who rises / resurrects]
the son of Hilkiah [YHVeH who is my protection / portion]:

And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.

And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.

And I will fasten him as a nail [hang, such as the crucifixion] in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house."

The very use of Eliakim as the identity, more than just simply as the Name of the Messiah, teaches us that He is to be a G-D figure, who is the son of G-D the Father (of Him). Thus, Jesus concept of his being G-D from G-D is seen by just one of various examples through the prophets and various books through the entire Old Testament (with perhaps Esther being the exception). This lack of like translations of the meaning of Hebrew names into English, is perhaps a project which one day needs to be remedied.

There is some controversy among Dead Sea Scroll scholars and commentators as to whether or not John the Baptist was a Qumranian Essene. It appears to me that he was not likely to have been.

In the Dead Sea Manual of Discipline, 6:11-12 it reads:
"And in the Assembly of the [i.e., of the leaders of the] the Congregation, no man shall speak without the consenting of [the leaders of the] Congregation, nor indeed [without the consenting of] the Guardian of the Congregation."

In the role of a prophet, John would not have needed this permission of the Guardian of the Congregation. And clearly, it does not appear as if HE were guardian over any group, other than his small band of disciples...which included Andrew, the later disciple of Christ and brother to Simon (later called Peter).

"...(leave) from the dwelling-place of the men of perversion, in order (that you may) go to the Wilderness to prepare the WAY of Him, as it is written:

'In the Wilderness, prepare the way of ****
[YHVeH is referenced here in the scroll by 4 dots],
make straight in the desert a mecillah for our G-D.
This is the search of the Law." (Manual of Discipline, 8:13-15).


The Madaba Map and the Greek of the Gospel accounts tell usthat the wilds of Judea, in this period of the 1st - 6th centuries A.D., could also be defined as that called "the wilderness". It did not have to be the opposite or Eastern side of the Jordan...but it could have been.

In fact, it is also possible that when the Jordan swelled beyond its width of 15-30 feet at Bethabara/ Bethany, and even if it were a width of 200 - 300 feet wide for baptisms, with a depth exceeding 12 feet in the middle of the stream...John's disciples could have easily stood with the hundreds of thousands of Israel at its Western banks while John stood as a witness on its Eastern banks / shoreline, shouting from the wilderness.

However, we might also envision some of John's disciples in the role of lifeguards also, in positions to catch any being carried away downstream...as well as being the ones who directed the crowds in orderly fashion, and served in Levitical priestly functions themselves. Much of this hasn't been fully explored and properly thought out, especially amongst scholars who like to assume an air of authority upon the matter.

However, the idea that John stood on the Wilderness EAST only while the people were baptized in the widerness WEST bank of the Jordan, is not practical.

Certainly John stayed in the river Jordan, and not its tributaries east of it...because it was the Jordan that had a spiritual significance. In the north, on another occassion, when the water waned, John would have baptized at the Yarmuk river juncture of the Jordan, which forms a natural shape of the letter Ayin. The concept of "beyond Jordan" in the Gospels appears to relate to a northern Jordan (such as the Yarmuk -Jordan juncture) in respect to how Jerusalemites referred to it from in the south. In contrast, a southern Jordan around Bethany / Bethabara in respect to Galilee, would also be labeled as "beyond Jordan" by those in the north. This appears to be moreso the likelihood than it would for the expression "beyond Jordan" to relate to an Easterly area, because context gives us a picture of baptizing IN the Jordan while yet being BEYOND it. Hence "beyond Jordan" as a north from south (such as that of a "'down below" or "down under") and south from north (such as that of an "up above" or "up beyond") is to be viewed as a localized expression dating to this period in history and among the Israelis of the 1st Century A.D.


But getting back to Bethabara / Bethany in the south. There would have best been a scenario of standing at some kind of elevation, perhaps upon a boulder at the Western Bank to preach...with the occasional descending to personally move among the people and his disciples in the waters and along the banks as if it were a shoreline.

Therefore, if I were in Israel, I would look to this area for such a boulder at the point as indicated on the Madaba map by the log, and then at about a stone's throw or a little more from any likely candidate boulder, then look for the heap of stones that were the memorial stones of Joshua for the tribes of Israel.

If we can find those stones, via John the Baptist's ministry...it would be interesting to see how we could shame the skeptics. Or perhaps they would still have no shame, regardless.

John the Baptist and the limits of Archaeology, Part 1

For those of us that trust the Bible, and call ourselves "born-again Christians", we view the Bible as G-D’s Word. The idea is to get people to trust in the words of G-D that they may believe the One who is called the WORD of G-D; that is, Jesus Christ the Son.

Faith in G-D’s Words, should bring about faith in G-D’s WORD -- He who spake all Creation into existence.

Thus, it pleased G-D, that by the foolishness of preaching, man should be redeemed after this manner.

Since G-D spoke Creation into existence, He maintained that by believing into words spoken by G-D, man should be redeemed and spiritually re-created (as it were).

This also was the message of John the Baptist, son of Zacharias and his wife, both of whom were as physically almost dead -- both parents being above age 70 (probebakotes) at his birth -- and who was at the first thought to be the Messhiach, because of his miraculous birth association with Abraham / Sarah / Isaac, and not His forerunner.

John was part of a social and religious revolution within Judaism that left virtually no remains of its happening. For those of us that lived through the social revolution and Vietnam in the 1960s and 70s, we cannot say that there is much to point to as evidence of a rally other than maybe some fading rags, pictures, and film that will all decay and be gone in the next several centuries. And John the Baptist was from some 2000 literal years ago.

So archaeology is finding limits, with some speculation that they may have found his cave and a place to baptize on the OTHER (or Eastern side) of the Jordan.

That idea doesn't wash.

John baptized Israel as the nation immersed itself from west bank, while he himself pointed to the stones taken from the river by Joshua's crossing some 1538-1539 years earlier. This pile of stones was an essential point to the saying which we will examine.

There are those who have claimed the location is at Qasr al Yahud.
(Cf. Jesus' Life and Times - Baptism by John the Baptist
http://www.welcometohosanna.com/LIFE_OF_JESUS/14baptism.htm

In relation to Jericho, refer to the map at the top of
Biblical Excursions: The Holy Land
http://198.62.75.5/www1/ofm/sbf/escurs/TS/03b_TSen.html )


Most all theologians have seemingly relegated research and thinking in regards to figuring out who and what John the Baptist was and what he really meant, to somebody else. At least, to me this appears so, though some adding or taking away points of observation.

What was the Early Church (pre-200 A.D.) comprehension of who the man was, as might be discovered by translating from Greek to Aramaic (as using the Gospel of Matthew), since archaeology cannot shed enough light on this as yet, even with the Dead Sea Scrolls?

Let's just cite one verse...and see the technicality of correct processes and thought -- is needed in a way that is far apart from that used by the dim-intellectuals of the "Jesus Seminar" (so-called), et al.

Matthew's Gospel (according to Irenaeus Against Heresies 3.1.1., etc.) records details that are site specific to Judea, in the presence of hostile witnesses, in a the same dialect known of Galileans and Syrians. An example of the Aramaic manuscript v. Greek translation distinction is preserved by Ignatius and Irenaeus in comparing Matthew 3:9 .

Ignatius to the Magnesians, .10
“And those that were of a stony heart have become the children of Abraham, the friend of G-D.” Matt. 3:9

To which, some may point to Isaiah 53:10 - "And the Lord wished to crush him, He made him ill; if his soul places itself for a guilt-offering, he shall see seed, he shall prolong his days, and God's purpose shall prosper in his hand."

If John is the Messiah or Messiah's forerunner, must he not have physical offspring or zera (seed) to teach such things?

Leviticus 19:19 and Deuteronomy 22:9. In Torah, there is the instruction to not plant fields with two kinds of zera (seed). Lev. uses “mingled” and Deut. “diverse” in the KJV translation.

Jesus addresses this aspect of the prophecy in His parable of the Wheat and the Tares in Matthew 13:24-30. The reader researching this might also want to read vv. 1-23 for context. The wheat is the good zera, and the tares are the bad zera. These both refer to people in the parable. In the protosemitic, the word zera is a composite from two words: one means to sow (zr), the other to scatter (drw). The Ugaritic interprets (drw) as that which is dry and exhibits the qualities of that which is dead. Zr appears to exhibit qualities involving moisture and life, or life supporting (or a thought along those lines).

John the Baptist spoke of stones that could be raised up as zera to Abraham (Matthew 3:9).

Judaism also teaches that those of the Gentiles who convert as Noachides (for which the 'Court of the Gentiles' of the Temple at Jerusalem was for) are as “zera” unto Abraham, in the spiritual sense, though not physically until after circumcision, etc., so that their children (at least) might be grafted in as if physically Jewish. That is, the children, not previously Jewish, now can be “by faith” as though the zera of Israel.

For it says, “in you shall all the families of the Earth be blessed”; “Look now toward Heaven and tell the stars, if you be able to number them: and He said unto him, So shall your seed be;” “Behold, My Covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.” (Genesis 12:3;15:5; 17:4).

We see this same approach with Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 4.7.2. ; which gives us the accuracy of the Greek translation, saying and then elucidating back from the Aramaic copies – ‘…as John the Baptist says: “For G-D is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” Now this Jesus did by drawing us off from the religion of stones, and bringing us over from hard and fruitless cogitations, and establishing in us a faith like Abraham.’

Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 4.25.1. – ‘…the sons of Abraham, whom G-D has raised up to Him from the stones….’

Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 4.39.3. – ‘The skill of G-D, therefore, is not defective, for He has the power of the stones to raise up children to Abraham; but the man who does not obtain it, is the cause to himself of his own imperfection.’

Hence, reviewing these 4 quips, we can better reconstruct the Aramaic original and its specific wording of the quoted Greek text known to Irenaeus and Iganatius. And in these elucidations on the verse, we can verify the extreme likelihood or accuracy of Matthew having been first written in Aramaic, as Irenaeus declared in Against Heresies, 3.1.1. The historical record, and hence "lower criticism", is used to validate and enforce the "higher criticism" conclusions. No lower support...the higher cannot stand, lacking foundation.

We also find the qualifiers of: Multiple attestation or forms, Israeli environment or language, dissimilarity, coherence…as required in the study of higher criticism, testifying against the illiteracy of: liberal scholarship, and higher critics; as well as those not familiar with even this basic material. This all leads us to a deeper analysis of John through the historical literary texts, and what we can and cannot look for in regard to John.

Since "Bethabara" / "Bethany" was the place of crossing, we can now only look for a small pile of stones attesting to Bethabara's true location for an archaeological point of location...but we must look to the texts, where archaeology now stops -- limited now only to the discovery of the earliest texts / manuscripts extant -- in regard to John and his ministry, for the events.

The exception, perhaps, where we consider that the Madaba map so lists the crossing location in the form of a log, instead of the location written as Bethabara by the fish fighting to swim upstream nearer the Dead Sea at this map link:

Madaba Mosaic Map - Section 2 - JordanValley
http://198.62.75.1/www1/ofm/mad/sections/section2.html

The only other attestation we might find regarding John in the First Century era, may be some sort of early church graffiti used as a teaching aid or memorial.

So it seems to me, some historical studies, must be approached more from a type of theological textual analysis, rather than the archaeologist tendency of theorizing on evidence and texts he doesn't have.

This is just one example to consider.

Luke 1:5-33 my alternate translation from the Greek

“In the days of Herod, the King of Judea, there was a certain priest -- by name, Zacharias --
Of the daily [Temple] service: Abijah.
http://www.templeinstitute.org/day_in_life/24_shifts.htm [pp.1-2]

His wife was of the daughters of Aaron: her name, Elizabeth.
In the sight of G-D they were both righteous,
Walking in all the Commandments and Ordinances of YHVeH,* blameless(ly).
No child was theirs, because Elizabeth was barren,
And both were well-advanced [Gk., probebakotes] ** in their days.


It came to pass, namely in his serving as priest in the order of his daily course [at the Temple] before G-D.
According to the Custom of the Priests,
(his) lot was to burn incense --

[ http://www.templeinstitute.org/day_in_life/daily_lotteries.htm
pp. 3-4, 8, 19-20, 23-24 adds other details not mentioned in the text, known or obvious to hearers and readers when the Temple was as yet still standing, fully functional, and unthreatened].

Entering into the Temple of YHVeH.*

All the multitude was praying outside at the hour of incense.

[This use of the word “multitude” suggests a detail not given us by the Temple Institute…that on memorial days, the priests were accompanied by more than just a single family or clan of service. Rather, perhaps here, are all the priestly clans and families gathered on a solemn occasion, such as the 9th of Av, 6 B.C., making John the Baptist’s coming birth in the spring of 5 B.C., and Jesus’ birth in the fall of 5 B.C.]

But to him, an Angel of YHVeH appeared standing out from the altar of incense on the right.
Seeing (this), Zacharias was stirred up emotionally with great alarm and dread [Gk., etarachthe], ***
and fear fell upon him.

The Angel said to him, Do not fear.
Zacharias, your request and petition has been heard;
Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son;
You shall call his name Yochanan [John].

He shall be your joy and exultation, and many will rejoice over the birth of him.
He will grow great. ****
In the sight of YHVeH, wine and intoxicants he may not at all drink.
The Holy Spirit will fill him while he is yet in the womb of his mother.
He will turn many of the Sons of Israel on (to) YHVeH their G-D.
He will go ahead before Him in spiritual power of Elijah:
to turn the hearts of the fathers upon (their) children,
the disobedient to just wisdom,
making YHVeH prepared for a people already having been made ready.

Zacharias said to the Angel,
By what shall I know this? I am quite old, and my wife is well-advanced in her days.

Answering, the Angel said to him,
I am Gabriel -- the One standing before G-D.*****

I was sent to speak up along-side with you,
to give good news to you of these things.
Behold! [Look and see! -- Cf. Heb. V'Hinneh!]
You will be silent, not able to speak,
Until which day these things begin to come into existence,
Because you believed not my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.

The multitude(s) were expecting Zacharias,
and they marveled in his delay of coming out of the Temple.
He was not able to speak to them, but they knew that he had seen a visionin the Temple;
He was signaling (this) to them, but remained a mute.

And it came to pass, when the days of his service was fulfilled, he went away to his house [which was located in a city of Judah. verse. 39]

After these days, his wife Elizabeth conceived, but she hid for 5 months, saying,
Thus has YHVeH done to me in the time which He saw (fit) to remove the reproach of me (from) among men.

In then, the sixth month [Adar II], the Angel Gabriel was sent from G-D into a city of Galilee, the which named Nazareth, up to and along-side a virgin having been betrothed to a man (by) name, Joseph, out of David’s house: and the name of the virgin: Mariam [Mary].

And (upon) entering, the angel up toand along-side of her said, Hail highly favored (one of grace), YHVeH* is with thee: blessed (art) thou among women.

She then beholding (him), was troubled upon his word and its reasoning behind or in it, and cast her mind (as to) what manner of salutation this should be. And the Angel said unto her, May (you) not greatly fear Miriam, for thou hast found favor with G-D.


And behold, you shall conceive in your womb, and bear a Son, and you will call His name Y’shua [Jesus].

This One will grow to be Great, and will be called Son of the Most High;
And YHVeH Elohim will give Him the throne David, the father of Him;
And He will reign and rule upon the House of Jacob to the Ages;
And of His Kingdom, there will never be an end.”

* Gk. Kurios - L-RD, translated back into Hebrew here would be the Tetragrammaton: YHVH / YHWH.

** Gk. Probebakotes - the low end Septuagint use of this word appears to be that of a 70 year old King David in 1 Kings 1:1, and a high end use of a 110 year old Joshua in Joshua 23:1,2 (cf. Joshua 24:29). It appears that because of a low birth rate in this family group, the age of 60 was waived as a limit for priestly service…and her barrenness is reason behind Elizabeth’s reproach from men of the priesthood, as if secret sin were the cause instead of righteousness and the will of G-D for the miraculous of reminiscence of the matriarchs Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel. .

*** The Greek word, “etarachthe” is rendered as “destruction” in 1 Samuel 5:9 of the Septuagint. The Hebrew word that is translated here is “Mehuma”. Mehuma is used only 6 times in the Old Testament. In 1 Samuel, its use suggests something more than just a rottenness of outward boils upon the groin, or in the arm-pits (after the manner of the Bubonic Plague. Rather than a past tense happened event, Mehuma should be viewed as a present tense “happening now” event. This would be likened to watching the body and skin rolling back and forth as if suffering an earthquake upon the skin and flesh, until the boils and tumors (in minutes) bubbled up into huge appendages and settled.
Although the boils and tumors did not settle upon Zacharias, defiling his pure and unblemished flesh, Zacharias did feel as if such an event were moving back and forth upon his skin. In other words, the presence of Gabriel made his skin crawl, and made Zacharias want to jump out of his skin (as it were). This sensation is found to be associated with the Hebrew word “Charada” and its event in Daniel 10:7-8, at the presence of both Michael and Gabriel. In that event, we see the same horrific fear suffered by the Babylonians and the Prophet Daniel which was a precedent to that experienced by the Roman Guard at Jesus’ Resurrection Tomb in Matthew 28:4. The only difference between the Babylonians and the Romans was that the Romans were assigned under penalty of death to stay and defend a location, whereas the guard with Daniel was but an escort free to flee in the few seconds they had opportunity to, before being sapped of all strength (as they suffered the sensation of corruption and rolling boils and a severe nervous system attack).

**** Cf. the Gk. megas with the Hebrew gadol in prophetic usage, such as in Micah 5, etc.

***** Reminiscent of the Gabriel that was familiar to pre-1st Century Jews as most recently discovered through the Hazon Gabriel stone:

Table of Contents | Biblical Archaeology Review
http://www.bib-arch.org/bar/article.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=34&Issue=5&ArticleID=14

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