THE SCRIPTURES AND HOW JESUS USED THEM

Introduction

If you visited one of our myriad Bible colleges and seminaries where men and women hungry for God and His Word go to study and learn and gain a deeper understanding of the Holy Scriptures and master its content, you may be surprise to discover shelves of books that question everything about the Bible. The Scriptures have been attacked from every angle, with questions like, "is the Bible authentic...does this quotation belong there...it does not fit the author’s style...some scribe must have come along, made a notation in the margin then later another scribe liked it and placed it in the text," and on and on and on it goes.

We believe that the Holy Scriptures in their original language are infallible, inerrant, the authentic Word of God breathed upon the human authors who wrote them -not as zombies typing away with out sense, but under the Spirit's breath, yet the authors retaining their human mind and hand. As Miriam bore Yeshua the Son of God, God while also being man, the human authors bore the Word of God which remains until this day as the divine, infallible, inerrant, revelation of the Almighty, while also displaying the personality of the human author. 

We have a book that we can trust. We have a book that Yeshua trusted. He never questioned the authorship of any book or any event. He did not question Yonah being swallowed by a fish; Yeshua did not question a universal flood; He did not question a living devil and demonic beings, and Yeshua did not question the relevance or power of fasting. Yeshua believed, lived, taught, and gave His life in accordance with the scriptures. In fact, Yeshua thought so highly of the Scriptures that He told the Yehudi (Jews) the scriptures (1) give everlasting life just as the tree of life in Eden, and (2) the scriptures give evidence of Himself (Luke 5:39; Luke 24:27,44) and eternal life.

There are three ways that Yeshua used the scriptures.

1.         First, Yeshua used the SCRIPTURES as a defense

-a defense of the credibility of the Word of God and His reliance on Scripture against the Devil. He said, “it is written... it is written... it is written” (Mat.4:4-10). Every Christian is a theologian. We must know the Word, know the Word in context, memorize the Word, quote the Word, and use the inspired Word. 

-a defense of His actions against the Parushim or Pharisees and the religious, cultic misinterpretation of scripture and life. We too must rightly divide and quote the books and in particular in their application. 

-a defense of His forerunner and the office of Yochanon the Immerser (Mat. 11:10)

-a defense of His Father’s House being desecrated by the Jewish leaders (Mat.21:13)

-a defense of His submission to death (Mat. 26:31)

2.         SECOND, YESHUA USED THE SCRIPTURES AS A MEANS OF INSPIRATION

Yeshua first got His own inspiration from the OT Scriptures; many of His NT sayings are OT scriptures framed in new ways to vehicle the new covenant and economy. Yeshua was born as a baby and had to be taught by His parents. He had to learn the Hebrew alphabet, the Aramaic alphabet, the Latin alphabet of Rome and perhaps other languages, Arabic for example spoken down in Egypt where He lived as a toddler. And, He learned just as you and I have to learn. He had to learn about God from Yoseph and Miriam and the Yeshiva teachers. He had to learn about the pain of splinters, stumping His toe, and the ache of muscles after a long day's work, etc. He studied and grew to become what He was predestined to become. Though there are some who think that at the age of one or two  Yeshua had the wisdom of Solomon, scripture says He grew in wisdom, statue, and in favor with God and man (Luke 2:52). How does one grow in wisdom, statue, and in favor with man? The prescription is given in Prov.3:1-4. Yeshua grew physically, mentally, and spiritually, but by obedience and that He learned by suffering says Hebrew (5:8).

Yeshua was however more than man. At the age of twelve He must be about His heavenly father’s business. The Word so inspired Him that He found His purpose for being by reading and studying them. The question put to Yoseph and Miriam was almost condemning, when as a twelve year old lad He retorted, “do you not know?” The idea was, isn’t this the natural outcome of those who subject themselves to the Holy Scriptures? Do we not find the scriptures and God’s affairs so inspiring that they become our life? At the age of thirty-three he left the carpenter shop for ministry. Think about it. How did this carpenter have such a grasp of scripture so that He astounded the professors. He read His OT again and again and again. He was not what he was by miraculous power. He did not use power for Himself. All He gained He gained by discipline; it is phenomenal that this man had the grasp of the Word and having not been schooled like the Pharisees and Levites and their children. He was a Nazarene and a carpenter until age 30. So, who taught Him? How did He become so fluent in three languages or perhaps four or six? How was He able to think as no other man, precise in HIs exegesis of Isaiah, Jeremiah, the Psalms, Daniel, etc. He found his inspiration in the scripture at great personal cost to himself.

Yeshua then gave His inspiration of the Scriptures to others. Yeshua approved of the prophetic scriptures and taught them as inspired. Yeshua approved the Torah and taught the five books of Moshe as inspired. Yeshua spoke of Abel (Luke 11:5). Yeshua spoke of Noach (Mat.24:37-39; Luke 17:26-27). Yeshua spoke of Avraham (John 8:56). Yeshua spoke of Sodom and Gomorrah (Mat.10:15). Yeshua approved the Writings and taught them as inspired. Yeshua approved the events of Scripture, the flood, Yonah, and Yeshua approved the principles and precepts of Scriptures

3.         THIRD, YESHUA USED THE SCRIPTURES TO CHART HIS OWN LIFE

Yeshua found His identify in the Scriptures. Where and when was the dawn of His mental powers? -of the realization that He was the Messiah? –that He was destined to die? As He grew naturally and normally physically, He grew naturally and normally spiritually as His mind encountered the great truths of scripture. Yeshua as He looked back was able to look back the great facts and His identity dawned upon Him. First, at the age of twelve, then about His father’s affairs, then to fulfill them. 

Yeshua had a brain greater than any –this we agree, but He had to use it, to get what He got! He had to use it to do the things that He did. You cannot take away the humanity of Messiah. He is not the coming Messiah if he lacks either deity or humanity. He was not omniscient, He was not omnipotent; He was not omnipresent, until after the resurrection; then He announced, “all power and authority is given.” He took upon Himself our limitations. He must be man to achieve our salvation though God.

Yeshua chartered His future in light of His past. He chartered the future by looking at the past. As it was…so shall it be; As Yonah was in the belly…so shall it be! What kinds of charts? Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus…, the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings!  What He read He went out to accomplish and fulfill: Adam was tempted by Satan to eat; Yeshua was tempted to eat. Adam and Eve were covered by God; Yeshua displayed Himself as the Lamb of God for the sins of the whole world. Adam to Avraham to Yacov to Ysrael were cast into the wilderness for their faith to be tested; Yeshua went to the wilderness. Hagar cast out of the Jewish camp found God at the well and God greatly blessed her; Yeshua found the Samaritan woman at the well and blessed her. Yacov had twelve sons, twelve tribes; Yeshua selected 12 disciples. God performed miracles for Ysrael in Egypt; Yeshua turned water to blood-red wine. Ysrael was told to cross the Red Sea; Yeshua walked on water. The shekinah of God hovered over the Temple; Yeshua cleansed His Father’s house. Naaman was healed of leprosy; Yeshua healed the lepers. Ysrael was for 40 years outside the land of blessing needful to get in; Yeshua  healed the paralyzed man waiting and wanting to get in the pool of blessing. David ate grain on the Sabbath; Yeshua healed the man on Sabbath and picked grain. Holy manna was given to Ysrael; Yeshua broke bread and fed thousands. Elijah raised a lone woman’s son; Yeshua raised a widow’s son. The sinful woman, Rahav hid God's two spies; the sinful woman anointed Yeshua's feet. Yoseph was the father's favorite, had prophetic dreams, sought his brothers care at Dothan, was despised by his brothers, was placed in a pit, sold by Yudah, yet resurrected to become savior of Egypt and later savior to his brothers; Yeshua was the father's favorite, had prophetic annunciations, sought His brother's care, was despised by His brothers, was placed in a pit, was sold by Judas, yet resurrected to become savior of the world, but to the Jews, first. Avraham’s wife, Sarai died and and married a new wife, Keturah; Yeshua spoke of the Gentile faith, that He has not seen such in Ysrael. Yeshua gleaned from the OT Scriptures, Himself. His Father's words were His words. His Father's works became His actions. He found Who He was and His task from the Scriptures

Conclusion:

Yeshua used the Scriptures as a defense, He used the Scriptures as to learn, grown, mature, and develop in perfection, and He used the Scriptures to chart His Life. What do the Holy Scripture mean to you, dear reader. Is it just a book or is the Bible the living Word of God. Do beware of using the Bible as fetishism, that is, thinking of the book as some sort of good luck charm, or a holy bound book that is softly treated, carefully placed as center piece in your living room. That book is a sick and dead cow's hide we call leather wrapped around pine trees to pulp word to paper with black ink. Be careful of bibliomancy that is, thinking of the Bible as a mystical, spiritual symbol. One of the reasons we do not have the original manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures is that we perhaps would worship them! The Word of God is living. Not the cowhide, not the paper with black ink, but the inspired thoughts and life behind the words.

Someone has said, read the Bible to be wise, believe the Bible to be safe, and practice the Bible to be holy! It is the Divine Library! Listen to it, that God may listen to you! The Bible is shallow enough for the least of us to swin in and not drown, yet, the Bible is deep enough that the greatest theologian can swim and not touch bottom! 

Beloved, can one follow Yeshua and not be committed to taking the Bible and its truths seriously? Can one love God and not be a theologian? The Bible has 31,105 verses, most to do with living righteous -very little of the Bible is for the lost and how to be saved.  

Sunday is not the Sabbath; the Sabbath is Not Sunday 

#1.The Sabbath Was Not a Creation Ordinance. “Shabbat is not mentioned in creation, rather, 7th day. There is no command to keep the seventh day prior to the Mosaic Law. There is no record of anyone keeping the seventh day for 2500 years, from Adam to Moses (not Job, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob). Job lived 500 years before Moses and nowhere is there a mention of keeping Sabbath though his book refers much to human obligation to God. And, even if Sabbath keeping was a creation ordinance, it would not have been mandatory. Marriage is an example of a creation ordinance that is not mandatory. Single adults are admonished to remain as such if they can endure for the sake of Christ and the Gospel.

#2. The Sabbath Was a Command Embodied in the Ten Commandments. “Remember...” It had been received in Exodus 16 prior to the receiving of the command in Exodus 20. “Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” It was to be kept especially separate from the other days, and was a day of rest: no gathering of ‘manna’ (Exo.16:23-30); no traveling (Exo.16:29); no kindling fire (Exo.35:3); no gathering of wood (Numbers 15:32 ); no burden bearing (Jeremiah 17:21 ); no trading (Amos 8:5); no marketing (Nehemiah10:31; 13:15, 19)

#3. The Sabbath Was a Sign (ot). It is a sign of the cessation of God’s work after 6 days; it was a sign of the Mosaic Covenant (Exo.31:12-17) between God and Israel , that Israel had been set apart, sanctified. The Sabbath was a sign of the Exodus (Deut.5:12-15), and it was a sign ONLY TO ISRAEL AND NOT TO THE CHURCH

#4. The Sabbath Was Not A Day of Corporate Worship. There was no command for anyone to observe the Sabbath prior to Moses; there is no record of anyone keeping the Sabbath prior to Moses; the “holy convocation” was the priestly work (sacrifices, Lev.23:37 cf. Num.28:25; a burnt offering of two male lambs; a grain offering, Num.28:9; putting out the Shewbread) as the people rested from their labor. The Sabbath was a rest “in all your dwellings” meaning at home (Lev.23:3), the emphasis was staying with family, in the home (Exo.16:29). It was to be a complete physical rest and holy convocation (spiritual refreshing)

#5. The Sabbath Synagogue Services found in the New Testament originated with the Babylonian captivity, not with the Law of Moses, and were and are not obligatory.

#6. The Sabbath Was Important (Isaiah 58:13,14; Exodus 31:13-17), but

#7. The Sabbath Was Limited in Time. The Hebrew term forever, “observed throughout your generations…a perpetual covenant…forever,” is olam meaning “duration, futurity” and does not carry the concept of eternality as does the English word “forever.” Some examples of this are Exo.21:6; Deut.15:17; 1 Samuel 1:22; 1 Chron.28:4; 1 Kings 9:3; Exo.14:13; Lev.25:46). In Deut.23:3 olam (“forever”) is 10 generations. The Hebrew term throughout your generations is also limited in time. Examples are Lev.25:30; Exo.40:15; Lev.10:9; Num.10:8; 18:23 ; Exo.27:21; Lev.24:3.

#8. The Sabbath is Not Prescribed in the New Law of Christ. Christ is a New Priesthood (Melchizedekian) with a New Law/Torah much greater than the Law of Moses which has now become obsolete (Hebrews 8:13 ). The believer is not under the Law of Moses but the Law of Christ (Gal.6:2), and the Law of the Spirit of Life (Rom.8:2). Some commandments of the new Law of Christ are similar to the Mosaic Law, honoring one’s parents for example (Eph.6:1-3). Other commands from the Mosaic code are intensified under the New Law. “Love one another as I have love you,” John 15:12 , versus “Love thy neighbor as Thyself, Lev.19:18. However, the new “torah” of Yeshua is much different than the old, for example there is no dietary code, all foods are declared to be in the state of “clean” (Mark 7:19; Rom.14:14, 20); Col.2:16; Acts 10:15; 1 Tim.4:1-5); there is no Sabbath law (Rom.14:5; Col.2:16), and there is no law for circumcision.

#9. The First Day, Sunday, Becomes Preeminent. The reasons for Sunday worship were born out of the tradition of esteeming the day of the Lord’s resurrection as preeminent. The Lord arose on Sunday (Mat.28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:2; John 20:1); the Lord met with His disciples after His resurrection on Sunday (John 20:11 -19), and again after 8 days on Sunday (John 20:26 ). Yeshua appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus on Sunday (Luke 24:15-32). Paul speaks of a gathering for purpose on Sunday (1Cor.16:1,2), and was with the Christian fellowship of Troas on Sunday (Acts 20:5-12).The Feast of. Pentecost (Acts 1,2) 50 days from the resurrection of Yeshua, was on a Sunday, and John references Sunday in Revelation ( 1:10 ), “the Lord’s day” (Grk. te kyriake hemara meant Sunday both then and today). Believers throughout history have marked and observed Sunday as a new day for a new people belonging to a new creation under a new priest, and obliged to a new torah. However, let us not forget that the Holy Spirit through His Apostle Paul admonishes us not to observe any day above another, nor judge one who does (Romans 14; Col.2:16).

#10. The first day, Sunday, Is Not the Sabbath. A problem arises when one semantically misuses a word to defend a concept. We embrace what the early church fathers called, “the Lord’s day,” Sunday, due to our honor and loyalty to Christ though there is no command to do so. We wish to esteem His day above all others. Amen! And, because of tradition we continue to worship on the first day of the week. However, often believers chasten Jewish people and sabbatarians as legalist while they themselves make demands that believers attend all services on Sunday, “the new Sabbath.” Such a concept is NEV ER taught in scripture. The Holy Scriptures account for the emphasis of Sunday by the saints, and the spiritual principle of “not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together,” but there is not a hint that Sunday is a “new Sabbath,” a day of rest. It was Constantine who prescribed Sunday as the “Christian Sabbath” throughout the entire Roman Empire with the Church replacing Israel (Replacement Theology). Sunday remains, especially for women, the busiest day of the week, and is not the Sabbath, nor a day for rest in “our dwelling.” Sunday is the day for corporate worship, study, prayer, devotion, song, and meditation. "Hebrew Christianity" by Arnold Fruchtenbaum and Unger’s Bible Dictionary.

THE CHURCH: Congregation or Institution

The Holy Scriptures clearly defines Yeshua's "church" as His body; we are His building or Temple; we are Yeshua's bride; and we are a living epistle or Yeshua's book. What is called "church" today closely mirrors a cult in many ways, in fact, the "church" has in many ways become an idol and is putrid to Yeshua. I ask you beloved to compare the biblical principles of Yeshua's church with the secular assembly called institution.

An INSTITUTION seeks its living donors/parishners to serve its programs, and the dead to have remembered the institution and guaranteed its presage. The CHURCH seeks to serve its living members remembering all departed believers as saints.

An INSTITUTION has as its chief aim, growth. The CHURCH has as it chief aim, maturity of the believer.

An INSTITUTION operates by parliamentary procedures, rules of order, and traditions. The CHURCH operates by spiritual disciplines, precepts, love, honoring the other more than the self.

An INSTITUTION is introverted, self-seeking, self-serving, self-centered, and self-absorbing. The CHURCH is extroverted with value and service to others; it is selfless, serving others.

An INSTITUTION is big business with big buildings the face to its success. The CHURCH is God’s business, God’s building, God’s body, God’s bride, and God’s book. Its success is noted by its "living stones."

An INSTITUTION demands uniformity to a convention and constitution. The CHURCH promotes unity to the new covenant and the universal body of believers under that covenant.

An INSTITUTION is a supervisory business operating as a pyramid from the head or the top levels down, its top executive(s) hired for performance. The CHURCH is a serving organism operating as a Temple, each member equal yet gifted for servitude, operating on a horizontal plane as all are living stones, Christ being the chief executive or corner stone.

An INSTITUTION searches for the wealthy, successful, and prominent for leadership positions and then to guide and promote its cause. The CHURCH searches for the spiritual mature and for those who have the scriptural qualifications to lead -first in the home, and then if a success qualified to lead and guide the body of Messiah.

An INSTITUTION seeks prominent people as prospects. The CHURCH searches the highways and byways for the worst of mankind, the sinful and cast down.

An INSTITUTION interprets its financial growth as sign of success. The CHURCH interprets persecution and conversions as signs of success.

An INSTITUTION is often ‘cult-like’ in that its members give total allegiance to the local, socio-communal body and the teachings of its charismatic dictator. The CHURCH is ‘Christ-like’ in that its members swear allegiance to their Lord Jesus who dictates their every breath by His Spirit and His Word, allegiance to the whole body of Christ who are the community of faith regardless of race, gender, denomination, state, and local. 

An INSTITUTION marquees itself. The CHURCH marquees the Lord

WHO IS THE CHURCH?

A. The Church is the Elect of God. We are the elect chosen in Him (Eph.1:4); God’s elect (Rom.8:33; Col.3:12); we are the elect (1Pet.1:2; 2Tim.2:10); the elect race (1Pet.2:9)

B. The Church is the People of God. We are “a people for God’s own possession” (1 Pet.2:9; Titus 2:14 ASV); the “People of God” (1Pet2:10); “my people” (Rom.9:25; 2Cor.6:14-16; Acts 15:14; 18:10).

C. The Church is the Body of Believers (Acts 2:44; 1 Thes.2:1; 1Thes.1:7)

D. The Church is the Assembly of Christians ( Acts 11:26; Acts 26:28; 1Peter 4:16)

E. The Church are Brethren ( Mat.23:8; Romans 8:29; Eph. 6:23; 1Tim.6:2; 1John 3:14)

F. The Church are those Sanctified (1 Cor.1:2); occurs over 100 times in 18 different writings, the church members are called ‘saints’ or ‘holy ones’ that are sanctified

G. The Church is the Body of Christ (Col.1:18 cf.1:24; Col.2:19; Eph.1:22-23; 4:4, 12,16; 5:30; 1Cor.12:12-31; Rom.12:5)

H. The Church is the Temple of God (One person: 2Peter 1:14; 1Cor.3:16-17; 1Cor.6:19; Eph.2:21-22); a corporate body (John 2:19; 4:21; 1Peter 2:5,6; Eph.2:21; 2Cor.6:16)

I. The Church is the Priesthood of Christ (1Peter 2:4-5, 9; Rev.1:7; Heb.10:10,14)

J. The Church is the Flock [Sheep] of Messiah ( Luke 12:32 cf. Mrk 14:27; John 10:16, 27-30; 21:16; 1 Peter 2:25; 5:2)

K. The Church is the Bride of Christ (Mrk.2:19; Romans 7:4; Eph.5:22,23,25; 2Cor.11:2)

L. The Church is the Branches of the Vine (John 15:1-7; Gal.5:22-23; Eph.3:16-17) 

WHICH TRANSLATION

"We are a King James Version only church," said the pastor, "what version of the Bible do you use?"

I would be delighted to come and share our ministry with you, to preach or teach about the relevance of modern Israel in God’s program. All English versions are translations. I am earnest when I say that my favorite 'version' of the Bible is the Hebrew and the Greek. I make an attempt to teach Hebrew often here in Chattanooga as this tongue was the lip of the Almighty God and I want to create interest in getting back to the divine texts. Greek we know was used by God, but as chastisement upon Israel due to their refusal to learn precepts and doctrine. God warned they would hear His Word come back to them in sta-ca-to languages unlike the smooth Hebrew (see Isaiah 28:11). This is the purpose of the speaking in tongues/languages in Acts 2, some sixteen languages mentioned -a sign to unbelieving Israel (1 Cor.14:22). What God communicated He communicated in Hebrew. When God communicated He communicated to Hebrew speakers. The Hebrew people received, recorded, transcribed, translated and transliterated the divine texts, God's revelation which later went out in other tongues. It was not until 1611 that the King's English using the king's men translated the King James Bible. Their dilemma was making sense of the biblical languages in the English. That is still the issue.

During my Judaic studies at the Moody Bible Institute we had to draw a 'sign-system' for our Communications class. God's sign-system was Hebrew and though Greek was later used to communicate His New Testament it too should also have been written in Hebrew for even its authors were Hebrew authors. The goyim Greek was due to the disobedience of Israel. God's messianic plan was for the Hebrew nation to embrace their Hebrew Messiah Who would have set up the Hebraic kingdom to which all the world would have deemed the hallmark, the zenith of nations on earth. Zephaniah alludes to the Hebrew when he writes that shoulder-to-shoulder worshippers of YHWH during the millennial kingdom will speak “purified lips” or, a pure and selected language. So, God's initial plan A is still to be, though it should have began when Yeshua came the first time!

I do respect "King James" only folk for they are zealous about perserving the holy texts; what saddens me is ignorance called faith. One of my sons came home from a bible camp and was telling me that the preacher said he would never allow anyone to preach in his pulpit who didn't use the holy king james. My son, Judah 11 years old knew he was wrong because Judah is one of my Hebrew students on Wednesday nights and he is learning how languages work.

Someone has said that only in America and for the most part only in the south are there "king james only" mindsets. And, why is that. Very simply, those who speak three languages are trilingual, those who speak two languages are bilingual, and those who speak one language are Americans. Humorous but true! Europeans, the Middle East and the Far East because they are forced to know and speak myriad languages have no trouble with the question of translation; they understand the complex role in  making sense of one language in another because more often than not there are not equivalents and thus, 'glosses' are made. 

Note these points:

1.            THE BIBLE WE HAVE did not fall from heaven, but was put together by men. There has never been an original compilation with all 66 original manuscripts bound in one book then called The Bible. The first NT book, James was written in AD 45 and the last NT book, the Apocalypse written in AD 90. The printing press was not invented for myriad decades so any and all copying was done by men –and not of these men were saved men, but professional 'scribes' using quill, ink and papyrus then vellum or animal skins. These transribers did, sorry to say, make mistakes in writing, myriad mistakes.

·         Writing materials were papyrus from the plant that grew in the delta of the Nile River and vellum or parchment or animal skins. The autographs of the New Testament were most certainly written on papyrus and by 3^rd century skins were the common material used though papyrus was used up to the seventh century. All surviving manuscripts we have today of the Greek New Testament are parchment.

2.            NONE OF THE ORIGINAL manuscripts called “autographs” exists –not one. We know that our sovereign God designed this to be so. Perhaps if we had the original anything (Scriptures, Temple, Ark, blanket of Moshe, etc) we would revere them and/or worship them instead of Him. The originals were probably worn out due to repeated readings, study, and copying.

3.            WHAT WE DO HAVE are some five thousand (5,000) manuscripts of a part of, or a whole of the Greek New Testament; in addition, we have eight thousand (8,000) manuscripts of versions of those Greek texts in Latin. We also have a thousand (1,000)additional manuscripts in other ancient versions. Then, with the above we also have citations by the early church fathers. These manuscripts, manuscripts of versions, and citations of church fathers are our source of evidence. We have quite a task because the manuscripts are not all alike, do not agree (except in doctrine), and all with variants.

4.            THE GREAT TASK has been and remains to do textual criticism, which is to discover and recover the original text of the Bible from the available evidence (above) that we have.

 5.           THESE MANUSCRIPTS HAVE VARIANTS, that is, the manuscripts –everyone of them- contain variants from the other manuscripts, instances of different wording (example in English would be center/centre and labor/labour or happx birthday, harpy birthday, hyppy birthday, etc) which minimally affects translation. The variants number around two thousand (2,000).

6.            WE DO NOT BELIEVE IN EXTRABIBLICAL INSPIRATION. Only the original authors (e.g. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, John) were inspired, and their original texts inspired as a whole. Thus, those who copied their inspired autographs were not inspired and made transcribal errors. This is attested by the myriad manuscrips with variants. Like it or not, this is true. The scribes reading them and copying were not inspired, and are not today inspired, nor are publishing companies inspired.

7.            WE SAY OUR BIBLE IS INFALLIBLE, inerrant, and authoritative because we have the inspired text within the myriad manuscripts. Amen, we do!

8.            THE TRANSLATIONS today (NASV, NIV, English, KJV, etc) are also due to the way that translators view their task, that is, “do we paraphrase to get the meaning we think God intended," or "do we do a word-for-word translation and forego making sense of the text?"

9.          THE MYRIAD MANUSCRIPTS WERE CLASSIFIED into two groups

·         External evidence – age of manuscripts, their distribution, etc.

·         Internal evidence – peculiarities and habits of the scribe (e.g. his style) 

10.          ERRORS EXIST in the myriad manuscripts copied from the original because the scribes were not inspired. Thus, there are two kinds of errors:

• Accidental errors which resulted from the text being read aloud, the reader pronouncing correctly and articulating correctly, and the scribe relying on hearing correctly, seeing correctly, thinking correctly, and writing correctly. This is why the 5,000 manuscripts and the 8,000 translations are variant with each other.
• Intentional errors – we must assume that the scribes were both professional and honest and often made an attempt to correct, harmonize, or improve the copy they were using. If he believed a marginal notation to be original, he then copied it as an insert. We have such inserts that are argued to this day.

11.          THE MYRIAD 5,000 GREEK MANUSCRIPTS have been placed into four groups:

·         Papyri. Papyrus was a kind of ‘paper’ made from a middle-eastern plant stem. Papyrus does not stand up as well as the later vellum or animal skins so not many papyrus manuscripts have survived. We have about 88 papyrus manuscripts. These are designated by the letter “p” with a superscript numeral. For example, p_52.  These range in date from approximately AD 125 but most of the 88 are Third or Fourth century manuscripts. Famous papyri manuscripts are the Chester Beatty papyri from the third century (p₄₅  p₄₆  p₄₇ ); the Bodmer collection from the late second to the seventh century (p₆₆  p₇₂  p₇₃  p₇₄  p₇₅ ), and the John Ryland fragment of John 18 (p₅₂ ). Papyrus manuscripts support every New Testament book in the Bible. 

·         Uncials. These are manuscripts written in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin capital letters on parchment which replaced papyrus. The copier usually took some pains in his task; the letters had to be more deliberately executed than letters in running scripts, and the use of this more formal style of handwriting was often reserved for literary works. There are 274 Uncials which date from the fourth to tenth century. The most significant Uncials are the Codex Sinaiticus (designated by the Hebrew aleph a or 01) dating from fourth century, the Codex Alexandrinus (A, 02) dating from the fourth century, Codex Vaticanus (B, 03) dating from fourth century, and Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (C, 04) dating from fourth century, and Codex Bezae (D, 05) dating from late fifth century. The Codex Sinaiticus is distinct for being the earliest surviving complete copy of the Greek New Testament.  

·         Cursive scripts. These manuscripts are nonliterary documents written in a cursive or “running” script. Most existing manuscripts of the New Testament books are cursives; and most of these are minuscules.  

·         Minuscules. In the 9^th century handwriting was reformed with a cursive script using minuscule or “smaller lettered” writing which was adopted for the production of books. This new form of writing in cursive was instantaneous excepted for one could write quickly and get more script on the page for the script was smaller. Because minuscules are were easier to produce, minuscule copies of the New Testament outnumber uncials more than ten to one. There are some 2700 minuscules which are designated by Arabic numerals (e.g. 13). The significant minuscules are Codex 1 (12^th century), Codex 13 (13^th century), and Codex 33 (9^th century). Earlier minuscule manuscripts tend to be more carefully copied than the later ones and have little or no ornamentation. The vast majority of New Testament Greek manuscripts are minuscules. 

·         Lectionaries. These are manuscripts that contained select New Testament passages for church reading to a liturgical calendar. We have some 2100 lectionaries. These are designated by the letter l or by the abbreviation Lect. All New Testament books except Revelation are included in the lectionaries. The book of Acts is cited more completely. The text of the lectionaries was similar to the minuscules.  The dating of lectionaries is as early as the 5^th century (e.g. l 1043) though most date from the 10^th century.

12.       MOST OF THE 5,000 MANUSCRIPTS ARE FRAGMENTS, preserving a few verses or books. Of the entire 5,000 manuscripts only 50 of these contain the entire New Testament. One of these 50 is the uncial – the codex Sinaiticus. These 50 do not all agree because they have variants, they are not the originals.

13.         FROM THE 5,000 MANUSCRIPTS and 50 whole manuscripts illustrated above, there are eight thousand versions or translations of the 5,000 manuscripts. These 8,000 manuscripts are not as useful as the Greek manuscripts because these are translations of a Greek manuscript or of several combined. But, we dare not disregard them as these versions witness to a larger and unambiguous reading, and can tell us if a verse or a line was included in the parent Greek manuscript.

14.          THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS WERE PROBABLY WRITTEN ON SCROLLS which was soon replaced by the codex or leaf form (book). ALL existing manuscripts of the Greek New Testament are codexes. Also, the autographs or originals were written in ancient form, that is, no spaces between words, no punctuation marks, and no paragraph divisions. Read the following: GODISNOWHERE. Do you read, "God is nowhere?" Or, do you read, "God is Now Here?" Copiest had to discern where to divide words, where to begin and end sentences, and where to put punctuation. Examples of mistakes are 1 Corinthians 11:1 which belongs to the end of Chapter 10; 1 Corinthians 12:31b clearly belongs to chapter 13.

15.          THE NEW TESTAMENT in comparison with other books written in antiquity has better surviving records than the very best of the alternatives. Homer’s Iliad is preserved in 457 papyri, 2 uncials, and 188 minuscules. The first six books of Annals written by the famous Roman governor and historian Tacitus are found in a single manuscript dating from the 9^th century.

16.          WE HAVE WHAT WE HAVE. That is, 5,000 manuscripts which are copies, and not necessarily copies of the original, but copies of copies. Within every manuscript are all kinds of errors, unintentional and intentional errors. Unintentional errors are those in which the scribe made a mistake in copying even though a professional scribe. He may have heard his reader say something incorrectly, like echamen “we have” instead of echomen, “let us have.” The pronouns hemeis and humeis are pronounced almost exactly though the first is “we” while the second is “you.” Did John write “our joy” or “your joy” in 1 John 1:4? The intentional errors may have been strategic corrections that were actually errors. We embrace this unless we hold to extrabiblical inspiration, that even the copiers were inspired and could not make mistakes. And, this is not true. Copiest in the fourth to tenth century, even the 1st century were copiest who as publishers today who made mistakes. The manuscripts and versions and citations ALL have variants.

17.          DURING THE 2ND CENTURY the Greek New Testament was translated into the languages of Latin, Syriac, and Coptic.

·         Latin versions include the Old Latin from North Africa, the Latin Vulgate, a revision of the Old Latin made by Jerome in AD 386 based on the very best available Latin texts, and the 8,000 manuscripts from the Vulgate, badly corrupted  due to their divergent readings.

·         Syriac versions include the Old Syriac, preserved in two manuscripts, and the Palestinian Syriac dated to the 5^th century.

·         Coptic versions include the Sahidic translation spoken in upper (i.e. southern) Egypt, and the Bohairic translation spoken in lower (i.e. northern) Egypt.

·         Other versions of the New Testament include the Armenian, Georgian, Ethiopic, Gothic, and Arabic translations.

18.       ANCIENT VERSIONS AS A SOURCE OF EVIDENCE have little or limited importance due to the difficulty versions have in helping us establish the original in Greek; versions can not always reflect what the Greek might have read. For example, Latin lacks the definite article “the” and the Syriac cannot distinguish between the aorist and the perfect tenses.

19.        THE CITATIONS OF THE CHURCH FATHERS help us immensely to evaluate the myriad variants of the Greek manuscripts. These were quotations the church fathers made of the Greek New Testament. It has been said that if all the New Testament manuscripts were destroyed, the entire text of the New Testament could still be restored from their quotations. Their citations can establish how the text appeared in particular places and during particular periods in church history.

20.        THE CHURCH FATHERS help us very much, however, caution must be noted for they did error. For example we can date the King James reading “Bethabara” to Origen’s day (AD 230) as he could not locate Bethany during his travels in Palestine and suggested the name Bethabara. The correct place is Bethany as the manuscripts show.

21.        THE SHEER NUMBER OF WITNESSES to the text of the New Testament makes it virtually certain that the original text has been preserved among the existing witnesses.

22.       THE 5,000 MANUSCRIPTS ARE CLASSIFIED INTO TEXT-TYPES with reference to general patterns of development. The first few centuries the text of the NT developed rather freely. Scribes would make copies from other copies, and soon manuscripts began to take on textual peculiarities of other manuscripts. Thus variants naturally arose and manuscripts containing these and other variants soon arose in various locales giving credence to text-types or manuscript families. The text-types are as follows:

·         The Byzantine Text.  This is the textual tradition preserved by the Byzantine Empire who continued to use Greek which was disappearing by the seventh century, the Roman Empire speaking Latin. There are far more Greek manuscripts existing due to this culture, more than the other three text-types combined. However, most of these manuscripts are late, that is, late in writing, or nearer to us. This is the text-type that stands behind the KJV.

·         The Alexandrian Text. This text-type was probably prepared by trained scribes, most likely in Alexandria Egypt and the region. F.J.A. Hort called its prime exemplars the “neutral” text and ascribed to them a preeminence that has been somewhat mitigated by subsequent research. Nevertheless the Alexandrian text has excellent credentials, far better than its harshest critics are willing to concede. 

·         The Western Text. This text is thought by some scholars not homogeneous enough to be considered a true textual type, and postulate the manuscripts classified under the “western” rubric  sprang from wild and undisciplined scribal activity. It is thought that that a group of scribes whose work developed in more confusion as each generation of scribes toiled without knowledge and without care. 

·         The Caesarean Text. This text-type probably originated in Egypt and may have been brought to Caesarea by church father, Origen. It boasts a unique mixture of western and Alexandrain readings, prompting some scholars to question the value of calling it s text-type. 

The two text-types to consider are the Byzantine Texts and the Alexandrian Texts.

23.          THE FIRST GREEK NEW TESTAMENT TO BE PRINTED was in Spain in AD 1514, a polyglot or multi-language Bible of Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin. This was the desire of the Roman Catholic cardinal primate of Spain, Francisco Ximenes de Cisneros (1437-1517) of Toledo, Spain. It was printed in the university town of Alcala, which was called Complutum in Latin. This Bible came to be known as the Complutensian Polyglot. It was the first printed but was not put on the open market. 

24.          THE FIRST PRINTED AND PUBLISHED GREEK NEW TESTAMENT was the edition by Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus (1469-1536) of Rotterdam, Holland, published March 1516 in Basil after only six months preparation. This resulted in hundreds of printing errors. To prepare his text Erasmus utilized several Greek manuscripts, but he DID NOT USE ONE of the 50 complete New Testament manuscripts. And, none of the manuscripts he used was earlier than the twelfth century. That is quite removed from the earliest manuscripts. And, for the book of Revelation Erasmus had one manuscript, but it lacked the final leaf which contained the last six verses of Revelation. To get those verses Erasmus translated the Latin Vulgate on hand back into Greek rather than searching for the manuscripts to find those verses. Thus, the final six verses of Erasmus’s Greek New Testament (which is the foundation for the KJV) are several words and phrases found in no Greek manuscript –they belong to Erasmus as he translated the Latin he read to his Greek print. He also did this in other places. In Acts 9:6 he introduced the phrase, “And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” This phrase is found in no Greek manuscript; none! This is an obvious assimilation to the parallel account in Acts 22:10.

Erasmus published a second edition of the Greek New Testament, and like the first, it was a diglot or publication in two languages, Greek and Erasmus’ elegant Latin translation although that differed considerable from the Vulgate. This second version became the basis of Luther’s German translation in 1522. The third edition of Erasmus appeared in 1522, the language of which is still embedded in the King James Version.

Another error of Erasmus’ Greek New Testament which is the foundation for the King James Version was his insertion of the Trinitarian formula in 1 John 5:7-8, “…the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” Erasmus had omitted this formula in his second edition and answered the charges for his omission by the Catholic Church by stating that those words could not be found in an Greek manuscript. He was right! He promised the Catholic clergy that if they could produce a single Greek manuscript that contained the passage he would comply and print it. A copy was found and Erasmus kept his promise publishing it in his third edition (1522) though he suspicioned the manuscript  was forged to confute him. It now appears that the manuscript was indeed forged, and by a Franciscan friar named Froy who in 1520 took the words from the Latin Vulgate. This manuscript is codex minuscule 61 now in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. Among the thousands of Greek manuscripts that have been discovered since Erasmus, only three others attest to this reading. One is minuscule 88, a 12^th century manuscript with the formulistic words of the trinity scribbled on the margin in a seventeenth century hand; a sixteenth century copy of the Compluttensian Polyglot Greek text which was also under the influence of the catholic Latin Vulgate; and a manuscript dated to the fourteenth to the seventeenth century. The Trinitarian phrase appears in no manuscript of the 5,000 and in no copy of the Latin Vulgate before about AD 800.

25.          ERASMUS PUBLISHED A FOURTH AND FIFTH EDITION although the texts of Erasmus was based on the a dozen minuscule manuscripts available to him, but none earlier than the tenth century.

26.          ERASMUS WAS REPRINTED BY VARIOUS PUBLISHERS, the most important was the Parisian Robert Estiene his surname Latinized as Stephanus. This Stephanus issued four editions of the Greek Testament leaning heavily upon Erasmus, and by-the-by, it was Stephanus who in his fourth edition (1551) divided the text into chapters and numbered verses.

27.          THEODORE BEZE successor of John Calvin published a further nine editions of the Greek New Testament though his text differs little from that of Stephanus’s fourth edition of 1551. Translators of the King James Bible in 1611 relied largely on Beza’s editions of 1588-1589 and 1598 which is the work of Erasmus.   

28.          IN 1624 THIRTEEN YEARS AFTER THE 1611 publication of the KJV the Elzevir brothers, Bonaventure and Abraham of Holland published a compact Greek New Testament, the text largely that of Beza and therefore Erasmus. In the second edition, published in 1633 was an advertising blurb that says in Latin, “Textum ergo habes, nunc ab omnibus receptum: in quo nihil immutatem aut corruptum damus” meaning “the text that you have is now received by all, in which we give nothing changed or perverted.” This is the origin of the term Textus Receptus or TR as it is often referred.  The TR is not the “received text” in the sense that it has been received from God as over against Greek manuscripts. It is the “received text” in the sense that it was the standard one at the time of the Elzevirs. The truth is the TR is a compilation of haphazardly collected and relatively late (nearer to us) texts; for example in 12 places are found readings attesting to no known Greek manuscript witness, but biased readings from the Catholic vulgate back to the Greek to sustain a favored reading. Also, the TR is not the same as the Byzantine tradition. The Byzantine text-type is found in several thousand witnesses; the TR did not refer to one hundredth of that evidence.

29.          BETWEEN THE SIXTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES a significant number of manuscripts from a period earlier than those manuscripts used by Erasmus were discovered.  

to be continued...

THE TITHE

Typically, the way many students research a topic of the Bible is to begin at the beginning of the Bible, the book of Genesis, and read and study that topic all the way through the Bible to the end, the last book, Revelation. The compilation is then asserted, in the case of tithing, is asserted as applicable since taught in the Bible. This is wrong methodology, of course. What Moshe wrote in the Torah, what the Prophets wrote to Israel, and what the other Jewish authors wrote in their writings to Israel under the Mosaic covenant is not appliable to the Church who are governed by a new High Priest who is not a Levite, but a Judahite and governed by His New Covenant. I dogmatically assert that the church must be very careful not to yoke OT laws and precepts to NT believers; the church must learn what is anticipated of us who are married to a new husband, Yeshua -dead to the OT covenant laws. Now, all that is His is ours as we have died with Him. Be careful pastors not to assert dead people -which is what believers are (dead to the mosaic law and rituals since we have died with Christ) as subjects to the court system of a former covenant and its regulations!

Relationship with our Lord was and continues to be defined by the covenant our LORD had made with us according to the covenant HE alone cut. Those living under the covenant God made with Israel were obliged to relate to the LORD according to obediance to those commands. The laws / precriptions / requirements given to Israel were obligatory. However, under Yeshua's new covenant those former commands / laws / prescriptions / requirements are now obsolete (Hebrews 8:13) since we are dead to it (Romans 7:4) and alive to a New Covenant. Only because our Lord perfectly obeyed the commands of the OT and having done so had the authority to inaugurate a new covenant -unlike the one He made with Israel (Jeremiah 31:31). This New Covenant was made specifically with Israel (Jeremiah 31:31), yet also includes all others who were once outside the commonwealth of Israel having been grafted into the people of God (Romans 11).

A New Covenant means new laws / prescriptions / requirements, a new contract that governs our relationship to our LORD God. Under the Mosaic code Israel was obliged to pay three tithes to God. Not to pay those three tithes was to steal from God (Malachi 3). However, under the New Covenant the believer is considered dead to OT regulations, commands, or laws (Romans 7:4). The New Covenant has a New High Priest, one who is not a Levite from the Aaronic order, but a Judahite from the tribe of Judah. His name is YHWHshua. The New Covenant has a New Priesthood, no longer only those of Levi, but all believers as priests. The New Covenant no longer has 611 judicial, ceremonial, and civil laws given to Moshe and Israel, but laws prescribed in the New Covenant of Yeshua. Under the New Covenant there is no longer a literal monetary payment required of believers to pay God, His Temple, or the Levites (though myriad churches will reference these to get believers to pay for the new temple on the corner). In Yeshua believers are considered dead to all OT laws except those rewritten and incorporated into the New Covenant. For example in Ephesians the law of obediance to parents remains intact and a blessing for long life, while in Colossians the law of sabbath is obsolete. The NT believer has died to the former old covenant laws / prescriptions / requirements and is obliged to new laws / prescriptions / requirements -just as a spouse is free from the laws pertaining to her former marriage which has been severed due to the death of the marriage -in this case, her own death. Being set free from the laws of that marriage, she is able to marry again Paul writes to the Romans (7:1-4). The analogy is of the believer who's relationship to the law of Moshe has been severed by his / her own death (the Law is holy and cannot die). The believer now dead is free to re-marry a new husband -Yeshua!

What was precribed to Israel under a covenant made with them is, of course, obsolete to the New Covenant believer and cannot be applied to him for he has died to the former covenant or contract. To illustrate, my grandfather Hudi Burl Grice has been dead now for more than 50 years. He is no longer required to live by the standards of Bradley County Arkansas nor appear in the court to be judged for offenses he may have committed while living or while now dead. He has died and is now dead still to the law. In that likeness the believer in Yeshua has died to all former laws God required under the old covenant -and with which He made with Israel and not with the nations who are a law unto themselves.

A believer under the new covenant of the new Judahite High Priest made in the likeness of Melchizedek and not Levi will never-no-never be judged by the requirements God made with Israel. God forbid that a Christian commit the sin of adultery, yet he or she will never be labeled an adulteror for he/she has died to the law and its pronouncement and that believer will be chastened by Yeshua as a son or daughter -never as an adulteror. A believer may lie, God forbid, but the believer is a son or daughter of the new covenant and can never be judged by the law as a lier. He or she will certainly be chastened by the Lord for speaking falsehood but chastened as a son or daughter of God.

When we 'marry' Yeshua we are given as a free gift, His death, His perfect righteousness, His resurrection, His ascension, and His seating next to the Father.  

So, to the question of tithing. What is the New Covenant law or prescription or requirement of tithing? There is none! Absolutely none! There is none specified though we may suggest that if there is a New Covenant model it is given to us in Luke's account of the first church in Acts. We must be clear that this model is not commanded though it was written for us. Those first believers understood the New Covenant and saw themselves  far removed from the image of Israel giving a portion; the new covenant believers unlike Israel gave away literally everything they had, no one considered anything his own. Try preaching that in the church today and see if there is a positive response. It is much easier perhaps even stratetic for pulpiteers to  ignore the truth and preach the portion, that the believer who is actually dead and is to live dead, should rather give the sacred OT tenth, after all, this is doable.

Sadly, there are many ministers notorious for reminding their parishers of tithing laws. Perhaps they are (1) simply unlearned of the New Covenant in contrast with the mosaic or old covenant; or (2) they misunderstand the protocol of the two covenants; or (3) they  misapply the covenants; or (4) they do not know how to rightly divide the covenants; or (5) they purposefully manipulate God's people while secretly knowing NT believers are no longer obligated to the rules given to Israel. The tithing system works for building churches, paying or increasing salaries, and for revenue to pay bills. Thus, many bite their lip and remain mute to New Covenant truth though knowing it. Oy Vey!

When someone begins a research on tithing from the beginning of the bible in the book of Genesis reading all the way through he or she will find the pronouncment of tithing myriad times. However, the question is to whom WAS the tithe pronounced? What was the amount? How many times were they to tithe? What were the covenant laws? What was the penalty for not obeying? To answer, tithing was a law unto Israel, the tithe was a tenth of all, of all possessions, it was required under the Mosaic covenant, and disobediance brought chastisment. Never, not once, was the tithe commanded before the Mosaic code nor after the Mosaic code. Avraham gave a tenth only to Melchizedek and only of war booty, not his own possessions and not before Melchizedek and not after his tithe to Melchizedek. The tithe is not mentioned, commanded, required, or even referenced under the new testament. Remember that the New Covenant dispensation began on the day of Pentecost, Acts 2, not with the birth and ministry of Yeshua Who was born "under the law." He was obliged to live and fulfill the law. Yeshua obeyed all the Mosaic law, every yod and tittle; He had to do this in order to finish or complete the OT that He may install the New Covenant. So, be careful in suggesting that since Yeshua tithed, He is the example for New Covenant believers. If this is the case, we men must also be circumcised and all of us obey all the other Mosaic Laws Yeshua observed. He fulfilled the former to set it aside and to establish the latter, the New Covenant.

The question as what God expects of me concerning money or possessions is answered in accordance to the new covenant which governs our relationship with our Lord. Let me suggest that you simply ask Him.Our Lord Yeshua is not hiding, He is not playing games; He will answer. Do be careful for you may discover that you are told to give away all and not one-tenth; remember that you are an alien and not of this world, you own nothing for He is your all. By-the-by, if you say He spoke to you concerning the tithe, I am going to challenge you to scripture and verse.