The Observer
Friday, February 24, 2017
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Life After Death - Part 2
In the first part of this series we learned that Yehovah-Yeshua breathed His "breath", "pneuma", "wind", "spirit", "naphach"; the "neshama" or breath of life into A'dam (man) and he became a living soul - a "nephesh". This animated A'dam and he became conscious or aware; alive.
... now, we continue ...
Gen 3:3 but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'"
Gen 3:4 But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. ('mooth' - to be dead)
Gen 3:5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Gen 3:6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Gen 3:7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Gen 3:8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
Gen 3:9 But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?"
Gen 3:10 And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself."
Gen 3:11 He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?"
Gen 3:12 The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate."
Gen 3:13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
Gen 3:14 The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.
Gen 3:15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."
Gen 3:16 To the woman he said, "I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."
Gen 3:17 And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
Gen 3:18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.
Gen 3:19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
Gen 3:20 The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
Gen 3:21 And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
Gen 3:22 Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—"
Gen 3:23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
Gen 3:24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
(I wanted to show the context of all of chapter 3 at least once)
(ABP)
Gen 3:3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the paradise, God said, Eat not from it, nor touch it! that you should not die. ('apoth-nace-ko' - literally die)
Gen 3:4 And said the serpent to the woman, Not to death will you die.
Gen 3:5 knows For God that in which ever day you should eat of it, will be opened wide your eyes, and you will be as gods, knowing good and evil.
...
Gen 3:19 By sweat of your face you will eat your bread, until the returning you into the earth from out of which you were taken. For earth you are and unto earth you will go. And Adam called the name of his wife, Zoe, for she was mother of all the living.
Gen 3:23 that ejected him the lord God from the paradise of the delicacy, to work the earth from which he was taken.
Gen 3:24 And he cast out Adam, and settled him before the paradise of the delicacy, and ordered the cherubim, and the flaming broadsword turning, to guard the way of the tree of life.
(BSEP)
Gen 3:1 And the two were naked, both Adam and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Gen 3:2 Now the serpent was the most crafty of all the brutes on the earth, which the Lord God made, and the serpent said to the woman, Wherefore has God said, Eat not of every tree of the garden? (gan)
Gen 3:3 And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, (gan)
Gen 3:4 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
Gen 3:5 And the serpent said to the woman, Ye shall not surely die.('mooth' - to be dead)
...
Gen 3:21 And Adam called the name of his wife Life, because she was the mother of all living.
Gen 3:22 And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skin, and clothed them.
Gen 3:23 And God said, Behold, Adam is become as one of us, to know good and evil, and now lest at any time he stretch forth his hand, and take of the tree of life and eat, and so he shall live forever--
Gen 3:24 So the Lord God sent him forth out of the garden of Delight to cultivate the ground out of which he was taken.
Gen 3:25 And he cast out Adam and caused him to dwell over against the garden of Delight, and stationed the cherubs and the fiery sword that turns about to keep the way of the tree of life.
(NASB)
Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" (gan)
Gen 3:2 The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden (gan) we may eat;
Gen 3:3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden (gan), God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.'"
Gen 3:4 The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die! ('mooth' - to be dead)
Gen 3:5 "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
...
Gen 3:21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
Gen 3:22 Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"--
Gen 3:23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.
Gen 3:24 So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden (e'den, 'ay-den') He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.
[Notes/Conclusion: There are no appreciable differences in translations except for one word, which I'll cover below. Chapter 3 of Genesis is chocked full of fish to catch! I'll start from Ch. 2 and cast forward into 3.
First, we know that man becomes a living soul when he receives the "Breath/Spirit" of Yehovah-Yeshua. This point is incredibly important to understand from a critical thinking aspect. It says man does NOT have a soul, but becomes a living one! Now, we also learn from Ch. 3 that if sin had not entered the picture Adam and Eve would have lived forever. Why? Because they were eating from the "Tree of Life", not because they had any innate immortality. Please notice they were warned not to eat of the "Knowledge" tree because it would cause them to die.
I didn't want to project forward too much in this study but in this case it would be helpful.
"the soul who sins shall die!".
This admonition in Ezekiel 18 is speaking of generational sin but the point is well taken. A man is held responsible for his own sin and he will die because of that sin. Please notice this ESV verse says it correctly; "the soul who sins". The KJV, for example, says "the soul that sins", as if a soul is an entity separate and distinguishable from the human. The KJV is good for some things, but it is one of the worst versions in history, for accuracy!
Next, please notice that the Serpent lies to Eve. The Serpent actually mixes some truth with the lie telling Eve she will be like God, "knowing good and evil". But he intimates a lie by declaring, "You surely shall not die!"
The narrative continues and we discover that Adam and Eve have to be driven out of the Garden because they would eventually eat again of the "Tree of Life", after sinning and live forever, in that sinful state.
It is important to note here. We have ALL sinned! The soul who sins shall die because of his sins. Only One in all of history has not sinned - Yeshua. And He was resurrected! Yes, I know there are more details but I'll eventually get there.
One more thing. Please notice the (ABP) version uses the word, "Paradise", instead of Garden. "Paradisos" is used quite a lot in scripture to speak of "gan e'den", or the garden of Eden. This becomes important later. How often have we heard a Pastor speak of Paradise as heaven where the throne of God is? This is misleading. "Paradise" was here on earth and will be again, along with the Tree of Life and the leaves of the Tree will be used to "heal the nations".]
Have you ever noticed? The first lie spoken of in Scripture and spoken by the father of lies, is one of the most repeated lies in the Church! When you die, you won't surely die - you'll go straight to heaven!
Wow! Just beginning to scratch the surface!
... now, we continue ...
(ESV)
Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" (gan)
Gen 3:2 And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, Gen 3:3 but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'"
Gen 3:4 But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. ('mooth' - to be dead)
Gen 3:5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Gen 3:6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Gen 3:7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Gen 3:8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
Gen 3:9 But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?"
Gen 3:10 And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself."
Gen 3:11 He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?"
Gen 3:12 The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate."
Gen 3:13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
Gen 3:14 The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.
Gen 3:15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."
Gen 3:16 To the woman he said, "I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."
Gen 3:17 And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
Gen 3:18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.
Gen 3:19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
Gen 3:20 The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
Gen 3:21 And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
Gen 3:22 Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—"
Gen 3:23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
Gen 3:24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
(I wanted to show the context of all of chapter 3 at least once)
(ABP)
Gen 3:1 But the serpent was most skilled of all the wild beasts, of the ones upon the earth whom made the lord God. And said the serpent to the woman, For why said God, No way should you eat from all of a tree of the paradise? ('paradisos')
Gen 3:2 And said the woman, From fruit of the tree of the paradise we shall eat; Gen 3:3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the paradise, God said, Eat not from it, nor touch it! that you should not die. ('apoth-nace-ko' - literally die)
Gen 3:4 And said the serpent to the woman, Not to death will you die.
Gen 3:5 knows For God that in which ever day you should eat of it, will be opened wide your eyes, and you will be as gods, knowing good and evil.
...
Gen 3:19 By sweat of your face you will eat your bread, until the returning you into the earth from out of which you were taken. For earth you are and unto earth you will go. And Adam called the name of his wife, Zoe, for she was mother of all the living.
Gen 3:21 And made the lord God to Adam and his wife garments of skins, and he clothed them.
Gen 3:22 And God said, Behold, Adam has become as one of us, to know good and evil. And now, lest at any time he might stretch out the hand, and should take from the tree of life, and should eat, and will live into the eon --
Gen 3:23 that ejected him the lord God from the paradise of the delicacy, to work the earth from which he was taken.
Gen 3:24 And he cast out Adam, and settled him before the paradise of the delicacy, and ordered the cherubim, and the flaming broadsword turning, to guard the way of the tree of life.
(BSEP)
Gen 3:1 And the two were naked, both Adam and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Gen 3:2 Now the serpent was the most crafty of all the brutes on the earth, which the Lord God made, and the serpent said to the woman, Wherefore has God said, Eat not of every tree of the garden? (gan)
Gen 3:3 And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, (gan)
Gen 3:4 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
Gen 3:5 And the serpent said to the woman, Ye shall not surely die.('mooth' - to be dead)
...
Gen 3:19 Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
Gen 3:20 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread until thou return to the earth out of which thou wast taken, for earth thou art and to earth thou shalt return. Gen 3:21 And Adam called the name of his wife Life, because she was the mother of all living.
Gen 3:22 And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skin, and clothed them.
Gen 3:23 And God said, Behold, Adam is become as one of us, to know good and evil, and now lest at any time he stretch forth his hand, and take of the tree of life and eat, and so he shall live forever--
Gen 3:24 So the Lord God sent him forth out of the garden of Delight to cultivate the ground out of which he was taken.
Gen 3:25 And he cast out Adam and caused him to dwell over against the garden of Delight, and stationed the cherubs and the fiery sword that turns about to keep the way of the tree of life.
(NASB)
Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" (gan)
Gen 3:2 The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden (gan) we may eat;
Gen 3:3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden (gan), God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.'"
Gen 3:4 The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die! ('mooth' - to be dead)
Gen 3:5 "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Gen 3:19 By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return."
Gen 3:20 Now the man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. Gen 3:21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
Gen 3:22 Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"--
Gen 3:23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.
Gen 3:24 So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden (e'den, 'ay-den') He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.
[Notes/Conclusion: There are no appreciable differences in translations except for one word, which I'll cover below. Chapter 3 of Genesis is chocked full of fish to catch! I'll start from Ch. 2 and cast forward into 3.
First, we know that man becomes a living soul when he receives the "Breath/Spirit" of Yehovah-Yeshua. This point is incredibly important to understand from a critical thinking aspect. It says man does NOT have a soul, but becomes a living one! Now, we also learn from Ch. 3 that if sin had not entered the picture Adam and Eve would have lived forever. Why? Because they were eating from the "Tree of Life", not because they had any innate immortality. Please notice they were warned not to eat of the "Knowledge" tree because it would cause them to die.
I didn't want to project forward too much in this study but in this case it would be helpful.
"the soul who sins shall die!".
This admonition in Ezekiel 18 is speaking of generational sin but the point is well taken. A man is held responsible for his own sin and he will die because of that sin. Please notice this ESV verse says it correctly; "the soul who sins". The KJV, for example, says "the soul that sins", as if a soul is an entity separate and distinguishable from the human. The KJV is good for some things, but it is one of the worst versions in history, for accuracy!
Next, please notice that the Serpent lies to Eve. The Serpent actually mixes some truth with the lie telling Eve she will be like God, "knowing good and evil". But he intimates a lie by declaring, "You surely shall not die!"
The narrative continues and we discover that Adam and Eve have to be driven out of the Garden because they would eventually eat again of the "Tree of Life", after sinning and live forever, in that sinful state.
It is important to note here. We have ALL sinned! The soul who sins shall die because of his sins. Only One in all of history has not sinned - Yeshua. And He was resurrected! Yes, I know there are more details but I'll eventually get there.
One more thing. Please notice the (ABP) version uses the word, "Paradise", instead of Garden. "Paradisos" is used quite a lot in scripture to speak of "gan e'den", or the garden of Eden. This becomes important later. How often have we heard a Pastor speak of Paradise as heaven where the throne of God is? This is misleading. "Paradise" was here on earth and will be again, along with the Tree of Life and the leaves of the Tree will be used to "heal the nations".]
Have you ever noticed? The first lie spoken of in Scripture and spoken by the father of lies, is one of the most repeated lies in the Church! When you die, you won't surely die - you'll go straight to heaven!
Wow! Just beginning to scratch the surface!
The Observer
Thursday, February 09, 2017
Who Was Yeshua? An Angel?
Please enjoy this vid by JimvesterStallone. Turn down the sound if you don't like the accompanying music, obviously!
The Observer
Sunday, February 05, 2017
Life After Death - Part 1
Introduction
This is an effort to study the question; "What happens when we die?", a question that haunts mankind continually and a question which man has answered with multiple contradictory explanations. And still, no one is satisfied with the conclusions. I certainly am not. Obviously, many intelligent and scholarly men have done this already, but I wanted to see for myself! After all, Torah and all of Scripture should be understandable to an uneducated shepherd boy.
I will use the Bible for this study and history to a lesser extent. My format is simple. The Bible translations used are; the English Standard Version (ESV), the Apostolic Bible Polyglot (ABP), the Brenton Septuagent (BSEP), and the North American Standard Bible (NASB). Also used is Strong's dictionary and the Brown-Driver-Briggs dictionary. My Bible software is E-Sword and various online references, the Biblehub Interlinear, for example.
Why all the differing versions? Because the collection represents a mix of Word-to-Word translation and Concept translation and this produces a more reasonable understanding of the underlying text, both GREEK and HEBREW.
By examining select verses, in context; those that seem to apply to the subject at hand, the hope is to come to better definitions of applicable words and concepts. This should enable me to ultimately make more reasonable conclusions.
At the end of each section I will state a temporary conclusion, which simple means; "this is what I think, so far". I reserve the right to alter my final conclusions at the end of the study.
Let's begin ... for this is going to take some time!
Genesis (B'resheet) Chapter 1
(ESV)
Gen 1:1 In the beginning, God (elohim) created the heavens and the earth.
Gen 1:2 The earth was without form (tohu) and void (wabohu), and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit (ruach) of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
(ABP)
Gen 1:1 In the beginning God (theos) made the heaven and the earth.
Gen 1:2 But the earth was unseen (invisible) and unready (unprepared), and darkness was upon the abyss (the apparently bottomless sea, deep), and spirit (pneuma or pneh'-o, poos-khey) of God bore upon the water.
(BSEP)
Gen 1:1 In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth.
Gen 1:2 But the earth was unsightly and unfurnished, and darkness was over the deep, and the Spirit of God moved over the water.
(NASB)
Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Gen 1:2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.
[Notes/Conclusion: the various versions declare God as "Elohim" or "Theos". They declare that the earth was "invisible", "unprepared" (for life - in context), "unsightly", "unfurnished", "formless" and "void"; upon the "abyss", "void", "bottomless abyss or sea", "space", "darkness"; and the "breath and/or exhalation" of God or "Spirit" of God "moved" over the "waters". Obviously, the unformed earth consisted of lots of water.
The seminal question here is what is God's "pnemua", "ruach", "breath", and/or "spirit". It could be as simple as God's breath hovering over the waters, ready to take action as in speech, or it can be His intelligent spirit forming and constructing the chaos. The vast majority of definitions point towards His "breath" or "wind" of His breath interacting with the waters. In context, this seems to be the case, because the next thing that happens is that Elohim speaks; "Let there be light"! All this may become important later as we delve into what humans have been given by God!]
Genesis (B'resheet) Chapter 2
Just so ya know, back in Ch. 1, verse 26 God made man in His "image". This word, "image" is exactly that, His "likeness". It implies nothing more.
(ESV)
Gen 2:4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
Gen 2:5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground,
Gen 2:6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—
Gen 2:7 then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed (naphach - to puff or blow hard) into his nostrils (the nose) the breath (neshamah) of life, and the man (adam) became a living creature (nephesh - soul).
(ABP)
Gen 2:7 And God shaped the man, dust taking from the earth. And he breathed (emphusaoo - to blow, blew) into his face (prosopon - the front of his face) breath (pno-ay - breath, wind) of life, and became man (anthropos - a certain man) a soul (psookhay - from breath, becoming a sentient "animal") living (literally, alive).
(BSEP)
Gen 2:7 And God formed the man of dust of the earth, and breathed upon his face the breath of life, and the man became a living soul. (no appreciable differences here)
(NASB)
Gen 2:7 Then the LORD God formed man (adam) of dust from the ground, and breathed (naphach) into his nostrils the breath of life (neshama); and man became a living being (nephesh - soul).
[Notes/Conclusion: God made man from the dust/dirt of the earth and breathed into him. This divine breath animated man, made him alive and he became a living soul. The logic in me wants to conclude that when the divine breath of God leaves the man of dust, he ceases to be a living soul. This makes sense to me.
Additional reading says that all animals and plants have the "neshamah" or breath of life from God in them. And, that all humans become a "nephesh", or living soul. No, rocks don't have this. This is where Judeo-Christianity parts ways from Buddhism. Traditional Jewish teaching says that the Ruach or breath of God is Spirit and that this Spirit "connects" the neshamah and nephesh. My study so far, however does not indicate this. IMO, this is man's conjecture, at this point.
Nothing so far says that we are born with an immortal anything! So far, the Word simply says we become a living soul when the breath of God enters us.]
But, we have a long way to go!
The Observer
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