This post is about how to gather, sort, filter, and orchestrate words from root Scripture languages to get at a New or Old Testament author’s intended word meaning. It’s about how to do Bible word analysis and avoid false interpretation or erroneous meaning from Scripture.
Method of Biblical Word Study
For purposes of consistency and as a repeatable exegetical methodology, it is an efficient use of time and effort to do Bible word studies with a proven and well-developed process. This post outlines a process where the analysis guidelines are given by the “Grasping God’s Word” [1] text is adapted to this Bible word analysis method with Logos software.
This walk-through is a highly useful method for carrying out Bible word studies, and it is now central to a personal workflow. The same process is suitable for both the Old and New Testaments and can be done both manually or automatically to a limited extent.
Select Word for Study
Words that are crucial to a Scripture passage.
Repeated words.
Figures of speech.
Words that are unclear, puzzling, or difficult.
The outline given below makes trial use of the chosen word “confidence” in Hebrews 4:16 NASB and ESV.
“Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. ” – Hebrews 4:16
Determine Semantic Range
Gather a listed range of all possible word definitions using a standard English dictionary.
Do Concordance Work
Determine what the word could mean from the original Hebrew or Greek language. This is a further narrowing of the semantic range as it becomes recognized what the words mean in that language. From the original manuscript word, isolate the other word terms to identify their meaning from the reading of the text. In this example, the Greek word for “παρρησία” (parrēsia) could mean “confidence,” “plainly,” “boldness,” “public, publicity,” or “openly, openness.”
Several modern Bible translations can now align with one another as the word chosen for analysis become compared between text translators. All translations taken together in the concurrently listed form should translate from the same original word.
Drill down into the circular word definition segment to separate the term given in Greek. By extracting this term for greater precision, it then becomes possible to see the differences among all variability. By process of elimination, we can from there conclude the word has a “confidence, boldness, plainly” meaning. As compared, for example, to “persuade” or “convince,” which isn’t the rendered word used by the author. We can, therefore, understand from the word choice that a person isn’t to approach the throne of grace of the LORD Most High to “persuade” or “convince”.This method can sometimes reconcile rendered word differences between various formal or informal Bible translations.
Examine the Context of Word Analysis
This is a crucial step to determine what the word could mean. From the chosen word for study, examine other sources of context located among biblical passages, as indicated in this diagram below. Imagine this diagram as a 3D Venn-type illustration. With the chosen word study at the top and its surrounding concentric circles of context beneath, examine progressive levels of context while extending outward. Each circle supports or reinforces its suitable meaning.
Look up all verses associated with the separated word to identify commonalities in meaning elsewhere. With the same author and then all verses together that make use of the specific word through the same covenant (OT or NT).
To assure faulty logic is not applied to word analysis and arrive at a false conclusion, test, or screen the rationale for a prospective and interpreted meaning. Specifically, this is to check tentative findings against any potential pitfalls. If the word-analysis fails any of these tests, the process must begin again. The process must remain iterative until there is a high degree of certainty about a word’s interpreted meaning.
Watch for Fallacies of Interpretation
English-Only Fallacy
This occurs when you base your word study on the English word rather than the underlying Greek or Hebrew word.
Root Fallacy
Falsely concludes that the real meaning of a word always comes from the original root or etymology of the word. For example, a butterfly is not a fly soaked, or coated in butter.
Time-Frame Fallacy
This occurs when the definition or meaning of a term in modern use is read back into Scripture, or applied to biblical times.
Overload Fallacy
An acceptance that a word means every definition within its semantic range.
Word-Count Fallacy
To conclude that a word has the same meaning every time it occurs.
Word-Concept Fallacy
A false assumption that the full meaning of a concept is the same as the meaning of a single word. The meaning of a concept is bigger than a single word.
Selective-Evidence Fallacy
Choosing an interpreted word that matches our preference while we dismiss evidence that contradicts our view.
Conclude the Author’s Intended Definition and Use of the Word
Specifically, for the verse interpreted inside the passage and within context, it is safe to conclude and accept the intended meaning of the word.
[1] J Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays, Grasping God’s Word, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 163 – 184. [2] Ibid. 177. [3] Ibid. 164 -166.
Throughout the pages of “Scripture as Communication,” we read and learn about concepts and methods around biblical communication and interpretation. We explore hermeneutical principles and perspectives from various schools of thought. From both a theoretical and practical frame of reference, readers become informed through illustrations, definitions, outlines, and models that educate students of Scripture on what it is to bring about a full and more productive study of God’s word.
Book Review
Within this book review, various subjects covered among both practical and theoretical sections in Dr. Brown’s book reflect her walkthrough about what interpretation and meaning are and what they involve. Much of Dr. Brown’s use of technical language and prose to guide readers through these subjects is distilled in this review to gain a clear understanding of what a student of Scripture learns within her book about biblical hermeneutics. The first half of the book’s theoretical topics cover the roles of biblical authors, readers, and texts to arrive at conclusions intended for communicative purposes. A reader could view this first section as a survey of internal interest about textual meaning, its implications, historical development, and interest to both readers and authors of Scripture. The second half of the book pertains to practical or external applicability and relevance to what readers understand from the prior section.
Theoretical Perspectives on Scripture as Communication
Terminology & Context
The book begins with definitions and terminology that set up a foundation of understanding within its chapters to follow. Specifically, the author builds upon various terms as new topics are introduced or reinforced. To further understand the definitional meaning of hermeneutics, exegesis, genre, literary context, social setting, and contextualization. These terms become further and progressively explored in-depth to one another. To bring understanding about how they are relevant to the interpretation and application of Scripture as intended.
Dr. Brown defines hermeneutics as the study of activity involving interpretation. It is a meta-textual analysis process that enables a reader or study to arrive at accurate and meaningful conclusions about what becomes communicated. This process gets applied across various genres to interpret and grasp meaning successfully. As readers, we reach an understanding of poetry, narratives, epistles, and legal texts of the Bible. While attending to literary and social contexts in which an author intended. Particularly in their original settings at the time, written works occur for transmission and delivery to readers centuries later.
The introductory topic of exegesis carries more practical relevance in later chapters. However, it is of significant interest from a theoretical perspective because it pertains to the historical context of Scripture as written. Dr. Brown refers to this as an “exegetical process” that is culturally significant concerning a gap between a modern reader and the author of Scripture during the time events, or literary occurrences become committed to text. Exegesis is a practice that a reader applies to get at the closest interpreted meaning of Scripture, most notably concerning its genre, literary context, and social setting.
Communication Models of Interpretation
A greater depth of theoretical understanding becomes developed across numerous models with their historical backgrounds. With examples of their usage, Dr. Brown describes each model in summary and detail. Among the first introduced is speech-act theory while accompanied by language theory, relevance theory, and literary theory. The speech-act theory stands out among all others in Dr. Brown’s further written work among later chapters. In due course, it then becomes necessary to refer back again to the definitions and descriptions associated with this theoretical model to get at its relevance and applicability.
Speech-Act theory calls attention to the functional nature of language. In that, there are specific purposes of language recognized and put to use during a communicative process. There are four critical points of interest — First, a locution as defined by what is said. Second, an illocution to describe what is accomplished by what is said. Third, a perlocutionary intention is an intended response by hearers or readers. Finally, an unintended perlocution is what is accomplished by what is said, but not intended. In an effort to hold together these technical concepts for later reference, students of Scripture can find these terms of limited interest as they appear meant for academics or scholars. Still, the purpose of their definitions within this theoretical model helps to better understand the context of textual work completed thousands of years back in history.
To further draw into the various additional theoretical models of interpretation, Dr. Brown calls attention to their histories, academic contributors, and rationale about their suitability within the exegetical process.
Authors, Texts, Readers
There is a three-way contrast made between each functional role of communicative participants. Introduced are an original author, an implied or actual reader, and an autonomous text that bears its meaning in a free-standing way. It is here that “authorial intention” is introduced as a way to describe and emphasize meaning as best derived from what an author intends or expects. All essential attributes associated with an author such as language, social, economic, and political realities have a bearing on meaning. This meaning, in turn, contributes to the context that conveys understanding, research, application, and contextualization as further explained later in the book.
Further attention has been given to what form of meaning as developed from a reader’s perspective. Where what prevails is the subjective view and preferences of readers with their own biases, traditions, and influences. Over time, this emphasis on a reader’s interpretation to establish meaning has developed but does not hold weight among modern expositors.
Meaning becomes further categorized as intentionality types along a scale or continuum. Between transmissive and expressive intentionality, there are various Scripture genres to bring about outcomes that align with authorial intent — either expressive as apparent among works of poetry, or transmissive and instructional works found among epistles. The Bible’s authors have communicated meaning in their texts to convey intent. Whether in the narrative form or through instructional and emotive style, the method of communication chosen fits the purpose and substance of that which is conveyed. In a context of textual coherence appropriate to what a reader should come to understand and accept.
Developing Textual Meaning
There is a distinction between implicit and explicit meaning as covered by Dr. Brown to probe patterns of communication. Moreover, her book refers to inference beyond explicit intentions. To come closer to what an author intends by written Scripture, we can interpret patterns of meaning that are otherwise less available if we read and understand the Bible at a surface level. This poses certain risks toward false interpretation, but if a reader adheres to literary and historical context according to the purpose of Scripture, they become mitigated or reduced.
Of particular interest is the notion that authors can and do communicate beyond what they consciously express, where there is a (sub)meaning of context which holds validity to a pattern of meaning an author willed or infers. What is striking is that these authors are unaware of meaning and inference, which still carries validity. As explained, an author cannot explicitly attend to all expressive or transmissive meaning toward communicative intent because he or she is unable to pay attention to all aspects of meaning. Inferences and implications, therefore, emerge to further the body of work authors produce to communicate with their readers. Thus, implied meaning from New Testament sources compared to implied meaning from Old Testament sources provides opportunities for careful exegetical analysis less evident to many readers.
At the core of textual meaning is perlocutionary intention. Where it becomes recognized that words do things and say things. It is an extension of meaning as it helps form a theological hermeneutic. Both locution and illocution constitute meaning with perlocutionary intention giving activity to what becomes communicated. From this constructed view of Scripture, core textual, its extension, and continuing meaning together represent a total body of substance to interpret implications of written Scripture from an author and transmissive or expressive genre. In a context of textual coherence appropriate to what a reader should come to understand and accept.
Invitation to Active Engagement
It is somewhat surprising that each person who studies Scripture has an individual hermeneutic. There is a single hermeneutic, or linear formula as a checklist of sorts to exegete Scripture for consistent outcomes. We all have our own individual “location” of perspective and influence that affects our interpretive efforts. These are blind spots that keep us from gaining a clear understanding of Scripture. We have our traditions and preconceptions that predispose us to eisegesis of Scripture — all to keep original and intended meaning out of view. Worse yet to arrive at conclusions from Scriptural misinterpretation.
There is an additional discussion about the differences between an implied reader and an actual reader where the actual reader is at a separation some distance in meaning from an implied reader. This is where the implied reader is who an author intends to communicate. However, since there is a necessity for communication that involves interpretation with all of its exegetical issues, the actual reader applies the best effort to get at meaningful understanding. The closer an actual reader is to intended and accurate meaning, the more that the reader becomes an implied reader as biblical authors form their written work across various Scriptural genres. With this difference drawn in Dr. Brown’s book, it becomes apparent that a well-developed hermeneutical interpretation process should include an effort to get as close as possible to original meaning. As an implied reader, rather than an actual reader who takes a superficial view of engaging genre.
It is a mistake to assume that readers are free to read in isolation without any attention to a community at large. Such as a community or group of people who together read and interpret Scripture with various perspectives. Who can, in turn, more accurately apply hermeneutical practices, which contribute to contextualization of those who seek the truth of the Bible. Moreover, either individually or in a group setting, a biblical hermeneutic must attend to biblical genres, languages, social settings, and literary contexts.
Practical Guidance for Interpreting Scripture
Genre and Communication
There are three genres in which Dr. Brown chooses to focus. Poetry, epistles, and narrative are the genres, and she goes into thorough detail about their function and role within Scripture. First, Poetic utterance and meaning as a communicative act involve various devices, imagery, and metaphor. Example after example, Dr. Brown highlights Psalms and Proverbs as a way to form concrete meaning from emotive expression in context with the cultural or traditional setting of biblical authors.
While we as readers tend to prefer prose in narrative form, we do accept and make use of poetry along with more modern expressions. Such as found within music and other forms of entertainment. Imagery called upon to communicate sense and comparison provide the metaphors that bring about added depth and richness in meaning that gets even closer to what an author has conveyed.
The genre of epistle is one of coherent thought within social and cultural settings to affect how biblical meaning and principles are formed. As epistles are explicit letters to individuals and groups of people, there are found within the stories of interpersonal relationships and deeply theological subject matter. Common among all of them is a stream of thought from writers to communicate direct meaning with less room for ambiguity. Often these letters are instructions to early churches within development to include numerous people new to their faith in Christ. New to fellowship, church practices, worship, and other disciplines characteristic of what Jesus set in motion with Peter, His apostle.
Narrative types of Scripture are about stories and discourse. For example, the synoptic gospels are side-by-side perspectives of a common story about the life and ministry of Christ. As a subset to a narrative story, some discourses serve to communicate levels and shapes of Scriptural meaning. Either as thematical, chronological, or rhetorical devices to render comprehension of story participants and readers. With our understanding and interpretive efforts, learned principles, facts, and events of narrative Scripture must become recognized as having profound theological relevance. Gospel urgency, life lessons, spiritual guidance, kingdom awareness, missionary efforts, and so forth get their communicative depth from religious narrative discourse. All are originating from stories that come from gospel writers. They extend out to more immediate readers in their cultural setting as well as those of us who seek to learn and accept their truth and meaning to act upon.
The Language of the Bible
In her effort to share relevant guidance of communication involving languages of the Bible, Dr. Brown collects and records facts and opinions about linguistic challenges, academic perspectives, and the pragmatic inter-workings of biblical languages. Dr. Brown’s technical views about languages of the Bible are strenuously difficult to follow. As an effort to mindfully bring into structured order corresponding usefulness to the overall aim of understanding introductory hermeneutics.
It is widely understood that the Bible is written in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. The absence of topics such as the Septuagint, Masoretic Text, and translations in this section is a point of wonder. Most especially concerning formative languages for interpretative examples. Since New Testament writers read Greek and earlier forms of the Old Testament, it would be highly enlightening what their interpretive process was to demonstrate examples for generations to consider or apply. Or at least to give added credence to the models earlier presented in her book. While much more attention gets placed upon the nature and function of language itself, its thereafter Biblical applicability is bolted on as having viable and legitimate suitability.
Dr. Brown’s book on Scripture as Communication is written for seasoned academics and linguistic scholars. Or at least this section of “Language of the Bible.” While we are presented with an explanation about how language works, various linguistic terms follow and have a considerable bearing on an interpretive process from a scholarly and peer-reviewed perspective. The density and concentration of subject matter in this section are extraordinarily broad and comprehensive and should take several days of full absorption to grasp its informative and educational value. A first-pass read-through doesn’t do it justice with an outcome of limited retention in a short duration of time.
Context and Contextualization
Having read at length and depth through this entire section, primary and secondary sources of material to support the exegetical study of Scripture is outlined and explained to become oriented about what is most suitable for a given purpose. There are various suggestions about skills to develop toward the study of Scripture. Of outstanding value are the sections about outlining, summarizing, identifying themes, and identifying functions.
This is probably the most crucial topic throughout Dr. Brown’s book. While spanning across 41-pages of text at the end of the book, there are exceedingly useful tools covered here. Such as macro-contextualization that provides guidelines about how to traverse across scripture elements to interpret and study for meaning. To include principles and methods that have a bearing on the spiritual development and health of a believer in Christ.
An inquiry into scriptural interpretation is such a crucial question to answer and get correct. It goes right to the heart of not only what we understand about who Jesus is and what His interests are, but how we understand what God is saying to us in our local and time-specific context. All of Scripture calls attention to Jesus from the earliest of Old Testament times right up to what Scripture communicates today and beyond.
The practice of reading and searching the truth of Scripture comes with an obligation to understand it in its unique context. Specifically, to interpret and get relevant and accurate meaning from the text. While reading through a message of specific interest, it is necessary to view and understand the surrounding circumstances of a story or discourse.
While the Holy Spirit helps to bring awareness to presuppositions that affect understanding of His Word, we are to recognize linguistic use, social reconstruction, culture, traditions, preconceived assumptions, political realities, and historical facts conveyed to us. So our hermeneutical methodology during study or even devotional time must attend to the breadth and depth of the Word revealed by the LORD.
How we come to understand and apply the Word of the LORD is hypercritical. We must believe the LORD provided and preserved His Word for us to get to the messages and principles He intended. In practice, by attending to events, occurrences, or writings from biblical authors among various genres. We seek to grasp the who, what, where, when, and why of meaning in the original context. It is a conscious effort to sustain a viable understanding of His eternal Word and apply it.
To effectively contextualize meaning from Yahweh through the authors of Scripture, the biblical reader eventually comes to recognize that God inspires all Scripture (2 Tim 3:16). Where along with an indwelling Spirit, a reader gets at intended meaning that takes into account a biblical context. Specifically to appropriate original meaning in a powerful, relevant, and truthful way.
Across time, worldviews, and cultures, a reader takes a position from authorial intent to recognize scriptural specifics and principles. To appropriate and contextualize meaning for his or her circumstances over a lifetime.
An absent or disconnected author from textual communication with multiple potential language conflicts can allow for numerous possibilities in meaning from nonsense to that which goes well beyond linguistic intent. Furthermore, communicative intentionality can become lost along a spectrum between what is transmissive or expressive. Such as a range of biblical Epistles, and Poetry to a narrative storyline somewhere in the middle.
While poetry and some forms of narrative communication are relatively safer to accurately interpret and get at relevant meaning without authorial intent and control, an author’s objective and transmissive intent are not. Transmissive meaning that is instructional or objective at its surface is independent of an author, as illustrated on Brown’s communication spectrum of intent.
While there are often presuppositions between an author and reader that affect textual meaning. With those, there are risks of misinterpretation from a reader to suit intended or unintended personal interest. A misreading can, in turn, result in unfavorable or harmful outcomes. Whereas, eventually, readers of text become the authors and assert all-powerful ownership of meaning. “The reader becomes the god of the text whether through assimilation or mastery.”
There are three broad areas of thought about where the meaning of Scripture is best originated. In that meaning either comes from the author, text, or the reader of Scripture in a more effective way to understand the communicative intent of what is written in the Living Word. To develop a reliable and effective hermeneutic, Dr. Brown has developed a Scriptural communication model that evaluates the merits of each approach and ties together a coherent way of developing a personal and community-based hermeneutic that honors the intent of the Bible and our LORD.
By spending a lot of time in Dr. Brown’s book, I have developed some opinions about what is largely of interest to the personal and structured study of Scripture and its relevance.
The meaning of Scripture best lies with the author. More specifically, meaning rests with Yahweh through various authors throughout Scripture.1 As Biblical writers communicate in their local contexts, they demonstrate perlocutionary intentions to their audience. Their literary expressions go beyond a full understanding of what becomes communicated.2 Their communicative act to warn, advise, praise, inform, invite, and so forth calls for interpretation and actualization among those who would listen or read what they have to say. Regardless of verbal and literary form, meaning becomes adapted and transposed to new contexts among listeners and readers. Meaning retains its purpose and integrity as to how it becomes applicable rests with individuals and communities.
Dr. Brown’s communication model about meaning comes with several affirmations.3 Her arguments throughout the book were summarized as having various contributing factors, one of which specifies meaning as “author-derived but textually communicated.” Subordinate to the communicative intention of Biblical authors, readers attend to Scripture by contextualization. Readers who appropriate Scripture in their local culture by interpretation and “illumination” form settled and reliable meaning for relevant use as communicated from authors of the Bible.
These affirmations that Dr. Brown wrote coincides with what I have come to understand and accept as the root and origin of meaning. Primarily because of my newly developed view about the subjective nature of reader interpretation and the limits to what autonomous texts can provide without arbitration from an author.
1. Brown, Jeannine K. Scripture as Communication: Introducing Biblical Hermeneutics. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2007, 92 2. Ibid, 114 3. Ibid, 99
The offer of mercy from Christ to hypocritical and self-righteous people is to join a position of grace in His life and ministry. As written in Luke 15:29-31, the righteousness of a person who views himself as a deserving servant does not share the same grace and favor of a freely loved person. A son or daughter who represents a person as reconciled to the LORD.
Powers of Merit, Status & Accomplishment
The mercy, grace, and salvation freely available to those who accept the LORD’s invitation to reconcile are those who also lay down their judgemental self-righteousness and desire His mercy. The person who does not want mercy, but the LORD’s acceptance for their merit, accomplishments, and self-induced performance remain estranged and worse yet condemned. It is His power of grace and mercy that brings about salvation. We are to delight in that.
Powers of Money & Praise
Hearts that are not near to God are hearts that often instead treasure money and accolades from people. A condition where Jesus declares among self-righteous and religious merit-based people, the presence of relationships that usually involves physical adultery or illicit sex. To also include spiritual adultery which, amounts to idolatry. The root problem is, people can live a lifestyle of hypocritical religiosity while their hearts are far from God.
It is not necessarily obvious, but the love of self-glory, status, and money make authentic and productive faith in Christ impossible. A person who earnestly wants the glory of God made full in his or her life does not place much weight upon the powers of money or the accolades of people in near comparison. From Scripture, one could surmise that the greater the distance between God and a person’s desire for Him and His glory, the greater a person’s attraction and motivation for money and status there tends to be.
Powers of Greed, Hypocrisy, and Self-Indulgence
Jesus’ words recorded in Matthew 23:25 informs us of what hypocrisy looks like. The kind that Jesus hates and condemns. That a person, people group, or social context holds out as an external morality self-originated righteousness made evident to others. While still, on the inside, there is corruption to include self-indulgence, greed, lawlessness, and hypocrisy (Matt 23:27-28).
In terms of our LORD’s mission, there are highly essential outcomes as necessary for the kingdom of God’s arrival and His redemptive work on earth. The biblical worldview of the fall of man coincides with the presence of rebellion and evil as the enemies of Yahweh and the cause of Christ. Now and before the resurrection of Christ, there is a spiritual condition upon humanity that is hostile to our Creator and His interests. People are enslaved to their sin as they live out their lives in the presence of spiritual beings that seek or contribute to their eternal demise. Not only to destroy the human soul wherever it resides but to also maintain an affront to God and His purposes.
On Mount Hermon, Jesus, our LORD transformed into a glorified state of being as recorded in Matthew 17:1-8. In His full radiant glory, His Apostles Peter, James, and John witnessed His newly formed presence as a temporary transformation while in the company of Moses and Elijah, who returned from their place in the kingdom of heaven. Both were previously deceased yet returned before Jesus’ resurrection to appear with Him on Mount Hermon in the territory of Bashan.
Geography
According to Deuteronomy 3:9, Mount Hermon is also called Mount Sirion by the Sidonians, and Mount Senir by the Amorites also referred to as Baal-Hermon (Judges 3:3, 1 Chronicles 5:23). Topographically, it is 9,232 feet above sea level in altitude and 13 miles long.1 The mountain rests at satellite coordinates 35.86 longitude and 33.42 latitude (33° 24′ 58.182″ N 35° 51′ 25.294″ E). Its base and slopes range at approximately 38.6 square miles with a limestone, sandstone, volcanic rock, and alkali basalt composition. Populated with fir trees (Ezekiel 27:5) and oaks in the surrounding Bashan area (Ezekiel 27:6), Mount Hermon is sparsely forested. The vegetation and ecology of Mount Hermon mainly consist of emmer wheat as a food staple native to the Fertile Crescent. The physical shape and contour of the mountain are carved by natural processes including tectonic movement and erosion.
Climate & Seasonality
Mount Hermon gets as much as five feet of snow each year at its upper elevations. Overall precipitation from dew, rain, and snow, is a source of water at the foot of the mountain and to the Jordan river further South. Rainfall on Mount Hermon averages about 53 inches per year, with the highest precipitation in January and February with an average of about 119 rainy days throughout the year. Daily average temperatures range from a Winter seasonal low of about 28°F to a high of 71°F in the Summer.
Regional Significance
The history of Bashan and its upper reaches of Mount Hermon is replete with cultic paganism. Where for centuries, from just before the New Testament era, the number of shrines to pagan deities or false gods is many. Excavations carried out over decades in support of archaeological research have yielded evidence of pagan worship and service.2 Artifacts, temples, pottery, coinage, pillars, capitals, altars, idol figures, and inscriptions appear in both elaborate and primitive structures on Mount Hermon.
During the Old Testament era, the territory of Bashan had a cultural reputation as the “Gates of Hell” or unholy ground. It was where the deified and dead kings of Canaan were made to dwell.3 The linguistic root of the word the land of the Rephaim is from the Ugaritic language. Pronounced and spelled “Bathan.” As eventually recognized by direct inference, Bashan, or “place of the serpent.” 4
With the separation of Samaria and Judah, many people deserted Yahweh from Samaria and began to worship false gods at the high places. Recorded in numerous areas within the Old Testament and given by example with King Ahaz (2 Kings 16:4). There were numerous others among the divided kingdoms who participated in idol worship or who tolerated that activity from within the population in general. Over time and with the comingling of Roman deity worship of Zeus and Pan in the area, it became a cesspit of worship and service to false gods.
Spiritual Significance
Because the sons of God and their demonic offspring crave worship and service of the flesh, Israel sacrificed to the demons which inhabited the idols they formed.5 As written in Deut 32:17, the demons among the elohim were worshiped and served. They were understood and recognized as “gods”, as written in Hebrew “elohim.” They were spiritual entities that were demons or “sedim” / “shedim” who became the perverse objects of their worship, bargaining, and prayers. Idolatry was not the worship of other “gods” as often mistranslated but of elohim, which does refer to spiritual beings including demons or devils translated in Deut 32:17 and elsewhere. The mindset of the biblical idolaters recognized that the gods were shedim. Those placed over the nations as elaborated further along in this written work.
Methodology & Extra-Biblical Corroboration
This effort is to thread a fabric of spiritual meaning across both the Old and New Testaments. Broadly to bring together biblical confidence about the punctuated significance of the transfiguration on Mount Hermon. As a stitching of events, or linear sequence across time, to demonstrate that the LORD’s mission was to permanently reclaim the nations and overcome spiritual darkness in a way that was striking and epic.
Along with various layman, scholarly, and historical texts in support of research, the Apocryphal books of Enoch (Aramaic) were referenced to obtain further traditional and historical information. More specifically, the Enochian books were discovered among the Dead Sea scrolls (cave 4 fragments).6
Old Testament Sequence of Events
To outline a series of events to highlight biblical and extra-biblical support for what had occurred on Mount Hermon, the reader will begin to recognize the more profound spiritual significance of what took place. The biblical back story of events that led up to the transfiguration of Hermon further serves as a body of historical evidence and archaeological discoveries that match ancient written work.
The mission and purpose of Jesus’ ministry are both conquest and liberation. First, a conquest against spiritual forces of darkness, and second liberation from those forces, sin and its consequences. The long and wide view of scripture provides the context for what Christ accomplished on Mount Hermon. This walkthrough begins with a story familiar to first-century scripture readers and biblical writers. In 1 Enoch 6-16, the 200 sons of God, often referred to as the Watchers, meet on Mount Hermon to make a pact. A curse-laden pact about their desire to marry human women and produce offspring of their own. It was here that offspring became giants within the Canaanite region of the Old Testament era. These were an abomination upon the Earth, and they were of a defiled bloodline(1 Enoch 15:1-12). Eventually, because of their lineage as corrupted and fallen angels, offspring giants formed as demonic spirits as they were killed or died out.7
Referenced in historical Mesopotamian texts as the Apkallu,8 the sons of God became understood as Watchers (Gen 6:1-7, Daniel 4). Corrupted by their consummation of human women. They were condemned and destroyed in the flood that Noah and his sons were delivered from. As prescribed by God, the biblical flood wiped out the demonic bloodline to include mankind. Their presence intermingled with humanity posed a significant strain on those who were image bearers of Yahweh. The Nephilim, the Rephaim, the Amorites, and others were of the sons of God who chose flesh over heaven in the presence of the Most-High Elohim. The offspring of the sons of God (Watchers, Apkallu), eventually began to devour men in their effort to sustain themselves.9 In a profound way, these physical beings of spiritual darkness wronged mankind (1 Enoch 10:12-15).
Once humanity recovered from the flood that wiped out nearly all living beings as written in Genesis 7, Noah and his family began fresh to set about a new life and populate their area with new peoples and tribes. Eventually, these descendants built a high skyward tower within the town of Babel as recorded within scripture (Gen 11:7-9). A tower of insolence that became an object of destruction from God whereby He scattered the people of the land and distributed them elsewhere to distant regions with new languages and cultures. God disinherits the nations and allocates them to the “sons of God” (Deut 32:8-9). The judgment of the LORD to scatter people from Babel preceded His covenant declaration with Abraham and his descendants. Yahweh seals a covenant with Abraham for him to become the Father of Israel. The LORD promises to build a nation from Abraham as His portion among the nations (Gen 12:3) governed by the sons of God.
Wholly corrupted were the peoples as given to the nations and the “sons of God” who ruled over them. The spiritually false gods behind the idols, altars, and Asherim, the people would eventually come to worship them for millennia. With the population growth of Israel and their enslavement to Pharaoh, the plagues of Egypt became directed at the “gods of Egypt” (Ex 12:12, Num 33:4). Moreover, it was Moses who, in scripture, proclaimed that Yahweh is above all other gods (Ex 15:11).
As the LORD led Israel out of captivity from Egypt and the “son of God” who it was allocated to, Joshua, the benefactor of Moses, set out to decimate the nations corrupted mainly by the sons of God. To include Og, the king of Bashan and ruler over Mount Hermon, who was a Rephaim descendant as described in Joshua 12:4-5. The Rephaim were giants along with the Nephilim who were offspring of the “sons of God,” princes of old, or Watchers as the accursed and fallen angels written about in Daniel 4:13-18 and Genesis 6:1-7.
While Bashan was recognized as the gateway to the underworld, more specifically, Canaanite hell, the lands outside of Israel belonged to other “gods” (elohim). Israel as a whole is the LORD’s territory as holy ground just as Israel was the LORD’s inheritance (Deut 4:19-20, 1 Sam 26:17-19). To demonstrate this point, the commander of the Syrian Army (Naaman) asked Elijah for dirt from Israel to carry back to his home because he recognized the one and true holy ground. Naaman wanted the holy ground to take back with him to worship Yahweh. The ground by which his people worshiped the god Rimmon was not holy ground (2 Kings 5:15-19).
It was these sons of the Most-High in His congregation who came under judgment for their injustice among nations as written in Psalm 82. They were the bulls of Bashan in the unseen realm, which, as prophesied, surrounded the messiah during his crucifixion (Ps 22:12). They were of the 200 corrupted sons of God on Bashan. The watchers, or the same stock and origin as described in Daniel 4:23.
Biblically, the dead Rephaim are understood to live in the underworld (Job 26:5-6, Ps 88:10, Prov. 21:16, Is. 14:9-15). These spirits of the dead are referred to as “repaim” in the Hebrew language or “rpum” in Ugaritic. Where both are the root of the Rephaim spirits of dead giants. 10,11 The same giants that Joshua conquered from Bashan and outward throughout Canaan. Where Yahweh conquers the demonic stronghold among nations starting in Bashan at Mount Hermon (“from on high”; Ps 68:18, Eph 4:8). A reference caparison to Jesus’ ascent to “a high mountain” in Matthew 17:1.
New Testament Sequence of Events
In numerous places throughout the gospels, Jesus refers to himself as the “Son of Man” (Mt 8:20, Mk 13:26, Lk 17:30, Jn 3:13). To call attention to the fact He wasn’t of those who were born of mixed blood from a corrupted and hybrid lineage. More specifically, through His virgin birth, He was not of a corrupted bloodline from what the sons of God did long before His arrival.
Along the course of Jesus’ ministry, He arrives at the foot of Mount Hermon within Bashan. It is there that Jesus informs Peter that the “Gates of Hell” shall not prevail against him. He was the rock on which the LORD will build His church (Mt 16:17-18). The literal sense of “Gates of Hell” was spoken here because they were in Caesarea Philippi of Northern Bashan. Both Mount Hermon and Bashan had a reputation for being an exceptionally evil place.
Upon Mount Hermon, Jesus takes His apostles Peter, James, and John into the wilderness. Before them, He becomes transformed in appearance to His glorified state. His transformation on Mount Hermon right at the heart of enemy territory was no longer of purely His flesh, but of this glorified body. It was there that in the presence of the Apostles, while with Moses and Elijah, He plunges an eternal stake into the domain of the corrupted. He has reclaimed the nations, and the Kingdom of God has arrived right on Mount Hermon. To press into Gentile areas and eventually flood the Earth with His Spirit.
East of the Jordan, into Gentile territory, Jesus and His apostles make further incursions into enemy territory (Matt 17:14, Mk 5:1). Only this time within the physical space that the LORD commands and now wholly owns according to His divine and sovereign plan. Specifically, in East Galilee, they encounter a Demoniac who was dwelling in Bashan, the abode of the dead and territory of evil spirits. It was there that the Legion of demons who possessed the ravaged man specifically said, “What have you do with us, Son of the Most-High God” (Mk 5:7)? His presence within enemy territory (the unholy ground), brought the Demoniac to Him. Whereby Legion was cast out into a herd of swine upon their appeal.
In contrast and by geological relevance, the man in the Capernaum synagogue possessed by multiple demons addressed the Messiah as “Jesus of Nazareth (Mk 1:24).” A distinction from the “Son of the Most-High God” (Mark 5:7) as compared to the demoniac from Gerasene in Gentile territory. That was a location “governed” by an entity now on notice that it has lost its territory. It was the difference between holy ground and unholy ground, or by who in the spiritual realm-controlled areas around Israel. Both locations in near proximity having this activity further suggest the area was demonically loaded, or more active with evil spiritual beings.
In due course, the LORD makes His way to Jerusalem, where He knows He will die to fulfill His mission. One could speculate that it was from the transfiguration on Mount Herman that the meeting with Moses and Elijah confirmed His mission and what was about to occur. In the presence of Father Yahweh on Mount Hermon, Jesus had just removed the sons of God’s control and ownership of nations outside Israel.
Shortly thereafter in Jerusalem, Jesus was tried and crucified. A King not of this world, He was tortured and put to death. With the oblivious, evil, and unseen bulls of Bashan surrounding Him, His mission was finished. In their bloodthirst, they had no idea what had occurred and what was shortly to befall them. The spotless lamb was crucified to provide a path for humanity to become reconciled to Yahweh. The old covenant was abolished, the law was fulfilled, and a new covenant was set in place.
Upon the death of Jesus, He descends into Hades (1 Peter 3:19) to proclaim to the non-human spirits in prison12 that He was alive and that now all of heaven and the underworld were subjected to Him. He had overcome death and the kingdom of God was reclaimed. Death in the underworld could not hold Him.
Jesus, the long-awaited messiah, resurrected from the dead.
So that all nations of men made of one blood (Acts 17:26-27) would seek the LORD and that they would find Him. As it is written in scripture, had the princes of this world, rulers of this age or the sons of God understood the mystery of Christ’s sacrifice and the wisdom of God, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor 2:1-8). The powers of darkness, those of the corrupt sons of God, were put to open shame (Col 2:15 ESV).
The gentiles who were in captivity are now eligible and ushered into the Kingdom of God through repentance and faith. Until their fullness has come (Rm 11:25), the Holy Spirit moves among us as the wind blows where it wishes (Jn 3:8). Beginning at the transfiguration on Mount Hermon in Bashan, within enemy territory, the sons of God were overthrown and no longer had dominion over the gentiles. The kingdom of God has come with the great commission of Jesus, our LORD. With Jesus’ mission to overcome darkness and humanity’s enslavement to sin, the table is now set. The field was now cultivated for harvest. Without any fitting claim coming from the corrupt sons of God. The bulls of Bashan, their demonic offspring, the Apkallu, or the so-called Watchers have no further place among people and, more specifically, within the Kingdom of God on Earth.
Conclusion
The whole area of Bashan, which hosts the upper reaches of Mount Hermon, is symbolic of this world that dwells in darkness. Amid the daily lives of biblical figures, there were profoundly evil entities that were spiritually active toward the deception and destruction of people and the nations in which they reside. While according to Paul, there are spiritual forces of darkness present even today (Eph 6:12), we have the triumph of Christ over these rulers and powers as the Kingdom of God is now upon us. The nations have been reclaimed for the LORD’s kingdom. Beginning with the transfiguration on Mount Hermon that took place leading to the death, burial, resurrection, and coronation of the Lord and King, Jesus our Messiah.
Citations
___________________________________ 1 Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, Walter Elwell, Anson F. Rainey 2 Settlements and Cult Sites on Mount Hermon, Israel: Ituraean Culture in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods, Shimon Dar, Israel Exploration Journal Vol. 47, No. ¾ (1997), Zvi Uri Ma’oz, pp. 279-283 3 Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, Eerdmans, G. Del Olmo Lete, 161 4 The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible, Lexham Press, Michael Heiser, 200 5 Ibid., Unseen Realm, Heiser, 35 6 Reversing Hermon: Enoch, The Watchers & the Forgotten Mission of Jesus Christ, Defender Publishing, Michael Heiser, 112-113 7 1 Enoch: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Minneapolis Fortress Press, George W.E. Nickelsburg, 267 8 Reversing Hermon: Enoch, The Watchers & the Forgotten Mission of Jesus Christ, Defender Publishing, Michael Heiser, 38-43 9 Ibid, Reversing Hermon, Heiser, 29 10 The Origin of Evil Spirits, Wright; The Waters Traditions in Enoch 6-16: “The Fall of Angels and the Rise of Demons”, The Watchers in Jewish and Christian Traditions, Kevin Sullivan (ed. Angela Harkins, Kelly Bautch, John Endres, Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 2014), 91-103 11 Dreamy Angels and Demonic Giants: The Watchers Traditions and the Origin of Evil in Early Christian Demonology”, The Watchers in Jewish and Christian Traditions, Silviu N. Bunta, (ed. Angela Harkins, Kelly Bautch, John Endres, Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 2014), 116-138 12 Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, Eerdmans, G. Del Olmo Lete, 161-162
Along Israel’s coastal plain, adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea, there is an ancient geological route formation from Egypt to Mesopotamia. A route through the Fertile Crescent and into Iraq between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers far to the North East of Israel. Placed along this route is a road recognized and entitled the “Via Maris.” The etymology of the Via Maris name comes from Latin as the “way of the sea.” This interpretation appears in both the Old and New Testament rendering of the prophecy concerning the LORD’s arrival and ministry (Isaiah 9:1, Matthew 4:15).
A Roman Road – Nicolas Poussin – 1648
But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.
The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them.
Isaiah 9:1-2
As the LORD has centered the nation of Israel upon the earth, one could surmise that He has shaped the land through natural processes over time. To position the arrival of His ministry from Galilee, where people become subject to His redemptive plan. From where “the light which will shine upon them” appears between the Mediterranean Sea and beyond the Jordan River. Through the entire length of the Israeli coast along the Via Maris, the King’s Highway, and the Ridge Route. Written in scripture, the LORD’s message and glory go forward as the light that shines in the shadow of death (Isaiah 9:2 NKJV).
What Israel gains in terms of wealth and power through the Via Maris route and topography, the LORD’s purposes prevail. While we recognize the Via Maris as having economic and defense advantages, Israel can collect tariffs, conduct trade, and accept tribute from its citizens and visitors. Routes are controlled to direct traffic and regulate supply for military campaigns in its defense along the Via Maris.
So, it would appear under the new covenant, the strategic placement of the Via Maris is outward going and not only a source for wealth and power Israel’s prosperity and security. It is for the LORD’s purposes in support of His redemptive mission.
The Via Maris is a strategic route of geocentric convergence among nations. For His chosen people within Israel, along the Way of the Sea and outward. Beyond the Jordan by the Via Maris to the gentiles. The coming and going of people centered around the gospel and the LORD’s mission, beginning in His ministry with His Apostles.
This is Jesus’ charge. Strive to enter through the narrow door. The narrow door into the kingdom of God. This is the demand. That what is at stake is an ultimate destination; that is heaven or hell. So the demand of Jesus is to strenuously make the effort to enter the kingdom of God. To agonize over it by fighting sin (Luke 13:25-27) and remaining vigilant (Matt. 24:38-39,42) against anything that can block entry.
“And someone said to Him, “Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?” And He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” – Luke 13:23-24
The Greatest Threat to Our Entry Into the Kingdom
The greatest threat is our daily sin. So we make war on sin. Especially our own sin. It isn’t anyone else’s sin that can keep us from the kingdom of God, but our own sin. So it stands to reason that Jesus implores us to remain vigilant against temptation (Mark 14:38). That is, watch and be alert that we do not enter into temptation.
Pain and Pleasure Can Block Our Entry
The parable of the sower illustrates the conditions by which people come to faith in Christ, but fall away when hard times come or when there is persecution (Matt. 13:21) or as the cares of wealth and pleasures in life choke out a meaningful desire for God or His kingdom (Luke 8:14).
Praise and Physical Indulgence Can Block Our Entry
A desire for self-glory, recognition, or status is a barrier to entry into the kingdom of God (Luke 6:26). Not that accolades, rewards, or praises of people are harmful in themselves, but that when these are sought and reveled in for one’s own sense of gain or self-worth there simply becomes less room for the LORD and His kingdom. There is the lure of the praise of people for status, reputation, or acceptance above the strenuous effort necessary to enter the kingdom of God (Matt. 6:1, Luke 6:26). The same goes for physical pleasure or comfort. Indulgences in drinking or eating to diminish or extinguish a desire for God as a substitute is a real threat that can block entry. Illicit drugs and pharmaceutical abuse follow this same principle (Luke 21:34).
Money is a Mortal Threat that Can Block Our Entry
With the pressures of economic stability and security, this is a big one. This is the one that Jesus warns us about most. He presses us by what He has said in Mark 10:25, “It is easier for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Striving for wealth is not striving to enter the narrow door into the kingdom of God.
Jesus specifically says we can not serve both God and money (Matt. 6:24). We are not to lay up treasures for us on earth (Matt. 6:19). He tells us to not be concerned about what we will eat, drink or wear (Matt. 6:31). “The deceitfulness of riches enter in and choke out the word” (Mark 4:19). “Sell your possessions, and give to the needy” (Luke 12:33). “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:21). “Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has can not be my disciple” (Luke 14:33). “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation” (Luke 6:24). “Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20). “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15).
The Healthy or Good Eye Helps to Gain Entry
That is, our perception or view of money in comparison to God as a matter of preference tells us if we are walking in the light. It is a comparative judgment in value. Do we love money, or love God? We can not serve both.
“The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” – Matthew 6:22-24
So whether you are walking in the light, or walking in darkness is predicated upon how you view money with respect to God. How we view money or wealth as a comparison to the value of God determines if our access through the narrow door is open or blocked. Moreover, if our eye is good (our perception of God having supreme value), then light resides within us. If our eye is bad, (our perception of money having supreme value), then darkness dwells within.
Entry by the New Covenant
The new covenant is the purchased possession of Jesus our LORD and King. It is new as compared to the old covenant when the fulfillment of the law was required by God’s people to walk blameless before Him. That their conduct and devotion were unblemished and right before God continually. Where atonement was required for sin through ritual sacrifices.
Christ fulfills the new covenant. More specifically, the LORD declared “I will put My law within them and on their heart, I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Jer. 31:33). To further reinforce the LORD’s work on this, He declared “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances” (Ezek.36:26-27).
Therefore, while Christ demands that we be vigilant and watchful of false christs, or false teachers, His promised Holy Spirit that indwells us will help us to do what He requires. That is to strive to enter by the narrow door. As we trust and rely on Jesus, it is the striving of God that we experience by His Holy Spirit to walk in his ordinances. So that with joy and peace we are able to strive to enter through the narrow door.
So what is the narrow door, specifically? It is the LORD Christ. We enter through Christ into the kingdom of God. We trust in Him and follow Him by grace as He is our LORD and King. As we know Him, we walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-26) and endure to the end.
“And someone said to Him, “Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?” And He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” – Luke 13:23-24 | Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” – Mark 10:15
In further careful reading of John Piper’s book, “What Jesus Demands from the World” he continues to detail what it is to enter the narrow door. In this third post about Jesus’ demand to enter the narrow door, there is an existing condition and status of those to belong to Christ. That is, for those who belong to Jesus, they shall strive to enter through the narrow door because they have already entered. A paradox that we strive to enter through a narrow door into the kingdom from inside the kingdom. Where there is this “secret of the kingdom” in Mark 4:11 (ESV) that the kingdom of God had already arrived. Such that Jesus, therefore, told His followers to experience the power of God now.
Whereas entry now through the narrow door is possible by the power of God to deliver from sin and eternal captivity. As it is written, by the power of faith as a child, we receive the kingdom of God and enter into it (Mark 10:15) prior to its consummation in the future. The following outline is a point-by-point walk-through of what it is to have eternal life now and as an inheritance (Matt. 19:29, Matt 25:46). What it further is to enter through the narrow door.
The Fight is to Cherish What We Have, Not Earn What We Don’t
As Piper writes, “The demands of Jesus are only as hard to obey as his promises are hard to cherish and his presence is hard to treasure.” The pursuit of Christ is the outcome of finding a treasure in a field. So the daily struggle is not to do what we don’t want, but to want what is “infinitely worthy of wanting.”
Jesus Promises to Help Us Do the Impossible
Those who are His are made certain of His help by John 15:5. In that without Him we unable to do anything. It is by abiding in Him that we are able to bear fruit. He affirms that His demands are impossible to meet on our own. Yet He has said that all things are possible with God (Mark 10:27).
Forgiveness and Justification are at the Bottom of Our Striving
The goal of our striving is not to obtain right standing and forgiveness before God, but it is the grounding of it. The cause of it. No joyful striving equals no secure relationship with God.
Perfection Awaits the Age to Come
As given by an earlier demand of Jesus, He requires perfection. A perfection that is unachievable among His followers. While Jesus knows we are unable to attain perfection, He “fulfills all righteousness” (Matt 3:15) within us. Highlighted by the fact Jesus called His most committed Apostles “evil” (Matt. 7:11). So the true follower is in an ongoing fight against sin and does not fall away.
Jesus Prays for Us that We Not Fail
He has given us His Holy Spirit. He also prays for us. That we remain in Him and do not fall away (John 17:11). Jesus is our advocate before the Father.
We are Striving to Enter Our Father’s House
“If God is our father, we love Jesus,” writes Piper as it is supported by scripture. So a sign that we are a child of God is our love for Christ. Since this is our new nature the LORD will see to our entry into His kingdom. “He is actively helping us to get home” rather than watching from a distance to see if we will strive to enter His kingdom and produce an effort to become His children.
Your Name is Written in Heaven
As you strive to enter through the narrow door into heaven, you must know that your name is already written there (Luke 10:20). For those who are His, your name written in heaven means that He will deliver you from evil and bring you into His kingdom.
You Were Chosen by God and Given to Jesus
“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out” (John 6:37). In that those who are His, belonged first to the Father and they were given to Jesus (John 17:9). So those who come, Jesus reveals the Father to them and the Father keeps them from falling away. As it is written in Jesus’ prayer before the Father, “I have manifested Your name to the people whom You gave me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word” (John 17:6). You are given to Jesus by the Father and no one is able to snatch you out of the Father’s hand (John 10:29).
Jesus Sustains Our Striving by His Joy
So the way our striving is maintained is by the joy He has given to us. That in our joy we abide in Him. We are thereby able to successfully strive to enter through the narrow door by the imparting of His joy to us (John 15:11). “No one will take your joy from you,” Jesus says (John 16:22). Through Him and by Him and the joy He gives us, we have a lifelong striving to enter through the narrow door into the Kingdom of God. In summary, on this topic of entering the narrow door, the following excerpt appears in Piper’s book “What Jesus Demands From The World.”
OUR STRIVING WILL NOT BE IN VAIN
“Vigilance is the mark of the followers of Jesus. They know that “the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction” (Matt. 7:13). They are serious about life. Heaven and hell are at stake. Therefore, they are seriously joyful. The Son of God has rescued them from the guilt and power of sin. They are children of God. Their names are written in heaven. They have received the Helper, the Spirit of truth. They have the promise of Jesus to be with them to the end of the age. They know that he is praying for them. They rejoice that they stand righteous before God because of Jesus. They have received the kingdom. They have eternal life as a present possession. And they marvel that no one can snatch them out of God’s hand. In this joy they are energized to strive to enter by the narrow door. And they are confident their striving will not be in vain.”
Matt. 6:1, Matt. 6:21-24, Matt. 6:31, Matt. 7:13, Matt 13:21, Matt. 13:50, Matt. 20:15, Matt. 24:38-39,42, Mark 4:19, Mark 10:25, Mark 14:38, Luke 6:20, Luke 6:24, Luke 6:26-27, Luke 8:14, Luke 11:35, Luke 12:15, Luke 12:33, Luke 13:24-27, Luke 13:28-29, Luke 20:46, Luke 21:34, John 18:36
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” – Matt 7:21-22
This is the difference between talking and doing. So it is apparent that as a comparison between what a believer of Christ “says” and “does,” it is not enough to simply name and claim a relationship with Jesus and do good things in His name to enter into heaven. Instead, doing the will of the Father by an indwelling of the Spirit is necessary but not how one may think.
Outward efforts of doing good deeds on your own without the Holy Spirit within you will not bring out the kind of fruit that the Father requires. Good done here and there on your own is not doing the will of the Father. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, must reside within you as necessary to do the Father’s will. That is, to bear fruit as the work of the Father is believing in whom He sent (John 6:29). Namely, His son, our LORD, and King.
Jesus will know you if the Holy Spirit, His Spirit, dwells within you. This dwelling within you will produce fruit. This fruit is a way to express a personal practice of obedience and worship. As John Piper puts it, “the people would be defined by faith in Jesus and the fruit of love.” [1]
This fruit authenticates your faith as a byproduct, but not the source or pursuit of your security and status before God the Father. The Spirit of Christ, His Holy Spirit, must dwell within you to produce obedience and worship of God, our Creator. An absence of fruit indicates an absence of Christ within you.
So this is the will of the Father. That Christ dwells within us and that as an outcome, we bear fruit. We love, obey, and worship. Whereas Christ is our righteousness and our everlasting peace.
[1] John Piper, “What Jesus Demands from the World” (2006 Crossway, Wheaton Illinois) 164.
Jericho is among the world’s oldest cities, and the first city conquered as referenced in the Old Testament. [1] As written in the book of Joshua (Joshua 6:1-27), the city was destroyed by fire with the slaughter of all its inhabitants. Jericho is referred to as the city of palm trees [2], and its place name means “moon.” [3] In Genesis 13:10, the plains of Jericho within the south Jordan River valley are characterized as a well-watered garden. [4]
Old Testament Jericho
The site of OT Jericho is largely today subdued by erosion. Through exposure to wind and rain over the years, its location is pitted and marred by abrasion and environmental wear. While the surface area of OT Jericho is worn at its exterior due to stresses, substantial historical records were buried for discovery to reveal details about the city’s construction and layout. Specifically, records pertaining to burn sites, pottery, dwellings, and wall construction.
Two key areas of interest with OT Jericho pertain to its destruction and the account of Joshua’s scouts involving Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute resident of Jericho. With extensive archaeological research, to verify these biblical accounts’ historical validity, Jericho’s historical background is buried beneath modern-day Tel es-Sultan. Whereas the specifics about timing and method of destruction are well documented and made public by John Garstang (1930-1936), Bryant G. Wood (1990), and others.
The biblical account of Jericho’s felled wall is clearly articulated in Joshua 6:20. To validate the biblical record, historical and archaeological evidence was collected and analyzed to recognize the ceramic type in that biblical era along with the erosion and fire damage that ceramic evidence underwent.
Mitzpeh – The Land of Israel
Long after the city was burned in a fire by Joshua’s men, there were jug containers excavated from within the city. Those jugs contained grain with further archaeological evidence of fire damage. With Garstang’s discovery of fallen mud bricks from inside the city and the presence of scorched surfaces throughout the area, the biblical account’s historicity was verified. Decades later, Bryant Wood’s successful refutation of radiocarbon-14 dating of burned grain found within the containers at Jericho resolves questions, doubt, and controversy about the timeline of the attack in the historical record. [5] The inside-outward fallen brick wall of Jericho is not just a legend, but a historical fact proven by archaeological evidence across various research studies. [6]
It appears that the capstone message associated with OT Jericho is the curse that is proclaimed upon it by Joshua. Specifically, that the one who again builds or fortifies Jericho shall experience the loss of his offspring. As thereafter confirmed and fulfilled in scripture (1 Kings 16:34), Hiel of Bethel, in his defiance, loses all his children while building Jericho several hundred years after its destruction. The subsequent curse that fell upon him revealed the oath proclaimed by Joshua and the Israelites before the LORD (Joshua 6:26).
New Testament Jericho
A separate nearby Jericho site sometimes referred to as Herodian Jericho, underwent further development with palaces, complex buildings, swimming pools, a hippodrome, a theater, and possibly a gymnasium. The area supported numerous residential dwellings during the second temple period. [7] Well, after the events of OT Jericho, further biblical narratives are recorded with miracles performed by Jesus while He spent time traveling there during His ministry. [8]
While numerous New Testament Jericho locations remain in place, modern construction and dwellings prevent research or archaeological excavations.
Modern Jericho
From post-biblical Jericho through the Crusader era up to about the 1940s, Jericho was a village of less development and notoriety. Undeveloped through hundreds of years whereas at the turn of the 20th century it was sparsely populated with mud huts. A sort of Holy Land ghetto as described by Dr. Olin who says it was the “meanest and foulest of Palestine.” [9]
In contrast to earlier decades of mud huts, today the city is rich in produce as supported by a powerful spring in the area. Jericho is on the West Bank of the Jordan river within Israel and it is populated with Palestinian peoples and a few Jewish settlements at its outskirts. The area is 80-85% Sunni Muslim [10] occupied while the city is widely irrigated for agricultural purposes. There are significant trade and tourism in the area to support Holy Land visitors from among many nations throughout the globe.
Citations
[1] Collins Thesaurus of the Bible, A. Colin Day, Region, M Place Names Beginning J, M3a Jericho, the Place, 184 [2] Deuteronomy 34:3 [3] Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Jericho [4] The Holman Christian Standard Bible, Genesis 13:10 annotated [5] “Digging up Jericho”, Kathleen M., Kenyon (1952-1958) London: Ernest Benn, 1957 [6] Carbon 14 Dating at Jericho, Bryant G. Wood, Ph.D., “Conquest of Canaan”, 08/07/2008 https://biblearchaeology.org/research/conquest-of-canaan/4051-carbon-14-dating-at-jericho [7] Netzer, Ehud, “Jericho, Tulul Abu El-‘Alayiq, Excavation Until 1951.” New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land 2 (1993): 682–83 [8] Matthew 20:29, Mark 10:46, Luke 10:30-37, Luke 18:35, Luke 19:1 [9] Smith’s Bible Dictionary, Jericho, https://biblehub.com/topical/j/jericho.htm [10] CIA World Factbook, West Bank, Jericho. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/we.html
Modern and historical rationale about why the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is preferred over the Garden Tomb appears to rest upon the type of tomb Jesus’s body was placed. While the first-century era in which the Jewish dead were traditionally buried differs from those during the first temple period (1200-586 BC), there are clear structural distinctions between the two.
The Garden Tomb is dated within the first temple period as referenced between the 9th and 7th centuries BC. By historical photographic record and visual observation, the interior of this tomb consists of a small collection area reserved for bone collection of the Jewish dead. Whereas it is suggested that the Garden Tomb bed platform is reused by the deceased while the bones of prior corpses in decay become co-mingled in an adjacent container location. Moreover, this tomb is atypical of first-century tombs by the absence of burial niches (kukhin/kokim) or arch-covered burial platforms (arcosolium) hewed into a tomb wall.
The tomb of the Holy Sepulcher is of a first-century burial tradition. That is, it consists of a number of burial niches and platforms within a cave environment. That after a period of one year of corpse decay, the bones of the dead became collected and placed into an ossuary or osteophagi for separation and portability of an individual’s remains.
As a comparison between the tomb descriptions of Lazarus and Joseph of Arimathea, there is a commonality in scripture from the root Greek language of the biblical text. The personal tomb reference of risen Lazarus given in John 11:38 is mnēmeion or mnēmeiou to indicate a memorial chamber sense of meaning. That is, a burial chamber constructed and marked for a person’s remembrance. The tomb of Joseph of Arimathea has given the same term in scripture (Matt 27:60, John 19:41) to indicate the type of a new tomb he constructed in a garden. Matthew 27:60 explicitly reads among various English translations that Joseph made the tomb for himself.
In reference to Luke 23:55, the same account uses the term mnēmeion as ‘tomb’ to describe how Jesus’s body was laid. Two verses prior to that in Luke 23:53, the Greek term for tomb changes to mnēma having a burial chamber sense of meaning. Different than mnēmeion which is a memorial chamber sense of meaning. Where mnēma in scripture appears closer in meaning to a sepulcher in use as a gravesite.
The Babylonian Talmud (Baba Metsia 85b; Baba Batra 58a) references this type of tomb as either ‘rock-hewn’ or a ‘natural cave’ translated to the term ‘Mearta’. Mearta translated to English is grotto. The term grotto in English is defined as a small picturesque cave, especially an artificial one in a park or garden. Furthermore, by the first-century tradition, a kukhin (kokhim), or arcosolium hewed into the wall of a Mearta suggests a more plausible account of where Jesus was interred. It is, therefore, reasoned this type of structure found in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher adds further credibility and confidence about where Jesus was buried and rose from the dead.
To summarize, comparative scriptural references and historical records both point to the tomb of Jesus as a first-century sepulcher. As through the centuries, it is recognized why the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is the preferred burial location of Jesus.
As one may conclude that Joseph of Arimathea constructed the tomb of Jesus according to first-century tradition or practices, the Garden Tomb is a wonderful and meaningful pilgrimage location for fellowship and remembrance of our LORD and King.
