Among all the differences between various bible translations, there are verses and phrases which are entirely missing. For the reason, “Many manuscripts do not contain this verse.” So the ESV and NIV would entirely skip verses such as John 5:4 or Acts 8:37. As amazing as it is, there is meaning among words otherwise present within the KJV or NAS.
3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Jn 5:3–5). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
3 In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. 5 And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.
The Holy Bible: King James Version. (2009). (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Jn 5:2–5). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
Previously, I used to accept ESV and NIV as thoroughly valid. And I still do for careful reading purposes. However, not for in-depth study or meditation. If there was a decision made about which version to center upon for a lifetime of study, begin with the NAS and the NKJV.
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
The Holy Bible: King James Version. (2009). (Ge 1:26–28).
When Jesus commands us to love others, it had not occurred to me the reasons why. Not necessarily for their merit, work, or status per se. It is because they bear the image of God. People are a visual expression by an “appearance” in what God looks like, and how He operates or functions since the Most-High is Spirit and not in anthropomorphic form. Therefore, we love them as God’s imprint on creation and flesh made over the generations.
Love God, above all, with everything you’ve got. Love others as they are loved by God. Love them well because they are among creation and bear God’s likeness. By following this line of understanding and rationale, it is far easier to demonstrate and place thoughts of love upon others as people groups and as individuals. Even while there might be a full denial of God’s existence and rightful place in their lives. Even if they who reject YHWH as enemies, accusers, and those who are due forgiveness.
“Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ: To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.” – Rom 1:7
Called to Be Saints
“We are very apt to regard the apostolic saints as if they were “saints” in a more especial manner than the other children of God. All are “saints” whom God has called by His grace, and sanctified by His Spirit; but we are apt to look upon the apostles as extraordinary beings, scarcely subject to the same weaknesses and temptations as ourselves.
Yet in so doing we are forgetful of this truth, that the nearer a man lives to God the more intensely has he to mourn over his own evil heart; and the more his Master honours him in his service, the more also doth the evil of the flesh vex and tease him day by day. The fact is, if we had seen the apostle Paul, we should have thought him remarkably like the rest of the chosen family: and if we had talked with him, we should have said, “We find that his experience and ours are much the same.
Believers & Saints
He is more faithful, more holy, and more deeply taught than we are, but he has the selfsame trials to endure. Nay, in some respects he is more sorely tried than ourselves.” Do not, then, look upon the ancient saints as being exempt either from infirmities or sins; and do not regard them with that mystic reverence which will almost make us idolaters. Their holiness is attainable even by us.
We are “called to be saints” by that same voice which constrained them to their high vocation. It is a Christian’s duty to force his way into the inner circle of saintship; and if these saints were superior to us in their attainments, as they certainly were, let us follow them; let us emulate their ardour and holiness. We have the same light that they had, the same grace is accessible to us, and why should we rest satisfied until we have equalled them in heavenly character? They lived with Jesus, they lived for Jesus, therefore they grew like Jesus. Let us live by the same Spirit as they did, “looking unto Jesus,” and our saintship will soon be apparent.”
Spurgeon, C. H. (1896). Morning and evening: Daily readings. London: Passmore & Alabaster.
The caregiver of my sponsored child wrote to me a letter about her interests and a little about what she is like. Destine Hanamaria’s caregiver is her mother.
Outline / Letter dated 31 October 2017 1. Caregiver’s name 2. No brothers and sisters 3. She can walk, jump, run and climb 4. Favorite food is cake and fruits 5. Prayer requests to include family members 6. Their desire for blessings of me and my family 7. A desire for Destine to grow healthy, smart, obedient, and loved by everyone especially by God.
“Peace be with you. Dear Mr. James, how are you? Destine hopes you are always in God’s protection. She is so happy could sent this letter to you. She would like to thank you for sponsoring her. Destine and family here are good. May God bless you Mr. James and family there. That’s all from her. Amen.” [Assisted by Mother]
While reading through Psalms, chapters 1 through 18, I have gone ever so slow. Start, stop, go back, rewind, check that word, cross-reference this phrase or that, re-read and repeat a series of verses and even a chapter here and there. Largely about what King David said, that principle applies to us and our relationship with YHWH and Messiah.
“He who does these things will never be shaken.” -Ps. 15:5 A Psalm of David.
Side by side, I have been looking back and forth between a segment of Psalms 10 mainly because I am interested in the overall accuracy of written words and meaning among scripture translations—both as either word for word or thought for thought. So here is an example.
For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire, And the greedy man curses and spurns the LORD. The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, “There is no God.” – NASB
For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the LORD. In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.” – ESV
For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, And blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth. the wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. – KJV
For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire; He blesses the greedy and renounces the LORD. The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts. – NKJV
See the active and passive difference between the highlighted phrases? Either “There is no God,” “God is not in all his thoughts,” or “God is in none of his thoughts.” So, I took it to each word in Hebrew.
Psalm 10:4 KJV
Psalm 10:4 NASB
Okay, so it appears the manuscript references are the same in both interpretations between KJV and NASB. However, selecting what word is used in English to fit the meaning is applied to each. Maybe it’s me, but I find this type of occurrence or discrepancy in various sections elsewhere between texts. Merely arises from a comparison in context and by accepting the percentages of English chosen words used from the same Lemma or MSS.
To take it further, have a look at Ps 10:11. Whereas the same mindset reasons as follows:
He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it.”
The NASB selects the English application of the text as “There is No God.” Thereafter, the same NASB translation above says that “He says to himself, “God has forgotten.” If just a few verses earlier, it is reasoned that the wicked falsely proclaims, “There is no God,” how can the same assert that “God has forgotten”? Assembly goes something like this: אַיִן (is not, bereft), כֹּל (all, all for every), מְזִמָּה (thoughts, purpose, intent), אֱלֹהִים (elohim, God), דָּרַשׁ (seek, inquire).
From my own searching, here is how I understand Ps 10:4 should be. KJV or NKJV, but I am prepared for correction about that.
3 For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, And blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth. 4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
Here is a speculative theory that runs in contradiction to early commentaries about Zechariah’s prophecy in chapter 5. Throughout Mesopotamia and adjacent ancient empires, there were multitudes of people along the Fertile Crescent who have come against God’s covenant people Israel. In recent years as an effort to erase the borders of Sykes-Picot and to build a Caliphate or a return of the Ottoman empire.
Medo-Persian Empire | The Land of Shinar The Fertile Crescent [540BC – 460+BC]
Assyrian Empire
Babylonian Empire
Roman Empire
Medo-Persian Empire
Greek Empire
Ottoman Empire
Arab Spring
Islamic State
All of these, over time, comprise the land of Shinar along the Fertile Crescent. The crescent shape of fertile territory across numerous empires over the centuries.
According to prophecy, somewhere in this geographical area, there is to be delivered God’s judgment as described in vivid detail through Zechariah’s writings. He writes specifically about what he was shown and what he has heard.
A flying Megillah about the size of 20 cubits x 10 cubits when it is folded or rolled up.
As it is written during the time of Zechariah (about 540+BC Medo-Persian Empire).
“Again, I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a flying scroll! And he said to me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a flying scroll (“roll” KJV or Megillah, H4039 מְגִלָּה). Its length is twenty cubits, and its width ten cubits (10 yards by 5 yards).”
A Megillah (H4039) is a single-ended scroll. That rolls out to give instruction. In the instance of Zechariah’s writings, judgment.
Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land. For everyone who steals shall be cleaned out according to what is on one side, and everyone who swears falsely shall be cleaned out according to what is on the other side. I will send it out, declares the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter the house of the thief, and the house of him who swears falsely by my name. And it shall remain in his house and consume it, both timber and stones.” -Zec 5:1–4
The flying scroll’s destination is to the house of the thief and the house of him, who swears falsely by the Lord’s name. According to Matthew Henry’s commentary:
“This flying roll is a curse; it contains a declaration of the righteous wrath of God against those sinners especially who by swearing affront God’s majesty or by stealing invade their neighbor’s property.”
“Thieves; it is for everyone that steals, that by fraud or force takes that which is not his own, especially that robs God and converts to his own use what was devoted to God and his honor, which was a sin much complained of among the Jews at this time, Mal. 3:8; Neh. 13:10.”
“Swearers; Sinners of the former class offend against the second table, these against the first; for the curse meets those that break either table. He that swears rashly and profanely shall not be held guiltless, much less he that swears falsely (v. 4); he imprecates the curse upon himself by his perjury, and so shall his doom be; God will say Amen to his imprecation, and turn it upon his own head. He has appealed to God’s judgment, which is always according to truth, for the confirming of a lie, and to that judgment he shall go which he has so impiously affronted.”
Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 1575-1576). Peabody: Hendrickson.
Matthew Henry’s commentary was written in the early 1700’s when today’s technologies did not exist. So, here is further speculation about what the Megillah symbology is and what it contains.
“Then the angel who talked with me came forward and said to me, “Lift your eyes and see what this is that is going out.” And I said, “What is it?” He said, “This is the basket that is going out.” And he said, “This is their iniquity in all the land.” And behold, the leaden cover was lifted, and there was a woman (ishshah; H801 אִשָּׁה “burnt offering by fire”, H802 אִשָּׁה “woman”) sitting in the basket! And he said, “This is Wickedness.” And he thrust her back into the basket, and thrust down the leaden weight on its opening.” -Zec 5:5–8
Delivered by the Wings of a Stork.
“Then I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, two women (ishshah; H801 אִשָּׁה “burnt offering by fire”, H802 אִשָּׁה “woman”) coming forward! The women or אִשָּׁה fire as fire from engine afterburners?
The wind was in their wings. They had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven. Then I said to the angel who talked with me, “Where are they taking the basket?”
He said to me, “To the land of Shinar (the Fertile Crescent) He said, to build a house for it. And when this is prepared, they will set the basket down there on its base.” – Zec 5:9–10
So, speculation about the writing is that judgment shall come from a flying scroll with a “woman” in the center declared as wickedness. And two women (ishshah; H801 אִשָּׁה fire) will on the wind of wings deliver the basket to the house of thieves and swearers.
A Basket of Fire
Or written in a further speculative way, advanced and modern weaponry is capable of delivering a Megillah מְגִלָּה shaped object with a basket (ephah) which symbolizes a warhead containing either ishshah; H801 אִשָּׁה “burnt offering by fire” or H802 אִשָּׁה “woman” according to the original language of the text. Notice the text in both cases אִשָּׁה and אִשָּׁה.
So what are these objects? What do they represent? In time, the meaning of the language may take on greater significance or weight. However, the farther out we get in time, as technologies advance, we have questions about what the Lord YHWH intends for people who are of the Fertile Crescent region. A basket of fire, or a method of judgment delivered and yet unseen or delivered? Who are the people of the Fertile Crescent, and what is the precise geography in which they reside?
The late repentants were those who narrowly escaped the torment of hell. While of some speculation, the poem reads as a vivid contrast between different providence levels through saving faith and life lived out by grace—this artistically expressed through Dante’s purgatory. Yet as a comparison, it is written, escaped so as by fire (Ita Quod Per Ignem). “If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” (1 Cor 3:15). Is it possible to obtain the gift of repentance without first obtaining faith through grace?
The Late Repentants – Divine Comedy Purgatory IV 103-105
“Thither we drew; and there were persons there / Who in the shadow stood behind the rock, As one through indolence is wont to stand.”
Godly Sorrow Produces Repentance Leading to Salvation
– 2 Corinthians 7:10
“The entrance into the kingdom of God is through the sharp, sudden pains of repentance colliding with man’s respectable “goodness.” Then the Holy Spirit, who produces these struggles, begins the formation of the Son of God in the person’s life (Galatians 4:19). This new life will reveal itself in conscious repentance followed by unconscious holiness, never the other way around. The foundation of Christianity is repentance. Strictly speaking, a person cannot repent when he chooses— repentance is a gift of God.” Oswald Chambers
“And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.” – 2 Timothy 2:24–26 (NKJV)
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” – Rom 12:2
Some notes and highlights in my understanding about what Jesus wants in our relationship with God:
If love does not come from knowing God, there is no point in calling it love for God.
When God’s glory becomes our supreme pleasure, we begin to prefer above all else to know him, see him, and be like him.
True love for God will always bring about love for people.
Loving God is a strong inward emotion, not a mere outward action.
Jesus does not equate loving God with serving God. He roots serving God with loving God.
“Heart” highlights the center of our volitional and emotional life without excluding thought (Lk 1:51). “Soul” highlights our life as a whole, though sometimes distinguished from the body (Mt 10:28). “Mind” highlights our thinking capacity. And “Strength” highlights the capacity to make vigorous efforts both bodily and mentally (Mk 5:4, Lk 21:36).
Every faculty and every capacity treasures God above all things in such a way that our treasuring of any other thing is also a treasuring of God.
That any pleasure is not also a delight in God, then we have not loved God with all that capacity.
“He loves thee too little who loves anything together with Thee, which he loves not for thy sake.” – Augustine.
“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.
If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess.
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Dt 30:15–20).
After a long while, I have come to the end of Ezekiel. A word-for-word slow and careful look at what the words and Spirit within me would say. Here is an outline of notes below what really stood out because of what the Lord’s people did to betray Him as their everlasting and loving Lord and God YHWH. He applied a just and harsh punishment to them and surrounding nations. There is a place (Ezekiel 18:21-32) on a page where I could not catch a welled-up tear before it dropped on one the pages (pg 1344 of Heirloom).
“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” – Ezekiel 36:26-28
HIGHLIGHTS
The glory of God is an unspeakable thing to witness. Unless we are given the strength and charge to speak.
The physical sense of holiness is transmittable over physical matter. From the attire of Godly men and the sacrifices made to YHWH.
He did this to vindicate the holiness of His great name.
The geographical position and place of Israel were given by YHWH to the 12 tribes of Jacob.
The Lord causes calamity as an outcome of rebellion; he doesn’t just let disasters or invasions happen.
He is fiercely jealous for His people and His glory.
“Then, they will know I am the Lord.” Often appears throughout the book. I found myself wanting to apologize for His people and what they had done to Him before all other nations.
The priestly order “Sons of Zadok” remained faithful throughout all the betrayal and defilement. The Lord honored them for that in His third temple that will get built on the temple mount in Jerusalem.
For all the events that have occurred, the Lord revealed Himself by his glory, by his judgment and restoration. If narrowly following a single story at a time, one might conclude that the Lord God YHWH is unjustly vindictive. Yet it’s a love story—a story of redemption through horrific circumstances.
A foreshadowing of Yeshua, our Most High king. The incredible gravity of His mercy, a descriptive and fearsome glory to witness. Ultimately His restoration of fellowship with His people.
There are times at random when in passing I will just pick up my bible off the desk, hold it to my chest and breathe it in with my eyes closed. There is a unique and centering sense about it. That the totality in the meaning of its words brings certainty about truth, life, assurance, and renewal. The cool of the pages and the holiness of its words reach through to take the heat, confusion, and distress off. To soothe the uneasiness for another stretch of the day. Until back again inside for what it brings. Even better sometimes is my head down at my desk supported by His Holy book. I belong at home in those words.
