Races and Languages: From where? Answering Racism

People often mentally categorize others by race.  Physical features, like skin color, distinguishing one people group, a ‘race’, from other groups are easy to notice. So Caucasians are ‘white’, Asians are darker, while those of African descent are darker still.

Model Minority' Myth Again Used As A Racial Wedge Between Asians And Blacks  : Code Switch : NPR

These traits distinguishing groups of people from each other easily leads to racism. This is the discrimination, ill-treatment or enmity towards other races.  Racism has contributed to making societies today more caustic and hateful, and it seems to be on the rise.  What can we do to combat racism?

The question of racism begs a related question.  Where do races come from?  Why do race differences among humans exist?  Along with, that since race has a strong correlation with ancestral language: Why are there different languages?

860+ Hello In Different Languages Illustrations, Royalty-Free Vector  Graphics & Clip Art - iStock | Hello in different languages vector

The ancient Hebrew Scriptures records an historical event in early human history explaining both the diversity of languages we hear and the different ‘races’ that we see today.  The account is worth knowing.

Genetic Similarity in the human species leading to our Genetic Ancestors

Before we explore the account there are some basic facts we should know about the genetic makeup of humanity. 

TU Delft: Researchers created an artificial DNA blueprint for the  replication of DNA in a cell-like structure | EuropaWire.eu | The European  Union's press release distribution & newswire service
DNA

The genes in our DNA provides the blueprint that determines the way we look, our physical characteristics.  Humans exhibit very little genetic diversity between different people compared to the diversity seen within an animal species.  What this means is that the genetic difference between any two people is very little (on average 0.6%). This is much less than, for example, compared to genetic differences between two macaque monkeys.  

In fact, humans are so genetically uniform that we can trace the line of descent from all women alive today back through their mothers, and their mothers, and so on. Doing so shows all lines converging to one ancestral genetic mother. Known as Mitochondrial Eve, there is also a male equivalent known as Y-Chromosonal Adam.  He is the most recent ancestral male from whom all humans living today have descended. There exists an unbroken line of male ancestors going back to him.  The Bible does state that all humans alive today descend from an original Adam and Eve. So genetic evidence is consistent with the Bible’s account of the origins of humans. Not only the ancient Chinese, but modern genetics testify to an Adam as our common ancestor.

Origin of human Races according to the Bible

But then how did the different human races arise?  The ancient Hebrew Scriptures describes how, just a few generations after the flood, how people were scattered across the earth.  With only some basics in genetics we can see how such an event would give rise to today’s races.  The ancient account reads: 

Questions and Answers About the Genesis Flood
The Flood

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” 

Genesis 11:1-4

The account records that everyone spoke the same language. With this unity they devised new technologies and started to use them to build a high tower.  This tower was to observe and track the movement of stars, since astrology was keenly studied in that time.  However, the Creator God made the following assessment:

The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. 

Genesis 11:6-9
Tower of Babel | Story, Summary, Meaning, & Facts | Britannica
Tower of Babel

History records that civilization began in ancient Babylon (modern day Iraq) and that from there civilization spread across the planet.  This account records why. Because the languages were confused this ancestral population was split into various language groups along clan lines.

Implications of Babel from Genetics

The various sub-clans could no longer understand one another.  Since negative attachments came naturally to people since sin and death had entered the world, these various clans became distrustful of each other.  As a result they withdrew from other clans to protect themselves and they did not inter-marry across the language groups.  Thus, in one generation the clans became genetically isolated from one another and dispersed. 

Punnet Squares and Races

Consider how races arise from such a situation, focusing on skin color since that is a common marker of race.  Skin color arises as a result of different levels of the protein melanin in the skin.  White skin has less melanin, darker skin has more melanin, while black skin has the most melanin.  All humans have some melanin in their skin.  Darker people simply have more melanin giving rise to darker skin.  These levels of melanin are controlled genetically by several genes.  Some genes express more melanin in the skin and some express less.  We use a simple tool, called a punnet square, to illustrate the various possible combinations of genes. 

Bequemlichkeit Wiederholung Ausflug skin tone genetics chart Anweisen Tasse  bevorzugt
Punnet Square of Melanin

For simplicity assume only two different genes (A and B) that code for different levels of melanin in the skin.  The genes Mb and Ma express more melanin while the alleles mb and ma express less melanin.  A punnet square shows all possible outcomes of A and B that can arise by sexual reproduction if each parent has both alleles in their genes.  The resulting square shows the 16 possible combinations of Ma, ma, Mb and mb that can occur from the parents. This explains the diverse range of skin color that can result in their children. 

Tower of Babel Scenario

Assume the Tower of Babel event occurred with parents who were heterozygous as in this punnet square. With the confusion of languages the children would not inter-marry and thus each of the squares would be reproductively isolated from the other squares.  So the MaMb (darkest) would now only intermarry with other MaMb individuals. Thus all their offspring will only remain black since they only have genes expressing greater melanin.  Likewise, all the mamb (white) would only intermarry with other mamb. Their offspring would always remain white.  So the Tower of Babel explains reproductive isolation of the different squares and the emergence of different races.

We can see diversity like this arising in families today in one generation.  Maria and Lucy Aylmer look like they come from different races (black and white) but in fact they are twin sisters from mixed parents.  Diversity like this arises simply by genetic shuffling.  But if diversity like this arises and then these offspring are reproductively isolated from each other then their skin color distinctiveness will persist in their offspring.  The Tower of Babel is that historical event explaining how clans retained their isolation from other language clans. Thus what we call races today have persisted since then.

Text Box: 11Twins Lucy and Maria Aylmer show color, looking like racial diversity

One Family – no race distinction

But once we understand how races arose then we can realize that all diverse races are simply part of the same human family.  There is no basis for racism once we understand what race differences really come from.

As the Bible later on states

From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 

Acts 17: 26-27

All people today, no matter what their race, skin color, or other distinctive features descend from the same original couple.  In that case we are simply one large and diverse family.  The Bible says that God established the diversity of nations so that we would reach out to find Him.  He unfolds His way for us to reach Him by begeting one special nation out of all the nations.  We look at how this nations finds its beginning next.

What is the Greatest Love Story ever?

If you were to name some classic love stories you might suggest Helen of Troy & Paris (igniting the Trojan War dramatized in the Iliad), Cleopatra and Mark Antony (whose love entwined Rome in a civil war with Octavian/Augustus Caesar ), Romeo & Juliet, Beauty & the Beast, or perhaps Cinderella & Prince Charming.  In them, history, pop culture and romantic fiction come together in offering passionate love stories that captivate our hearts, emotions and imaginations.

A Love Story “Antony and Cleopatra” | RoseFarm.com International
Cleopatra and Mark Antony
Romeo And Juliet Posters - Fine Art America
Romeo and Juliet
Beauty and the Beast | Disney Movies
Belle and the Beast

Ruth & Boaz Love Story

How Ruth selflessness won Boaz's heart
Ruth and Boaz

Amazingly, the love that sparked between Ruth & Boaz has proved far more enduring and noble than any of these love affairs, and in fact, still affects the lives of all the billions of us living today – more than three thousand years after these lovers met.  Rather than the tabloid love stories that last only a fleeting moment their love is worth a Valentine’s Day nomination. Their romance is also a picture of a mystical and spiritual love offered to you and me.  The story of Ruth and Boaz deals with cross-cultural & forbidden love, immigration and the relationship between a powerful man and a vulnerable woman – applicable in today’s #MeToo era.  It becomes a blueprint for us on how to establish a healthy marriage.  By any of these measures the love story of Ruth & Boaz is worth knowing.

Their love is recorded in the Book of Ruth in the Bible.  It is a short book – only 2400 words long – and is well worth reading (here).  It is set about 1150 BCE, making this the oldest of all recorded love stories.  It has been made into several films.

Hollywood movie depicting the Ruth Love story

The Love Story of Ruth

Naomi and Ruth

Naomi and her husband with their two sons leave Israel to escape drought and settle in the nearby country of Moab (today’s Jordan).  After marrying local women the two sons die, as does Naomi’s husband, leaving her alone with her two daughters-in-law.  Naomi decides to return to her native Israel and one of her daughters-in-law, Ruth, chooses to accompany her.  After a long absence, Naomi is back in her native Bethlehem as a destitute widow accompanied by Ruth, a young and vulnerable Moabite immigrant.

Ruth & Boaz meet

Bereft of income, Ruth goes out to gather grain left behind by the local harvest crews in the fields.  The Law of Moses, as a social safety net, had ordained harvesters to leave some grains behind in their fields so the impoverished could gather food.  Randomly it would seem, Ruth finds herself picking grains in the fields of a wealthy landowner named Boaz.  Boaz notices Ruth among the others working hard to gather up the grains left behind by his work crews.  He instructs his foremen to leave extra grain behind in the field so that she could gather more.

Ruth & Boaz meet. Much art has been done depicting their meeting
Ruth & Boaz meet. Much art has been done depicting their meeting

Because she can gather plentifully in his fields, Ruth comes back to Boaz’s fields every day to gather left-over grain.  Boaz, ever the protector, ensures that Ruth is not harassed or molested by any of his crews.  Ruth and Boaz are interested in each other, but because of differences in age, social status, and nationality, neither makes a move.  Here Naomi steps in as match-maker.  She instructs Ruth to boldly lay down by Boaz’s side at night after he has celebrated the harvest gathering.  Boaz understands this as a marriage proposal and decides to marry her.

Kinsman Redeemer

But the situation is more complicated than simply love between them.  Naomi is a relative of Boaz, and since Ruth is her daughter-in-law, Boaz and Ruth are kin by marriage.  Boaz must marry her as a ‘kinsmen redeemer’.  This meant that under the Law of Moses he would marry her ‘in the name’ of her first husband (Naomi’s son) and so provide for her.   This would entail that Boaz purchase Naomi’s family fields.  Though that would prove costly to Boaz it was not the biggest obstacle.  There was another closer relative that had first rights to buy Naomi’s family’s fields (and also thus marry Ruth).  So the marriage of Ruth to Boaz hung on whether another man wanted the responsibility to care for Naomi and Ruth.  At a public meeting of the city elders this first-in-line declined the marriage since it put his own estate at risk.  Boaz was thus free to purchase and redeem Naomi’s family estate and marry Ruth.

Legacy of Ruth & Boaz

In their union they had a child, Obed, who in turn became the grandfather of King David.  David was promised that ‘a Christ’ would come from his family.   Further prophecies were given and finally Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, the same town that Ruth and Boaz had met in long before.  Their romance, marriage and family line resulted in offspring that today is the basis for our modern calendar, and global holidays like Christmas & Easter – not bad for a romance in a dusty village over 3000 years ago.

Picturing a Greater Love Story

The chivalry and respect with which the rich and powerful Boaz treated Ruth, the destitute foreign woman, is a model contrasting the harassments and exploitations now common in our #MeToo day.  The historical impact of the family line which this romance and marriage produced, detectible every time we note the date on our devices, gives this love story an enduring legacy.  But the Ruth & Boaz love story is also a picture of an even greater love – one you and I are invited into.

The Bible describes us in a manner evoking Ruth when it says:

I will plant her for myself in the land;
I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’

Hosea 2:23

The Old Testament prophet Hosea (ca 750 BC) used the reconciliation in his own fractured marriage to picture God reaching out to us with His love.  Like Ruth who entered the land as one unloved, but then was shown love by Boaz, He desires to show His love even to those of us who feel far from His love.  This is quoted in the New Testament (Romans 9:25) to show how God reaches wide to love those far from Him.

How is His love shown?  Jesus, that descendant offspring from Boaz & Ruth, is God come-in-the-flesh and is thus our ‘kinsman’, just as Boaz was to Ruth.  Jesus paid our debt of sin to God on the cross, and thus he

Jesus on the Cross - 10 Powerful Facts About the Crucifixion
Jesus paid our price

gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

Titus 2:14

As Boaz was a ‘kinsman-redeemer’ who paid a price to redeem Ruth, Jesus is our ‘kinsman-redeemer’ who paid (with his life) to redeem us.

A Model for our marriages

The way Jesus (and Boaz) paid to redeem and then win his bride models how we can build our marriages.  The Bible explains how we establish our marriages:

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wifeas he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Ephesians 5:21-33

As Boaz and Ruth established their marriage on love and respect, and Jesus’ care for the church is a model for husbands to love their wives sacrificially, so we do well to build our marriages on these same values.

How to make a husband and wife business partnership work – European CEO

A Wedding Invitation for you and me

As in all good love stories, the Bible concludes with a wedding.  Just as the price that Boaz paid to redeem Ruth paved the way for their wedding, the price that Jesus paid has paved the way for our wedding.  That wedding is not figurative but real, and those accepting his wedding invitation are called ‘The Bride of Christ’.  As it says:

Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. 

Revelation 19:7

Those who receive Jesus’ offer of redemption become his ‘bride’.  This heavenly wedding is offered to all of us.  The Bible ends with this invitation for you and me to come to His wedding

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.

Revelation 22:17

The relationship between Ruth & Boaz is a model of love that is still making itself felt today.  It is a picture of the heavenly romance of God who loves us.  He will marry as His Bride all who accept His marriage proposal.  As with any marriage proposals, His offer should be weighed to see if you should accept it.  Start here with the ‘plan’ laid out in the beginning from the beginning of human history and follow its development. Notice how it is all predicted long beforehand to prove it really is God’s Proposal.

Another adaptation of the Book of Ruth in film

What’s the Gospel? Considered through COVID, Quarantine and Vaccine

The novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, emerged in China towards the end of 2019.  Just a few months later it had raged around the world, infecting and killing millions while spreading to every country.

The lightning fast spread of COVID-19 created panic around the world.  People were unsure what to do in light of this pandemic.  But before vaccines emerged, medical professionals insisted that success in containing COVID-19 hung on one big strategy – social distancing or quarantine. This caused authorities around the world to setup lockdown and isolation rules. 

What Coronavirus Isolation Could Do to Your Mind (and Body) | WIRED

In most places people could not meet in large groups and kept at least two meters distance from others. For those who came in contact contact with someone testing positive for COVID-19 then they had to completely isolate themselves from any contact with others. 

Simultaneously, medical researchers are racing to find a vaccine.  The strategy is that once a vaccine is developed it can be injected into people so that their bodies can develop resistance to the coronavirus. 

Covid -19 Vaccine

These extreme procedures to isolate, quarantine, and to develop a coronavirus vaccine, provide a living illustration of another procedure to treat a different virus – a spiritual one.  That procedure is at the heart of the mission of Jesus and his Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven.  If the coronavirus is of such concern that societies across the planet are taking drastic steps to understand the coronavirus and protect their citizens, then perhaps it is worthwhile to also understand this spiritual counterpart, so that we are not caught unaware by this threat.  The COVID-19 pandemic is instructive in understanding the gospel in terms of sin, heaven, hell, but also the mission of Jesus.

First the infectious disease…

A Deadly & Contagious Infection.

Just as COVID-19 is not pleasant to think about but cannot be avoided, the Bible talks a great deal about sin and its consequences – another topic we prefer to avoid.  An image the Bible uses to describe sin is that of an infectious disease that has spread across, and is killing the human race.

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned. 

Romans 5:12

All of us have become like one who is unclean,
    and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
    and like the wind our sins sweep us away. 

Isaiah 64:6

Epidemics are diseases but are not the cause of the disease. For example, AIDS is the disease; HIV is the virus that causes the disease. SARS is the disease; SARS Coronavirus-1 is the virus that causes the disease. The current disease is called COVID-19 and the virus is called SARS Coronavirus-2. In the same way, the Bible says that sins (plural) are a spiritual disease; sin (singular) is its root, and it results in death.

Moses & the Bronze Serpent

A story connecting disease and death, which Jesus linked to his mission, is the account of snakes infesting the Israelite camp in the time of Moses. A cure was needed before they were overwhelmed by death. 

They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”

Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived. 

Numbers 21:4-9
Moses and the Copper Snake | Bible Story
Israelites being captured by snakes
Moses and the Copper Snake | Bible Story
Moses made the bronze snake

Throughout the Old Testament one became unclean either by infectious disease, by touching dead bodies, or by sin.  These three were associated with one another.  The New Testament sums up our situation like this:

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

Ephesians 2: 1-2

Death in the Bible means ‘separation’ and involves both a physical (soul separates from the body) and spiritual death (soul separated from God).  Like a virus inside us, sin causes immediate spiritual death, which then leads to a certain physical death over time.

Though we would rather not think about such things the Bible treats sin as real as COVID-19, but it also points to the vaccine…

The Vaccine – Through the death of the Seed

From its beginning, the Bible developed a theme of a coming seed.  A seed is essentially a packet of DNA that can unfurl and develop into new life.  The DNA in a seed is specific information from which large molecules of specific shapes (proteins) are made.  In this sense it is similar to a vaccine, which are large molecules (called antigens) of a specific shape.  This coming seed promised from the beginning would solve the problem of sin and death.

And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

Genesis 3:15
Bible Study: Does “seed” mean the word of God? - Quora

See here for details on the woman and her seed.  The seed was later promised to come through Abraham to go to all nations.

In your (Abraham’s) seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.

Genesis 22:18

In these instances the seed is singular.  A ‘he’, not a ‘they’ or an ‘it’, was to come.

In the Gospel, Jesus is revealed as the promised seed – but with a twist – the seed would die.  

Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

John 12:23-24

His death was on our behalf.

But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Hebrews 2:9

In some types of vaccines the virus is killed and then injected into our bodies so that our bodies can produce the necessary antibodies.  Our immune system can thus defend our bodies from the virus.  In a similar way the death of Jesus for us all enables that seed to now indwell us so we can develop an immune defence against that spiritual virus – sin.

Antibodies and COVID-19 | CDC
Covid -19 Antibodies

No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

1 John 3:9

Without an adequate vaccine our only option (as with COVID-19 since no vaccine has yet been developed) is quarantine.  This is also true in the spiritual realm.  That quarantine is more commonly known as Hell.

How is this so?

Quarantine – Separation of Heaven & Hell

Jesus taught on coming of the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’. When we think of ‘heaven’ we often think of its situation or milieu – those ‘streets of gold’.  But the greater hope of the Kingdom is a society with citizens of completely honest and selfless character.  Reflect on how much we build into the ‘kingdoms’ of earth to protect ourselves from each other. We all have locks on our homes, advanced security systems; we lock our cars; we tell our kids not to speak to strangers. Every city has some police force.  We vigilantly protect our online data. When you think of all the systems, practices and procedures that we have put in place in our ‘kingdoms on earth’ and realize that they are there simply to protect ourselves from each other then you may get a glimmer of the problem of sin in heaven. 

Stream FrkLoops - Heaven Paradise ( Original Mix ) FREE DOWNLOAD !! by  F_Loops | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
Heaven

If God were to setup a kingdom of ‘heaven’ and then invite us to become citizens of it, we would quickly turn it into the hell we have turned this world into. The gold on the streets would vanish in no time.  The sin in us must be rooted out just like COVID-19 must be rooted out for society to be healthy.  Not one person who ‘missed’ (the meaning of sin) this perfect standard could enter the kingdom – because then it would be ruined.  A quarantine would have to be enforced.

What then for those who are quarantined and denied entry? In this world, if you are denied entry to a country you cannot also expect to participate in its resources and benefits (receive its welfare, medical treatment etc.). But all in all, people around the world, even terrorists on the run from all countries, enjoy the same basic amenities of nature, such as breathing the air, seeing light like everyone else.

But who made light? The Bible claims

‘God said, “Let there be light” and there was light’.

Genesis 1:3
Hell

If that is true then all light is His – and it turns out that we are just borrowing it now. But with the final establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven, His light will be in His Kingdom. So ‘outside’ will be ‘darkness’ – just as Jesus described Hell in this parable.

“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 

Matthew 22: 13

If it is true that there is a Creator then most of what we take for granted and assume is ‘ours’ is really His. Starting with such a basic entity as ‘light’, the world around us, and going on to our natural abilities such as thought and speech – we really did nothing to create these abilities – we simply find ourselves able to use them.  When the Kingdom is finalized the Owner will reclaim them.

When COVID-19 breaks out and threatens death and havoc among us all we hear no argument when experts insist on quarantine. So it is no surprise to hear Jesus teach in his parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus that

And besides all this, between us (in Kingdom of God) and you (in Hell) a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.

Luke 16:26

Taking the vaccination – Jesus’ explanation of the Bronze Serpent

Jesus once explained his mission using the story above about Moses and the deadly serpents.  Think about what would have happened for the people bitten by the snakes.

When bitten by a poisonous snake, the venom that enters the body is an antigen, just like a virus infection.  The normal treatment is to try to suck the venom out; bind the bitten limb tightly so that the blood will not flow and the venom will not spread from the bite; and reduce activity so that the lowered heartrate will not quickly pump the venom through the body. 

When the serpents infected the Israelites they were told to look at the bronze serpent held up on a pole to be cured.  You might visualize this as some bitten person rolling out of his bed to look at the nearby bronze serpent and then being healed.  But there were about 3 million people in the Israelite camp (they counted over 600 000 men of military age) – the size of a large modern city.  Chances were high that those bitten were several kilometers away, and out of sight from, the bronze serpent pole.  So those bitten by the snakes had to make a choice.  They could take standard precautions involving binding the wound tightly and resting to restrict blood flow and spread of the venom.  Or they would have to trust the remedy announced by Moses and walk several kilometers, raising the blood flow and spread of the venom, to look at the bronze serpent on the pole.  It would be the trust or lack of trust in the word of Moses that would determine each person’s course of action.

Jesus referred to this when he said

Pin on Heavenly

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15 so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.

John 3:14-15

Jesus is saying that our situation is like that story.  The snakes infesting the camp are like sin in us and society.  We are infected with the venom of sin and this will result in our death – an eternal one requiring Quarantine from the Kingdom of Heaven.  He then makes the connection that his being lifted up on the cross was like the bronze serpent lifted on a pole.  Just as the bronze serpent could cure the Israelites of their deadly venom so he can cure ours.  The Israelites in the camp had to look at the raised serpent.  But to do that they would have to explicitly trust the solution provided by Moses and act counter-intuitively by not slowing the heart rate.  It was their trust in what God provided that saved them.  It is the same for us.  We do not physically look at the cross, but we trust in that provision given by God to save us from the infection of sin and death. 

However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. 

Romans 4:5

Rather than trusting our ability to fight off the infection, we trust God who made the vaccine in the Seed.  We trust him with the details of the vaccine.  This is why ‘Gospel’ means ‘Good news’.  Anyone who has been infected with a deadly disease but now hears that a vaccine is available and given for free – that is good news.

Come & See

Of course we need a reason to trust both the diagnosis and the vaccine.  We dare not give our trust naively.  As one of the earliest discussions on this theme records

Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.

“Come and see,” said Philip.

John 1:45-46

The Gospel invites us to come and see, to examine that Seed.  Many articles here do that, working through various questions we may have, including the resurrection, reliability of the Bible, the overall summary of the Gospel, or viewed through a love story.  Come and see like Nathanael did so long ago.

For further discussion on God & Coronovairus see https://www.noeticshift.org/

Apparel: Why More than just Clothing?

Why do you clothe yourself?  Not with just anything that fits, but you want fashionable clothing that expresses who you are.  What causes you to instinctively need to wear clothing, not just to stay warm but also to express yourself visually?

Isn’t it odd that you find the same instinct across the planet, no matter what people’s language, race, education, religion?  Women perhaps more than men, but they also display the same tendency.  In 2016 the global textile industry exported $1.3 Trillion USD.

The instinctive need to clothe ourselves feels so utterly normal and natural that many don’t often stop to ask, “Why?”. 

We put forth theories as to where the earth came from, where people came from, why the continents drift apart. But have you ever read a theory as to where our need for clothing comes from?

Only Humans – but not just for warmth

Let’s start with the obvious.  Animals certainly do not have this instinct.  They are all perfectly happy to be stark naked in front of us, and others all the time.  This is true even for higher animals.  If we are simply higher than higher animals this does not seem to add up.

The Invention of Clothing

Our need to be clothed comes not just from our need for warmth since much of our fashion and clothing comes from places with almost unbearable heat.  Though clothing is functional, keeping us warm and protecting us, these reasons do not answer our instinctive needs for modesty, gender expression and self-identity.

Clothing – from the Hebrew Scriptures

The one account that explains why we clothe ourselves, and do it tastefully, comes from the ancient Hebrew Scriptures.  These Scriptures place you and me into a story claiming to be historical. It offers insight into who you are, why you do what you, and what is in store for your future.  This story goes back to the dawn of mankind yet also explains everyday phenomena like why you clothe yourself.  Becoming familiar with this account is worthwhile since it offers many insights about yourself, guiding you to more abundant living.

We have been looking at the ancient creation account from the Hebrew Scriptures, often called the Bible, having started with the beginning of mankind and the world. We explore its pivotal events since then which echo down to today, explaining mundane events like shopping for fashionable clothes.

Made In the Image of God

We explored here that The Creator God had made the cosmos and then

120+ God Made You Illustrations, Royalty-Free Vector Graphics & Clip Art -  iStock

So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:27

Using the lens of magnificent Buddha statues throughout Asia we saw that God fully expressed himself artistically through the beauty of creation.  Think of sunsets, flowers, tropical birds and landscape vistas.  Because God is artistic, you also, made ‘in his image’, will instinctively, without even consciously knowing ‘why’, likewise express yourself aesthetically. 

Toronto Flower Delivery - Free Same-Day Delivery- Toronto's ...
Sunset color science: why the coldest months of the year produce the best  sunsets - VoxOur Best Tropical Bird Stock Photos, Pictures & Royalty-Free Images -  iStock | Tropical bird flying, Tropical bird vector, Tropical bird in jungle

We saw that The Creator God is a person.  God is a ‘he’, not an ‘it’.  Therefore, it is only natural that you also want to express yourself both visually and personally.  Clothing, jewellery, colors and cosmetics (make-up, tattoos etc) is thus a prominent way for you to express yourself artistically as well as individually.

Male and Female

The Creator God also made humans in the image of God as ‘male and female’.  Here also we see in your clothing and fashion, through your hairstyle, why you create your ‘look’ which we all naturally and easily recognize as male or female.  This goes deeper than cultural fashion.  If you see fashion and clothing from a culture you have never seen before you will generally recognize what is male and what is female clothing in that culture. 

The Best Time to Buy Clothes: When to Get the Biggest Discounts in 2022

Thus your creation in the image of God as male or female begins explaining your clothing instincts.  But this Creation account continues with some subsequent historical events which further explains your relationship with clothing.

Covering our Shame

The Creator God gave the first humans the choice to obey or disobey Him in their primeval paradise.  They chose to disobey and when they did the creation account tells us that

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Genesis 3:7
Adam and Eve in the Forest editorial stock image. Image of woman - 195388104
Adam and Eve

This tells us that from this point on humans lost their innocence before each other and before their Creator.  Ever since then we instinctively have felt shame about being naked and have desired to cover our own nakedness.  Beyond the need to stay warm and protected, we feel exposed, vulnerable and ashamed if we are naked in front of others.  Mankind’s choice to disobey God unleashed this in us.  It also unleashed the cycle of attachments, wrong thinking, discord and death which are ever present realities of our lives. 

Extending Mercy: A Promise and some clothes

The Creator God, in his mercy for us, then did two things.  First, He uttered a Promise in riddle form that would direct human history.  In this riddle form He promised the coming Saviour, Jesus. The Creator God would send him to help us, to defeat his enemy, and to conquer death for us.

The second thing that The Creator God did was

The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

Genesis 3:21
God Makes Coats of Skins for Adam and Eve | GOSPEL OF THE DESCENT OF THE  KINGDOM
Adam and Eve being clothed

God provided clothing to cover their nakedness.  God did so to address their shame.  Ever since that day, we the children of these human ancestors, have been instinctively clothing ourselves as a result of these events. 

Clothing of Skin – A Visual Aid

God clothed them in a specific way to illustrate a principle for us.  The clothing that God provided was not a cotton blouse or denim shorts but ‘garments of skin’.  This meant that the Creator God killed an animal in order to make skins to cover their nakedness.  They had tried to cover themselves with leaves, but these were insufficient and so skins were required.  In the creation account, up to this time, no animal had ever died.  That primeval world had not experienced death.  But now the Creator God sacrificed an animal to cover their nakedness and shield their shame.  This began a tradition, practised by their descendants, running through all cultures, of animal sacrifice.  Eventually people forgot the truth that this ritual illustrated, but preserved in the Bible which states:

        23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23

This states that Karma operates such that for all actions there are consequences.  For sin the consequence is death, and it must be paid.  We can pay it ourselves with our own death, or someone else can pay for it on our behalf.  The animal sacrificed for us illustrated this concept.  But it was only an illustration, a visual aid pointing to the real sacrifice that would one day free the world of sin.  This was fulfilled in the coming of Jesus who willingly sacrificed himself for us.  This great victory has ensured that

The “Heart” of the Atonement (Part 3): The Sacrifice Model – Pastor Dave  Online
Sacrificed animal

The last enemy to be destroyed is death

1 Corinthians 15:26

The Coming Wedding Feast – Wedding Clothes compulsory

Jesus likened this coming day, when He destroys death, to a great wedding feast.  He told the following parable

The Wedding at Cana Details Jesus' First Miracle
Wedding Jesus attended

“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.

13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Matthew 22: 8 -13

In this story that Jesus told, everyone is invited to this festival.  People will come from every nation.  And because Jesus paid the karma for anyone’s sin he also gives out the clothes for this festival.  The clothing here represents his merit which can cover any karma.  Though the wedding invitations go far and wide, and the king distributes wedding clothes free-of-charge, he still requires them.  We need his payment to cover our bad karma.  The man who did not clothe himself was ejected from the festival.  This is why Jesus says later on.

And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto  them, that they should rest yet for a little sea… | Book of revelation,  Revelation, Biblical

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

Revelation 3:18

How events unfold from the dawn of history up to this victory and how to be ‘clothed’ we continue exploring. We look at the next historic event, the great Flood, recorded in the Bible which affects you and me today.

The Resurrection of Jesus: Fact or Fiction?

In our modern, educated day, we sometimes wonder if traditional beliefs, especially ones about the Bible, are only out-dated superstitions.  The Bible recounts many incredible miracles. But probably the Easter story of Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead after his crucifixion seems the most unbelievable. 

Easter Sunday 2022: Here is why Resurrection of Jesus Christ is celebrated,  Know significance and history of the holy day
Is Jesus Resurrected?

Is there any logical evidence to take this account of Jesus rising from the dead seriously?  Surprising to many, a strong case can be made that the resurrection of Jesus actually happened. And this comes from an argument based on historical data and evidence, not on religious belief.

This question is worth careful investigation since it directly impacts our own lives. After all, we all will die, no matter how much money, education, health and other goals we achieve in life. If Jesus has defeated death then it gives a real hope in the face of our own approaching death.  Let’s look at the main historical data and the evidence for his resurrection.

Tacitus: Historical Reference to Jesus

The fact that Jesus existed and died a public death that has altered the course of history is certain. One need not look to the Bible to verify that. Secular history records several references to Jesus and the impact he made on the world of his day. Let’s look at two. The Roman governor-historian Tacitus referenced Jesus when recording how the Roman Emperor Nero executed 1st century Christians (in CE 65). Nero had blamed Christians for the burning of Rome and then proceeded with an extermination campaign. Here is what Tacitus wrote in 112 CE:

‘Nero.. punished with the most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius; but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also’

Tacitus. Annals XV. 44
Nero - Wikipedia
Nero, the Roman emperor

Tacitus confirms that:

  1. Jesus was a historical person;
  2. He was executed by Pontius Pilate;
  3. by 65 CE (the time of Nero) the Christian faith had spread across the Mediterranean from Judea to Rome with such a force that the Roman Emperor felt he had to deal with it.

Notice that Tacitus is saying these things as a hostile witness since he considers the movement that Jesus started a ‘wicked superstition’.  He is against it, but does not deny its historicity.

Josephus: Historical Reference to Jesus

Josephus was a Jewish military leader/historian writing to Romans in the First Century. He summarized the history of the Jews from their beginning up to his time. In so doing he covered the time and career of Jesus with these words: 

‘At this time there was a wise man … Jesus. … good, and … virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned Him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that He had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that He was alive’

Josephus. 90 AD. Antiquities xviii. 33
Josephus - Wikipedia
Josephus

Josephus confirms that:

  1. Jesus existed,
  2. He was a religious teacher,
  3. His disciples publicly proclaimed the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. 

So it seems from these glimpses back into the past that the death of Christ was a well-known event and the issue of his resurrection was being forced onto the Greco-Roman world by his disciples. 

Historical Background from the Bible

Luke, a physician and historian provides further details as to how this faith advanced in the ancient world. Here is his excerpt from Acts in the Bible: 

‘The priests and the captain … came up to Peter and John … They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead…They seized Peter and John… put them in jail…When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished… “What are we going to do with these men?” they asked.’

Acts 4: 1-16

‘Then the high priest and all his associates,… arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. …they were furious and wanted to put them to death….They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.’

Acts 5: 17-40
Acts Devotional Commentary [Acts 5:17-31] The Apostles Arrested and Freed –  Dust Off The Bible
Apostles Arrested

We can see that the leaders went to great lengths to stop this new belief. These initial controversies occurred in Jerusalem. This is the same city where only a few weeks earlier Jesus had been publicly executed and buried. 

From this historical data we can investigate the resurrection by weighing all the possible alternatives and see which one makes the most sense. We do not have to prejudge by ‘faith’ any supernatural resurrection.

The body of Jesus and the tomb 

We have only two alternatives concerning the body of the dead Christ. Either the tomb was empty on that Easter Sunday morning or it still contained his body.  There are no other options. 

Let’s assume that his body remained in the tomb. As we reflect on the unfolding historical events, however, difficulties quickly arise. Why would the Roman and Jewish leaders in Jerusalem have to take such extreme measures to stop stories of a resurrection if the body was still in the tomb? This tomb lay adjacent to the disciples’ public proclamations of his rising from the dead!  If the body of Jesus was still in the tomb it would have been a simple matter for the authorities to parade Christ’s body in front of everyone. This would have discredited the fledgling movement without having to imprison, torture and finally martyr them. 

Archaeologists excavate 'Jesus's midwife' tomb in Israel | PBS NewsHour
Jesus’ Tomb must have been empty

Consider further, thousands were converted to believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus in Jerusalem at this time. If I had been one of those in the crowds listening to Peter, wondering if I could believe his incredible message (after all, it came with persecution) I would have at least taken my lunch break to go to the tomb and take a look for myself to see if the body was still there. If the body of Christ was still in the tomb this movement would not have gained any followers in such a hostile environment with such incriminating counter evidence on-hand. So Christ’s body remaining in the tomb leads to absurdities. It does not make sense. 

Did the disciples steal the body? 

Of course there are other possible explanations for an empty tomb apart from a resurrection. However, any explanation for the body’s disappearance must also account for these details:  the Roman seal over the tomb, the Roman patrol guarding the tomb, the large (1-2 ton) stone covering the tomb entrance, the 40 kg of embalming agent on the body. The list goes on. Space does not allow us to look at all factors and scenarios to explain the missing body, but the most contemplated explanation has always been that the disciples themselves stole the body from the tomb, hid it somewhere and were then able to mislead others. 

Assume this scenario, avoiding for the sake of argument some of the difficulties in explaining how the discouraged band of disciples who fled for their lives at his arrest, could re-group and come up with a plan to steal the body, totally outwitting the Roman guard. They then broke the seal, moved the massive rock, and made off with the embalmed body – all without suffering any casualties (since they all remained to become public witnesses).  Let us assume that they successfully managed this and then they all entered onto the world stage to start a religious faith based on their deception.

The Disciples Motivation: Their Belief in the Resurrection

Many of us today think that what motivated the disciples was the need to proclaim brotherhood and love among men. But look back to the account from both Luke and Josephus and you will note that the contentious issue was “the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead”. This theme is paramount in their writings. Notice how Paul, another apostle, rates the importance of Christ’s resurrection: 

For … I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died …buried, that he was raised on the third day… he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.. If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless … your faith is futile…If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men…. If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised – ‘Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die’… .

I Corinthians 15: 3-32 (57 AD) 

Who would die for what they knew was a lie?

Clearly, in their minds the disciples placed the importance and their witness of the resurrection of Christ at the center of their movement.  Assume that this was really false – that these disciples had really stolen the body so the counter-evidence to their message could not expose them. They may then successfully fooled the world, but they themselves would have known that what they were preaching, writing and creating great upheaval for was false. Yet they gave their lives (literally) for this mission. Why would they do it – IF they knew the basis for it was false?

People give their lives to causes because they believe in the cause for which they fight or because they expect some benefit from the cause. If the disciples had stolen the body and hid it, they of all people would know that the resurrection was not true. Consider from their own words what price the disciples paid for the spreading of their message – and ask yourself if you would pay such a personal price for something that you knew to be false: 

The Personal Price Paid by the Disciples

We are hard pressed on every side… perplexed… persecuted, struck down… outwardly we are wasting away…in great endurance, in troubles, hardships, distresses, in beatings, imprisonments and riots, hard work, sleepless nights and hunger… beaten … sorrowful … poor … having nothing… ..Five times I received from the Jews the 39 lashes, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, … , I have been in danger from rivers, from bandits, my own countrymen, from Gentiles, in the city, in the country, in the sea. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep, I have known hunger and thirst… I have been cold and naked… Who is weak and I do not feel weak.

II Corinthians 4: 8– 6:10; 11:24-29 

The Heroic Courage of the Disciples – They must have believed it

The more I consider the unshrinking heroism of all their lives (not one cracked at the bitter end and ‘confessed’) over several decades of suffering and persecution, the more I find it impossible that they did not sincerely believe their message. But if they believed it they certainly could not have stolen and disposed of Christ’s body. A renowned criminal lawyer, who taught law students at Harvard how to probe for weaknesses in witnesses, had this remark to say about the disciples: 

“The annals of military warfare afford scarcely an example of the like heroic constancy, patience, and unflinching courage. They had every possible motive to review carefully the grounds of their faith, and the evidences of the great facts and truths which they asserted”

Greenleaf. 1874. An examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence Administered in the Courts of Justice. p.29 

… Compared against historical silence of those in power

Related to this is the silence of the enemies of the disciples – Jewish or Roman. These hostile witnesses never seriously attempted to tell the ‘real’ story, or show how the disciples were wrong. As Dr. Montgomery states, 

“This underscores the reliability of testimony to Christ’s resurrection which was presented contemporaneously in the synagogues – in the very teeth of opposition, among hostile cross-examiners who would certainly have destroyed the case … had the facts been otherwise”

Montgomery, 1975. Legal Reasoning and Christian Apologetics. p88-89
Did Jesus Really Rise From The Dead? Evidence of The Resurrection | Cru
Jesus is Resurrected!

We do not have the space to consider every facet of this question. However, the unwavering boldness of the disciples and the silence of the contemporaneous hostile authorities speak volumes that there is a case for Christ having risen, and that it is worth taking a serious and thoughtful examination.  One way to do so is to understand it in its Biblical context. A great place to start are the Signs of Abraham as well as Moses. Though they lived over a thousand years before Jesus, they prophetically foretold his death and resurrection. 

What are the Ten Commandments? What do they teach?

Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. These books describe the birth of the Israelite nation thousands of years ago.  Moses’ mission was to birth this nation to become a light to surrounding nations.  He began by leading the Israelites (or Jews) out of slavery in Egypt through a rescue known as Passover. In Passover God liberated the Israelites in a way that pointed to a future deliverance for all mankind.  But Moses’ call was not only to lead the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery. His mandate was also to lead them to a new way of living.  So fifty days after Passover Moses led them to Mt. Sinai where they received the Law.

Mount Sinai - Wikipedia
Mount Sinai

So what commands did Moses receive?  Though the complete Law was quite long, Moses first received a set of specific moral commands written by God on tablets of stone, known as the Ten Commandments. These Ten formed the summary of the Law – the moral prerequisites before all the others.  The Ten Commandments is God’s active power to persuade us to repent.  This is what we examine in this article.

The Ten Commandments

Here are the Ten Commandments as written by God on stone and then recorded by Moses in the book of Exodus of the Bible.

And God spoke all these words:

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

“You shall have no other gods before me.

“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

13 “You shall not murder.

14 “You shall not commit adultery.

15 “You shall not steal.

16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Exodus 20: 1-17
About the Ten Commandments | ST. JOSEPH CATHOLIC CHURCH & SCHOOL

The Standard of the Ten Commandments

Today we sometimes we forget that these were commands. They were not suggestions. They were not recommendations.  But to what extent are we to obey these commands? The following verse comes just before the giving of the Ten Commandments

 Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel…

Exodus 19:3

Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine,

Exodus 19:5

Moses recorded the following just after the giving of the Ten Commandments.

Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.”

Exodus24:7

Ten Commands – Not Multiple Choice

Let’s think about this. Sometimes in school exams, the teacher gives multiple questions (for example 20) but then requires students to only answer some of the questions. Students then can, for example, choose any 15 questions out of the 20 to answer. Each student would pick the 15 easiest questions for him/her to answer. In this way the teacher makes the exam easier.

Many people treat the Ten Commandments in the same way. They think that God, after giving the Ten Commandments, meant, “Attempt any six of your choice from these Ten”.  We think this way because we instinctively imagine God balancing our ‘good deeds’ against our ‘bad deeds’.  If our Good merits outweigh or cancel our Bad imperfections then we hope that this is sufficient to earn God’s favor or get a pass to heaven.  For this same reason many of us try to earn religious merit by religious activities like going to church, mosque or temple, praying, fasting and giving money to the poor.  These acts hopefully balance out the times we disobey one of the Ten Commandments.

However, an honest reading of the Ten Commandments shows that this was not how it was given. People are to obey and keep ALL the commands – all the time.  The sheer difficulty of accomplishing this has made many rebel against the Ten Commandments.  The well-known atheist Christopher Hitchens attacked the Ten Commandments for this reason:

 “… then comes the four famous ‘shalt nots’ which flatly prohibit killing, adultery, theft, and false witness.  Finally there is a ban on covetousness, forbidding the desire for ‘thy neighbours’… chattel.  …  Instead of the condemnation of evil actions, there is an oddly phrased condemnation of impure thoughts….  It demands the impossible….  One may be forcibly restrained from wicked actions…, but to forbid people from contemplating them is too much…. If god really wanted people to be free of such thoughts, he should have taken more care to invent a different species”  Christopher Hitchens.  2007.  God is not great: How religion spoils everything.  P.99-100

Christopher Hitchens - Wikipedia
Christopher Hitchens

Why did God give the Ten Commandments?

But to think either that God can accommodate a 50%+ effort, or that God made a mistake in demanding the impossible is to misunderstand the purpose of the Ten Commandments.  God gave the Ten Commandments to help us identify our problem.

Let’s illustrate with an example.  Suppose you had a hard fall onto the ground and your arm hurts badly – but you are unsure of the internal damage.  Is the bone in your arm broken or not?  You are unsure if it will just get better, or if you need a cast on your arm.  So you take an X-ray of your arm and the X-ray picture reveals that, yes indeed, the bone in your arm is broken.  Does the X-ray heal your arm?  Is your arm better because of the X-ray?  No, your arm is still broken, but now you know that it is indeed broken, and that you need to put a cast on it to heal.  The X-ray did not solve the problem, but rather it exposed the problem so that you would get proper treatment.

The Commands reveal Sin

In the same way God gave the Ten Commandments so that we could see a problem deep within us – our sin.  Sin literally means ‘missing’ the target of what God expects from us in how we treat others, ourselves and God.  The Bible says that

The Lord looks down from heaven
on all mankind
to see if there are any who understand,
any who seek God.
All have turned away, all have become corrupt;
there is no one who does good,
not even one. (Psalm 14:2-3)

We all have this inner corrupting problem of sin.  This is so serious that God says of our ‘good deeds’ (which we hope will cancel out our sins) that

All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away. (Isaiah 64:6)

Our righteous merit in religious observances or helping others counts only as ‘filthy rags’ when weighed against our sins.

But instead of recognizing our problem we tend either to compare ourselves with others (and so measure ourselves against the wrong standard), strive harder to obtain religious merit, or give up and just live for pleasure.  Therefore God instituted the Ten Commandments so that:

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. (Romans 3:20)

If we examine our lives and see our sin against the standard of the Ten Commandments it is like looking at an X-ray that shows the broken bone in our arm.  The Ten Commandments do not ‘fix’ our problem, but reveals the problem clearly so we will accept the remedy that God has provided.  Instead of continuing in self-deception, the Law allows us to see ourselves accurately.

God’s Gift given in repentance

The remedy that God has provided is the gift of forgiveness of sins through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ – explained more fully here.  God simply extends this Gift of Life to us if we trust or have faith in His work.

know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:16)

As Abraham was justified before God we too can be given righteousness.  But it does require that we repent.  Repent means to ‘change our minds’ involving a turning away from sin and a turning towards God and the Gift He offers.  As the Bible explains:

Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord

Acts 3:19

The promise for you and me is that if we repent, turning to God, that our sins will not be counted against us and we will receive Life.

Along with that first Passover and Abraham’s test which revealed God’s signature in His plan for us, the specific day when the Ten Commandments were given to Moses also point to the coming of the Spirit of God to indwell us – giving us the ability to follow God in a way that we cannot do on our own.

About Me: The Wisdom I learned from a hard-drinking, filthy-rich playboy

Sweden Canada High Resolution Sign Flags Concept Stock Photo, Picture And  Royalty Free Image. Image 29122412.

I want to share how the Gospel became meaningful to me, a journey impacted by Solomon and his whole-hearted pursuit of pleasure and wisdom.  This will allow you to better have a personal insight on the articles on this website.  (Oh and the basic info … my name is Ragnar Oborn – Swedish – and I live in Canada.  I am married and we have a son.  I studied at University of Toronto, University of New Brunswick and Acadia University)

Restlessness in a Privileged Youth

I was born into an upper middle-class professional family.  Originally from Sweden, we immigrated to Canada when I was young, and then I grew up while living abroad in several countries – Algeria, Germany and Cameroon, and finally returning to Canada for university. Like everyone else I wanted (and still want) to experience a full life – with contentment, a sense of peace, and of meaning and purpose – along with a connectedness to other people.

What Causes Spiritual Distraction?
Spiritual Distractions

Living in these different societies – religions and secular ones – and being an avid reader, I was exposed to different ideas as to what is ultimately ‘true’ and what a ‘full life’ meant.  I observed that though I (and most in the West) had unprecedented wealth, technology and opportunity to achieve these goals, the paradox was that this full life seemed so elusive.

I noticed that relationships were more disposable and temporary than that of previous generations. Terms like ‘rat race’ was used to describe our lives. I was told that if we can get just ‘a little bit more’ then we would arrive. But how much more? And more of what?  Money? Scientific knowledge? Technology? Pleasure?

Living for what?

What are you really chasing in life?
What gives purpose in Life?

As a young person I felt angst probably best described as a vague restlessness. Since my father was an expatriate consulting engineer in Africa, I hung out with other wealthy, privileged and educated western teenagers. But life there was quite simple with little to amuse us. So my friends and I dreamed about returning to our home countries and enjoy TV, good food, opportunities, and the ease of western living – and then we would be ‘satisfied’.

But when I would visit Canada or Europe, after the first bit of excitement the restlessness would return. And worse, I also noticed it in the people who lived there all the time. Whatever they had (which was alot by any measure) there was always need for more. I thought I would find ‘it’ when I had a popular girlfriend. And for a while this seemed to fill something within me, but after a few months restlessness would return. I thought when I got out of high school then I would ‘arrive’… then it was when I could get a driver’s license and gain independence – then my search would be over.

Now that I am older I hear people speaking of retirement as the ticket to satisfaction. Is that it? Do we spend our whole lives chasing one thing after the other, thinking the next thing around the corner will give it to us, and then … our lives are over? It seems so futile!

The Wisdom of Solomon

The Secrets Of King Solomon - African Leadership Magazine
King Solomon

During these years the writings of Solomon made a deep impact on me. Solomon (950 BCE), a king of ancient Israel famous for his wisdom, wrote several books in the Old Testament. In Ecclesiastes, he described this same restlessness that I was experiencing.

The man who had everything…

He wrote:

I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless.2 “Laughter,” I said, “is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?” I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.

I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem as well—the delights of a man’s heart. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.

10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
    I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labor,
    and this was the reward for all my toil.

Ecclesiastes2 :1-10

Riches, fame, knowledge, projects, women, pleasure, kingdom, career, wine… Solomon had it all – and more of it than anyone else of his day or ours. The smarts of an Einstein, the riches of a Bill Gates, the social/sexual life of a Mick Jagger, along with a royal pedigree like that of Prince William in the British Royal family – all rolled into one. Who could beat that combination? You would think Solomon, of all people would have been satisfied. But he concluded:

But miserable to the point of madness

The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
    says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
    Everything is meaningless.”

What do people gain from all their labors
    at which they toil under the sun?
Generations come and generations go,
    but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun sets,
    and hurries back to where it rises.
The wind blows to the south
    and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
    ever returning on its course.
All streams flow into the sea,
    yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
    there they return again.
All things are wearisome,
    more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
    nor the ear its fill of hearing.
What has been will be again,
    what has been done will be done again;
    there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which one can say,
    “Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
    it was here before our time.
11 No one remembers the former generations,
    and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
    by those who follow them.

12 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! 14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Ecclesiastes 1:1-14

Life … Folly and Chasing after the Wind

Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
    and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
    nothing was gained under the sun.

12 Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom,
    and also madness and folly.
What more can the king’s successor do
    than what has already been done?
13 I saw that wisdom is better than folly,
    just as light is better than darkness.
14 The wise have eyes in their heads,
    while the fool walks in the darkness;
but I came to realize
    that the same fate overtakes them both.

15 Then I said to myself,

“The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
    What then do I gain by being wise?”
I said to myself,
    “This too is meaningless.”
16 For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered;
    the days have already come when both have been forgotten.
Like the fool, the wise too must die!

17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. 18 I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. 19 And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. 20 So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. 21 For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. 22 What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? 23 All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.

Ecclesiastes 2:11-23

Solomon Tried everything ‘under the sun’

Hardly happy! In one of his poems, The Song of Songs, he records an erotic, red-hot love affair that he was having – the very thing that seems most likely to provide life-long satisfaction. But in the end, the love affair did not give him sustained satisfaction.

Wherever I looked, either among my friends or in society, it seemed like Solomon’s pursuits for a full life were the ones being tried. But he had already told me that he had not found it on those paths. So I sensed that I would not find it there and would need to look on a road less travelled.

Along with all these issues I was bothered by another aspect of life. It troubled Solomon as well.

Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?

Ecclesiastes3:19-21

Woody Allen vs. Solomon

Death is utterly final and reigns absolute over us. As Solomon said, it is the fate of all people, good or bad, religious or not. Woody Allen directed and released the movie You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger. It is a funny/serious look at death. In a Cannes Film Festival interview he revealed his thoughts about death with his well-known humour.

Woody Allen - Wikipedia
Woody Allen

“My relationship with death remains the same – I’m strongly against it.All I can do is wait for it. There is no advantage to getting older – you don’t get smarter, you don’t get wiser, you don’t get more mellow, you don’t get more kindly – nothing happens. But your back hurts more, you get more indigestion, your eyesight isn’t as good and you need a hearing aid. It’s a bad business getting older and I would advise you not to do it if you can avoid it.” [1]

He then concluded with how one should face life given the inevitability of death.

“One must have one’s delusions to live. If you look at life too honestly and too clearly life does become unbearable because it’s a pretty grim enterprise. This is my perspective and has always been my perspective on life – I have a very grim, pessimistic view of it… I do feel that it [life] is a grim, painful, nightmarish, meaningless experience and that the only way that you can be happy is if you tell yourself some lies and deceive yourself.”

So are those our only choices? Either take the honest route of Solomon resigned to utter hopelessness and futility, or that of Woody Allen and ‘tell myself some lies and deceive myself’ so I can live under a more happy ‘delusion’?  Neither seemed very attractive. Closely linked with death was the question of eternity. Is there really a Heaven, or (more alarmingly) is there really a place of eternal judgment – a Hell?

In my senior year of high school we had an assignment to collect one hundred pieces of literature (poems, songs, short stories etc.). Most of my collection dealt with these issues and it allowed me to ‘meet’ and hear many others who also wrestled with these same questions. And meet them I did – from all sorts of eras, educational backgrounds, lifestyle philosophies and genres. 

The Gospel – Ready to Consider it

I also included some of the well-known sayings by Jesus recorded in the Biblical gospels like:

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

John 10:10

It grew on me that maybe, just maybe, here was an answer to the questions I was asking. After all, gospel (which had just been a more-or-less meaningless religious word) literally meant ‘good news’. Was the Gospel really good news? Or was it more-or-less hearsay? To answer that I knew I needed to journey down two roads.

First, I needed to start to develop an informed understanding of the Gospel. Second, having lived in different religious cultures, I had met people and read authors who had many objections to, and held ideas in opposition to, the Biblical Gospel. These were informed and intelligent people. I needed to think critically about the Gospel, without just being a mindless critic or an empty-headed believer.

There is a very real sense that when one embarks on this kind of journey one never totally arrives, but I have learned that the Gospel does provide answers to these issues that Solomon raised. Its whole point actually is to address them – a full life, death, eternity, and practical concerns like love in our family relationships, guilt, fear and forgiveness. The Gospel’s claim is that it is a foundation that we can build our lives upon. One may not necessarily like the answers provided by the Gospel, one may not agree with them or believe them, but given that it addresses these very human questions it would be foolish to remain uninformed of them.

I also learned that the Gospel at times made me quite uncomfortable. In a time when so much seduces us to just take it easy, the Gospel unapologetically challenged my heart, mind, soul and strength that, though it offers Life, it is not an easy one.  If you do take time to consider the Gospel you may find the same.  A good place to start is to look at one key sentence summarizing the Gospel message.

Is the Bible textually Reliable? Or has it been corrupted?

Textual Criticism and the Bible

What is the Most Recent Manuscript Count for the New… | Sean McDowell
Ancient Bible Manuscripts

In our scientific and educated age we question many of the non-scientific beliefs that earlier generations had.  This skepticism is especially true of the Bible.  Many of us question the reliability of the Bible from what we know about it.  After all, the Bible was written more than two thousand years ago.  But for most of these millennia there has been no printing press, photocopy machines or publishing companies.  So the original manuscripts were copied by hand, generation after generation, as languages died out and new ones arose, as empires changed and new powers ascended. 

Since the original manuscripts have long been lost, how do we know that what we read today in the Bible is what the original authors actually wrote?  Perhaps the Bible has been changed or corrupted, maybe by leaders in the church, or priests and monks who wished to change its message to suit their purposes.

Principles of Textual Criticism

Naturally, this question is true of any ancient writing.  The timeline below illustrates the process by which any ancient writing has been preserved over time. It shows an example ancient document written 500 BC (this date picked randomly).  This original however does not last indefinitely, so before it decays, is lost, or destroyed, a manuscript copy of it is made (1st copy).  A professional class of people called scribes did the copying work.  As the years advance, copies are made of the copy (2nd copy & 3rd copy).  At some point a copy is preserved so that it is in existence today (3rd copy).  In our example this existing copy was written 500 AD. 

Timeline of our example document

Manuscript Time Intervals

Therefore, this means that the earliest that we can know of the state of the document is only from 500 CE onwards.  Consequently the period from 500 BC to 500 CE (labeled x in the diagram) is the period where we cannot make any copy verifications since all manuscripts from this period have disappeared.  For example, if copying errors (intentional or otherwise) were made when the 2nd copy was made from the 1st copy, we would not be able to detect them as neither of these documents are available to compare against each other.  This time period predating the currently existing copies (the period x) is thus the interval of textual uncertainty. 

Therefore, a principle used to address questions about textual reliability is to look at the length of this time span.  The shorter this interval (‘x’ in the diagram) the more confidence we place in the accurate preservation of the document to our modern day, since the period of uncertainty is reduced.

The number of existing manuscripts

Of course, usually more than one manuscript copy of a document is in existence today.  Suppose we have two such manuscript copies and in the same section of each of them we find the following phrase:

The original author had either been writing about Joan OR about John, and the other of these manuscripts contains a copy error.  But which one has the error?  From the available manuscripts it is very difficult to determine.

But suppose we found two more manuscript copies of the same work, as shown below:

Now it is easier to deduce which manuscript has the error.  It is more likely that the error is made once, rather than the same error repeated three times, so it is likely that manuscript #2 has the copy error, and the author was writing about Joan, not John.

This simple example illustrates a second principle used to verify manuscript integrity. The more existing manuscripts available, the easier it is to detect and correct errors as well as to assess the content of the original.

With this we have two evidence-based indicators used to determine the textual reliability of ancient documents:

  1. measuring the time between original composition and earliest existing manuscript copies, and
  2. counting the number of existing manuscript copies. 

Textual Criticism of Classical Greco-Roman writings compared to New Testament

Since this indicators apply to any ancient writings let us now compare the manuscripts of the Bible with other ancient manuscripts that scholars accept as reliable. This Table lists some well-known ones (1)..

AuthorWhen WrittenEarliest CopyTime Span
Caesar50 BC900 AD95010
Plato350 BC900 AD12507
Aristotle*300 BC1100 AD14005
Thucydides400 BC900 AD13008
Herodotus400 BC900 AD13008
Sophocles400 BC1000 AD1400100
Tacitus100 AD1100 AD100020
Pliny100 AD850 AD7507
Manuscript data of well-known ancient writers accepted as reliable

* from any one work

These writers represent the major classical writers of antiquity. Their writings shaped the development of Western civilization.  On average, they have been passed down to us only by 10-100 manuscripts that are preserved starting about 1000 years after the original was written.   From a scientific point-of-view this data can be considered our control experiment since it comprises data (classical history and philosophy) that are accepted and used by academics and universities world-wide.

New Testament Manuscripts

The following table compares the New Testament writings along these same criteria (2).  This can be considered our experimental data which will be compared to our control data, just like in any scientific investigation.

MSSWhen WrittenDate of MSSTime Span
John Rylan90 AD130 AD40 yrs
Bodmer Papyrus90 AD150-200 AD110 yrs
Chester  Beatty60 AD200 AD20 yrs
Codex Vaticanus60-90 AD325 AD265 yrs
Codex Sinaiticus60-90 AD350 AD290 yrs
Textual Data of the earliest New Testament manuscripts
18 Ways The Bible Has Changed Since It Was First Written
Old Bible Manuscript

This table gives just a brief highlight of some of the existing New Testament manuscripts.  The number of New Testament manuscripts is so vast that it would be impossible to list them all in a table. 

Testimony of the Scholarship

As one scholar who spent years studying this issue states:

“We have more than 24000 MSS copies of portions of the New Testament in existence today… No other document of antiquity even begins to approach such numbers and attestation.  In comparison, the ILIAD by Homer is second with 643 MSS that still survive”

McDowell, J. Evidence That Demands a Verdict. 1979. p. 40

A leading scholar at the British Museum corroborates this:

“Scholars are satisfied that they possess substantially the true text of the principal Greek and Roman writers … yet our knowledge of their writings depends on a mere handful of MSS whereas the MSS of the N.T. are counted by … thousands”

Kenyon, F.G. (former director of British Museum) Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts. 1941 p.23

New Testament Textual Criticism and Constantine

Significantly, a large number of these manuscripts are extremely ancient.  Consider the introduction of the book transcribing the earliest Greek New Testament documents. 

“This book provides transcriptions of 69 of the earliest New Testament manuscripts…dated from early 2nd century to beginning of the 4th (100-300AD) … containing about 2/3 of the new Testament text”

Comfort, P.W. “The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts”. p. 17. 2001

This is significant because these manuscripts come before Roman Emperor Constantine (ca 325 CE) and the rise to power of the Catholic Church. Sometimes critics accuse either Constantine or the church of altering the biblical text.  We can actually test this claim by comparing the texts from before Constantine (since we have them) with those coming later.  When we do we find that they have not changed because the texts from 200 CE are the same as those that come later.  Thus, neither the Catholic Church, nor Constantine changed the Bible.  That is not a religious statement, it is one based solely on scientific data.  The figure below illustrates the timeline of manuscripts from which today’s New Testament comes from.

New Testament manuscripts from which modern Bibles derive

Implications of Bible Textual Criticism

So what can we conclude from this?  Certainly at least in what we can objectively measure the New Testament is verified to a much higher degree than any other classical work.  The verdict to which the evidence pushes us is best summed up by the following:

“To be skeptical of the resultant text of the New Testament is to allow all of classical antiquity to slip into obscurity, for no other documents of the ancient period are as well attested bibliographically as the New Testament”

Montgomery, History and Christianity. 1971. p.29
The New Testament Books: What You Need to Know

What this academic is saying is that to be consistent, if we decide to doubt the reliability of the preservation of the Bible we should discard all that we know about classical history in general – and this no informed historian has ever done.  We know that the Biblical texts have not been altered as eras, languages and empires have come and gone because the earliest existing MSSs pre-date these events.  For example, we know that no overly zealous medieval monk added in the miracles of Jesus to the Biblical account, since we have manuscripts that pre-date the medieval monks and all these pre-dated manuscripts also contain the miraculous accounts of Jesus.

What about translation of the Bible?

But what about the errors involved in translation, and the fact that there are so many different versions of the Bible today? Don’t many version show that it is impossible to accurately determine what the original authors actually wrote?

What About Bible Translations? - Bible Gateway Blog
The Bible is translated into many different languages

First, let us clear up a common misconception.  Many think that the Bible today has gone through a long series of translation steps, with each new language being translated from the previous one. So they imagine a series something like this:  Greek -> Latin -> Medieval English -> Shakespeare English -> modern English -> other modern languages. 

In fact, linguists translate the Bible into the diverse languages today directly from its original language.  So for the New Testament the translation proceeds Greek -> modern language, and for the Old Testament the translation proceeds Hebrew -> modern language (further details here).  But the base Greek and Hebrew text is standard.  So the differences in Bible versions comes from how linguists choose to translate phrases into the receiver language.

Translation Reliability

Due to the vast classical literature that was written in Greek (original language of the New Testament), it has become possible to precisely translate the original thoughts and words of the original authors. In fact the different modern versions attest to this. For example, read this well-known verse in the most common versions, and note the slight variance in wording, but consistency in idea and meaning:

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23 (New International Version)

For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23 (New American Standard Version)

For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23 (New Living Translation)

You can see that there is no disagreement between the translations because they say exactly the same thing with only slightly different word usage.

Conclusion

To summarize, neither time nor translation has corrupted the ideas and thoughts expressed in the original Biblical manuscripts to hide it from us today.  We can know that the Bible today accurately reads what the authors actually wrote back then and it remains textually reliable.

But it is important to realize what this study does and does not show.  This does not prove that the Bible is necessarily the Word of God.  It can be argued that though the original ideas of the Biblical authors have been accurately conveyed to us today that does not prove or indicate that these original ideas ever were correct to begin with (or even that they are from God). 

But understanding the textual reliability of the Bible provides a start-point from which one can start seriously investigating the Bible to see if some of these other questions can also be answered, and to become informed as to what its message is.  Since the Bible claims that its message is a blessing from God what if there is a chance this is true?  Perhaps it is worth taking the time to learn some of the important events of the Bible.  Why not start in the beginning?

1. McDowell, J. Evidence That Demands a Verdict. 1979. p. 42-48

2. Comfort, P.W. The Origin of  the Bible, 1992. p. 193

How were details of Christ’s death prophesied?

Christ’s “cut off” Detailed Hundreds of Years Beforehand

Previously we looked at Daniel’s prediction of the coming Christ’s ‘cutting off’ after a specified cycle of years. Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem (often called Palm Sunday) fulfilled Daniel’s prophecy exactly 173 880 days after the Persian Decree to restore Jerusalem. The phrase ‘cut off’ referred to Isaiah’s imagery of the Branch shooting up from the seemingly dead stump. But what did he mean by it?

Isaiah and Daniel shown in historical timeline.

Isaiah had also written other prophecies in his book, using other themes apart from that of the Branch. One such theme was about the coming Servant. Who was this ‘Servant’? What was he going to do? We look at one prophecy passage in detail, reproduced in full below, with only some comments inserted.

The Coming Servant Introduced

See, my servant will act wisely;
    he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him—
    his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being
    and his form marred beyond human likeness—
15 so he will sprinkle many nations,
    and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
    and what they have not heard, they will understand.

Isaiah 52: 13-15

Isaiah describes a human male since he refers to the Servant as ‘he’, ‘him’, and ‘his’. Isaiah prophetically predicts the future (from the phrases ‘will act..’, ‘will be raised up…’). But what was the prophecy about?

Sprinkling – The Priest’s Job

When the ancient Temple priests offered sacrifices for the Israelites they sprinkled blood on them. This symbolized the forgiving and covering of their sins. But Isaiah prophesied that the coming Servant would sprinkle ‘many nations’. So Isaiah saw that likewise this Servant would provide forgiveness for non-Jews as those priests did for the Jewish worshipers. This paralleled the prophecy that the Branch would be a priest since only priests could sprinkle blood. This global scope of ‘many nations’ follows those promises made centuries earlier to Abraham that ‘all nations’ would be blessed through him.

But in sprinkling the many nations Isaiah foresaw the very ‘appearance’ and ‘form’ of the Servant disfigured and marred. He promised that one day the nations ‘will understand’.

The Servant Despised

Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Isaiah 53:1-3
Jesus is rejected in his hometown – Ashton Pinto
Jesus Suffered Rejection

Though the Servant would sprinkle many nations, he would also be ‘despised’ and ‘rejected’, full of ‘suffering’ and ‘familiar with pain’.

The Servant Pierced

Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed. 

Isaiah 53:4-5
A Man With Nail-pierced Hands - LetterPile
Jesus’ Pierced Hands

The Servant would take ‘our’ pain. ‘Pierced’ and ‘crushed’ in ‘punishment’ would also be his lot. This punishment will bring us (those of the many nations) ‘peace’ and healing.

Secular and biblical sources tell us that about 2000 years ago (but still 700+ years after Isaiah) Jesus was crucified. In that execution the authorities literally pierced him with the nails of the crucifixion.

Our Sin – on Him

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all. 

Isaiah 53:6

The Bible defines sin as ‘missing the intended target’. Like a bent arrow we go our ‘own way’.  This Servant will carry that sin (iniquity) which we caused.

Lamb to the Slaughter

He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth. 

Isaiah 53:7

The Servant will be like a lamb going to the ‘slaughter’. But he will not protest or even ‘open his mouth’. Abraham had a ram substitute for his son and Abraham sacrificed the ram in place of Isaac. This coming Servant would carry a similar role as that ram.

‘Cut off’ from Living

By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
    for the transgression of my people he was punished.

Isaiah 53:8

The Servant dies (‘cut off’ from the ‘land of the living’). Daniel used this exact term (‘cut off’) in prophesying what would happen to the Christ after his presentation as Messiah. Isaiah here predicted in greater detail that ‘cut off’ meant ‘cut off from the land of the living’!  So, on that fateful Good Friday Jesus died, literally ‘cut off from the land of the living’. This occurred just after he presented himself as the Christ in his Triumphant entry.

The Paradox of His Burial

He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
    and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Isaiah 53:9
Women who first saw Christ's resurrection - Good News Paper
Jesus buried in a rich man’s Tomb

They executed Jesus as a criminal (‘assigned a grave with the wicked’). But the gospels record how a rich man, Joseph of Arimathea, buried the body of Jesus in his own tomb. Jesus literally fulfilled both sides of the paradox. Though he was ‘assigned a grave with the wicked’, he was also ‘with the rich in his death’.

God’s Plan all along

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

Isaiah 53:10
Why did Jesus die? | Bibleinfo.com
God’s will was for Jesus to die

This whole cruel death was not some terrible accident or misfortune. It was explicitly “the LORD’s will” to crush him.

But why?

Jews in Isaiah’s time brought lambs to sacrifice as offerings for their sin so that they could receive forgiveness. So here the ‘life’ of this Servant would likewise also be an ‘offering for sin’.

For whose sin?

Considering that ‘many nations’ would be ‘sprinkled’ (see above), it is the sin of the peoples in the ‘many nations’. Those ‘all’ who have ‘turned away’ and have ‘gone astray’. Isaiah is talking about you and me.

Life after Death

After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
    and he will bear their iniquities.

Isaiah 53:11
Easter - the Resurrection of Jesus
Jesus is Risen

Though the Servant’s ordeal is horrible, here the tone changes to optimism and triumph. After the terrible suffering detailed previously, this Servant will see ‘the light of life’.

He will come back to life?!

Isaiah prophesied the seemingly impossible 750 years before Jesus made the case for his resurrection compelling.

And in so ‘seeing the light of life’ this Servant will ‘justify’ many. To ‘justify’ is the same as giving ‘righteousness’. God had set the pattern by previously ‘crediting righteousness’ to Abraham. In a similar way this Servant will justify, or credit, righteousness to ‘many’.

Legacy among the Great

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 53:12

Jesus of Nazareth ranks among the most influential among all the great people of history. But, unlike other great men of history, Jesus did not lead a mighty army or conquer huge swaths of land. He did not write a great book or come up with a new philosophy. He did not amass a great fortune or make a brilliant scientific discovery or technological breakthrough. Unlike other great men of history, Jesus made his legacy mostly through his crucifixion and the meaning that people attach to his death. Isaiah could not have better predicted the reason for the coming Servant’s worldwide legacy than he did with this conclusion.

Fingerprints of God’s handiwork

Isaiah’s prophecy of the Servant points so directly to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Therefore some critics say that the gospel writers made up their story specifically to ‘fit’ this Servant passage. But Isaiah’s conclusion also defies these critics. The conclusion is not a prediction of the crucifixion and resurrection as such, but of its impact many years later. And what does Isaiah predict? This Servant, though he will die as a criminal, will one day be among the ‘great’. The gospel writers could not make this part ‘fit’ the gospel narratives. The gospels were only written a few decades after Jesus’ crucifixion. At that point the impact of Jesus’ death was doubtful.

In the eyes of the world, Jesus was just the executed leader of a rejected cult when the gospels were written.  We, 2000 years later, can see the impact of his death. We can understand how the subsequent course of history has made him ‘great’. With simply human foresight the gospel writers could not have foreseen that.

But 750 years before Jesus even lived Isaiah predicted it.

The only explanation is that God revealed it to him. Only God could conceivably know the future that far ahead. That Isaiah wrote this down, and that it was preserved, along with the other prophecies of Jesus, constitutes evidence that the purposes advanced in the Bible are His. It has the fingerprints of the Divine handiwork all over it.