Magic

After you read this post go back and watch this and this. You did not see what you thought you saw. Both are illusions. The first video is essentially an advertisement for a magic company's Floating Card Trick which they sell, with instructions, to stage magicians. The second is a video of illusionist Criss Angel.  I have no idea how he does this but it is an illusion and is not real supernatural magic.

The Egyptian priests in Exodus 7:8 - 8:7 were able to duplicate the miracles performed by Moses using what the Bible calls their "secret arts." Whether or not they actually performed supernatural acts or were merely skilled illusionists, we do not know. The effect, though, was to cause haughty unbelief in Pharaoh's heart. Because he did not believe, God hardened Pharaoh's unbelief.

Jesus does not appear to have been particularly impressed with His own supernatural powers. He expected belief because of who he was, not because he did "magic." He remarked that if the people did not believe Moses, why would they believe him? And he seems to have had what on the surface appears to have been a rather harsh attitude toward unbelief. Harsh unless he was who he clearly said he was.

“And he could do no miracle there except that he laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.” Mark 6:5 NASB®

"Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” Matthew 7:6 NASB®

"Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet.” Matthew 10:14 NASB®

"And as for those who do not receive you, as you go out from that city, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” Luke 9:5 NASB®

There is no biblical record that Jesus ever returned to Nazareth after that day.

These two sites discuss whether or not the unbelief in Nazareth actually limited Jesus' ability to perform miracles.

https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/872-was-christs-power-limited-by-mans-faith

http://home.earthlink.net/~ronrhodes/qjesusmiracles.html

Messianic Prophecies from the Bible: Links to Several Posts

Recently, there has a major burst of interest in the post on this blog about the messianic prophecy of the Star of Bethlehem.  Christians traditionally have believed that the Old Testament is full of references to Jesus and prophecies about Him.  Jewish scholars, of course, deny this and accuse Christians of misinterpreting scripture.  They say that we take words and phrases out of the context of the surrounding text.  Essentially, they are saying that we are practicing eisegesis.

Eisegesis (εἰς, eis, Greek = “into.”) is the process of interpreting a text or portion of text using one's own presuppositions, agendas, or biases. This is commonly referred to as reading your prior suppositions into the text.

Christian biblical scholars stress the need to practice exegesis of biblical texts and not eisegesis.  (Exegesis ἐξηγεῖσθαι (exegeisthai) The English meaning of this Greek word is “to explain,” or “to interpret.”  The idea is that the interpretation comes from within the text. This comes from the etymology of the word: ek (out) plus egeisthai (to lead), “to lead out.”

So, when Christians search the Old Testament for messianic prophecies about Jesus, are we guilty of practicing eisegesis?  The short answer is no and this is because Jesus Himself told us to do this.

“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” John 5:39

“For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me.” John 5:46

“And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” Luke 24:27

Listed below are the messianic prophecies discussed so far on this blog.  There will be others.  Click on the link to go to the post.

The Star of Bethlehem

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2012/07/messianic-prophecies-from-bible-star-of.html

He Will be Called Out of Egypt

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2010/02/messianic-prophecies-from-bible.html

He is the Light of the World

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2010/02/messianic-prophecies-from-bible_24.html

Herod’s Slaughter of the Children of Bethlehem

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2010/03/messianic-prophecies-from-bible.html

He Will Be from Nazareth

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2010/04/messianic-prophecies-from-bible.html

They Will Give Him Vinegar for His Thirst

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2010/06/messianic-prophecies-from-bible.html

A Prophecy Not Yet Fulfilled

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2010/07/messianic-prophecies-from-bible_29.html

He Will be Sold for Thirty Pieces of Silver

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2010/10/messianic-prophecies-from-bible.html

He Will Bring Light to the Lands of Zebulon and Naphtali

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2011/09/messianic-prophecies-from-bible-he.html

He Will Die Among the Wicked But be Buried With a Rich Man

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2012/01/messianic-prophecies-from-bible-he.html

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2012/05/messianic-prophecies-from-bible-he.html

God Has a Son

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2012/04/messianic-prophecies-from-bible-what-is.html

  

His Body Will Not Decay

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2012/12/messsianic-prophecies-acts-1610.html

Korban

“For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death:  But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that."” Mark 7:10-13

The Hebrew noun korban (קרבן) is derived from the root word KAREV which  means “to approach,” “to come near,” “to get into a close relationship with somebody.”  From this, applied to God, the word came to mean “sacrifice,” “gift,” or “offering.”  A man who declared his worldly possessions korban was thus dedicating them to God so that they could not be used for any other purposes.  The property would become God’s (belong to the priests) upon the man’s death.

Some men declared their possessions to be korban so that they could not be required to use their funds to support their elderly parents.  The man was not required to give his money to the temple as long as he was alive.  This was casuistic hypocrisy, which Jesus exposed in Mark 7:10-13.

The effect of the tradition was to nullify the intent of the practice by insisting on a literal, and sometimes cynical, strict implementation.

More on casuistry tomorrow.

Circumcise Baby Boys on the Eighth Day

“And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.” Genesis 17:12

There is a legitimate scientific reason why circumcision is safest for a male child on the eighth day after birth, but Moses could not possibly have known or understood this fact.   The science of Moses’ day was not sufficiently advanced to have discovered this fact.  Those who believe the Bible account know that God led Moses to give this instruction.

At birth, the infant’s immune system has just begun to work and the child could not yet successfully fight off infection.  Luckily, for the first week of life, the child carries antibodies in his blood which have been provided by the mother.  The mother’s antibodies begin to decline in number after one week,

The infant’s ability to form clots begins to develop about day five and reaches its peak at day eight.  If any surgery is to be performed, day eight would be the ideal day.  On day eight, the infant is best able to prevent infection and to close and seal a surgical wound.  Moses could have only known this in one of two ways: 1. Trial and error, with a large number of dead babies, or 2.  He was told.

The science behind this was not elucidated until the Twentieth Century.  In 1935, Dr. Carl Peter Henrik Dam (1895 - 1976), while doing research on cholesterol metabolism in baby chicks at the University of Copenhagen, discovered Vitamin K, a vital factor in the coagulation mechanism.  He initially called it the Koagulationsvitamin.  He received the 1943 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his work on the subject.

The American pediatrician, Luther Emmett Holt (1855 – 1924) discovered that infants were especially susceptible to bleeding on days two through five, but had nearly 100% clotting ability by day eight.

………………………………………….

The Jewish Kabbalists, in their numerology, say that the eighth day has a mystical meaning.  The number seven has the meaning of “nature,” or “finite.”   The number eight carries the meaning of “super-rational,” or “infinite.”

Definition: Sanhedrin

In yesterday’s post on the Rich Young Ruler I said the it was possible that he was a member of the Sanhedrin.  The word is often translated as “council,” and when presented as “Sanhedrin” is a direct transliteration of the Aramaic word and the Greek word synedrion.  The word seems to have begun in Greek and then passed into Aramiac and, in Greek, means “together” and “seat,” so, “to sit together.” The Greek speaking Jews called it the gerousia, “the Assembly of the Ancients.”

The Sanhedrin was a council of judges who ruled in matters of a strictly Jewish nature.  The Romans held all real political power.

Jewish tradition says that the Sanhedrin began with Moses and his council of seventy elder (Numbers 11:16) but the first undisputed mention of the gerousia is in The Antiquities of the Jews, (XII, iii, 3) by Josephus, in his discussion of the reign of Antiochus the Great (223-187 B.C.).

Literacy in the Biblical Era

There are estimates that the level of literacy among the citizenry during the New Testament period was about ten percent.  Even though most people were illiterate, they were not stupid.  There was a long tradition of oral learning and memorization, producing many competent intellectuals and scholars of the Law.  Presumably, many scribes memorized large portions of the Torah and, at least some could read and write.

Raised in the royal Egyptian household, Moses (ca. 1200 BC/BCE)would have been literate, having received a royal education.

Ezra (5^th century BC/BCE) and his helpers taught the Torah to the Jewish population (Ezra 7:25)  The Torah was taught: Deuteronomy 31:12-13, 2 Chronicles 17:7-9, Nehemiah 8:7-8.

In the Pharisaic tradition, men, including Jesus, a carpenter, would stand and read the scriptures in the synagogue.   John 7:15.  “Never studied” meant that he had no formal training. (Other references to Jesus’ literacy: Luke 4:16-30, John 8:6..)

  

The sign on Jesus’s cross assumed that the people who saw the crucifixion would be able to read it.   It was written in three languages to make sure that everyone could read it. (Mark 15:26, Matthew 27:37, Luke 23:37, John 19:20)

The Jewish historian, Josephus (37 - ?100 AD/CE), spoke about Jewish literacy, “… we pride ourselves on the education of our children … (the Law) orders that (children) shall be taught to read …” (Against Apion 1:12.60 and 2.25.204)

On the question of female literacy in the biblical period, remember that this was a completely male-dominated society.  This is one reason that women were so drawn to the teachings of Jesus: He insisted on treating them as persons.  The early Christians continued this: Paul said there is no Jew nor Greek, no male nor female, no slave nor free.

One estimate has it that “for every five or six men who could read and write, there was one woman who was fully literate.” (David M. Scholer, “Writing and Literature: Greco-Roman”,” in Dictionary of New Testament Background, page 1283. Quoted in  JETS 50/4 (December 2007) 747–59, WOMEN’S EDUCATION AND PUBLIC SPEECH IN ANTIQUITY, by craig keener*

http://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/50/50-4/JETS_50-4_747-759_Keener.pdf

When I was at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the Greek scholar and professor, Pastor Frank Stagg, was speaking on the subject of women’s education in biblical times.  While acknowledging that most women of the time were intentionally kept illiterate, Dr. Stagg was sure that many wealthy women were privately educated.  He even discussed the possibility that the reason that the author of the book of Hebrews is not named is that the book was written by a woman.

 

Other interesting links.

“On Ancient Literacy Levels”

http://www.tektonics.org/tsr/tilliteracy.html

Jewish scripture and the literacy of Jesus, Craig A. Evans

http://www.craigaevans.com/evans.pdf

Josephus

http://elfinspell.com/Shotwell11.htm

 Women in Judaism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Judaism

Were there any female writers in the Bible?

http://www.preachitteachit.org/articles-blogs/ask-roger/post/archive/2010/september/article/were-there-any-women-bible-writers/

The Book of the Wars of the Lord

The Book of the Wars of the Lord is one of several otherwise unknown works mentioned in the Bible.  Gil Student, a Jewish scholar, in "On the Authorship of the Torah," at http://www.aishdas.org/toratemet/en_torah.html , says "... we have seen the talmudic and midrashic evidence that the forefathers, including Moshe, wrote books other than the Torah that were maintained and studied.  However, there is also much internal evidence that there were other books written."  The Book of the Wars of the Lord, quoted in Numbers 21:14-15, would be one of those books.

No one knows exactly what this book was but there have been many educated guesses: a collection of victory songs or poems; a book of Hebrew/ Israelite military history; another name for The Book of Jasher (mentioned in Joshua 10:13 and 2 Samuel 1:18); a collection of sacred poems; and a military instruction manual written by Moses for use by Joshua.

Non-canonical books such as The Wars of the Lord are mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments and Paul even quoted pagan poets to make his points.

Book Comment: Cracking the Bible Code

"All that was, is, and will be unto the end of time is included in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible."  So said the Lithuanian (though born in Belarus) Talmudic scholar Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman (1720 - 1797).  He was a mathematician and bible commentator who memorized the Talmud.  


When the rabbi was challenged, "Where is the Rambam?" (The 12th Century Rabbi Moses ben Maimonides), he instantly responded, "Rabot (may be multiplied) Moftai (my wonders) B'eretz (in the land of) Mitzraim (Egypt)."  This is Exodus 11:9.


Rabbi Moshe Cordevaro (1522-1570) had earlier said, "The secrets of our holy Torah are revealed through knowledge of combinations, numerology (gematria), switching letters, first-and-last letters, shapes of letters, first- and last- verses, skipping of letters (dilug otiot) and letter combinations."


Both men were echoing an ancient Jewish tradition that the Torah was dictated by God to Moses letter by letter and that it contained coded or encrypted information about the past, present, and future.*  This is the subject discussed by Jeffrey Satinover in Cracking the Bible Code (1997).  For example, Satinover points out that AHRN (Aaron) occurs twenty-five times in the Hebrew text at equidistant spaces in Leviticus 1:1-13, a passage in which Aaron is not mentioned.


The claim of hidden messages in the scriptures is at the heart of Kabballah, Jewish mysticism.  There are currently many teams of researchers using computers to search for names, sentences, predictions, etc.  Many claim to have found mentions of historical and modern persons and events.  Most are using the Old Testament Hebrew text; a few are attempting to use the same techniques on the Greek text of the New Testament.


Who knows?  It seems unlikely, but who would dare to insist it is not true?  Is it a situation like what is said in the film, The Number 21, "You're finding it because you're looking for it."?  It does seem dangerous, though, to base one's faith in the Bible on Bible Codes, religious relics, the Shroud of Turin, or other such things when we have the Bible itself and the witness of the Apostles.  The Bible Codes might be equivalent to seeing Jesus' face in a plate of spaghetti.    


















* Many modern theologians, including many Jewish scholars, believe that someone, possibly Moses, assembled the Torah from earlier, far more ancient, sources.  

Jesus Knows You're Here!

I don't know the ultimate source of this story.  My wife and I received it in a Facebook post.

.........................

A burglar broke into a house one night. He shined his flashlight around, looking for 
valuables when a voice in the dark 
said, 'Jesus knows you're here.'


He nearly jumped out of his skin, clicked his flashlight off, and froze.

When he heard nothing more, after a bit, he shook his head and continued.

Just as he pulled the stereo out so he could disconnect the wires, clear as a bell he 
heard 'Jesus is watching you.'



Freaked out, he shined his light around frantically, looking for the source of the voice.


Finally, in the corner of the room, his flashlight beam came to rest on a parrot.

Did you say that?' he hissed at the parrot.

'Yep', the parrot confessed, then squawked, 'I'm just trying to warn you that he is watching you.'

The burglar relaxed. 'Warn me, huh? Who in the world are you ?'



'Moses,' replied the bird.

'Moses?' the burglar laughed. 'What kind of people would name a bird Moses?'

'The kind of people that would name a 
Rottweiler Jesus'

What Does It Mean? Exclusion from the congregation

WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Is a recurrent segment in this blog. The meaning of certain Biblical verses is not always readily apparent to modern readers. Sometimes the answer to the problem is cultural, or linguistic, or philosophical. Sometimes no one knows what it means and we have to accept that full understanding will only come when we meet the Lord.

"He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD.
" Deuteronomy 23:1

"And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
 Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever [he be] of thy seed in their generations that hath [any] blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God.
… He shall eat the bread of his God, [both] of the most holy, and of the holy.
 Only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not my sanctuaries: for I the LORD do sanctify them."
 Leviticus 21: 16-17, 22-23.

These verses refer to Levites, members of the kahal (Hebrew = “congregation” or “community”), the hereditary priests who serviced the Jewish Temple. They were expected to be holy righteous men, men without moral or spiritual blemish. They also had to be physically unblemished, just as their sacrifices were required to be. Since God was utterly perfect it was considered to be insulting to Him for any imperfection to approach His presence.

The physically damaged men (the list of causes for rejection go on for several verses) were not themselves rejected. As Levites, they were entitled to the same support (“he shall eat the bread of his God”) as was provided by the other tribes to their brother Levites.

What Is That in Your Hand?

"And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent: and Moses fled from before it." Exodus 4:2-3

Moses was carrying a rod used to lean on while walking, to steady oneself while climbing a hill, and to steer sheep in the way they should go. He used it in making his daily living but it was just a stick. God said to throw it down, basically meaning "give it to me." In God's hands it became a snake, made water come out of a rock, and cut a walking path for the Israelites through the Red Sea.

God wants us to give Him what we have and let Him use it. Moses' rod was basically his means of occupation. We can do the same with ours. The seventeenth century lay Carmelite brother, Brother Lawrence. was a cook and shoe repairer who attracted worldwide attention because of his insistence on living a Christ-filled life, cooking for Christ and repairing shoes for Christ. He turned his occupations into a witness.

We may be prevented by employer policy from "proselytizing" at work but we can provide a witness by our competence, honesty, diligence, and perseverance. Christians should stand out as different. We really are different.

God Inserted His Name Into Abram's Name

(See the post today titled "Abraham."  This post is related to the October 6th and 7th posts; "Abram to Abraham; Sarai to Sarah."  I'm new at scanning so what you will see was what I was able to do.  I'll get better.)

     Regardless of what you think about the controversy over the idea of divine code's having been inserted into the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) by God in a letter-by-letter dictation of the books to Moses, what I am about to tell you will leave a buzz on the back of your neck.

     Rabbi Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl (1903-1957), the driving force behind the Bible Codes movement, found the following in Genesis 1:22-26; the name of Abraham is spelled out by the letters in the passage with each letter of the name separated from the preceding letter by forty-nine intercalary letters.  In each of the forty-nine letter sequences, the word "elohim," one of the names of God, appears in the text.

     I admit wholeheartedly that the mathematics, statistics, geometry, and computer science being used to search for hidden divine messages in the Torah are all far above my understanding.  Even so, I found the book, Cracking the Bible Code, by Dr. Jeffrey Satinover to be a fascinating read.

     The book claims that names of specific individuals, dates, events, and other subjects have been found hidden in the Talmud with specific locations stated and grids of Hebrew letters presented with the discovered words and phrases highlighted.  To me, it was chilling that the following has been found: "AIDS" ("AYDS"), "virus" ("VYRUS"), "in the blood," and "immunity;" all in the same letter array.

     I don't have enough understanding of the subject of the Bible Codes to make an informed judgement.  It may be as Walter Sparrow's wife says in the film The Number 23 (2007), "You're finding them because you're looking for them."  What is true is that there are numerous rabbis, Hebrew scholars, mathematicians, and computer scientists working full time on the subject right now in Israel.

Film Comment: The Green Pastures

     The Green Pastures (1936) is a highly controversial film which is often accused of being racist and demeaning to blacks.   (I believe it is nothing of the sort.)  Several countries banned it upon its release and many theaters in the United States refused to show it, for widely varying reasons.  Modern conservative Christians may be bothered by the film's seemingly Dynamic Monarchist Christology.  (I believe that is reading the film too literally.)  

     The premise of the film is that God ("de Lawd," portrayed by the wonderful Rex Ingram) and his angels are all uneducated Southern rural black people, as is everyone else on Earth after de Lawd creates it.  The biblical stories illustrated in the film are the Creation, Noah's Ark, the choosing of Israel as God's Special people,  and Moses leading his people from bondage.  The New Testament is avoided altogether until the final smile by the unchangeable and omnipotent Lawd when he decides how he's going to set everything straight without violating his own nature.

     The big name actors in the film (Rex Ingram, Oscar polk, George Reed, Eddie Anderson, Abraham Gleaves, Myrtle Anderson, and Frank Wilson) seem to have taken this film very seriously.  The story is based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning play, written by a white man, and the all-black film was made with an all-white crew.

     Somehow this film transcends its origins.   The society which made it was flawed, not the message.  God is in total control of the universe, His angels are His faithful servants, God is graceful and merciful and loves and is loved by His children, and He values each one of us as if we were the only one.