Saturday, November 7, 2015

We Three Kings…?




By Dr. Chuck Missler

Most of what we associate with the “Magi” is from early church traditions. What do we really know about the Magi?
Each year as we approach the holiday season, our preparations for Christmas include revisiting the events surrounding the birth of Our Lord. Bethlehem,[1] the shepherds, and the angels are all familiar to us. But not much is generally known about the mysterious “Magi” who came to worship the infant Jesus. The following background may be helpful to stimulate conversations around the fireplace, as our thoughts turn to this incredible event from which we measure our very calendar.The visit of the wise-men
Traditions
Most of what we associate with the “Magi” is from early churchtraditions. Most have assumed that there were three of them since they brought three specific gifts. (But the Biblical text doesn’t number them.) They are called “Magi,” from the Latinized form of the Greek word magoi, transliterated from the Persian for a select sect of priests. (Our word “magic” comes from the same root.)
As the years passed, traditions became increasingly embellished. By the 3rd century, they were viewed as kings. By the 6th centurythey had names: Bithisarea, Melichior, and Gathaspa. Some even associated them with Shem, Ham and Japheth, the three sons of Noah, and thus with Asia, Africa, and Europe. A 14th-century Armenian tradition identifies them as Balthasar, King of Arabia; Melchior, King of Persia; and Gasper, King of India. These are all very interesting traditions, but what do wereally know about the Magi?
The Priesthood of the Medes
The ancient Magi were a hereditary priesthood of the Medes credited with profound and extraordinary religious knowledge. After some Magi, who had been attached to the Median court, proved to be expert in theinterpretation of dreams, Darius the Great established them over the state religion of Persia.[2] It was in this dual capacity whereby civil and political counsel was invested with religious authority, that the Magi became the supreme priestly caste of the Persian Empire, and continued to be prominent during the subsequent Seleucid,Parthian, and Sasanian periods.[3]
The Role of Daniel
One of the titles given to Daniel was Rab-mag, the Chief of the Magi.[4] His unusual career included being a principal administrator in two world empires: the Babylonian and the subsequent Persian Empire. When Darius appointed him, a Jew, over the previously hereditary Median priesthood, the resulting repercussions resulted in the plots leading to the lion’s den.[5] Daniel apparently entrusted a Messianic vision (to be announced in due time by a “star”) to a secret sect of the Magi for its eventual fulfillment.
Since the days of Daniel, the fortunes of both the Persian and the Jewish nations had been closely intertwined. Both nations had, in their turn, fallen under Seleucid domination in the wake of Alexander’s conquests. Subsequently both had regained their independence: the Jews under Maccabean leadership, and the Persians as the dominating ruling group within the Parthian Empire.
Rome on the Rise
Pompey, the first Roman conqueror of Jerusalem, attacked the Armenian outpost of Parthia in 63 B.C. In 55 B.C. Carssus led Roman legions in sacking Jerusalem and, in a subsequent attack, Parthia proper. The Romans were decisively defeated at the battle of Carrhae and the Parthians counterattacked with a token invasion of Armenia,Syria, and Israel. Nominal Roman rule was reestablished under Antipater, the father of Herod, who retreated before another Parthian invasion in 40 B.C.
Mark Anthony reestablished Roman sovereignty in 37 B.C., but also embarked on an ill-fated Parthian expedition. His disastrous retreat was followed by another wave of invading Parthians, which swept out all Roman opposition (including Herod himself, who fled to Alexandria and then to Rome). With Parthian collaboration, Jewish sovereignty was restored and Jerusalem was fortified with a Jewish garrison. Herod, by this time, secured from Augustus Caesar the title of “King of the Jews.” However, it was not for three years (including a five month’s siege by Roman troops) that he was able to occupy his own capital city. Herod had thus gained the throne of a rebellious buffer state, which was situated between two mighty contending empires. At any time, his own subjects might conspire in bringing the Parthians to their aid.
The Entourage to Jerusalem
In Jerusalem, the sudden appearance of the Magi, probably traveling in force with every imaginable oriental pomp and accompanied by adequate cavalry escort to insure their safe penetration of Roman territory, certainly alarmed Herod and the populace of Jerusalem. Their request of Herod regarding the one “who has been bornKing of the Jews”[6] was a calculated insult to him, a non-Jew[7] who had contrived and bribed his way into that office. Consulting his scribes, Herod discovered from the prophecies in the Tanach (the Old Testament) that the Promised One, the Messiah, would be born in Bethlehem.[8] Hiding his concern and expressing sincere interest, Herod requested them to keep him informed. After finding the babe and presenting their prophetic gifts, the Magi “being warned in a dream” (a form of communication most acceptable to them) departed to their own country, ignoring Herod’s request.
The Christmas Gifts
The gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh were also prophetic, speaking of our Lord’s offices of king, priest, and savior. Gold speaks of His kingship; frankincense was a spice used in the priestly duties; and myrrh was an embalming ointment signifying His death. In the millennium, He will also receive the gifts of gold and frankincense;[9] but no myrrh. His death was once and for all. What gifts are YOU going to give Him this year? Discuss it with Him.

For background on why it was Bethlehem, study the Book of Ruth, or our briefing package, The Romance of Redemption.  ↩
Oneiromancy, not astrology, is the key skill mentioned by Herodotus, I.107, 120; VII.19.  ↩
Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, 4:31–34.  ↩
Daniel 4:9; 5:11.  ↩
Daniel 6.  ↩
Matthew 2:2.  ↩
Herod was Idumean (an Edomite), a traditional enemy of Israel.  ↩
Micah 5:2. (Revealed by Holy Scripture, not astrology.)  ↩
Isaiah 60:6.  ↩
Koinonia House We freely allow other sites to post our articles, as long as:
  1. 1.The author is credited.
  2. 2.A link is made to the Koinonia House
  3. web site.  http://khouse.org/articles/2013/1150
3.The article is not edited





The above post may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, social justice, for the purpose of historical debate, and to advance the understanding of Christian conservative issues.  It is believed that this constitutes a ”fair use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the Copyright Law. In accordance with the title 17 U.S. C. section 107, the material in this post is shown without profit to those who have expressed an interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

Federal law allows citizens to reproduce, distribute and exhibit portions of copyrighted motion pictures, video taped or video discs, without authorization of the copyright holder. This infringement of copyright is called “Fair Use”, and is allowed for purposes of criticism, news, reporting, teaching, and parody. This articles is written, and any image and video (includes music used in the video) in this article are used, in compliance with this law: Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. 107.
.
Christian News Service – Worthy News   Link to worldwide Christian news organization
Link to     Creation
Net Bible  Link to Net Bible Translation and Commentaries
Link to  CNS News






on No comments:

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

What’s in a name? The terms for God in Genesis 1 and 2: no contradiction!



by 
In Biblical times a person’s name had deep significance and was often an expression of his or her origin, character or destiny.1 There are many terms for God in the Bible, all having special meaning or significance. Even the first book, Genesis, uses different terms, for very good reasons, as we shall see.

Elohim

In Genesis chapter 1, Moses2 uses Elohim for God. This is the plural of El, which corresponds to God in English, theos in Greek and deus in Latin. Elohim means ‘the strong one’, and stresses the awesome omnipotence and power of the God who is Creator and Ruler over all of nature and the universe.
This Hebrew plural, Elohim, actually means ‘two or more’; however it does not mean ‘In the beginning gods created … ’, because it is used here (and over 2,000 times in the rest of the Old Testament) in the singular, i.e. with a singular verb (or adjective). Nor is it simply a plural of majesty, like the ‘royal we’, even though the meaning includes that God is the Supreme Ruler over all.3 Rather the use of Elohim tells us that there is something plural about God Himself. (See Does the Trinity feature in Genesis 1?)
Elohim is a lofty title and is thus the appropriate term for Moses to have used for the account of God’s creation of the whole universe and of all living things including people. God’s power is seen much more clearly in His having created the vast contents of space, as well as the astounding complexities of life on Earth, in the short timespan of six days, than it would have been if He had used some long-drawn-out (billions-of year) process. Similarly for His goodness, which would be undermined if God had sanctioned death before sin, or even created via death. Death is the ‘last enemy’ (1 Corinthians 15:26; Revelation 20:14) and the essence of evolution’s long ages.
We bow in reverence and holy awe at what Elohim has done.

Yahweh = Jehovah

Elohim means ‘the strong one’, and stresses the awesome omnipotence and power of the God who is Creator and Ruler over all of nature and the universe.
In Genesis 2, from verse 4 on, Moses adds the Hebrew term Yahweh. Yahweh is often transliterated as ‘Jehovah’ and is usually spelled Lord in large and small capitals.4
Yahweh is the truly personal name of the living God.5 It was revealed to Moses in the incident of the burning bush (Exodus 3:13–15). It means ‘I am who I am’ and thus ‘the self-existent One’. It tells us that Elohim has permanent existence, and announces the faithfulness and unchangeableness of the One who is always true to His Word, and is the same yesterday, today and forever.6
It is the name that the God of compassion, grace and mercy uses in His covenantal relationship with His chosen people as their protector and the object of their worship, as well as in His personal relationship with people, particularly believers; but also with opponents, such as Pharaoh, as their judge (Exodus 7:16 ff.).

Genesis 2

Why did Moses use this different term for God in Genesis 2? Does it mean there are two different (and contradictory) accounts of Creation in Genesis 1 and 2?
Answer: In Genesis 2, Moses describes God’s very intimate and personal relationship with the first human pair, Adam and Eve. This requires the use of God’s name, Yahweh. Yahweh is joined with Elohim every time it is used in Genesis 2, as Yahweh Elohim, and is translated ‘the Lord God’. It tells us that Elohim, the Supreme Creator, is Yahweh, the One ‘who is intimately concerned to maintain a personal relationship with those who will walk and talk with him’.7

The privilege of names

Names were an important subject in ancient times. The Egyptians considered a name to hold special spiritual significance. Out of respect for their gods they often incorporated a god’s name within their own, such as Tutankhamen (living image of Amen).
Specifically masculine or feminine endings were often customary in personalizing the name of a child, but royal names had no denotion of male or female. Sometimes a nickname like ‘Red’ might be applied to someone with auburn hair, just as today. Also the name Amenhotep was commonly abbreviated to Ameny.
Hebrew names carried great importance also, for example Jesus(Joshua in the Old Testament) means ‘God saves’. The act of naming was an exercise in authority. 2 Kings 23:34 reads that the Egyptian Pharoah Neco appointed Eliakim (‘El raises’) puppet King of Judah, and renamed him Jehoiakim (‘Yahweh raises’), presumably to assert his authority over him.
Adam was given the task of naming all the animals. Jacob had his name changed to Israel by the angel with whom he struggled, and Abram was the former name of Abraham. God’s names denote his characteristics in a way we can understand. The whole significance of names has become largely lost in modern western cultures. Naming children often depends simply upon a liking for a particular celebrity rather than on any spiritual significance.
Having given us the fact of the creation of man, on Day 6, as the last of a series of events in chapter 1, Moses now gives us somedetails in chapter 2.
In Genesis 2:4–14 the focus is on the man and the Garden of Eden, where he was to live. Verse 7 describes how God made Adam from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Verses 8–14 tell us what Eden was like, with its various kinds of trees sustained by the river that flowed there. Then verses 15–17 record Yahweh’s personal interaction and conversation with Adam, giving him the responsibility of caring for the garden, and telling him that he was free to eat from any tree there except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Next, Genesis 2:18–20 tells us there was no suitable mate for Adam among the animals that God had created and Adam had named.Genesis 2:21–24 records Yahweh’s further personal care for Adam, providing him with a wife, fashioned from a part of him nearest to his heart, and instituting marriage.
Critics who try to make Genesis 2 a second and contradictory version of chapter 1 fail to take into account what Moses plainly wished to convey.8 The omission of any mention of the sun, moon, stars, ocean or seas in chapter 2 plainly shows that Moses did not mean to write a second Creation account.
Some have found fault with Genesis 2:19 because it mentions the field animals before the birds and this is a different order from their creation in Genesis 1. However, again this is not meant to be an account of their creation. The ‘beasts of the earth’ are not mentioned, and the use of the pluperfect tense ‘had formed’ in Genesis 2:8 and 19 in some Bible translations (which the Hebrew allows) effectively answers the criticism that the order of events in Genesis 2 is different from that in Genesis 1. The most probable explanation is that v. 19 gives the order in which God brought the animals to Adam for naming.

What about different authors?

Other critics say that the words Elohim and Yahweh indicate two different authors, (E) and (J), who lived well after Moses’ time. This is part of the documentary or JEDP hypothesis which postulates that the Pentateuch was written by several different anonymous authors who lived up to 900 years after Moses. A prominent exponent was Julius Wellhausen (1844–1918), who said that the concept of ‘one God’ was not revealed to Moses but evolved from polytheism, animism, ancestor worship, etc. Hence the need to find or fabricate later authors than Moses.9
However, this view is completely false. History, both Hebrew and secular, knows nothing of these alleged authors—neither their names nor any other works by them. The ‘scholarship’ used to promote the idea would be laughed out of court if applied to any other ancient book.10
We can trust the Word of Yahweh, the Creator God who always was, now is, and ever shall be. The biblical worldview in Genesis gives us the true history of the beginning—of the universe, of the Earth, and of mankind.

Does the Trinity feature in Genesis 1?

The use of Elohim (the plural of El = God) in Genesis 1 suggests that there is something plural about the person of God. And the use of singular verbs with Elohim (bara = ‘created’,amar = ‘said’, raah = ‘saw’, etc.) throughout Genesis 1 intimates the uniplurality of God; i.e. God is one, yet in another sense is more than one.
Genesis 1:2 says that ‘the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters’.1
Creation is described as being the result of God speaking, i.e. by His word.2 In the New Testament we are told that one of the names of the Lord Jesus Christ is ‘the Word’ (John 1:1–14), and that God created everything through Him.3 Thus, in the very first chapter of the Bible we have a first suggestion of the Trinity, which is spelled out for us in much greater detail in the rest of the Bible.
We should be wary of using passages of Scripture as ‘proof texts’ which were not written with this purpose in mind. However, the rest of the Bible, particularly the New Testament, reveals the doctrine of the Trinity to us (e.g. Matthew 3:16–17). We can look back into Genesis and see that the terms and words Moses used by divine inspiration are not inconsistent with later revelation, but in fact foreshadowed later teaching on the Trinity. Return to text.

References and notes

  1. The Hebrew word ruach can mean ‘wind’, ‘breath’ or ‘spirit’; the context determines the correct meaning. The Hebrew construction here precludes the meaning from being ‘a wind from God was moving … ’, as some liberals claim.
  2. Thus ‘And God said … ’ (Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26).
  3. E.g. John 1:3; Colossians 1:15–16; Hebrews 1:2.

Related Articles

Further Reading

References and notes

  1.  E.g. Adam sounds like, and may be related to, the Hebrew for ground, adamah; Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua which means the Lord saves (Matthew 1:22). A change in a person’s character or status could warrant a change of name, e.g. Abram = exalted father became Abraham = father of many (Genesis 17:5). Return to text.
  2.  Moses, under divine inspiration, was the author/editor of Genesis. See Grigg, R., Did Moses really write Genesis?, Creation 20(4):43–46, 1998. Return to text.
  3.  Linguist Dr Charles Taylor says, “Nobody is in a position to show that in Moses’ day or earlier, people were in the habit of addressing kings and princes in the plural. In fact, there is no evidence at all from the Bible itself, and the Bible is one of the oldest books.” Taylor, C., The First Hundred Words, The Good Book Co., Gosford, Australia, p. 3, 1996. Return to text.
  4.  The name had four Hebrew letters, which are the equivalent of YHWH. The Hebrew alphabet has no vowels. ‘Points’ are used to indicate the pronunciation. While the likely pronunciation was Yahweh or Yahveh, Jews eventually regarded this name as being too sacred to pronounce. They inserted the vowel points for Adonaito tell readers to substitute this word. The English word ‘Jehovah’ is the result of a misunderstanding of this history. Return to text.
  5.  The many other terms, e.g. God the Father, Rock, King, Holy One, El Elyon (= the Most High God), Adonai (= Lord and Master), etc., are titles or descriptive expressions rather than names. Return to text.
  6.  Cf. Hebrews 13:8, where this description of divinity is also given to the Lord Jesus Christ. Return to text.
  7.  Kaiser, W.C., Davids, P.H., Bruce, F. and Brauch, M.T., Hard Sayings of the Bible, InterVarsity Press, Illinois, p. 88, 1996. Return to text.
  8.  The key to understanding the correct meaning of any passage in the Bible is to ask, ‘What was the intention of the author?’ Return to text..
  9.  Sadly, many Bible colleges and seminaries today approvingly teach this spurious doctrine, which postulates that the whole of the Old Testament is a gigantic literary fraud, and calls into question both the integrity of Moses and the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, who frequently spoke of Moses’ writings or ‘the Law of Moses’, e.g. Luke 24:27, 44; John 5:45–47; 7:19. Return to text.
  10.  For further refutation, see ref. 2. Return to text.
The above post may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, social justice, for the purpose of historical debate, and to advance the understanding of Christian conservative issues. It is believed that this constitutes a ”fair use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the Copyright Law.

In accordance with the title 17 U.S. C. section 107, the material in this post is shown without profit to those who have expressed an interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Federal law allows citizens to reproduce, distribute and exhibit portions of copyrighted motion pictures, video taped or video discs, without authorization of the copyright holder. This infringement of copyright is called “Fair Use”, and is allowed for purposes of criticism, news, reporting, teaching, and parody. This articles is written, and any image and video (includes music used in the video) in this article are used, in compliance with this law: Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. 107.
Christian News Service – Worthy News Link to worldwide Christian news organization
Net Bible Link to Net Bible Translation and Commentaries
Link to CNS News

on No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)