When is Communion not Communion or Is This Just Another Jesus?

                 

I am ashamed to say I copied the first picture off of a Baptist website. I was surprised at the leavened bread. This was not what motivated me though. I've been trying to attend church again. Today, after ten weeks, they said they were going to have communion. But what they had was not, it was another Jesus. Puffed up with pride, never pierced, bruised or broken. Not my Jesus. Not my Yeshua. Paul teaches us about Passover and the Mini-Passover which many call the Lord's Supper:

1 Corinthians 10:16b "The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?"

Which points us directly to the Passover Yeshua shared with his disciples:

1 Corinthians 11:24 "And when he had given thanks, he brake it,.and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

Deuteronomy 16:3 "Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shall you eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for you came forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that you may remember the day when you came forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life."

This bread broken was unleavened matzah called the Afikomen.  A Greek name in a Hebrew meal. It means "He who comes later", and is loosely translated as "dessert". During the meal it is taken from a three-pocketed pouch, where three matzah squares represent Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Middle Matzah is chosen.  Isaac, the Son of Promise, the only-begotten, the one whom God would perform His covenant through. The one offered as a sacrifice to God. A type of Messiah. This matzah is chosen and broken into two pieces. The larger one is taken and wrapped in a linen napkin and hidden until the end of the meal. The smaller one, called the Bread of Affliction is shared by all. At the end of the meal the children are sent to find the wrapped matzah. The one who finds it presents it to the father and he gives the child a reward. After the meal the father takes the matzah and hides it again in the attic, or the highest place in the house.

Now I can ask any small child this question and they will see what many mature adult believers do not:

Picture No. 1 shows a puffed up (vain) leavened loaf, very attractive and inviting.
Picture No. 2 shows a cracker style bread, pierced, bruised and soon to be broken.

Which one reminds you of Yeshua?

2 Corinthians 11:1-4

Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me.

For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

For if he that comes preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit, which you have not received, or another gospel, which you have not accepted, you might well bear with him.

And again: 1 Corinthians 5:7 "Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us"

Do I think the leadership at this church is Anti-Semitic? No. I think they are unknowledgable of their Hebraic Heritage. Maybe that's why I'm there. To restore the old ways.

Isaiah 58:12 "And they that shall be of you shall build the old waste places: You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called, The Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of paths to dwell in."

Amen!!

I Highly Recommend....

                                 
                                             
If anyone reaches this sight and is new to the Hebrew Roots Movement or Messianic Judaism, or Early Church Teaching, or Ancient Hebrew, I highly recommend the work of Jeff Benner!

Some examples of his monumental works are:

The Holy Assembly and the Everlasting Covenant, an explanation of where we came from, how we got here, and why we need to go back

The Torah: A Mechanical Translation. If you thought Young's Bible was literal, and were mildly disappointed, this book is for you. It is super-literal often showing the thought concepts behind the original Hebrew.

Ancient Hebrew Torah, and Ancient Hebrew Lexicon and Ancient Hebrew Dictionary. For those of you finding the richness yet simplicity of the Paleo-Hebrew, these resources are for you!

New Testament Greek to Hebrew Dictionary. I have been waiting for this resource for years!!! As far as I know, except for an E-Sword module, the first of its kind.

There is much more and I use his webite, The Ancient Hebrew Resource Center, all the time!

Thanks Jeff for all your hard work!!

Soldier's Rations or Relish of the Adversary

                                  



"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23

When you are new to Bible study, you often pick up little study nuggets from sermons at church, at least I did. One of the cooler ones I heard was that the word in this verse for wages was, in the Greek, actually a word for the Roman soldier's daily rations. That sounded deep, that death was a daily ration of sin!

I found out while researching my last post, that this idea came from Strong's Concordance, from the Greek dictionary in the back.

James Strong was a United Methodist Professor of Exegetical Theology at Drew Theological Seminary. He published his concordance and brief Hebrew and Greek dictionaries using as sources Gesenius, Furst, Liddel & Scott, Thayer, and Brown-Driver-Briggs. These were all respected sources in their day, but Biblical scholarship has grown by leaps and bounds since 1890!

Strong's source in this case is Thayer's Greek Lexicon:

- whatever is bought to be eaten with bread, such as fish, meat, etc.
-and as grain, meat, fruits, salt, were given to soldiers instead of pay
-it then began to signify a soldier's pay or allowance
-properly, that part of a soldier's support given in place of pay, ie. rations, and the money in which he is paid
-finally, metaphorically, as wages

This last emboldened text is quoted in Strong's Greek Dictionary as the meaning of the
Greek word "opsonia".For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

But upon researching it, I found the first part to be true, but nothing about a soldier's rations.

This is what I found ad it is far more interesting and pertinent:

Opsonia denoted every thing which was eaten with bread. Among the ancients loaves, at least preparations of cornº in some form or other, constituted the principal substance of every meal. But together with this, which was the staff of their life, they partook of numerous articles of diet called opsonia or pulmentaria (Cat. de Re Rust. 58; Hor. Sat. II.2.20), designed also to give nutriment, but still more to add a relish to their food. Some of these articles were taken from the vegetable kingdom, but were much more pungent and savoury than bread, such as olives, either fresh or pickled, radishes, and sesamum (Plato, de repub. II p85, ed. Bekker; Xen. Oecon. VIII.9). Of animal food by much the most common kind was fish, whence the terms under explanation were in the course of time used in a confined and special sense to denote fish only, but fish variously prepared, and more especially salt fish, which was most extensively employed to give a relish to the vegetable diet either at breakfast (Menander, p70, ed. Meineke), or at the principal meal (Plaut. Aulul. II.6.3). 187, ed. Steph.).

Of the different parts of fishes the roe was the most esteemed for this purpose. (Thuc. I.138; Corn. Nepos Them. X.3; Diod. XI.57). A jar was found at Pompeii, containing caviare made from the roe of the tunny (Gell, Pompeiana, 1832, vol. I p178).

The Athenians were in the habit of going to markets (εἰς τοῦψον) themselves in order to purchase their opsonia (ὀψωνεῖν, Theophrast. Char. 28; opsonare). [Macellum.] But the opulent Romans had a slave, called opsonator (ὀψώνης), whose office it was to purchase for his master. It was his duty, by learning what flavours were most acceptable to him, by observing what most delighted his eyes, stimulated his appetite, and even overcame his nausea, to satisfy as much as possible all the cravings of a luxurious palate (Sen. Epist. 47; compare Hor. Sat. I.2.9, II.7.106; Plaut. Menaech. II.2.1, Mil. III.2.73).

From this I propose that the Opsonator is the Adversary, and as he is associated with death often in the "New Testament", it is he who "shops" for the appropriate lustful temptations in the market (world) that will address our weakest areas!  As noted, the Opsonator knows his Master (or in the temptee's case, the victim) to satisfy as much as possible all the cravings of a luxurious palate! How much more evident in our day when all the delicacies once reserved for ancient kings are available to us by a click of the mouse!

A possible paraphrase might be:

The delicasies (provided by the Adversary) of sin is death!

I can't leave this verse without showing the contrast of the second half of the verse!

In KJV, it says "...but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Dare we go literal?   "...but the charisma of Yah is aionios life through Yeshua Hamashiach our Adonai."

Charisma is defined in Thayer's as "gift of grace" with grace being "charis". But, as usual, these old sources are not always the best sources. According to https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/82183839.pdf, the "-ma" Greek suffix changes the verb of grace into a noun being the state or effect of grace.

The amplified understanding of this second half of this verse would be:

"...but the resulting effect of grace of the Yah: Life of the Age, in Mashiach Yeshua,
the Adonai of us."

Just for kicks and giggles, let's put them together:

"The delicasies (provided by the Adversary) of sin is death, but the resulting effect of grace of the Yah: Life of the Age, in Mashiach Yeshua, the Adonai of us."

Still a Sinner or a New Creation?

                                     

                                               

The famous line heard in many churches sounds noble and humble, but it it Biblical?

 "I'm just a sinner, saved by grace!

It sounds humble in identity because it recognizes the person's origin in sin and the salvation they experienced by grace. But if you were a sinner and are now a sinner, what were you saved from? 

It is generally viewed that Yeshua's sacrifice saved us from:

1. fear of death 

2. the power of sin

3. the dominion of the Adversary

4. the temptations of this world

So, let's look at what the Apostolic Writers have to say on these matters:

Hebrews 2:14-16,18 (Literal translation using Bible Hub)

"Since, therefore, the children have partaken of blood and of flesh, He likewise also took part in the same things, so that through the death He might destroy the holding power of death, that is the Slanderer. 

And might set free those who through fear of death were to live all-subject to slavery...

In that He Himself has suffered, having been tempted, he is able to help those being tempted."

From this we learn that fear of death made us enslaved to sin. And though this verse doesn't mention sin, we have this one that does:

"And the goad of death is sin" 1 Corinthians 15:56a (Lit. trans. BH)

Sin is a little piece of death or as Paul puts it:

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23

Now concerning the world, it is now irrelevant:

"But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."  Galatians 6:14

Summing up so far, and exploring this so great of a redemption, we are no longer slaves to the Slanderer and what he says, or the death he had the keys to (Rev. 1:8), and the world is dead to us.

That is what He saved us FROM, now let's gaze at what He saved us TO:

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."  2 Corinthians 5:17

This is the new fact, the new reality. This is hinted at the Greek word for creation, which literally means "original formation". Nothing survives from before!

Also "become new" can be translated: emerged, accomplished, is done, is come to pass, is come!

Behold, all things have emerged!

Behold, all things are accomplished!

Behold, all things are done!

Behold, all things have come to pass!

It is finished! Our duty now is to see our identity as Yah sees it.  A done deal! 

This exposes the false doctrine of believers having two natures, or the old man. Here's his fate: 

"Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." Romans 6:6

Truth or Theology, Part Two

                                                           

                                     




One of the things I like about Hebrew is its simplicity yet it is profound! Let's look at Pilate's question to Yeshua: "What is truth?" Did he really want the answer? They weren't even thinking in the same language! Here's what Pilate said translated from Latin:

"Quid est Veritas?"  Notice the word for truth, veritas. In Roman mythology, Veritas, meaning truth, is the Goddess of Truth. She is depicted both as a virgin dressed in white and as the "naked truth" (nuda veritas) holding a hand mirror. Veritas is also the name given to the Roman virtue of truthfulness, which was considered one of the main virtues any good Roman should possess. To Pilate, truth was personified as a goddess above all humans, unattainable by mere men. It was also a virtue, one that Pilate did not think he had attained by his lackadaisical question!

Now let us look at the word for truth in translated Hebrew: EMeT. First it comes from the word AMaN, which means to support or make firm. Second it is composed of the First, Middle, and Last letters of the Hebrew Alef-Bet. This reminds me of the oath one takes when swearing in as a witness:
Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
The Alef, the First letter represents Yah. Take Him away and you have Mem-Tav, which spells death. There is no truth apart from Yah's Word, and more specifically, there is no truth apart from Yah.
Yeshua is the Word made flesh, He is the Truth.

Truth in the flesh was standing before Pilot and he could not see it. Perhaps that is why Yeshua didn't bother to answer his question?

"Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words." Proverbs 23:9

Bonus: {Additionally, the Alef and the Tav point to Yeshua, (the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet) the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. The Mem in between represents death. Paul tells us death is swallowed up in victory, leaving the Alef-Tav, which in Paleo Hebrew means Strength of the Covenant!}

Truth or Theology? Part One

                                      



I once was, like some of you, of the opinion that to be used of Yah you had to be a college educated, seminary trained and licensed minister of God. I could not have been further from the truth. I am not going to get into the origins of Systematic Theology, but I can tell you this: It smacks of Rome! What do I mean by that? It has to do with the difference between the Eastern Mind and the Western Mind. Simply put, Western thinking is Abstract, "all up in the head". It exists because you thought of it. Eastern thinking is called Concrete, it exists because I can touch it, feel it, smell it, see it. (Otherwise it is in the Faith realm, but I digress.) Paul tells us in his first letter to the Corinthians:

"For I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate" which quotes Isaiah 29:14, here in a fuller context:

"Therefore, behold, I will again do an extraordinary/surpassing work (Alef-Tav) among the people:
This extraordinary/surpassing work and a wonder--for shall perish the wisdom of the wise, and the understanding of the understanding, shall be concealed."

The point is that understanding of scripture comes from Yah's Holy Spirit, not learning of itself. In fact the Apostle John said:

"But the anointing which you have received of him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall abide in him."

So what is the point of this blog? To present Truth, spiritual food, and the "eating of it" is done by revelation given to you by the Holy Spirit.