Jew World Order

‘Some groundwork’

The King James Bible will be the only version of the Bible referred to in this guide, which will look at some of the stories, characters and prophecies in the Bible.  Three matters drive this guide: prophecies about the Messiah, Paul’s teaching about Jesus and what John says in Revelation.

 

Old Testament (or Hebrew Bible) stories do not add up to a moment-by-moment account of Yahweh’s involvement with the Hebrew People.  Contributors writing between the 10^th century BC and the 2^nd century BC produced the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament.  Contributors working in the10^th century or 2^nd century BC would not have been able to prove David was a direct descendant of Adam or that the sons of Noah repopulated the earth after a flood destroyed humanity.

 

Most of what is known about the origin of the Hebrew people and Israel in Canaan comes from Jewish sources.  Deuteronomy is the most important source and that dates to the 5^th century BC.  Little evidence of events recorded in the Hebrew Bible comes from sources outside of the Hebrew Bible.

 

The first reference to Israel in an Egyptian source comes from the reign of Pharaoh Merenptah (1213 BC to 1203 BC).  In that source Israel is seen as a tribe, not a country.  A second source suggests a daughter of Pharaoh Siamun (978 BC to 959 BC) may have married Solomon.  A third source involves Pharaoh Sheshonq (945 BC to 924 BC): inscriptions at Karnak record a military expedition against Israel and Judah by Pharaoh Sheshonq in about 925 BC.

 

Moses has been claimed as the author of the first five books of the Bible.  Today it is believed the first five books were produced from four main sources: Yahwist, Elohist, Priestly and Deuteronomy (J, E, P and D).  Deuteronomy and the Priestly source date to the 5^th century BC.  The Elohist source was produced in the northern kingdom of Israel in the 8^th century BC.  The Yahwist source is the oldest source and dates to the 10^th century BC.  Yawhist contributors set out to show that the Hebrew people were the most ancient people in the world and that Yahweh had given the land of Canaan to them.

 

According to the Hebrew Bible Israel was a busy place in the 10^th century BC.  David enlarged Israel’s borders through his martial exploits and Solomon grew Israel’s economy through shipping and overland trade.  Solomon also undertook various building projects, which included a temple, palace, ports, fortresses and towns; his forced labour battalions and oppressive levies caused problems – after Solomon’s death Jeroboam and the ten northern tribes set up an alternative kingdom.

 

David and Solomon ruled Israel for most of the 10^th century BC.  David ruled from 1000 BC to 962 BC.  Solomon ruled from 962 BC to 922 BC.

 

Hiram of Tyre was an important ally of David and Solomon.  Tyre was a Phoenician city.  It became the principle city of Phoenicia after Sea Peoples partially destroyed Sidon in the late 13^th century BC.  Hiram became king of Tyre in 969 BC and ruled until 936 BC.  He and Solomon cooperated in trade.  Their merchant ships carried cedar wood, pinewood, dried fish, salt, wine, glass, metalwork, fine linen and linen dyed purple to the ends of the known world.

 

Solomon founded the Hebrew wisdom movement.  Wisdom literature, which was the province of the professional scribes and wise men in the service of the court, was employed in the education of the young men of the court.  Some lessons could have been held in Solomon’s Temple if it was furnished with a school and library.

 

Because Solomon needed to build fortresses and garrison cities throughout his empire he initiated a massive program of building.  Hiram supplied some of the materials for this.  Solomon’s construction work cost more than he made from his business activities.  He overcame this problem by forcing Israeli men into labour gangs and introducing higher taxes.

 

Solomon’s treatment of his people caused resentment – especially amongst the ten northern tribes.  They, under the leadership of Jeroboam the Ephraimite, a young overseer of the forced labour battalions of the house of Joseph, separated from the two southern tribes after Solomon’s death and set up the northern kingdom of Israel.

 

David was responsible for making Yahweh the most important name for God in Jerusalem.  He accomplished this after conquering Jerusalem and adapting a cult he found there to his own needs; the cult was centred on Mount Zion.  David turned the Zion cult into the cult of Yahweh.  He used ideas – about kingship being the presence of God on earth – from the cult to generate a new form of worship for Israel, a form of worship in which the king was mediator between God and the people.

 

After David conquered Jerusalem he moved the Ark of the Covenant there and established the city as the focus of religious worship and political authority: Yahweh dwelt on Mt Zion, in the Jerusalem Temple and in the person of the king.  Jerusalem became the city of Yahweh, David and the Messiah.

 

Messiah is the title of kings of David’s line: it means the anointed one and is derived from the word hameshiach.  Any king of Israel from the house of David held the title Messiah.  David was the first Messiah and it was his return (or the coming of his son) that was awaited by Israel – in the two centuries before the birth of Jesus the son of David became a heavenly figure, the Son of God, who would rule over the nations of the world from Jerusalem.

 

David made Zion the place where the God of Israel lived.  Much of what is important in religion today may derive from events that occurred in Jerusalem in the 10^th century BC.  Convincing other nations that the most important God and his most important king lived in Jerusalem may have been shrewd propaganda; propaganda that allowed Jerusalem to acquire the significance it has today.

 

Josephus, the Jewish historian, says Hyksos founded Jerusalem.  The Book of Judges says the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem, took it, smote it with the edge of the sword and set fire to it.  Judges, chapter one verse twenty-one, says the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that lived in Jerusalem, so they continue to live in Jerusalem with the children of Benjamin.

 

The Hyksos had Semitic and Asian ancestry.  They settled in the Nile delta during the 17^th century BC and ruled part of Egypt for some time.  Their most important city was Avaris, in the eastern Delta.  Pharaoh Ahmose had defeated the Hyksos by about 1528 BC.  After their defeat the Hyksos negotiated an exit from Egypt – they left en masse.

 

Archaeological evidence from Avaris tends to confirm an exodus of Hyksos after the city had been besieged and sacked.  The siege may have lasted several years.  There is no evidence from an Egyptian source of a mass departure of Semitic peoples out of Egypt during the 13^th century BC.

 

The Elohist or E source is dated to the 8^th century BC.  It was combined with the J source later.  As it is not always possible to separate the two sources they are often referred to as J E.  The Elohist source does not have the first eleven chapters of Genesis: it begins at Genesis 20 with the story of Abraham passing Sarah off as his sister in his dealings with Abimelech, king of Gerar.  This source uses the term Elohim for god until Moses is told God’s name is Yahweh.

 

Jeroboam the second was king in Israel from about 786 BC until about 746 BC.  During his reign Israel’s long war with Syria (Aram) came to an end.  A few wealthy Israelis did well out of the war but most Israelis were impoverished by it.

 

The prophets Amos and Hosea date to the 8^th century BC.  The kingdom of Assyria took Gilead and Galilee from Israel in 733/732 BC and in 721 BC Samaria, the Israelite capital, fell and was repopulated with Syrians and Babylonians.

 

Deuteronomy reads like a farewell speech by Moses.  An early edition of the book may have been the book of the Law discovered in the Temple about 622 BC.  Hilkiah the priest found the document and gave it to Shaphan the scribe.  Shaphan took the book and read it to King Josiah.  The king read it in the Temple to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem – including the priests and the Levites.

 

That document was added to after the reforms of King Josiah.  Josiah reigned from 640 BC to 609 BC.  He was eight years old when he began to reign and thirty-nine years old when he was killed during a war between Egypt and Carchemish.

 

Deuteronomy’s existing form was produced by a contributor who added a second introduction and who turned the document into the most important source for the history of Israel in Canaan.

 

The Priestly source is said to date to the 5^th century BC.  Another theory is the author of the Priestly source worked in the 7^th century BC and was responsible for combining the J and E codes.  The Priestly code can be detected in early chapters of Genesis through to the Mosaic period: Genesis begins with material from the Priestly source and the Priestly source is apparent in Exodus.

 

In 587/86 BC Nebuchadrezzar destroyed the city of Jerusalem and its Temple.  In 538 BC Cyrus the Great of Persia allowed Jewish people to return to Judea.  Fifty thousand persons may have returned to Judea with Sheshbazzar, prince of Judah.

 

Their first task was the rebuilding of the Temple.  It was finished in 515 BC under the governorship of Zerubbable.  Their next job was to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.  They were completed under the governorship of Nehemiah.  He arrived in Jerusalem in 444 BC.

 

Ezra was an important individual involved with the return.  He may have arrived in 458 BC, when Artaxerxes the first was king of Persia, or he may have arrived in 400 BC, during the reign of Artaxerxes the second.  Ezra was a priest and scribe.  He had a ‘book of the Law of Moses’ that he used to bring the returnees into line with the observance kept in Babylon.  This work was undertaken on behalf of Nehemiah.  He and Ezra are seen as the narrators of this period.  Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi are seen as the prophets of the same period.

 

Most of what is known about Judea in the 5^th century BC is due to Ezra and Nehemiah.  However Ezra did not write Ezra and Nehemiah did not write Nehemiah.

 

The Babylonian Exile lasted from 586 BC to 538 BC.  The Babylonian period saw the beginning of the compilation of significant portions of the Hebrew Bible – giving the Jewish people a written account of who they were, where they came from and what station they would eventually occupy in the world.

 

Moses may have written the Ten Commandments of the Covenant but he did not write the first five books of the Bible.  That would have been impossible: scholarly tradition has Moses dying around the end of the 13^th century BC and the oldest parts of the Hebrew Bible being written in the 10^th century BC.

 

According to Exodus Moses encountered Yahweh (I Am) in a burning bush.  It has been suggested that Jethro introduced Moses to the Kenite religion and that it was this religion that Moses introduced to the Hebrews as the religion of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  The burning bush may have been fundamental to Kenite religion and Jethro could have had an understanding of the god in the burning bush – it would have been this understanding that Jethro shared with Moses.

 

The initial meeting between Moses and Yahweh featured a burning bush.  Their subsequent meetings mostly took place in a tent.  While these meetings were taking place a pillar of cloud stood at the door of the tent by day and fire was seen on the tent by night.  When the cloud stood at the door of the tent the Israelites stayed where they were: they only travelled when the cloud was lifted up from the tent.

 

Supernatural activity is claimed for the cloud.  It travels before the Israelites and locates their campsites.  The cloud is referred to as the cloud of the Lord.  It signified Yahweh’s presence.  He was in the cloud.

 

Stories about Moses and the cloud of the Lord were written hundreds of years after the events described in them supposedly took place.  A story in which the cloud of the Lord goes before the Israelites and determines their campsite can be found in chapter ten of Numbers.  It is from the Priestly source and was probably written after 538 BC.

 

It is impossible to accept that the cloud of the Lord went before the Israelites or determined their campsites.  The pillar of cloud or cloud of the Lord was probably smoke.  During the day smoke rose from the tent and during the night fire illuminated the tent.  Isaiah, chapter four verse five, associates smoke with the cloud and fire.

 

The burning bush was important to Moses and it must have produced smoke.  Smoke escaping through the door of the tent where Yahweh and Moses met became known as the cloud of the Lord.  If Moses used smoke from the burning bush to facilitate communication with Yahweh then the burning bush should probably be thought of as a cannabis plant – no alternative psychoactive plant known to the ancient world would have been better suited to the role.

 

Moses understood his cannabis-induced state of mind as direct communication with Yahweh.  Today it is known that drugs are used by some cultures in ceremonies intended to facilitate contact with the Spirit World.  It is unlikely Moses encountered a god of any description by his use of cannabis; the view that he was in contact with the one true living god appears a mistaken view.

 

If Moses was under the influence of cannabis when he conjured up the god of the Israelites it is unlikely that there is a supernatural foundation to the religion he started. Which means the Israelites were not chosen to be above all the other people in the world and no promise to give the land of Canaan to the Israelites was made.

It is not possible to say where the Hebrew people came from originally but their language is related to Afro-Asiatic languages; the Semitic branch of which includes Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Phoenician, Assyrian and Babylonian.  The term Semitic comes from the name Shem.  All Semitic people are supposedly descended from Shem.

 

Shem was a son of Noah.  Noah swore Canaan would serve Shem because Ham, the father of Canaan, had seen him (Noah) naked.  The Old Testament says the land of Canaan was given to the children of Israel and that the children of Israel were descended from Shem.  What Israel thought of the people whose land they were taking can be judged by their denigration of Canaan in Genesis (Genesis 9:25).

Dates for the Exodus vary between 1580 BC and 1200 BC.  It is customary to accept Israel left Egypt about 1250 BC.  No record of this event is found outside the Hebrew Bible.  One event that involved a large number of Semites leaving Egypt together took place in the 16^th century BC.  That exodus was triggered by the conquest of Avaris between about 1532 BC and1528 BC.

Avaris (Tell el-Dab’a) was the capital city of the Hyksos.  The name Hyksos was applied to the rulers of the Asian and Semitic people who settled in the Nile Delta during the 17^th century BC.  Egyptians called the ordinary citizens of Avaris Aamu, a term associated with people from Western Asia.  The Aamu of Avaris left Egypt in a large group and some of them went into Canaan – Egyptian evidence says after Avaris fell another campaign was carried out against the Hyksos in southern Palestine.

Josephus could have been wrong in thinking the Hyksos founded Jerusalem but it seems certain some of the Aamu went into Canaan (Palestine).  These people must have had stories about their time in Egypt and stories about leaving Egypt.  Some of these stories could have mutated into stories about Israel’s time in Egypt and the Hebrew Exodus.

The Hyksos left Avaris late in the 16^th century BC.  Avaris continued to be important and became Egypt’s principal military base and main centre for international trade.  Horemheb, last Pharaoh of the 18^th Dynasty, erected a temple to Seth there.  The temple was expanded by Sety I of the 19^th Dynasty.  Rameses II enlarged Avaris and it became the house of Rameses (Piramesse).  In the Old Testament Avaris is known as Raamses – one of the cities Israel says it was forced to build.

Seth was the god of Avaris and of the Ramessid pharaohs.  Sety I became the high priest of Seth before becoming Pharaoh.  Seth was part Egyptian and part Canaanite or Syrian – a fusion of the Egyptian chaos monster and Baal Zephon (a weather god from North Syria).

Seth was the personification of evil and could be equated with Apophis, the so-called chaos serpent and archenemy of Re.  Seth was associated with violence, rape and perverse sexual activity.  His character was associated with crime, disease, rebellion, adverse weather and incursion by foreign forces; in New Kingdom times he was depicted as a netherworld monster out to snatch the souls of the newly dead.

Asiatics and Semites leaving Avaris in the 16^th century BC (or the 13^th century BC) would probably have recognised Seth as their most important deity.  If Moses had been brought up and educated as an Egyptian noble in the time of the Hyksos or the early Ramessid period he would have encountered Seth as an important god.

Abraham came from an important city in Mesopotamia.  Isaac lived in Canaan.  Jacob also lived there until he settled in Egypt.  Yahweh cannot be found amongst the gods of Mesopotamia or Canaan.  Ur does not have a god associated with a burning bush.  A god whose presence is shown by a pillar of cloud or smoke (Exodus 33:9) is unknown in Canaan or Mesopotamia.

‘I am that I am’ is not a god known to the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, Hittites, Egyptians or other peoples of the ancient world.  This difficulty is usually overcome by claiming Moses was the first person to know god by the name I am that I am.

Israel claimed its god was the only living god.  Moses told the children of Israel this god was the god of their fathers – although no god associated with a burning bush can be connected with Jacob, Isaac or Abraham.  It is impossible to show that a god with a strong association to a burning bush was the family god of Abraham either before or after he left Ur.  Exodus (Exodus 6:3) has God inform Moses that none of the fathers of the Israelites in Egypt knew him as Yahweh.

Jethro, priest of Midian, may have introduced Moses to Yahweh worship.  One story in Exodus (Exodus 18:12) is used as evidence Jethro initiated Moses and Aaron into Yahweh worship.  Midianite and Kenite are different names for the same people.  Genesis (Genesis 15:19) mentions the Kenites as one of the people living in the land given to Abraham.

Kenites were seen as descendents of Cain.  They were a nomadic tribe that eventually merged with the tribe of Judah.  In chapter four of Genesis the descendants of Cain are associated with tent dwellers, keepers of cattle, musicianship (harp and organ) and metalworking (iron and brass).  The Kenites are viewed as being more advanced in arts and crafts than the tribes of Israel.

 

The Hebrew Bible presents Yahweh as an old god (God Almighty) with a new name (I Am).  Moses met God Almighty in a burning bush and God Almighty told Moses he wanted to be known as I Am.  The presence of God Almighty is made known to Israel by way of a pillar of cloud that is visible to all.  No God Almighty from Sumer has a clear link to a comparable phenomenon.

An, the Sumerian sky god and father of all the gods, is known from before 3000 BC.  Other gods Abraham, Isaac and Jacob could have encountered include El and Baal-Hadad.  El was the chief god of the West Semites and father of all the gods but Baal-Hadad.  Dagan was the father of Baal-Hadad.  Baal-Hadad was the chief Baal of the West Semites.  Lord of the Earth, Rider of the Clouds and Almighty are titles given to Baal-Hadad.

 

It is not possible to identify the God Almighty involved with Moses by that God’s association with a burning bush and pillar of cloud; perhaps the burning bush and pillar of cloud were not as significant for Moses as they were for the people following him.

Wings may have played a part in the religion of Moses.  Exodus (Exodus 25:18) says cherubims of gold were used to adorn the seat upon which Moses sat to commune with Yahweh.  The wings of the cherubims covered the mercy seat and Yahweh communicated with Moses from between the cherubims.  Egyptian tradition makes much use of wings and has many winged gods.  Hieroglyphs for the ba (soul) of god and human are written with wings.  If Moses was raised as an Egyptian noble, Egypt may have provided Moses with part of the religion he communicated to his followers.

If the most important part of the religion of Moses came from Egypt the story of the patriarchs can be seen as a literary device.  Abraham, Isaac and Jacob could be characters invented to legitimise and progress Israel’s claim to Canaan.  Israel did not want to see itself as having roots in Egypt or Canaan.  Someone invented a past for Israel that connected it to Ur and the oldest known written language.

People originating in Ur would be able to draw on written stories about gods, the creation of man and the destruction of humanity by a flood, as part of their history.  By claiming Ur as Abraham’s hometown Israel inherited part of the story of Ur.

Jethro may have introduced Moses to the religion of the Kenites.  That religion could have involved a burning bush and pillar of cloud.  Jethro may have provided Moses with stories about the patriarchs going into Egypt.  Moses could have added aspects of Kenite religion to the Egyptian religion he grew up with.  Unfortunately the strongest evidence indicating the religion of Moses is the story of the burning bush, mention of winged cherubs on the mercy seat, and Yahweh appearing in a pillar of cloud in the tabernacle and at the door of the tabernacle (Deuteronomy 31:15).

Prophecy about Jesus, it is said, begins with Moses.  In Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 18:15) Moses tells Israel that their god will give them a prophet like Moses and that the prophet will come from amongst the people of Israel.  Nothing in the story of Jesus links him to a pillar of cloud or a burning bush in the way Moses is connected to them.  Wings were important to Jesus and they may have been important to Moses.  Some of the oldest high gods are associated with wings: Ishtar, El, Re, Horus.

The Hebrew Bible presents the people of Israel as the most ancient people in the world.  Israel’s ancestors include Noah and his sons – the only men to survive the flood – and Adam the first man.  However who the ancestors of Israel were and where they came from is unclear.  Which God Almighty told Moses to use the name I Am is another mystery.  None of the known gods materializes in a pillar of cloud.  Yahweh is not a god whose ancestry can be traced to a known God Almighty.

Although the origins of Israel and its God are unclear, Israel did exist by the end of the 13^th century BC.  The tribe of Israel became the kingdom of Israel in the 10^th century BC – but the kingdom may not have been as extensive as it is reputed to have been by contributors to the Hebrew Bible.

During the 10^th century BC Nathan the prophet and David the king helped shape the future of Israel and its religion.  David invented a new form of worship for Israel and became mediator between Yahweh and the people.  Nathan engendered Messianism by telling David that Yahweh was going to establish the house and kingdom of David forever.  Yahweh was going to do this for David because David had chosen to build Yahweh a house.  Nathan promised the seed of David would be set up after David died and that the throne of his seed would be established forever (2 Samuel 7:12).

Messiah was not an angelic figure.  Yahweh says he will be a father to the seed of David and that it will be this seed that will build a house for the name of Yahweh.       Yahweh undertook to chastise the seed if the seed sinned but promised he would not take his mercy away from the seed as he had taken it away from Saul.  Nathan appears to have Solomon in mind as the seed of David.  Nathan worked with Bathsheba to secure the kingship for Solomon and it was Solomon who built the house for Yahweh’s name.

Solomon thought of himself as the promised seed that would build a house for the name of Yahweh (1 Kings 8:20).  After the temple had been built Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream and promised to establish the throne of Solomon forever as he had promised David (1 Kings 9:5): ‘There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.’  It is with Nathan, David and Solomon that the notion of a son of god with an everlasting kingdom is first imagined (2 Samuel 7:14).  Solomon was seen as the seed that would be the son of Yahweh and it was his kingdom that would be established forever.

Solomon is portrayed as a wise king.  The Deuteronomist, writing in the 5^th century BC, says this wisdom was conferred in a dream at Gibeon (1 kings 3:5).  In the dream a ‘wise and understanding heart’ was given to Solomon.  Statements claiming wisdom can be conferred upon a dreaming person generate dubiety.  Solomon’s reputation for being wise and for having received his wisdom from Yahweh may have been propaganda manufactured to serve the interests of Solomon and his court.   Perhaps the Deuteronomist conferred wisdom on Solomon retrospectively.

 

According to the author of the first book of kings 480 years after leaving Egypt construction of the Jerusalem Temple began.  If this assertion by the author is correct the Exodus took place in the 15^th century BC.  Work on the Jerusalem Temple began in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign, which was in 958 BC.  If the Exodus took place 480 years before that, it took place about 1438 BC.

It took seven years to build the Jerusalem Temple.  After the Temple was finished the Ark of the Covenant was placed in the most holy place – under the wings of the cherubims.  These two cherubims are not the ones mentioned in the story of Moses.  Solomon had these new cherubims made from olive wood overlaid with gold.  They took up a great deal of room in the inner house.  Cherubim wings were a significant feature in the Jerusalem Temple (1 Kings 6:23).

When the priests placed the Ark of the Covenant in the holy place a cloud filled the Temple.  It made the work of the priests difficult.  The glory of Yahweh had entered the Temple (1 Kings 8:11).  Yahweh’s glory is associated with the cloud; it is present when the cloud is present.  It seems reasonable to assume the cloud is a cloud of smoke generated by incense, as one of Aaron’s tasks was to burn sweet incense twice a day on the Alter of incense (Exodus 30:7).

A burning bush and winged cherubims were important in the religion of Moses – the wings appear to be less significant than the cloud of smoke produced by the burning bush.  Winged cherubims and a cloud of smoke featured in the religion of Solomon several hundred years after Moses.  In both cases it is the smoke that is most closely associated with the presence of Yahweh.  The winged cherubims are ornamental.

 

Winged creatures played an active role in the visions of Isaiah and Ezekiel.  In the visions had by these prophets the winged creatures were supernatural beings, not ornamentation.  Winged creatures, rather than a cloud or smoke, are associated with the presence of Yahweh in the stories of Isaiah and Ezekiel.

Isaiah’s vision took place in the Jerusalem Temple and although smoke was involved it was not as noteworthy as the behaviour of the winged creatures – it did not indicate the presence of Yahweh.  Ezekiel’s visions took place by the river of Chebar.  He mentions seeing a whirlwind and a great cloud coming out of the north.  That cloud was an element in his vision: it was not an actual cloud like the one seen at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation (Exodus 33:9).

Ezekiel found the winged creatures or living creature he saw under Yahweh more riveting than the cloud.  In his vision a cloud filled the inner court and later it filled the house (Ezekiel 10:3 and 10:4).  It is not a real cloud (or a cloud of smoke) and it only exists in Ezekiel’s vision.

Isaiah was the first prophet to claim seeing winged creatures accompanying Yahweh.  That was in the 8^th century BC.  Ezekiel supposedly had his vision in the 6^th century BC.  Isaiah says that in his vision the winged creatures (seraphims) had six wings each and stood above the throne of Yahweh.  Ezekiel says that the winged creatures (cherubims) in his vision had four wings each and were under Yahweh.  These two prophets disagree about what they saw and neither prophet’s description of the winged creatures is of a Spirit like a dove.

 

Perhaps Isaiah and other prophets had a different understanding of the religion of Israel to the understanding held by uninitiated Israelites.  It is unlikely winged creatures suddenly began to appear in prophets’ visions of Yahweh.  The prophets may have been aware of an experience in which a winged creature appeared to one of their number.  Isaiah and Ezekiel could have heard of such an event.  Moses might have known of such an experience – his choice of cherubims to serve as ornamentation could have been based upon more than considerations relevant to decoration.

Winged creatures occur as ornaments in the story of Moses and in the story of Solomon’s Temple.  Their use as decoration may have been inspired by a paranormal experience in which a winged creature was seen.  Moses used cherubims on the mercy seat, which suggests the experience, if it was known, was known before that time.

Another option is that the winged creatures of the vision of Isaiah and the vision of Ezekiel were derived from Temple decoration.  It could be the vision of Ezekiel was derived from the vision of Isaiah.  Alternatively both prophets may have based their winged creatures on a tradition, known from at least the time of Moses, in which God Almighty was associated with an avian form.  If the latter were the case then the religion of Moses could have supernatural content similar to that revealed in the story of Jesus.  If there is supernatural substance to the religion of Israel it will be found behind the winged creature or Spirit like a dove and not in Yahweh’s cloud.

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‘Prophets and Prophecies’

 

In Deuteronomy Yahweh tells Moses he will give Israel a prophet like Moses.  The King James Bible views this foretelling as a prophecy of the Messiah, but a Messiah from the house of David could not have been foretold before the house of David existed.

 

Nathan told David that Yahweh would establish David’s kingdom forever.  That assertion led to the hope of a Messiah from the house of David.  The Deuteronomist, writing several hundred years after David lived, would have understood a Messiah from the house of David was expected to rescue Israel.  Claiming Moses was the author of a prophecy about a saviour may have been a device used by the Deuteronomist to stamp his contribution with Mosaic authority.

 

The Deuteronomist or the Deuteronomic school wrote the history of Israel from the death of Moses to the start of the Babylonian Exile and is credited with authorship of several books of the Old Testament: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings.  Yahweh’s choice of Israel as his special people was the Deuteronomist’s main concern and the notion that under Yahweh’s guidance Israel would eventually conquer its many enemies was an important theme.

 

Isaiah is the first prophet encountered in the King James Bible.  The book that bears his name was assembled over two centuries: late 8^th century to late 6^th century BC.  Isaiah or his followers may have written one section (first Isaiah) between 740 BC and 700 BC.  First Isaiah also contains material written about 500 BC.  A second section (Deutero-Isaiah) was written in Babylon by the school of Isaiah – it also contains material written after the return.  There is a third section (Trito-Isaiah) written later than Deutero-Isaiah.

 

First Isaiah consists of the first twenty-three chapters.  Chapters twenty-four to twenty-seven are an addition from about 500 BC.  Chapters thirty-three to thirty-five were written during or following the exile in Babylon.  Second Isaiah consists of chapters forty to fifty-five and is dated to the 6^th century BC.  Third Isaiah is made up of chapters fifty-six to sixty-six.  How the three parts came together is not known.

 

Isaiah may or may not have been a priest-prophet in the Jerusalem Temple.  He lived during the final years of Israel and the reigns of four Judaean kings: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah.  In chapter six of his book Isaiah recounts the experience that made him a prophet: a vision in which he saw Yahweh and the seraphims.  After the vision Isaiah volunteered to take a message to the people.  The message was that they would hear but not understand and would see but not perceive.  Yahweh then told Isaiah that the cities would be wasted and uninhabited, the houses empty and the land utterly desolate.

 

Although the message Isaiah carried to the people was one of utter desolation, in verse eleven of chapter eleven, he forecast a second recovery of the remnant of the people: both the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

 

Isaiah expected a Messiah from the house of David to come and set up an everlasting kingdom with Jerusalem as its capital.  In verse six of chapter nine the Messiah is called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, everlasting Father and Prince of Peace.

Isaiah’s prophecy of a Messiah appears to have been meant for his time: part of the prophecy was that before the young Messiah could choose between the evil and the good the king of the northern kingdom (Israel) and the king of Syria would be no more.

 

The Gospel writers saw Isaiah as important because in several parts of his book he prophesied a Messiah: verse fourteen of chapter seven; verse six of chapter nine; and verse one of chapter eleven.  Second Isaiah mentions the servant of Yahweh in verses one to four of chapter forty-two; verses one to six of chapter forty-nine; verses four to nine of chapter fifty; verse thirteen of chapter fifty-two to verse twelve of chapter fifty- three.  Isaiah did not write Second Isaiah.

 

In verse twenty of chapter nineteen Isaiah appears to foretell a saviour for Egypt.

 

Jeremiah is the second prophet met in the King James Bible.  He was born about 650 BC and began prophesising in about 627 BC.  Jeremiah died in Egypt around 585 BC – stoned to death by fellow Jews it is rumoured.

 

Babylonians captured the Assyrian city of Nineveh in 612 BC.  Judah became a province of the Babylonian Empire ruled by King Nebuchadrezzar.  King Jehoiakim withheld tribute from Nebuchadrezzar and in retaliation Nebuchadrezzar sent an army to besiege Jerusalem.  King Jehoiakim died before the siege started and was succeeded by his son Jehoiachin.  On the sixteenth of March 597 BC, Jehoiachin surrendered the city of Jerusalem to king Nebuchadrezzar’s army and was taken to Babylonia.

 

Zedekiah was placed on the throne of Judah.  He paid tribute to the Babylonians for ten years and then made an alliance with Egypt.  Nebuchadrezzar again sent an army to Judah.  Jerusalem was taken in 586 BC.  After the fall of Jerusalem Jeremiah was placed in the care of Gedaliah, governor of Judah, but when Gedaliah was assassinated Jeremiah was forced to go to Egypt.

 

Jeremiah prophesied a New Covenant between Yahweh and Israel.  One in which Yahweh would write his laws upon their hearts.  In the new agreement the people would know Yahweh directly.  This New Covenant prophecy was important to Paul and others.  It is quoted in the letter to the Hebrews and lies behind the words: ‘This is the new covenant in my blood.’

 

According to Jeremiah enemies from the north would carry out Yahweh’s judgement on Israel.  Jerusalem would suffer the fate of a rejected prostitute.

 

Ezekiel is the next prophet.  He was active during the first thirty years of the 6^th century BC and may have started out as a priest in the Jerusalem Temple.  He lived in Jerusalem before being deported to Babylon in 597 BC.  After his deportation he lived near the river Chebar, where he supposedly had a vision of Yahweh’s throne-chariot.

 

Ezekiel was active during two periods.  The first period was from592 BC to585 BC. The second period was from 572 BC to 570 BC.  His book is usually divided into three sections: threats against Judah and Jerusalem (chapters one to twenty-five), threats against other nations (chapters twenty-five to thirty-two), and prophesies of restoration for Judah and Israel under David (chapters thirty-three to forty-four).

 

Chapters thirty-eight and thirty-nine hold the prophesy of Gog and Magog.

 

Daniel is after Ezekiel.  Daniel is set during the Babylonian Exile and contains accounts of Daniel’s visions as well as stories about Daniel and his friends.  However Daniel was probably written between 167 BC and 164 BC – during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

 

Antiochus tried to make the Jews abandon their religion.  He imposed severe restrictions on the Jews, Jerusalem was pillaged, and in 167 BC the Jerusalem Temple was desecrated – rebellion followed.  Judas Maccabaeus led the rebellion.

 

The Book of Daniel was written to encourage Jewish people in their belief that Yahweh would eventually give them victory over their enemies and establish an everlasting kingdom.  Chapter seven tells how one like the Son of man will come with the clouds of heaven to the Ancient of days and be given an everlasting kingdom composed of all peoples and nations.

 

Some scholars identify Israel as the Son of man.

 

Daniel is considered the first of the apocalyptic writings: apocalypse is a literary form derived from the Greek term apokalypsis, which means revelation or unveiling.  Apocalyptic writing is usually pseudonymous and presented as the work of a notable figure from the past; it is a devise that allows contemporary events to be presented as prophecies from time past.

 

Hosea is the first of the Minor Prophets.  The Book of Hosea contains material that may date to the 8^th century BC and material probably produced in Judah at a later date.  Hosea began his mission during the last years of Jeroboam II of Israel, who reigned from about 786 BC to 746 BC.  Hosea continued his mission until just before the fall of the northern kingdom in 721 BC.

 

The Book of Hosea can be divided into two parts.  Part one contains chapters one to three.  Part two is made up of chapters four to fourteen.  The first part deals with Hosea’s marriage to Gomer the prostitute – symbolic of Israel’s adultery with the gods of Canaan.  The second part contains judgments against Israel and the hope that the children of Israel will return and seek Yahweh and David.

One reason given for the fall of Israel is revenge for the blood spilt at Jezreel.  Jezreel had been the capital city of the northern kingdom.  It was where Jehu slaughtered all the house of Ahab, his great men, kinsfolk and priests; it was there he piled the heads of Ahab’s seventy sons – and it was where Jezebel was thrown to her death from an upstairs window.

 

Hosea says all of Israel’s wickedness is in Gilgal.  He has Yahweh declare: ‘for there I hated them.’  Gilgal is where Saul was acclaimed king.  Samuel understood Israel’s desire for a king as a rejection of Yahweh.  Hosea sympathized with Samuel.

 

The Book of Joel comes next.  It contains three chapters.  There is disagreement about when it was written.  Some scholars favour a period just after the fall of Jerusalem; others favour a time between 539 BC and 533 BC.  Joel’s book reflects the liturgy employed in the second Temple, so it seems reasonable to assume a date after 516 BC.

 

Joel’s themes are similar to the themes of the pre-exilic prophets.  Chapter one tells of a land ravaged by various creatures: locust, palmerworm, cankerworm and caterpillar.  Some scholars see this as a real catastrophe while others see it as a reference to an invading army.

 

The following chapter holds that a nation has entered Israel and has wasted the vine and the fig tree.  Joel describes these new comers as great and strong; their like have never been seen before – a devouring fire goes before them and they leave the earth burning behind them.  Joel says the land is like the Garden of Eden until the invading nation turns it into a desolate wilderness.  Nothing escapes: the earth will quake before them, the heavens will tremble, sun and moon will be dark and the stars will not shine.

 

Joel has it that Yahweh will utter his voice before his great army: this is a prelude to the great and terrible day of the Lord.  If the people turn to Yahweh he will remove the northern army and restore what the locust, palmerworm, cankerworm and caterpillar ate.  Joel has Yahweh refer to these creatures (locust, palmerworm, cankerworm and caterpillar) as: ‘my great army that I sent among you.’

 

The Book of Joel mentions two armies: the army of Yahweh, sent to waste the land, and the northern army.  Other prophets mention an army from the north.  Ezekiel names this threat Gog and asks: ‘Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?’

 

Chapter two also contains a promise of an outpouring of Yahweh’s spirit upon all flesh, with wonders in the heaven and earth: blood, fire and pillars of smoke, the sun turned to darkness and the moon into blood.  At that time those who call upon Yahweh will be delivered.  Deliverance will be in Zion, Jerusalem and the remnant that Yahweh will call.

 

Chapter three opens with the prediction that Yahweh will bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem and gather the nations into the valley of Jehoshaphat where he will judge all the heathen round about.

 

When Yahweh does eventually roar out of Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem the heavens and the earth will shake but the children of Israel will hope in Yahweh.  Judah and Jerusalem will exist forever and Yahweh will continue to dwell in Zion.

 

If Joel lived during the period of the second Temple his predictions should not involve events that took place before the destruction of the first Temple; his predictions should be for a future time.

 

In the second half of the 8^th century BC the prophets Amos, Isaiah, Hosea and Micah addressed the Israelites and Judeans – the first of these prophets to have a book named after him was Amos.  He began preaching in Israel circa 752 BC but was active for only a short period.  King Jeroboam’s priest, Amaziah, ordered Amos to leave the country after Amos had preached at Bethel and predicted Jeroboam would die by the sword and Israel would be go into captivity.  What Amos did after that is unknown.

 

The Book of Amos is divided into three sections: oracles against Israel and other nations (chapters one to two); oracles of condemnation of Israel over its iniquities, its transgressions and failure to return to Yahweh (chapters three to six); and visions concerning the fate of Israel (chapters seven to nine).  The third section contains a prediction of the restoration of David’s kingdom – that prediction is considered not to be a foretelling by Amos: the style is very different from the style employed by Amos.

 

‘For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof,’ Amos has Yahweh say.  This same formula is used in pronouncements concerning various kingdoms including Judah and Israel.

 

Section two begins: ‘Hear the word that the Lord hath spoken against you, O children of Israel.’  It ends with a warning that Yahweh will bring an enemy into the country, a nation that will afflict Israel: ‘from the entering in of Hemath unto the river of the wilderness.’

 

Section three opens with a vision of grasshoppers that eat the grass of the land, continues with a vision of fire, followed by a vision of a plumb line.  Yahweh does not send the grasshoppers or the fire to punish Israel but does place the plumb line in the midst of the people and warns them that he will not pardon them in future.  Amos has Yahweh declare that the high places of Isaac and the sanctuaries of Israel would become desolate and laid waste.  The next vision is of a basket of summer fruit – it signified the end of Israel.

 

Chapter nine has it that Israel will be almost wiped off the face of the earth.  The people will be sifted through the nations, then a remnant will return to the land, the tabernacle of David shall be raised up, the cities will be rebuilt and the children of Israel will no more be pulled up out of the land.

 

Obadiah is next.  His book is the shortest book of the Old Testament.  It contains one chapter with twenty-one verses.  Two dates are suggested for its composition: the 9^th century BC and sometime after 586 BC.  The punishment of Edom is the primary theme of Obadiah, a second theme is the day of Yahweh and the restoration of Israel is a third theme.

 

Jonah’s book is next.  It was produced in the 5^th or 4^th century BC.  Jonah was told to go to Nineveh and warn the inhabitants that their city would be overthrown within forty days.  The inhabitants believed Jonah, proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth – their behaviour caused Yahweh to repent of the evil he was about to do them.

 

Jonah was unhappy about this outcome, so he camped outside the city to observe its fate.  Yahweh caused a gourd to grow as shade for Jonah and then caused it to die.  Jonah was unhappy about the death of the gourd.  Yahweh told Jonah he was wrong to care about the fate of the gourd but not about the fate of the people of Nineveh.

 

The Book of Micah has seven chapters and is divided into two sections: chapters one to three and chapters four to seven.  Some of the material may date to the second half of the 8^th century BC but some comes from a period several centuries after Micah.  The material in the first three chapters is thought to be by Micah.  Chapters four to seven were composed at a later date.

 

Section one consists of judgments against Samaria and Jerusalem.  Samaria is the transgression of Jacob and Jerusalem is one of the high places of Judah.  Micah also speaks against those who oppress the people and take their possessions by force, and against prophets that cause Yahweh’s people to go astray and against the rulers who abhor judgment and pervert all justice.

 

In the second section it says that in the last days the house of Yahweh will be established in the top of the mountains and that from Bethlehem will come the man who will rule in Israel.

 

Nahum is the seventh of the twelve Minor Prophets.  His book is presented as a vision and contains various types of material: an acrostic hymn, satire, funeral laments, judgments and a curse.  It was probably produced between 626 BC and 612 BC.

 

The Book of Habakkuk is difficult to date.  A time between 626 BC and 612 BC is favoured.  Because the book reveals the influence of liturgical forms it is believed Habakkuk may have been a cult prophet.  Chapter one introduces the Chaldeans as Yahweh’s agent.  The second chapter contains a sequence of woes against those who engage in social injustice and depravity.  The third chapter is a prayer (or psalm).

 

Zephaniah is the next Minor Prophet.  His book consists of three chapters.  It was probably written between about 640 BC and 630 BC.  Zephaniah was active during the early part of the reign of King Josiah.  The prophet’s condemnation of the worship of foreign gods in Jerusalem suggests he was active before Josiah’s reform of 623/622 BC.

 

The main theme in Zephaniah is the Day of the Lord.  It is a day of wrath, trouble and distress; silver and gold will be useless on that day; blood will be poured out like dust and flesh will be dung – the whole land will be destroyed.  In chapter two the meek are advised to seek the Lord in order to escape Yahweh’s anger; chapter three reveals Yahweh is determined to gather all nations so that he may pour out his indignation upon them.  Zephaniah ends with a prediction that Yahweh will make Israel a name and praise among all the people of the earth when he gathers Israel again.

 

Haggai follows.  It has two chapters, contains four prophecies, and was written about 520 BC.  Haggai encouraged the Jewish community in the rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple.  He insisted the poor harvests and lack of comfort and warmth was due to a delay in starting to rebuild it.  In chapter two the second Temple is compared to the first Temple and Haggai has Yahweh promise that the glory of the second Temple will be greater than the glory of the first Temple.

 

The last few verses predict a shaking of the heavens and the earth, an overthrowing of kingdoms, destruction of the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen and the election of Zerubbabel as the Davidic ruler (Messiah).

 

Zechariah is Minor Prophet number eleven.  He was active for two years during the penultimate decade of the 6^th century BC.  Zechariah’s book contains fourteen chapters but only the first eight contain prophecies by him – other contributors composed chapters nine to fourteen.  Chapters nine to eleven have been designated Second Zechariah and chapters twelve to fourteen have been designated Third Zechariah; Second and Third Zechariah date to the 4^th and 3^rd centuries BC.

 

In chapter one Zechariah informs the returnees that Yahweh had been displeased with their fathers because their fathers would not turn from their evil ways.  Verse eight is the beginning of Zechariah’s night vision of four red horses and their report that the earth is at rest.  Verse twelve has an angel ask Yahweh how long it will be before mercy is shown to Jerusalem – the angel claims Yahweh’s indignation has already lasted seventy years.  Verse eighteen sees the start of Zechariah’s vision of the four horns that scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem and the four carpenters who would cast out the horns of the gentiles.

 

Chapter two begins with Zechariah’s vision of the man who has a measuring line to measure Jerusalem.  An angel says Jerusalem will be inhabited with a multitude of men and cattle and that Yahweh will be a wall of fire around the city and will dwell in the midst of the city.  Towards the end of chapter two Zechariah states that many nations will be joined to Yahweh.

 

Zechariah’s fourth vision involves Joshua, high priest during Zechariah’s time, and Satan – an order was given to take away the filthy clothes Joshua was wearing and give him a change of raiment and place a mitre upon his head because his iniquity had been removed form him.  Verse eight announces the bringing forth of Yahweh’s servant the BRANCH.

 

Chapter four holds Zechariah’s vision of a golden candlestick and two olive trees:  this vision seems to identify Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest as the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.

 

Vision number six is of a flying roll: it is a curse on thieves and those who swear falsely by Yahweh’s name.  Vision seven is of a wicked woman sitting in an ephah – two women with wings like storks carry the wicked woman away

 

Chapter six contains the vision of four chariots pulled by horses that are red, black, white, grizzled and bay.  This vision is thought to refer to the expected Messianic reign of Zerubbabel.

 

In chapter seven Zechariah warns that Israel and Judah were scattered because they would not hear the law or listen to the former prophets.  In chapter eight he says Yahweh will save his people from the east and west countries and place them in Jerusalem, where they will be his people and he will be their God.

 

Second Zechariah and Third Zechariah develop the eschatological themes found in Zechariah and supply images applied to Jesus by the Gospel writers – the king on the foal of an ass, the thirty pieces of silver.  In the last chapter it is stated all nations will come to make war against Jerusalem, which will be taken, its houses rifled and its women ravished.  In the end Yahweh will be king over all the earth and a plague will afflict the people that have fought against Jerusalem.

 

Afterwards those who are left of the belligerent nations will go yearly to worship Yahweh and keep the feast of tabernacles.  Those nations that refuse to attend will receive no rain and will be affected by the plague.  Third Zechariah ends with the assertion: ‘and in that day there shall no more be the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.’

 

Malachi is the last of the Minor Prophets and was probably written between 500 BC and 450 BC.  The author is unknown.  Malachi is not a name it is a transliteration of a word that means ‘my messenger’ in Hebrew.  Malachi’s book has four chapters.  In chapter one the author has Yahweh say he loved Israel and chose Jacob over Esau.  Edom (Esau’s heritage) has been laid waste and, regardless of reconstruction attempts, will never be rebuilt.  The people of Edom will be known as the people against whom Yahweh is angry forever.

 

A second theme begins in verse six: priests are criticized for neither fearing nor honouring Yahweh, for offering blind, lame and sick animals, and for money grubbing.

 

Chapter two contains a warning to the priests that Yahweh has cursed them because they will not lay his commandment to heart.  Priests should act as Yahweh’s messengers to the people but the priests have gone astray and have caused many to stumble.  Consequently Yahweh has made the priests contemptible and base before the people.

 

Verse ten asks why the people deal treacherously with each other by profaning the covenant of their fathers; verse eleven contains the assertion that Judah has dealt treacherously and that abomination is committed in Israel and Judah.  Verse fourteen sees the introduction of another theme: Yahweh’s hatred of divorce.

 

Chapter three begins with Yahweh promising to send his messenger to prepare the way before him; after that has been done the Lord will suddenly come to his temple.  He will purify the priests and then they will offer Yahweh an offering in righteousness. The Lord will be a swift witness against sorcerers, adulterers, false swearers, and those who oppress widows, orphans and strangers.

 

Malachi goes on to say Israel disobeyed Yahweh’s laws from the early days and that Yahweh has been robbed by the whole nation.  They are cursed as a consequence.  If they changed their ways Yahweh would bless them with a very great blessing.

 

The book ends with a warning that the day that shall burn like an oven is on its way.  On that day the wicked will be like stubble but those who fear Yahweh’s name will be safe.  Before the dreadful day of the Lord Yahweh will send the prophet Elijah.

 

Isaiah and Ezekiel may have been connected to the Jerusalem Temple.  Both report visions of Yahweh and winged creatures.  Other prophets say the word of Yahweh came to them.  The work of some is described as the vision of the burden.  Most of the prophets claim Israel and Judah behaved badly, would be punished, and then returned to their own land, where Messiah would set up an everlasting kingdom.

 

Nathan was the prophet responsible for generating the prophecy of a Messiah from the house of David.  Other prophets involved themselves in this concept.  Jeremiah generated the expectation of an enemy from the north who would break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.  Ezekiel also mentions an enemy from the north – he names that enemy Gog.

 

Moses did not predict a Messiah, he predicted a prophet like himself.  Prophecies about a Messiah from the house of David could not have existed before the time of David.  The Messiah predicted by the prophets is David or a descendant of David come to set up an everlasting kingdom.  Nathan started the prophecy of the Messiah.  He has Yahweh promise to raise up the seed of David after David’s death.  This seed will build a house for Yahweh and in return Yahweh will establish his throne forever.

 

Solomon is credited with building the first Temple for Yahweh.  Solomon’s throne, which the prophet Nathan and the priest Zadok helped Solomon to secure, was not established forever.

 

Zerubbabel built the second Temple.  It was believed he was the Messiah.  Zerubbabel failed to set up an everlasting kingdom.  The prophets (Haggai and Zechariah) who predicted Zerubbabel would turn out to be the Messiah were mistaken.

 

Messianic expectations underwent a transformation in the two centuries before Jesus was born, due to the failure of prophecy and the non-appearance of the son of David.  The former Messianism was eclipsed by apocalyptic ideas about a mystical character from Daniel called the ‘son of man’ who would come with the clouds of heaven.  His kingdom would include all people, nations, and languages and be everlasting.

 

Malachi has Yahweh promise to send a messenger to prepare the way before Yahweh and to send Elijah the prophet before the day of the Lord.  He generates expectation of two individuals – the Qumran sect held that two messianic figures should be expected: one from the House of David and one from the House of Aaron.

 

Despite prophets making predictions that failed to come true Gospel writers drew on the predictions of the prophets to demonstrate Jesus was the Messiah.  It seems unwise to use failed material to prove Jesus was the Messiah.

 

The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) are similar.  The Gospel of John is very different.  Both traditions look to the prophets for proof that Jesus is the Messiah.

 

The Hebrew Bible contains prophecies of two characters said to be Jesus: the prophet like Moses and the Messiah from the house of David.  The Messiah from the house of David and the prophet promised by Moses are not the same individual.  Nevertheless contributors to the Gospels made both characters one and claimed prophecies about the two characters were prophecies about Jesus.

 

Isaiah prophesied (Isaiah 7:14) that: ‘a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.’  This does not appear to be a very important prediction: it is a reiteration of the prophecy of the Messiah made by Nathan (1 Chronicles 17:11).  Matthew’s Gospel makes use of Isaiah’s prediction (Matthew 1:23) but in that Gospel the original meaning of Isaiah’s prediction is distorted and Mary’s reputation besmirched.  Isaiah did not say Yahweh would make an actual virgin pregnant.  He said a young woman would give birth to the Messiah from the house of David.

 

A child fathered by Yahweh would not be the seed of David – the child would not have proceeded out of the bowels of David (2 Samuel 7:12) and so could not be the Messiah.  Jesus could have aspired to be the Messiah if his father were descended from King David.  Gospel writers say Joseph, Mary’s husband, was related to David.  Joseph’s descent from David would have been sufficient to allow Jesus to claim to be the Messiah: who would be the son of Yahweh (2 Samuel 7:14) but physically descended from David.

 

Part of the prediction made by Isaiah (Isaiah 9:6) was that the boy would be called: ‘Wonderful Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.’  Isaiah’s use of these titles does not constitute new prophecy.  Ideas about the Messiah had been evolving over the two centuries that separated Isaiah from Nathan and his prophecy.  Ideas similar to Isaiah’s can be found in Psalm 72 (A psalm for Solomon).

Isaiah’s Messiah inherits the throne of David and establishes it with judgement and justice.  He will come from the roots of Jesse and the spirit of Yahweh will rest upon him (Isaiah 11:1); the spirit of Yahweh is the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of council and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh.  The kingdom of Isaiah’s Messiah is the glorious and everlasting kingdom of David.

Second Isaiah introduces the servant of Yahweh (Isaiah 42:1).  This servant will be given as a covenant to the people and will be a light to the Gentiles.  He will open the blind eyes, bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house (Isaiah 42:7) and he will be Yahweh’s salvation to the end of the earth (Isaiah 49:6).

Also from Second Isaiah comes the notion of the suffering servant who has no comeliness or beauty and who is despised and rejected; he is a man of sorrows, who is taken from prison and cut off out of the land of the living.  Because he poured out his soul to death he will be given a portion like the portions given to the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong (Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12).

First Isaiah predicts an everlasting kingdom of David, which will be ruled over by the Messiah from the house of David.  Second Isaiah sees a dark future for the servant of Yahweh involving imprisonment and death.  Third Isaiah predicts Yahweh will bring forth a seed out of Jacob and out of Judah an inheritor of Yahweh’s mountains (Isaiah 65:9).  Jerusalem will be the most important city of the new earth and new heavens created by Yahweh (Isaiah 65:17 to 18).  All three Isaiah’s could have based their predictions on ideas generated in the time of David and Solomon.

Jeremiah’s prediction of the Messiah is similar to the prediction made by Isaiah.  Messiah will be a king from the house of David.  He will be a righteous Branch and will prosper and execute judgement in the earth (Jeremiah 23:5).  Jeremiah says Yahweh will cause the Branch of righteous to grow up unto David and he will execute judgement and righteousness in the land (Jeremiah 33:15).  Jeremiah’s prediction appears to be based upon similar information to Isaiah’s prediction.

Ezekiel says Yahweh will set up David as a prince and shepherd over his flock (Ezekiel 34:23-24) and later predicts Yahweh will make David, his servant, a king over his flock and a prince forever (Ezekiel 37:24-25).  Ezekiel’s predictions of the Messiah are similar to those of Isaiah and Jeremiah.

 

The prophecy of Gog and Magog found in Revelation (Revelation 20:8) is based upon Ezekiel’s prediction (Ezekiel 38:15) and Jeremiah’s insistence that trouble would come from the north (Jeremiah 47:2).  In Revelation the battle of Gog and Magog is the finale battle.  The author of Revelation also used material from Ezekiel (Ezekiel 38:8) to construct his prophecy of the beast with the deadly sword wound (Revelation 13:14).  The land brought back from the sword and the beast with the deadly wound that is healed are one and the same.

 

Revelation draws on Daniel.  The image of the beast as a kingdom with ten horns is taken from Daniel (Daniel 7:23-24).  The phrase ‘a time, times, and an half’ is also from (Daniel 12:7).  It is the time it will take to end the wonders associated with the scattering of the power of the holy people, the cutting off of the Messiah and the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple (Daniel 9:26).  It appears in Revelation as ‘a time, and times, and half a time’ (Revelation 12:14).

Hosea says Yahweh will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease (Hosea 1:4) and the house of Judah to be saved (Hosea 1:7).  Then the men of Israel will be called sons of the living God (Hosea 1:10) and the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together under an appointed leader in preparation for the day of Jezreel (Hosea 1:11).  Israel will be without a king for some time (Hosea 3:4) but will eventually return and seek Yahweh and David (Hosea 3:5).

Joel’s writing influenced the author of Revelation.  The army of locusts mentioned in chapter nine of Revelation is from Joel (Joel 2:25) and the notion that the sun, the moon and the stars will be dark (Revelation 8:12) is also from Joel (Joel 2:10).  Joel writes about the northern army (Joel 2:20) that Ezekiel and Revelation name Gog.  He says Yahweh will remove the threat of this army.

Joel also predicts Yahweh will pour out his spirit upon all flesh.  Then young men shall prophesy and see visions, young women shall also prophesy and old men shall dream dreams (Joel 2:28).  Joel predicts Yahweh will judge multitudes in the valley of decision on the day of the Lord (Joel 3:14).

Amos may not have made the prediction of the restoration of the tabernacle of David which is contained in chapter nine of his book (Amos 9:11) but it seems likely the author of Revelation used material from that chapter (Amos 9:1) for his beast with the sword wound to its head (Revelation 13: 3 and 13:14).

The author of Matthew employed a section of Jonah (Jonah 1:17) for a conversation between scribes, Pharisees and Jesus (Matthew 12:39).  Micah (Micah 5:2) identifies Bethlehem, David’s hometown, as the place from where the Messiah would come.  Micah (Micah 5:3) and Revelation (Revelation 12:2 and 12:5) are related – both deal with the birth of the Messiah and use the image of a woman in the pangs of childbirth.

Gospel writers drew on Zechariah (Zechariah 9:9) to show Jesus fulfilled prophecy when he rode the colt of an ass into Jerusalem: Matthew (Matthew 21:5), Mark (Mark 11:7), Luke (Luke 19:35) and John (John 12:15) point to Zechariah’s prediction.  Matthew (Matthew 27:3) uses Zechariah (Zechariah 11:12) to show prophecy was fulfilled when Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver – although Matthew (Matthew 27:9) says Jeremy the prophet made the prediction.  The author of Revelation made use of Zechariah (Zechariah 4:14) for his ‘two olive trees, and two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth’ (Revelation 11:4).

Matthew (Matthew 17:10) and Mark (Mark 9:11) take material from Malachi (Malachi 4:5) to demonstrate John the Baptist was Elijah the prophet.  Matthew (Matthew 3:3) and Mark (Mark 1:3) also identify the Baptist as ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness’ predicted by Isaiah (Isaiah 40:3).  The Gospel of John has the Baptist identify himself as the voice crying in the wilderness (John 1:23) but denying he is the prophet Elijah (John 1:21).

The Hebrew Bible says Yahweh would give Israel another prophet like Moses.  A second Moses has not materialised.  Those prophets who wrote about a saviour for Israel made no mention of another prophet like Moses but predicted a Messiah to establish the everlasting kingdom of David.  This character has not appeared and David’s posterity is no longer in a position to facilitate fulfilment of the promise Nathan made to David.

————

‘Paul’

 

It is claimed Paul was responsible for turning Christianity into a worldwide religion.  No reliable sources for Paul’s life exist outside the so-called New Testament.  Paul’s letters are the primary source of information about himself and his teaching.  The most important letters are Romans, Corinthians (one and two) and Galatians.

 

Paul’s line of reasoning begins with Adam.  He maintains Adam introduced sin into the world and sin generated death and death reigned until Moses.

 

According to the primeval history Adam was the first created man.  There are two accounts of his creation: the first comes from source P and the second from source J.  Source J is the oldest of these and dates to the 10^th century BC.  Source P dates to the 5^th century BC.

 

Work carried out during the 1960s and 1970s appears to demonstrate modern humans originated in Africa about 100,000 years ago.  They were not created out of dust; they evolved over hundreds of thousands of years.  Death was present in the world long before the first modern man.  It did not enter the world because of anything done by the first anatomically modern man – there is a discrepancy between Paul’s teaching and the science.

 

The Yahwist writes: ‘But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.’  Further on he writes: ‘But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.’

 

Certainly a threat of death features in the story.  The threat is connected to eating or touching the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which is, in some sense, poisonous.

 

The literature of Sumer is the oldest known literature in the word and is known from about 3000 BC.   It contains a creation of man out of soil story and a flood story that probably influenced the primeval history in the Hebrew Bible.  No story featuring a serpent, a woman, and the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil exists in Sumerian tradition.

 

One story that might be related to the Adam and Eve story is the account of Inanna’s failed attempt to depose Ereshkigal, Queen of the netherworld.

 

The Greek story of Persephone is similar to the story of Inanna.  Persephone had to spend part of her time in Hades because she ate one seed of the sacred pomegranate.  Iannna was changed into a piece of rotting meat but escaped from the netherworld by making her husband and his little sister her substitutes; they each had to spend part of their time in the netherworld.  These two stories have similar themes, but a behaviour changing fruit is mentioned in the story of Persephone.

 

Gilgamesh, who may have ruled at Uruk during the first half of the third millennium BC, appears in a Sumerian tale about a plant that can make old people young again.  Ziusudra, only survivor of the flood that destroyed humanity, tells Gilgamesh where to obtain the plant.  Gilgamesh finds the plant but a serpent steals it away from him.  In this tradition plant and serpent are not connected with the first man and women. The story is set after the Sumerian flood.

 

Dragon and serpent are synonymous terms derived from the Greek word for serpent.  One well-known story has it that a dragon (Ladon) guarded a golden apple tree in the garden beyond the Atlas Mountains.  Gaea gave Hera a tree bearing golden apples, which suggests the golden apples were known in very ancient times.

 

A Norse story tells that the goddess Idun was the keeper of the apples of immortality that the gods had to eat to stay young.  The apples of immortality and the plant sought by Gilgamesh had similar qualities: both made the old young again.  Like the golden apple tree sentinelled by Ladon, the apples of immortality were closely associated with a goddess.

 

One tradition tells of a rejuvenating plant, a man and a serpent.  Serpent, plant and goddess are another group.  In two accounts the plant rejuvenates and in two accounts the plant is known as an apple.

 

3000 BC is understood as Early Bronze Age.  Egypt and Crete are two cultures in which the serpent was important during the Early Bronze Age.  Buto, the cobra goddess of Lower Egypt, features in Egyptian myth as nurse to the infant Horus.  On Crete the snake was the symbol of the goddess – a Minoan snake goddess figurine found on the island has an opium apple on her hat, and the opium apple has the scratch marks that are made during the harvesting of opium.  It is likely that the opium apple is the fruit featured in stories about golden apples, apples of immortality and the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

 

Papaver somniferum or opium poppy is native to Turkey.  It can grow to sixteen feet tall.  The opium poppy could have been taken to Crete from western Anatolia with the first settlers in the seventh millennium BC.  Anatolia can be considered part of Mesopotamia.  Cultivation of poppies for their opium content spread eastward from Greece and Mesopotamia.  Habitual use of opium shortens life.

 

Opium use is warned against in the Adam and Eve story: do not eat or touch this fruit as it can cause death.  Stories about opium, as a plant able to bring about rejuvenation or as apples of immortality, may have been around before Sumerian civilization.

In Galatians Paul claims Abraham and his seed received promises from the Lord.  Paul maintains the word seed referred to an individual and he claims Jesus is that individual.

The promise to Abraham is mentioned in chapter twelve of Genesis where the Lord says to Abraham: ‘Unto thy seed will I give this land.’  Chapter thirteen says the Lord told Abraham to look northward, southward, eastward and westward at the land given to him and his seed forever.  The Lord also promised to make Abraham’s seed like the dust of the earth – the individual specks of dust on the earth cannot be counted: the same would apply to Abraham’s seed.

Chapter fifteen says the Lord told Abram that his seed would be as the stars in number.  Before that they would be strangers in a land where they would be afflicted for a period of four hundred years.  The chapter ends with the Lord telling Abram he had given Abram’s seed the land from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates.

Abram becomes Abraham in chapter seventeen.  Circumcision is introduced as a covenant between the Lord and Abraham and his seed after him.  Every male had to be circumcised.  The uncircumcised were to be viewed as covenant breakers.  Isaac is promised and the Lord says he will establish an everlasting covenant with Isaac and his seed after him.

Isaac and Ishmael are classed as Abraham’s seed in chapter twenty-one.  In chapter twenty-two Abraham is told that his seed shall be multiplied as the stars of heaven and the sand on the seashore.  Abraham gives up the ghost in chapter twenty-five.

Paul makes Christ the seed that will inherit the Promised Land.  But it is clear the promise was not to a single seed but to all the descendants of Abraham and Isaac.  The seed of Abraham is described as being too numerous to count: like the stars, the sand or the dust.

It would not be possible to conclude any reference in Genesis to Abraham’s seed was a reference to Christ.  No foundation for the claim made by Paul is perceivable in the narrative.  Paul’s interpretation of the narrative is unique: his identification of Christ as a special seed is all the proof there is that Paul is correct about the matter.

The claim made by Paul is unreasonable.  His interpretation is a private one.  Paul’s insistence that the word seed, used in a supposed conversation between Abraham and the Lord, refers to Jesus is perverse.  Over and over the word seed is used to signify every descendant of Abraham and Isaac.  How the word is used in chapter twelve of Genesis is no different from the way it is used in the other chapters.

 

Paul’s use of material composed in the 10^th century BC to underpin his teaching about Jesus is suspicious.  The material used by Paul was written to demonstrate Israel’s right to the land.  Paul manipulates the material to make it fit his teaching.  He takes one word and insists it is a reference to Christ.  It is impossible to agree with Paul on this point, as the references to seed are to seed that will become as numerous as the stars.  It is impossible to identify Christ as the seed of Abraham in the way Paul does.

An important claim made by Paul is that death reigned from Adam to Moses (Romans 6:14).  He makes this claim using material from Genesis and Leviticus.  From Genesis Paul uses verse seventeen of chapter two: ‘But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.’  From Leviticus he uses verse five of chapter eighteen: ‘Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord.’

Ideas about how man came into being began changing in 1859 with the work of Charles Robert Darwin.  He demonstrated species evolved and were not immutable over time.  Darwin believed that in the struggle for existence favourable variations were preserved while unfavourable variations were destroyed and through this process (natural selection) new species were generated.

Current theories of human evolution assume fossil remains that date to before eight million years ago are the remains of fossil apes; they also assume a common origin of apes and Hominidae in Africa about five to six million years ago.  Although details of hominid origins are unknown it is generally accepted an australopithecine species was ancestral to Homo.  Homo erectus dates to the beginning of the Pleistocene epoch (one point six million years ago).

Some Christians attacked Darwin’s work.  At a meeting of the British Association of the Advancement of Science held in 1860, Samuel Wilberforce, bishop of Oxford, wanted to know if T H Huxley was descended from an ape through his father’s family or his mother’s family.  Huxley’s response was to explain he was not ashamed of his non-human origins but would be ashamed of an ancestor who used rhetoric in the service of untruths.

In 1950 (ninety years after that exchange) Pope Pius the twelfth recognized biological evolution as compatible with Christianity but maintained God’s intervention was needed for the creation of the human soul.  John Paul the second, in 1981, explained the Bible was not a scientific treatise but a work written to state the right relationships of man with God and the universe – they allow the Bible is wrong about how man came into being but maintain it can show man what his correct relationship with God is.

The work of Darwin and his successors damaged Paul’s teaching.  It demonstrated that man evolved and was not created.  Adam never existed.  Death was not generated by Adam’s sin and sin did not reign from Adam to Moses.  Paul’s assertion is wrong.

John Paul the second claimed the writers of the Bible worked with the cosmology of their day.  No cosmology of Paul’s day can account for his teaching.  His proposition that death came by Adam and resurrection of the dead came by Jesus is unique (1 Corinthians 15:21).  It appears in no cosmology.  Neither does the idea that Jesus was a spiritual Rock following Moses and the Israelites as they journeyed from Egypt (1 Corinthians 10:4).  There is nothing in Jewish cosmology to indicate Jesus was the last Adam or that Messiah would be the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45).

 

It is clear from Galatians that Paul is not working with a cosmology of his day: he says his gospel was not made by man or taught to him by man.  Paul claims his gospel came directly from Jesus by revelation.  He gives no description of his conversion experience and says he spoke to no one about it.  Three years after concluding he had been given a mission to preach Jesus among the heathen he went to Jerusalem and spent fifteen days with Peter.  During that visit Paul also met James the brother of Jesus but none of the other disciples.

Paul’s next visit to Jerusalem took place fourteen years later.  On that occasion Paul met Peter, James and John.  Conflict arose between Paul and some of the Jerusalem Christians.  Paul brands them false Christians (Galatians, 2:4) who could teach him nothing, while he, so he claims, was able to convince them that he had a gospel to preach to the heathen.  Conflict between Paul and the Jerusalem Christians is seen again when Peter visited Antioch.  Peter took meals with the Gentile Christians until some Jerusalem Christians came from James.  Paul used Peter’s change of behaviour to accuse Peter of forcing the Gentiles to live like Jews.  Paul appears as the aggressor in the conflict between himself and the Jerusalem Christians.

Every church that was not Jewish Christian would be Gentile Christian.  Paul tells his readers he was given a gospel for the Gentiles.  In his opinion Peter, James, John and the other disciples had a gospel meant only for Jews (the circumcision), whilst he had a gospel for every one else (the uncircumcision).  Paul gave himself equal rank with Peter and may have seen his role as more important than that of Peter and the other disciples.

Paul has little to say about his conversion experience but there are three accounts of it in Acts; these accounts should originate with Paul.  In the first account a light from heaven shone round about Paul and Jesus asked Paul why Paul was persecuting him.  Paul requested guidance and Jesus directed him to a city where he would be told what to do.  In the second account a great light from heaven shone round about Paul and Jesus asked Paul why Paul was persecuting him.  Paul wanted to know what he should do.  Jesus told him to go into Damascus where he would find out.  In the third account a light brighter than the sun shone on Paul and the people who travelled with him.  Jesus told Paul he had appeared to Paul to make him a minister and to send him to the Gentiles to turn them from the power of Satan.

 

There is little similarity between the vision of Paul and the visions of Isaiah, Jeremiah or Ezekiel.  Isaiah saw God sitting on a throne with winged-creatures above it.  God touched Jeremiah on the mouth.  Ezekiel saw a fiery whirlwind, four living creatures with wings, and a throne with a man-like entity on it.

 

Paul and contributors to the Hebrew Bible agree to some extent.  The Hebrew Bible says the Jewish people are special and eventually they will have a worldwide kingdom with Jerusalem as its capital.  David or a son of David will be king and Yahweh will live in the Jerusalem Temple.  Paul teaches that the children of Israel are special because of promises made to them and that Jesus is the seed to whom the promises were made.  Jesus would reign until he had put all enemies under his feet and then he would be subject to God so that God may be all in all.

Moses predicted a prophet like himself and the prophets predicted a seed, rod or branch from the stem of Jesse.  Nathan told David that Yahweh would establish David’s throne forever because David wanted to build a house for Yahweh.  That conversation generated the expectation of a Messiah from the house of David.

 

Although Paul allows Jesus is of the seed of David (Romans 1:3) and indicates a root of Jesse will reign over the Gentiles (Romans 15:12) he builds his gospel around a seed of Abraham (Galatians 3:16) and the promises made to Abraham.  Paul says the promise was that Abraham and his seed would inherit the world (Romans 4:13).

Paul’s teaching that a seed of Abraham would inherit the world is contrary to the teaching of the prophets: they predicted a son of David would inherit the throne of David (Isaiah 9:7, Jeremiah 23:5, Ezekiel 34:23) and that the throne of David would be established forever.

 

Israel is important to Paul and he says his heart’s desire is that Israel might be saved (Romans 10:10).  He insists God has not cast away his people (Romans 11:2) but has reserved a remnant (Romans 11:5).  The gospel of Paul promotes the Jewish people.  Jewish people have an advantage over Gentiles because the oracles of God were committed to the Jewish people (Romans 3:1and 3:2).

 

Paul claims mercy has been shown to the Gentiles because the Jewish people were unbelieving (Romans 11:30) and that Israel is an enemy to the Gospel in order to benefit the Gentiles (Romans 11:28).  Paul maintains salvation came to the Gentiles to provoke Israel to jealousy (Romans 11:11) and that when the Gentiles that are to be saved are saved all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:26).

 

In the view of Paul Jewish people take priority over Gentiles (Romans 1:16) in being punished for bad deeds (Romans 2:9) or in being rewarded for good deeds (Romans 2:10).  Paul says he is constantly unhappy or depressed over Israel and could wish himself accursed from Christ for them (Romans 9:3).  He promotes Israel because of the glory, covenants, promises, law and service of God given to the Jewish people (Romans 9:4).

 

An Israel of God is mentioned as being deserving of peace and mercy along with those who accept the gospel of Paul (Galatians 6:16).  This Israel is not defined by circumcision and is warned that those who want them circumcised do so to avoid being persecuted as Christians (Galatians 6:12).  Paul is adamant in his rejection of circumcision as an indicator of the seed of Abraham and argues that circumcision does not make a Jew (Romans 2:28).

 

Circumcision was immensely important in the story of Abraham and his seed (Genesis 17:10).  Abraham’s children and their descendants had to be circumcised and any male purchased by Abraham or his descendants had to undergo the same procedure (Genesis 17:12).  Being cut off from the family of Abraham was the penalty for breaking the covenant by being uncircumcised (Genesis 17:14).

The wife of Moses circumcised her son to save the life of Moses, which was being threatened by the Lord (Exodus 4:25).  Circumcision is mentioned as an act that has to be carried out on the eighth day of a boy’s life (Leviticus 12:3).  It is revealed that because all the circumcised men that left Egypt with Moses died during the forty years Israel spent in the wilderness (Joshua 5:4) a second circumcision of Israel was necessary to circumcise the men born during the same forty-year period.

 

Circumcision is a token of the covenant between the Lord and Abraham (Genesis 17:11).  Every man-child born in the house of Abraham or bought by the house of Abraham had to be circumcised.  Circumcision was the covenant Abraham and his seed had to keep in their flesh for an everlasting covenant (Genesis 17:13).  Circumcision was a mark of the family of Abraham: it was not possible to be uncircumcised and a member of Abraham’s family.

Some Christians from Jerusalem went to Antioch and informed the Gentile Christians there that they would have to be circumcised before they could be saved (Acts 15:1).  Paul and Barnabas disagreed with the newcomers and the matter was eventually brought to the attention of the elders in Jerusalem (Acts 15:2).  Christian Pharisees in Jerusalem confirmed the need for circumcision and adherence to the Law of Moses (Acts 15:5).

 

After the question was debated Peter had his say.  He advised the Council that God had long ago chosen him to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 15:7) and that he had been instrumental in their conversion and witnessed them receiving the Holy Spirit (Acts 15:8).  As a result of his contact with Cornelius and other Gentiles, Peter became convinced God accepted righteous people from every nation (Acts 10:35).  After the encounter between Peter and the Gentiles the Jerusalem Christians concluded God had also granted the Gentiles repentance unto life (Acts 11:18).

 

Peter did not attempt to involve the Gentiles in circumcision and he did not identify them as the seed of Abraham.  Circumcision became a problem for some Jewish Christians when Paul claimed his followers were the seed of Abraham.  It became problematic because scripture demanded the natural seed and the stranger joined to Abraham had to be circumcised – and scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35).  To claim a man could be the seed of Abraham without being circumcised was to go against scripture and the Lord.

 

Some Christians argued that the gospel of Paul was beyond understanding or was impenetrable.  In response Paul claimed his gospel was only hidden from those who were lost (2 Corinthians 4:3).  Paul’s gospel was not the only gospel in circulation and some of his followers favoured another gospel over the one he had presented them with (Galatians 1:6).  Paul told these followers that any man or angel preaching any gospel but Paul’s should be accursed (Galatians 1:8).

 

Paul argues that death reigned from Adam to Moses (Romans 5:14).  He argues Adam caused sin to enter the world and sin generated death for everyone – even for those who had not committed the same sin as Adam.  It is impossible to follow the argument deployed by Paul, as death appears to be the natural end of all living things.

 

Two kinds of death are spoken of in the Bible: death of the body and death of the soul (Matthew 10:28).  John has Jesus say the dead that hear the voice of the Son of God will live (John 5:25) and that the dead in their graves will hear the voice of Jesus and come forth to life or damnation (John 5:28 and 29).  The Synoptic Gospels report God is God of the living and that to God all live (Matthew 22:32, Mark 12:27, Luke 20:38).

 

If God is God of the living and if Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were alive to God at the time Moses met Yahweh in the desert then it is certain that not all men died as a result of Adam’s supposed sin of disobedience.  Furthermore as the Jewish patriarchs were alive to God before Moses received the Law death could not have reigned from Adam to Moses.

 

Paul makes claims that contradict the Hebrew Bible and the Gospels.  Many of his claims are nonsensical.  One claim made by Paul is that the Jewish people who left Egypt with Moses were baptised to Moses in the sea (1 Corinthians 10:2).  But in the story of the crossing of the sea the children of Israel went upon dry ground (Exodus 14:22) and no mention of a baptism to Moses is made.

 

Another of Paul’s claims is that the children of Israel all drank a spiritual drink from a rock that followed them and he makes the rock Jesus (1 Corinthians 10:4).  This assertion by Paul is not confirmed by the story: in the story the rock is just a rock, it does not follow the Jewish people and cannot be identified as Jesus (Exodus 17:6).

 

One more example of Paul’s deceptive arguments is his insistence that the veil Moses wore on his face is now on the hearts of the Jewish people (2 Corinthians 3:13).  There is nothing in the account recorded in the Hebrew Bible that would allow Paul to conclude the veil Moses wore had been transformed into a veil that was placed over the hearts of the children of Israel (Exodus 34:33).

 

Some of the assertions made by Paul are baseless and destructive.  One harmful assertion concerns the sacrament commemorating the Last Supper.  This sacrament is named the Eucharist and its origins are found in the Synoptic Gospels and Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.  Paul says many of the Corinthians were weak, sickly and asleep (dead) because they approached the Eucharist in a way that was unacceptable and wrong in some sense (1 Corinthians 11:30).

 

There is nothing in the Eucharist that could cause illness or death to anyone – true Christian or false Christian.  One theory (transubstantiation) holds that the bread and wine used in the ceremony become the body and blood of Jesus.  Another theory (consubstantiation) maintains the bread and wine remain bread and wine but coexist with the body and blood of Jesus.  Neither theory can be proved or disproved by accounts of the Last Supper given in the synoptic Gospels (Matthew 26:26, Mark 14:22, Luke 22:19).

Paul claims that they that are in the flesh cannot please God (Romans 8:8).  This assertion is contradicted in John: he has Jesus say that God is with Jesus because Jesus always does those things that please God (John 8:29).

One of the most destructive claims made by Paul concerns Satan being transformed into an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).  This claim would have caused great problems for Christians, as they were the only people experiencing supernatural light.  They experienced supernatural light in the form of cloven tongues of fire or the morning star.  Paul caused the tongues of fire or morning star (Jesus) to become known as the star of Satan.

 

The disciples of Jesus had an experience that in Acts is recorded as cloven tongues of fire (Acts 2:3).  Paul did not at any time experience what the disciples experienced.  Before the disciples had their experience they were ordinary mortals.  As a result of the experience they were filled with the Holy Spirit.  It would have been impossible for Paul to receive the Holy Spirit without undergoing the cloven tongues of fire experience.

 

Some Corinthian Christians questioned Paul’s relationship with Jesus.  They wanted proof that Jesus was speaking through Paul (2 Corinthians 13:3).  Paul never experienced the baptism of fire; cloven tongues of fire never sat on him; he was not given the morning star; the day star never arose in his heart.

 

Paul maintains death reigned from Adam to Moses (Romans 5:14).  Moses gave law to the Jewish people and advised them that those who kept the law would live (Romans 10:5).  Mosaic Law is the only law recognised as law by Paul: he argues Jewish people had the law of God but Gentiles did not have the same law (Romans 2:14) and he places no value on the various law codes known from ancient times (Ur-Nammu’s Code, Lipit-Ishtar’s Code, Hammurabi’s Code, the Hittite Law Code).

 

Ancient Israeli law was put into its final shape during the Babylonian exile and appears to have been influenced by ancient Egyptian precepts and the Code of Hammurabi.  Israeli law developed the humane concern shown in the Egyptian precepts for the poor and unfortunate.  The teaching ‘love thy neighbour as thyself’ (Leviticus 19:18) could have been inspired by the ancient Egyptian precepts.

Although Gentiles do not have the law, they can keep the law because of their innate qualities of character.  This ability of the Gentiles to behave in accordance with the Law of Moses shows that the law is written in their hearts, Paul claims (Romans 2:15) – he also claims that through Jesus the Gentiles are delivered from the law they never had (Romans 7:4 and 7:6).

 

Those who are led by the Spirit are not under the law says Paul (Galatians 5:18). Nevertheless those Gentiles that were led by the Spirit, and freed from the law, were advised by Paul to act in accordance with the law (1Corinthians 14:34).

 

Paul argued that those who were circumcised were obliged to observe all of the Law of Moses (Galatians 5:3), that Jews had an advantage over other men because God gave the Jewish people his infallible guidance (Romans 3:2), that if a Jew broke the law he lost his advantage and became uncircumcised (Romans 2:25) because it is not the removal of the foreskin that makes a Jew, it is the circumcision of the heart (Romans 2:29).

Gentile Christians, freed from a law they were never under, are advised by Paul that being circumcised is no better than not being circumcised and that what really matters is keeping the commandments of God (1 Corinthians 7:19).  These commandments include not committing adultery, not killing, not stealing, not bearing false witness and not coveting – all the other commandments are covered by the saying: ‘thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself’ (Romans 13:9).

Paul teaches that the law of God came with Moses, but the author of Exodus has Yahweh declare at the start of his covenant with the Jewish people that he was already showing mercy to thousands who kept his commandments (Exodus 20:6).  As thousands were keeping God’s commandments before God gave them to Moses the commandments must have been known before the covenant was made between Yahweh and the children of Israel (Exodus 19:5).

Paul says his gospel came to him by the revelation of Jesus (Galatians 1:12) but his gospel is drawn from stories in the Hebrew Bible.  From the story of Adam and Eve Paul takes the idea that if they eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they will die (Genesis 2:17).  From the story of Abraham Paul takes the notion that the seed of Abraham (Jesus) would inherit the land between the Nile and the Euphrates (Genesis 15:18).  From the story of Moses Paul takes the idea that if the Jewish people keep Yahweh’s statutes they will live (Deuteronomy 4:1).

 

Paul’s insistence that his followers were the seed of Abraham (Romans 4:16), his promotion of Israel, and the report that light (fire) from heaven shone on those around Paul during his supposed conversion experience (Acts 9:3, Acts 22:9, Acts 26:13) allowed the author of Revelation to identify Paul as the Antichrist: the beast who spoke like a dragon but had horns like a lamb (Revelation 13:11); the beast who made fire come down from heaven in the sight of men (Revelation 13:13); the beast who told the people on earth to make an image to the beast which had sustained the wound by a sword (Revelation 13:14).

————

‘The Gospels’

 

Mark is the shortest of the four gospels; it is also the earliest.  The author of this gospel is unknown but it is attributed to John Mark (Acts 12:12) or Marcus (mentioned in verse twenty-four of Paul’s epistle to Philemon).

 

Because Peter went to the home of the mother of John Mark, after being rescued from prison by an angel, it has been suggested John Mark was a disciple of Peter.  But there is a Mark listed as a travelling companion of Paul and Barnabas, and as the Gospel of Mark contains information found in the teaching of Paul it may have developed from his teaching.

 

Over ninety percent of Mark appears in Matthew and about sixty percent appears in Luke.  Since the 1780s these three Gospels have been known as the Synoptic Gospels because they describe events from a similar perspective and have many similarities.

 

The Synoptic Gospels were probably written between AD 60 and AD 80.  The authors are unknown.  Matthew is attributed to the disciple called Matthew in the Gospel of Matthew, and called Levi in the Gospels of Mark and Luke.  The author of Matthew is believed to have had substantial knowledge of Jewish ways of teaching and interpretation.  The Gospel of Luke is attributed to a companion and co-worker of Paul.

 

John’s Gospel may have been composed about AD 100.  It is very different to the Synoptic Gospels – even though the author knew of the Synoptic tradition.  One of two Johns is considered to be the author of the Gospel of John: John the presbyter and John the son of Zebedee.  The Gospel was probably composed and edited in Ephesus by a ‘school’ of John.  It contains traces of eyewitness accounts and an understanding of Palestinian geography that is suggestive of an early tradition.  It, like the Synoptic Gospels, was written for Gentile Christians.

 

Mark gives the Synoptic view of Jesus.  In this view John the Baptist was the messenger of Yahweh promised by the prophet Malachi.  John said that a mightier one was coming after him and that this expected individual would baptise with the Holy Ghost.  Jesus came from Nazareth and was baptised by John.  Then the heavens opened and Jesus saw the Spirit like a dove descending upon himself.

 

Jesus entered the wilderness, spent forty days being tempted by Satan, and then entered Galilee preaching the Kingdom of God.  Walking by the sea he recruited Simon and Andrew.  Further on he recruited James and John, the sons of Zebedee.  They all went to Capernaum and Jesus began teaching in the synagogue.  A man with an unclean spirit demanded Jesus not interfere with him and he identified Jesus as the Holy One of God.  Jesus told the unclean spirit to be quiet and come out of the man – as a result of this encounter Jesus became famous in the region around Galilee.

 

After leaving the synagogue Jesus and his friends went to Simon’s house.  They discovered Simon’s mother-in-law was unwell.  Jesus made her well again.  That evening all the city gathered at the door of Simon’s house.  Jesus healed the sick and those possessed by devils; he would not let the devils speak because they knew him.

 

The next morning Jesus said he wanted to preach in other towns because that was why he had come.  He preached in synagogues throughout Galilee.  On one occasion a leper sought help from Jesus.  Jesus healed the leper then cautioned him to tell no one about his experience; nevertheless the leper told people about his healing and, as a result, Jesus could no longer stay in the city and went to stay in the desert – people from every quarter went to the desert to see him.

 

Chapter two sees Jesus back in Capernaum.  He forgave the sins of a man suffering from palsy and then asked some scribes if it would have been easier to say to the man: ‘Your sins are forgiven or take up your bed and walk.’  Jesus explained that the Son of man had power to forgive sins on earth.  Then he told the man with palsy to arise and go home; the man did as instructed.

 

Jesus then went to the seaside and taught a crowd – on the way he saw Levi and called him to be a disciple.  Jesus went to Levi’s home for dinner and some scribes and Pharisees wanted to know why Jesus was eating with publicans and sinners.  Jesus told them that he had come to call sinners to repentance.

 

Then the scribes and Pharisees wanted to know why the disciples of Jesus did not fast like the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist.  Jesus answered that while the bridegroom was present the children of the bride-chamber could not fast, but they would fast when the bridegroom was taken away from them – he also said new cloth was not sown onto an old garment and new wine was not put into old bottles.

 

Jesus and his disciples were walking through cornfields on the Sabbath and as they went they plucked some ears of corn.  The Pharisees wanted to know why they were behaving unlawfully.  Jesus answered that David and his followers had eaten the shewbread from the house of Yahweh in the days of the high priest, Abiathar, when they were hungry.  He then explained that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, and that the Son of man was also Lord of the Sabbath.

 

In chapter three Jesus enters a synagogue on the Sabbath day and heals a man with a withered hand, after asking those present if it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil.  Those present kept quiet.  Jesus healed the man.  Then the Pharisees took counsel with the Herodians on how they might destroy Jesus.  Jesus and his disciples left and went to the sea.  People from Galilee, Judaea, Jerusalem, Idumaea, Tyre and Sidon came to see him there – so many people came that Jesus advised his disciples to hire a small ship he could use if the crowds became too much.

Jesus healed many people and again cautioned the unclean spirits not to make him known as the Son of God.  He then went up into a mountain and called to him those of his followers he wanted to see.  From those he chose twelve to preach, heal the sick and cast out devils.  Those chosen were Simon, James and John, Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot.

 

Jesus and his disciples then went into a house and a crowd gathered.  Some scribes from Jerusalem claimed Jesus was possessed of Beelzebub and cast out devils by the power of the prince of devils.  Jesus asked them how Satan could cast out Satan and warned them that sins against the Holly Ghost were never forgiven.

 

The mother and brethren of Jesus wanted to see him.  Jesus questioned who his family were, looked at those around him, claimed them as his family, and added that those who do the will of God are his mother, sister and brethren.

 

At the start of chapter four Jesus is teaching by the seaside.  A large crowd had gathered to hear him teach.  He spoke to them from a ship.  He taught that a worker cast seed, some of which was eaten by birds, some withered and died early, more was choked by thorns, but the seed that fell on good ground developed and produced an abundance of fruit.

 

When Jesus and his disciples were alone he told them they could know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but the crowd could not in case the crowd converted and had their sins forgiven.  Jesus went on to say a candle is not put under a bed but into a candlestick, that secret things will be revealed and hidden things made obvious, those that hear shall be given more to hear, those that have shall be given more, while those that have nothing shall have even that taken from them.

 

Another parable is used to describe the kingdom of God as like a man who sows seed and cares for it day and night until the fruit appears.  He does not understand the process but knows when to harvest the crop.  In another parable the mustard seed is introduced as a small seed that grows into a plant big enough to allow birds to lodge under its shadow.

 

Jesus and his disciples sent the crowd away then sailed off with several other little ships.  A storm arose and the ship began to fill with water.  The disciples woke Jesus and he ordered the sea to be still: the wind ceased and the sea became calm.  Jesus wanted to know why the disciples had no faith.

 

Chapter five sees Jesus in the country of the Gadarenes, on the other side of the sea.  Jesus met a man there with an unclean spirit; the man lived amongst the tombs.  When he saw Jesus he ran to him and called him the son of the Most High God.  Jesus told the unclean spirit to leave the man.  The unclean spirit said its name was Legion and requested not to be sent out of the country but to be sent into a nearby herd of about two thousand swine.  Jesus allowed the unclean spirit to enter the swine.  The swine ran into the sea and drowned.  When the inhabitants of the city heard what Jesus had done they asked him to leave the area.

Jesus left the area and sailed back across the sea.  A crowd gathered.  Jairus, one of the synagogue rulers, begged a cure for his daughter.  Jesus went with him.  On the way, a woman who was ill touched Jesus and was immediately cured.  Jesus wanted to know who had touched him.  The woman admitted touching Jesus and Jesus told her that her faith had made her whole.

 

Jesus was still speaking when news came that the daughter of Jairus was dead.  He told Jairus not to be afraid and to believe.  Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and went and cured the young girl.  Once again Jesus requested no one be told what he had done; then he suggested the girl be given something to eat.

 

Chapter six begins with Jesus and his disciples leaving the area and going to Jesus’ own country.  Jesus began teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath.  The worshippers were offended and questioned where Jesus got his wisdom from, as he was only a carpenter.  Jesus’ response was to say a prophet had little honour in his own country, amongst his own family or in his own house.  Jesus was surprised by the unbelief of the people in his own country – he could do no great works there but he healed a few people by laying his hands on them.

 

Verse seven has Jesus ready the twelve disciples for a mission: he gave them power over unclean spirits and then sent them forth in pairs.  Jesus ordered the disciples to take no money with them, to wear sandals and not to put on two coats.  When the disciples arrived in a place, they had to stay in the same house until they left.  If they were not received or listened to in any place, the disciples had to shake the dust of that place from under their feet as a testimony against the inhabitants.  Sodom and Gomorrha would do better than them on the day of judgement.

The disciples’ mission was to preach men should repent.  They cast out devils and healed the sick.  King Herod became aware of Jesus and imagined John the Baptist had come back from the dead – John had been beheaded on Herod’s birthday and his head had been presented to the daughter of Herodias.  Herodias had requested her daughter ask for John’s head after the king had promised her a reward (up to half his kingdom) for a dance she had performed for the king.

 

After the disciples returned from their mission they told Jesus what they had done and taught.  Jesus led his disciples into the desert so that they could rest a while – that did not stop a large crowd finding them.  The crowd were like sheep without a shepherd so Jesus, out of compassion, taught them many things.

When it became late the disciples advised Jesus to send the crowd away.  The crowd had no food.  Jesus told the disciples to feed the crowd.  The disciples asked Jesus if they should buy bread and give it to the people.  Jesus wanted to know how much bread the disciples had with them.  The disciples had five loves and two fish.  Jesus blessed the food and served it to the crowd.  About five thousand men shared in the meal – twelve baskets of fish and bread fragments were gathered up after the meal.

 

After the meal Jesus told his disciples to go by ship to Bethsaida.  Jesus sent the crowd away then spent time praying.  When evening came Jesus was still on land but his disciples were in the middle of the sea.  The disciples found it difficult to row because a wind was against them.  About the fourth watch of the night Jesus, walking on the water, approached the ship – he would have walked by but they all saw him.  Jesus identified himself and told the disciples not to be afraid.  He got into the ship and the wind ceased.

 

The disciples were amazed beyond measure: the miracle of the loaves had made no impression on the disciples because their hearts had been hardened.

 

Jesus and his disciples disembarked on the land of Gennesaret.  The inhabitants knew Jesus and took sick people to wherever he was: city, village or country.  Sick people were laid in the street and it was hoped that by touching the border of Jesus’ garment the sick people would be cured.  Those who managed to touch it were made whole.

 

Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem feature in chapter seven.  They saw the disciples eat bread without washing their hands and complained about the matter.  Jews should not eat unless they have washed – their cups, pots, tables and other utensils have to be washed: it is the tradition of their elders.  The Pharisees and scribes wanted to know why the disciples did not observe that tradition.

By way of reply Jesus made reference to Isaiah (Isaiah 29:13) and claimed the Jews taught the law of man, not the law of God.  They ignored the laws of God and instead they taught rules about washing pots and cups.  Moses, Jesus continued, said honour your father and your mother and that those who refuse to do so should be put to death but you say if a man tells his parents it is ‘Corban’ he shall be free and need do nothing else for his parents.  In this way God’s word is made of no effect.  Jesus then called the people to him and explained that a man is not defiled by what goes into him but by what comes out of him.

 

When the disciples were alone with Jesus they requested an explanation of the parable.  Jesus was unhappy with their lack of understanding but nevertheless he explained that food could not defile a person, evil thoughts, adulteries, murders, fornications and other evil things from within a person, defile a person.

 

Jesus and his disciples travelled to the borders of Tyre and Sidon.  Jesus wanted no one to know where he was but he could not be hid.  A Greek woman discovered where he was staying and asked him to heal her daughter who had an unclean spirit.  Jesus told her that he had to look after the Jews first and that it would not be right to take the children’s bread and cast it to the dogs.  The Greek woman pointed out that some dogs get to eat the crumbs dropped by children.  Jesus said her answer had secured her daughter’s cure and that the devil had left her daughter.  The woman went home and found her daughter in good health.

 

From the borders of Tyre and Sidon Jesus and his disciples went to the Sea of Galilee.  When they arrived a deaf man with a speech impediment was brought to Jesus.  He took the deaf man to one side, put his fingers into the man’s ears, spat and touched the man’s tongue, then looked up to heaven and said: ‘Be opened.’  Straight away the man’s ears were opened and the string of his tongue was loosed and he spoke plainly.  Jesus cautioned the witnesses to tell no one about the healing but they paid him no heed and publicised the incident.  The people were astonished and said Jesus did all things well – making the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak.

 

The multitude was very great and had nothing to eat says chapter eight.  Jesus felt compassion for the multitude because they had been there for three days.  He was concerned that if he sent them away they would not make it home without fainting. Many of them had come a long distance.  The disciples questioned where they could find enough bread to satisfy the four thousand men who were in the wilderness with them.  Jesus asked the disciples how many loaves they had.  They told him they had seven loaves and a few small fishes.  Jesus blessed the food then his disciples served it to the people.  Seven baskets full of food were collected from the leftovers.

The disciples and Jesus boarded their ship and went to Dalmanutha.  Some Pharisees tried to question Jesus and asked him for a sign from heaven.  Jesus sighed deeply in his spirit then told the Pharisees no sign would be given to that generation.  Jesus and his disciples got back into their ship and departed.

 

Jesus told his disciples to be careful of the leaven (yeast or fermenting dough) of the Pharisees and Herod.  The disciples wondered if Jesus was referring to their failure to bring bread with them.  When Jesus discovered what they were saying he scolded them for having hard hearts and no understanding.  He asked them how many baskets of leftovers they collected after the feeding of the five thousand and the four thousand.  They replied twelve and seven.

 

When Jesus and his disciples arrived at Bethsaida a blind man was brought to Jesus.  He took the blind man out of town, spat on the blind man’s eyes, put his hands on the blind man and enquired if he could see.  The blind man said he saw men looking like trees walking around.  Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes once more and the man’s sight was completely restored.  Jesus told the man to avoid the town and to tell no one about his cure.

 

Then Jesus and his disciples went into the towns of Caesarea Philippi.  On the way Jesus asked the disciples: ‘Whom do men say that I am?’  John the Baptist, Elias or one of the prophets they told him.  Then Jesus wanted to know who the disciples thought he was.  Peter told him they believed he was the Christ.  Jesus cautioned them to tell no one about him.

 

At this point Jesus began teaching them that the Son of man would suffer, be rejected and killed, but would rise again three days later.  Peter began to reprimand Jesus.  Jesus turned, looked at his disciples, and then said to Peter: ‘Get thee behind me, Satan’.  Peter was told he cared for the things of men and not the things of God.

 

Jesus explained that anyone who wanted to follow him should deny himself and take up his cross.  Then he said those who wanted to save their lives would loose them but those who lost their lives for him and the Gospel would save them.  Next he wanted to know where the profit was in gaining the world but loosing one’s soul.  Jesus went on to warn that when he came in the glory of the father he would be ashamed of whoever was ashamed of him or his words in that generation.

 

Chapter nine opens with Jesus telling his followers that some of them would not die until they had seen the kingdom of God come with power.  Six days later Jesus took Peter, James and John up a mountain and was transfigured before them: his clothes became very white and then Moses and Elias appeared and spoke with Jesus; a cloud overshadowed them and a voice said: ‘This is my beloved Son: hear him.’  Suddenly the disciples were alone again with Jesus.

 

On the way down Jesus told them to say nothing of what they had seen until the Son of man was raised from the dead.  The disciples wanted to know why the scribes claimed Elias must come before the day of Judgement.  Jesus told them that Elias does come first and restores all things, and then he told them that it is written the Son of man must suffer many things and be set at nought.  He claimed Elias had come and that the authorities had done what they wanted with him.

 

They went down the mountain and were reunited with the rest of the disciples.  A crowd surrounded the disciples, who were being questioned by scribes.  Jesus wanted to know what questions were being asked.  A member of the crowd explained that he had asked the disciples to cure his son but they could not do it.  Jesus called them a faithless generation and asked for the boy to be brought to him.  The boy fell down and began foaming at the mouth.  Jesus wanted to know how long the boy had been unwell and was told since childhood.

 

Jesus told the boy’s father that all things are possible to those who believe they are. Then he ordered the deaf and dumb spirit to leave the boy and not enter him again.  For a moment it looked as though the boy was dead but Jesus took the boy by the hand and the boy revived.

 

Later the disciples wanted Jesus to tell them why they could not deal with the deaf and dumb spirit.  He told them that the deaf and dumb spirit could only be cast out by prayer and fasting.

 

After they left the area they passed through Galilee.  Jesus did not want anyone to know where he was.  He taught his disciples that he would be betrayed and killed but would rise from the dead three days later.  His disciples did not understand and were afraid to ask for clarification.

 

They arrived at Capernaum and Jesus wanted to know what they had been talking about on the way there.  The disciples said nothing.  Their conversation had concerned which of them should be the greatest.  Jesus told them that to be first they would have to be last and servant of all – he lifted up a child and said to his disciples that to accept a child in his name was to receive him, but not him, but the one who had sent him.

 

John told Jesus he had seen a man casting out devils in the name of Jesus and had stopped him because he was not a follower.  Jesus instructed John not to interfere with the man, as it was unlikely the man would say anything evil about Jesus.  He claimed those who were not against him and his disciples were for them and that anyone who gave one of them a drink of water because they belonged to Jesus would receive a reward.  Jesus went on to say anyone who caused offence to a child who believed in him would receive severe punishment.

 

Jesus recommended cutting off a problem hand because living with one hand was better than going to hell with two; he recommended similar action for a problem foot.  Jesus told them that entering the kingdom of God with one eye was better than being thrown into the fire of hell with two good eyes.  He then said every one would be salted with fire and every sacrifice would be salted with salt.  Salt is good, he told them, but if it looses its flavour it cannot be restored.  Jesus said: ‘Have salt in yourselves and have peace one with another.’

 

Chapter ten begins with Jesus going to the coast of Judaea and teaching there.  Pharisees approached him and asked if it was lawful for a man to put away his wife.  Jesus asked what the commandment of Moses was.  They replied Moses commanded they write their wives a bill of divorcement.  Jesus told the Pharisees that Moses had written that precept because they had hard hearts.

 

He went on to say God had originally created male and female human beings and because that was so men leave their fathers and mothers and stay with their wives.  Consequently the man and woman become one flesh and should not be separated.   God had joined them together.  Indoors the disciples asked Jesus about divorce.  He told them that if a man or a woman divorced then remarried they committed adultery.

 

Children were brought to Jesus.  The disciples censured the people who brought the children but when Jesus saw what was happening he intervened and told his disciples to allow the children near him.  He said people had to accept the kingdom of God like children or not get in.  Then he blessed the children who had been brought to him.

 

Jesus was out walking.  A man ran up to him, knelt down, and asked what it was he needed to do to inherit eternal life.  Jesus replied he should keep the commandments.  The man said he had done so since he was young.  Jesus told the man he lacked one thing then advised him to sell his belongings, give to the poor, take up the cross and follow Jesus.  This answer disappointed the man because he was very rich.

When the man had gone Jesus told his disciples that it was hard for rich people to enter the kingdom of God.  This surprised the disciples.  Jesus went on to say it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.  The disciples were of the opinion that, if such was the case, no one could be saved.  Jesus replied that with God all things were possible.

 

Peter reminded Jesus that he and his fellow disciples had left everything to follow Jesus.  Jesus told Peter that those who left their families and belongings for the sake of the Gospel would be well compensated in this life and would have eternal life in the world to come.  Jesus finished by saying: ‘But many that are first shall be last; and the last first.’

 

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus told his disciples that when they got there he would be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, condemned to death, handed to Gentiles who would mock him, spit on him, whip him and kill him.  Jesus told them that on the third day after he had been killed he would rise from the dead.

 

James and John wanted Jesus to let them sit on his right hand side and his left hand side in his glory.  He told them they had no idea of what they were asking and wanted to know if they could go through what he was about to go through.  They said they could.  Jesus told them that they would drink of the cup he drank and be baptised with the same baptism as him but that he could not grant their request – that decision was not his to make.

 

The other disciples were displeased with James and John.  Jesus called them all together and told them they were not to be like the Gentiles.  They were not to lord it over each other and if they wanted to be great then they would have to minister to their fellows.  The greatest amongst them had to be the servant of all of them.  Jesus said he had come to minister and to give his life for many.

 

On the way out of Jericho a blind man called Jesus the ‘Son of David’.  Jesus asked the blind man what it was he could do for him.  The blind man wanted to be cured.  Jesus cured the man then told him that his faith had made him whole – the cured man followed Jesus in the way.

 

The eleventh chapter sees Jesus nearing Jerusalem.  When he reached Bethany two disciples were sent into a village to fetch the colt Jesus was to ride into Jerusalem.  People spread their garments on the ground before Jesus.  Other people cut branches off trees and spread the branches on the ground before him.  People called out: ‘Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.’  Jesus went into the temple and looked around.  In the evening he and his disciples returned to Bethany.

 

Next morning they returned to Jerusalem.  On the way Jesus cursed a fig tree for having no fruit (out of season) for him to eat.  When they got to the temple Jesus overturned the moneychangers’ tables and the dove sellers’ seats and would not allow anyone to carry any vessel through the temple.  He asked if it was written that all nations would call Yahweh’s house the house of prayer and then told the moneychangers and dove sellers that they had turned it into a den of thieves.

 

Scribes and chief priests that overheard Jesus looked for a way to destroy him because his teaching astonished the people.

 

The tree Jesus cursed withered away.  Jesus and his disciple passed by it the next day on their way back to Jerusalem.  Peter called attention to the tree.  Jesus told Peter to have faith in God and then said that anyone who told a mountain to throw itself into the sea and believed it would happen would see his command obeyed.  Jesus advised them that when they prayed for something they should believe they received what they prayed for and then they would get it.  Jesus also advised them that when they prayed they should forgive those who had wronged them if they wanted forgiveness from God themselves.

Jesus was in the temple.  The chief priests, scribes and elders asked him what authority he had for doing the things he was doing.  Jesus replied by asking them if the baptism of John the Baptist was from heaven or man.  The chief priests, scribes and elders were stuck: if they said it was from heaven Jesus would have wanted to know why they had not believed John, but if they said it was not from heaven the people would have been displeased because they thought John the Baptist had been a prophet – eventually they told Jesus they could not answer his question and Jesus told them he would not answer their question to him either.

 

A parable begins chapter twelve.  It is the parable about a vineyard owner who sent his servant to get rent from the tenant.  The tenant beat the servant and sent him away empty handed.  Similar treatment was meted out to several more of the owner’s servants.  Finally the owner sent his only son to resolve the matter but the tenant killed the son.  Jesus said that, as a consequence, the owner would destroy the tenant and give the vineyard to another tenant.  Jesus finished by asking them if they knew the scripture: ‘The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner’.

In an attempt to trap Jesus some Pharisees and Herodians wanted him to say if it was lawful to give Caesar tribute.  Jesus knew what they were trying to do and requested they bring him a coin.  He asked them whose image was on the coin.  They replied Caesar’s image.  Jesus told them to give Caesar the things that belonged to Caesar and to give God the things that belonged to God.  The Pharisees and Herodians were astonished by his answer.

Sadducees wanted Jesus to say whose wife a woman who had married seven brothers would be in the resurrection.  Jesus said that when people rise from the dead they do not marry: they are like the angels in heaven.  He pointed to evidence for life after death in the words Yahweh spoke to Moses out of the burning bush ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’.  Jesus maintained these words showed God was the God of the living and not the God of the dead.

 

A scribe who overheard the exchange between Jesus and the Sadducees asked Jesus which of the commandments was the most important.  Jesus explained the first commandment was most important and second in importance was the commandment to love thy neighbour as thyself.  The scribe complemented Jesus on his answer and added that keeping those two commandments was more important than making burnt offerings and sacrifices.  Jesus was impressed with the scribe’s understanding and told him he was not far from the kingdom of God.

 

Jesus taught in the temple.  He wanted to know why the scribes claimed Christ was the son of David when David had said: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.’  Jesus told the people to be careful in their dealings with the scribes who pretend to be holy but are really predators willing to take houses from widows.

 

When he saw a widow put two little coins into the treasury in the temple Jesus called his disciples and told them the widow had put more into the treasury than had all the rich givers together because the rich could afford to give but the widow could not.

 

Chapter thirteen begins with Jesus leaving the temple.  One of the disciples asked Jesus to look at the stones and buildings.  Jesus told him that the whole edifice would be thrown down.  Peter, Andrew, James and John wanted to know when that would happen and what sign would show all these things had been fulfilled.  Jesus told them not to be fooled by people claiming to be Christ.  He told them the beginning of sorrows would be wars, famines and earthquakes, and he warned them that they would be delivered up to councils, beaten in synagogues, and brought before kings and rulers as a testimony against kings and rulers.

Jesus advised them not to have a prearranged defence when they were brought before the authorities but to let the Holy Ghost speak through them.  Brother would betray brother to death, father would betray son to death and children would betray their parents to death.  He cautioned that when they saw the abomination of desolation mentioned by Daniel they should flee Judaea – in those days there will be more trouble than ever had been or will be; fortunately God has shortened the time of sorrows.  False Christs and prophets will appear and show signs and wonders but the disciples should not be fooled.  Jesus had foretold them all things.

 

Jesus told them that after the time of trouble the sun would be darkened and the moon would give no light, the stars of heaven would fall and the powers in heaven would be shaken.  People would see the Son of man coming in the clouds with power and glory.  Jesus would send his angels to gather his elect from the most distant parts of heaven and earth – he added that their generation would live through the troubles but only God knew when the final day would come.

 

At the beginning of chapter fourteen the chief priests and the scribes are looking for an excuse to kill Jesus.  They did not want to kill him during the feast of the Passover in case people caused a disturbance.

Jesus was in the house of Simon the leper.  A woman came and poured spikenard onto the head of Jesus.  Some of the people with Jesus thought the woman had wasted the expensive ointment and complained about her.  Jesus told them to leave the woman alone because she had anointed his body ready for his burial and added that wherever the Gospel was preached the woman’s act would be remembered.

 

The chief priests received a visit from Judas Iscariot who wanted to betray Jesus.  He was promised money if he would betray Jesus so he began looking for an opportunity to deliver Jesus into the power of the authorities.

 

On the first day of the feast the disciples wanted to know where they would eat the Passover meal.  Jesus told them to go into the city and they would meet a man who would show them into a large upper room, they would eat there.  Jesus and his disciples gathered to celebrate the Passover.  While they were eating the meal Jesus told the disciples that one of them would betray him.  The disciples wanted to know which of them would betray Jesus and Jesus explained it would be one of the twelve.

Jesus took bread, broke it and said: ‘Take, eat: this is my body.’  He then took wine and said: ‘This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.’

 

They sang a hymn then went to the Mount of Olives.  Jesus predicted that they would all desert him because it was written: ‘I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.’  Jesus also told them that after he had risen he would go before them into Galilee.

 

Peter insisted he would not be offended because of his association with Jesus and Jesus replied that Peter would deny him three times before the cock crowed twice.  Peter and the other disciples said they were prepared to die rather than deny Jesus.

 

When they reached Gethsemane Jesus told his disciples to stay where they were while he went off to pray.  He took Peter, James and John with him.  Jesus became very unhappy and he told them that he was: ‘sorrowful unto death’.  He fell on the floor and prayed for his fate to be changed but finished his prayer by requesting God’s will be done over his will.

 

When Jesus returned to where Peter was he found Peter sleeping.  Jesus admonished Peter for being unable to watch.  He found Peter asleep three times – on the last occasion Jesus told Peter that he could sleep if he wanted to as the Son of man had been betrayed into the hands of sinners.

Judas arrived with armed helpers and identified Jesus.  The armed helpers arrested Jesus.  Someone drew a sword and cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant.  Jesus wanted to know why they had come armed to arrest him given he had been teaching unhindered in the temple.  He ended by stating scripture had to be fulfilled.

 

The disciples deserted Jesus and ran away – one young man fled naked.  Jesus was taken to the high priest, chief priests, elders and scribes.  Peter went into the high priest’s palace and sat with the servants.  The council looked for witnesses against Jesus but none could be found.  Many false witnesses gave testimony but their testimony did not agree.  The high priest asked Jesus if he was the Christ.  Jesus said he was and that they would see him sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven.

 

The high priest tore his own clothes and said the council needed no more witnesses because the whole council had heard Jesus blaspheme.  Jesus was condemned to death.  He was spat on, pushed around, slapped, had his face covered and was asked to prophesy.

A palace maid recognised Peter as a follower of Jesus and told Peter so.  Peter denied knowing Jesus.  A cock crowed.  Later another maid recognised Peter and began pointing him out as ‘one of them.’  Peter again denied knowing Jesus.  People standing around said Peter must be a follower of Jesus as his accent was Galilean.  Peter began cursing and swearing and again denied knowing Jesus.  A cock crowed a second time.  Peter recalled Jesus predicted Peter would deny him three times before the cock crowed twice.  Peter wept.

 

Chapter fifteen sees Jesus bound and sent to Pilate.  Pilate asked Jesus if he was the King of the Jews and Jesus answered: ‘Thou sayest it.’  The chief priests made several allegations against Jesus but Jesus kept silent.  Pilate gave Jesus an opportunity to defend himself but Jesus said nothing.

 

It was Pilate’s custom to release a prisoner during the feast of Passover so he asked the crowd if he should free the King of the Jews.  The chief priests encouraged the crowd to ask Pilate to free Barabbas.  Pilate wanted to know what he should do with the King of the Jews and was told to crucify him.  Pilate requested information about the evil Jesus had done but the crowd insisted Jesus be crucified.  Pilate released Barabbas.  Jesus was whipped and handed over for crucifixion.

 

Soldiers took Jesus to a hall, dressed him in purple, put a crown of thorns on his head and called him the King of the Jews.  They beat him about the head, spat on him and pretended to worship him.  When they finished they dressed him in his own clothes and led him away to be crucified.  Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was made to carry the cross.

 

Jesus was taken to Golgotha and there he was offered a drink of wine and myrrh, which he refused.  After he was crucified his executioners cast lots for his garments.  The written accusation on his cross read: ‘The King of the Jews.’  Two other men were crucified with Jesus; this fulfilled the scripture that said: ‘he was numbered with the transgressors.’

People began to tease Jesus: accusing him of saying he would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days and asking him to come down from the cross.  The chief priests and scribes joined in and said he could save others but not himself.  If Jesus would come down from the cross, they said, then they would believe he was the Messiah.  Even the men crucified with Jesus began verbally abusing him.

The sixth hour saw darkness descend upon the whole land.  It lasted until the ninth hour.  Jesus cried out: ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’  Those who heard Jesus call out concluded he had called for Elias.  They offered Jesus vinegar to drink.  Jesus gave a loud cry and died.  The veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom.  The centurion standing near Jesus said: ‘Truly this man was the Son of God.’

 

In the evening Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate and asked him for the body of Jesus.  Pilate checked with the centurion to find out if Jesus was dead.  The centurion confirmed Jesus was dead and Pilate gave the body to Joseph.  He took down the body, wrapped it in fine linen, laid it in a sepulchre cut into rock and placed a stone at the entrance.  Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where Joseph had put the body of Jesus.

 

The last chapter, chapter sixteen, sees the Sabbath over and Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome arrive at the tomb to attend to the body of Jesus.  When they arrived they discovered the heavy stone had been rolled away from the entrance to the tomb.  They went in and saw a young man, dressed in a long white garment, sitting in the tomb.  He told them not to be afraid, that Jesus had risen from the dead and had gone to Galilee where his disciples would see him.

 

Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene.  She informed the disciples but they did not believe her.  Jesus then appeared to two of his followers as they walked in the country.  They reported his appearance to the disciples but the disciples did not believe them either.  Jesus next appeared to the eleven disciples while they were eating a meal and upbraided them for not believing the reports of his resurrection.

 

He told the eleven disciples to preach the gospel to every creature; those that believed and were baptised would be saved; those that did not believe would be dammed.  Jesus then said that those who believed would cast out devils in his name, speak with new tongues, handle serpents without harm, drink poison without hurt and cure the sick by touching them with their hands.

 

After speaking with his disciples Jesus went into heaven and sat on the right hand of God.  The disciples of Jesus preached everywhere.  The Lord worked with them and confirmed the word with signs.  Mark’s Gospel ends with the word: ‘Amen.’

 

There are several references to the prophets in this gospel: verse twelve of chapter four refers to Isaiah chapter six verses nine and ten; verses twelve and thirteen of chapter nine refer to Malachi chapter four verses five and six, and to Isaiah chapter fifty three; verses thirty five and thirty six of chapter twelve contain a reference to Psalm 110; verse fourteen of chapter thirteen is a reference to verse eleven of chapter twelve of Daniel; verse twenty-seven of chapter fourteen refers to verse seven of chapter thirteen of Zechariah.

 

Mark’s Jesus admits being the Christ.  He cures the sick and casts out devils.  Mark’s Jesus may not be estranged from his birth family but his bond with it is weak.  His disciples are slow to understand, lacking in faith, hardhearted and self-seeking.  Mark’s Jesus is vindictive (Mark 11:14) and racist (Mark 7:27).

This Jesus says foolish things before his resurrection and after his resurrection: his teaching that miracles, like moving mountains, are accomplished through absolute faith in one’s own ability to make them happen seems like nonsense, and his teaching that his followers would be able to handle serpents and drink poison without hurt seems like very dangerous nonsense.

 

The Gospel according to John starts with the assertion that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God; he made all things.  Life was in him and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in darkness but the darkness does not understand the light.  God sent John the Baptist to bear witness to the true Light, which is the light of every man that is born.  The Light was in the world but the world did not know him – even his own did not receive him but those who did receive him became sons of God.

 

John the Baptist claimed Jesus was the Lamb of God that would take away the sin of the world.  God told John he would see the spirit descending from heaven like a dove and remaining on the one who would baptise with the Holy Ghost.  John says: ‘I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God.’

 

Two of John’s disciples heard him speaking about Jesus.  Simon’s brother Andrew was one of the two.  Andrew and the other disciple spent the day with Jesus and then Andrew told Peter they had found the Messiah.  Jesus told Peter that Peter would be called Cephas (a stone).  The following day Jesus called Philip.  Like Andrew and Peter, Philip came from Bethsaida.  Philip found Nathanael and told him they had found the one Moses and the prophets had wrote about.

 

When Jesus met Nathanael he called him an Israelite without guile.  Nathanael asked Jesus from where he knew him.  Jesus replied he saw him under a fig tree before Philip called him.  Nathanael responded by calling Jesus the Son of God and King of Israel.  Jesus told him he would see heaven open and the angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

Chapter two begins with Jesus and his disciples being invited to a wedding.  The mother of Jesus was also there – during the wedding celebration the wine ran out and she told Jesus; he appeared uninterested but his mother told the servants to do whatever Jesus told them to do.  Jesus told the servants to fill the water pots and take a drink of the water to the governor of the feast.  The governor tasted the water that had been changed into wine and congratulated the bridegroom on keeping the best wine until last.  This miracle took place in Cana of Galilee.  After this miracle the disciples of Jesus believed in him.

Jesus, his mother, brethren, and his disciples went to stay in Capernaum for a few days.  The Passover was approaching and Jesus went to Jerusalem.  In the temple were moneychangers and sellers of doves, sheep and oxen.  Jesus made a whip of small cords and drove out the animals, overturned the moneychangers’ tables, poured out their money and told them not to make his Father’s house a house of business.  His disciples remembered it was written: ‘The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.’

 

The Jews demanded a sign from Jesus to justify his behaviour.  He said: ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’  The Jews replied the temple had taken forty-six years to build and they wanted to know if Jesus would build it in three days.  But Jesus was talking about the temple of his body and after Jesus had risen from the dead the disciples remembered he had said this and believed the scripture and Jesus.

 

When people celebrating the Passover saw the miracles Jesus did many of them believed in him.  Jesus did not give himself to them because he needed no one to testify on his behalf – he knew what was in man.

 

Chapter three begins with a ruler of the Jews, a Pharisee named Nicodemus, going to Jesus by night and admitting Jesus was a teacher sent by God.  Jesus told Nicodemus that a man had to be born again before he could see the kingdom of God.  He added a man had to be born of water and of the spirit before he could enter the kingdom of God.  Nicodemus was doubtful.  Jesus responded with: ‘Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?’

 

Jesus said he was speaking about things he knew and had seen but Nicodemus did not receive his witness.  How would Nicodemus be able to understand heavenly things if he did not understand earthly things, Jesus wanted to know.  Jesus then said he would have to be lifted up like Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness and that anyone who believed in him would receive eternal life.  Jesus continued by explaining he had come to save the world but men preferred darkness to the light.

 

The disciples and Jesus went into Judaea and baptised people there.  John the Baptist was near by and was told people were going to Jesus to be baptised.  He said Jesus would increase whilst he would decrease and he confirmed that those who believed in Jesus received everlasting life.

At the start of chapter four Jesus leaves Judaea and goes to Galilee.  On the way he passed through a city of Samaria.  Jesus, tired from his journey, sat near the well of Jacob.  A woman drew water from the well and Jesus asked her for a drink.  She questioned Jesus over his willingness to take a drink from a Samaritan, as the Jews would have nothing to do with them.  Jesus told her she should have asked him for a drink and he would have given her living water.

 

The woman said the well was deep and Jesus had no implement for drawing the water.  She also wanted to know if Jesus was greater than Jacob.  Jesus said anyone who drank water from that well would thirst again but anyone who drank the water he had to give would gain everlasting life.  He then requested the woman fetch her husband.  She confessed she had no husband.  Jesus confirmed the woman was telling the truth and said she had been married five times but the man she was living with now was not her husband.

 

She told Jesus she could see he was a prophet and asked him why the Jews insisted Jerusalem was the place to worship God.  Jesus told her a time would come when god would be worshipped in truth and in spirit rather than in Jerusalem or in the mountain of Samaria.  The woman said she knew when Messiah came he would tell them all things.  Jesus told her he was the Messiah.

 

When the disciples arrived they were surprised to see Jesus talking with the woman.  She left her water pot and went and told the men of her city that she had encountered the Messiah.  The men of the city went to see for themselves.  Jesus was invited to stay with the Samaritans.  He stayed two days.  The Samaritans of that city (Sychar) believed Jesus was the Messiah, the Saviour of the world.  After two days Jesus left Samaria and went to Galilee.

 

Jesus got to Cana and a nobleman wanted him to cure his son who was in Capernaum.  The nobleman was told his son lived and that he should go home.  He believed Jesus and went home.  On the way he met his servants and they told him that his son was well.  Between them they concluded the nobleman’s son had started to get better at the time Jesus told the nobleman his son lived.

 

Chapter five starts with Jesus going to Jerusalem.  Near the sheep market there was a pool called Bethesda.  Every now and then an angel troubled the water in the pool.  The first sick person to enter the pool after it had been troubled would be cured.  One man had been ill for thirty-eight years but could never get into the water first.  Jesus asked him if he wanted to be cured.  The man explained his predicament and Jesus told him to take up his bed and walk.

 

This took place on the Sabbath.  When the Jews saw the cured man carrying his bed they told him he was breaking the law.  He replied the man who cured him told him to take up his bed and walk.  The Jews wanted the man to identify his healer but he could not because Jesus had moved on, as the place was crowded.  Later Jesus met the cured man in the temple and warned him not to sin again or a worse illness might befall him.  The cured man then told the Jews it was Jesus who had cured him.

 

Because Jesus had cured the man on the Sabbath the Jews began to persecute Jesus and to look for a way to kill him.  Jesus told them that he, like his father, continued to work.  By claiming God as his father Jesus upset the Jews even more; consequently they wanted him dead more than they had done before.

 

Jesus told the Jews he could do nothing by himself and that he copied his father.  The father loved the son and would show him great works that would make the Jews marvel.  Jesus could give life to anyone he selected.  God gave Jesus the right to judge the world because he was the Son of God and the Son of man.  Anyone who did not honour Jesus did not honour God.  Those (even the dead) who believed God sent Jesus had everlasting life.

All the dead would hear the voice of Jesus; those who had done well would enjoy the resurrection of the just; those who had not done well would suffer the resurrection of the dammed.  Jesus explained his judgement was just because he sought the will of God and not his own will.  Jesus did not bear witness of himself.  John the Baptist witnessed of Jesus.  He told them this so that they might believe and be saved.  John was not the greatest witness to Jesus: the works Jesus did were the greatest proof that God had sent him.

 

God had witnessed of Jesus.  Jesus told them to search the scriptures because they testified of him and he said Moses would accuse them to God.  Jesus also told them that if they had believed Moses they would have believed him because Moses had written of him.  Jesus finished by saying if they did not believe the words written by Moses, they would not be able to believe the words he was speaking to them.

 

Chapter six of John’s Gospel says Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee and that a great crowd followed him there.  Jesus and his disciples went up a mountain and when Jesus saw the crowd he asked Philip where bread could be bought to feed them.  Andrew informed Jesus that there was a boy there who had five barley loaves and two small fish.  Jesus had the crowd sit down and after he had given thanks Jesus had the disciples distribute the food.  After the meal Jesus told his disciples to gather up the fragments – the leftover fragments filled twelve baskets.  Those who had seen the miracle were convinced Jesus was: ‘that prophet that should come into the world.’

 

It became apparent to Jesus that the crowd might try to force kingship upon him so he went up into the mountain alone.  That evening his disciples took ship for Capernaum.  A strong wind began to blow and the sea became rough.  The disciples were about three or four miles out when Jesus came walking on the sea.  Initially his disciples were afraid but Jesus identified himself and calmed their fears.  Jesus got into the ship and immediately it was at its destination.

 

The next day some of the people followed Jesus to Capernaum and wanted to know how he had travelled there, as he had not gone with his disciples.  Jesus was of the opinion that these people sought him because he had fed them and not because he had performed miracles.  He told them that God had sealed him and that they should work towards everlasting life.  The people asked Jesus what they should do for God.  Jesus told them they should believe in him (Jesus).

 

They wanted a sign from Jesus before they could believe in him and they reminded Jesus that Moses had fed their fathers with manna or bread from heaven.  Jesus replied Moses had not given them bread from heaven but he that came down from heaven was the real bread of God.  The people asked Jesus to give them the real bread.  Jesus confirmed he was the bread of God and told them that they did not believe him.  He said he had come down from heaven to do the will of God.

 

The Jews were unhappy that Jesus had called himself the bread that came down from heaven.  Jesus told them that God attracted people to Jesus and that it was written God would teach them; those who had learned from God came to Jesus.  He again explained that those who believed in him had everlasting life and told them that he would give his flesh for the life of the world.  Jesus said that those who ate his flesh and drank his blood would live forever.

He taught these things in the synagogue at Capernaum.  Some of his disciples found this teaching hard to believe.  Jesus told them that it was the spirit that gave life and that the flesh was of no profit.  He said the words he spoke were spirit and life.  Many of his disciples left him at this point.  Jesus asked the twelve disciples if they were going to leave him.  Peter responded by asking where they would go given Jesus was the Son of the living God and had the words of eternal life.  Jesus replied that even though he had chosen the twelve disciples himself one of them was a devil.

 

Chapter seven says Jesus would not walk in Jewry because the Jews wanted to kill him, so he went to Galilee.  The feast of tabernacles was about to take place and the brothers of Jesus told him to go into Judaea so that his disciples could see his works.  Jesus told them that his time had not yet come and that the world hated him because he testified to its evil works; he added that they could go up to the feast.  They went.  Jesus also went but secretly.

Some of the people said Jesus was a good man and others said Jesus deceived the people, but no one spoke openly about him for fear of the Jews.  About half way through the feast Jesus began teaching in the temple.  The Jews were surprised to find Jesus could read, as he had never studied.  Jesus told them that his teaching was not his but God’s.  He also said they were out to kill him.  The people replied Jesus was possessed and wanted to know who was trying to kill him.

 

Jesus said he had done one work that had surprised the Jews.  He added that a man could be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses was not broken, and that they were angry with him because he had cured a man on the Sabbath.  People from Jerusalem said to one another this is the man the authorities want to kill yet here he is speaking boldly, perhaps the authorities know he is the Christ.

 

In the temple Jesus said the people knew him and they knew where he came from.  He told them he had not come by his own decision but had been sent by God and that they did not know God.  At this point they tried to arrest Jesus but could not.  Many of the people believed in Jesus and wondered if the Messiah would do more miracles than Jesus had done.  When the Pharisees heard the speculation of the people they and the chief priests sent officers to arrest Jesus.

 

Jesus told them he would be with them a little longer and then go to him that had sent him and that they would seek him but would not be able to go where he was.  The Jews did not understand and wondered if Jesus might go and teach the dispersed.  On the last day of the feast Jesus said if any man is thirsty let him come to me and drink.  He also said rivers of living water would flow from the belly of any one who believed in him.

 

Many of the people there concluded Jesus was the Messiah.  Others disagreed and said Christ does not come from Galilee but from Bethlehem, the city of David, and must be of David’s seed.  Opinion about Jesus was divided.  The officers who had been sent to arrest Jesus returned empty handed to the chief priests and Pharisees.  The chief priests and Pharisees wanted to know why the officers had not arrested Jesus.  The officers replied they had never heard a man speak like Jesus.

The Pharisees accused the officers of being deceived and asked them if any of the rulers or Pharisees had believed in Jesus, and added that the people did not know the law and were under a curse.  Nicodemus, who had spoken to Jesus, advised his fellow priests and Pharisees that the law did not judge a man until it had heard him and knew what he had done.  The priests and Pharisees asked Nicodemus if he was also from Galilee and told him to search the scriptures and he would find that no prophet comes from Galilee.

Chapter eight begins with Jesus going to the Mount of Olives.  Then early in the morning he went to the temple and began teaching.  Scribes and Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and asked Jesus what should be done with her.  They reminded Jesus that Moses decreed death by stoning in such a case.  Jesus said someone without sin should throw the first stone.  After a while he looked up and found all the people gone.  He asked the woman where her accusers were and wanted to know if anyone had condemned her.  She said no one had.  Jesus told the woman that he did not condemn her either and that she could go and sin no more.

 

Jesus claimed to be the light of the world and said his followers would have the light of life.  He told the Pharisees they judged after the flesh and he judged no man but if he were to judge then his judgement would be true because he was with God and, as it says in the law, the testimony of two men is true.  Jesus said he and his Father testified of him.  The Pharisees asked Jesus where his Father was.  Jesus replied they knew neither him nor his Father.

‘I go my way,’ Jesus told them, ‘and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: wither I go, ye cannot come.’  Because he told them they could not go where he was going the Jews wondered if Jesus meant to kill himself.  Jesus replied they were from beneath and he was from above, they were of this world and he was not.  He also told them that unless they believed he was the Christ they would die in their sins.

 

They asked Jesus who he was.  He said he was who he had claimed to be from the first and that he spoke what he had heard from his Father.  When they had lifted him up they would come to know he was the Christ and had spoken as the Father had taught him.  He was not alone.  God was with him because he always did what pleased God.  Many of the Jews believed in Jesus after he had said these things.  He said to them if you continue in my word you are my disciples.  They would know the truth and that would set them free.

 

How were they going to be set free?  They were the seed of Abraham and had never been in bondage.  Jesus explained that whoever committed sin was the servant of sin.  He went on to say the servant did not live in the house forever but the son did and if the son made them free they would be completely free.  Jesus said he knew they were the seed of Abraham but they wanted to kill him because his word had no place in them.  He maintained he spoke about what he had seen with his Father and that they did what they had seen with their father.

 

They replied Abraham was their father.  Jesus said if they were the children of Abraham they would do the works of Abraham and would not be trying to kill him for telling them the truth.  Abraham would not have done such a thing.  Jesus said they did the works of their father.  They told him their father was God.  Jesus said they would have loved him if God were their Father because God had sent him.  Jesus continued by telling the Jews they could not understand what he was saying because they could not hear his word.

 

Jesus said they were children of the devil and that they did the lusts of the devil and that the devil was a liar and murderer: he told lies and was the father of lies; there was no truth in him.  Jesus held that because he told them the truth they did not believe him and wanted to know why they did not believe him; then he accused them of not belonging to God.  The Jews responded by accusing Jesus of being a Samaritan and possessed.

 

He argued he was not possessed but honoured his Father whilst being dishonoured by them and insisted if one kept his saying one would never see death.  The Jews replied Abraham and the prophets were dead so why would one never taste death if one kept the saying of Jesus.  They wanted to know if Jesus thought himself greater than Abraham and the prophets and tried to stone him after he said: ‘Before Abraham was, I am.’

In chapter nine Jesus encounters a man blind from birth.  The disciples wanted to know if the sin of the man or the sin of his parents had caused the blindness.  Jesus explained that neither the man nor his parents had sinned but that the man was the way he was so the works of God should be seen in him.

Jesus claimed to be the light of the world and then mixed soil with spittle, anointed the blind man’s eyes with it and told him to wash in the pool of Siloam.  The blind man did as he was told and was cured.  It was the Sabbath.  People asked the man how he had been cured.  He told them Jesus had been responsible and then the man was taken to the Pharisees and made to repeat his story.

Some Pharisees argued Jesus did not keep the Sabbath and was not of God.  Others maintained a sinner would be unable to perform the miracles performed by Jesus.  They asked the cured man what he thought of Jesus.  He said Jesus was a prophet.

 

The Jews would not believe the man had been born blind and sent for his parents.  His parents admitted he was their child and born blind.  They did not know who had cured their son and suggested the Jews ask him about it, as he was an adult.  The cured man was summoned once more and instructed to give God the credit for his improved sight.  Jesus was a sinner the man was told.  He replied he did not know that but did know he had been blind and was not blind anymore.

When asked to repeat his story the cured man answered there was no point, as they had not heard it the first time and he wanted to know if his examiners had an interest in becoming disciples of Jesus.  The Pharisees insulted the cured man and accused him of being a disciple of Jesus and declared they were disciples of Moses.

The cured man said God did not listen to sinners but to those that did his will.  Never before had a man blind from birth been cured and he was astounded that the Pharisees did not know where Jesus was from.  He said Jesus must be from God or he would not be able perform miracles.  The Pharisees declared the cured man had been born in sin and should not try to teach them and threw him out of the synagogue.

 

Jesus heard the cured man had been thrown out of the synagogue and went looking for him.  Jesus found him and asked him if he believed in the Son of God.  The cured man wanted to know whom the Son of God was.  Jesus admitted that he was the Son of God and the cured man said he believed in Jesus.

Some Pharisees heard Jesus say he had come into this world for judgement: so that the blind might see and they that see might be made blind.  They confronted Jesus and demanded to know if they were blind.  Jesus informed them that if they had been blind then they would have been innocent but because they claimed they could see their sin remained.

Chapter ten begins with Jesus saying robbers do not enter the sheepfold by the door but find another way in.  The shepherd enters by the door and calls his sheep to follow him.  They recognise his voice and go with him.  A stranger would not succeed in getting the sheep to follow him because the sheep would not recognise his voice.  Jesus insisted he was the door of the sheep and that those who came before him were thieves and robbers.  The sheep did not hear them.

Jesus said he was the good shepherd who knew his sheep and was known by them.  He also claimed he had other sheep which were not of the same fold and that all of his sheep would hear his voice and then there would be one fold and one shepherd.  Jesus said he would lay down his life for the sheep.  God gave him to understand he had the power to lay down his life and the power to take it up again.

The people were divided about Jesus, some said he was mad or had a devil, others pointed out that mad men do not cure the blind.  As Jesus walked in Solomon’s porch some Jews began to pester him and demanded he tell them if he was the Christ.  Jesus replied he had told them but they had not believed him because they were not his sheep – his sheep heard his voice and he gave them eternal life.  Jesus also declared that he and God were one.

 

They tried to stone Jesus and he wanted to know for which of his good works he was being stoned.  The Jews answered he was not being stoned for good works but for making himself God.  Jesus reminded them that in their law it was written that those to whom the word of God came could be called gods.  He went on to say God had sanctified him and sent him to the world and that it was not blasphemy for him to label himself the Son of God because he was in God and God was in him.

Jesus escaped and went to stay beyond the Jordan where John had baptised earlier.  Many people went out to see Jesus and they said to one and other John did no miracles but everything he said about Jesus was true.

Lazarus of Bethany is introduced at the start of chapter eleven.  Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, was ill so the sisters sent for Jesus.  When Jesus heard that Lazarus was ill he told his disciples that the sickness would not kill Lazarus but would be used to glorify God.  Two days later Jesus took his disciples and went back into Judaea.  His disciples were concerned for his safety because the Jews had recently attempted to stone him.

Jesus told his disciples that Lazarus was asleep and that he would wake him up.  The disciples said Lazarus would be well if he was sleeping.  Jesus then told them that Lazarus was dead.  When Jesus got to Bethany he discovered Lazarus was dead and had been buried four days previously.  Martha ran to Jesus and said if Jesus had been there Lazarus would not have died.  Jesus told her Lazarus would rise again.  Martha replied she knew Lazarus would rise again on the last day.  Jesus said he was the resurrection and that anyone who believed in him would live even if he were dead.

Jesus asked Martha if she believed him.  Martha said she believed he was the Christ.  She found Mary and told her Jesus was looking for her.  Mary met Jesus and fell down at his feet and said that if he had been there Lazarus would not have died.  Jesus asked Mary to show him where the body of Lazarus had been buried.

When they arrived at the grave Jesus asked that the stone be taken from the mouth of the grave (a cave).  Martha objected on the grounds that the body would be stinking.  Jesus insisted the stone be removed and said if Martha believed she would see the glory of God.  Jesus thanked God for hearing him and said he knew God always heard him but on this occasion he thanked God so the people might believe God had sent him.  Jesus called Lazarus out of the grave.  Lazarus came out alive.  Many of the Jews who had come to comfort the sisters believed in Jesus after that event.

The Pharisees and chief priests held a council to decide what action should be taken against Jesus: their fear was that if Jesus became too popular the Romans might take revenge on them.  Caiaphas, the high priest, suggested that letting Jesus die for the Jewish nation would be better than having the whole nation destroyed by the Romans.  They decided to have Jesus put to death.

Jesus and his disciples left the area and went to Ephraim.  The time for the Passover celebration approached and many people went up to Jerusalem before the feast.  Some of them looked for Jesus and asked each other if they thought Jesus would attend the event.  Jesus was a wanted man at this point – his whereabouts were to be reported and he was to be arrested.

 

Chapter twelve begins with Jesus arriving in Bethany six days before the Passover.  A meal was prepared and Lazarus ate with Jesus and the other dinner guests.  Mary spread some expensive ointment (spikenard) on Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair.  Judas Iscariot complained that the spikenard could have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor.  He did not care about the poor but he carried the disciples’ money and he was a thief.  Jesus told Judas to leave Mary alone and said the ointment had been meant for his burial.

When the people heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem they took palm tree branches and went to greet him.  They shouted: ‘Hosanna: Blessed is the king of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.’  Jesus was riding a young ass as prophesied: ‘Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy king cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt.’  After Jesus was glorified his disciples remembered these things were written about him.

Some Greeks attending the feast asked to see Jesus.  When Jesus was told about them he said the hour of his glorification had come, that wheat had to die to produce greater fruit, that those who loved their lives in this world would lose them while those who hated their lives in this world would receive eternal life, and that anyone who wanted to serve him should follow him.

Jesus said his soul was troubled but he could not ask God to save him from what was to come.  He asked God to glorify his own name.  John’s Gospel has it that God then said he had glorified his own name in the past and would glorify his own name again in the future.  The people near Jesus thought it had thundered or that an angel had spoken to Jesus.  He told them that the voice was not for him but was for their sakes.  Then he said that the prince of the world would be cast out, the world judged, and all men would be drawn to him if he were lifted up.

They told Jesus that their writings stated the Messiah would live forever and wanted to know why Jesus said the son of man had to be lifted up; they also wanted to know whom the son of man was.  Jesus responded by telling them that he was the light and that they should believe in the light so that they would be children of the light; after telling them these things Jesus hid himself from them.

Even though Jesus had performed miracles the Jews did not believe he was the Christ.  Isaiah had written: ‘Lord, who hath believed our report?’ God had blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts so that they could not see or understand or be converted and healed by God.

Many of the chief rulers believed in Jesus but kept quiet about it for fear of being excluded from the synagogue by the Pharisees – they preferred the praise of men to the praise of God.

Jesus exclaimed that those who believed in him believed in the one who sent him.  He also maintained that seeing him was the same as seeing God, that he was a light for the world, that he came to save the world, that his word would judge the world in the last day and that his teaching had come from the Father.

The last supper features in chapter thirteen.  Jesus knew his hour had arrived and that he came from God and would return to God.  After supper he put an apron on and began to wash the feet of the disciples.  Peter was reluctant to allow Jesus to wash his feet.  Jesus told Peter he would in the future understand why he washed their feet.  Peter was still reluctant.  Jesus told Peter he must allow his feet to be washed or Jesus would have no more to do with him.

Peter asked Jesus to wash his hands and head as well as his feet.  Jesus replied a clean man only needed his feet washed to be clean all over.  Jesus finished washing their feet, sat down again, and asked them if they understood what he had done.  He confirmed it was correct for them to call him Lord and Master and explained that if their Lord and Master washed their feet they should be prepared to wash each other’s feet.  He had given them an example to follow.

‘He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.’  Jesus said this scripture had to be fulfilled.  He told his disciples that one of them would betray him.  The disciples began wondering who would do that.  Peter asked another disciple to find out from Jesus.  Jesus told that disciple that he would give the traitor a sop (bread dripped in gravy) and gave the sop to Judas.  Jesus told Judas to be quick in what he was about to do – the other disciples had no idea what Judas was doing; they thought he might be off to buy something or to give money to the poor.  Judas went out into the night.

Jesus told his remaining disciples that he was about to be glorified and that God would be glorified in him.  He informed them that he would not be with them much longer, that they could not go where he was going, and he gave them a new commandment: they should love one another in the same way that he had loved them.  People should know the disciples of Jesus because of the love they have for each other.

Peter wanted to know where Jesus was going.  Jesus said Peter could not go with him but would follow him later.  Peter questioned why he could not go with Jesus immediately and claimed he was ready to lay down his life for Jesus.  Jesus revealed that Peter would, before cockcrow, deny him three times.

Chapter fourteen begins with Jesus telling his disciples not to be troubled, to believe in him as well as in God, that there were many mansions in God’s kingdom, that he was going to prepare a place for them and when he had prepared the place he would come and get them so that they could all be together.

Jesus told his disciples that they knew where he was going and that they knew the way.  Thomas complained that the disciples did not know where Jesus was going or the way.  Jesus replied: ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.’

He told his disciples that seeing him was the same as seeing the Father as he and the Father were one, that the Father lived in him and did the work and that those who believed in him would do greater works than his because he was going to the Father.

Jesus also said that if they asked for anything in his name he would make it happen so that the Father would be glorified in the Son.

Then he asked his disciples to keep his commandments and promised to ask the Father to send them the Spirit of truth.  He told his disciples that in a little while the world would not see him but they would, then they would understand that he was in the Father and that they were in him and he in them.  Jesus went on to say that those who keep his commandments love him and will be loved by the Father.  He also said he would appear to those who loved him.

When the Holy Ghost or Comforter came he would teach them all things and help them to remember what Jesus had said.  Jesus gave them his peace, told them he would return and that they should rejoice because he was going to the Father.  Then he said he would not talk much more as the prince of this world (who had nothing in Jesus) was coming for him.

At the start of chapter fifteen Jesus says: ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.’  He told his disciples that they were clean through the word he had spoken to them, that if they remained faithful to him they would produce much fruit and that the Father would be glorified if they produced fruit abundantly.

Jesus told the disciples that they would remain in his love if they kept his commandments, just as he kept his Father’s commandments and remained in his love.

Then he gave them a commandment: they should love each other like he had loved them.  He told them that no one had a greater love than the person who was prepared to die for friends.  Jesus said he would consider his disciples his friends if they kept the commandments he had given them.  He said he had told them everything his Father had told him and that he had chosen them to do the work and that anything they asked for in his name the Father would give them.

Because Jesus had chosen the disciples out of the world it hated them.  He advised them that those who had kept his saying would keep their saying and that those who had persecuted him would also persecute them.  Jewish ignorance of the Father would be responsible for the suffering that would befall the disciples.  The Jewish authorities had no way of hiding their sin now that Jesus had spoken to them.  It was clear they hated him and his Father.

When the Comforter came he would testify of Jesus.  The disciples would also testify of Jesus as they had been with him from the beginning.

In chapter sixteen Jesus tells his disciples that they will be excluded from the synagogues and put to death by people who believe they are doing God’s will.  This would happen because the Jewish authorities did not know the Father or Jesus.

Jesus said that when he got to the Father he would send the Comforter and the Comforter would reprove the world of sin, righteousness and Judgement: their sin was not believing in Jesus; it was right that Jesus went to his Father; it was the prince of this world that was judged.  Jesus also said the Comforter would use what belonged to him to glorify him.

Then Jesus told his disciples that they would be unable to see him for a short time because he was going to his Father but that they would see him again.  His disciples wondered what he meant.  Jesus explained that they would experience sorrow but that their sorrow would become joy – a joy that could not be taken from them.

Once again Jesus advised them that the Father would give them anything they asked for in his name, and told them that a day would come when he would not need to intercede with the Father on their behalf as the Father loved the disciples because they loved Jesus and believed he came from God.

The disciples said they believed Jesus came from God.  Jesus questioned their belief and predicted they would scatter and abandon him.  Even so he would not be alone, the Father would be with him.  Jesus then instructed his disciples to be happy because he had overcome the world.

Chapter seventeen begins with Jesus asking the Father to glorify him so that he can glorify the Father.  Jesus told his disciples that he had been given power to grant eternal life to his followers, that his prayers would be for his disciples and for those who believed in him through the teaching of his disciples – the end would be oneness: God in Jesus, Jesus in God, and the followers of Jesus in God and Jesus.

Jesus said that the world had not known God but that he had known God and that his disciples believed God had sent him, and then he told his disciples that he wanted them to share in the love that God had for him.

According to chapter eighteen Jesus finished speaking and then took his disciples into a garden on the other side of a brook.  Judas knew the place and he went there with men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees to arrest Jesus.  Jesus identified himself and was about to be taken away when Peter drew a sword and cut the right ear off Malchus, the high priest’s servant.  Jesus told Peter to put the sword away and allow him to do God’s will.  The officers of the Jews bound Jesus and took him away.

He was taken to the father-in-law of the high priest, Caiaphas – it was Caiaphas who had said it would be expedient for one man to die for the people.  Peter and another disciple followed Jesus.  Peter stopped at the door but the other disciple went into the high priest’s palace and arranged for Peter to be brought in as well.  A woman asked Peter if he was a disciple of Jesus.  Peter said he was not and then went and warmed himself by a fire that the officers had made.

Caiaphas questioned Jesus about his teaching and his disciples.  Jesus answered that he had taught overtly in the synagogues and the temple, that he had said nothing in secret, and had spoken openly to the world.  Then he advised the high priest to ask the people about his teaching, as they knew what he had said.  One of the guards hit Jesus.  Jesus asked the guard to justify his assault.

 

People warming themselves around the fire started by the officers asked Peter if he was a disciple of Jesus.  Peter said he was not.  A relative of Malchus wanted to know if he had seen Peter with Jesus in the garden earlier.  Peter said he had not.  The cock crowed immediately after Peter had denied Jesus for the third time.

Jesus was sent to the hall of judgement – the Jews did not go into the hall in case they became defiled and were unable to eat the Passover.  Pilate asked the Jewish authorities to say what crime Jesus was accused of, and they said they were handing Jesus over because he was a criminal.  Pilate told them to take Jesus and judge him themselves but they replied they did not have the power to put him to death.

 

Pilate asked Jesus if he was the King of the Jews.  Jesus asked Pilate if the question came from him or from others.  Pilate said the chief priests had delivered Jesus into his hand and he wanted to know what it was that Jesus had done.  Jesus told Pilate that his kingdom was not of this world, but that if it had been then his servants would have fought to keep him out of the hands of the Jews.

Jesus explained that he had been born and had come into the world to bear witness to the truth.  Pilate asked: ‘What is truth?’  Pilate went to the Jews and told them that he had found no fault in Jesus.  He then asked them if he should release the King of the Jews.  The Jewish authorities replied that he should release Barabbas.

Chapter nineteen starts with Pilate sending Jesus to be whipped.  The soldiers dressed Jesus in a purple robe and placed a crown of thorns on his head.  Jesus was beaten and mocked then taken before the chief priests.  They wanted Jesus crucified.  Pilate said he found no fault in Jesus.  The chief priests told Pilate that according to Jewish law Jesus should be put to death because he had called himself the Son of God.

Pilate went back to Jesus and asked him if he was the Son of God.  Jesus said nothing.  Pilate told Jesus that he had the power to have him crucified or released.  Jesus said that Pilate could not have power over him unless it was given to him from above; he added that those who had given him into Pilate’s hand had the greater sin.

After talking to Jesus Pilate wanted to release him but the Jews told Pilate that any man who made himself a king went against Caesar.  Consequently Pilate decided to let Jesus be crucified and Jesus was led away to Golgotha.  Pilot attached a note to the cross, it read: ‘Jesus of Nazareth the king of the Jews.’  The chief priests asked Pilate to change the note but Pilate would not.

The soldiers who crucified Jesus parted his clothes between themselves and cast lots for his coat.  Several women stood near the cross and the mother of Jesus was one of them.  Jesus asked his mother to treat the disciple standing near her as her own son and he asked that disciple to treat Mary as though she were his own mother – that disciple took Mary to live in his home.

Jesus said he was thirsty so they gave him vinegar and hyssop to drink and then Jesus said: ‘It is finished.’  He bowed his head and died.

It was considered wrong to let the body of a crucified man remain hanging on a cross on the Sabbath.  The Jewish authorities asked Pilate to allow the legs of the crucified men to be broken and the men taken away.  Soldiers broke the legs of the men killed with Jesus but as Jesus was already dead the soldiers did not break his legs; instead one of the soldiers stabbed Jesus in the side.

Joseph of Arimathaea, a disciple of Jesus, asked Pilate for Jesus’ body and Pilate let him take it away.  Joseph and Nicodemus placed spices on the body, wrapped it in linen, and placed it in an unused sepulchre in a garden near Golgotha.

 

Chapter twenty says that Mary Magdalene went to the sepulchre early in the morning and found the stone to the entrance removed.  She ran to Peter and the disciple Jesus loved and told them of the missing body and her concern over its whereabouts.  Peter and the other disciple ran to the sepulchre and found the grave clothes Jesus had been dressed in but they did not find the body of Jesus.

The two disciples went home but Mary Magdalene stayed behind.  Mary looked into the sepulchre and saw an angel sitting where the head of Jesus would have rested and another angel sitting where the feet of Jesus would have rested.

An angel asked Mary why she was crying.  Mary told the angel that she was crying because the authorities had removed the body of Jesus and she did not know where they had put it.  She turned away from the angel and found Jesus standing near her but she did not know it was Jesus.  He asked Mary why she was crying and Mary asked him to say where the body of Jesus was so that she could take it away.  Jesus called Mary by her name and then she recognised him.  He would not let her touch him, as he had not ascended to his Father.  Then Jesus asked Mary to tell his brethren that he was going to his Father and their Father, to his God and their God.

Mary told the disciples she had seen Jesus and that night Jesus appeared to his disciples.  He showed them his wounds and told them that he was sending them even as his Father had sent him; then Jesus breathed on them and said: ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost.’

Thomas Didymus was not present when Jesus appeared to the other disciples and would not believe their account of the event.  Eight days after Jesus appeared to the disciples he appeared again and this time Thomas Didymus was present.  Jesus instructed Thomas to inspect the wounds Jesus had received to his hands and side.  Thomas inspected the wounds Jesus had sustained and then called Jesus his Lord and God.  Jesus said Thomas believed in him because he had seen him and then Jesus blessed those who would believe in him without seeing him.

The Gospel of John says that many signs were given to the disciples and that some of the signs have been recorded to show Jesus is the Son of God.

Chapter twenty-one has Jesus appear to several of his disciples while they were fishing.  He called to them and told them to fish on the right hand side of the ship; they did and caught one hundred and fifty-three fish.  Jesus then invited them to eat a meal.  After the meal Jesus asked Peter if he loved him more than the other disciples did.  Peter said he did.  Jesus said: ‘Feed my lambs.’

Jesus told Peter that when Peter became old he would have difficulty seeing and that someone else would dress him and lead him where he would not want to go.  Jesus told Peter to follow him.  Peter saw the disciple Jesus loved and asked Jesus what that disciple would do.  Jesus said if he wanted that disciple to wait until he returned that had nothing to do with Peter.  Peter should follow Jesus.

That last conversation between Jesus and Peter generated a rumour that ‘the disciple Jesus loved’ would not die – it was that disciple who wrote these things and he said that Jesus did many other things that are not written in this book; if those things were also written down the world would be unable to hold all the books produced.  John’s Gospel also ends with the word: ‘Amen.’

In John’s Gospel the first reference to the prophets is made in verse twenty-three of chapter one and it refers to verse three of chapter forty in Isaiah.  Verse seventeen of chapter two in John’s Gospel refers to verse nine of Psalm 69.  Verse forty-six of chapter five in John’s Gospel refers to verses fifteen to nineteen of chapter eighteen in Deuteronomy.  Verse forty-two of chapter seven in John’s Gospel refers to verse two of chapter five in Micah.

Verse fifteen of Chapter twelve in John’s Gospel refers to verse nine of chapter nine in Zechariah.  Verse thirty-eight of chapter twelve in John’s Gospel refers to chapter fifty-three in Isaiah.  Verse twenty-four of chapter nineteen in John’s Gospel refers to verse eighteen of Psalm 22.  Verse thirty-six of chapter nineteen in John’s Gospel refers to verse twenty of Psalm 34.  Verse thirty-seven of chapter nineteen in John’s Gospel refers to verse ten of chapter twelve in Zechariah.

John’s Jesus is the Messiah and the prophet foretold by Moses.  He heals the sick and brings the dead back to life.  He is close to his mother and she is aware of his ability to perform extraordinary acts – his brothers and sisters do not believe in him.  The disciples believe in Jesus and quickly conclude he is the Son of the living God.  He foretells the coming of the Comforter and is intelligent, calm and mystical.

John’s Jesus is not racist (John 10:16).  He is compassionate (John 3:17).

The Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John have some stories in common: the feeding of the multitude, walking on water, riding into Jerusalem on a young ass.  Some stories differ in detail: Mark has it that a woman put spikenard on the head of Jesus while he was in the house of Simon the leper; John claims Mary the sister of Lazarus put the spikenard on the feet of Jesus in the house of Lazarus.  Matthew says a woman put the spikenard on the head of Jesus in the house of Simon the leper; Luke says Simon was a Pharisee and that a woman known to be a sinner put the spikenard on the feet of Jesus.

Luke reports Jesus calmed a storm at sea but says nothing about Jesus walking on the water.  Matthew claims Peter attempted to walk on the water and failed.

The Synoptic Gospels say Jesus proclaimed the New Testament and established the Eucharist at the last supper.  John has nothing to say about the Eucharist or a New Testament: he says that at the last supper Jesus washed the feet of the disciples as an example of how the disciples should behave towards each other and gave them the commandment to love one another as he had loved them.

 

According to Mark immediately after being baptised Jesus saw the heavens opened and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him.  John says that John the Baptist saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove.  Matthew says the Spirit of God descended like a dove.  Luke says the Holy Ghost descended in bodily shape like a dove.

Matthew and John say the Spirit descended like a dove.  Mark and Luke say the Spirit looked like a dove.  To say the Spirit moved like a dove is not the same as saying the Spirit looked like a dove.  Clearly the Gospels disagree over important details and unimportant details and cannot be regarded as perfect sources of information about the life of Jesus.

All four Gospels present Jesus as the Christ (Messiah, Son of David, Son of God) and have him claim to be the character written about by the prophets and prophesied by Moses, even though there is nothing to suggest the Messiah and the prophet foretold by Moses are one and the same person.

Moses made his prophesy in Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 18:18) and Nathan made his prophesy in the Second Book of Samuel (2 Samuel 7:12).  The Deuteronomist wrote both books in the fifth century BC.

 

Isaiah appears to be an important book for prophesies about the Messiah: first Isaiah, which is made up of the first twenty-three chapters, contains material relating to the Messiah (Isaiah 7:14, 9:6, 11:1); Second Isaiah, which is made up of chapters forty to fifty-five, also contains material relating to the Messiah (Isaiah 42:1, 49:1, 50:4, 52:13, 53).  Isaiah did not write Second Isaiah.  It was produced during the 6^th century BC.

Jesus identified himself as the man in the book because he had an experience that made such an interpretation possible.  The Gospel writers took material from different parts of the Hebrew Bible to show Jesus fulfilled scripture and was the Messiah.  Three different characters become one in Jesus: the prophet foretold by Moses in Deuteronomy, the Son of David prophesied by Nathan in Second Samuel and the Seed of Abraham championed in Galatians by Paul.

Two paranormal events are recorded in the Gospels: the first is Jesus seeing the Spirit like a dove (Mark 1:10); the second is the giving of the Holy Ghost (John 7:39).  Regardless of attempts to make Jesus the man (or men) in the book these two events indicate Jesus was involved in something extraordinary.  Christianity would be meaningless without these two events – information on the second event can also be found in chapter two of The Acts of the Apostles.

Paul had an influence on the Synoptic Gospels.  The author of Mark’s Gospel appears to have been an associate of Paul (Acts 12:25).  Ninety per cent of Mark’s Gospel appears in Matthew’s Gospel and sixty per cent of Mark’s Gospel appears in the Gospel of Luke.

Faith played an important part in the teaching of Paul and is important in the Gospel of Mark.  Faith is instrumental in healing (Mark 5:34, 10:52).  Believing (Mark 5:36) and not believing (Mark 6:6) affect how well Jesus can work a miracle.  Believing is promoted as the necessary ingredient for making all things possible (Mark 9:23).  Faith in God and the ability to believe can, supposedly, move mountains and allow one to acquire anything one wants (Mark 11:23).

After Jesus had risen from the grave he appeared to the eleven disciples and reprimanded them for their unbelief: they had refused to accept accounts of his resurrection given to them by two of his followers and by Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:14).  Near the end of Mark’s Gospel it says that belief in the gospel and baptism would secure salvation but refusal to believe would result in damnation (Mark 16:16).

Followers able to successfully believe would cast out devils, speak with new tongues, handle snakes and drink poison without harm and would heal the sick by touching them (Mark 16:17, and 18).

Matthew and Luke also teach that faith is important (Matthew 8:10, Luke 7:9) and like Mark they criticise the disciples for lacking faith (Matthew 8:26, Luke 8:25, Mark 4:40).  Matthew and Luke teach that faith is important in healing (Matthew 9:22, Luke 8:48) and they record that faith in Jesus’ ability to work miracles was essential in the healing of two blind men (Matthew 9:29) and in the healing of the one blind man (Luke 18:42).

Peter, James and John are acknowledged as the most important disciples of Jesus.  In the Synoptic Gospels they are portrayed as troublesome and unbelieving.  Matthew says Jesus censured Peter for lacking faith after Peter failed to walk on water (Matthew 14:31) and that on anther occasion Jesus criticized Peter for having no understanding after Peter had asked for an explanation of a parable (Matthew 15:15).  Jesus compared Peter to Satan and told him that he was an offence because he cared for the things of men and not for the things of God (Matthew 16:23).

James and John caused trouble between themselves and the other disciples by wanting to sit on the right-hand side and the left-hand side of Jesus in his kingdom (Matthew 20:20).  Jesus had to rebuke James and John because they wanted to command fire to come down from heaven and destroy a village of Samaritans (Luke 9:54).

Jesus took Peter, James and John with him when he went to pray in Gethsemane and he asked them to sit and wait for him but they fell asleep.  Jesus was disappointed and scolded Peter for not being able to watch with him (Matthew 26:40).  Jesus found the disciples asleep a second time (Matthew 26:43) and a third time (Matthew 26:45).  The same incident is recorded in the other Synoptic Gospels (Mark 14:37, Luke 22:45) but in Luke the sleeping disciples are not named and they are found asleep once.

The Gospel according to St John is considered to be less important than the Synoptic Gospels.  It is undervalued.  It contains important information not found in the Synoptic Gospels.

Early in John’s Gospel Jesus is called the Light (John 1:7) and John says the message given by Jesus was God is light (1 John 1:5).  Jesus was not speaking metaphorically. His message was a statement of fact.

Jesus as light is a significant feature of John’s Gospel and the author has Jesus identify himself as light several times (John 3:19, 8:12, 9:5, 12:35, 12:46).  This light is the light involved in the morning star or cloven tongues of fire experience: it is the fire connected with the baptism of the Holy Ghost (John 1:33, Acts 1:5, 2:3).

 

God is light.  Jesus would have been able to give this message if his experience involved paranormal light or fire from heaven.  The Spirit of God is bestowed as light and the followers of Jesus become the children of light (John 12:36).  Followers who received Jesus, the Light, were granted power to become sons of God.  They were not created in the way humans are normally created: they were born through the will of God (John 1:13).

At the last supper Jesus promised that the Comforter or Spirit of truth would be sent from the Father (John 14:16).  This promise was kept when the disciples experienced the Holy Ghost as cloven tongues of fire.  Through this experience they became sons of God, children of the light, and became one with Jesus and the Father (John 17:21).

The light mentioned in John’s Gospel is not a light that would shine on anything or anybody.  It would not behave in the way light supposedly behaved in the story of Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus (Acts 22:9).  The light spoken of in John’s account shines in the darkness and is not known by the darkness (John 1:5).  It is the Spirit of truth that the world cannot see (John 14:17).

John’s Gospel is undervalued because religious leaders and theologians of today have not undergone the cloven tongues of fire or morning star experience; the day star is unknown to them.  The kingdom of God cannot be seen by anyone not born again (John 3:3).  Priests and other religious officers are in a similar position to Nicodemus: they have no knowledge of birth by the Spirit (John 3:4).

Entry into the kingdom of God involves being born of the Spirit (John 3:5).  Being born of the Spirit involves receiving light from heaven.  Receiving light from heaven is a transforming event that liberates the recipient of the need for any human teacher (1 John 2:27).  To receive the light is to receive the Holy Spirit.  It is the Holy Spirit that will teach the recipient all things (John 14:25) and will guide the recipient into all truth (John 16:13).

To receive the light is to receive Jesus and the Father.  Jesus and the Father come and live with the recipient (John 14:23) and a union is formed (14:20).  The recipient becomes a child of God or a child of the Light.  What is spoken of in John’s gospel is an opportunity to attain eternal life through union with Jesus and God.  Union with an intelligence experienced as light (cloven tongues or star) visible only to the recipient.

Matthew (26:26), Mark (14:22), Luke (22:19) and Paul (1 Corinthians 10:16, 11:24) describe the Eucharist as originating with Jesus at the Last Supper.  The Gospel of John has a different account of the Last Supper.  Jesus does not found the Eucharist at this meal but leaves an example of how his followers should behave towards one another (John 13:5).

In John’s Gospel talk of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus does not take place at the Last Supper in Jerusalem but in the Capernaum synagogue as a response to a request for a sign (John 6:10).  Jesus says he is the bread that came down from heaven and that his flesh is the bread he will give for the life of the world (John 6:51).  He goes on to tell the sign-seekers that it is necessary to eat his flesh and drink his blood to have life (John 6:53) and that those that eat his flesh and drink his blood live in him (John 6:56).  No one is asked to eat bread and drink wine in remembrance of Jesus and there is no mention of a new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31).

Interaction between Jesus and his disciples is friendly in John’s account.  Significant parts are assigned to Peter and the disciple Jesus loved.  Judas Iscariot is mentioned several times and so are Thomas and Philip.  Andrew is spoken of fewer times than the disciples already identified but more than Nathanael, Nathanael of Cana, the other Judas or the sons of Zebedee (James and John).

Andrew became the first disciple (John 1:40).  He had been a follower of John the Baptist (John 1:35).  After becoming a disciple Andrew told his brother Simon that Jesus was the Messiah (John 1:41).  It was Andrew who brought the boy with the loaves and fishes to the attention of Jesus (John 6:8) and Andrew was one of the disciples who told Jesus that some Greeks wanted to meet with him (John 12:22).

Simon Peter was introduced to Jesus (John 1:42) and after Jesus had spoken in the synagogue at Capernaum Peter told Jesus that he and the other disciples believed Jesus had the words of eternal life and was the Son of God (John 6:68).  Peter is next mentioned at the Last Supper where he was reluctant to have his feet washed by Jesus (John 13:6) and where he signalled another disciple to ask Jesus to reveal the identity of the betrayer (John 13:24).  Shortly after that Peter asked Jesus why he could not follow him immediately and told Jesus that he was ready to lay down his life for him (John 13:37).

When Jesus was being arrested Peter unsheathed a sword and wounded the high priest’s servant (John 18:10).  Peter followed Jesus to the palace of the high priest and denied knowing Jesus (John 18:15, 18:17, 18:25, 18:26, 18:27).

Mary Magdalene told Peter that the body of Jesus was missing.  Peter ran to the sepulchre and found it empty (John 20:3, 20:4, 20:6).  Peter and some of the other disciples went fishing but caught nothing – in the morning Jesus advised them to try fishing on the right hand side of the ship, they followed his advice and made a good catch.  When Peter was told Jesus was on the shore he leapt into the sea and swam to meet him (John 21:7).  The disciples ate a meal with Jesus and then Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved him more than the other disciples and asked him to care for his followers (John 21:15, 21:16, 21:17).  Peter wanted to known the destiny of the disciple whom Jesus loved (John 21:20, 21:21).  Jesus told Peter not to concern himself about that disciple.  Peter was instructed to follow Jesus (John 21:22).

Philip was from Bethsaida: the same town that Andrew and Simon Peter were from.  Jesus intended to make a journey into Galilee and chose Philip on the way (John 1:43).  Philip introduced Nathanael to Jesus (John 1:45).  Jesus consulted Philip over the purchase of bread to feed a multitude (John 6:5) and Philip responded with an estimated cost (John 6:6).  Some Greek people who wanted to meet Jesus approached Philip, he reported the matter to Andrew and together they took the Greek peoples’ request to Jesus (John 12:20, 12:21, 12:22).  During the Last Supper Philip asked Jesus to show the Father to the disciples and Jesus replied that to see him was to see the Father (John 14:8, 14:9).

 

Nathanael doubted anything good could come out of Nazareth (John 1:46) but was quick to accept Jesus as the Son of God (John 1:49).  Nathanael of Cana in Galilee was in a ship with Simon Peter and several other disciples when Jesus gave them advice on where to fish (John 21:2).

Judas Iscariot is identified as the one who would betray Jesus (John 6:71).  He objected to Mary’s gift of spikenard being used to anoint the feet of Jesus and is also labelled a thief (John 12:4, 12:5, 12:6).  Judas was committed to his act of betrayal by the time of the Last Supper.  He left the table after Jesus instructed him to be quick in what it was he was about to do (John 13:27).  Judas arrived with a band of men and officers to arrest Jesus in the garden near the brook Cedron (John 18:2, 18:3, 18:5).

 

Thomas Didymus suggested the disciples go to Bethany with Jesus and die there with him (John 11:16).  Thomas told Jesus that the disciples did not know where Jesus was going or how to get there (John 14:5).  He was absent when Jesus first appeared to the disciples and was disinclined to believe Jesus had risen (John 20:24, 20:25) until he had seen and probed the wounds Jesus sustained during his crucifixion (John 20:27).  After being invited to do that he declared Jesus to be his Lord and his God and Jesus told Thomas that those who believe without seeing are blessed (John 20:28, 20:29).  Thomas Didymus was in the ship with some other disciples when Jesus gave them advice on where to fish (John 21:2).

Two of the disciples were named Judas.  After Judas Iscariot left the Last Supper the other Judas asked Jesus how Jesus would show himself to the disciples but not to the world (John 14:22).

James and John are not mentioned in this Gospel.  But the sons of Zebedee are listed amongst the disciples fishing with Simon Peter when Jesus advised fishing on the right-hand side of the ship.  Contributors involved in the transmission of the fourth Gospel maintain: ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’ wrote it (John 21:24).  By tradition that disciple is John.

The disciple whom Jesus loved leant on Jesus’ torso at the Last Supper (John 13:23) and asked Jesus to indicate the betrayer (John 13:25).  The disciple whom Jesus loved may have been the other disciple who followed Jesus to the palace of the high priest (John 18:15).  The last people Jesus spoke to before he gave up the ghost were his mother (John 19:26) and the disciple whom he loved (John 19:27).  This disciple ran with Peter to the sepulchre (John 20:4).  He recognised Jesus on the shore (John 21:7).  The last conversation between Jesus and Peter concerned the future of the disciple whom Jesus loved (John 21:20, 21:21, 21:22).

James and John are portrayed as important disciples in the Synoptic Gospels; they and Peter form an inner band of disciples.  In Mark’s Gospel Peter, James and John accompany Jesus to the house of the ruler of the synagogue (Mark 5:37) and are present at Christ’s transfiguration (Mark 9:2).  Peter, James, John and Andrew ask Jesus about the destruction of the temple and the coming of Christ (Mark 13:3).  At Gethsemane Jesus separated Peter, James and John from the other disciples and took them with him when he went to pray to be delivered from the approaching ordeal (Mark 14:33).

Peter and Andrew feature in John’s Gospel, James and John do not.  John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels agree Peter was told he would deny Jesus three times but Peter is not criticised in John’s Gospel to the extent that he is he in the Synoptic Gospels.  The Synoptic Gospels present the disciples as incompetent and not up to the job they were chosen to do: they lack understanding (Mark 4:13) and faith (Mark 4:40).  Peter, James and John are spoken of disparagingly on several occasions in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 16:23, Matthew 20:20, Matthew 26:40, Mark 14:37, Luke 9:54, Luke 22:31).

Hostility towards Peter, James and John is indicative of antipathy towards leading figures in the Jerusalem church (Acts 1:13, Acts 3:1).  Acts and the Synoptic Gospels favour the church of Paul and Paul would have influenced the way in which his church felt about the Jerusalem church.  How Paul felt about the leading figures of the Jerusalem church is reflected in his denunciation of Peter (Galatians 2:11), his self-appraisal (2 Corinthians 11:5) and assessment of his own worth by comparison with other ministers of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:23).

John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels originate with different churches.  Tradition related to Paul and his church gave rise to the Synoptic Gospels; the Gospel of John came from belief linked to the Jerusalem church.  Important information concerning the relationship Christians would have with Jesus and his Father can be found in John’s Gospel (John 14:23), no information of equivalent significance can be found in the Synoptic Gospels.  John’s Gospel contains information about the real paranormal experience at the heart of Christianity – an experienced not mentioned in the Synoptic Gospels.

Paul’s ‘gospel of God’ has it that all of Israel will eventually be saved (Romans 11:26); a different end for Israel is depicted in the work attributed to John.  What Jesus thought about Israel and its destiny might be reflected in the Gospel of John. According to that Gospel Jesus says the Jews will die in their sins (John 8:24), that they lie about knowing God (John 8:55), they are children of the devil (John 8:44) out to kill Jesus (John 7:19, 8:37).  There is no surprise end of time salvation for all of Israel or for any Jew who does not accept Jesus as the one foretold (John 8:24).

In the encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus, Jesus expressed surprise at how little a ‘master of Israel’ knew about the kingdom of God or about gaining entry to it (John 3:10).  On another occasion Jesus said the Jews do not have the love of God in them (John 5:42) and on several occasions he says the Jews do not know God (John 7:28, 8:19, 15:21) – they cannot understand what Jesus is talking about because they do not belong to God (John 8:47); they are not his sheep (John 10:26); they hate God (John 15:24).

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‘John’

Not much is known about John.  Zebedee was his father, Salome was his mother and James was his brother.  After the death of Stephen the church in Jerusalem was persecuted.  To escape persecution members of the new church left Jerusalem and scattered throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria (Paul played a part in the persecution.).

 

Philip went to Samaria and preached Jesus to the Samaritans.  Then Peter and John went there to testify to the new converts.  When they had testified they returned to Jerusalem.  On their travels they preached in many Samaritan villages – years after their return, John met Paul.

 

Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, claimed John was entombed there; he also identified John as the beloved disciple.  Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon, made the same claim and went on to claim John wrote his Gospel and letters there.  Strange stories are told about John.  One story says he was plunged into boiling oil without being hurt; another says the soil over John’s grave moves as though the disciple is breathing – in the 6^th century dust from John’s tomb was famous for its healing power.

 

The idea that John was very young when he became a disciple has its source in an apocryphal work known as Acts of John.  Byzantine tradition depicts John as an old man with white hair and a white beard.  Some traditions maintain John did not die but ascended to heaven like Elijah or Enoch.

 

John may have suffered banishment to Patmos.  The author of Revelation says his name is John and that he is on the island because he testified of Jesus.  John was instructed to write down what he was shown about the present and the future and send it to seven churches.  He was told that seven stars were angels of seven churches in Asia and that seven golden candlesticks were the seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea.

 

The church in Ephesus was praised for having tried false apostles and shown them to be liars.  After being cautioned that leaving their first love was dangerous they were encouraged to repent.  Anyone that managed to overcome would be rewarded with heavenly food from the tree of life.

 

Commiseration was expressed for the church at Smyrna because it was experiencing trouble.  The church was told that Jesus was aware of the blasphemy of the synagogue of Satan.  Smyrna Christians were advised that the devil would imprison some of the church members to try them and that the church would suffer for a time.  If they remained faithful until death they would receive a crown of life and would not be hurt by the second death.

 

Satan’s seat is where the church at Pergamos lived.  The church had remained faithful during a time of persecution.  But then some of them had begun fornicating and eating food sacrificed to idols; these church members were advised to repent.  Pergamos Christians were told that a white stone with a new name written in it would be given to those who overcame – they would also be given hidden manna to eat.

 

The church in Thyatira was praised for its works but warned that a woman named Jezebel was leading church members into fornication and eating food that had been sacrificed to idols.  She had been given time to change but had not changed.  Consequently her children were to be killed with death as a sign to the churches that the Son of God searches the reins and hearts.  Thyatira Christians were told that those who overcame and kept faith with Jesus to the end would be given the morning star and power over the nations.

 

Sardis Christians were told their church was dead and that their works were not perfect before God.  Repentance was recommended.  The few church members who had done well would be clothed in white – like all who overcame.

 

Church members in Philadelphia were informed that an open door had been placed before them because they had some strength and had not denied Jesus.  The synagogue of Satan would be made to worship at their feet.  The church at Philadelphia would be kept from the hour of temptation that would come upon the world.  Philadelphia Christians were told that those who overcame would be made pillars in the temple of God and the name of God and of New Jerusalem would be written upon them.

 

Laodicean Christians were reprimanded for being lukewarm and arrogant.  They were advised to acquire white clothes so that their nakedness would not appear and eye ointment to help their sight.  Repentance was recommended.  Jesus was knocking at the door and if the door were opened Jesus would enter and sup with the believer.  Laodicean Christians were told that those who overcame would sit with Jesus as he sits with the Father.

In these messages some churches are praised for doing well, others are reprimanded over their misconduct and then counselled to repent.  All the churches are notified that successful individuals would receive eternal life and could be given hidden manna to eat and a white stone with a new name written in it; they could have the name of New Jerusalem written upon them and be joined with Jesus by being given the morning star.

 

Some of these promises refer to baptism with the Holy Spirit.  This experience changes a person into one with access to the hidden manna: it is the baptism of fire.  Fire (or light) from heaven is portrayed as a white stone, a descending city, and the morning star – images that contain valuable information about the greatest mystery known to the early church.  Only those with an ear would understand what the Spirit was saying.  The rest would not understand.

 

Cloven tongues of fire and morning star describe the same phenomenon: stars are mentioned several times in the messages to the churches; they are called angels and are said to rest in the right hand of Jesus.  In the last chapter of Revelation Jesus is identified as the bright and morning star – to be given the morning star is to receive Jesus.

 

John’s Gospel appears to be against Judaism and so does Revelation.  It features blasphemous Jews, the synagogue of Satan, and Jews who are not Jews.

 

Part two of Revelation begins at chapter four.  John is invited to enter heaven through an open door.  In heaven he is shown future events.  He sees a figure sitting on a throne.  The figure looked like jasper and sardine (Jasper is usually red, yellow or brown, and sardine is red.).  There was a rainbow around the throne: it looked like an emerald (a bright green variety of beryl).

 

Twenty-four elders wearing crowns and dressed in white sat around the throne.  Seven Spirits of God burned like lamps of fire before the throne.  In front of the throne there was a sea of glass and around the throne and in the throne were four living creatures that looked like a loin, a calf, a man, and an eagle.  Each beast had six wings and eyes inside, behind and before.  The beasts were constantly praising God.  The elders cast their crowns before God and confessed all things were created for his pleasure.

 

Images similar to those used in Ezekiel and Isaiah are employed in John’s description of God’s throne but there is no exact replication of Ezekiel’s vision or of Isaiah’s vision.

 

Chapter five of Revelation talks of a book with seven seals on the back.  The book was in the hand of God and no one could read it.  An elder told John that the Loin of Judah, the Root of David, had opened the book and the seven seals – the root of David is the Lamb that has the seven Spirits of God.

He took the book from God and then the twenty-four elders and the four beasts sang a new song: they sang that the Lamb was worthy to take the book because he had been slain and had saved many people from every nation and had created kings and priests for God.  Thousands of voices gave praise to God and his Lamb and the twenty-four elders worshiped god.

In chapter six the Lamb begins to open the seals – six are opened.  The first involves war and conquest; two sees peace taken from the world and more killing; three sees the cost of wheat and barley rise; four sees death given power over a quarter of the earth; five has martyrs ask how long before they are avenged; six brings an earthquake and then the sun becomes black, the moon becomes like blood, the stars of heaven fall to the earth, heaven departs, and every mountain and island is moved out of place: it is the great day of God’s anger.

Chapter seven.  John saw four angels holding back the winds from blowing on the earth, the sea or on any tree.  An angel came from the east and instructed the four angels to do no hurt until the servants of God were sealed in their foreheads.  One hundred and forty-four thousand individuals were sealed from the tribes of Israel.

As well as the saved of the tribes of Israel there were around the throne of God great crowds of people from every nation.  These people had suffered and had washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.  Now they serve God in his temple and God lives amongst them and dries their tears.

 

In chapter eight seal number seven is opened.  There is silence in heaven for about half an hour.  Seven angels are given trumpets.  Another angel holds a golden censer and offers much incense with the prayers of the saints.  He fills the censer with fire and casts it into the earth: voices, thundering, lightning and an earthquake follow.

 

The seven angels with the trumpets got ready to sound.  The first trumpet sounded and a mixture of hail, fire and blood was cast on the earth; this resulted in a third of the trees and all the grass being burnt up.  At the sound of the second trumpet a burning mountain was cast into the sea; it caused a third of the sea creatures to die and it destroyed a third of ships.  The third angel blew his trumpet and a burning lamp like a great star fell upon the rivers and fountains; a third of the water became bitter and men died from drinking it – wormwood is the name of the burning lamp.  At the sound of the fourth trumpet the sun, the moon and the stars were darkened by a third and day and night become shorter by a third.

 

John saw an angel fly through heaven and the angel said that the inhabitants of the earth would suffer more when the next three angels blew their trumpets.

 

Chapter nine.  The fifth trumpet sounded and a star fell from heaven and he was given the key to the bottomless pit.  He opened the pit and smoke from it turned the sun and air dark.  Locusts came out of the smoke.  They had power to torment those people without the seal of God in their foreheads and they made war-like noises.

 

In the book of Joel locusts form part of God’s army of devouring insects.  The locusts in Revelation are not insects: they look like men, wear crowns of gold and go to war with most of the people on the planet.  Destruction is the name of their king.  He is the angel of the bottomless pit and also the Devil.

 

The sixth angel blew his trumpet and was told to free the four angels bound in the Euphrates – these angels amounted to an army of two hundred thousand thousand.  This army will destroy a third of mankind with fire, smoke and brimstone, but the remaining humans will not repent of their murders, sorceries, fornication or thefts.

 

In chapter ten John says he saw a mighty angel come down from heaven.  This angel wore a cloud, had a rainbow upon his head and in his hand he held a small book.  He roared like a lion and then seven thunders uttered their voices.  John was about to write down the messages of the seven thunders but was forbidden to do so.  The angel revealed that when the seventh angel gave voice the mystery of God would come to an end.

 

John was instructed to take the little book out of the hand of the angel.  The angel gave the book to John and told him that the book would taste sweet in his mouth but would make his stomach bitter.  John took the book and ate it – the book tasted like honey in his mouth but it made his stomach bitter.

 

The angel informed John that he would have to prophesy before many peoples, nations, tongues and kings.

 

Chapter eleven.  John is given a measuring rod to use to measure the temple of God.  He is not to measure the outside court as it had been given over to the Gentiles; they would tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months.

 

Two witnesses would testify for one thousand two hundred and sixty days dressed in sackcloth (mourning dress): they are the two olive trees and candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.  Fire issues from their mouths to destroy their enemies. They have power over rain; they can turn rivers into blood and strike the earth with plagues whenever they want.  When the two witnesses finish their testimony the beast from the bottomless pit will kill them.

 

After the beast has killed the two witnesses their bodies will lie in the city where Jesus was crucified.  Many people will celebrate the death of the two witnesses because they had tormented the people on earth.  Three and a half days after they are killed the witnesses are resurrected and transported to heaven – within an hour of this happening an earthquake destroys part of the city, thousands die in the earthquake and those that are left become afraid and give glory to God.

 

Revelation draws on Daniel and Zechariah: the two witnesses image is similar to the candlestick and olive tree passage in chapter four of Zechariah; in that passage the two characters are called the two anointed ones who stand before God.  From Daniel comes the three and a half image: forty-two months; three and a half days; one thousand two hundred and sixty days; a time, and times, and half a time.

 

The seventh angel sounded and voices in heaven said the kingdoms of the world have become the kingdoms of God and his Christ.  It is time to judge the dead and reward the prophets, saints and servants of God and to destroy the destroyers of the earth.  The temple in heaven will be opened and the ark (rainbow) of God’s testament will be seen -lightning, thunder, great hail and an earthquake follow.

Chapter twelve.  A woman dressed with the sun appeared.  She had the moon under her feet and on her head she had a crown of twelve stars.  The woman was about to give birth to a male child who would rule the nations with a rod of iron.  A great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns was confronting the woman – on the seven heads of the dragon there were seven crowns.  The child was born and taken up to the throne of God.  The woman dressed with the sun escaped into the wilderness and remained there for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

In heaven Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels; the dragon is also called the old serpent, the Devil and Satan.  Michael defeated the dragon and then the dragon and his angels were cast into the earth.  The dragon had constantly accused the Christians before God but they defeated the dragon through Jesus.

 

When the dragon understood his situation he persecuted the woman dressed with the sun.  She escaped into the wilderness for a time, and times, and half a time.  The serpent used a flood from his mouth to try to destroy the woman but he failed to destroy her.  Then he made war with the remnant of her seed – they have the testimony of Jesus and keep God’s commandments.

 

The two witnesses witness for the same length of time as the woman spends in the wilderness: one thousand two hundred and sixty days or a time, and times, and half a time.

 

Chapter thirteen.  John is standing on the sand of the sea watching a beast with seven heads and ten horns; there are ten crowns on the horns and the name of blasphemy on the heads.  The beast looked like a leopard and had the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion.  The dragon gave the beast great authority.  One of the dragon’s heads had received a deadly wound but the wound had healed.  The entire world wondered about the beast and worshiped the dragon that gave power to the beast.

 

People were amazed at the beast: there was nothing like him and no one could make war against him.  Power was given to the beast for a period of forty-two months. During that time the beast boasted and blasphemed God and those that live in heaven.  The beast waged a successful war against the saints and acquired power over every nation and tongue.

 

A second beast appeared.  He had horns like a lamb but spoke like a dragon.  He caused the earth to worship the beast whose wound was healed and he performed great wonders, like making fire from heaven visible to men.  He deceived the people and told them to make an image to the beast that had suffered the head wound.  People who would not worship the image of the beast were killed.  One could neither buy nor sell without its mark.  The beast could be identified through its number: six hundred three score and six (666).

 

Forty-two months is equal to one thousand two hundred and sixty days.  The beast has power for the same amount of time that the two witnesses testify and the woman dressed with the sun spends in the wilderness.

 

Chapter fourteen.  John sees Jesus and the one hundred and forty-four thousand first fruits from the twelve tribes of Israel standing on Mount Zion.  They had a new understanding that no one but they could understand.  God’s name was written in their foreheads.  An angel appeared, preached the gospel to every nation, and warned the people on earth to fear God because the time of his judgement had come.

Another angel said Babylon, the great city, had fallen because she had caused the nations to drink the wine of the anger of her fornication.  A third angel appeared and warned the people that anyone who worshipped the beast or its image would be subject to the anger of God and that the smoke of their torment would ascend forever.  People who worship the beast had no rest, whereas those who die in Jesus had rest.

 

John saw a crowned figure on a white cloud.  The figure had a sickle in his hand and an angel was helping him gather the harvest of the earth and throw it into the wine press of God’s anger – a great quantity of blood came out of the wine press.

 

Chapter fifteen.  John introduces the seven angels with the seven last plagues that dispel God’s anger.  The saints who had defeated the beast and its image stand on a sea of glass before the throne of God and sing the song of Moses and Jesus.

 

One of the four beasts gave the plagues to the seven angels.  No one could enter the temple in heaven until the seven plagues had run their course.

 

In chapter sixteen John says the seven angels poured their vials of God’s anger upon the earth; the first angel’s vial caused a terrible sore to fall upon those people that had worshiped the beast and the image of the beast; angel two poured his vial on the sea and the sea became like the blood of a dead man and every living soul in the sea died.

Rivers and fountains of water were turned into blood by the third angel.  The fourth angel caused the sun to scorch men with great heat.  Angel five caused the kingdom of the beast to be full of darkness – they blasphemed God’s name and refused to repent over their deeds.  The sixth angel poured his vial on the Euphrates and the water dried up facilitating entry for the kings from the east.

John saw three unclean spirits come out of the mouths of the dragon, the beast and the false prophet: they are the spirits of devils and they gather the nations to the battle of Armageddon (hill of Megiddo): the battle of the great day of God.

The seventh angel pours his vial into the air and a voice from the throne in heaven says: ‘It is done.’  Lightning, thunder and a great earthquake follow; the earthquake is the most severe earthquake the world has known.  The great city is divided into three parts and other cities fall.  God remembers great Babylon and she is given the cup of God’s anger to drink.  Islands flee away, mountains vanish, and a great hail falls upon men and they blaspheme God because the hail is dreadful.

Chapter seventeen.  John is shown God’s judgement of the whore who had committed fornication with the kings of the earth – the inhabitants of the earth are drunk with the wine of her fornication.  John saw a woman sitting on a scarlet coloured beast.  It had seven heads and ten horns and was full of blasphemous names.  The woman wore purple and scarlet and she was adorned with pearls, precious stones and gold.  She held a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.  On her forehead was written: Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth.

The woman was drunk on the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus – the sight amazed John.  An angel offered to tell John about the woman and the beast she rode upon then revealed that the beast had once existed, did not exist at present, but would exist again in the future: it will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into eternal death.  The world will be greatly surprised when this beast appears.

 

On the beast are seven heads: the heads represent seven mountains upon which the woman sits and they also represent seven kings.  Five of the kings ruled in the past, a sixth king ruled in the present and a seventh king would rule for a short time in the future.  The beast that was, and is not will be the eighth king – this king is one of the seven and will go into eternal death.

 

There are ten horns on the beast: these horns represent ten kings who have not yet ruled but who will rule with the beast for a short while.  They go to war with the lamb and are defeated by him.  John is told that the waters on which the whore sits are nations, peoples and tongues and that the whore is hated by the ten horns and will be made desolate by them.  They give their kingdom to the beast until the words of God are finished.

 

In chapter eighteen another angel is seen coming down from heaven.  This angel declares that the great city that rules over the kings of the earth has fallen and become the home of devils and foul spirits.  Every nation has been affected by the anger of her fornication.  The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her.  Merchants have grown rich through her.  A voice from heaven warns the people of God to leave the city to avoid being caught up in her sins and punishment.

Her sins were known in heaven.  God remembered her wickedness and she is to receive very severe punishment over her behaviour: she had glorified herself and considered she was a queen who would see no sorrow.  Her plagues will all come in one day and she will be completely burnt.  The kings of the earth will lament for her and say that mighty city has been judged in one hour.

 

The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over the fate of this city because it can no longer buy their goods but heaven, the holy apostles and the prophets can be happy because God has avenged them on the city: the city will be destroyed by violence and shall never exist again.  Her merchants were the great men of the earth and all nations were deceived by the sorceries of this city – in her was found the blood of prophets, saints and of every one killed on earth.

Chapter nineteen.  John says he heard many people in heaven praising God because God had judged the great whore who had spoilt the earth through her fornication.

The marriage of the lamb had come and his wife was ready and dressed in the righteousness of the saints.

 

Once again heaven is opened and The Word of God is seen riding on a white horse. The armies in heaven follow him on white horses.  He has many crowns on his head and a sharp sword in his mouth and he uses the sword to chastise the nations.  On his thigh is written King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  He treads the winepress of God’s anger.

 

An angel calls all birds to the supper of God where they can eat the flesh of kings, mighty men, horses and their riders.  The beast and the armies of the kings of the earth were making ready to fight against the rider on the white horse and his army.  The beast and the false prophet were defeated and thrown into a lake of burning brimstone; the rest were defeated by the sword in the mouth of the rider on the white horse.

 

In chapter twenty the angel with the key to the bottomless pit imprisons the old serpent, the dragon, in the pit for a thousand years.  During that thousand years those who had not worshiped the beast live and reign with Jesus; the rest of the dead stay dead until the thousand years end.  When the thousand years are over Satan is freed. He will deceive the nations in the four quarters of the earth and gather them together to the war of Gog and Magog.

 

Armies surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city but fire comes down from heaven and devours them.  The devil that deceived them is thrown into the lake of burning brimstone, along with the beast and the false prophet, and shall be tormented forever.

 

John saw a great white throne and a figure sitting on it from whose face earth and heaven fled away and no place was found for them.  The dead stood before God and the book of life was opened.  Those whose names did not appear in the book of life were thrown into the lake of fire – this is the second death.

Chapter twenty-one.  John saw a new heaven and a new earth.  The first heaven and earth no longer existed.  A city descended from heaven, it looked like a bride decorated for her husband.  Heaven declared God would live with mankind and care for them.  People would no longer suffer pain, sorrow or death.  It would be a new reality.

 

People that overcome will inherit all things and become the children of God but wicked people will go into the lake of burning brimstone.  John was taken to see the bride of the Lamb and New Jerusalem descending from heaven.  It had the glory of God, shone like a precious stone and resembled clear crystal.

Around the city is a high wall.  It has twelve gates guarded by twelve angels.  The names of the twelve tribes of Israel are written on the gates: there are three gates on the east, three gates on the west, three gates on the north and three gates on the south.  The wall of the city has twelve foundations.  On them is written the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.  The city looked like jasper and pure gold and clear glass.

 

The foundations of the wall were decorated with many different kinds of precious stones: jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, sardonyx, sardius, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprasus, jacinth and amethyst.  The gates to the city look like pearls and the street of the city are pure gold and transparent like glass.  There is no temple in the city – the temple is God and Jesus and the glory of God and Jesus light the city.

 

Saved nations will walk in light of the city and the kings of the earth will bring their glory and honour into it.  Only those people whose names are recorded in the book of life can enter the city.

Chapter twenty-two.  John is shown the crystal clear water of life flowing like a river from the throne of God and Jesus.  The tree of life grows in the city and along the river and produces twelve kinds of fruit; its leaves heal the nations.  God’s throne will be in the city and God’s servants will see his face and his name will be in their foreheads.  They shall reign forever.

John was instructed not to close the prophecy in his book as the time for it to be fulfilled was near.  People would continue to do what they wanted to do: some would do what was good and some would do what was evil.  Jesus said his angel had been sent to bear witness to these things and then identified himself as the root and offspring of David and the bright and morning star.  Revelation ends with a prayer for the quick return of Jesus.

The experience recorded in Acts as cloven tongues of fire sitting on the disciples is known in Revelation as being given the morning star.  Second Peter, considered the latest of the New Testament letters (circa AD150), describes the experience as the day star arising in one’s heart.

Cloven tongues of fire, morning star and day star describe the visual display experienced during the baptism with fire.  Baptism with fire is a paranormal event in which the Holy Ghost appears as a star of light.  Each disciple experienced a star made of light shining in his forehead – seeing with the eyes was not involved.  Acts contains an account of an event similar to the tongues of fire event taking place in the house of Cornelius the centurion – in that event the Holy Ghost fell on people in the house while Peter was speaking to Cornelius, his family and his friends.

Christianity rests on two paranormal events: the descent of the Spirit like a dove experienced by Jesus, and the descent of the Holy Spirit experienced by the disciples and other Christians.

John says the message he received from Jesus was: ‘God is light.’  John mentions two kinds of light: white light and coloured light.  He uses precious stones and the rainbow to depict coloured light and pearls, white stones, white attire and a white throne to represent white light.

The morning star is made up of different colours and each tongue of the star has its own colour: red light, blue light, green light, etc.  Being sat upon by cloven tongues of fire or being given the morning star is to be involved with the deepest of Christian mysteries.

Several wicked characters feature in Revelation: the old serpent, the beast, the whore and the Antichrist come false prophet.  Attempts have been made to identify the beast through manipulation of the number of its name: six hundred threescore and six.  Solutions to the problem have been sought through gematria or numerology; gematria was popular with medieval Kabbalists; numerology appears to be based on the Pythagorean notion that reality is mathematical in nature.

 

The Greek alphabet, which was derived from the North Semitic script in the 8^th century BC, and the Hebrew alphabet assign a number to each letter of the alphabet.  John used the Greek alphabet.  In that alphabet six and six and six added together would equal eighteen; then the one from the eighteen would be added to the eight of the eighteen and that would equal nine; the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet is iota or I and in John’s Revelation it indicates Israel.

Israel, the name of a man (Jacob) and of a political beast (Israel), is the only solution to this conundrum.

Other clues to the identity of the beast are the seven heads and ten horns: the seven heads are seven kings and the ten horns are ten kings.  Of the seven kings five had been, one was ruling and one had to come; king number eight would be the beast.  The eight kings are: Israel, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, kingdom of Antichrist, and Israel again.  The ten horns or ten kings without kingdoms are the ten (lost) tribes of Israel who produced no kings of a united Israel.

Jerusalem is the Idol whore of Babylon.  It is the city that has dominion over the kings of the earth because it is the city where God lives.  The prophets accuse both Israel and Judah of committing adultery and whoredoms.  Isaiah refers to Jerusalem as a harlot (Isaiah 1:21).  Jeremiah calls Israel an adulteress and Judah a harlot (Jeremiah 3:8).  Ezekiel says Jerusalem committed whoredoms (Ezekiel 23:4) and played the harlot (Ezekiel 6:15).

Jerusalem is the city upon which God will take revenge for the disciples and prophets.   The city is built on seven hills: Mount Gared, Mount Goath, Mount Acra, Mount Bezetha, Mount Moriah, Mount Ophel, and Mount Zion.  The first four are also named: Mount of Olives, Mount of Offence, Mount of Evil Counsel and Mount Calvary.

Antichrist appears in verse eleven of chapter thirteen of Revelation: he is a beast with horns like a lamb but he speaks like a dragon – he resembles Jesus but he is wicked.  Antichrist’s message to the world is that they should make an image to the beast.   The most revealing wonder attributed to Antichrist is his making fire from heaven visible to other men.

Paul is the Antichrist and his church is the image made to the beast.  Paul is sympathetic to Israel and his message is similar to the message in the Hebrew Bible. In Romans he says God has not cast away his people (Romans 11:2) and all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:26).  Paul imagined his church to be a kind of Israel and in his letter to the Galatians (Galatians 6:16) he calls it ‘the Israel of God.’

There is no record of Paul receiving the morning star or having an experience involving cloven tongues of fire, but in his first letter to the Corinthians he says he saw Jesus (Corinthians 15:8).

John’s Gospel has Jesus say the world cannot see the Spirit of truth (John 14:17).  In Revelation Jesus says only the individual who receives a white stone and new name will understand the experience (Revelation 2:17).  The Spirit of truth cannot be seen by the world and its descent upon an individual is a private experience.  The visual display that signals the arrival of the Spirit of truth takes place in the forehead.  Illumination takes place inside the person and no light shines on the person, outside of the person or around the person.

Paul’s experience is recorded three times in Acts (Acts 9:3, 22:6, 26:13).  All three accounts speak of a light from heaven shining round about Paul and the people with him.  Paul says the people with him saw the light (Acts 22:9).  These accounts of light from heaven being visible to onlookers allow John to say Antichrist will make fire come down from heaven in the sight of men.

 

John does not see Paul as a disciple.  Paul is not one of the twelve.  His name is not written in the foundations of the wall of New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:14) and he does not sit on any of the twenty-four seats around the throne (Revelation 4:4).

One other character needs to be identified before John’s message can be understood. That character is the great red dragon, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan: he deceived the whole world.  Israel is the great red dragon with the seven heads, the seven crowns and the ten horns.

 

In the Gospel of John Israel is wicked.  Their father is the devil (John 8:44).  They are liars (John 8:55).  They are not the sheep of Jesus (John 10:26).  Revelation also depicts Israel as wicked.  It is the old serpent that deceived the world (Revelation 12:9).  It is the dragon that attempted to devour the future ruler of the nations (Revelation 12:4).

 

Israel is labelled wicked by its prophets.  Isaiah calls Israel a sinful nation laden with iniquity (Isaiah 1:4).  Jeremiah says Israel behaved treacherously towards God (Jeremiah 3:20).  Ezekiel says the iniquity of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great (Ezekiel 9:9).

Hebrew Bible prophecies often predict Israel or a remnant of Israel will return to the Promised Land.  This idea is used in John’s writing about the beast that was, is not, but which comes again out of the bottomless pit – the bottomless pit is the pit of destruction (history).  Israel existed until the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70. It did not exist between that time and 1948.  It came back into existence in 1948.  John, in line with Hebrew Bible prophecy, predicted a return of Israel to the Promised Land.

The prophecy of a return to the Promised Land contained in Revelation is different to those of the Hebrew Bible prophets and Paul.  Hebrew Bible prophecy and Paul’s teaching agree that the return of Israel to the Promised Land would be glorious and that Israel would be established forever.  Revelation says Israel will return to the Promised Land and then go into eternal death.

Several time periods are used in Revelation: one thousand two hundred and threescore days; a time, and times, and half a time; forty and two months.  These time periods refer to the same era: it begins when the woman enters the wilderness (Revelation 12:6) and the two witnesses begin their mission (Revelation 11:3) and it ends when the beast returns from the pit to kill the witnesses and harass the woman.

Forty and two months equals one thousand two hundred and three score days or three and a half years or a time, and times, and half a time.  Gentiles tread the holy city underfoot for forty and two months and the beast is given power to prevail for the same length of time.  The beast lives through the image generated by the Antichrist.  During this time the two witnesses wear mourning clothes.  At the end of this period the beast that was, and then was not, returns from the bottomless pit.

Jesus is the child caught up to the throne of God and the woman who brought forth the child is the community with the twelve apostles.  John says the Jewish church was made up of one hundred and forty and four thousand persons from the tribes of Israel and that they worship in the temple of God.

It may not be possible to name the two witnesses but Peter and John have to be candidates.  The writing that bears their names is more valuable than the work of other contributors to the New Testament.  Revelation says the triumph of the two witnesses will happen after the return of the beast.  As the beast spends a thousand years in the pit, and none of the disciples lived for a thousand years, it is probably the teaching of the two witnesses that is attacked.  They, or their teaching, will appear defeated and done away with but after a short time (three and a half days) they will ascend to heaven and achieve victory over their enemies.

In chapter twenty of Revelation it says a thousand years is the time the Devil has to spend in the pit before being released for a little season and in chapter seventeen of Revelation it says the time the beast and the ten kings rule for is one hour.  The hour equals a little season; it is the same time.

The ‘thousand years’ begin with the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 and end with the return of the beast.  During that time those killed for witnessing on behalf of Jesus live and reign with him – they do not reincarnate and they have no need of physical bodies, as they are alive forever.  Their reign as priests is not over an earthly kingdom but over a spiritual kingdom.  Jesus made it clear to Pilate that his kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36).

New Jerusalem is the holy city.  It comes down from heaven and it has the glory of God.  It needs no light beyond the glory of God and Jesus, as night never comes there.  New Jerusalem is where the throne of God and Jesus is and it is from there that Jesus and his servants’ rule over the world.

According to John’s first letter Jesus told his disciples that ‘God is light’.  New Jerusalem is a city of light.   Its descent began with what Luke calls cloven-tongues of fire and with what John calls being given the morning star and what (second) Peter calls the day star rising in your heart.

Those who have had this experience live in a new reality: the second death has no power over them – the second death involves being cast into a lake of fire burning with brimstone; it is connected to the great day of God’s anger in which the heaven departs like a rolled up scroll (Revelation 6:14).

Revelation’s message is Israel is wicked.  It dealt treacherously with God.  Jerusalem is wicked because it played the harlot with other gods.  Israel will return to the Promised Land after being in exile for a long time but will be no better behaved than it was.  It, and its friends, will attempt to dominate the world.  Their activity will be like the activity of locusts – the faces and the hair of the locusts identifies them as Hebrew (Leviticus 19:27).

Amos says Israel pants after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor (Amos 2:7). Isaiah accuses them of joining ‘house to house and field to field’ (Isaiah 5:8). John says in Revelation that the merchants of Jerusalem were the great man of the earth (Revelation 18: 23).

 

Israel (the prince of this world) lost its status as a consequence of Jesus’ victory: that is the meaning of war in heaven between Michael and the dragon.  There was no actual war in heaven.  After Israel lost its high position it went to make war with the followers of Jesus.  It persecuted the church.

Israel began its thousand years in the pit when Jerusalem was destroyed.  It returned from exile in foreign countries across the sea – which is why John says the beast rose up out of the sea.  The beast like a lamb does not come from across the sea.  It is home grown.  It is the church of Paul.

Revelation says two entities, the image of the beast (Paul’s Christianity) and the beast with the head wound (Israel), will have power over the earth for a time and then they will be killed by the second death.  Earth and heaven will disappear in front of the great white throne of God.

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‘Jesus and the prophets’

 

The Gospels maintain Jesus was the man prophesied in the Hebrew Bible.  Mark says Jesus is the Christ (Mark 14:62).  John says Jesus is the Messiah (John 4:26).  All four Gospels have Jesus say the scriptures testify of him and that Moses wrote about him.  The Gospel writers agree that Jesus believed he was the man in the Hebrew Bible.

 

Jesus believed he was the prophet Moses had predicted.  Deuteronomy says that Moses predicted God would give Israel a prophet like himself (Deuteronomy 18:18).  Deuteronomy was written no earlier than 550 BC.  Second Samuel belongs to the Deuteronomic history and contains Nathan’s prophecy of an everlasting kingdom for the son of David (2 Samuel 7:13).  Both these prophecies entered the Hebrew Bible as part of the contribution made by the Deuteronomist and may be as late as the fifth century BC.

New Testament contributors claim David was a prophet and that he prophesied in his psalms.  Images that appear in Psalms also appear in the New Testament.  Jesus refers to Psalm 110 (Mark 12:36) and Psalms 35 and 69 (John 15:25).

Individual psalms are difficult to date and their authorship presents problems as they were written over a period of several centuries: from the early days of the monarchy to after the Babylonian Exile.  The psalms that date from the time of David and Nathan may contain the earliest ideas about the Messiah – later contributors may have looked to Psalms for inspiration for their prophecies.

 

Jesus identified himself as the prophet promised by Moses and as the seed of David promised by Nathan.  Jesus was familiar with Hebrew Bible prophecy.  How well he understood it before he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him is open to question, but during his mission, and before his crucifixion, Jesus demonstrated he was familiar with it.  After his baptismal experience Jesus would have wanted to know what had happened to him and may have looked for an answer or explanation in the Writings and Psalms.

 

Psalms were utilised in personal and public ritual.  The Book of Psalms was employed as the hymnbook of the Second Temple.  Jesus may have begun his search for an explanation of his paranormal experience in the Psalms of David.  He understood his experience as union with God and he called himself the Son of God.  Psalm 2 contains the idea of God begetting a Son and Psalm 89 speaks of a son and father relationship between the king and God.

David’s seed and the everlasting mercy shown to it are mentioned in Psalm 18.  Psalm 89 says David’s seed will be established forever.  Psalm 110 starts with God talking to David’s Lord and later David’s Lord is called a priest forever: ‘after the order of Melchizedek.’  Psalm 132 says it is the fruit of David’s body that will be set upon the throne and the horn of David that will be made to bud.  Psalm 112 mentions the thrones of the house of David.

A number of Psalms attributed to David contain complaints about his enemies.  He says they are wicked and that they increase in number.  In Psalm 7 David says his enemies persecute him.  In Psalm 35 he asks God to fight on his behalf.  Psalm 55 sees David complain that his enemies are angry with him and hate him.  In Psalm 56 he claims his enemies would daily swallow him up.  In Psalm 59 he says bloody men lie in wait for his soul.

In the Gospel of John (John 2:17) the disciples turn verse nine of Psalm 69 into a prophecy fulfilled by Jesus: ‘For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up’.  It is clear that statements made in Psalms could be seen as prophecy about Jesus.  Psalms could have served as a source of information about the Messiah for the prophets, for Jesus and for contributors to the Gospels.  If Jesus identified himself as the man in the book (the prophet predicted by Moses and the seed of David predicted by Nathan) he would have been able to see a connection between himself and statements made in Psalms.

Any statement by David or the prophets could be used to support claims made about Jesus by contributors to the Gospels.  Psalm 22 contains the question: ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ used in Mark (Mark 15:34).  John (John 19:24) uses another phrase from the same Psalm: ‘They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.’

David presents himself as a man of sorrow and suffering.  In Psalm 41 David complains that people who hate him whisper against him and conspire to harm him. He says the whisperers claim he is suffering an illness from which he will not recover.  Psalm 55 sees David complain of heartache, the terrors of death and of being overwhelmed by horror.  The author of Psalm 71 says his enemies believed God had forsaken him, that he was vulnerable and that God had shown him great troubles.  Psalm 109 has David complaining about the mouth of the wicked and of being a reproach.

In Psalm 38 David says there is no soundness in his flesh, his wounds stink, his loins are filled with a loathsome disease and he is feeble and sore broken.  Psalm 31 has David complain his eye, soul and belly are consumed with grief, his life is grief and sighing, his strength is failing and his bones are destroyed.  In Psalm 22 he moans he is poured out like water and that his bones are out of joint and visible.  Psalm 109 has David complain that he is loosing weight and is acquiring weak knees from fasting.

Some of David’s lyrics appear to be about resurrection.  Psalm 16 says God would not leave David’s soul in hell or allow his Holy One to suffer decomposition.  Psalm 30 says God brought David’s soul up from the grave and kept him alive.  Psalm 40 says God brought David up out of a pit of miry clay.

 

The author of Psalm 49 says God will redeem his soul from the grave.  Psalm 56 says God delivered David’s soul from death.  The author of Psalm 71 says God will give him life again and bring him back from the grave: ‘Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.’

Jesus may have identified himself and his mission in Psalms.  In the Book of Psalms contributors to the Gospels were able to discover a mission of suffering, rejection, death and resurrection for Jesus.

Moses predicted a prophet like himself.  Nathan predicted a seed of David whose kingdom would be an everlasting kingdom, says the Deuteronomist.  Contributors to the Gospels make Jesus both of these men.  If Jesus saw his mission in the Book of Psalms he could have understood his mission would entail rejection, suffering, death and resurrection – he may have found talk of pierced hands and feet disturbing (Psalm 22).

Jesus would have looked for information about himself in the prophets as well as in the Book of Psalms.

It is said that the book of Isaiah contains prophecies about the Messiah.  Isaiah and his followers may have produced the first twenty-three chapters of Isaiah during the last four decades of the 8^th century BC.  Jesus would have read in Isaiah’s book that a virgin would give birth to a son and call him Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14).  Isaiah calls this child the Wonderful Counseller, Mighty God, everlasting Father and Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).  Isaiah makes it clear he is talking about a king from the house of David who would establish an everlasting kingdom (Isaiah 9:7).

Chapter eleven of Isaiah starts with the prediction that a rod would come out of the stem of Jesse: the spirit of God will rest upon him; he will be wise and understanding; he will smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, slay the wicked with the breath of his lips and be righteous and faithful (Isaiah 11:4).

 

In chapter forty-two of second Isaiah (written in the 6^th century BC) Jesus would have read of God’s chosen servant.  God put his spirit upon this servant.  He would bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.  He would be given for a covenant to the people and for a light to the Gentiles.  Chapter forty-nine says the servant would be God’s salvation to the end of the earth.

The most powerful account of the righteous servant appears in chapter fifty-three.  It is clear the servant is suffering on behalf of others.  Verse eight says the servant will die for God’s people.  Verse ten says his soul will be made an offering for sin.  Verse eleven says he will see the trouble his soul goes through.  Verse twelve says his soul will be poured out to death and that he carries the sin of many and makes intercession for the sinners.

Verse nine of chapter sixty-five predicts God will bring forth a seed out of Jacob and Judah who will be an inheritor of God’s mountains – chapters fifty-six to sixty-six are called Third Isaiah.

Jesus could have read Isaiah and concluded the servant of God would die for the sins of others, would bring God to the Gentiles, and make God’s salvation known to the ends of the earth.  Jesus could have read that the servant would be despised and rejected (Isaiah 53:3), wounded and bruised (Isaiah 53:5), taken out of prison and killed (Isaiah 53:8) but that God’s work would prosper in his hand.

From the Psalms of David and the book of Isaiah Jesus could have assumed the servant of God would die but live on.  There is no information in either of these sources to suggest the servant would undergo resurrection on the third day.

In the book of Jeremiah Jesus could have read that God was going to raise a righteous Branch unto David.  The righteous Branch would be a king who would execute judgement and justice in the earth (Jeremiah 23:5).  Jeremiah says that at some time in the future God would cause the Branch of righteous to grow up unto David and he would execute judgement and righteous in the land (Jeremiah 33:15).  If he was a descendant of David, Jesus could have identified himself as the Branch.  There is nothing written in Jeremiah about the Branch having to suffer rejection or death.

Chapter thirty-one contains information about a new covenant with Israel.  This new covenant would see God’s law put into the inward parts of the Jewish people and the law would be written in their hearts.

Ezekiel has little to say about the Messiah. Verse twenty-two of chapter seventeen is seen as a prophecy of the Gospel – it could also been seen as a prophecy of the Branch.  Verse twenty-three of chapter thirty-four says God will set his servant David as shepherd over his flock.  In verse twenty-four of chapter thirty-seven Ezekiel says David will be king over them and in verse twenty-five he says David will be their prince forever.

Jesus may have seen himself in Ezekiel’s prophecy of David the shepherd.  Ezekiel’s David is not rejected by the people or sacrificed for the people.

 

Unless Jesus knew Daniel was written to progress the 2^nd century BC Maccabean agenda he would have assumed the work to be authentic.  Verse thirteen of chapter seven introduces ‘one like the Son of man’ who comes with the clouds of heaven to the Ancient of days.  There he is given an everlasting kingdom that includes all people, nations and languages.  Verse twenty-five of chapter nine introduces the Messiah and verse twenty-six of chapter nine says the Messiah will be cut off and Jerusalem and the temple destroyed.

If Jesus believed himself to be Messiah he may have discerned his death in verse twenty-six of chapter nine of Daniel.

Hosea says that at some point the children of Israel will return and seek God and David their king (Hosea 3:5).  In verse two of chapter six he says God will revive us after two days, and in the third day God will raise us up and we shall live in his sight.

Jesus could have identified himself as the David mentioned by Hosea.  Hosea is the only prophet to talk of being raised up on the third day.

The prophet Joel says God will pour out his spirit upon all flesh (Joel 2:28).  Jesus may have seen his own experience reflected in this prophecy.  Amos says God will rise up the tabernacle of David (Amos 9:11).  Obadiah says nothing Jesus could have applied to himself.

Jonah says he spent three days and three nights in the belly of a fish.  In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus says he will spend the same amount of time in the heart of the earth as Jonah spent in the fish (Matthew 12:40).  The Gospel of Luke has Jesus say he will be a sign to his generation as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites (Luke 11:30).

Micah predicted Messiah would come from Bethlehem.  Jesus would have known if he came from Bethlehem (the native city of David).

If Jesus believed himself to be the Branch he would have seen a mention of himself in Zechariah (Zechariah 3:8).  Verse twelve of chapter six contains more information about the Branch.

In Zechariah Jesus would have read that the Messiah would ride an ass’s foal into Jerusalem (Zechariah 9:9).  In verse ten of chapter twelve Jesus would have read of a character that would be pierced and whose hands would have wounds in them (Zechariah 13:6).  In verse seven of chapter thirteen Jesus would have read: ‘smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered’.

Jesus may have understood Malachi to be talking of John the Baptist in verse one of chapter three of his book and Jesus may have seen a reference to his own situation in verse two of chapter four.

The Gospel writers have Jesus identify himself as Messiah.  Jesus would have known if he was of the house of David.  If Jesus believed himself to be the Branch or Son of David he would have found his destiny outlined in the writings of David and the prophets.

Based on what he read in the Hebrew Bible Jesus might have concluded he had been chosen to save the world, that he would suffer death for the benefit of others, that he would be brought back from the grave and that he would be given an everlasting kingdom made up of all nations and peoples.

How Jesus could have known he would spend three days and three nights in the earth or rise on the third day is not obvious.  Hosea mentions being raised up in the third day and Jonah talks of being in the belly of the fish for three days and nights.  Neither piece of writing appears to be about Jesus.

Jesus could have believed he would be wounded and have his hands and feet pierced.  But there are no clear indications that his death would be by crucifixion or that he would have to be lifted up like the fiery serpent of brass Moses made (Numbers 21:9).

Moses and Nathan created the role of the man in the book (Prophet / Messiah).  David and the prophets developed the role through Psalms and prophecy.  Isaiah and Second Isaiah were important to the development of the character.  Jeremiah and Ezekiel contributed less to the development of the character but perpetuated the notion of the character’s reality.  The author of Daniel and the authors of some of the Minor Prophets influenced the development of the character.

Messiah appears to be a character created and developed by contributors to the Hebrew Bible.  Contributors to the Gospels claim Jesus was that character and claimed to be that character.

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‘The Spirit like a Dove’

Jesus saw the Spirit like a dove.  John the Baptist did not see the Spirit descend and rest upon Jesus; the nature of the experience makes a sighting by John the Baptist impossible: the Spirit is not seen with the eyes and is not ‘out there’ to be seen.

One may possibly assume Jesus looked in the Hebrew Bible for information about winged spirits.  In Psalm 17 he would have found talk of God’s wings.  In chapter four of Malachi he would have read about a Sun with wings.  He would have read about the winged creatures that feature in the writings of Ezekiel and Isaiah and he would have read about the cherubims of gold whose wings covered the mercy seat (Exodus 25:18).  He would not have found any mention of a Spirit like a dove.

The description of the Holy Spirit given in the Gospels does not appear in the Hebrew Bible.  Jesus did not liken what he saw to the visions experienced by Isaiah and Ezekiel or to the Sun of righteousness mentioned in Malachi.  The description given by Jesus seems unique – no avian spirit resembling a small to medium sized white pigeon can be associated with Yahweh or Judaism.

 

What Jesus described as a Spirit like a dove could be described differently elsewhere.  It may, in Revelation, be described as two wings of a great eagle (Revelation 12:14).

 

Winged gods and goddesses are not uncommon.  El is often depicted with two wings. Ishtar is associated with wings.  Shaushka is associated with wings.  Arma has wings. But none of these deities resemble a bird.

 

Two gods that do resemble birds are Horus and Ahura Mazda.  These gods appear to be ancient gods.  Horus was one of the earliest Egyptian gods.  In his original form he was known as lord of the sky – he supposedly gave the throne of Egypt to King Menes about 3000 BC.  Ahura Mazda may link with an Indo-European bird-like being, Garuda, the eagle mount of Vishnu.

Horus was a sun god.  In the Pyramid Texts he is known as god of the east, and as Horakhty (Horus of the two horizons) he was god of the rising sun and god of the setting sun.  Re-Horakhty resulted from an amalgamation of Horus and Re after Horakhty had been brought into the sun cult of Heliopolis.  Re is Egyptian for sun.

Horus as Behdety was the hawk-winged sun disk.  The hieroglyph for sun, time, light and the god Re, looks like a circle with a smaller circle in the middle.  Joining the wings of Horus to the hieroglyph for Re would produce a winged circle containing a smaller circle (or a winged-disk with a circle in the centre).

The Persian Ahura Mazda is in part represented as a winged circle.  Horus and Ahura Mazda are seen as supreme gods and are associated with light and kingship.  The king of Egypt was Horus.  Darius the great worshiped Ahura Mazda as the creator of heaven and earth and maintained kingship originated with that god.  Egypt became part of Darius’ empire and as the King of Egypt Darius became the living Horus.

 

Predynastic rulers of Egypt were known as the Followers of Horus.  Horus was associated with Hierakonpolis (city of the hawk).  Hierakonpolis is the Greek name for Nekhen.  Nekhen is known from the Naqada 1 period (4000 BC to about 3500 BC).

The Naqada two period (3500 BC to about 3200 BC) has produced evidence of contact between Upper Egypt and Mesopotamia.  Tomb one hundred from Hierakonpolis is painted with a motif whose style is suggestive of the art of Susa.  Contact between Upper Egypt and Susa may have taken place by a southern route unknown to Lower Egypt.

Susa was the capital of Elam, a country in Southwest Iran.  Urban centres developed there from the fourth millennium BC.  The earliest writing associated with Elam is pictographic: pictographic writing is the oldest form of writing known; it was used in Egypt and Mesopotamia before 3000 BC.  Elamite pictographic writing was replaced by cuneiform.  Susa was in contact with Upper Egypt and Mohenjo-Daro in the Indus Valley and played an important role in international trade.

Hindu myth mentions the sunbird Garuda that is associated with Vishnu.  Garuda was forced to acquire the drink of the gods in order to have his mother released by the serpents who held her captive.  After completing this task he teamed up with Vishnu.

The sunbird myth is linked with Indo-European or Aryan people who invaded India from Iran between about 2000 BC and 1200 BC.  The sunbird myth is not found in all Indo-European traditions.  Contact between Susa in Southwest Iran, Mohenjo-Daro in the Indus Valley and Hierakonpolis in Upper Egypt could suggest Ahura Mazda, Garuda and Horus had a shared beginning.

In the last quarter of the 6^th century BC the Persian kings Cambyses and Darius conquered Egypt.  After Cambyses died Egypt tried to regain its independence but Darius defeated their attempt and had control of Egypt by about 518 BC.

The Benu bird is an Egyptian avian deity.  It supposedly played a role in the creation of the world.  Some scholars see similarities between the Benu bird and the Spirit of God mentioned in Genesis (Genesis 1:2).  The mythology of Heliopolis says the Benu bird flew over the waters of Nun before creation, landed on a mound (ben-ben), broke the silence and determined what was to be created.  Atum was the mound or ben-ben stone upon which Benu settled.  The Benu bird was used in the myth of the phoenix or firebird associated with Heliopolis; it was also thought of as the ba (soul) of Re.

 

Yahweh has no avian form.  Neither Moses nor any of the patriarchs assign a bird form to Yahweh.  Pharaoh had no knowledge of Yahweh, the God Moses represented (Exodus 5:2), even though Yahweh was introduced as an established God: the God of the fathers of the Hebrews in Egypt.

The mercy seat upon which Moses sat to communicate with Yahweh had a winged cherub at each end (Exodus 25:19).  Wings can be linked to the religion of Moses through the use of cherubims as decoration on the mercy seat.  Yahweh spoke from between the cherubs.  Perhaps wings were more important to Moses than the Hebrews knew – or it could be wings were ‘added’ to the mercy seat by the Deuteronomist during or after the Babylonian exile.

 

Abraham is recognised as the most important of the patriarchs: all Jewish people trace their descent from him.  Abraham came from the Sumerian city of Ur.  Nanna was the god of Ur.  Other important gods of Sumer were An, Enlil, Enki, Utu and Inanna.  None of these divine beings had an avian form.

 

Ur had been in conflict with Elam during the Old Elamite period.  Between 2530 BC and 2450 BC the Elamites possessed Sumer.  Sargon conquered Sumer in 2334 BC.  Amorites took all of Mesopotamia after 1900 BC.  Abraham is supposed to have lived at Ur when Hammurabi ruled in Babylon, which was between 1792 BC and 1750 BC.

Abraham left Ur and went to Harran – the god Nanna was associated with Harran.  From Harran Abraham entered Canaan.  The important gods in Canaan were El, Baal and Anath.  Anath was young, beautiful and female.  Baal rode on the clouds and was Lord of the Heavens.  El fathered all of the gods except Baal and he was often depicted as an old man with wings.  Wings can be associated with some divine creatures but they do not play a significant part in the religion of Ur.

Wings are significant in Egyptian religion.  Several of their gods and goddesses are shown with wings – even the soul of the high god Re has wings; no other ancient civilization had as many gods and goddesses with wings or avian form.

The most well known gods with avian forms are associated with Egypt, Persia and India.  Bird-like divinities were important in parts of Egypt before 3500 BC.  Ahura Mazda is linked to Iran through Zoroaster but may have been revered before Zoroaster proclaimed him in the 7^th century BC.  The myth of Garuda could be connected to the Indus Valley civilization – or a people of unknown origin, who invaded India between 2000 BC and 1200 BC, might have introduced it to India.

People similar to Sumerians settled Southwest Iran (Khuzestan) in 6000 BC.  Cities emerged in Khuzestan in the fourth millennium BC at about the same time as those in Mesopotamia.  Khuzestan became the hub of the Elamite Kingdom and Susa, its most important city, became a capital city in Persia.  Ahura Mazda became the most important god in Persia.

Aryan is the name given to people who invaded India from Iran.  The name Aryan comes from the Sanskrit word for noble.  Vedic Sanskrit was spoken in India from about 1800 BC and is closely related to an ancient Iranian language, Avestan: the language of the Avesta or sacred writings of Zoroastrianism.  Ahura Mazda and Garuda come from traditions that are closely related through language.

Garuda could be linked to an Indo-Iranian speaking people who entered the Indian subcontinent from the west and spread through the northern part of India.  Before these people arrived a civilization developed along the valley of the Indus River.  The Indus Valley civilization was important between about 2600 BC and 1760 BC.

Nothing definite can be said about the influence of the Indus Valley civilization on Sumer, Elam or Egypt.  Trade between the Indus Valley and Sumer is confirmed by the presence in Ur of seals manufactured by Indus Valley workers.  As Elam was in contact with Ur, the Indus Valley civilization and Upper Egypt, movement of religious ideas could have taken place between those areas.

 

Abraham came from the city of the Sumerian moon god, Nanna, but the moon god is not the god of Abraham.  Some citizens of Ur worshiped family gods and it has been claimed that Yahweh was Abraham’s family god: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The patriarchs did not associate a bird spirit with their family god.  Winged creatures are not mentioned as part of Hebrew tradition before cherubims serve as decoration on the mercy seat.  After the Temple was built Isaiah said he had a vision of seraphims there; his seraphims had six wings each.  Ezekiel claimed a vision of cherubims when he was by the river Chebar; his cherubims had four wings each.

 

Seraphims and cherubims are the only winged creatures linked to Yahweh.  Neither can be described as a spirit like a dove.  Perhaps Isaiah’s vision and Ezekiel’s vision of angelic beings have been misreported.  These prophets do not agree about what they saw but they do agree that what they saw had wings – nowhere do they compare what they saw to a dove.

No avian spirit is associated with deity in Judaism.  The seraphims featured in Isaiah have faces, feet and hands.  Isaiah’s seraphims speak and use tools.  One claim is that the sound of a seraphim’s voice moved doorposts.  According to Ezekiel cherubim look like men but have four faces, four wings each and hands under their wings.  These ‘creatures’ are beyond being described as dove like.

There is no obvious tradition of a Spirit like a dove in Judaism.  Egyptian tradition recognizes several bird-like deities.  Horus is probably the oldest of these.  Horus and Pharaoh are a union: they are one and the same.  This union is similar to the union Jesus claimed existed between himself and his Father (John 14:10).  Iranian tradition features Ahura Mazda.  Plutarch wrote that the Persians believed Ahura Mazda was born from purest light.  This notion is similar to the message proclaimed by John in his first letter (John 1:5).  John wrote that Jesus told his disciples: ‘God is light’.

The Encounter with the Spirit like a dove recorded in the Gospels is a paranormal event.  What was seen came from heaven.  Iranian and Egyptian traditions appear more appropriate than Israeli tradition as traditions in which to seek a supernatural avian entity.  If the Bible can be believed Israel spent several hundred years in Egypt. Consequently that country’s traditions could have directly influenced Israeli tradition.  Iranian or Persian influence on the religion of Israel may have been less significant.

 

As the Spirit like a dove came from heaven it cannot be tied to any one country or religion.  It cannot be limited by tradition or nationality.  Judaism does not claim the Spirit like a dove as part of its religion.  The Spirit like a dove is not seen as an aspect or expression of Yahweh.  Judaism is ignorant of the Spirit like a dove.

 

Christians accept that the Spirit like a dove is important to their religion but that is as far as their understanding of the Spirit goes: they do not know what the Spirit looks like and cannot describe what Jesus saw.  The Spirit like a dove is unknown in Judaism and it is a mystery in Christianity.

Christianity will be unable to identify the tradition its God belongs to until it understands what the dove Spirit looks like.  Judaism will not appreciate what it has rejected until it understands what the dove Spirit looks like.

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‘The Morning Star’

The morning star of Revelation is not the planet Venus.  It is not a celestial body; it is an aspect of a paranormal experience.  This experience is about the day star arising in one’s heart or about being sat upon by cloven-tongues like as of fire.  Matthew seems to contain a distorted report of the star experience and its function.

Only one prophecy about a star can be found in the Hebrew Bible.  It was not a prophecy made by a prophet of Israel.  Balak, king of the Moabites, sent the elders of Moab and Midian to engage Balaam, a prophet who lived at Pethor, to curse Israel.  Balaam could not carry out the commission and instead predicted that: ‘There shall come a Star out of Jacob’ (Numbers 24:17).

No supernatural star can be associated with Israel.  The Star of David has nothing to do with David and the Star of Solomon has nothing to do with Solomon.  Magen David or Shield of David is made of two equilateral triangles that form a six-pointed star.  The six-pointed star, like the five-pointed star or seal of Solomon, originated in antiquity and was used in non-Jewish magical traditions.

Stars can be found in two traditions linked with Israel: Akkadian and Egyptian.  The Star of Ishtar is found in the tradition of Akkad.  It has six, eight, or sixteen rays and is contained in a circle.  Akkadian, the oldest Semitic language for which there is evidence, was the language of Sargon.  Ur, the city from which Abraham came, and the rest of Sumer was part of Sargon’s empire.

A five-pointed star is the most important star in Egyptian tradition.  Its hieroglyph is connected to adoration, the priesthood and deity.  The goddess Sopdet was associated with a five-pointed star and, according to the Pyramid Texts, was mother to the morning star.  Sopdet acted as an afterlife guide to the late king.  The dead king became the morning star.

The Egyptian five-pointed star was sacred.  From Ptolemaic times the hieroglyph of a five-pointed star could be used to depict god.  Various versions of five-pointed stars occur in Egyptian tradition.  One type has a circle or circular space in the centre.  It can be seen in the Tomb of Pedamenope (Thebes) and on the Sarcophagus of Merenptah (Egyptian Museum, Cairo).

 

Judaism does not attach a special importance to the morning star.  It had no mystical value for the patriarchs or the prophets.  Yahweh is not associated with the morning star.  The morning star is not connected to deity or the paranormal in Judaism.  Although stars have no supernatural value in Judaism they do have supernatural value in Christianity.  In Revelation angels have star form (Revelation 1:20) and the author has Jesus identify himself as the morning star (Revelation 22:16).

Similarities between the Egyptian morning star tradition and the religion of Jesus are clear: in both the morning star is connected to deity and the transformation of the newly deceased pharaoh into the morning star is similar to the transformation of Jesus into the morning star.

Venus is known under a variety of names: Hesperus, Vesper, Phosphorus, Eosphoros, and Lucifer.  None of these names can be applied to the Christian morning star; it is not the planet Venus and it does not shine in the night sky or the morning sky.

Second Peter contains an allusion to the experience of receiving the star.  In that epistle the experience is said to involve the day star rising in the heart (2 Peter 1:19).  Acts says cloven-tongues of fire sat upon the apostles (Acts 2:3) – cloven tongues of fire joined together would resemble a star with several points.

A sound similar to a rushing wind is part of the paranormal phenomena connected to the disciples’ experience at Pentecost.  The sound came from heaven.  It would not have been audible to individuals not involved in the experience of cloven tongues of fire sitting upon them.

Christianity has a star experience associated with it.  That fact cannot be denied.  Information about that experience is contained in a tradition linked to Peter and a tradition linked to John.  The morning star or day star experience is common to the teaching of two of the disciples closest to Jesus.

Jesus belongs to a religious tradition in which a star experience is important.  This tradition is not found in Judaism.  It seems to be a tradition with affinities to ancient Egyptian belief.  Christianity does not understand the cloven tongues of fire experience.  It has not recognised it as the morning star experience or day star experience.

Unless Christianity achieves a genuine understanding of the morning star experience it will not understand Jesus or the religious tradition to which he belongs.  The relationship or lack of relationship between Christianity and Judaism cannot be appreciated without a correct understanding of the morning star experience.

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‘Ezekiel 1:18’

The religion of Moses has a strong connection to a burning bush and a pillar of cloud (or smoke).  A Spirit like a dove and a star experience are important in the religion of Jesus.  It would be easier to link the religion of Jesus to the religious traditions of Egypt that it would be to connect it to the religion of Moses, Jacob, Isaac or Abraham.  Mosaic religion seems to have more in common with Sivaite and Scythian like traditions in which cannabis was used.

It seems impossible to connect the religion of Moses to Egyptian traditions but it is (just) possible to make a link between the vision of Ezekiel and the religion of Egypt.  Ezekiel, in verse eighteen of chapter one of his work, describes seeing rings that were high and dreadful.

 

Ezekiel’s description of these rings is similar to Egyptian Coffin Texts references to Mehen.  Mehen exists as nine concentric rings around Re, the sun god, and appears to have been known in Predynastic Egypt – examples of a board game based on his image are known from that time.  Middle Kingdom Coffin Texts mention the mysteries of Mehen and supply the earliest reference to his name.

 

Egyptian tradition assigns a serpent form to Mehen.  Ezekiel says the dreadful rings he saw were full of eyes.  When the serpent form and eyes of these accounts are disregarded both accounts are seen to involve rings in the sky.  Religious traditions that feature rings in association with the sun are found mainly in Western Europe.

 

Most concentric circle monuments (Stonehenge, etc) are dated to the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods.  However one artefact found in Austria and dated to about 24000 BC wears concentric circles on her head.  Consequently it is possible to posit a concentric circle or ring tradition in Europe before that time.

 

Unfortunately the artefact, found by Josef Szombathy in 1908, has been named the Venus of Willendorf – a name containing a reference to the sun would have been more appropriate.  The circles on the head of the faceless ‘woman’ may symbolize or represent an experience like the vision spoken of in Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:18).

 

Ezekiel claims to have had a supernatural experience.  One part of that experience involved him seeing rings that were so high they were dreadful.  Ezekiel appears to be saying he saw rings in the sky.  Rings are associated with religions in which the sun plays a part.  In Egyptian religious tradition nine concentric rings are connected to the sun god Re.

 

Concentric rings feature in the sun based religions of the Bronze Age and Neolithic Period in Western Europe.  An artefact recovered from a Palaeolithic site near Willendorf in Austria wears concentric circles around her head – a very ancient tradition (with supernatural content), in which a vision of concentric rings is central, is suggested.

 

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‘Three Paranormal Events’

Three paranormal events, an experience involving a star (or tongues of fire), one involving a spirit similar to a dove and another experience involving concentric rings have been identified.

 

Each of these events involved seeing an image.  The image seen was imposed upon the sight of the individual having the experience.  Nothing the recipient did would have had an effect on the seeing: eyes open or eyes closed the vision would have continued.  The seeing is beyond the control of the recipient.  Individuals who have such an experience find their reality changed.

 

The experience is private.  Several people could be in the same room and one of them could see (or receive) the star and the rest of people would know nothing about it.  Two people could be sitting together and one could see the heavens open and the Spirit like a dove descending while the other person experienced nothing untoward.  Any number of people could be out walking or shopping on a busy street and one person might see concentric rings in the sky while the rest of the people see nothing out of the ordinary.

 

Although the star experience is private several individuals can have the experience at the same time.  Peter was one of several disciples to have the original star experience associated with Christianity.  On a visit to a group of gentiles he witnessed them have the same (or a similar) experience to the one he and his fellow disciples had.  There seem to have been many recipients of the morning star or cloven tongues of fire.

 

Recipients of the morning star receive the morning star in their foreheads.  Acts records this as cloven tongues of fire sitting on each of the individuals present (Acts 2:3).  The star has five points or tongues of light and each point or tongue of light has a colour.  There are five colours in all.  At the centre of the star there is a ring or circle and the light in that ring is similar to clear glass or crystal.

 

Sound accompanied the visual display: in Acts this sound is called a rushing mighty wind (Acts 2:2) and in Revelation the sound is describes as the sound of many waters (Revelation 1:15) – like the sounds in a waterfall.

 

Jesus saw the Spirit like a dove.  This Spirit is made up of a white ring (or circle) with a white wing on either side of the circle: two wings in total.  When seen the image appears to be flying.  The wings move constantly in a flying motion but the image does not fly away; it seems to stay overhead, but it does not hover.

Experience number three is an outside experience.  The recipient will see a cone of static concentric rings that begin in the air before and above their eyes and which reach up to the sun.  The sun is framed in the highest of the rings and the recipient is at the centre of the lowest of the ring.  A descending sun (not setting) is associated with this vision.  The rings are black in colour.

 

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‘Remember’

The Bible has been fashioned by many contributors.  In the 10^th century BC Yahwist contributors were tasked with making Jewish people appear to be the oldest people in the world.  They made Hebrew ‘history’ begin with Adam.  A descendant of Adam, Lamech, was the father of Noah.  Terah, a descendant of Noah’s son Shem, was the father of Abraham.  Isaac was the son of Abraham and the father of Jacob.  Judah was a son of Jacob.  Jesse, the father of David, was a descendant of Judah.  This genealogy makes King David a direct descendant of Adam.

 

Nathan claimed Yahweh would establish David’s kingdom forever, says the Deuteronomist: a major contributor to the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament).  Nathan’s prophecy gave rise to the idea of the Messiah.  The part Messiah would play was developed in the Psalms of David and the writing of some of the prophets.  Messiah would come, defeat Israel’s enemies, and establish an everlasting worldwide kingdom.

 

The Deuteronomist also claimed another prophet like Moses would be given to the children of Israel.  Contributors to the Gospels and Christian writing claim Jesus was the Messiah predicted by Nathan and the prophet predicted by Moses.  Paul claims Jesus is a particular seed of Abraham and inheritor of promises made to Abraham.

 

Hebrew prophets who witnessed the downfall of Israel and Judah predicted the children of Israel would return to their Promised Land, where the Messiah would establish an everlasting kingdom.  Paul says Jesus will rule for a while then place himself under God’s authority and God will be all in all – his teaching is that Israel will be saved and Jesus will not inherit an everlasting throne, only a temporary one.  Revelation says Israel will return again and be completely destroyed after a short time.

 

Moses and Jesus had different religions: the religion of Moses involved a burning bush and a cloud; the religion of Jesus involved an avian spirit and the morning star. The children of Israel may not have had an understanding of the religion of Moses but their burning bush and cloud stories suggest cannabis use was involved in it.  No resemblance between the religion of Moses and the religion of Jesus can be found in the Bible.  But Egyptian religion, the religion of Persia, and the religion of Jesus seem related – an avian deity and the morning star feature in Egyptian religion and Ahura Mazda, a Persian god, has an avian form similar to Horus.

While it is not possible to show a link between the religions of Moses and Jesus it is possible to indicate a potential link between the vision of Ezekiel and Egyptian religion: the rings in Ezekiel’s vision are vaguely reminiscent of the Egyptian god Mehen but that god’s concentric rings are not full of eyes.  Paranormal rings feature in Ezekiel’s vision but nowhere else in the Bible.  An Avian deity and morning star link the religions of Jesus and Egypt, and the concentric rings (Mehen) of Egyptian belief link with the stone circles and wood henges associated with western European Sun-based religions.

The three paranormal events mentioned in this work are real and the descriptions given derive from personal experience.  Jesus saw the Spirit like a dove: a white circle or ring with two white wings in constant flight.  The disciples saw cloven-tongues of fire, the morning star of Revelation: a five-pointed star with a crystalline circle at its centre; each tongue or point of the star has its own colour.  Ezekiel’s high and dreadful rings play no part in Christianity but concentric rings play a part in ancient Egyptian and ancient Western European religions.  The concentric rings do not have eyes, do not resemble a serpent, and are not red: they are individual black circles that frame the recipient at one end and the sun at the other end.

 

The Synoptic Gospels probably developed from traditions linked to Paul.  Matthew and Luke contain sizeable portions of Mark.  Matthew makes the genealogy of Jesus begin with Abraham.  Luke makes it begin with Adam.  Adam and Abraham were important to Paul’s teaching.  According to Paul Jesus was the special seed of Abraham and was foreshadowed in Adam.  The Synoptic Gospels do not portray Jesus and his disciples favourably.  They present the reader with an unhelpful interpretation of the Christian message.

 

John’s Gospel probably developed from traditions linked to the actual disciples of Jesus.  It contains valuable information not found in the Synoptic Gospels and offers the reader a helpful interpretation of the Christian message.  John’s Gospel is sympathetic to Jesus and his disciples but shows antipathy for the Jewish religious (Pharisees, priests and high priest).

 

Revelation takes this antipathy further and makes Israel the entity hidden behind the number six hundred threescore and six (666): the beast that was, was not, and was to come.  Israel is the name of the political beast and another name for Jacob.  The idea that Israel would be reconstituted or return is based on the Hebrew prophets.  Revelation says that shortly after its return it will be totally destroyed.

 

Jerusalem is the great whore spoken of in Revelation.  Several prophets denounce the city for its adulteries and whorish behaviour.  Like the beast the whore is destined for destruction.

 

Paul is the antichrist.  His supposed conversion on the road to Damascus gave him away.  It is not possible for the fire from heaven to shine on people or around people.  He changed the definition of Jew to include uncircumcised Gentiles, and named his followers children of Abraham and the Israel of God.  Paul’s church is the image made to the beast.

 

The basic message in Revelation is, that after not being around for a long time Israel becomes a country again.  It and its supporters will have power for a short time but that power will be taken away from them in the battle of Gog and Magog.  A new heaven and a new earth follow.

 

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Bibliography: books consulted during the production of this guide: Authorized King James Version of the Bible, ‘Encyclopaedia Britannica’ (1999), ‘The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt’ edited by Ian Shaw (Oxford University Press 2000), ‘The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt’ by Richard H Wilkinson (Thames and Hudson 2003), ‘How to read Egyptian Hieroglyphs’ by Mark Collier and Bill Manley (The British Museum Press 1998).

 

Author: Patrick Duffy

© October 2012