As we see here the symbolism used in freemasonry if transferred to our early religious texts would give a clue as to why JESUS was a carpenter/builder. It doesn't matter either way ----our early 99% of citizens loved and followed Jesus because he was humble, working class, spreading hope and GOD'S NATURAL LAW----please think about the symbolism in our Torah, Bible, Koran as to whether it really was important to our early 99% of citizens pulling together their beliefs and religions. We see below those dastardly CATO/NERO/SENECA pre-Christian KINGS AND QUEENS took control of JUDEA and it is highly likely this is when all that OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS global 1% freemasonry surrounding TRIBES OF ISRAEL was created-----this has nothing to do with the 99% of REAL Jewish citizens who can be those 10 TRIBES OF ISRAEL always losing----it has nothing to do with our 99% REAL Catholic citizens who have been shouting against ROMANIZED KINGS AND QUEENS capture of their religion since these 500 BC----500AD Roman rule.
'Around 60 b.c. The Roman Triumvirate Pompey brought Judea under Roman Rule. He pushed all the Jews into the areas of Gallilee, Jericho and Jersalem. Then he settled Greeks and Syrians in the rest of the land of Palestine. Originally, Galilee was settled by the tribe of Benjamin who always followed the tribe of Judah'.
YOU SAY POMPEO WE SAY TRIUMVIRATE POMPEY----LET'S CALL THE WHOLE THING OFF BY STOPPING MOVING FORWARD.
Remember, these global 1% OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS need a super-duper big dead head to think for them so nothing today is original thought----they have not EVOLVED.
'Mike Pompeo, Sharp Critic of Hillary Clinton, Is Trump’s Pick ...www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/us/politics/donald...Nov 18, 2016 · On Friday, President-elect Donald J. Trump, who defeated Mrs. Clinton after a bitter campaign, selected Mr. Pompeo to run the Central Intelligence Agency'.
If we started with the earliest world religion recognized these thousands of years of human development HINDI as this video shows would be the oldest ---about 3000BC. Since we KNOW MOVING FORWARD ONE WORLD ONE RELIGION has a goal of taking us back to that HINDI pagan god and goddesses religion we can see that our NORDIC and GREEK/ROMAN pagan gods and goddesses rituals no doubt came from HINDI---THE 3 INDIAS.
So, the OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS tied to the earliest EASTERN SILK AND SPICE TRADE OF 3000BC ---to 500 BC had all regions controlled by KINGS AND QUEENS creating religious structures allowing them to DECLARE they were descendants of those PAGAN GODS.
'Understanding the Origin of the Greek Gods
The most complete version of the Greek creation myths that survives is a poem called the Theogony (“Birth of the Gods”) by a poet named Hesiod, who lived in the late eighth or early seventh century B.C. (that is, the low-numbered 700s or high-numbered 600s BC)'.
Below we see the game of CHESS originated in Indias migrating throughout EASTERN TRADE ROUTES just as these pagan religions did.
Where Did Chess Originate?
By
B Sumangal
Chess originated in India around 7th century AD (around 1400 years ago). The game was then called Chaturanga – chatur meaning four and anga meaning parts. The game comprised the four parts of the army: elephants, horses, chariots and foot soldiers besides the king and his mantri (minister).
The game was in fact a battle-plan drawn on a smaller scale, to find out ways and means of outsmarting the enemy.
How was it played? In the game, one side of the army had to knock out or capture the opponent’s pieces from the board until the king was captured or ‘checked’, that is, made immobile. The player who ‘checked’ the opponent king’s movements won the game.
It is still played in the same way.
From India, soldiers and merchants took the game to Persia (present day Iran) around 600 A.D. where it came to be called Shatranj. At the same time travellers took the game to China where it was played in a modified form called Xianqui. The Japanese, when they came to know of it, called it Shogi.
The Crusaders from Europe who came to fight the Holy Wars in Palestine against the Muslim Saladdin in the 12-13th century took the game to Europe. They called it ‘chess’ from the Old French word ‘echec’ meaning ‘check’.
The pieces were made of ivory and consisted of a King, Rook or Castle (the elephants of Chaturanga times); knights (horses and cavalry) and Pawn (foot soldiers). To be in the good books of the powerful Catholic influence of the time, a piece called the ‘Bishop’ was also added. The most important piece, the minister, was replaced by the only female piece, the Queen.
Chess became very popular in no time. Landlords during the Renaissance period of the 12th and 13th centuries even played with live people who were beheaded instead of simply being captured!
In time players discovered that the first few movements called ‘openings’ could decide the outcome of the game. Experts then kept notes on the games of their opponents, how they played earlier and came up with strategies to preempt these moves.
It was only in the 20th century that chess began to be played as a professional game. Seeing how popular these were, newspapers began to publish each game move by move. Then in 1924 the Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE) was set up to formulate rules to supervise the game. Players also began to be rated for their performance. They were called International Masters. If they were the best of the best they became known as Grandmaster.
FIDE also laid the rule that every player must say ‘echec’ or ‘check’ when the king is in a position of being captured. The king is therefore checkmated ending the game. The word ‘checkmate’ literally means ‘the King is dead’ from the word ‘echec mat’ which in turn came from the Persian word ‘shah mat’.
Computers too made the game easier to learn and play. While the average computer can beat an amateur, most experts can beat the computer.
Today chess is a popular international sport made famous by India’s own Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand. Other chess greats include the American Bobby Fisher, Russians Gary Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov, players with huge fan followings. There’s even a separate Olympics for chess, held every two years! Once a pastime of the old, today it is common to see children at six or seven years in international games.
The same board is also used to play the game of Draughts or Checkers. Its origin? That’s another story!
__________________________________________
If we remember our early 99% of WE THE PEOPLE would not create religions tied to KINGS and QUEENS telling us these religious texts are THE WORD OF GOD when we know these texts were selected and edited and that GOD'S WORDS appear in only two spots in our Christian Bible OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT----then it is easy to see where our early religions were corrupted by OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS. It does not make these texts bad-----it means we must work to discover the true meaning of our religions.
So, HINDI is the oldest of our world religions and after the FALL OF EMPIRE OF ISRAEL we see the creation of JEWISH, MUSLIM, AND CHRISTIAN religions and texts.
Now, back then there were the same group of STEM humanists tied to ancient science and math mysticism wanting to deny a GOD existed===making fun of our 99% beliefs in GOD and that extended to the prophets JESUS/MUHAMMAD. If we cannot prove GOD does not exist we cannot prove GOD cannot touch prophets with the ability of miracles.
This is where our divisions in early religions fell. So, we had several different religious sects being JEWISH, being MUSLIM, being CHRISTIAN none of which saw these prophets as KINGS.
What we notice is our JEWISH religion was short-lived before it was scattered with endless wars and being made EX-PATS----we see pockets of Jewish communities spread around the EASTERN WORLD----
Animated map shows how religion spread around the world
Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are five…
youtube.com
It was our JEWISH OLD TESTAMENT that took what was pagan religions of gods and goddesses designed to be royal families to which people worship with the FAKE MT OLYMPUS as being the HEAVENS MEETS EARTH history of EARTH and made a religion centered on the history of MAN/WOMAN---HUMAN HISTORY. The Jewish OLD TESTAMENT was written full of practical knowledge of how humans create business and economy organizing families reacting to GOD'S NATURAL events. All 99% of WE THE PEOPLE no matter the religion must respect this bringing of religion to our 99% MEN AND WOMEN. Now, did early Jewish OLD TESTAMENT really include all those BEGATS-----all those KINGS AND QUEENS who happened to be WISE----JUST-----MANIFEST DESTINY EMPIRE-BUILDERS?
MOSES RECEIVED THE TEN COMMANDMENTS WHICH WE ARE TOLD ARE THE ACTUAL WORDS OF GOD. THESE COMMANDMENTS DID NOT EXEMPT KINGS----IT MADE KINGS ACCOUNTABLE TO THESE SAME TEN COMMANDMENTS AND GOD'S WILL.
'The Law of the Patriarchs
Again, because there was very specific revelation and instruction given to the patriarchs, there was a law given to these Old Testament believers. Though very little detail of this is given, God’s instructions to them still represent His law, the system of principles and rules designed to direct their lives. This is illustrated in Genesis 26:5 which says, “Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws.”'
If we glance quickly at what is today's interpretation of MOSAIC TEN COMMANDMENTS from 3000 years ago we see what were simple statements made into LAWS----made into DOGMA-----these laws were received by ANGELS-----so, this is a complete corruption of our early JEWISH and CHRISTIAN religions.
The Mosaic Law: Its Function and Purpose in the New Testament
Introduction
A great cause of confusion today concerns the place of the Mosaic law in the New Testament believer’s life. While this short study cannot begin to cover all the issues involved, it is my hope that it will shed some light and remove some of the confusion.
One of the profound emphases of the New Testament, especially the epistles of Paul, is that Christians are no longer under the rule of the Mosaic law.
This truth is stated in no uncertain terms and in various ways (see Rom. 6:14; 7:1-14; Gal. 3:10-13, 24-25; 4:21; 5:1, 13; 2 Cor. 3:7-18), but in spite of this, there have always been those who insist that the Mosaic Law, at least the Ten Commandments, are still in force for the Christian. In regard to the relation of Christian ethics to the Mosaic Law, Luck writes:
There are Christian teachers of repute who consider the Mosaic law to be the present-day rule of life for the Christian. A view not infrequently found among earnest, orthodox believers is that although we are not saved by the law, once we have been justified by faith, then the Mosaic law becomes our rule of life. Those holding such a view generally make a sharp division of the Mosaic law into two parts, which they distinguish as the moral and the ceremonial. The ceremonial portion they consider as having found its fulfillment in Christ at His first advent, and thus as having now passed away. But the moral portion of the Mosaic law, say they, is still in force as the believer’s rule of life. The treatment given to Christian ethics by some highly respected authors is indeed but little more than an exposition of the Decalogue.
It seems exceedingly strange that Bible-believing Christians should advocate such a view, when the New Testament makes it abundantly clear that the believer in Christ is not any longer under the Mosaic law in its entirety… Indeed after having been delivered from the law, to deliberately place ourselves once again under its [control] is said to be “falling from grace.”
But let it be immediately understood that this does not mean to say that we should necessarily behave in a manner just opposite to what the Mosaic law commands—that we should kill, steal, bear false witness, etc. Long before the law was given through Moses, it was utterly wrong to do such evil things. . .2
By contrast, the age in which we live, the church age, has often and rightly been called the age of grace. This is not because God’s grace has not been manifested in other ages, but because in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ we have the ultimate manifestation of God’s grace.
Titus 2:11-12. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. It trains us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,
Grace becomes an absolutely inseparable part of the believer’s life in Christ. In the coming of Christ and His death on the cross, the Mosaic Law as a rule of life was terminated. The believer is now to live in the liberty and power of God’s grace by the Spirit, not the rule of law.
This new liberty must never be used as an occasion to indulge the flesh or sinful appetites (Gal. 5:13) nor does it mean the Christian has no moral law or imperatives on his life, but simply that he or she is to live righteously by a new source of life as asserted in Romans 8
Romans 8:2-4. For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
But a great deal of confusion exists over the issues of law and grace and the place of the Mosaic law in the New Testament believer’s life. However, the basic principle is that the “fusion” of law and grace brings a “confusion” which results in sterile legalism. Because of man’s natural bent toward either legalism or license, the place and function of the Law has been an issue in the Christian community since the very early days of the church. There have always been those who have sought to put the Christian back under the Law or make the Law necessary for both salvation and sanctification. As a result large sections of the New Testament are written directly to this issue (see Acts 15 and the council at Jerusalem; Romans 5:10; 6:14; 7:1f; 2 Cor. 3:6-18; and the entire book of Galatians). These passages were written against a legalistic use of the Law, one which promotes works to gain points with either God or people; works of self-effort rather than a life lived by the power and personal leading of the Holy Spirit.
Of course, other parts of the New Testament are written against license and the misuse of liberty (Gal. 5:13ff. Rom. 6:1ff; 8:4ff; Tit. 2:11-14). But the answer is never to put the Christian back under the Law, but rather a proper understanding and appreciation of God’s grace to us in Christ. Christian liberty is not the right to do as one pleases, but the power, desire, and will to do as one ought in and by the power of God and a regenerated life.
This is ultimately the focus of Titus 2:11-14. The glorious manifestation of God’s grace in Christ instructs and trains believers in how to live. This grace provides the incentive, the motive, and the means. Regarding Titus 2:11-14 Ryrie writes:
The verb teaching encompasses the whole concept of growth—discipline, maturing, obedience, progress, and the like. This involves denial of improper things and direction into proper channels. These five terms—godliness, worldly lusts, soberly, righteously, godly—do not describe the content of grace teaching so much as they indicate the object and purposeful goal of that teaching. And this intent is, according to this passage, the ultimate purpose of the Incarnation of Christ. He came to display the grace of God in the changed lives of his people. The final cause of the revelation of the grace of God in Christ is not creed but character.
In Romans 6:14, Paul gives us a fundamental principle as it relates to the Christian’s understanding and the place of the Law in a believer’s life. “For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace.” (emphasis mine). Romans 6 deals with the believer’s walk or sanctification. In this regard, under grace is never to be taken as an excuse to sin as one pleases since he is under grace (6:1-2) and it is placed in strong contrast with under law. Two things are prominent here: (1) these two (law and grace) are set forth as complete opposites, and (2) the text also makes it clear that the only way the believer is going to experience true sanctification (victory over sin plus the production of positive righteousness) is by grace (the work of God in Christ) and never by law. The reasons, which will be set forth below, are bound up in two issues, the weakness of man’s flesh and the nature of the Law and its inability because of man’s weakness to produce a truly holy life. This is not to say that the Mosaic Law is not good and holy and does not have a function, but this too will be set forth below.
So just what is the meaning, nature, and place or function of the law in the New Testament?
The Meaning of the Term “Law”
In the Old Testament, the word “law” is used to translated the Hebrew word torah, “instruction.” The Hebrew word for “law” probably comes from the causative form of the verb yarah, “to throw,” “to shoot (arrows).” In the hiphil stem, the verb horah means “to point, guide, instruct, teach.” Hence, the law is that which provides authoritative guidance. In the New Testament, the Greek word used for law is nomos. Nomos means “that which is assigned,” hence, “usage, custom,” and then “law,” or “a rule governing one’s actions.”
Thus God’s law is His system of rules by which He shows and instructs in His will and administers the affairs of the world. Obviously the definition allows for and even implies that there might be differing systems of rules at various times, depending on what particular aspects or how much of His will God wishes to show at a given time.…A system of rules may be tailored for different times, peoples, or purposes. . .
OH, REALLY??????
As a result, in the progress of God’s revelation to man, we can see a number of different systems of law in the Scripture. These are:
The Law of Nature (Natural or Inherent)
This is the law Paul mentions in Romans 2:14, “For whenever the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things required by the law, these who do not have the law are a law to themselves.” (emphasis mine) The law of nature is one which contains natural revelation of God’s eternal power and divine nature (Rom. 1:20) and is sufficient to condemn those who reject this revelation, but not sufficient to save. Those who do not receive this natural revelation through nature demonstrate they are unable to receive the additional light (special revelation of Scripture) needed for salvation. “If a man rejects the revelation of God in the law of nature, he fails to qualify for the further revelation which will lead him to Christ.” This natural law perhaps also falls under the category of the eternal law of God for the moral principles of the Mosaic Law (the Ten Commandments) did not begin with Sinai, but are as eternal and immutable as the very holy character of God Himself (see 1 Pet. 1:16).
The Law of Eden
While the term “law” is never specifically used of Adam and Eve’s relationship with God in the Garden, by the definition of “law,” a system of principles or rules that instructs man as to God’s will and direction, there was a law given to Adam. He was instructed to “dress and keep” the garden, and to eat freely of all the trees except the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
The Law of the Patriarchs
Again, because there was very specific revelation and instruction given to the patriarchs, there was a law given to these Old Testament believers. Though very little detail of this is given, God’s instructions to them still represent His law, the system of principles and rules designed to direct their lives. This is illustrated in Genesis 26:5 which says, “Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws.”
The Law of Moses Given to Israel
The Mosaic Law is what we are most concerned about in relation to the New Testament believer. This consisted of 365 negative commands and 248 positive for a total of 613 commands. These may also be divided into three parts or sections (see below)—the moral, the social, and the ceremonial. As such, it covered every possible area of the life of Israel. It should be stressed that the moral principles embodied in the Mosaic Law given at Sinai were merely the codified expression of the eternal moral law of God as it was given to Israel to govern her life as a nation in order to experience God’s blessing under the Abrahamic covenant. For more on this aspect, see below.
Human Law as Prescribed by Man
There are obviously various forms of human laws, those prescribed by man through human government or custom (see Luke 20:22; Acts 19:38). While human government is an institution ordained by God’s will or law, some of the laws of man are direct expressions of the will of God, but still constitute laws by which men are often bound by the governmental system in which they live. Of course, where such laws conflict with God's laws, then we are obligated to obey God instead (Acts 4:19-20).
The Law of Christ, the Law of the Spirit of Life
The fact that the Mosaic law has been terminated does not mean that there is no law in this age of grace even though the nature of this law is quite different from the standpoint of incentive, motivation, and means. In fact, the epistles speak of “the perfect law of liberty (Jam. 1:25), “the royal law” (Jam. 2:8), the Law of Christ (Gal. 6:2), and the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:2). This consists of the many imperatives found throughout the epistles which comprise this law. These too cover all areas of the believer’s life to direct him in the will of God in today’s world.
The moral principles embodied in the law of Moses Paul calls “the righteousness of the law” (Rom 8:4), and shows that such principles are the goal of the Spirit-directed life in the same context in which he teaches the believer is not under the Mosaic law (Rom 6–8).
The Law of the Kingdom
The New Testament clearly speaks of and anticipates the reign of Christ on earth when He will rule in perfect righteousness and justice (Isa. 11:4-5). This will naturally mean many laws that will govern the life of citizens of the Kingdom. One only needs to consider Isaiah 2:3 which reads,
2:3 many peoples will come and say, “Come, let’s go up to the LORD’s mountain, to the temple of the God of Jacob, so he can teach us his requirements, and we can follow his standards.” For Zion will be the center for moral instruction,9 the LORD will issue edicts from Jerusalem. (NET Bible)
The Significance of these Various Laws
We can see from this that God is the administrator of the world. In the progress of His revelation and the development of His plan, there have been various economies (dispensations) administered by God with different regulations or laws giving precise instruction for each administration. The way God has run each economy or dispensation has varied, however, in each case, different people were addressed with the commands differing in quantity and character, but always with specific instruction.
The Use of the Term “Law” in the New Testament
A great deal of flexibility is found in the use of the term “law” in the New Testament. A few of the uses are as follows.
1. This term is used of the entire Old Testament (John 10:34; 12:34; 1 Cor. 14:21). John 10:34 is a quotation from Psalm 82:6, and 1 Corinthians 14:21f is a quote from Isaiah 28:11-12. Technically neither the Psalms nor Isaiah are a part of the Old Testament “law,” but sometimes the term “law” was applied to the entire Old Testament because it constituted God’s special revelation of instruction for Israel and ultimately for man.
2. It is used with such terms as the prophets, and writings, again as a title for the entire Old Testament Scripture, but in this way it looks at them in their division (Luke 24:27, 44).
3. It is especially used of the first five books of the Old Testament or the Mosaic Law (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). (Compare Luke 2:23; John 8:5; 1 Cor. 9:9; Gal. 3:10).
4. The term is used of the entire specific Mosaic code given to the nation Israel to govern and guide their moral, religious and secular life, and covers parts of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy (Deut. 4:8, 44-45).
5. The term is used of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:3-17).
6. Law is used of a principle, force or influence that impels one to action or behavior (Rom. 7:21, 23a, 25).
7. It is used of law in general (Rom 3:27 and possibly Rom. 5:13b).
The Origin and Source of the Mosaic Law
Though part of the Law was mediated by angels, God is the origin and source of the Mosaic Law, which stems from the eternal and holy character of God. This is true even of the natural law written in the heart or conscience of man (Exodus 31:1b; Acts 7:53; Rom. 2:14-16; Heb. 2:1-2).
The Nature and Content of the Mosaic Law
It is common to divide the Mosaic Law into three parts as illustrated below, but though this is helpful for analysis and the study of the Mosaic Law and the way it functions, such a division is never stated as such in Scripture. Rather it is seen as a unit. Arguments for this will be given below.
The Recipients of the Mosaic Law
The Mosaic Law was a bilateral covenant made specifically for Israel alone to govern her life in the promised land. From the Abrahamic Covenant (Gen.12) we see Israel was a chosen nation, an instrument of God to become a channel of blessing to all nations. Yahweh was her Theocratic King who was to rule and guide the nation in her destiny that she might not become polluted or contaminated by other nations and could thus fulfill her purpose. For this the Mosaic Law was instituted to direct Israel as a nation in all spheres of her life—morally, socially, politically, economically and religiously.
By its very nature, the Mosaic Law was not to be, and could not be, obeyed to the letter by any other people in any other place as a rule of life. However, in the spirit of the Law it did set forth moral principles which were applicable and would bring blessing to all people anywhere and at any time when applied and used as a standard of right and wrong.
There were certain economic provisions in the Law to govern and protect the economic life of Israel in their promised land. For example there was the right of property ownership, free enterprise, protection of the poor which guarded against the evils of great concentrations of wealth in the hands of a few with the consequent impoverishment of others. But the poor were provided for in such a way as to avoid the loss of free enterprise and the individual’s initiative by high taxation as well as to avoid making leeches out of men who refused to work.
However, the strict application of these laws to our world is impossible since the original conditions in which God directly intervened cannot he reproduced, at least not until the millennium. Yet, economists could study and learn much from these laws and principles.
The Characteristics of the Mosaic Law(1) The foundation and basis of the Mosaic Law is the covenant God made with the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In several places in Exodus and Deuteronomy, there are references to the Abrahamic Covenant which establish the fact that the giving of the Law at Sinai was based on the covenant with Abraham and God’s continuing plan for the nation of Israel as a priesthood nation (cf. Ex. 19:4-6; Deut. 4:4-8 with Ex. 2:24-25; Deut. 4:36-38; 29:31; 1 Chron. 16:15-19). God had promised to bless the descendants of Abraham and through them, the world. This was a promises reiterated and expanded to Abraham and to Isaac and Jacob. God would bless Israel and through them, bring blessing to the world (Gen. 12:1f; 15; 17:1ff; 26:24f; 28:13f). The Abrahamic covenant is a unilateral covenant. Its ultimate fulfillment is dependent on God’s sovereign and steadfast faithfulness to His promises to Abraham regardless of Israel’s continued disobedience (cf. Ezek. 20:1-44).
The Mosaic Covenant, however, was a bilateral covenant. Though its ultimate fulfillment is dependent on God, for any generation to experience the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant, there had to be faithfulness to God. Thus, enters the Law, a bilateral covenant given to Moses for the nation of Israel after their redemption out of the land of Egypt. It was through obedience to the Mosaic Covenant (the Law) that Israel would be able to experience the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant in the promised land. For obedience there would be blessings; for disobedience, cursing (cf. Deut. 28-30).
(2) The Mosaic Law is holy, good, and spiritual (Rom. 7:12, 14). It was, however, only temporary as the book of Hebrews so clearly teaches. As such, the Mosaic Law was designed to maintain a proper relationship between God and His people Israel (blessing versus cursing), but only until the coming of Messiah and the establishment of a New Covenant. The Law was never designed to be a permanent rule of life. It was merely a tutor or guardian to guide Israel in all areas of her life until Christ (2 Cor. 3:7, 11; Gal. 3:23-24; Rom. 10:4).
(3) The Mosaic Law is weak because it is dependent on man’s ability. It is especially weak when adopted as a system of merit (Rom. 8:3).
(4) The Mosaic Law was an indivisible unit, and is that which was terminated by the Lord Jesus. Though the Law is usually divided into three parts, as described above, it is important to see that it was an indivisible unit. Thus, when Paul stated that we are not under the Law, this included all three parts, including the Ten Commandments. Some will agree that parts of the Old Testament Law have been done away, but assert the Ten Commandments are supposedly still in force today. But all three parts of the Law were designed to function as a unit to guide Israel in all of its life. The Ten Commandments cannot be separated from the rest. Further, even though most recognize this three-fold division, the Jews so numbered all the commands that they approached the Law as a unit. Ryrie notes that,
“…the Jewish people either did not acknowledge it (the three-fold division) or at least did not insist on it. Rather they divided the 613 commandments of the Law into twelve families of commandments which were then subdivided into twelve additional families of positive and twelve additional families of negative commands.”10
Further, that it is a unit is evident by the fact that the recognition of any of its features, i.e., as a meritorious system of righteousness with God, obligates the person to fulfill the entire Law, as we are taught by both Paul and James (cf. Gal. 3:10, 12; 5:3; Jam. 2:8-11).
Further evidence that the Law is a unit is the penalty of death for disobedience is attached to all three parts of the Law.
Noticing the penalties attached to certain commands further emphasizes the unitized character of the Law. When the command to keep the Sabbath (one of the “commandments”) was violated by a man who gathered sticks on that day, the penalty was death by stoning (Num. 15:32-36). When the people of Israel violated the command concerning the Sabbatical Year for the land (one of the “judgments”), God sent them into captivity where many died (Jer. 25:11). When Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire before the Lord (one of the “ordinances”), they immediately died (Lev. 10:1-7). Clearly these commands from various parts of the Law were equally binding and the punishment equally severe. The Law was a unit.11
Finally, three times in 2 Corinthians 3:6-13 Paul declares that the Mosaic system is done away or abolished (vss. 7, 11, 13). In commenting on 2 Corinthians 3:7-13, Chafer wrote:
It is the law as crystallized in the ten commandments which is in view; for that law alone was ‘written and engraven in stones.’ In the midst of the strongest possible contrast between the reign of the teachings of the law and the teachings of grace, it is declared that these commandments were ‘done away’ and ‘abolished.’ It should be recognized that the old was abolished to make place for the new, which far excels in glory. The passing of the law is not, therefore, a loss; it is rather an inestimable gain.”
(5) The Mosaic Law stands in contrast to the grace of God as now manifested in the coming of Christ (Rom. 6:14; 7:6; 8:3; Gal. 3:12).
The Purpose and Function of the Mosaic Law
The Purpose and Function Explained
What then is the purpose of the Law?
Though given to Israel to govern her life in the promise land for blessing instead of cursing, there was an attendant purpose in the giving of the Mosaic Law to Israel—a purpose that still stands today. Simply put, its proper use is to show man his total helpless and hopeless condition before a righteous and just God.
1 Timothy 1:8-10 But we know that the law is good if someone uses it legitimately, 1:9 realizing that law is not intended for a righteous person, but for lawless and rebellious people, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 1:10 sexually immoral, sodomites, kidnappers, liars, perjurers—in fact, for any who live contrary to sound teaching.
In the study of the Bible, there are three specific purposes that surface in the proper use of the Mosaic Law.
(1) In a general sense, it was given to provide a standard of righteousness (Deut. 4:8; Psalm 19:7-9). In the process, the Mosaic Law revealed the righteousness, holiness, and goodness of God (Deut. 4:8; Lev. 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:7; Rom. 7:12-14). The Law at Sinai was given to Israel to reveal who God is and to shed light on the reality of an infinite gulf that separates God from man.
Romans 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
Romans 3: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
(2) The Law was given to identify sin and reveal man’s sin and bankrupt condition as guilty before God (Rom. 3:19f; 7:7-8; 5:20; Gal. 3:19). God’s holy Law reveals to man just who and what he is—sinful and separated from God by an infinite gulf that he is unable to bridge in his own human strength.
Romans 3:19-20 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 3:20 For no one is declared righteous before him by the works of the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
(3) The Law was given to shut man up to faith, i.e., to exclude the works of the Law (or any system of works) as a system of merit for either salvation or sanctification and thereby lead him to Christ as the only means of righteousness (Gal. 3:19-20, 20-24; 1 Tim. 1:8-9; Rom. 3:21-24). The ceremonial portion of the Law did this by pointing to the coming of a suffering Savior, “for without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness” (Heb. 9:22).
Romans 3:21-24 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God, which is attested by the law and the prophets, has been disclosed— 3:22 namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.3:24 But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:24-26 Thus the law had become our guardian13 until Christ, so that we could be declared righteous by faith. 3:25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. 3:26 For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.
Summary: Keeping the Law in the True Sense
By keeping the Law, we are speaking about the true sense as God intended it, not as Israel and man tend to take it. The Ten Commandments showed the Jew his sin (and so all mankind) and that he was shut up under that sin. The Ten Commandments were designed to guide him, indeed to drive him to the Ceremonial Law (the tabernacle, priesthood, and sacrifices) for forgiveness through faith in the sacrifices which pointed to Christ. Then, the Social Law, regulated his life by showing him how to live socially, not to give him merit before God, but to enable him to experience the blessings of the covenant rather than the cursing as God warned in Deuteronomy.
The Limitations of the Mosaic Law
When approached as a meritorious system, the Law cannot justify (Gal. 2:16), give life (Gal. 3:21), give the Holy Spirit (Gal. 3:2, 14), sanctify (Gal. 3:21; 5:5; Rom. 8:3), make perfect, or permanently deal with sin (Heb. 7:19). It was designed to be a temporary guardian until the coming of Christ, the Suffering Messiah Savior.
The Effects of the Mosaic Law
The reasons for the effects listed below lie in the wrong reaction of Israel and people today, i.e., approaching the Law as a system of merit, shifting from a faith basis to a works basis (Exodus 19:8; Rom. 10:3). People often try to use the Law as a means of establishing their own standing before God. But Scripture emphatically teaches us that the Law brings a curse (Gal. 3:10-12), brings death, it is a killer (2 Cor. 3:6-7; Rom. 7:9-10), brings condemnation (2 Cor. 3:9), makes offenses abound (Rom. 5:10; 7:7-13), declares all men guilty (Rom. 3:19), and holds men in bondage to sin and death (Gal. 4:3-5, 9, 24; Rom. 7:10-14). This is because man in his sinful state can never fulfill the righteousness of the Law, especially in the spirit of the Law. He always falls short as Romans 3:23 tells us, and becomes condemned or guilty before a Holy God (Rom. 3:19).
The End of the Mosaic Law as a Rule of Life
The Fact Established
Several passages of Scripture clearly establish that the coming of Christ has brought an end to the Mosaic Law. Paul specifically states that “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4). This instituted a new law or principle of life, i.e., the law of the Spirit, the one of liberty and grace (Rom. 8:2, 13). This fact was also clearly settled by the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. A council was convened in the church at Jerusalem to look into the issue of the Law and its place in the life of believers because some were saying “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved,” and because even certain of the Pharisees who had believed were also saying “It is necessary to circumcise the Gentiles and to order them to observe the law of Moses.” The conclusion of the council, consisting of apostles and elders, was to reject the concept of placing New Testament believers under the yoke of the Law (15:6-11). The only thing the Jerusalem Council asked was that Gentile believers control their liberty in matters that might be offensive to Jewish believers, but they did not seek to place the believers under the yoke of the Law for they realized the Law had come to an end.
Finally, the book of Hebrews demonstrates that the old covenant of the Mosaic Law was only temporary and has been replaced by the coming of Christ whose ministry is based on (1) a better priesthood, one after the order of Melchizedek which is superior to Aaron’s, and (2) a better covenant with better promises (see Heb. 7-10). The old covenant was only a shadow of heavenly things, and if it had been able to make men perfect before God there would have been no occasion for a second or new covenant (see Heb. 7:11-12; 8:1-13). This change in the priesthood also necessitates a change in the Law. Such a change shows the Law has been terminated or done away.
The Problem of Mosaic Laws as Commands for New Testament Believers
A careful reading of the New Testament shows us that nine of the Ten Commandments are repeated as obligations for believers. The one exception is the command to keep the Sabbath. If the Mosaic Law has been done away, then why are these commandments repeated in the New Testament? Further, some commandments outside the Ten Commandments are even repeated in the New Testament. For instance, as a motivation for loving others, Paul referred to four of the Ten Commandments because they demonstrate this principle, but then, to summarize, he mentioned one from Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” So in what sense has the Law been done away?
The Solution
Part of the purpose of the Law was to point men to the coming Savior through its shadows and types. Through the moral law, man could see God’s holy character as well as his own sinfulness and the infinite gulf that separates God and man. Through the ceremonial part of the Law (the priesthood, sacrifices, and tabernacle), man could find the solution to his sin by faith in what this part of the Law represented, a suffering Savior, one who would die as the Lamb of God. But even though no one could perfectly keep the Law, it was also designed for Israel’s immediate blessing by setting forth righteous principles that would show them how to love God and their fellow man. This would produce a stable and secure society as well as a testimony to the nations (Deut. 4:6-8).
Thus, in 613 commands the Mosaic Law represented an ethical code given by God to Israel to govern the nation until the coming of Messiah, but at their heart, they represented the moral law of God—righteous principles vital to humanity. Today, we are not under this code, but many of its righteous principles, the eternal laws of God, have been carried over and are part of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ (Rom. 8:2) or the law of Christ (1 Cor. 9:21; Gal. 6:2). In this, some of the former commands are carried over (Rom. 13:9), some new commands and guidelines are added (Eph. 4:11f; 1 Tim. 3:1f; 4:4), and some have been revised, as in the case of capitol punishment which is to be exercised by human government (Rom. 13:4).
It needs to be emphasized that the end of the Mosaic law, including the Ten Commandments, does not cancel or detract one iota from the eternal moral law of God. The moral principles of the ten laws did not begin with Sinai but are as eternal and immutable as the character of God. To understand this should dispel the fears of those who think the abolition of the Mosaic law leaves only a state of lawlessness.
The moral principles embodied in the law of Moses Paul calls “the righteousness of the law” (Rom 8:4), and shows that such principles are the goal of the Spirit-directed life in the same context in which he teaches the believer is not under the Mosaic law (Rom 6—8).
This should be no more difficult to understand than the fact that a citizen of the United States is not under the laws of Canada, even though the moral principles underlying the laws of the two countries are the same. When a citizen of the United States becomes a citizen of Canada he does not remain under ten of the best laws of the United States. Nor does the fact that some of the laws of the United States are quite similar to some of the laws of Canada confuse or compromise his new exclusive responsibility to Canada. So the believing Jew of the first century moved entirely from the Mosaic economy of law into the new economy of grace instituted by Jesus Christ (John 1:17).14
The Lawful Use of the Mosaic Law
The Law is still good from the standpoint of its main function and purpose as seen above in The Purpose and Function of the Law (1 Tim. 1:8-10; James 2:1-10; Gal. 5:1-3; 6:1). This is how James uses the Law, to reveal sin (James 2:9), to get believers out of self-righteous legalism, and move them into a walk by faith in a living Savior.
The Relationship of New Testament Believers to the Mosaic Law1. He is never saved by keeping the Law (Gal. 2:21).
2. He is not under the Law as a rule of life, i.e., sacrifice, Sabbath keeping, tithing (Rev. 6:14; Acts 15:5, 24).
3. Thus, he does not walk by the Law but by the Spirit, which is the new law for the New Testament saint (Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:5). This is law of liberty through faith in the power of God.
4. He is dead to the Law (Rom. 7:1-6; Gal. 2:19) by virtue of his union with Jesus Christ who fulfilled the Law.
5. He is to fulfill the righteousness of the Law, i.e., the spirit of the law as seen in Christ’s words in Matthew 10:37-40 love for God, and love for one’s neighbor (James 2:9). But this can only be fulfilled through a knowledge of Bible truth and the filling of the Holy Spirit, which furnishes the power or ability needed to live the Christian life according to the eternal moral law of God. So we are under God’s new law, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:2-4).
Christ, the Fulfillment of the Mosaic Law
Christ fulfilled the Ten Commandments by living a perfect and sinless life. Thus, when man trusts in Christ, Christ’s righteousness is imputed to that individual so we have justification. We have Christ’s righteousness so the Law can’t condemn us (Rom. 8:1; 7:1-6; Rom. 5:1; 4:4-8).
Christ fulfilled the ceremonial ordinances, the shadows and types of His person and work, by dying on the cross for us and in our place. This showed that God was also perfect justice and sin must be judged, but God provided His Son, the precious Lamb of God. The penalty which the Law exercised was paid. Again there is no condemnation because the believer is “in Christ” (Col. 2:14; Rom. 3:24-25).
Christ also fulfilled the Social Law, but now He replaces it with a new way of life fitting to our new salvation. He gives provision for the inner man—the indwelling Holy Spirit—who enables us to experience true sanctification so that we may experience also the righteousness of the Law (Rom. 8:2-4).
Summary1. Christ is the end of the Law and believers are not under the Mosaic Law. New Testament believers are not under Law but under grace (Rom. 6:14).
2. Since the Lord Jesus Christ fulfills the Law by His person and work, believers are under a new law; the obligation to walk by the Spirit of Life through faith (Rom. 8:2-4). If we are led by the Spirit, then we are not under the Law (Gal. 5:18).
3. Against such, i.e., the fruit of the Spirit, there is no law because the believer is then operating under the highest law, the standards are met as we walk by the Holy Spirit and grow in the Word (Gal. 5:22).
Warning Against Entanglements with the Law as Believers Today
After salvation by grace there has always been the grave danger of reverting to Law or legalism by taboos and tactics of coercion, or some form of human manipulation (Gal. 3:1-3). To go back to the Law as a way of life puts one under the control of the flesh, it nullifies true spirituality by faith in the Holy Spirit, and defeats the believer. It results in human good and domination by the sin nature or the flesh (Gal. 5:1-5; Col. 2:14f). The fact that the Christian is not under the Mosaic Law does not mean, of course, that there is lawlessness or no proper sense of morality or ethics in the Christian life. Quite the contrary is true. But in dealing with the subject of morality or ethics, it must be understood that the clear teaching of the New Testament is that the moral life the Christian is responsible for is that (1) no one can be saved by virtue of his own works (Tit. 3:5; Eph. 2:8-9), and (2) that the morality of the Christian life is to be the result of the Christ exchanged life by faith and submission to the ministry and power of a Spirit-controlled life.
The Threefold Duties of the New Testament Believer
In the New Testament, then, completely adequate teaching is provided as to the principles of conduct the Christian will follow if he truly presents his body “a living sacrifice” (Rom 12:1) and walks “in the Spirit” (Eph 5:9). In Titus 2:11-14 is to be found a convenient outline around which to group these principles. First in this passage it is majestically stated that God’s grace brings us salvation. But His grace then teaches us to live soberly, righteously and godly. These are three important lines of responsibility: the believer is to live soberly with regard to himself (Rom 12:3); righteously with regard to his fellow men; and godly with regard to the Lord. The same truth can be more or less expressed in a somewhat different way: We should seek to live in accordance with the precepts of grace because (1) this will please God (Heb 13:16) and will demonstrate our love for Christ (John 14:15); (2) it will help others (Matt 5:16; Titus 3:8,14); (3) it will bring true joy and blessing to our own hearts (John 15:10-11).
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This article sets the development of JEWISH religion in its world historical context. The OLD TESTAMENT is a history of JEWISH EMPIRE with MOSES being that JEWISH PROPHET GOD chose to receive his words. We see how important our OLD TESTAMENT is to all humanity------this is why our CHRISTIAN AND MUSLIM religious texts are based on these OLD TESTAMENT writings. These JEWISH OLD TESTAMENT writing have been corrupted by OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS just as our NEW TESTAMENT has--- the TORAH, KORAN, BIBLE over 3000 years have been edited away from our early 99% of WE THE PEOPLE religious writings.
IF this article was written by a REAL 99% JEWISH citizen we see corruption in what OLD TESTAMENT creation story had to say.
DOES GOD HAVE A GENDER? DOES IT MATTER?
The creation story in OLD TESTAMENT is simply an acknowledgement of real scientific history of EARTH and HUMANITY. It takes us away from gods and goddesses living on MT OLYMPUS playing games with our 99% of lives----and sets our early religion to a REAL 99% of humanity.
'The god of Genesis is bisexual: he/she is often referred to in female as well as male terms'.
Tracing the bloodlines of an ADAM AND EVE through KINGS AND QUEENS directed at the rise of EMPIRE OF ISRAEL is a very KINGS AND QUEENS writing-----just as our NEW TESTAMENT with lots of reference to JESUS being THE KING OF KINGS. That is not who JESUS was----it is not who MOSES was----please think back to when our 99% of citizens were writing and living these religious texts.
12 TRIBES OF ISRAEL mentioned in this article we feel is written by global banking 5% OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS freemason/Greek creates that corrupted religion that makes its way into our Christian NEW TESTAMENT with JESUS HAVING 12 DISCIPLES-----did Jesus have 12 disciples which is exactly the same as 12 TRIBES OF ISRAEL ----and does it really matter?
Ancient Jewish History: The Birth and Evolution of Judaism
Ancient Jewish History: Table of Contents|The Temples|The Twelve Tribes
The Hebrew religion gave us monotheism; it gave us the concept of rule by law; it gave us the concept that the divine works its purpose on human history through human events; it gave us the concept of the covenant, that the one god has a special relationship to a community of humans above all others. In the West, in the Middle East, in most of Africa and Asia, the legacy of Hebrew religion permeates nearly everything you see.
The Hebrew religion, so important and far-reaching in its influence on human culture, did not spring up overnight. Along with the Hebrew history, the development of Hebrew religion was a long and rocky road. Major shifts in the Hebrew fate inspired revolutions in the religion itself; it wasn't until sometime after the Exilic period that the central document of Hebrew faith, the Torah, took its final and orthodox shape.
Through archaeology and analysis of Hebrew scriptures, scholars have divided the development of the Hebrew religion into four main periods.
Pre-Mosaic Stage (1950-1300 BCE)
Little or nothing can be known for certain about the nature of Hebrew worship before the migration from Egypt. In Hebrew history, Abraham is already worshipping a figure called "Elohim," which is the plural for "lord." This figure is also called "El Shaddai" ("God the Mountaineer (?)," translated as "God Almighty"), and a couple other variants. The name of God, Yahweh, isn't learned by the Hebrews until Moses hears the name spoken by God on Mount Sinai. This god requires animal sacrifices and regular expiation. He intrudes on human life with astonishing suddenness, and often demands absurd acts from humans. The proper human relationship to this god is obedience, and the early history of humanity is a history of humans oscillating between obedience to this god and autonomy. This god is anthropomorphic: he has human qualities. He is frequently angered and seems to have some sort of human body. In addition, the god worshipped by Abraham and his descendants is the creator god, that is, the god solely responsible for the creation of the universe. The god of Genesis is bisexual: he/she is often referred to in female as well as male terms. For instance, this god is represented frequently as "mothering" or "giving birth through labor pains" to the world and humans (these passages are universally mistranslated in English as "fathering"—this god is only referred to as a "father" twice in Genesis ). In Genesis , Elohim or El Shaddai functions as a primitive law-giver; after the Flood, this god gives to Noah those primitive laws which apply to all human beings, the so-called Noahide Laws. Nothing of the sophistication and comprehensive of the Mosaic laws is evident in the early history of the human relationship to Yahweh as outlined in Genesis .
Scholars have wracked their brains trying to figure out what conclusions might be drawn about this human history. In general, they believe that the portrait of Hebrew religion in Genesis is an inaccurate one. They conclude instead that Hebrew monolatry and monotheism began with the Yahweh cult introduced, according to Exodus, in the migration from Egypt between 1300 and 1200 BC. The text of Genesis in their view is an attempt to legitimate the occupation of Palestine by asserting a covenantal relationship between Yahweh and the Hebrews that had been established far in the distant past.
All these conclusions are brilliant but tentative, for we'll never know for sure much of anything substantial about Hebrew history and religion during the age of the patriarchs or the sojourn in Egypt. Nevertheless, scholars draw on the text of Genesis to conclude the following controversial ideas about early Hebrew religion:
— Early Hebrew religion was polytheistic; the curious plural form of the name of God, Elohim rather than El, leads them to believe that the original Hebrew religion involved several gods. This plural form, however, can be explained as a "royal" plural. Several other aspects of the account of Hebrew religion in Genesis also imply a polytheistic faith.
— The earliest Hebrew religion was animistic, that is, the Hebrews seemed worship forces of nature that dwelled in natural objects.
— As a result, much of early Hebrew religion had a number of practices that fall into the category of magic: scapegoat sacrifice and various forms of imitative magic, all of which are preserved in the text of Genesis .
— Early Hebrew religion eventually became anthropomorphic, that is, god or the gods took human forms; in later Hebrew religion, Yahweh becomes a figure that transcends the human and material worlds. Individual tribes probably worshipped different gods; there is no evidence in Genesis that anything like a national God existed in the time of the patriarchs.
The most profound revolution in Hebrew thought, though, occurred in the migration from Egypt, and its great innovator was Moses. In the epic events surrounding the flight from Egypt and the settling of the promised land, Hebrew religion became permanently and irrevocably, the Mosaic religion.
National Monolatry and Monotheism (1300 - 1000 BCE)
According to Hebrew history narrated in Exodus , the second book of the Torah, the Hebrews became a nation and adopted a national god on the slopes of Mount Sinai in southern Arabia. While we know nothing whatsoever of Hebrew life in Egypt, the flight from Egypt is described in Hebrew history with immense and powerful detail. The migration itself creates a new entity in history: the Israelites; Exodus is the first place in the Torah which refers to the Hebrews as a single national group, the "bene yisrael," or "children of Israel."
The flight from Egypt itself stands as the single greatest sign from Yahweh that the Israelites were the chosen people of Yahweh; it is the event to be always remembered as demonstrating Yahweh's purpose for the Hebrew people. It is the point in history that the scattered tribes descended from Abraham become a single unit, a single nation. It is also the crucial point in history that the Hebrews adopt Yahweh as their national god.
Hebrew history is absolutely silent about Hebrew worship during the sojourn in Egypt. A single religious observance, the observation of Passover, originates in Egypt immediately before the migration. This observance commemorates how Yahweh spared the Hebrews when he destroyed all the first born sons in the land of Egypt. The Yahweh religion itself, however, is learned when the mass of Hebrews collect at Mount Sinai in Midian, which is located in the southern regions of the Arabian peninsula. During this period, called the Sinai pericope, Moses teaches the Hebrews the name of their god and brings to them the laws that the Hebrews, as the chosen people, must observe. The Sinai pericope is a time of legislation and of cultural formation in the Hebrew view of history. In the main, the Hebrews learn all the cultic practices and observances that they are to perform for Yahweh.
Scholars are in bitter disagreement over the origin of the the Yahweh religion and the identity of its founder, Moses. While Moses is an Egyptian name, the religion itself comes from Midian. In the account, Moses lives for a time with a Midianite priest, Jethro, at the foot of Mount Sinai. The Midianites seem to have a Yahweh religion already in place; they worship the god of Mount Sinai as a kind of powerful nature deity. So it's possible that the Hebrews picked up the Yahweh religion from another group of Semites and that this Yahweh religion slowly developed into the central religion of the Hebrews. All scholars are agreed, however, that the process was slow and painful. In the Hebrew history, all during the migration and for two centuries afterwards, the Hebrews follow many various religions unevenly.
The Mosaic religion was initially a monolatrous religion; while the Hebrews are enjoined to worship no deity but Yahweh, there is no evidence that the earliest Mosaic religion denied the existence of other gods. In fact, the account of the migration contains numerous references by the historical characters to other gods, and the first law of the Decalogue is, after all, that no gods be put before Yahweh, not that no other gods exist. While controversial among many people, most scholars have concluded that the initial Mosaic religion for about two hundred years was a monolatrous religion. For there is ample evidence in the Hebrew account of the settlement of Palestine, that the Hebrews frequently changed religions, often several times in a single lifetime.
The name of god introduced in the Mosaic religion is a mysterious term. In Hebrew, the word is YHWH (there are no vowels in biblical Hebrew); we have no clue how this word is pronounced. Linguists believe that the word is related to the Semitic root of the verb, "to be," and may mean something like, "he causes to be." In English, the word is translated "I AM": "I AM THAT I AM. You will say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent you."
For a few centuries, Yahweh was largely an anthropomorphic god, that is, he had human qualities and physical characteristics. The Yahweh of the Torah is frequently angry and often capricious; the entire series of plagues on Egypt, for instance, seem unreasonably cruel. In an account from the monarchical period, Yahweh strikes someone dead for touching the Ark of the Covenant; that individual, Uzza, was only touching the ark to keep it from falling over (I Chronicles 13.10).
But there are some striking innovations in this new god. First, this god, anthropomorphic or not, is conceived as operating above and outside nature and the human world. The Mosaic god is conceived as the ruler of the Hebrews, so the Mosaic laws also have the status of a ruler. The laws themselves in the Torah were probably written much later, in the eighth or seventh centuries. It is not unreasonable, however, to conclude that the early Mosaic religion was a law-based religion that imagined Yahweh as the author and enforcer of these laws. In fact, the early Hebrews seemed to have conceived of Yahweh as a kind of monarch. In addition, Yahweh is more abstract than any previous gods; one injunction to the Hebrews is that no images of Yahweh be made or worshipped. Finally, there was no afterlife in the Mosaic religion. All human and religious concerns were oriented around this world and Yahweh's purposes in this world.
As the Hebrews struggled with this new religion, lapsing frequently into other religions, they were slowly sliding towards their first major religious and ethical crisis: the monarchy. The Yahweh religion would be shaken to its roots by this crisis and would be irrevocably changed.
The Prophetic Revolution (800 - 600 BCE)
Wearied from over two centuries of sporadic conflict with indigenous peoples, broken by a ruinous civil war, and constantly threatened on all sides, the disparate Hebrew settlers of Palestine began to long for a unified state under a single monarch. Such a state would provide the organization and the military to fend off the war-like peoples surrounding them. Their desire, however, would provoke the first major crisis in the Hebrew world view: the formation of the Hebrew monarchy.
In the Hebrew account of their own history, the children of Israel who settled Palestine between 1250 and 1050 BC, believed Yahweh to be their king and Yahweh's laws to be their laws (whether or not this is historically true is controversial). In desiring to have a king, the tribes of Israel were committing a grave act of disobedience towards Yahweh, for they were choosing a human being and human laws of Yahweh and Yahweh's laws. In the account of the formation of the monarchy, in the books of Samuel , the prophet of Yahweh, Samuel, tells the Israelites that they are committing an act of disobedience that they will dearly pay for. Heedless of Samuel's warnings, they push ahead with the monarchy. The very first monarch, Saul, sets the pattern for the rest; disobedient towards Yahweh's commands, Saul falls out with both Samuel and Yahweh and gradually slips into arbitrary despotism. This pattern—the conflict between Yahweh and the kings of Israel and Judah—becomes the historical pattern in the Hebrew stories of the prophetic revolution.
Whatever the causes, a group of religious leaders during the eighth and seventh centuries BC responded to the crisis created by the institution of the monarchy by reinventing and reorienting the Yahweh religion. In Hebrew, these religious reformers were called "nivea," or "prophets." The most important of these prophets were Amos, Hosea, Isaiah (who is actually three people: Isaiah and "Second Isaiah" [Deutero-Isaiah], and a third, post-exilic Isaiah), and Micah. These four, and a number of lesser prophets, are as important to the Hebrew religion as Moses.
The innovations of the prophets can be grouped into three large categories:
Monotheism
Whatever the character of Mosaic religion during the occupation and the early monarchy, the prophets unambiguously made Yahweh the one and only one god of the universe. Earlier, Hebrews acknowledged and even worshipped foreign gods; the prophets, however, asserted that Yahweh ruled the entire universe and all the peoples in it, whether or not they recognized and worshipped Yahweh or not. The Yahweh religion as a monotheistic religion can really be dated no earlier than the prophetic revolution.
Righteousness
While Yahweh is subject to anger, capriciousness, and outright injustice in the earlier Mosaic religion, the Yahweh of the prophets can do nothing but good and right and justice. Yahweh becomes in the prophetic revolution a "god of righteousness"; historical events, no matter how arbitrary or unjust they may seem, represent the justice of Yahweh. The good and the just are always rewarded, and the evil are always punished. If there is any evil in the world it is through the actions of men and women, not through the actions of Yahweh, that it is committed.
Ethics
While the Mosaic religion was overwhelmingly concerned with the cultic rules to be followed by the Israelites, the prophets re-centered the religion around ethics. Ritual practices, in fact, become unimportant next to ethical demands that Yahweh imposes on humans: the necessity of doing right, showing mercy, punishing evil, and doing justice.
There still, however, is no afterlife of rewards and punishments in the prophets, but a kind of House of Dust, called Sheol, to which all souls go after their death to abide for a time before disappearing from existence forever. There is no salvation, only the injunctions to do justice and right in order to produce a just and harmonious society.
The historical origins of these innovations are important to understand. The monarchy brought with it all the evils of a centralized state: arbitrary power, vast inequality of wealth, poverty in the midst of plenty, heavy taxation, slavery, bribery, and fear. The prophets were specifically addressing these corrupt and fearsome aspects of the Jewish state. They believed, however, that they were addressing these problems by returning to the Mosaic religion; in reality, they created a brand new religion, a monotheistic religion not about cultic practices, but about right and wrong.
Post-Exilic Religion (800-600 BCE)
The most profound spiritual and cognitive crisis in Hebrew history was the Exile. Defeated by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BC, the Judaean population was in part deported to Babylon, mainly the upper classes and craftsmen. In 586, incensed by Judaeans shifting their loyalty, Nebuchadnezzar returned, lay siege to Jerusalem, and burned it down along with the Temple. Nothing in the Hebrew world view had prepared them for a tragedy of this magnitude. The Hebrews had been promised the land of Palestine by their god; in addition, the covenant between Yahweh and Abraham promised Yahweh's protection. The destruction of Jerusalem, the Temple, and the deportation of the Judaeans, shook the Hebrew faith to its roots.
The literature of the Exile and shortly after betrays the despair and confusion of the population uprooted from its homeland. In Lamentations and various Psalms, we get a profound picture of the sufferings of those left in Judaea, who coped with starvation and massive privation, and the community of Hebrews wandering Babylon. In Job, a story written a century or so after the Exile, the central character suffers endless calamities— when he finally despairs of Yahweh's justice, his only answer is that Yahweh is not to be questioned.
But Hebrew religion shifted profoundly in the years of Exile. A small group of religious reformers believed that the calamaties suffered by the Jews were due to the corruption of their religion and ethics. These religious reformers reoriented Jewish religion around the Mosaic books; in other words, they believed that the Jews should return to their foundational religion. While the Mosaic books had been in existence since the seventh or eighth centuries BC, they began to take final shape under the guidance of these reformers shortly after the Exile. Above everything else, the Torah, the five Mosaic books, represented all the law that Hebrews should follow. These laws, mainly centered around cultic practices, should remain pure and unsullied if the Jews wished to return to their homeland and keep it.
So the central character of post-Exilic Jewish religion is reform, an attempt to return religious and social practice back to its original character. This reform was accelerated by the return to Judaea itself; when Cyrus the Persian conquered the Chaldeans in 539, he set about re-establishing religions in their native lands. This included the Hebrew religion. Cyrus ordered Jerusalem and the Temple to be rebuilt, and in 538 BC, he sent the Judaeans home to Jerusalem for the express purpose of worshipping Yahweh . The reformers, then, occupied a central place in Jewish thought and life all during the Persian years (539-332 BC).
Beneath the surface, though, foreign elements creeped in to the Hebrew religion. While the reformers were busy trying to purify the Hebrew religion, the Persian religion, Zoroastrianism, creeped into it among the common run of people. Why this happened is anyone's guess, but Zoroastrianism offered a world view that both explained and mollified tragedies such as the Exile. It seems that the Hebrews adopted some of this world view in the face of the profound disasters they had weathered.
Zoroastrianism, which had been founded in the seventh century BC by a Persian prophet name Zarathustra (Zoroaster is his Greek name), was a dualistic, eschatological, and apocalyptic religion. The universe is divided into two distinct and independent spheres. One, which is light and good, is ruled by a deity who is the principle of light and good; the other, dark and evil, is ruled by a deity who is the principle of dark and evil. The whole of human and cosmic history is an epic struggle between these two independent deities; at the end of time, a final battle between these two deities and all those ranged on one side or the other, would permanently decide the outcome of this struggle. The good deity, Ahura-Mazda, would win this final, apocalyptic battle, and all the gods and humans on the side of good would enjoy eternal bliss.
Absolutely none of these elements were present in Hebrew religion before the Exile. The world is governed solely by Yahweh; evil in the world is solely the product of human actions—there is no "principle of evil" among the Hebrews before the Exile. The afterlife is simply a House of Dust called Sheol in which the soul lasts for only a brief time. There is no talk or conception of an end of time or history, or of a world beyond this one.
After the Exile, however, popular religion among the Judaeans and the Jews of the Diaspora include several innovations:
Dualism
After the Exile, the Hebrews invent a concept of a more or less dualistic universe, in which all good and right comes from Yahweh, while all evil arises from a powerful principle of evil. Such a dualistic view of the universe helps to explain tragedies such as the Exile.
Eschatology and Apocalypticism
Popular Jewish religion begins to form an elaborate theology of the end of time, in which a deliverer would defeat once and for all the forces of evil and unrighteousness.
Messianism
Concurrent with the new eschatology, there is much talk of a deliverer who is called "messiah," or "anointed one." In Hebrew culture, only the head priest and the king were anointed, so this "messiah" often combined the functions of both religious and military leader.
Otherworldliness
Popular Judaism adopts an elaborate after-life. Since justice does not seem to occur in this world, it is only logical that it will occur in another world. The afterlife becomes the place where good is rewarded and evil eternally punished.
While the reformers resist these innovations, they take hold among a large part of the Hebrew population. And it is from this root — the religion of the common person — that a radical form of Yahwism will grow: the religion of Jesus of Nazareth.
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This is what gives our ACADEMICS a bad name to our 99% of WE THE PEOPLE black, white, and brown citizens. REAL LEFT SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE ACADEMICS do not interpret PARABLES------PARABLES are experiences that each person must interpret for themselves because we all have different lives and realities. Our religious texts are full of PARABLES some in place from early religious days---some inserted by OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS in THEIR INTERESTS.
When we look at that long list of academic writings tied to interpreting PARABLES----whether written by people calling themselves religious scholars et al----be sure most of that writing is being done by GLOBAL BANKING OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS' 5% freemason/Greek players ------not working for the benefit of our 99% WE THE PEOPLE.
Humanities › Religion & Spirituality
What Is a Parable?The Purpose of Parables in the Bible
by Jack Zavada
Updated October 30, 2017
A parable (pronounced PAIR uh bul) is a comparison of two things, often done through a story that has two meanings. Another name for a parable is an allegory.
Jesus Christ did much of his teaching in parables. Telling tales of familiar characters and activities was a popular way for ancient rabbis to hold an audience's attention while illustrating an important moral point.
Parables appear in both the Old and New Testaments but are more easily recognizable in the ministry of Jesus.
After many rejected him as Messiah, Jesus turned to parables, explaining to his disciples in Matthew 13:10-17 that those who sought God would grasp the deeper meaning, while the truth would be hidden from unbelievers. Jesus used earthly stories to teach heavenly truths, but only those who sought the truth were able to understand them.
Characteristics of a Parable
Parables are typically brief and symmetrical. Points are presented in twos or threes using an economy of words. Unnecessary details are left out.
The settings in the story are taken from ordinary life. Figures of speech are common and used in context for ease of understanding. For example, a discourse about a shepherd and his sheep would make hearers think of God and his people because of Old Testament references to those pictures.
Parables often incorporate elements of surprise and exaggeration. They are taught in such an interesting and compelling manner that the listener cannot escape the truth in it.
Parables ask listeners to make judgments on the events of the story. As a result, listeners must make similar judgments in their own lives. They force the listener to make a decision or come to a moment of truth.
Typically parables leave no room for gray areas. The listener is forced to see truth in concrete rather than abstract pictures.
The Parables of Jesus
A master at teaching with parables, Jesus spoke about 35 percent of his recorded words in parables. According to Tyndale Bible Dictionary, Christ's parables were more than illustrations for his preaching, they were his preaching to a great extent. Much more than simple stories, scholars have described Jesus' parables as both "works of art" and "weapons of warfare."
The purpose of parables in Jesus Christ's teaching was to focus the listener on God and his kingdom. These stories revealed the character of God: what he is like, how he works, and what he expects from his followers.
Most scholars agree that there are at least 33 parables in the Gospels. Jesus introduced many of these parables with a question. For example, in the parable of the Mustard Seed, Jesus answered the question, "What is the Kingdom of God like?"
One of Christ's most famous parables in the Bible is the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32. This story is closely tied to the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin. Each of these accounts focuses on relationship with God, demonstrating what it means to be lost and how heaven celebrates with joy when the lost are found. They also draw a keen picture of God the Father's loving heart for lost souls.
Another well-known parable is the account of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. In this parable, Jesus Christ taught his followers how to love the outcasts of the world and showed that love must overcome prejudice.
Several of Christ's parables give instruction on being prepared for end times. The parable of the Ten Virgins emphasizes the fact that Jesus' followers must always be alert and ready for his return. The parable of the Talents gives practical direction on how to live in readiness for that day.
Typically, the characters in Jesus' parables remained nameless, creating a broader application for his listeners. The parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31 is the only one in which he used a proper name.
One of the most striking features of Jesus' parables is how they reveal the nature of God.
They draw listeners and readers into a real and intimate encounter with the living God who is Shepherd, King, Father, Savior, and so much more.
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Both our OLD TESTAMENT/TORAH----and our CHRISTIAN NEW TESTAMENT are filled with PARABLES for living a good life. 99% of WE THE PEOPLE need to think if these parables were written by our 99% early citizens creating these religions from experiences formed by PROPHETS----or if those parables were installed by OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS to make themselves
THE WORD OF GOD.
When someone insists that our BIBLE, TORAH, KORAN is THE WORD OF GOD-----we can be sure they are global banking 5% freemason/Greeks corrupting our religions with freemasonry.
Parable of the Lost Sheep
The good shepherd leaves the ninety-nine to find the one lost sheep and return it to the flock, but who are these sheep?
Our Master attempted to explain to the Pharisees why He chose to associate with “sinners and tax-collectors.” He told them the parable of the lost sheep. In the parable, He compared himself to a shepherd and the Jewish people to a flock of sheep.
What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. (Luke 15:4-5)
The ninety-nine sheep represent the righteous. The single lost sheep—a lost sheep of Israel—represents the secularized and godless among the Jewish people. The good shepherd leaves the ninety-nine righteous and goes to seek after the single lost sheep. When he finds the lost sheep, he carries it back to the flock, an image drawn from the prophet Isaiah:
Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, in His arm He will gather the lambs and carry them in His bosom. (Isaiah 40:11)
“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” the Master once said (Matthew 15:24). On another occasion, He told His disciples not to preach among the Gentiles but “rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:6). “For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost,” He told the disciples (Matthew 18:11). He did not seek to minister to the spiritually healthy and righteous; He came to call sinners to repentance. Just as the shepherd rejoices over finding a single lost sheep, so too, He rejoiced over every penitent Jew: “when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!” (Luke 15:5-6).
A close parallel to the story appears in a famous rabbinic teaching about Moses:
Moses our teacher, peace be upon him, was tending the flock of Jethro in the wilderness when a little kid escaped from him. He ran after it until it reached a shady place ... and the kid stopped to drink. When Moses approached it, he said, “I did not know you ran away because of thirst, you must be weary.” So he placed the kid on his shoulder and walked away. Thereupon God said: “Because you have mercy in leading the flock of a mortal, you will surely tend my flock, Israel.” (Shemot Rabbah 2:2)
When read in the context of the Pharisee’s criticism, the meaning of Yeshua’s parable of the lost sheep is clear, but just in case we miss it, the Master Himself provides the interpretation in Luke 15:7. The shepherd is Yeshua. The lost sheep is a sinner. The ninety-nine other sheep are the righteous and pious who did not need to repent. The shepherd leaves the ninety-nine to seek the lost sheep just as Yeshua neglected the Pharisees and scribes in order to associate with “the sinners and the tax collectors.” The rejoicing friends and neighbors are the angels rejoicing in heaven.
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'It was once said, "religion is designed to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable."'
Here is today's raging global banking 1% media outlet CNN corrupting our religions-----making it all about JESUS THE KING OF KINGS. LORD OF LORDS.
One of the biggest propaganda global banking 1% throws over and over and over-----if GOD IS GOOD why is there so much BAD in the world? EASY PEASY to answer-----the BAD is created by global banking 1% and OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS. We do not need a GOD that is two-faced having an evil side and a good side. If someone is killed in a natural disaster GOD'S NATURAL LAWS of earthquakes, floods, tornadoes it is because GOD does not corrupt his natural laws.
PRAYER for hope, wellness, prosperity, longevity, are human ---we all pray for what we define as salvation and grace. Please do not confuse the BAD created by GLOBAL BANKING 1% AND OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS as failure of a GOD we KNOW cares for his creation.
This video and discussion by CNN is DISGUSTING. Those tuning in to a discussion on religion to CNN-----will get FAKE NEWS tied to religious public policy.
Why Jesus' parables make us uncomfortable
By Amy-Jill Levine, special to CNN
Updated 10:38 AM ET, Tue March 21, 2017
This article was originally published in 2014. To learn more about the historical Jesus, watch the CNN Original Series 'Finding Jesus," Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
(CNN)It was once said, "religion is designed to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable."
Jesus' parables -- short stories with moral lessons -- were likewise designed to afflict, to draw us in but leave us uncomfortable. These teachings can be read as being about divine love and salvation, sure. But, their first listeners -- first century Jews in Galilee and Judea -- heard much more challenging messages.
Only when we hear the parables as Jesus' own audience did can we fully experience their power and find ourselves surprised and challenged today. Here are four examples of Jesus' teachings that everybody gets wrong:
The 'Parable of the Prodigal Son'
This parable is usually seen as a story of how our "Father in heaven" loves us regardless of how despicable our actions. This is a lovely message, and I would not want to dismiss it.
It is not, however, what first-century Jews would have heard. Jesus' Jewish audience already knew that their "Father in heaven" was loving, forgiving, and compassionate. It is Luke who sets up a message of repenting and forgiving. Luke prefaces our parable with two shorter ones: the Parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin.
The evangelist concludes them with, "There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
Was Herod the Great really evil? 01:11
But is this really what the parables are about? Jesus was not talking about ovine sin or coinage cupidity; sheep don't feel guilty and coins don't repent. Moreover, the man loses the sheep; the woman loses her coin. But God does not "lose us."
The first two parables are not about repenting and forgiving. They are about counting: The shepherd noticed one sheep missing out of 100, and the woman noticed one coin missing from 10.
And they searched, found, rejoiced, and celebrated. In doing so, they set up the third parable. The Prodigal Son story begins: "There was a man who had two sons ... "
If we focus on the one prodigal son, we mishear the opening. Every biblically literate Jew would know that if there are two sons, go with the younger: Abel over Cain, Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, Ephraim over Manasseh.
But parables never go the way we want. We cannot identify with junior, who "squandered all he had in dissolute living."
Next, if we see the father as surprising when he welcomes junior home, we mishear again. Dad is simply delighted that junior has returned: He rejoices and throws a party. If we stop here, we've failed to count. The older brother -- remember him? -- hears music and dancing. Dad had enough time to hire the band and the caterer, but he never searched for his older son. He had two sons, and he didn't count.
Our parable is less about forgiving and more about counting, and making sure everyone counts. Whom have we lost? If we don't count, it may be too late.
The 'Parable of the Good Samaritan'
Our usual understanding of this famous story goes astray in several ways. Here are two.
First, readers presume that a priest and Levite bypass the wounded man because they are attempting to avoid becoming "unclean." Nonsense.
All this interpretation does is make Jewish Law look bad. The priest is not going up to Jerusalem where purity would be a concern -- he is "going down" to Jericho. No law prevents Levites from touching corpses, and there are numerous other reasons why ritual purity is not relevant here.
Jesus mentions priest and Levite because they set up a third category: Israelite. To mention the first two is to invoke the third. If I say, "Larry, Moe ..." you will say "Curly." However, to go from priest to Levite to Samaritan is like going from Larry to Moe to Osama bin Laden.
That analogy leads us to the second misreading.
The parable is often seen as a story of how the oppressed minority -- immigrants, gay people, people on parole -- are "nice" and therefore we should check our prejudices. Samaritans, then, were not the oppressed minority: They were the enemy. We know this not only from the historian Josephus, but also from Luke the evangelist.
Just one chapter before our parable, Jesus seeks lodging in a Samaritan village, but they refuse him hospitality.
Moreover, Samaria had another name: Shechem. At Shechem, Jacob's daughter Dinah is raped or seduced by the local prince. At Shechem, the murderous judge Abimelech is based. We are the person in the ditch, and we see the Samaritan. Our first thought: "He's going to rape me. He's going to murder me."
Then we realize: Our enemy may be the very person who will save us. Indeed, if we simply ask "where is Samaria today?" we can see the import of this parable for the Israeli/Palestinian crisis.
The 'Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard'
This parable tells the story of a series of workers who come in at different points of the day, but the owner pays them all the same amount. The parable is sometimes read with an anti-Jewish lens, so that the first-hired are the "Jews" who resent the gentiles or the sinners entering into God's vineyard. Nonsense again.
Jesus' first listeners heard not a parable about salvation in the afterlife but about economics in present. They heard a lesson about how the employed must speak on behalf of those who lack a daily wage.
They also discovered a prompt for people with resources: Attend to those who do not have jobs, and make sure everyone has what is needed.
Jesus does not invent this idea of advocating for the unemployed and sharing resources. The same concerns occur in Jewish tradition from King David onward. But, unless we know the biblical and historical sources, again we will mishear the parable.
The 'Parable of the Pearl of Great Price'
This parable describes a man who sells everything in order to obtain his prized pearl. It is usually allegorized to tell us about the centrality of faith, or the church, or Jesus, or the Kingdom of Heaven. But commentators cannot conclude what the pearl represents. Perhaps they are looking in the wrong place.
We don't recognize the parable's initial absurdity today -- the merchant (a wholesaler who sells us what we don't need at a price we cannot afford) sells everything he has for a pearl.
He can't eat it, or sit on it; it will not cover much if it's all he wears. But, he thinks this pearl will fulfill him.
What if the parable challenges us to determine our own pearl of great price? If we know our ultimate concern, we should be less acquisitive. We won't sweat the small stuff. More, we become better able to love our neighbors, because we will know what is most important to them.
Jesus' short stories provoke us because they tell us what, somehow, we already know to be true, but don't want to acknowledge.
I am not a Christian, but I hear profound messages in these parables. If I as an outsider can be so moved by Jesus' stories, surely people who worship him as Lord and Savior can appreciate them even more.
Amy-Jill Levine is the author of "Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi," and a professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School and College of Arts and Sciences. The views expressed in this column belong to Levine.
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What our early religions whether JEWISH, CHRISTIAN, MUSLIM did was create text based on lives of ordinary people trying to do the best to survive harsh conditions, to build strong families and communities, and to help future generations learn from ancestors' successes and failures.
Our religious texts whether JEWISH OLD TESTAMENT/TORAH-----or CHRISTIAN NEW TESTAMENT-----or MUSLIM KORAN are all filled with PARABLES of how that region and culture lived the best life our 99% of WE THE PEOPLE could. These parables draw in GOD'S TEN COMMANDMENTS ----JESUS/MUHAMMAD'S messages of living simply, honestly, with grace and compassion.
So, whether we believe in MIRACLES----in GOD'S selecting PROPHETS having abilities greater than our own-----DOES NOT MATTER. This is why most humanists who do not believe in GOD----still embrace the morality and ethics steeped in our MOSAIC TEN COMMANDMENTS.
It is fine to have FAITH AND PASSION in religion as it is fine to not believe any part of these religious texts WE KNOW have been edited and corrupted by OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS.
Below we see where we should NOT LOOK for understanding of RELIGIOUS TEXT PARABLES. This is how our global 1% KINGS AND QUEENS take a common, simply message of 99% WE THE PEOPLES' parables of life and corrupt them into how those global 1% want our 99% of citizens to live. AESOP'S FABLES were written by that global banking 1% KINGS AND QUEENS' freemason STAR back in those medieval days for example.
The parables in each religious text ---MUSLIM, JEWISH, CHRISTIAN----OLD TESTAMENT NEW TESTAMENT are valuable religious lessons of people trying to live GOD'S NATURAL LAWS. Please do not allow global banking 1% infuse THEIR VISIONS OF LIVING ---
we all know these global 1% can only LIE, CHEAT, STEAL, HAVE NO MORALS OR ETHICS, NO RULE OF LAW, AND CERTAINLY NO GOD'S NATURAL LAW.
GOD said my kingdom was better than yours----GOD said my laws are better than yours----god said our people are better than yours----OH, REALLY?????
Classic Studies on the Parables of the Bible (30 vols.)
by 28 authors•27 publishers 1816–1934
Overview
The Classic Studies on the Parables of the Bible Collection offers some of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries’ most significant studies on Jesus’ and the Old Testament’s parables—over 11,000 pages of research. From familiar authors such as A. C. Gaebelein, H. B. Swete, and A. B. Bruce, you’ll get the best in classic scholarship on some of the most important teachings on character, God, faith, and more.
This collection contains a wide array of studies on the parables of the Bible, including resources for teaching the parables to youth, sermon structures for teaching the parables, Greek and Hebrew exegesis of Old Testament parables, and personal devotional application from the lessons of the parables. Whether you’re a pastor, scholar, or student, this collection will help you conduct research and give you practical advice.
The Logos edition of this collection gets you access to much more. Each volume is completely searchable, allowing you to find every study on any specific parable, or find every parable on a specific topic.
A Catechism on the Parables of the New Testament$7.99
A Parabolic Teaching of Christ: A Systematic and Critical Study of the Parables of Our Lord$20.99
An Exposition of the Parables and Express Similitudes of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ$17.99
Greek Testament Lessons for Colleges, Schools, and Private Students Consisting Chiefly of the Sermon on the Mount and the Parables of Our Lord$14.99
Notes and Illustrations of the Parables of the New Testament$9.99
Notes on the Parables of the New Testament: Scripturally Illustrated and Argumentatively Defended$9.99
Outlines of Sermons on the Miracles and Parables of the Old Testament$14.99
Practical Studies on the Parables of Our Lord$12.99
Sermons on the Parables of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ$14.99
Sketches of Sermons on the Parables and Miracles of Christ$12.99
The Kingdom and the People: The Parables of Our Lord Jesus Christ Explained and Illustrated$12.99
The Lesser Parables of Our Lord and the Lessons of Grace in the Language of Nature$12.99
The Old Testament Parables$9.99
The Parables of Jesus$13.99
The Parables of Jesus Explained and Illustrated$17.99
The Parables of Jesus: A Methodical Exposition$20.99
The Parables of Our Lord$14.99
The Parables of Our Lord Explained and Applied$11.99
The Parables of Our Lord Interpreted in View of Their Relations to Each Other$14.99
The Parables of Our Saviour Expounded and Illustrated$20.99
The Parables of the Kingdom: A Course of Lectures$9.99
The Parables of the Lord Jesus According to S. Matthew Arranged, Compared, and Illustrated$13.99
The Parables of the New Testament Practically Unfolded$6.99
The Parables of the New Testament Spiritually Unfolded$13.99
The Parables of the Old Testament$9.99
The Parables of the Old Testament$6.99
The Parables of the Old Testament Explained$13.99
The Seven Parables: Matthew 13$6.99
The Teaching of the Parables of Jesus Christ$9.99
The Teachings of Jesus in Parables$14.99
Total value if sold separately: $397.70
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The Parables of the Lord Jesus according to S. Matthew Arranged, Compared, and Illustrated
Breaking the parables of Jesus into four primary groups, Thomas Richey analyzes Jesus’ ministry in light of the qualities that define each group. Inspired by similar studies by Siegfried Goebel and Alexander B. Bruce, Richey’s study of Jesus’ parables recorded in the Gospel of Matthew takes nothing for granted and analyzes every word, understanding that Jesus spoke by purposefully and intentionally in choosing them. Richey discusses each parable of the Gospel of Matthew at length, exploring the parable’s audience, location, and timing in Jesus’ ministry in order to fully realize the Kingdom of Heaven Matthew enthusiastically records.
Dr. Richey’s work is not a hasty compilation, merely made up of other men’s thoughts and sayings. It is full of quotations from beginning to end, showing that, in the profound study of many years he has swept over the whole field—patristic, mediaeval, and modern. . . . We unhesitatingly commend this work of Dr. Richey’s as clearly the best yet issues on the special subject of ‘The Parables of our blessed Lord.’ It contains the quintessence of all the leading writers who have previously treated the same marvelous theme.—J. H. Hopkins, The Church Review, vol. 52
His standpoint and fundamental position is a sound one, that the Parables must be studied as they stand in their connections. . . . The author may be commended for the carefulness of his exegesis as well as for his freedom from dogmatic presuppositions. Perhaps the highest point of excellence is reached in the homiletical element which pervades the work. The expositions and applications are clear and spirited.--The Old & New Testament Student, vol. 9
Thomas Richey (1833–1905) held doctorates in sacred theology and divinity. He was president of St. Stephen’s College (now Bard College) from 1861 to 1863, and later taught ecclesiastical history at St. Mary’s Hall and Shattuck School in 1869. He would finally teach at the General Theological Seminary (now the Episcopal Theological Seminary) in New York from 1879 to 1903. He was an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church.
The Parables of the Kingdom: A Course of Lectures
This series of lectures came from the course of Swete’s teaching at the University of Cambridge in 1908. The lectures themselves drew a crowd of students larger than his usual attendance and received a popular reception. Featuring 18 lectures treating 18 of Jesus’ parables, various lectures on topics that find their foundation in Jesus’ parables, and lectures on the interpretation and use of parables, this volume presents 30 lectures exegeting and applying parabolic wisdom.
Henry Barclay Swete (1835–1917) was a professor of theology at King’s College in London from 1882 to 1890 and later the Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge from 1890 to 1915. He held a doctorate of divinity from King’s College and was a scholar in the Anglican Church. He published works on the Old Testament, New Testament, and Christian doctrine, and edited and translated various Greek texts and Septuagints.
The Seven Parables: Matthew 13
This concise work lays out the seven parables of Matthew 13 as describing God’s vision for Christianity here on earth. A. C. Gaebelein takes on the task of interpreting Jesus’ “kingdom of heaven” through the eyes of the Old Testament and the messages of his parables.
One of the best treatises on Matthew 13, which I have seen, is a pamphlet by Dr. A. C. Gaebelein. In this he sets forth the thesis that the kingdom of heaven as represented in these parables is none other than what we call Christendom. On this point, I feel that he is absolutely correct.—David L. Cooper, president, Biblical Research Society
Arno Clemens Gaebelein (1861–1945) was ordained a deacon in 1884 before becoming an elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was the editor of Our Hope, a Christian periodical, and worked closely with C. I. Scofield on the massive Scofield Reference Bible.
The Parables of Jesus: A Methodical Exposition
Siegfried Goebel sets out to define and explore the limits of parable in the Gospels. Arranging the parables by their content and meaning, he brings the reader to understand either their figurative narrative or their concrete, literal command. He treats each parable individually and demonstrates the qualities that prove each parable fall into one of his two categories: “figurative” or “typical” (literal).
His book is written in an agreeable style, and betrays on every page learning, acuteness, soundness of judgment, and considerable exegetical tact. . . . It will, we conceive, be of service to the preacher, not in suggesting the materials or the arrangement of a discourse, but, which is far more important, in giving him that clear apprehension of the purport of a given parable. . . . It is always a pleasure to read his candid, scholarly, direct, and manly handling of the divine words.—T. W. Chambers, The Presbyterian Review, vol. 2
The work has found considerable favor in Germany. . . . Notwithstanding all which has been written on the subject, there is still a place for this book, and it will be found valuable to ministers and others who wish to make a careful study of the parables of our Lord.--New Englander and Yale Review, vol. 43
Another special excellence is the manner in which the parables are connected with the great periods in Christ’s ministry. Far more attention is given to the grouping of the parables than we find in Trench. The introduction is . . . sound and sensible. We ought to add, perhaps, that the book before us represents the highest Protestant orthodoxy. We can only express in conclusion our earnest hope that the book may be carefully studied by many of our own clergy.—W. E. Addis, The Dublin Review
This ought to be one of the most helpful of all volumes in The Foreign Theological Library. . . . such expositions as those of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son are as full of human feeling as others are of ripe learning. The volume is quite a treasury of original exposition on a subject on which preachers constantly need help, and on which little that is new has appeared in recent years.--Methodist Recorder
Siegfried Abraham Goebel (1844–1928) was born in Winningen, Germany, and served both as a pastor at Poznan, Germany, and as court chaplain in Halberstadt, Germany. He was also a professor of theology at Bonn University.
J. S. Banks was a professor of theology at Headingley College. He was fluent in German and Hebrew, was an ordained Wesleyan-Methodist minister, and had both a master’s degree and a doctorate of divinity.
The Parables of Our Lord
William Arnot’s take on the parables of Jesus provides a refreshing, intelligent view of metaphor, analogy, and symbolism. Applying his expertise on proverbial and analogous language to the parables, Arnot presents a logical interpretation of the parables that exegetes the Gospel’s narratives in harmony with the rest of the Bible.
He was a great lover and admirer of nature, and from her works drew many lessons to illustrate his sermons. His addresses to the young both instructed and fascinated their minds. . . . Mr. Arnot’s books and his contributions to magazines were popular and much read. . . . As a citizen he was highly esteemed.—Andrew Aird, publisher and writer, Aird & Coghill
William Arnot (1808–1875) was a Scottish preacher and theological writer who studied and ministered in Glasgow through the Free Church of Scotland. He earned his theological degree from Glasgow University. He was widely recognized for his study of ancient Greek and is best known for his books on Proverbs.
The Lesser Parables of Our Lord and the Lessons of Grace in the Language of Nature
Published posthumously, this volume contains Arnot’s lectures, sermons, and writings on each of the lesser parables of Jesus, his lessons on grace in the language of nature, a commentary on the first epistle of Peter, and lessons on life in Christ. Prefaced with a biography on the author, this volume reveals his pastoral and intellectual character, explores his wide knowledge of Scripture, and brings you right into the most important themes and insights in the Bible.
William Arnot was a remarkable man. He was a power in his time, and made himself felt as a preacher, writer, lecturer, both on this and on the other side of the Atlantic. . . . here we have a man simple yet strong-brained, earnest and true, full of humour, full too of ‘the milk of human kindness.’—Canon Bell
William Arnot (1808–1875) was a Scottish preacher and theological writer who studied and ministered in Glasgow through the Free Church of Scotland. He earned his theological degree from Glasgow University. He was widely recognized for his study of ancient Greek and is best known for his books on Proverbs.
The Parables of Our Lord Explained and Applied
This volume provides simple, practical explanations and applications for each of the parables of Jesus, giving pastors a great cross-reference with which to generate preaching ideas and giving families a foundation for family Bible study. Each chapter is written with the understanding that it can be read independently of the rest, allowing readers to dive into any parable that interests them without losing important prefatory notes established in earlier chapters.
Francis William Bourdillon (1852–1921) was a British writer, poet, translator, and preacher. He attended Oxford and is best known for his poetry, romantic novels, and translations.
The Parables of Our Saviour Expounded and Illustrated
Expounding on the parables of Jesus, William M. Taylor writes this volume to his congregation at Broadway Tabernacle Church at their request. Delivering the parables with profound insight and application, this work explores 26 parables and analyzes them in the context of the narratives of their respective Gospels. Taylor delivers an expert exegesis and makes each parable accessible for the church-goer as well as the church leader.
Dr. Taylor shows in this work his large acquaintance with this portion of religious literature. A better book for the study, the Sunday school, and the Christian has not been issued this season.--New York Observer
Dr. Taylor’s style is clear and strong, and he brings out with great distinctness the leading thoughts contained in each parable. It will be read with pleasure and profit by thoughtful Christians. The volume is one of more than ordinary richness.--Methodist Recorder
They are clear and direct in style, abound in apt illustrations, are textually faithful, and breathe a devout and scholarly spirit.--Lutheran Quarterly
The whole series is characterized in a remarkable degree by strong common sense and a shrewd insight into human nature and needs, as well as by the loyal purpose to lead men and women to God.--Congregationalist
William Mackergo Taylor (1829–1895) graduated from the University of Glasgow at the relatively young age of 20. He was licensed as a preacher three years later, in 1852, by the United Presbytery of Ayrshire and two years later became the head pastor of United Presbyterian Church in Bootle, England. In 1872, he received a letter asking him to pastor the Broadway Tabernacle Church in New York, which position he gladly accepted and held until 1892. He was an extremely sought-after preacher, public speaker, and rhetorician.
A Parabolic Teaching of Christ: A Systematic and Critical Study of the Parables of Our Lord
In his typically scholarly manner, A. B. Bruce analyzes and interprets the parables of Jesus, building on the foundation of study that was set by Richard C. Trench, Siegfried Goebel, Ernst J. G. de Valenti, William Arnot, and other scholars and preachers before him. He develops his own interpretations and theories based on the Bible text itself, and then draws from a rich tradition of German, Scottish, Irish, and American scholars—even bringing in the Latin studies of Calvin, Jerome, and others. With Bruce’s profound, rich, and multilevel discourse, your investigation of Jesus’ parables will find itself a fruitful and intellectual study.
Alexander Balmain Bruce (1831–1899) was a professor of apologetics and New Testament exegesis at Free Church College, where he taught for 24 years. He also authored The Humiliation of Christ and The Training of the Twelve.
Sketches of Sermons on the Parables and Miracles of Christ
Jabez Burns provides a pastor’s guide to preaching the parables of Jesus. In this volume, he cross-references each parable to Old Testament passages, application ideas, and exegetical observations. This volume also explores each of the miracles of Christ, demonstrating the evangelical, merciful mission of the same Savior who spoke in parables.
Jabez Burns (1805–1876) was the first clergyman from any denomination to preach complete abstinence from alcohol from the pulpit. He was a Christian philosopher and a prolific writer, managed a bookselling business, and wrote numerous books, primarily compilations of sermons, sermon-writing guides, and preaching helps. He was given an honorary doctorate in divinity from Wesleyan University in 1846.
The Parables of Our Lord Interpreted in View of Their Relations to Each Other
This challenging and insightful volume opens up the parables by comparing them with one another and answering the deep theological questions they raise. Divine love, salvation, and the Kingdom of God are explored in various aspects through the analysis of each parable, and each relies on Calderwood’s solid exegesis and able communication of heavenly ideas in plain language.
Henry Calderwood (1830–1897) was a professor of moral philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, where he was educated. He was ordained through the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland and pastored at the Greyfriars church in Glasgow. His first and most famous work, The Philosophy of the Infinite, was a response to the emerging philosophy that man cannot possibly know the infinite divine; consequently, Calderwood’s thought was a complete antithesis to Hegelian doctrine. The Parables of Our Lord was among his best-known religious works.
Greek Testament Lessons for Colleges, Schools, and Private Students Consisting Chiefly of the Sermon on the Mount and the Parables of Our Lord
These lessons provide the Greek text of each parable or lesson from the Sermon on the Mount and dig into a college-level analysis of the passage. Illustrated with maps and charts, and expounded with essays, lessons, and notes on geographical, historical, and cultural points, this volume is ideal for bridging Greek studies with studies on the parables, or for bringing the lessons of the parables to a young adult audience.
John Hunter Smith was president of King Edward’s School from 1900 to 1919 and taught Latin, Greek, and other subjects.
An Exposition of the Parables and Express Similitudes of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
Originally written in 1701, this classic work has seen several reprinted versions in the nineteenth century and beyond. In this volume, Keach introduces each parable as a sermon, with lessons that help the reader find application. Keach’s thorough familiarity with Scripture shines in every page of this study as he compares epistle messages and Old Testament commands with the lessons of each parable, providing the reader wide and deep access to scriptural study surrounding the parables.
This work has always enjoyed popularity among those who love the racy quaint style of divines of the old school. As may be expected there are multitudes of fancied allusions, and not always a regard to any fixed principles of interpretations; yet the volume, in every page, contains matter which cannot be read without improvement. As an illustration of the wit of the author, he says, in the parable of the rich husbandman, ‘the poor man’s belly in the rich man’s barn.’--The Journal of Sacred Literature and Biblical Record, vol. 4
A book peculiarly and happily calculated under the Divine Blessing to enlighten the mind, establish the judgment, and comfort the heart.—Samuel Medley, founder of University College, London
The author, a self-taught Baptist of strong Calvinistic opinions, lived towards the end of the seventeenth century, and had several sturdy encounters with the Baxters, Owens, and other learned Nonconformists of his day, who were not willing to receive his theological dogmas for truth and were equally indisposed to admit his knowledge of divinity.--The Literary Churchman: A Critical Record of Religious Publications
Benjamin Keach (1640–1704) was an early Baptist (sometimes called Particular Baptist or Baptist Puritan) and a preacher at Horslydown church in London. He was best known for writing The Baptist Catechism (also called Keach’s Catechism, although the work is so old his authorship is debated) and A Key to Open Scripture Metaphors (also called Tropologia), as well as a hymnbook that provoked debate among early Baptists. His church was the first among the Baptists to sing hymns, as opposed to psalms and paraphrases.
The Teaching of the Parables of Jesus Christ
This volume from the early part of the twentieth century delivers a vivid and memorable study of the parables of the Gospels. Each chapter could be read as a sermon, and Osborn provides real and accessible paraphrasing of Jesus’ teachings. His powerful writing brings alive the Bible text and challenges the Christian to heed Jesus’ words with closer attention to detail, nuance, and meaning.
Edwin Faxon Osborn (1859–1937) was the author of several books, including works of Christian fiction and teaching resources. After graduating from Newton Center Theological Seminary, he began teaching at Ewing College. He pastored at First Baptist Church of McLeansboro, Illinois, around the end of the nineteenth century.
Sermons on the Parables of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
Compiled in the final years of his life, these 33 sermons contain Trinder’s preaching series on the parables of Jesus. With ample cross-references and Bible references, Trinder guides readers to see how the whole Bible is represented in Jesus’ parables.
William Martin Trinder (1747–1818) entered university at the young age of 16. He graduated from the University of Leyden, where he earned his MD, and then from Exeter College, Oxford, where he received his bachelor of civil law in 1770 and, later, his bachelor of laws. He wrote essays and books on medicinal waters and compilations of his sermons. He published Sermons on the Parables of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in 1816 while living in Hertfordshire.
The Parables of Jesus Explained and Illustrated
Originally written in German, this volume on the parables of Jesus frequently references other German, English, and Latin commentaries on the parables, synthesizing a study of the parables rooted in Protestant tradition and beliefs. Lisco was strongly influenced by the writings of Martin Luther and John Calvin, giving this volume a sincere Protestant voice and a strict biblical analysis.
Frederick Gustav Lisco (1797–1866) was a minister of St. Gertraud Church in Berlin. He was a German Protestant theologian.
The Parables of Jesus
After the success with his volume on the miracles of Jesus, Cosmo Gordon Lang wrote a follow-up on the parables of Jesus. Influenced by the popular Notes on the Parables of Our Lord by Richard C. Trench, Lang’s orthodox scholarly analysis of the Gospel text merges academic scholarship with pastoral application.
William Cosmo Gordon Lang (1864–1945) was a Scottish Anglican archbishop, said to have strong liberal Anglo-Catholic religious beliefs. The son of a Presbyterian minister, Lang studied at the University of Glasgow and at Oxford and was on his way to a successful career in politics and law when he received the calling to become an Anglican and seek ordination. Later in life, he was appointed as Archbishop of York at a relatively young age, rising to the second-highest position in the Church of England faster than most of his predecessors. Lang later took position as Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Teachings of Jesus in Parables
Exploring 39 of the parables taught by Jesus, George Henry Hubbard delves into the parable as a memorable story, providing a unique language and rhetoric for teaching that is found nowhere else in the Bible. Hubbard brings a knowledge of world literature to his analysis of the parables, giving readers a well-informed look at the narrative as it brings teaching and moral instruction to those who believe.
Practical Studies on the Parables of Our Lord
Written and published just after Maturin joined the Catholic Church, Practical Studies on the Parables of Our Lord provides a practical and applicable lesson from each parable. Maturin pulls out the leading practical thought and expounds on the lesson, allowing the reader to learn and apply each parable to day-to-day life.
Basil William Maturin (1847–1915) was an Irish Anglican priest and writer from Dublin. He was educated at Trinity College, and in 1876, he moved to Philadelphia, where he grew in attraction to the Catholic Church until he joined in 1897; was ordained into Catholic priesthood by his best friend a year later. He was soon appointed as the Catholic chaplain to the University of Oxford. He lost his life through the sinking of the Lusitania during World War I, as he was returning from New York after holding a mission. He was last seen alive standing on one of the decks with hand upraised giving the Extreme Unction (a sacramental prayer for the dying) to the souls about to enter eternity.
He was the author of several religious and psychological books, including Laws of the Spiritual Life, The Price of Unity, and Self-Knowledge and Self-Discipline. Incidentally, he was the second-cousin of famous Irish writer and poet Oscar Wilde.
The Kingdom and the People: The Parables of Our Lord Jesus Christ Explained and Illustrated
Why did Jesus speak in parables? Moral instruction taught through story, says Mary Seeley, is more memorable, and can easily be taught over and over again. “The parable was then, and still is in the East, the ordinary mode of instruction,” she says.
This volume explores how the kingdom of God is established through Jesus’ parabolic teaching. Seeley groups the parables by themes consistent with the idea of the kingdom of God and digs into each parable’s contribution to understanding the kingdom of God.
Notes and Illustrations of the Parables of the New Testament
Notes and Illustrations of the Parables of the New Testament explores the parabolic teaching of the Sermon on the Mount and all of Jesus’ parables, unlocking their meaning using their context and similar messages throughout the New Testament. Thomas Whittemore makes frequent use of other reliable commentaries and substantiates his work with the opinions of others, bringing readers a viewpoint that is thoroughly researched and developed and strengthens the teachings of Christ’s parables.
Thomas Whittemore (1800–1861) was one of the most influential Universalist writers of the nineteenth century. He was also a prolific writer of Universalist history, having written The Modern History of Universalism and been an editor and writer for both The Universalist Magazine and the Trumpet and Universalist Magazine. He was an outspoken opponent of capital punishment, an advocate of temperance, and an opponent of slavery in his day.
Notes on the Parables of the New Testament
Hosea Ballou digs into 38 parables of Jesus, exploring the event around the parable and providing an illustration for each parable that helps readers understand its meaning and gravity. With his easy-to-follow style of writing and simple explanations, Ballou finds points that resonate clearly with a general audience, interpreting Scripture with his theological insights.
Hosea Ballou (1771–1852) was an American Universalist writer from New Hampshire. He has often been called the “father of Universalism,” as his writings and theologies were most influential in helping distinguish Universalism from any other denomination. He founded and edited The Universalist Magazine and The Universalist Expositor and wrote thousands of sermons, essays, and hymns. He was self-educated, devoted his life to ministry from a young age, and was also a high-ranking freemason. His A Treatise on Atonement is one of the most influential Universalist writings of the nineteenth century.
The Parables of the New Testament Spiritually Unfolded
A practical and simple application of the New Testament parables to the day-to-day life, this volume brings a devotional aspect to your study of the parables. In lengthy discourses, Mitchell breaks each parable into memorable and applicable chunks, allowing readers to absorb meaning and depth from each of Jesus’ most fundamental lessons.
Edward Craig Mitchell was an archaeologist and the first minister at the Saint Paul Society of the New Jerusalem Church (now known as the Virginia Street Swedenborgian Church).
The Parables of the New Testament Practically Unfolded
“Go and study these parables, and if you see not their beauty at first, go again and again, gaze at them, ponder upon them, pray over them, until you feel them, then will they impress their lineaments upon your own soul, and be the model of your daily walk and conversation.”—William Bacon StevensStevens delivers a powerful and pragmatic approach to the parables, bridging the moral material with a spiritual perspective. After digging through the cultural background of each parable, Stevens provides a powerful practical and applicable lesson that cuts through the cerebral and applies to modern life.
William Bacon Stevens (1815–1887), born in Maine, was the bishop in the Episcopal Church for Pennsylvania. He was educated at Phillips Academy and studied medicine at Dartmouth College and the Medical College of South Carolina. After practicing medicine in Georgia for five years, he served as state historian for Georgia and began to study for the priesthood of the Episcopal Church. He was ordained in 1844 and briefly served as a professor of moral philosophy at the University of Georgia. He received his Doctor of Divinity from the University of Pennsylvania and, in 1865, was elected bishop of Pennsylvania, where he served until his death.
A Catechism on the Parables of the New Testament
Created as a guide for Sunday school lessons or Bible classes, this unique resource provides a question/answer format for each parable. Each lesson contains dozens of question/answer sets that help disambiguate the parable and help students engage with the parable and its meaning.
John Mather Austin (1805–1880) was a Universalist minister who wrote several books, mostly giving spiritual and practical guidance to youth.
Outlines of Sermons on the Miracles and Parables of the Old Testament
Containing detailed outlines of each miracle and parable in the Old Testament, this volume attempts to draw material for use in sermon building. Harris brings applicable lessons, quotations, and sermon points to each chapter, providing a structure and a substance for any reader looking for Old Testament sermon help.
Parables of the Old Testament Explained
Mitchell expounds on each of the parabolic stories of the Old Testament, looking for spiritual truths hidden “in natural imagery.” Providing an interpretation and explanation for all 48 of his Old Testament parables, Mitchell makes the Old Testament more accessible to all students of the Bible.
Edward Craig Mitchell was an archaeologist and the first minister at the Saint Paul Society of the New Jerusalem Church (now known as the Virginia Street Swedenborgian Church).
The Old Testament Parables
John MacDougall draws out the Old Testament parables, calling attention to them as either “parables of fact,” “parables of fable,” or “parables of fancy.” In this, he looks for possibilities in evangelical application and Gospel interpretation. His exegesis pulls from the Septuagint, the Massoretic Hebrew Text, and numerous English translations, giving readers truer access to the original text and fuller interpretations of the parables of the Old Testament.
John MacDougall (1887–1959) graduated from Glasgow University, where he got his MA and his BD. A year later he was licensed by the Presbytery of Paisley, in 1913, and was ordained in 1915. He was a supporter of the temperance movement and was well known for writing The Modern Conflict: Light from the Epistle of St. James.
The Parables of the Old Testament
Inspired by Archbishop Richard Trench’s Notes on the Parables, Bishop Alfred Barry writes this volume on the subject of Old Testament parables to help readers understand how to interpret the Old Testament itself. Seeing parables in the Proverbs, in symbolic visions, in fables, in figurative prophecy, and in narrative riddles, Barry discusses the best ways of reading and interpreting these parables—using examples from the biblical text—to disambiguate the Old Testament altogether.
Alfred Barry (1826–1910) was the Anglican bishop over Sydney, Australia, from 1884 to 1889. Earlier in his life, he served as principal and headmaster of numerous schools, and while bishop, founded many more. He was a contributing writer to Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible.
The Parables of the Old Testament
In nine concise chapters, Clarence Macartney discusses several of the parables of the Old Testament, expounding on their theological and practical significance in day-to-day life. Macartney doesn’t miss an opportunity to find Christ in these nine Old Testament stories, and brings a simple, yet profound study to each parable for a wide audience of believers.
Clarence Edward Macartney (1879–1957) was a Presbyterian pastor and a writer. He was educated at the University of Wisconsin—Madison and graduated with a degree in English literature. Afterwards, he attended Harvard, Yale Divinity School, and Princeton Theological Seminary, seeking new theological and religious guidance as he went from school to school. He was ordained through the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA), and was best known for setting off the fundamentalist-modernist controversy within the PCUSA.
'Around 60 b.c. The Roman Triumvirate Pompey brought Judea under Roman Rule. He pushed all the Jews into the areas of Gallilee, Jericho and Jersalem. Then he settled Greeks and Syrians in the rest of the land of Palestine. Originally, Galilee was settled by the tribe of Benjamin who always followed the tribe of Judah'.
YOU SAY POMPEO WE SAY TRIUMVIRATE POMPEY----LET'S CALL THE WHOLE THING OFF BY STOPPING MOVING FORWARD.
Remember, these global 1% OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS need a super-duper big dead head to think for them so nothing today is original thought----they have not EVOLVED.
'Mike Pompeo, Sharp Critic of Hillary Clinton, Is Trump’s Pick ...www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/us/politics/donald...Nov 18, 2016 · On Friday, President-elect Donald J. Trump, who defeated Mrs. Clinton after a bitter campaign, selected Mr. Pompeo to run the Central Intelligence Agency'.
If we started with the earliest world religion recognized these thousands of years of human development HINDI as this video shows would be the oldest ---about 3000BC. Since we KNOW MOVING FORWARD ONE WORLD ONE RELIGION has a goal of taking us back to that HINDI pagan god and goddesses religion we can see that our NORDIC and GREEK/ROMAN pagan gods and goddesses rituals no doubt came from HINDI---THE 3 INDIAS.
So, the OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS tied to the earliest EASTERN SILK AND SPICE TRADE OF 3000BC ---to 500 BC had all regions controlled by KINGS AND QUEENS creating religious structures allowing them to DECLARE they were descendants of those PAGAN GODS.
'Understanding the Origin of the Greek Gods
The most complete version of the Greek creation myths that survives is a poem called the Theogony (“Birth of the Gods”) by a poet named Hesiod, who lived in the late eighth or early seventh century B.C. (that is, the low-numbered 700s or high-numbered 600s BC)'.
Below we see the game of CHESS originated in Indias migrating throughout EASTERN TRADE ROUTES just as these pagan religions did.
Where Did Chess Originate?
By
B Sumangal
Chess originated in India around 7th century AD (around 1400 years ago). The game was then called Chaturanga – chatur meaning four and anga meaning parts. The game comprised the four parts of the army: elephants, horses, chariots and foot soldiers besides the king and his mantri (minister).
The game was in fact a battle-plan drawn on a smaller scale, to find out ways and means of outsmarting the enemy.
How was it played? In the game, one side of the army had to knock out or capture the opponent’s pieces from the board until the king was captured or ‘checked’, that is, made immobile. The player who ‘checked’ the opponent king’s movements won the game.
It is still played in the same way.
From India, soldiers and merchants took the game to Persia (present day Iran) around 600 A.D. where it came to be called Shatranj. At the same time travellers took the game to China where it was played in a modified form called Xianqui. The Japanese, when they came to know of it, called it Shogi.
The Crusaders from Europe who came to fight the Holy Wars in Palestine against the Muslim Saladdin in the 12-13th century took the game to Europe. They called it ‘chess’ from the Old French word ‘echec’ meaning ‘check’.
The pieces were made of ivory and consisted of a King, Rook or Castle (the elephants of Chaturanga times); knights (horses and cavalry) and Pawn (foot soldiers). To be in the good books of the powerful Catholic influence of the time, a piece called the ‘Bishop’ was also added. The most important piece, the minister, was replaced by the only female piece, the Queen.
Chess became very popular in no time. Landlords during the Renaissance period of the 12th and 13th centuries even played with live people who were beheaded instead of simply being captured!
In time players discovered that the first few movements called ‘openings’ could decide the outcome of the game. Experts then kept notes on the games of their opponents, how they played earlier and came up with strategies to preempt these moves.
It was only in the 20th century that chess began to be played as a professional game. Seeing how popular these were, newspapers began to publish each game move by move. Then in 1924 the Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE) was set up to formulate rules to supervise the game. Players also began to be rated for their performance. They were called International Masters. If they were the best of the best they became known as Grandmaster.
FIDE also laid the rule that every player must say ‘echec’ or ‘check’ when the king is in a position of being captured. The king is therefore checkmated ending the game. The word ‘checkmate’ literally means ‘the King is dead’ from the word ‘echec mat’ which in turn came from the Persian word ‘shah mat’.
Computers too made the game easier to learn and play. While the average computer can beat an amateur, most experts can beat the computer.
Today chess is a popular international sport made famous by India’s own Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand. Other chess greats include the American Bobby Fisher, Russians Gary Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov, players with huge fan followings. There’s even a separate Olympics for chess, held every two years! Once a pastime of the old, today it is common to see children at six or seven years in international games.
The same board is also used to play the game of Draughts or Checkers. Its origin? That’s another story!
__________________________________________
If we remember our early 99% of WE THE PEOPLE would not create religions tied to KINGS and QUEENS telling us these religious texts are THE WORD OF GOD when we know these texts were selected and edited and that GOD'S WORDS appear in only two spots in our Christian Bible OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT----then it is easy to see where our early religions were corrupted by OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS. It does not make these texts bad-----it means we must work to discover the true meaning of our religions.
So, HINDI is the oldest of our world religions and after the FALL OF EMPIRE OF ISRAEL we see the creation of JEWISH, MUSLIM, AND CHRISTIAN religions and texts.
Now, back then there were the same group of STEM humanists tied to ancient science and math mysticism wanting to deny a GOD existed===making fun of our 99% beliefs in GOD and that extended to the prophets JESUS/MUHAMMAD. If we cannot prove GOD does not exist we cannot prove GOD cannot touch prophets with the ability of miracles.
This is where our divisions in early religions fell. So, we had several different religious sects being JEWISH, being MUSLIM, being CHRISTIAN none of which saw these prophets as KINGS.
What we notice is our JEWISH religion was short-lived before it was scattered with endless wars and being made EX-PATS----we see pockets of Jewish communities spread around the EASTERN WORLD----
Animated map shows how religion spread around the world
Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are five…
youtube.com
It was our JEWISH OLD TESTAMENT that took what was pagan religions of gods and goddesses designed to be royal families to which people worship with the FAKE MT OLYMPUS as being the HEAVENS MEETS EARTH history of EARTH and made a religion centered on the history of MAN/WOMAN---HUMAN HISTORY. The Jewish OLD TESTAMENT was written full of practical knowledge of how humans create business and economy organizing families reacting to GOD'S NATURAL events. All 99% of WE THE PEOPLE no matter the religion must respect this bringing of religion to our 99% MEN AND WOMEN. Now, did early Jewish OLD TESTAMENT really include all those BEGATS-----all those KINGS AND QUEENS who happened to be WISE----JUST-----MANIFEST DESTINY EMPIRE-BUILDERS?
MOSES RECEIVED THE TEN COMMANDMENTS WHICH WE ARE TOLD ARE THE ACTUAL WORDS OF GOD. THESE COMMANDMENTS DID NOT EXEMPT KINGS----IT MADE KINGS ACCOUNTABLE TO THESE SAME TEN COMMANDMENTS AND GOD'S WILL.
'The Law of the Patriarchs
Again, because there was very specific revelation and instruction given to the patriarchs, there was a law given to these Old Testament believers. Though very little detail of this is given, God’s instructions to them still represent His law, the system of principles and rules designed to direct their lives. This is illustrated in Genesis 26:5 which says, “Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws.”'
If we glance quickly at what is today's interpretation of MOSAIC TEN COMMANDMENTS from 3000 years ago we see what were simple statements made into LAWS----made into DOGMA-----these laws were received by ANGELS-----so, this is a complete corruption of our early JEWISH and CHRISTIAN religions.
The Mosaic Law: Its Function and Purpose in the New Testament
Introduction
A great cause of confusion today concerns the place of the Mosaic law in the New Testament believer’s life. While this short study cannot begin to cover all the issues involved, it is my hope that it will shed some light and remove some of the confusion.
One of the profound emphases of the New Testament, especially the epistles of Paul, is that Christians are no longer under the rule of the Mosaic law.
This truth is stated in no uncertain terms and in various ways (see Rom. 6:14; 7:1-14; Gal. 3:10-13, 24-25; 4:21; 5:1, 13; 2 Cor. 3:7-18), but in spite of this, there have always been those who insist that the Mosaic Law, at least the Ten Commandments, are still in force for the Christian. In regard to the relation of Christian ethics to the Mosaic Law, Luck writes:
There are Christian teachers of repute who consider the Mosaic law to be the present-day rule of life for the Christian. A view not infrequently found among earnest, orthodox believers is that although we are not saved by the law, once we have been justified by faith, then the Mosaic law becomes our rule of life. Those holding such a view generally make a sharp division of the Mosaic law into two parts, which they distinguish as the moral and the ceremonial. The ceremonial portion they consider as having found its fulfillment in Christ at His first advent, and thus as having now passed away. But the moral portion of the Mosaic law, say they, is still in force as the believer’s rule of life. The treatment given to Christian ethics by some highly respected authors is indeed but little more than an exposition of the Decalogue.
It seems exceedingly strange that Bible-believing Christians should advocate such a view, when the New Testament makes it abundantly clear that the believer in Christ is not any longer under the Mosaic law in its entirety… Indeed after having been delivered from the law, to deliberately place ourselves once again under its [control] is said to be “falling from grace.”
But let it be immediately understood that this does not mean to say that we should necessarily behave in a manner just opposite to what the Mosaic law commands—that we should kill, steal, bear false witness, etc. Long before the law was given through Moses, it was utterly wrong to do such evil things. . .2
By contrast, the age in which we live, the church age, has often and rightly been called the age of grace. This is not because God’s grace has not been manifested in other ages, but because in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ we have the ultimate manifestation of God’s grace.
Titus 2:11-12. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. It trains us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,
Grace becomes an absolutely inseparable part of the believer’s life in Christ. In the coming of Christ and His death on the cross, the Mosaic Law as a rule of life was terminated. The believer is now to live in the liberty and power of God’s grace by the Spirit, not the rule of law.
This new liberty must never be used as an occasion to indulge the flesh or sinful appetites (Gal. 5:13) nor does it mean the Christian has no moral law or imperatives on his life, but simply that he or she is to live righteously by a new source of life as asserted in Romans 8
Romans 8:2-4. For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
But a great deal of confusion exists over the issues of law and grace and the place of the Mosaic law in the New Testament believer’s life. However, the basic principle is that the “fusion” of law and grace brings a “confusion” which results in sterile legalism. Because of man’s natural bent toward either legalism or license, the place and function of the Law has been an issue in the Christian community since the very early days of the church. There have always been those who have sought to put the Christian back under the Law or make the Law necessary for both salvation and sanctification. As a result large sections of the New Testament are written directly to this issue (see Acts 15 and the council at Jerusalem; Romans 5:10; 6:14; 7:1f; 2 Cor. 3:6-18; and the entire book of Galatians). These passages were written against a legalistic use of the Law, one which promotes works to gain points with either God or people; works of self-effort rather than a life lived by the power and personal leading of the Holy Spirit.
Of course, other parts of the New Testament are written against license and the misuse of liberty (Gal. 5:13ff. Rom. 6:1ff; 8:4ff; Tit. 2:11-14). But the answer is never to put the Christian back under the Law, but rather a proper understanding and appreciation of God’s grace to us in Christ. Christian liberty is not the right to do as one pleases, but the power, desire, and will to do as one ought in and by the power of God and a regenerated life.
This is ultimately the focus of Titus 2:11-14. The glorious manifestation of God’s grace in Christ instructs and trains believers in how to live. This grace provides the incentive, the motive, and the means. Regarding Titus 2:11-14 Ryrie writes:
The verb teaching encompasses the whole concept of growth—discipline, maturing, obedience, progress, and the like. This involves denial of improper things and direction into proper channels. These five terms—godliness, worldly lusts, soberly, righteously, godly—do not describe the content of grace teaching so much as they indicate the object and purposeful goal of that teaching. And this intent is, according to this passage, the ultimate purpose of the Incarnation of Christ. He came to display the grace of God in the changed lives of his people. The final cause of the revelation of the grace of God in Christ is not creed but character.
In Romans 6:14, Paul gives us a fundamental principle as it relates to the Christian’s understanding and the place of the Law in a believer’s life. “For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace.” (emphasis mine). Romans 6 deals with the believer’s walk or sanctification. In this regard, under grace is never to be taken as an excuse to sin as one pleases since he is under grace (6:1-2) and it is placed in strong contrast with under law. Two things are prominent here: (1) these two (law and grace) are set forth as complete opposites, and (2) the text also makes it clear that the only way the believer is going to experience true sanctification (victory over sin plus the production of positive righteousness) is by grace (the work of God in Christ) and never by law. The reasons, which will be set forth below, are bound up in two issues, the weakness of man’s flesh and the nature of the Law and its inability because of man’s weakness to produce a truly holy life. This is not to say that the Mosaic Law is not good and holy and does not have a function, but this too will be set forth below.
So just what is the meaning, nature, and place or function of the law in the New Testament?
The Meaning of the Term “Law”
In the Old Testament, the word “law” is used to translated the Hebrew word torah, “instruction.” The Hebrew word for “law” probably comes from the causative form of the verb yarah, “to throw,” “to shoot (arrows).” In the hiphil stem, the verb horah means “to point, guide, instruct, teach.” Hence, the law is that which provides authoritative guidance. In the New Testament, the Greek word used for law is nomos. Nomos means “that which is assigned,” hence, “usage, custom,” and then “law,” or “a rule governing one’s actions.”
Thus God’s law is His system of rules by which He shows and instructs in His will and administers the affairs of the world. Obviously the definition allows for and even implies that there might be differing systems of rules at various times, depending on what particular aspects or how much of His will God wishes to show at a given time.…A system of rules may be tailored for different times, peoples, or purposes. . .
OH, REALLY??????
As a result, in the progress of God’s revelation to man, we can see a number of different systems of law in the Scripture. These are:
The Law of Nature (Natural or Inherent)
This is the law Paul mentions in Romans 2:14, “For whenever the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things required by the law, these who do not have the law are a law to themselves.” (emphasis mine) The law of nature is one which contains natural revelation of God’s eternal power and divine nature (Rom. 1:20) and is sufficient to condemn those who reject this revelation, but not sufficient to save. Those who do not receive this natural revelation through nature demonstrate they are unable to receive the additional light (special revelation of Scripture) needed for salvation. “If a man rejects the revelation of God in the law of nature, he fails to qualify for the further revelation which will lead him to Christ.” This natural law perhaps also falls under the category of the eternal law of God for the moral principles of the Mosaic Law (the Ten Commandments) did not begin with Sinai, but are as eternal and immutable as the very holy character of God Himself (see 1 Pet. 1:16).
The Law of Eden
While the term “law” is never specifically used of Adam and Eve’s relationship with God in the Garden, by the definition of “law,” a system of principles or rules that instructs man as to God’s will and direction, there was a law given to Adam. He was instructed to “dress and keep” the garden, and to eat freely of all the trees except the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
The Law of the Patriarchs
Again, because there was very specific revelation and instruction given to the patriarchs, there was a law given to these Old Testament believers. Though very little detail of this is given, God’s instructions to them still represent His law, the system of principles and rules designed to direct their lives. This is illustrated in Genesis 26:5 which says, “Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws.”
The Law of Moses Given to Israel
The Mosaic Law is what we are most concerned about in relation to the New Testament believer. This consisted of 365 negative commands and 248 positive for a total of 613 commands. These may also be divided into three parts or sections (see below)—the moral, the social, and the ceremonial. As such, it covered every possible area of the life of Israel. It should be stressed that the moral principles embodied in the Mosaic Law given at Sinai were merely the codified expression of the eternal moral law of God as it was given to Israel to govern her life as a nation in order to experience God’s blessing under the Abrahamic covenant. For more on this aspect, see below.
Human Law as Prescribed by Man
There are obviously various forms of human laws, those prescribed by man through human government or custom (see Luke 20:22; Acts 19:38). While human government is an institution ordained by God’s will or law, some of the laws of man are direct expressions of the will of God, but still constitute laws by which men are often bound by the governmental system in which they live. Of course, where such laws conflict with God's laws, then we are obligated to obey God instead (Acts 4:19-20).
The Law of Christ, the Law of the Spirit of Life
The fact that the Mosaic law has been terminated does not mean that there is no law in this age of grace even though the nature of this law is quite different from the standpoint of incentive, motivation, and means. In fact, the epistles speak of “the perfect law of liberty (Jam. 1:25), “the royal law” (Jam. 2:8), the Law of Christ (Gal. 6:2), and the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:2). This consists of the many imperatives found throughout the epistles which comprise this law. These too cover all areas of the believer’s life to direct him in the will of God in today’s world.
The moral principles embodied in the law of Moses Paul calls “the righteousness of the law” (Rom 8:4), and shows that such principles are the goal of the Spirit-directed life in the same context in which he teaches the believer is not under the Mosaic law (Rom 6–8).
The Law of the Kingdom
The New Testament clearly speaks of and anticipates the reign of Christ on earth when He will rule in perfect righteousness and justice (Isa. 11:4-5). This will naturally mean many laws that will govern the life of citizens of the Kingdom. One only needs to consider Isaiah 2:3 which reads,
2:3 many peoples will come and say, “Come, let’s go up to the LORD’s mountain, to the temple of the God of Jacob, so he can teach us his requirements, and we can follow his standards.” For Zion will be the center for moral instruction,9 the LORD will issue edicts from Jerusalem. (NET Bible)
The Significance of these Various Laws
We can see from this that God is the administrator of the world. In the progress of His revelation and the development of His plan, there have been various economies (dispensations) administered by God with different regulations or laws giving precise instruction for each administration. The way God has run each economy or dispensation has varied, however, in each case, different people were addressed with the commands differing in quantity and character, but always with specific instruction.
The Use of the Term “Law” in the New Testament
A great deal of flexibility is found in the use of the term “law” in the New Testament. A few of the uses are as follows.
1. This term is used of the entire Old Testament (John 10:34; 12:34; 1 Cor. 14:21). John 10:34 is a quotation from Psalm 82:6, and 1 Corinthians 14:21f is a quote from Isaiah 28:11-12. Technically neither the Psalms nor Isaiah are a part of the Old Testament “law,” but sometimes the term “law” was applied to the entire Old Testament because it constituted God’s special revelation of instruction for Israel and ultimately for man.
2. It is used with such terms as the prophets, and writings, again as a title for the entire Old Testament Scripture, but in this way it looks at them in their division (Luke 24:27, 44).
3. It is especially used of the first five books of the Old Testament or the Mosaic Law (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). (Compare Luke 2:23; John 8:5; 1 Cor. 9:9; Gal. 3:10).
4. The term is used of the entire specific Mosaic code given to the nation Israel to govern and guide their moral, religious and secular life, and covers parts of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy (Deut. 4:8, 44-45).
5. The term is used of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:3-17).
6. Law is used of a principle, force or influence that impels one to action or behavior (Rom. 7:21, 23a, 25).
7. It is used of law in general (Rom 3:27 and possibly Rom. 5:13b).
The Origin and Source of the Mosaic Law
Though part of the Law was mediated by angels, God is the origin and source of the Mosaic Law, which stems from the eternal and holy character of God. This is true even of the natural law written in the heart or conscience of man (Exodus 31:1b; Acts 7:53; Rom. 2:14-16; Heb. 2:1-2).
The Nature and Content of the Mosaic Law
It is common to divide the Mosaic Law into three parts as illustrated below, but though this is helpful for analysis and the study of the Mosaic Law and the way it functions, such a division is never stated as such in Scripture. Rather it is seen as a unit. Arguments for this will be given below.
- Part 1: The Moral Law or the Ten Commandments. This part of the Law governed the moral life giving guidance to Israel in principles of right and wrong in relation to God and man (Exodus 20:1-17).
- Part 2: The Judgments, or the Social Law. This part of the Law governed Israel in her secular, social, political, and economic life (Exodus 21:1–23:13).
- Part 3: The Ordinances or the Ceremonial Law. This was the religious portion of Law which guided and provided for Israel in her worship and spiritual relationship and fellowship with God. It included the priesthood, tabernacle and sacrifices (Exodus 25:-31: Leviticus).
The Recipients of the Mosaic Law
The Mosaic Law was a bilateral covenant made specifically for Israel alone to govern her life in the promised land. From the Abrahamic Covenant (Gen.12) we see Israel was a chosen nation, an instrument of God to become a channel of blessing to all nations. Yahweh was her Theocratic King who was to rule and guide the nation in her destiny that she might not become polluted or contaminated by other nations and could thus fulfill her purpose. For this the Mosaic Law was instituted to direct Israel as a nation in all spheres of her life—morally, socially, politically, economically and religiously.
By its very nature, the Mosaic Law was not to be, and could not be, obeyed to the letter by any other people in any other place as a rule of life. However, in the spirit of the Law it did set forth moral principles which were applicable and would bring blessing to all people anywhere and at any time when applied and used as a standard of right and wrong.
There were certain economic provisions in the Law to govern and protect the economic life of Israel in their promised land. For example there was the right of property ownership, free enterprise, protection of the poor which guarded against the evils of great concentrations of wealth in the hands of a few with the consequent impoverishment of others. But the poor were provided for in such a way as to avoid the loss of free enterprise and the individual’s initiative by high taxation as well as to avoid making leeches out of men who refused to work.
However, the strict application of these laws to our world is impossible since the original conditions in which God directly intervened cannot he reproduced, at least not until the millennium. Yet, economists could study and learn much from these laws and principles.
The Characteristics of the Mosaic Law(1) The foundation and basis of the Mosaic Law is the covenant God made with the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In several places in Exodus and Deuteronomy, there are references to the Abrahamic Covenant which establish the fact that the giving of the Law at Sinai was based on the covenant with Abraham and God’s continuing plan for the nation of Israel as a priesthood nation (cf. Ex. 19:4-6; Deut. 4:4-8 with Ex. 2:24-25; Deut. 4:36-38; 29:31; 1 Chron. 16:15-19). God had promised to bless the descendants of Abraham and through them, the world. This was a promises reiterated and expanded to Abraham and to Isaac and Jacob. God would bless Israel and through them, bring blessing to the world (Gen. 12:1f; 15; 17:1ff; 26:24f; 28:13f). The Abrahamic covenant is a unilateral covenant. Its ultimate fulfillment is dependent on God’s sovereign and steadfast faithfulness to His promises to Abraham regardless of Israel’s continued disobedience (cf. Ezek. 20:1-44).
The Mosaic Covenant, however, was a bilateral covenant. Though its ultimate fulfillment is dependent on God, for any generation to experience the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant, there had to be faithfulness to God. Thus, enters the Law, a bilateral covenant given to Moses for the nation of Israel after their redemption out of the land of Egypt. It was through obedience to the Mosaic Covenant (the Law) that Israel would be able to experience the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant in the promised land. For obedience there would be blessings; for disobedience, cursing (cf. Deut. 28-30).
(2) The Mosaic Law is holy, good, and spiritual (Rom. 7:12, 14). It was, however, only temporary as the book of Hebrews so clearly teaches. As such, the Mosaic Law was designed to maintain a proper relationship between God and His people Israel (blessing versus cursing), but only until the coming of Messiah and the establishment of a New Covenant. The Law was never designed to be a permanent rule of life. It was merely a tutor or guardian to guide Israel in all areas of her life until Christ (2 Cor. 3:7, 11; Gal. 3:23-24; Rom. 10:4).
(3) The Mosaic Law is weak because it is dependent on man’s ability. It is especially weak when adopted as a system of merit (Rom. 8:3).
(4) The Mosaic Law was an indivisible unit, and is that which was terminated by the Lord Jesus. Though the Law is usually divided into three parts, as described above, it is important to see that it was an indivisible unit. Thus, when Paul stated that we are not under the Law, this included all three parts, including the Ten Commandments. Some will agree that parts of the Old Testament Law have been done away, but assert the Ten Commandments are supposedly still in force today. But all three parts of the Law were designed to function as a unit to guide Israel in all of its life. The Ten Commandments cannot be separated from the rest. Further, even though most recognize this three-fold division, the Jews so numbered all the commands that they approached the Law as a unit. Ryrie notes that,
“…the Jewish people either did not acknowledge it (the three-fold division) or at least did not insist on it. Rather they divided the 613 commandments of the Law into twelve families of commandments which were then subdivided into twelve additional families of positive and twelve additional families of negative commands.”10
Further, that it is a unit is evident by the fact that the recognition of any of its features, i.e., as a meritorious system of righteousness with God, obligates the person to fulfill the entire Law, as we are taught by both Paul and James (cf. Gal. 3:10, 12; 5:3; Jam. 2:8-11).
Further evidence that the Law is a unit is the penalty of death for disobedience is attached to all three parts of the Law.
Noticing the penalties attached to certain commands further emphasizes the unitized character of the Law. When the command to keep the Sabbath (one of the “commandments”) was violated by a man who gathered sticks on that day, the penalty was death by stoning (Num. 15:32-36). When the people of Israel violated the command concerning the Sabbatical Year for the land (one of the “judgments”), God sent them into captivity where many died (Jer. 25:11). When Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire before the Lord (one of the “ordinances”), they immediately died (Lev. 10:1-7). Clearly these commands from various parts of the Law were equally binding and the punishment equally severe. The Law was a unit.11
Finally, three times in 2 Corinthians 3:6-13 Paul declares that the Mosaic system is done away or abolished (vss. 7, 11, 13). In commenting on 2 Corinthians 3:7-13, Chafer wrote:
It is the law as crystallized in the ten commandments which is in view; for that law alone was ‘written and engraven in stones.’ In the midst of the strongest possible contrast between the reign of the teachings of the law and the teachings of grace, it is declared that these commandments were ‘done away’ and ‘abolished.’ It should be recognized that the old was abolished to make place for the new, which far excels in glory. The passing of the law is not, therefore, a loss; it is rather an inestimable gain.”
(5) The Mosaic Law stands in contrast to the grace of God as now manifested in the coming of Christ (Rom. 6:14; 7:6; 8:3; Gal. 3:12).
The Purpose and Function of the Mosaic Law
The Purpose and Function Explained
What then is the purpose of the Law?
Though given to Israel to govern her life in the promise land for blessing instead of cursing, there was an attendant purpose in the giving of the Mosaic Law to Israel—a purpose that still stands today. Simply put, its proper use is to show man his total helpless and hopeless condition before a righteous and just God.
1 Timothy 1:8-10 But we know that the law is good if someone uses it legitimately, 1:9 realizing that law is not intended for a righteous person, but for lawless and rebellious people, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 1:10 sexually immoral, sodomites, kidnappers, liars, perjurers—in fact, for any who live contrary to sound teaching.
In the study of the Bible, there are three specific purposes that surface in the proper use of the Mosaic Law.
(1) In a general sense, it was given to provide a standard of righteousness (Deut. 4:8; Psalm 19:7-9). In the process, the Mosaic Law revealed the righteousness, holiness, and goodness of God (Deut. 4:8; Lev. 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:7; Rom. 7:12-14). The Law at Sinai was given to Israel to reveal who God is and to shed light on the reality of an infinite gulf that separates God from man.
Romans 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
Romans 3: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
(2) The Law was given to identify sin and reveal man’s sin and bankrupt condition as guilty before God (Rom. 3:19f; 7:7-8; 5:20; Gal. 3:19). God’s holy Law reveals to man just who and what he is—sinful and separated from God by an infinite gulf that he is unable to bridge in his own human strength.
Romans 3:19-20 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 3:20 For no one is declared righteous before him by the works of the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
(3) The Law was given to shut man up to faith, i.e., to exclude the works of the Law (or any system of works) as a system of merit for either salvation or sanctification and thereby lead him to Christ as the only means of righteousness (Gal. 3:19-20, 20-24; 1 Tim. 1:8-9; Rom. 3:21-24). The ceremonial portion of the Law did this by pointing to the coming of a suffering Savior, “for without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness” (Heb. 9:22).
Romans 3:21-24 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God, which is attested by the law and the prophets, has been disclosed— 3:22 namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.3:24 But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:24-26 Thus the law had become our guardian13 until Christ, so that we could be declared righteous by faith. 3:25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. 3:26 For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.
Summary: Keeping the Law in the True Sense
By keeping the Law, we are speaking about the true sense as God intended it, not as Israel and man tend to take it. The Ten Commandments showed the Jew his sin (and so all mankind) and that he was shut up under that sin. The Ten Commandments were designed to guide him, indeed to drive him to the Ceremonial Law (the tabernacle, priesthood, and sacrifices) for forgiveness through faith in the sacrifices which pointed to Christ. Then, the Social Law, regulated his life by showing him how to live socially, not to give him merit before God, but to enable him to experience the blessings of the covenant rather than the cursing as God warned in Deuteronomy.
The Limitations of the Mosaic Law
When approached as a meritorious system, the Law cannot justify (Gal. 2:16), give life (Gal. 3:21), give the Holy Spirit (Gal. 3:2, 14), sanctify (Gal. 3:21; 5:5; Rom. 8:3), make perfect, or permanently deal with sin (Heb. 7:19). It was designed to be a temporary guardian until the coming of Christ, the Suffering Messiah Savior.
The Effects of the Mosaic Law
The reasons for the effects listed below lie in the wrong reaction of Israel and people today, i.e., approaching the Law as a system of merit, shifting from a faith basis to a works basis (Exodus 19:8; Rom. 10:3). People often try to use the Law as a means of establishing their own standing before God. But Scripture emphatically teaches us that the Law brings a curse (Gal. 3:10-12), brings death, it is a killer (2 Cor. 3:6-7; Rom. 7:9-10), brings condemnation (2 Cor. 3:9), makes offenses abound (Rom. 5:10; 7:7-13), declares all men guilty (Rom. 3:19), and holds men in bondage to sin and death (Gal. 4:3-5, 9, 24; Rom. 7:10-14). This is because man in his sinful state can never fulfill the righteousness of the Law, especially in the spirit of the Law. He always falls short as Romans 3:23 tells us, and becomes condemned or guilty before a Holy God (Rom. 3:19).
The End of the Mosaic Law as a Rule of Life
The Fact Established
Several passages of Scripture clearly establish that the coming of Christ has brought an end to the Mosaic Law. Paul specifically states that “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4). This instituted a new law or principle of life, i.e., the law of the Spirit, the one of liberty and grace (Rom. 8:2, 13). This fact was also clearly settled by the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. A council was convened in the church at Jerusalem to look into the issue of the Law and its place in the life of believers because some were saying “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved,” and because even certain of the Pharisees who had believed were also saying “It is necessary to circumcise the Gentiles and to order them to observe the law of Moses.” The conclusion of the council, consisting of apostles and elders, was to reject the concept of placing New Testament believers under the yoke of the Law (15:6-11). The only thing the Jerusalem Council asked was that Gentile believers control their liberty in matters that might be offensive to Jewish believers, but they did not seek to place the believers under the yoke of the Law for they realized the Law had come to an end.
Finally, the book of Hebrews demonstrates that the old covenant of the Mosaic Law was only temporary and has been replaced by the coming of Christ whose ministry is based on (1) a better priesthood, one after the order of Melchizedek which is superior to Aaron’s, and (2) a better covenant with better promises (see Heb. 7-10). The old covenant was only a shadow of heavenly things, and if it had been able to make men perfect before God there would have been no occasion for a second or new covenant (see Heb. 7:11-12; 8:1-13). This change in the priesthood also necessitates a change in the Law. Such a change shows the Law has been terminated or done away.
The Problem of Mosaic Laws as Commands for New Testament Believers
A careful reading of the New Testament shows us that nine of the Ten Commandments are repeated as obligations for believers. The one exception is the command to keep the Sabbath. If the Mosaic Law has been done away, then why are these commandments repeated in the New Testament? Further, some commandments outside the Ten Commandments are even repeated in the New Testament. For instance, as a motivation for loving others, Paul referred to four of the Ten Commandments because they demonstrate this principle, but then, to summarize, he mentioned one from Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” So in what sense has the Law been done away?
The Solution
Part of the purpose of the Law was to point men to the coming Savior through its shadows and types. Through the moral law, man could see God’s holy character as well as his own sinfulness and the infinite gulf that separates God and man. Through the ceremonial part of the Law (the priesthood, sacrifices, and tabernacle), man could find the solution to his sin by faith in what this part of the Law represented, a suffering Savior, one who would die as the Lamb of God. But even though no one could perfectly keep the Law, it was also designed for Israel’s immediate blessing by setting forth righteous principles that would show them how to love God and their fellow man. This would produce a stable and secure society as well as a testimony to the nations (Deut. 4:6-8).
Thus, in 613 commands the Mosaic Law represented an ethical code given by God to Israel to govern the nation until the coming of Messiah, but at their heart, they represented the moral law of God—righteous principles vital to humanity. Today, we are not under this code, but many of its righteous principles, the eternal laws of God, have been carried over and are part of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ (Rom. 8:2) or the law of Christ (1 Cor. 9:21; Gal. 6:2). In this, some of the former commands are carried over (Rom. 13:9), some new commands and guidelines are added (Eph. 4:11f; 1 Tim. 3:1f; 4:4), and some have been revised, as in the case of capitol punishment which is to be exercised by human government (Rom. 13:4).
It needs to be emphasized that the end of the Mosaic law, including the Ten Commandments, does not cancel or detract one iota from the eternal moral law of God. The moral principles of the ten laws did not begin with Sinai but are as eternal and immutable as the character of God. To understand this should dispel the fears of those who think the abolition of the Mosaic law leaves only a state of lawlessness.
The moral principles embodied in the law of Moses Paul calls “the righteousness of the law” (Rom 8:4), and shows that such principles are the goal of the Spirit-directed life in the same context in which he teaches the believer is not under the Mosaic law (Rom 6—8).
This should be no more difficult to understand than the fact that a citizen of the United States is not under the laws of Canada, even though the moral principles underlying the laws of the two countries are the same. When a citizen of the United States becomes a citizen of Canada he does not remain under ten of the best laws of the United States. Nor does the fact that some of the laws of the United States are quite similar to some of the laws of Canada confuse or compromise his new exclusive responsibility to Canada. So the believing Jew of the first century moved entirely from the Mosaic economy of law into the new economy of grace instituted by Jesus Christ (John 1:17).14
The Lawful Use of the Mosaic Law
The Law is still good from the standpoint of its main function and purpose as seen above in The Purpose and Function of the Law (1 Tim. 1:8-10; James 2:1-10; Gal. 5:1-3; 6:1). This is how James uses the Law, to reveal sin (James 2:9), to get believers out of self-righteous legalism, and move them into a walk by faith in a living Savior.
The Relationship of New Testament Believers to the Mosaic Law1. He is never saved by keeping the Law (Gal. 2:21).
2. He is not under the Law as a rule of life, i.e., sacrifice, Sabbath keeping, tithing (Rev. 6:14; Acts 15:5, 24).
3. Thus, he does not walk by the Law but by the Spirit, which is the new law for the New Testament saint (Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:5). This is law of liberty through faith in the power of God.
4. He is dead to the Law (Rom. 7:1-6; Gal. 2:19) by virtue of his union with Jesus Christ who fulfilled the Law.
5. He is to fulfill the righteousness of the Law, i.e., the spirit of the law as seen in Christ’s words in Matthew 10:37-40 love for God, and love for one’s neighbor (James 2:9). But this can only be fulfilled through a knowledge of Bible truth and the filling of the Holy Spirit, which furnishes the power or ability needed to live the Christian life according to the eternal moral law of God. So we are under God’s new law, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:2-4).
Christ, the Fulfillment of the Mosaic Law
Christ fulfilled the Ten Commandments by living a perfect and sinless life. Thus, when man trusts in Christ, Christ’s righteousness is imputed to that individual so we have justification. We have Christ’s righteousness so the Law can’t condemn us (Rom. 8:1; 7:1-6; Rom. 5:1; 4:4-8).
Christ fulfilled the ceremonial ordinances, the shadows and types of His person and work, by dying on the cross for us and in our place. This showed that God was also perfect justice and sin must be judged, but God provided His Son, the precious Lamb of God. The penalty which the Law exercised was paid. Again there is no condemnation because the believer is “in Christ” (Col. 2:14; Rom. 3:24-25).
Christ also fulfilled the Social Law, but now He replaces it with a new way of life fitting to our new salvation. He gives provision for the inner man—the indwelling Holy Spirit—who enables us to experience true sanctification so that we may experience also the righteousness of the Law (Rom. 8:2-4).
Summary1. Christ is the end of the Law and believers are not under the Mosaic Law. New Testament believers are not under Law but under grace (Rom. 6:14).
2. Since the Lord Jesus Christ fulfills the Law by His person and work, believers are under a new law; the obligation to walk by the Spirit of Life through faith (Rom. 8:2-4). If we are led by the Spirit, then we are not under the Law (Gal. 5:18).
3. Against such, i.e., the fruit of the Spirit, there is no law because the believer is then operating under the highest law, the standards are met as we walk by the Holy Spirit and grow in the Word (Gal. 5:22).
Warning Against Entanglements with the Law as Believers Today
After salvation by grace there has always been the grave danger of reverting to Law or legalism by taboos and tactics of coercion, or some form of human manipulation (Gal. 3:1-3). To go back to the Law as a way of life puts one under the control of the flesh, it nullifies true spirituality by faith in the Holy Spirit, and defeats the believer. It results in human good and domination by the sin nature or the flesh (Gal. 5:1-5; Col. 2:14f). The fact that the Christian is not under the Mosaic Law does not mean, of course, that there is lawlessness or no proper sense of morality or ethics in the Christian life. Quite the contrary is true. But in dealing with the subject of morality or ethics, it must be understood that the clear teaching of the New Testament is that the moral life the Christian is responsible for is that (1) no one can be saved by virtue of his own works (Tit. 3:5; Eph. 2:8-9), and (2) that the morality of the Christian life is to be the result of the Christ exchanged life by faith and submission to the ministry and power of a Spirit-controlled life.
The Threefold Duties of the New Testament Believer
In the New Testament, then, completely adequate teaching is provided as to the principles of conduct the Christian will follow if he truly presents his body “a living sacrifice” (Rom 12:1) and walks “in the Spirit” (Eph 5:9). In Titus 2:11-14 is to be found a convenient outline around which to group these principles. First in this passage it is majestically stated that God’s grace brings us salvation. But His grace then teaches us to live soberly, righteously and godly. These are three important lines of responsibility: the believer is to live soberly with regard to himself (Rom 12:3); righteously with regard to his fellow men; and godly with regard to the Lord. The same truth can be more or less expressed in a somewhat different way: We should seek to live in accordance with the precepts of grace because (1) this will please God (Heb 13:16) and will demonstrate our love for Christ (John 14:15); (2) it will help others (Matt 5:16; Titus 3:8,14); (3) it will bring true joy and blessing to our own hearts (John 15:10-11).
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This article sets the development of JEWISH religion in its world historical context. The OLD TESTAMENT is a history of JEWISH EMPIRE with MOSES being that JEWISH PROPHET GOD chose to receive his words. We see how important our OLD TESTAMENT is to all humanity------this is why our CHRISTIAN AND MUSLIM religious texts are based on these OLD TESTAMENT writings. These JEWISH OLD TESTAMENT writing have been corrupted by OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS just as our NEW TESTAMENT has--- the TORAH, KORAN, BIBLE over 3000 years have been edited away from our early 99% of WE THE PEOPLE religious writings.
IF this article was written by a REAL 99% JEWISH citizen we see corruption in what OLD TESTAMENT creation story had to say.
DOES GOD HAVE A GENDER? DOES IT MATTER?
The creation story in OLD TESTAMENT is simply an acknowledgement of real scientific history of EARTH and HUMANITY. It takes us away from gods and goddesses living on MT OLYMPUS playing games with our 99% of lives----and sets our early religion to a REAL 99% of humanity.
'The god of Genesis is bisexual: he/she is often referred to in female as well as male terms'.
Tracing the bloodlines of an ADAM AND EVE through KINGS AND QUEENS directed at the rise of EMPIRE OF ISRAEL is a very KINGS AND QUEENS writing-----just as our NEW TESTAMENT with lots of reference to JESUS being THE KING OF KINGS. That is not who JESUS was----it is not who MOSES was----please think back to when our 99% of citizens were writing and living these religious texts.
12 TRIBES OF ISRAEL mentioned in this article we feel is written by global banking 5% OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS freemason/Greek creates that corrupted religion that makes its way into our Christian NEW TESTAMENT with JESUS HAVING 12 DISCIPLES-----did Jesus have 12 disciples which is exactly the same as 12 TRIBES OF ISRAEL ----and does it really matter?
Ancient Jewish History: The Birth and Evolution of Judaism
Ancient Jewish History: Table of Contents|The Temples|The Twelve Tribes
The Hebrew religion gave us monotheism; it gave us the concept of rule by law; it gave us the concept that the divine works its purpose on human history through human events; it gave us the concept of the covenant, that the one god has a special relationship to a community of humans above all others. In the West, in the Middle East, in most of Africa and Asia, the legacy of Hebrew religion permeates nearly everything you see.
The Hebrew religion, so important and far-reaching in its influence on human culture, did not spring up overnight. Along with the Hebrew history, the development of Hebrew religion was a long and rocky road. Major shifts in the Hebrew fate inspired revolutions in the religion itself; it wasn't until sometime after the Exilic period that the central document of Hebrew faith, the Torah, took its final and orthodox shape.
Through archaeology and analysis of Hebrew scriptures, scholars have divided the development of the Hebrew religion into four main periods.
Pre-Mosaic Stage (1950-1300 BCE)
Little or nothing can be known for certain about the nature of Hebrew worship before the migration from Egypt. In Hebrew history, Abraham is already worshipping a figure called "Elohim," which is the plural for "lord." This figure is also called "El Shaddai" ("God the Mountaineer (?)," translated as "God Almighty"), and a couple other variants. The name of God, Yahweh, isn't learned by the Hebrews until Moses hears the name spoken by God on Mount Sinai. This god requires animal sacrifices and regular expiation. He intrudes on human life with astonishing suddenness, and often demands absurd acts from humans. The proper human relationship to this god is obedience, and the early history of humanity is a history of humans oscillating between obedience to this god and autonomy. This god is anthropomorphic: he has human qualities. He is frequently angered and seems to have some sort of human body. In addition, the god worshipped by Abraham and his descendants is the creator god, that is, the god solely responsible for the creation of the universe. The god of Genesis is bisexual: he/she is often referred to in female as well as male terms. For instance, this god is represented frequently as "mothering" or "giving birth through labor pains" to the world and humans (these passages are universally mistranslated in English as "fathering"—this god is only referred to as a "father" twice in Genesis ). In Genesis , Elohim or El Shaddai functions as a primitive law-giver; after the Flood, this god gives to Noah those primitive laws which apply to all human beings, the so-called Noahide Laws. Nothing of the sophistication and comprehensive of the Mosaic laws is evident in the early history of the human relationship to Yahweh as outlined in Genesis .
Scholars have wracked their brains trying to figure out what conclusions might be drawn about this human history. In general, they believe that the portrait of Hebrew religion in Genesis is an inaccurate one. They conclude instead that Hebrew monolatry and monotheism began with the Yahweh cult introduced, according to Exodus, in the migration from Egypt between 1300 and 1200 BC. The text of Genesis in their view is an attempt to legitimate the occupation of Palestine by asserting a covenantal relationship between Yahweh and the Hebrews that had been established far in the distant past.
All these conclusions are brilliant but tentative, for we'll never know for sure much of anything substantial about Hebrew history and religion during the age of the patriarchs or the sojourn in Egypt. Nevertheless, scholars draw on the text of Genesis to conclude the following controversial ideas about early Hebrew religion:
— Early Hebrew religion was polytheistic; the curious plural form of the name of God, Elohim rather than El, leads them to believe that the original Hebrew religion involved several gods. This plural form, however, can be explained as a "royal" plural. Several other aspects of the account of Hebrew religion in Genesis also imply a polytheistic faith.
— The earliest Hebrew religion was animistic, that is, the Hebrews seemed worship forces of nature that dwelled in natural objects.
— As a result, much of early Hebrew religion had a number of practices that fall into the category of magic: scapegoat sacrifice and various forms of imitative magic, all of which are preserved in the text of Genesis .
— Early Hebrew religion eventually became anthropomorphic, that is, god or the gods took human forms; in later Hebrew religion, Yahweh becomes a figure that transcends the human and material worlds. Individual tribes probably worshipped different gods; there is no evidence in Genesis that anything like a national God existed in the time of the patriarchs.
The most profound revolution in Hebrew thought, though, occurred in the migration from Egypt, and its great innovator was Moses. In the epic events surrounding the flight from Egypt and the settling of the promised land, Hebrew religion became permanently and irrevocably, the Mosaic religion.
National Monolatry and Monotheism (1300 - 1000 BCE)
According to Hebrew history narrated in Exodus , the second book of the Torah, the Hebrews became a nation and adopted a national god on the slopes of Mount Sinai in southern Arabia. While we know nothing whatsoever of Hebrew life in Egypt, the flight from Egypt is described in Hebrew history with immense and powerful detail. The migration itself creates a new entity in history: the Israelites; Exodus is the first place in the Torah which refers to the Hebrews as a single national group, the "bene yisrael," or "children of Israel."
The flight from Egypt itself stands as the single greatest sign from Yahweh that the Israelites were the chosen people of Yahweh; it is the event to be always remembered as demonstrating Yahweh's purpose for the Hebrew people. It is the point in history that the scattered tribes descended from Abraham become a single unit, a single nation. It is also the crucial point in history that the Hebrews adopt Yahweh as their national god.
Hebrew history is absolutely silent about Hebrew worship during the sojourn in Egypt. A single religious observance, the observation of Passover, originates in Egypt immediately before the migration. This observance commemorates how Yahweh spared the Hebrews when he destroyed all the first born sons in the land of Egypt. The Yahweh religion itself, however, is learned when the mass of Hebrews collect at Mount Sinai in Midian, which is located in the southern regions of the Arabian peninsula. During this period, called the Sinai pericope, Moses teaches the Hebrews the name of their god and brings to them the laws that the Hebrews, as the chosen people, must observe. The Sinai pericope is a time of legislation and of cultural formation in the Hebrew view of history. In the main, the Hebrews learn all the cultic practices and observances that they are to perform for Yahweh.
Scholars are in bitter disagreement over the origin of the the Yahweh religion and the identity of its founder, Moses. While Moses is an Egyptian name, the religion itself comes from Midian. In the account, Moses lives for a time with a Midianite priest, Jethro, at the foot of Mount Sinai. The Midianites seem to have a Yahweh religion already in place; they worship the god of Mount Sinai as a kind of powerful nature deity. So it's possible that the Hebrews picked up the Yahweh religion from another group of Semites and that this Yahweh religion slowly developed into the central religion of the Hebrews. All scholars are agreed, however, that the process was slow and painful. In the Hebrew history, all during the migration and for two centuries afterwards, the Hebrews follow many various religions unevenly.
The Mosaic religion was initially a monolatrous religion; while the Hebrews are enjoined to worship no deity but Yahweh, there is no evidence that the earliest Mosaic religion denied the existence of other gods. In fact, the account of the migration contains numerous references by the historical characters to other gods, and the first law of the Decalogue is, after all, that no gods be put before Yahweh, not that no other gods exist. While controversial among many people, most scholars have concluded that the initial Mosaic religion for about two hundred years was a monolatrous religion. For there is ample evidence in the Hebrew account of the settlement of Palestine, that the Hebrews frequently changed religions, often several times in a single lifetime.
The name of god introduced in the Mosaic religion is a mysterious term. In Hebrew, the word is YHWH (there are no vowels in biblical Hebrew); we have no clue how this word is pronounced. Linguists believe that the word is related to the Semitic root of the verb, "to be," and may mean something like, "he causes to be." In English, the word is translated "I AM": "I AM THAT I AM. You will say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent you."
For a few centuries, Yahweh was largely an anthropomorphic god, that is, he had human qualities and physical characteristics. The Yahweh of the Torah is frequently angry and often capricious; the entire series of plagues on Egypt, for instance, seem unreasonably cruel. In an account from the monarchical period, Yahweh strikes someone dead for touching the Ark of the Covenant; that individual, Uzza, was only touching the ark to keep it from falling over (I Chronicles 13.10).
But there are some striking innovations in this new god. First, this god, anthropomorphic or not, is conceived as operating above and outside nature and the human world. The Mosaic god is conceived as the ruler of the Hebrews, so the Mosaic laws also have the status of a ruler. The laws themselves in the Torah were probably written much later, in the eighth or seventh centuries. It is not unreasonable, however, to conclude that the early Mosaic religion was a law-based religion that imagined Yahweh as the author and enforcer of these laws. In fact, the early Hebrews seemed to have conceived of Yahweh as a kind of monarch. In addition, Yahweh is more abstract than any previous gods; one injunction to the Hebrews is that no images of Yahweh be made or worshipped. Finally, there was no afterlife in the Mosaic religion. All human and religious concerns were oriented around this world and Yahweh's purposes in this world.
As the Hebrews struggled with this new religion, lapsing frequently into other religions, they were slowly sliding towards their first major religious and ethical crisis: the monarchy. The Yahweh religion would be shaken to its roots by this crisis and would be irrevocably changed.
The Prophetic Revolution (800 - 600 BCE)
Wearied from over two centuries of sporadic conflict with indigenous peoples, broken by a ruinous civil war, and constantly threatened on all sides, the disparate Hebrew settlers of Palestine began to long for a unified state under a single monarch. Such a state would provide the organization and the military to fend off the war-like peoples surrounding them. Their desire, however, would provoke the first major crisis in the Hebrew world view: the formation of the Hebrew monarchy.
In the Hebrew account of their own history, the children of Israel who settled Palestine between 1250 and 1050 BC, believed Yahweh to be their king and Yahweh's laws to be their laws (whether or not this is historically true is controversial). In desiring to have a king, the tribes of Israel were committing a grave act of disobedience towards Yahweh, for they were choosing a human being and human laws of Yahweh and Yahweh's laws. In the account of the formation of the monarchy, in the books of Samuel , the prophet of Yahweh, Samuel, tells the Israelites that they are committing an act of disobedience that they will dearly pay for. Heedless of Samuel's warnings, they push ahead with the monarchy. The very first monarch, Saul, sets the pattern for the rest; disobedient towards Yahweh's commands, Saul falls out with both Samuel and Yahweh and gradually slips into arbitrary despotism. This pattern—the conflict between Yahweh and the kings of Israel and Judah—becomes the historical pattern in the Hebrew stories of the prophetic revolution.
Whatever the causes, a group of religious leaders during the eighth and seventh centuries BC responded to the crisis created by the institution of the monarchy by reinventing and reorienting the Yahweh religion. In Hebrew, these religious reformers were called "nivea," or "prophets." The most important of these prophets were Amos, Hosea, Isaiah (who is actually three people: Isaiah and "Second Isaiah" [Deutero-Isaiah], and a third, post-exilic Isaiah), and Micah. These four, and a number of lesser prophets, are as important to the Hebrew religion as Moses.
The innovations of the prophets can be grouped into three large categories:
Monotheism
Whatever the character of Mosaic religion during the occupation and the early monarchy, the prophets unambiguously made Yahweh the one and only one god of the universe. Earlier, Hebrews acknowledged and even worshipped foreign gods; the prophets, however, asserted that Yahweh ruled the entire universe and all the peoples in it, whether or not they recognized and worshipped Yahweh or not. The Yahweh religion as a monotheistic religion can really be dated no earlier than the prophetic revolution.
Righteousness
While Yahweh is subject to anger, capriciousness, and outright injustice in the earlier Mosaic religion, the Yahweh of the prophets can do nothing but good and right and justice. Yahweh becomes in the prophetic revolution a "god of righteousness"; historical events, no matter how arbitrary or unjust they may seem, represent the justice of Yahweh. The good and the just are always rewarded, and the evil are always punished. If there is any evil in the world it is through the actions of men and women, not through the actions of Yahweh, that it is committed.
Ethics
While the Mosaic religion was overwhelmingly concerned with the cultic rules to be followed by the Israelites, the prophets re-centered the religion around ethics. Ritual practices, in fact, become unimportant next to ethical demands that Yahweh imposes on humans: the necessity of doing right, showing mercy, punishing evil, and doing justice.
There still, however, is no afterlife of rewards and punishments in the prophets, but a kind of House of Dust, called Sheol, to which all souls go after their death to abide for a time before disappearing from existence forever. There is no salvation, only the injunctions to do justice and right in order to produce a just and harmonious society.
The historical origins of these innovations are important to understand. The monarchy brought with it all the evils of a centralized state: arbitrary power, vast inequality of wealth, poverty in the midst of plenty, heavy taxation, slavery, bribery, and fear. The prophets were specifically addressing these corrupt and fearsome aspects of the Jewish state. They believed, however, that they were addressing these problems by returning to the Mosaic religion; in reality, they created a brand new religion, a monotheistic religion not about cultic practices, but about right and wrong.
Post-Exilic Religion (800-600 BCE)
The most profound spiritual and cognitive crisis in Hebrew history was the Exile. Defeated by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BC, the Judaean population was in part deported to Babylon, mainly the upper classes and craftsmen. In 586, incensed by Judaeans shifting their loyalty, Nebuchadnezzar returned, lay siege to Jerusalem, and burned it down along with the Temple. Nothing in the Hebrew world view had prepared them for a tragedy of this magnitude. The Hebrews had been promised the land of Palestine by their god; in addition, the covenant between Yahweh and Abraham promised Yahweh's protection. The destruction of Jerusalem, the Temple, and the deportation of the Judaeans, shook the Hebrew faith to its roots.
The literature of the Exile and shortly after betrays the despair and confusion of the population uprooted from its homeland. In Lamentations and various Psalms, we get a profound picture of the sufferings of those left in Judaea, who coped with starvation and massive privation, and the community of Hebrews wandering Babylon. In Job, a story written a century or so after the Exile, the central character suffers endless calamities— when he finally despairs of Yahweh's justice, his only answer is that Yahweh is not to be questioned.
But Hebrew religion shifted profoundly in the years of Exile. A small group of religious reformers believed that the calamaties suffered by the Jews were due to the corruption of their religion and ethics. These religious reformers reoriented Jewish religion around the Mosaic books; in other words, they believed that the Jews should return to their foundational religion. While the Mosaic books had been in existence since the seventh or eighth centuries BC, they began to take final shape under the guidance of these reformers shortly after the Exile. Above everything else, the Torah, the five Mosaic books, represented all the law that Hebrews should follow. These laws, mainly centered around cultic practices, should remain pure and unsullied if the Jews wished to return to their homeland and keep it.
So the central character of post-Exilic Jewish religion is reform, an attempt to return religious and social practice back to its original character. This reform was accelerated by the return to Judaea itself; when Cyrus the Persian conquered the Chaldeans in 539, he set about re-establishing religions in their native lands. This included the Hebrew religion. Cyrus ordered Jerusalem and the Temple to be rebuilt, and in 538 BC, he sent the Judaeans home to Jerusalem for the express purpose of worshipping Yahweh . The reformers, then, occupied a central place in Jewish thought and life all during the Persian years (539-332 BC).
Beneath the surface, though, foreign elements creeped in to the Hebrew religion. While the reformers were busy trying to purify the Hebrew religion, the Persian religion, Zoroastrianism, creeped into it among the common run of people. Why this happened is anyone's guess, but Zoroastrianism offered a world view that both explained and mollified tragedies such as the Exile. It seems that the Hebrews adopted some of this world view in the face of the profound disasters they had weathered.
Zoroastrianism, which had been founded in the seventh century BC by a Persian prophet name Zarathustra (Zoroaster is his Greek name), was a dualistic, eschatological, and apocalyptic religion. The universe is divided into two distinct and independent spheres. One, which is light and good, is ruled by a deity who is the principle of light and good; the other, dark and evil, is ruled by a deity who is the principle of dark and evil. The whole of human and cosmic history is an epic struggle between these two independent deities; at the end of time, a final battle between these two deities and all those ranged on one side or the other, would permanently decide the outcome of this struggle. The good deity, Ahura-Mazda, would win this final, apocalyptic battle, and all the gods and humans on the side of good would enjoy eternal bliss.
Absolutely none of these elements were present in Hebrew religion before the Exile. The world is governed solely by Yahweh; evil in the world is solely the product of human actions—there is no "principle of evil" among the Hebrews before the Exile. The afterlife is simply a House of Dust called Sheol in which the soul lasts for only a brief time. There is no talk or conception of an end of time or history, or of a world beyond this one.
After the Exile, however, popular religion among the Judaeans and the Jews of the Diaspora include several innovations:
Dualism
After the Exile, the Hebrews invent a concept of a more or less dualistic universe, in which all good and right comes from Yahweh, while all evil arises from a powerful principle of evil. Such a dualistic view of the universe helps to explain tragedies such as the Exile.
Eschatology and Apocalypticism
Popular Jewish religion begins to form an elaborate theology of the end of time, in which a deliverer would defeat once and for all the forces of evil and unrighteousness.
Messianism
Concurrent with the new eschatology, there is much talk of a deliverer who is called "messiah," or "anointed one." In Hebrew culture, only the head priest and the king were anointed, so this "messiah" often combined the functions of both religious and military leader.
Otherworldliness
Popular Judaism adopts an elaborate after-life. Since justice does not seem to occur in this world, it is only logical that it will occur in another world. The afterlife becomes the place where good is rewarded and evil eternally punished.
While the reformers resist these innovations, they take hold among a large part of the Hebrew population. And it is from this root — the religion of the common person — that a radical form of Yahwism will grow: the religion of Jesus of Nazareth.
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This is what gives our ACADEMICS a bad name to our 99% of WE THE PEOPLE black, white, and brown citizens. REAL LEFT SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE ACADEMICS do not interpret PARABLES------PARABLES are experiences that each person must interpret for themselves because we all have different lives and realities. Our religious texts are full of PARABLES some in place from early religious days---some inserted by OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS in THEIR INTERESTS.
When we look at that long list of academic writings tied to interpreting PARABLES----whether written by people calling themselves religious scholars et al----be sure most of that writing is being done by GLOBAL BANKING OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS' 5% freemason/Greek players ------not working for the benefit of our 99% WE THE PEOPLE.
Humanities › Religion & Spirituality
What Is a Parable?The Purpose of Parables in the Bible
by Jack Zavada
Updated October 30, 2017
A parable (pronounced PAIR uh bul) is a comparison of two things, often done through a story that has two meanings. Another name for a parable is an allegory.
Jesus Christ did much of his teaching in parables. Telling tales of familiar characters and activities was a popular way for ancient rabbis to hold an audience's attention while illustrating an important moral point.
Parables appear in both the Old and New Testaments but are more easily recognizable in the ministry of Jesus.
After many rejected him as Messiah, Jesus turned to parables, explaining to his disciples in Matthew 13:10-17 that those who sought God would grasp the deeper meaning, while the truth would be hidden from unbelievers. Jesus used earthly stories to teach heavenly truths, but only those who sought the truth were able to understand them.
Characteristics of a Parable
Parables are typically brief and symmetrical. Points are presented in twos or threes using an economy of words. Unnecessary details are left out.
The settings in the story are taken from ordinary life. Figures of speech are common and used in context for ease of understanding. For example, a discourse about a shepherd and his sheep would make hearers think of God and his people because of Old Testament references to those pictures.
Parables often incorporate elements of surprise and exaggeration. They are taught in such an interesting and compelling manner that the listener cannot escape the truth in it.
Parables ask listeners to make judgments on the events of the story. As a result, listeners must make similar judgments in their own lives. They force the listener to make a decision or come to a moment of truth.
Typically parables leave no room for gray areas. The listener is forced to see truth in concrete rather than abstract pictures.
The Parables of Jesus
A master at teaching with parables, Jesus spoke about 35 percent of his recorded words in parables. According to Tyndale Bible Dictionary, Christ's parables were more than illustrations for his preaching, they were his preaching to a great extent. Much more than simple stories, scholars have described Jesus' parables as both "works of art" and "weapons of warfare."
The purpose of parables in Jesus Christ's teaching was to focus the listener on God and his kingdom. These stories revealed the character of God: what he is like, how he works, and what he expects from his followers.
Most scholars agree that there are at least 33 parables in the Gospels. Jesus introduced many of these parables with a question. For example, in the parable of the Mustard Seed, Jesus answered the question, "What is the Kingdom of God like?"
One of Christ's most famous parables in the Bible is the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32. This story is closely tied to the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin. Each of these accounts focuses on relationship with God, demonstrating what it means to be lost and how heaven celebrates with joy when the lost are found. They also draw a keen picture of God the Father's loving heart for lost souls.
Another well-known parable is the account of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. In this parable, Jesus Christ taught his followers how to love the outcasts of the world and showed that love must overcome prejudice.
Several of Christ's parables give instruction on being prepared for end times. The parable of the Ten Virgins emphasizes the fact that Jesus' followers must always be alert and ready for his return. The parable of the Talents gives practical direction on how to live in readiness for that day.
Typically, the characters in Jesus' parables remained nameless, creating a broader application for his listeners. The parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31 is the only one in which he used a proper name.
One of the most striking features of Jesus' parables is how they reveal the nature of God.
They draw listeners and readers into a real and intimate encounter with the living God who is Shepherd, King, Father, Savior, and so much more.
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Both our OLD TESTAMENT/TORAH----and our CHRISTIAN NEW TESTAMENT are filled with PARABLES for living a good life. 99% of WE THE PEOPLE need to think if these parables were written by our 99% early citizens creating these religions from experiences formed by PROPHETS----or if those parables were installed by OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS to make themselves
THE WORD OF GOD.
When someone insists that our BIBLE, TORAH, KORAN is THE WORD OF GOD-----we can be sure they are global banking 5% freemason/Greeks corrupting our religions with freemasonry.
Parable of the Lost Sheep
The good shepherd leaves the ninety-nine to find the one lost sheep and return it to the flock, but who are these sheep?
Our Master attempted to explain to the Pharisees why He chose to associate with “sinners and tax-collectors.” He told them the parable of the lost sheep. In the parable, He compared himself to a shepherd and the Jewish people to a flock of sheep.
What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. (Luke 15:4-5)
The ninety-nine sheep represent the righteous. The single lost sheep—a lost sheep of Israel—represents the secularized and godless among the Jewish people. The good shepherd leaves the ninety-nine righteous and goes to seek after the single lost sheep. When he finds the lost sheep, he carries it back to the flock, an image drawn from the prophet Isaiah:
Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, in His arm He will gather the lambs and carry them in His bosom. (Isaiah 40:11)
“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” the Master once said (Matthew 15:24). On another occasion, He told His disciples not to preach among the Gentiles but “rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:6). “For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost,” He told the disciples (Matthew 18:11). He did not seek to minister to the spiritually healthy and righteous; He came to call sinners to repentance. Just as the shepherd rejoices over finding a single lost sheep, so too, He rejoiced over every penitent Jew: “when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!” (Luke 15:5-6).
A close parallel to the story appears in a famous rabbinic teaching about Moses:
Moses our teacher, peace be upon him, was tending the flock of Jethro in the wilderness when a little kid escaped from him. He ran after it until it reached a shady place ... and the kid stopped to drink. When Moses approached it, he said, “I did not know you ran away because of thirst, you must be weary.” So he placed the kid on his shoulder and walked away. Thereupon God said: “Because you have mercy in leading the flock of a mortal, you will surely tend my flock, Israel.” (Shemot Rabbah 2:2)
When read in the context of the Pharisee’s criticism, the meaning of Yeshua’s parable of the lost sheep is clear, but just in case we miss it, the Master Himself provides the interpretation in Luke 15:7. The shepherd is Yeshua. The lost sheep is a sinner. The ninety-nine other sheep are the righteous and pious who did not need to repent. The shepherd leaves the ninety-nine to seek the lost sheep just as Yeshua neglected the Pharisees and scribes in order to associate with “the sinners and the tax collectors.” The rejoicing friends and neighbors are the angels rejoicing in heaven.
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'It was once said, "religion is designed to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable."'
Here is today's raging global banking 1% media outlet CNN corrupting our religions-----making it all about JESUS THE KING OF KINGS. LORD OF LORDS.
One of the biggest propaganda global banking 1% throws over and over and over-----if GOD IS GOOD why is there so much BAD in the world? EASY PEASY to answer-----the BAD is created by global banking 1% and OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS. We do not need a GOD that is two-faced having an evil side and a good side. If someone is killed in a natural disaster GOD'S NATURAL LAWS of earthquakes, floods, tornadoes it is because GOD does not corrupt his natural laws.
PRAYER for hope, wellness, prosperity, longevity, are human ---we all pray for what we define as salvation and grace. Please do not confuse the BAD created by GLOBAL BANKING 1% AND OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS as failure of a GOD we KNOW cares for his creation.
This video and discussion by CNN is DISGUSTING. Those tuning in to a discussion on religion to CNN-----will get FAKE NEWS tied to religious public policy.
Why Jesus' parables make us uncomfortable
By Amy-Jill Levine, special to CNN
Updated 10:38 AM ET, Tue March 21, 2017
This article was originally published in 2014. To learn more about the historical Jesus, watch the CNN Original Series 'Finding Jesus," Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
(CNN)It was once said, "religion is designed to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable."
Jesus' parables -- short stories with moral lessons -- were likewise designed to afflict, to draw us in but leave us uncomfortable. These teachings can be read as being about divine love and salvation, sure. But, their first listeners -- first century Jews in Galilee and Judea -- heard much more challenging messages.
Only when we hear the parables as Jesus' own audience did can we fully experience their power and find ourselves surprised and challenged today. Here are four examples of Jesus' teachings that everybody gets wrong:
The 'Parable of the Prodigal Son'
This parable is usually seen as a story of how our "Father in heaven" loves us regardless of how despicable our actions. This is a lovely message, and I would not want to dismiss it.
It is not, however, what first-century Jews would have heard. Jesus' Jewish audience already knew that their "Father in heaven" was loving, forgiving, and compassionate. It is Luke who sets up a message of repenting and forgiving. Luke prefaces our parable with two shorter ones: the Parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin.
The evangelist concludes them with, "There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
Was Herod the Great really evil? 01:11
But is this really what the parables are about? Jesus was not talking about ovine sin or coinage cupidity; sheep don't feel guilty and coins don't repent. Moreover, the man loses the sheep; the woman loses her coin. But God does not "lose us."
The first two parables are not about repenting and forgiving. They are about counting: The shepherd noticed one sheep missing out of 100, and the woman noticed one coin missing from 10.
And they searched, found, rejoiced, and celebrated. In doing so, they set up the third parable. The Prodigal Son story begins: "There was a man who had two sons ... "
If we focus on the one prodigal son, we mishear the opening. Every biblically literate Jew would know that if there are two sons, go with the younger: Abel over Cain, Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, Ephraim over Manasseh.
But parables never go the way we want. We cannot identify with junior, who "squandered all he had in dissolute living."
Next, if we see the father as surprising when he welcomes junior home, we mishear again. Dad is simply delighted that junior has returned: He rejoices and throws a party. If we stop here, we've failed to count. The older brother -- remember him? -- hears music and dancing. Dad had enough time to hire the band and the caterer, but he never searched for his older son. He had two sons, and he didn't count.
Our parable is less about forgiving and more about counting, and making sure everyone counts. Whom have we lost? If we don't count, it may be too late.
The 'Parable of the Good Samaritan'
Our usual understanding of this famous story goes astray in several ways. Here are two.
First, readers presume that a priest and Levite bypass the wounded man because they are attempting to avoid becoming "unclean." Nonsense.
All this interpretation does is make Jewish Law look bad. The priest is not going up to Jerusalem where purity would be a concern -- he is "going down" to Jericho. No law prevents Levites from touching corpses, and there are numerous other reasons why ritual purity is not relevant here.
Jesus mentions priest and Levite because they set up a third category: Israelite. To mention the first two is to invoke the third. If I say, "Larry, Moe ..." you will say "Curly." However, to go from priest to Levite to Samaritan is like going from Larry to Moe to Osama bin Laden.
That analogy leads us to the second misreading.
The parable is often seen as a story of how the oppressed minority -- immigrants, gay people, people on parole -- are "nice" and therefore we should check our prejudices. Samaritans, then, were not the oppressed minority: They were the enemy. We know this not only from the historian Josephus, but also from Luke the evangelist.
Just one chapter before our parable, Jesus seeks lodging in a Samaritan village, but they refuse him hospitality.
Moreover, Samaria had another name: Shechem. At Shechem, Jacob's daughter Dinah is raped or seduced by the local prince. At Shechem, the murderous judge Abimelech is based. We are the person in the ditch, and we see the Samaritan. Our first thought: "He's going to rape me. He's going to murder me."
Then we realize: Our enemy may be the very person who will save us. Indeed, if we simply ask "where is Samaria today?" we can see the import of this parable for the Israeli/Palestinian crisis.
The 'Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard'
This parable tells the story of a series of workers who come in at different points of the day, but the owner pays them all the same amount. The parable is sometimes read with an anti-Jewish lens, so that the first-hired are the "Jews" who resent the gentiles or the sinners entering into God's vineyard. Nonsense again.
Jesus' first listeners heard not a parable about salvation in the afterlife but about economics in present. They heard a lesson about how the employed must speak on behalf of those who lack a daily wage.
They also discovered a prompt for people with resources: Attend to those who do not have jobs, and make sure everyone has what is needed.
Jesus does not invent this idea of advocating for the unemployed and sharing resources. The same concerns occur in Jewish tradition from King David onward. But, unless we know the biblical and historical sources, again we will mishear the parable.
The 'Parable of the Pearl of Great Price'
This parable describes a man who sells everything in order to obtain his prized pearl. It is usually allegorized to tell us about the centrality of faith, or the church, or Jesus, or the Kingdom of Heaven. But commentators cannot conclude what the pearl represents. Perhaps they are looking in the wrong place.
We don't recognize the parable's initial absurdity today -- the merchant (a wholesaler who sells us what we don't need at a price we cannot afford) sells everything he has for a pearl.
He can't eat it, or sit on it; it will not cover much if it's all he wears. But, he thinks this pearl will fulfill him.
What if the parable challenges us to determine our own pearl of great price? If we know our ultimate concern, we should be less acquisitive. We won't sweat the small stuff. More, we become better able to love our neighbors, because we will know what is most important to them.
Jesus' short stories provoke us because they tell us what, somehow, we already know to be true, but don't want to acknowledge.
I am not a Christian, but I hear profound messages in these parables. If I as an outsider can be so moved by Jesus' stories, surely people who worship him as Lord and Savior can appreciate them even more.
Amy-Jill Levine is the author of "Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi," and a professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School and College of Arts and Sciences. The views expressed in this column belong to Levine.
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What our early religions whether JEWISH, CHRISTIAN, MUSLIM did was create text based on lives of ordinary people trying to do the best to survive harsh conditions, to build strong families and communities, and to help future generations learn from ancestors' successes and failures.
Our religious texts whether JEWISH OLD TESTAMENT/TORAH-----or CHRISTIAN NEW TESTAMENT-----or MUSLIM KORAN are all filled with PARABLES of how that region and culture lived the best life our 99% of WE THE PEOPLE could. These parables draw in GOD'S TEN COMMANDMENTS ----JESUS/MUHAMMAD'S messages of living simply, honestly, with grace and compassion.
So, whether we believe in MIRACLES----in GOD'S selecting PROPHETS having abilities greater than our own-----DOES NOT MATTER. This is why most humanists who do not believe in GOD----still embrace the morality and ethics steeped in our MOSAIC TEN COMMANDMENTS.
It is fine to have FAITH AND PASSION in religion as it is fine to not believe any part of these religious texts WE KNOW have been edited and corrupted by OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS.
Below we see where we should NOT LOOK for understanding of RELIGIOUS TEXT PARABLES. This is how our global 1% KINGS AND QUEENS take a common, simply message of 99% WE THE PEOPLES' parables of life and corrupt them into how those global 1% want our 99% of citizens to live. AESOP'S FABLES were written by that global banking 1% KINGS AND QUEENS' freemason STAR back in those medieval days for example.
The parables in each religious text ---MUSLIM, JEWISH, CHRISTIAN----OLD TESTAMENT NEW TESTAMENT are valuable religious lessons of people trying to live GOD'S NATURAL LAWS. Please do not allow global banking 1% infuse THEIR VISIONS OF LIVING ---
we all know these global 1% can only LIE, CHEAT, STEAL, HAVE NO MORALS OR ETHICS, NO RULE OF LAW, AND CERTAINLY NO GOD'S NATURAL LAW.
GOD said my kingdom was better than yours----GOD said my laws are better than yours----god said our people are better than yours----OH, REALLY?????
Classic Studies on the Parables of the Bible (30 vols.)
by 28 authors•27 publishers 1816–1934
Overview
The Classic Studies on the Parables of the Bible Collection offers some of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries’ most significant studies on Jesus’ and the Old Testament’s parables—over 11,000 pages of research. From familiar authors such as A. C. Gaebelein, H. B. Swete, and A. B. Bruce, you’ll get the best in classic scholarship on some of the most important teachings on character, God, faith, and more.
This collection contains a wide array of studies on the parables of the Bible, including resources for teaching the parables to youth, sermon structures for teaching the parables, Greek and Hebrew exegesis of Old Testament parables, and personal devotional application from the lessons of the parables. Whether you’re a pastor, scholar, or student, this collection will help you conduct research and give you practical advice.
The Logos edition of this collection gets you access to much more. Each volume is completely searchable, allowing you to find every study on any specific parable, or find every parable on a specific topic.
A Catechism on the Parables of the New Testament$7.99
A Parabolic Teaching of Christ: A Systematic and Critical Study of the Parables of Our Lord$20.99
An Exposition of the Parables and Express Similitudes of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ$17.99
Greek Testament Lessons for Colleges, Schools, and Private Students Consisting Chiefly of the Sermon on the Mount and the Parables of Our Lord$14.99
Notes and Illustrations of the Parables of the New Testament$9.99
Notes on the Parables of the New Testament: Scripturally Illustrated and Argumentatively Defended$9.99
Outlines of Sermons on the Miracles and Parables of the Old Testament$14.99
Practical Studies on the Parables of Our Lord$12.99
Sermons on the Parables of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ$14.99
Sketches of Sermons on the Parables and Miracles of Christ$12.99
The Kingdom and the People: The Parables of Our Lord Jesus Christ Explained and Illustrated$12.99
The Lesser Parables of Our Lord and the Lessons of Grace in the Language of Nature$12.99
The Old Testament Parables$9.99
The Parables of Jesus$13.99
The Parables of Jesus Explained and Illustrated$17.99
The Parables of Jesus: A Methodical Exposition$20.99
The Parables of Our Lord$14.99
The Parables of Our Lord Explained and Applied$11.99
The Parables of Our Lord Interpreted in View of Their Relations to Each Other$14.99
The Parables of Our Saviour Expounded and Illustrated$20.99
The Parables of the Kingdom: A Course of Lectures$9.99
The Parables of the Lord Jesus According to S. Matthew Arranged, Compared, and Illustrated$13.99
The Parables of the New Testament Practically Unfolded$6.99
The Parables of the New Testament Spiritually Unfolded$13.99
The Parables of the Old Testament$9.99
The Parables of the Old Testament$6.99
The Parables of the Old Testament Explained$13.99
The Seven Parables: Matthew 13$6.99
The Teaching of the Parables of Jesus Christ$9.99
The Teachings of Jesus in Parables$14.99
Total value if sold separately: $397.70
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The Parables of the Lord Jesus according to S. Matthew Arranged, Compared, and Illustrated
- Author: Thomas Richey
- Edition: 2nd
- Publisher: E. & J. B. Young & Co.
- Publication Date: 1890
- Pages: 406
Breaking the parables of Jesus into four primary groups, Thomas Richey analyzes Jesus’ ministry in light of the qualities that define each group. Inspired by similar studies by Siegfried Goebel and Alexander B. Bruce, Richey’s study of Jesus’ parables recorded in the Gospel of Matthew takes nothing for granted and analyzes every word, understanding that Jesus spoke by purposefully and intentionally in choosing them. Richey discusses each parable of the Gospel of Matthew at length, exploring the parable’s audience, location, and timing in Jesus’ ministry in order to fully realize the Kingdom of Heaven Matthew enthusiastically records.
Dr. Richey’s work is not a hasty compilation, merely made up of other men’s thoughts and sayings. It is full of quotations from beginning to end, showing that, in the profound study of many years he has swept over the whole field—patristic, mediaeval, and modern. . . . We unhesitatingly commend this work of Dr. Richey’s as clearly the best yet issues on the special subject of ‘The Parables of our blessed Lord.’ It contains the quintessence of all the leading writers who have previously treated the same marvelous theme.—J. H. Hopkins, The Church Review, vol. 52
His standpoint and fundamental position is a sound one, that the Parables must be studied as they stand in their connections. . . . The author may be commended for the carefulness of his exegesis as well as for his freedom from dogmatic presuppositions. Perhaps the highest point of excellence is reached in the homiletical element which pervades the work. The expositions and applications are clear and spirited.--The Old & New Testament Student, vol. 9
Thomas Richey (1833–1905) held doctorates in sacred theology and divinity. He was president of St. Stephen’s College (now Bard College) from 1861 to 1863, and later taught ecclesiastical history at St. Mary’s Hall and Shattuck School in 1869. He would finally teach at the General Theological Seminary (now the Episcopal Theological Seminary) in New York from 1879 to 1903. He was an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church.
The Parables of the Kingdom: A Course of Lectures
- Author: Henry Barclay Swete
- Publisher: Macmillan and Co.
- Publication Date: 1920
- Pages: 213
This series of lectures came from the course of Swete’s teaching at the University of Cambridge in 1908. The lectures themselves drew a crowd of students larger than his usual attendance and received a popular reception. Featuring 18 lectures treating 18 of Jesus’ parables, various lectures on topics that find their foundation in Jesus’ parables, and lectures on the interpretation and use of parables, this volume presents 30 lectures exegeting and applying parabolic wisdom.
Henry Barclay Swete (1835–1917) was a professor of theology at King’s College in London from 1882 to 1890 and later the Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge from 1890 to 1915. He held a doctorate of divinity from King’s College and was a scholar in the Anglican Church. He published works on the Old Testament, New Testament, and Christian doctrine, and edited and translated various Greek texts and Septuagints.
The Seven Parables: Matthew 13
- Author: A. C. Gaebelein
- Publisher: The Bible House of Los Angeles
- Publication Date: 1881
- Pages: 56
This concise work lays out the seven parables of Matthew 13 as describing God’s vision for Christianity here on earth. A. C. Gaebelein takes on the task of interpreting Jesus’ “kingdom of heaven” through the eyes of the Old Testament and the messages of his parables.
One of the best treatises on Matthew 13, which I have seen, is a pamphlet by Dr. A. C. Gaebelein. In this he sets forth the thesis that the kingdom of heaven as represented in these parables is none other than what we call Christendom. On this point, I feel that he is absolutely correct.—David L. Cooper, president, Biblical Research Society
Arno Clemens Gaebelein (1861–1945) was ordained a deacon in 1884 before becoming an elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was the editor of Our Hope, a Christian periodical, and worked closely with C. I. Scofield on the massive Scofield Reference Bible.
The Parables of Jesus: A Methodical Exposition
- Author: Siegfried Goebel
- Translator: J. S. Banks
- Publisher: T&T Clark
- Publication Date: 1883
- Pages: 460
Siegfried Goebel sets out to define and explore the limits of parable in the Gospels. Arranging the parables by their content and meaning, he brings the reader to understand either their figurative narrative or their concrete, literal command. He treats each parable individually and demonstrates the qualities that prove each parable fall into one of his two categories: “figurative” or “typical” (literal).
His book is written in an agreeable style, and betrays on every page learning, acuteness, soundness of judgment, and considerable exegetical tact. . . . It will, we conceive, be of service to the preacher, not in suggesting the materials or the arrangement of a discourse, but, which is far more important, in giving him that clear apprehension of the purport of a given parable. . . . It is always a pleasure to read his candid, scholarly, direct, and manly handling of the divine words.—T. W. Chambers, The Presbyterian Review, vol. 2
The work has found considerable favor in Germany. . . . Notwithstanding all which has been written on the subject, there is still a place for this book, and it will be found valuable to ministers and others who wish to make a careful study of the parables of our Lord.--New Englander and Yale Review, vol. 43
Another special excellence is the manner in which the parables are connected with the great periods in Christ’s ministry. Far more attention is given to the grouping of the parables than we find in Trench. The introduction is . . . sound and sensible. We ought to add, perhaps, that the book before us represents the highest Protestant orthodoxy. We can only express in conclusion our earnest hope that the book may be carefully studied by many of our own clergy.—W. E. Addis, The Dublin Review
This ought to be one of the most helpful of all volumes in The Foreign Theological Library. . . . such expositions as those of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son are as full of human feeling as others are of ripe learning. The volume is quite a treasury of original exposition on a subject on which preachers constantly need help, and on which little that is new has appeared in recent years.--Methodist Recorder
Siegfried Abraham Goebel (1844–1928) was born in Winningen, Germany, and served both as a pastor at Poznan, Germany, and as court chaplain in Halberstadt, Germany. He was also a professor of theology at Bonn University.
J. S. Banks was a professor of theology at Headingley College. He was fluent in German and Hebrew, was an ordained Wesleyan-Methodist minister, and had both a master’s degree and a doctorate of divinity.
The Parables of Our Lord
- Author: William Arnot
- Publisher: T. Nelson and Sons
- Publication Date: 1893
- Pages: 532
William Arnot’s take on the parables of Jesus provides a refreshing, intelligent view of metaphor, analogy, and symbolism. Applying his expertise on proverbial and analogous language to the parables, Arnot presents a logical interpretation of the parables that exegetes the Gospel’s narratives in harmony with the rest of the Bible.
He was a great lover and admirer of nature, and from her works drew many lessons to illustrate his sermons. His addresses to the young both instructed and fascinated their minds. . . . Mr. Arnot’s books and his contributions to magazines were popular and much read. . . . As a citizen he was highly esteemed.—Andrew Aird, publisher and writer, Aird & Coghill
William Arnot (1808–1875) was a Scottish preacher and theological writer who studied and ministered in Glasgow through the Free Church of Scotland. He earned his theological degree from Glasgow University. He was widely recognized for his study of ancient Greek and is best known for his books on Proverbs.
The Lesser Parables of Our Lord and the Lessons of Grace in the Language of Nature
- Author: William Arnot
- Publisher: T. Nelson and Sons
- Publication Date: 1884
- Pages: 464
Published posthumously, this volume contains Arnot’s lectures, sermons, and writings on each of the lesser parables of Jesus, his lessons on grace in the language of nature, a commentary on the first epistle of Peter, and lessons on life in Christ. Prefaced with a biography on the author, this volume reveals his pastoral and intellectual character, explores his wide knowledge of Scripture, and brings you right into the most important themes and insights in the Bible.
William Arnot was a remarkable man. He was a power in his time, and made himself felt as a preacher, writer, lecturer, both on this and on the other side of the Atlantic. . . . here we have a man simple yet strong-brained, earnest and true, full of humour, full too of ‘the milk of human kindness.’—Canon Bell
William Arnot (1808–1875) was a Scottish preacher and theological writer who studied and ministered in Glasgow through the Free Church of Scotland. He earned his theological degree from Glasgow University. He was widely recognized for his study of ancient Greek and is best known for his books on Proverbs.
The Parables of Our Lord Explained and Applied
- Author: Francis Bourdillon
- Publisher: American Tract Society
- Publication Date: 1876
- Pages: 320
This volume provides simple, practical explanations and applications for each of the parables of Jesus, giving pastors a great cross-reference with which to generate preaching ideas and giving families a foundation for family Bible study. Each chapter is written with the understanding that it can be read independently of the rest, allowing readers to dive into any parable that interests them without losing important prefatory notes established in earlier chapters.
Francis William Bourdillon (1852–1921) was a British writer, poet, translator, and preacher. He attended Oxford and is best known for his poetry, romantic novels, and translations.
The Parables of Our Saviour Expounded and Illustrated
- Author: William M. Taylor
- Publisher: A. C. Armstrong and Son
- Publication Date: 1888
- Pages: 445
Expounding on the parables of Jesus, William M. Taylor writes this volume to his congregation at Broadway Tabernacle Church at their request. Delivering the parables with profound insight and application, this work explores 26 parables and analyzes them in the context of the narratives of their respective Gospels. Taylor delivers an expert exegesis and makes each parable accessible for the church-goer as well as the church leader.
Dr. Taylor shows in this work his large acquaintance with this portion of religious literature. A better book for the study, the Sunday school, and the Christian has not been issued this season.--New York Observer
Dr. Taylor’s style is clear and strong, and he brings out with great distinctness the leading thoughts contained in each parable. It will be read with pleasure and profit by thoughtful Christians. The volume is one of more than ordinary richness.--Methodist Recorder
They are clear and direct in style, abound in apt illustrations, are textually faithful, and breathe a devout and scholarly spirit.--Lutheran Quarterly
The whole series is characterized in a remarkable degree by strong common sense and a shrewd insight into human nature and needs, as well as by the loyal purpose to lead men and women to God.--Congregationalist
William Mackergo Taylor (1829–1895) graduated from the University of Glasgow at the relatively young age of 20. He was licensed as a preacher three years later, in 1852, by the United Presbytery of Ayrshire and two years later became the head pastor of United Presbyterian Church in Bootle, England. In 1872, he received a letter asking him to pastor the Broadway Tabernacle Church in New York, which position he gladly accepted and held until 1892. He was an extremely sought-after preacher, public speaker, and rhetorician.
A Parabolic Teaching of Christ: A Systematic and Critical Study of the Parables of Our Lord
- Author: Alexander Balmain Bruce
- Publisher: A. C. Armstrong and Son
- Publication Date: 1904
- Pages: 515
In his typically scholarly manner, A. B. Bruce analyzes and interprets the parables of Jesus, building on the foundation of study that was set by Richard C. Trench, Siegfried Goebel, Ernst J. G. de Valenti, William Arnot, and other scholars and preachers before him. He develops his own interpretations and theories based on the Bible text itself, and then draws from a rich tradition of German, Scottish, Irish, and American scholars—even bringing in the Latin studies of Calvin, Jerome, and others. With Bruce’s profound, rich, and multilevel discourse, your investigation of Jesus’ parables will find itself a fruitful and intellectual study.
Alexander Balmain Bruce (1831–1899) was a professor of apologetics and New Testament exegesis at Free Church College, where he taught for 24 years. He also authored The Humiliation of Christ and The Training of the Twelve.
Sketches of Sermons on the Parables and Miracles of Christ
- Author: Jabez Burns
- Publisher: Robert Carter & Brothers
- Publication Date: 1849
- Pages: 299
Jabez Burns provides a pastor’s guide to preaching the parables of Jesus. In this volume, he cross-references each parable to Old Testament passages, application ideas, and exegetical observations. This volume also explores each of the miracles of Christ, demonstrating the evangelical, merciful mission of the same Savior who spoke in parables.
Jabez Burns (1805–1876) was the first clergyman from any denomination to preach complete abstinence from alcohol from the pulpit. He was a Christian philosopher and a prolific writer, managed a bookselling business, and wrote numerous books, primarily compilations of sermons, sermon-writing guides, and preaching helps. He was given an honorary doctorate in divinity from Wesleyan University in 1846.
The Parables of Our Lord Interpreted in View of Their Relations to Each Other
- Author: Henry Calderwood
- Publisher: Macmillan and Co.
- Publication Date: 1880
- Pages: 443
This challenging and insightful volume opens up the parables by comparing them with one another and answering the deep theological questions they raise. Divine love, salvation, and the Kingdom of God are explored in various aspects through the analysis of each parable, and each relies on Calderwood’s solid exegesis and able communication of heavenly ideas in plain language.
Henry Calderwood (1830–1897) was a professor of moral philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, where he was educated. He was ordained through the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland and pastored at the Greyfriars church in Glasgow. His first and most famous work, The Philosophy of the Infinite, was a response to the emerging philosophy that man cannot possibly know the infinite divine; consequently, Calderwood’s thought was a complete antithesis to Hegelian doctrine. The Parables of Our Lord was among his best-known religious works.
Greek Testament Lessons for Colleges, Schools, and Private Students Consisting Chiefly of the Sermon on the Mount and the Parables of Our Lord
- Author: John Hunter Smith
- Publisher: William Blackwood and Sons
- Publication Date: 1884
- Pages: 413
These lessons provide the Greek text of each parable or lesson from the Sermon on the Mount and dig into a college-level analysis of the passage. Illustrated with maps and charts, and expounded with essays, lessons, and notes on geographical, historical, and cultural points, this volume is ideal for bridging Greek studies with studies on the parables, or for bringing the lessons of the parables to a young adult audience.
John Hunter Smith was president of King Edward’s School from 1900 to 1919 and taught Latin, Greek, and other subjects.
An Exposition of the Parables and Express Similitudes of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
- Author: Benjamin Keach
- Publisher: Aylott and co.
- Publication Date: 1858
- Pages: 904
Originally written in 1701, this classic work has seen several reprinted versions in the nineteenth century and beyond. In this volume, Keach introduces each parable as a sermon, with lessons that help the reader find application. Keach’s thorough familiarity with Scripture shines in every page of this study as he compares epistle messages and Old Testament commands with the lessons of each parable, providing the reader wide and deep access to scriptural study surrounding the parables.
This work has always enjoyed popularity among those who love the racy quaint style of divines of the old school. As may be expected there are multitudes of fancied allusions, and not always a regard to any fixed principles of interpretations; yet the volume, in every page, contains matter which cannot be read without improvement. As an illustration of the wit of the author, he says, in the parable of the rich husbandman, ‘the poor man’s belly in the rich man’s barn.’--The Journal of Sacred Literature and Biblical Record, vol. 4
A book peculiarly and happily calculated under the Divine Blessing to enlighten the mind, establish the judgment, and comfort the heart.—Samuel Medley, founder of University College, London
The author, a self-taught Baptist of strong Calvinistic opinions, lived towards the end of the seventeenth century, and had several sturdy encounters with the Baxters, Owens, and other learned Nonconformists of his day, who were not willing to receive his theological dogmas for truth and were equally indisposed to admit his knowledge of divinity.--The Literary Churchman: A Critical Record of Religious Publications
Benjamin Keach (1640–1704) was an early Baptist (sometimes called Particular Baptist or Baptist Puritan) and a preacher at Horslydown church in London. He was best known for writing The Baptist Catechism (also called Keach’s Catechism, although the work is so old his authorship is debated) and A Key to Open Scripture Metaphors (also called Tropologia), as well as a hymnbook that provoked debate among early Baptists. His church was the first among the Baptists to sing hymns, as opposed to psalms and paraphrases.
The Teaching of the Parables of Jesus Christ
- Author: Edwin Faxon Osborn
- Publisher: Sylvan Press
- Publication Date: 1906
- Pages: 320
This volume from the early part of the twentieth century delivers a vivid and memorable study of the parables of the Gospels. Each chapter could be read as a sermon, and Osborn provides real and accessible paraphrasing of Jesus’ teachings. His powerful writing brings alive the Bible text and challenges the Christian to heed Jesus’ words with closer attention to detail, nuance, and meaning.
Edwin Faxon Osborn (1859–1937) was the author of several books, including works of Christian fiction and teaching resources. After graduating from Newton Center Theological Seminary, he began teaching at Ewing College. He pastored at First Baptist Church of McLeansboro, Illinois, around the end of the nineteenth century.
Sermons on the Parables of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
- Author: William Martin Trinder
- Publisher: Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy
- Publication Date: 1816
- Pages: 392
Compiled in the final years of his life, these 33 sermons contain Trinder’s preaching series on the parables of Jesus. With ample cross-references and Bible references, Trinder guides readers to see how the whole Bible is represented in Jesus’ parables.
William Martin Trinder (1747–1818) entered university at the young age of 16. He graduated from the University of Leyden, where he earned his MD, and then from Exeter College, Oxford, where he received his bachelor of civil law in 1770 and, later, his bachelor of laws. He wrote essays and books on medicinal waters and compilations of his sermons. He published Sermons on the Parables of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in 1816 while living in Hertfordshire.
The Parables of Jesus Explained and Illustrated
- Author: Frederick Gustav Lisco
- Publisher: Daniels & Smith
- Publication Date: 1850
- Pages: 406
Originally written in German, this volume on the parables of Jesus frequently references other German, English, and Latin commentaries on the parables, synthesizing a study of the parables rooted in Protestant tradition and beliefs. Lisco was strongly influenced by the writings of Martin Luther and John Calvin, giving this volume a sincere Protestant voice and a strict biblical analysis.
Frederick Gustav Lisco (1797–1866) was a minister of St. Gertraud Church in Berlin. He was a German Protestant theologian.
The Parables of Jesus
- Author: Cosmo Gordon Lang
- Publisher: E. P. Dutton & Co.
- Publication Date: 1918
- Pages: 406
After the success with his volume on the miracles of Jesus, Cosmo Gordon Lang wrote a follow-up on the parables of Jesus. Influenced by the popular Notes on the Parables of Our Lord by Richard C. Trench, Lang’s orthodox scholarly analysis of the Gospel text merges academic scholarship with pastoral application.
William Cosmo Gordon Lang (1864–1945) was a Scottish Anglican archbishop, said to have strong liberal Anglo-Catholic religious beliefs. The son of a Presbyterian minister, Lang studied at the University of Glasgow and at Oxford and was on his way to a successful career in politics and law when he received the calling to become an Anglican and seek ordination. Later in life, he was appointed as Archbishop of York at a relatively young age, rising to the second-highest position in the Church of England faster than most of his predecessors. Lang later took position as Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Teachings of Jesus in Parables
- Author: George Henry Hubbard
- Publisher: Pilgrim Press
- Publication Date: 1907
- Pages: 507
Exploring 39 of the parables taught by Jesus, George Henry Hubbard delves into the parable as a memorable story, providing a unique language and rhetoric for teaching that is found nowhere else in the Bible. Hubbard brings a knowledge of world literature to his analysis of the parables, giving readers a well-informed look at the narrative as it brings teaching and moral instruction to those who believe.
Practical Studies on the Parables of Our Lord
- Author: B. W. Maturin
- Publisher: Longmans, Green, & Co.
- Publication Date: 1915
- Pages: 295
Written and published just after Maturin joined the Catholic Church, Practical Studies on the Parables of Our Lord provides a practical and applicable lesson from each parable. Maturin pulls out the leading practical thought and expounds on the lesson, allowing the reader to learn and apply each parable to day-to-day life.
Basil William Maturin (1847–1915) was an Irish Anglican priest and writer from Dublin. He was educated at Trinity College, and in 1876, he moved to Philadelphia, where he grew in attraction to the Catholic Church until he joined in 1897; was ordained into Catholic priesthood by his best friend a year later. He was soon appointed as the Catholic chaplain to the University of Oxford. He lost his life through the sinking of the Lusitania during World War I, as he was returning from New York after holding a mission. He was last seen alive standing on one of the decks with hand upraised giving the Extreme Unction (a sacramental prayer for the dying) to the souls about to enter eternity.
He was the author of several religious and psychological books, including Laws of the Spiritual Life, The Price of Unity, and Self-Knowledge and Self-Discipline. Incidentally, he was the second-cousin of famous Irish writer and poet Oscar Wilde.
The Kingdom and the People: The Parables of Our Lord Jesus Christ Explained and Illustrated
- Author: Mary Seeley
- Publisher: Religious Tract Society
- Publication Date: 1878
- Pages: 231
Why did Jesus speak in parables? Moral instruction taught through story, says Mary Seeley, is more memorable, and can easily be taught over and over again. “The parable was then, and still is in the East, the ordinary mode of instruction,” she says.
This volume explores how the kingdom of God is established through Jesus’ parabolic teaching. Seeley groups the parables by themes consistent with the idea of the kingdom of God and digs into each parable’s contribution to understanding the kingdom of God.
Notes and Illustrations of the Parables of the New Testament
- Author: Thomas Whittemore
- Publisher: J. M. Usher
- Publication Date: 1855
- Pages: 381
Notes and Illustrations of the Parables of the New Testament explores the parabolic teaching of the Sermon on the Mount and all of Jesus’ parables, unlocking their meaning using their context and similar messages throughout the New Testament. Thomas Whittemore makes frequent use of other reliable commentaries and substantiates his work with the opinions of others, bringing readers a viewpoint that is thoroughly researched and developed and strengthens the teachings of Christ’s parables.
Thomas Whittemore (1800–1861) was one of the most influential Universalist writers of the nineteenth century. He was also a prolific writer of Universalist history, having written The Modern History of Universalism and been an editor and writer for both The Universalist Magazine and the Trumpet and Universalist Magazine. He was an outspoken opponent of capital punishment, an advocate of temperance, and an opponent of slavery in his day.
Notes on the Parables of the New Testament
- Author: Hosea Ballou
- Publisher: Marsh, Capen, & Lyon
- Publication Date: 1832
- Pages: 297
Hosea Ballou digs into 38 parables of Jesus, exploring the event around the parable and providing an illustration for each parable that helps readers understand its meaning and gravity. With his easy-to-follow style of writing and simple explanations, Ballou finds points that resonate clearly with a general audience, interpreting Scripture with his theological insights.
Hosea Ballou (1771–1852) was an American Universalist writer from New Hampshire. He has often been called the “father of Universalism,” as his writings and theologies were most influential in helping distinguish Universalism from any other denomination. He founded and edited The Universalist Magazine and The Universalist Expositor and wrote thousands of sermons, essays, and hymns. He was self-educated, devoted his life to ministry from a young age, and was also a high-ranking freemason. His A Treatise on Atonement is one of the most influential Universalist writings of the nineteenth century.
The Parables of the New Testament Spiritually Unfolded
- Author: E. C. Mitchell
- Publisher: William H. Alden
- Publication Date: 1900
- Pages: 544
A practical and simple application of the New Testament parables to the day-to-day life, this volume brings a devotional aspect to your study of the parables. In lengthy discourses, Mitchell breaks each parable into memorable and applicable chunks, allowing readers to absorb meaning and depth from each of Jesus’ most fundamental lessons.
Edward Craig Mitchell was an archaeologist and the first minister at the Saint Paul Society of the New Jerusalem Church (now known as the Virginia Street Swedenborgian Church).
The Parables of the New Testament Practically Unfolded
- Author: William Bacon Stevens
- Publisher: E. H. Butler & Co.
- Publication Date: 1857
- Pages: 382
“Go and study these parables, and if you see not their beauty at first, go again and again, gaze at them, ponder upon them, pray over them, until you feel them, then will they impress their lineaments upon your own soul, and be the model of your daily walk and conversation.”—William Bacon StevensStevens delivers a powerful and pragmatic approach to the parables, bridging the moral material with a spiritual perspective. After digging through the cultural background of each parable, Stevens provides a powerful practical and applicable lesson that cuts through the cerebral and applies to modern life.
William Bacon Stevens (1815–1887), born in Maine, was the bishop in the Episcopal Church for Pennsylvania. He was educated at Phillips Academy and studied medicine at Dartmouth College and the Medical College of South Carolina. After practicing medicine in Georgia for five years, he served as state historian for Georgia and began to study for the priesthood of the Episcopal Church. He was ordained in 1844 and briefly served as a professor of moral philosophy at the University of Georgia. He received his Doctor of Divinity from the University of Pennsylvania and, in 1865, was elected bishop of Pennsylvania, where he served until his death.
A Catechism on the Parables of the New Testament
- Author: John M. Austin
- Publisher: A. Tomkins
- Publication Date: 1850
- Pages: 182
Created as a guide for Sunday school lessons or Bible classes, this unique resource provides a question/answer format for each parable. Each lesson contains dozens of question/answer sets that help disambiguate the parable and help students engage with the parable and its meaning.
John Mather Austin (1805–1880) was a Universalist minister who wrote several books, mostly giving spiritual and practical guidance to youth.
Outlines of Sermons on the Miracles and Parables of the Old Testament
- Author: W. Harris
- Publisher: R. D. Dickinson
- Publication Date: 1878
- Pages: 427
Containing detailed outlines of each miracle and parable in the Old Testament, this volume attempts to draw material for use in sermon building. Harris brings applicable lessons, quotations, and sermon points to each chapter, providing a structure and a substance for any reader looking for Old Testament sermon help.
Parables of the Old Testament Explained
- Author: E. C. Mitchell
- Publisher: William H. Alden
- Publication Date: 1903
- Pages: 437
Mitchell expounds on each of the parabolic stories of the Old Testament, looking for spiritual truths hidden “in natural imagery.” Providing an interpretation and explanation for all 48 of his Old Testament parables, Mitchell makes the Old Testament more accessible to all students of the Bible.
Edward Craig Mitchell was an archaeologist and the first minister at the Saint Paul Society of the New Jerusalem Church (now known as the Virginia Street Swedenborgian Church).
The Old Testament Parables
- Author: John MacDougall
- Publisher: James Clarke and Company
- Publication Date: 1904
- Pages: 151
John MacDougall draws out the Old Testament parables, calling attention to them as either “parables of fact,” “parables of fable,” or “parables of fancy.” In this, he looks for possibilities in evangelical application and Gospel interpretation. His exegesis pulls from the Septuagint, the Massoretic Hebrew Text, and numerous English translations, giving readers truer access to the original text and fuller interpretations of the parables of the Old Testament.
John MacDougall (1887–1959) graduated from Glasgow University, where he got his MA and his BD. A year later he was licensed by the Presbytery of Paisley, in 1913, and was ordained in 1915. He was a supporter of the temperance movement and was well known for writing The Modern Conflict: Light from the Epistle of St. James.
The Parables of the Old Testament
- Author: Alfred Barry
- Publisher: SPCK
- Publication Date: 1846
- Pages: 264
Inspired by Archbishop Richard Trench’s Notes on the Parables, Bishop Alfred Barry writes this volume on the subject of Old Testament parables to help readers understand how to interpret the Old Testament itself. Seeing parables in the Proverbs, in symbolic visions, in fables, in figurative prophecy, and in narrative riddles, Barry discusses the best ways of reading and interpreting these parables—using examples from the biblical text—to disambiguate the Old Testament altogether.
Alfred Barry (1826–1910) was the Anglican bishop over Sydney, Australia, from 1884 to 1889. Earlier in his life, he served as principal and headmaster of numerous schools, and while bishop, founded many more. He was a contributing writer to Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible.
The Parables of the Old Testament
- Author: Clarence E. Macartney
- Publisher: Fleming H. Revell Company
- Publication Date: 1916
- Pages: 122
In nine concise chapters, Clarence Macartney discusses several of the parables of the Old Testament, expounding on their theological and practical significance in day-to-day life. Macartney doesn’t miss an opportunity to find Christ in these nine Old Testament stories, and brings a simple, yet profound study to each parable for a wide audience of believers.
Clarence Edward Macartney (1879–1957) was a Presbyterian pastor and a writer. He was educated at the University of Wisconsin—Madison and graduated with a degree in English literature. Afterwards, he attended Harvard, Yale Divinity School, and Princeton Theological Seminary, seeking new theological and religious guidance as he went from school to school. He was ordained through the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA), and was best known for setting off the fundamentalist-modernist controversy within the PCUSA.
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