Old Testament (Septuagint)

The next version of the Old Testament that we are going to discuss is the Septuagint. During the Greek empire Greek became an international standard language. Many of the Jews were able to return to Jerusalem. However there will still Jews in other parts of the Empire including Alexandria, Egypt and Athens, Greece, etc. Many of these Jews no longer spoke or read Hebrew, and there was a push to have all reading, writing, and worship in Greek. 

As a result, a group of Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew scrolls into Greek. The Bible that resulted included Jewish histories, including the Books of the Macabees, and various Jewish prophets that lived during the Babylonian, Persian, and Greek periods. Many of these were never written in Hebrew. 

The Septuagint was the Bible which Christ and his disciples used. No doubt they also read and were familiar with many other texts. 

Now I do not wish to give my readers a false impression that the Septuagint is therefore truer or better than other versions. Like all bibles, the Septuagint was compiled from various libraries which may not have had all the religious texts, and many texts would be included or excluded based upon whatever criteria the scholars thought was best. Their views may have been affected by politics, tradition, the biases they had, as well as a effort to justify their own actions and the actions of others. 

Also the Septuagint has allegedly become corrupted over time. Retranslations, omissions, and alterations have changed much of the meaning of certain passages and doctrines. Comparison with the Dead Sea Scrolls shows that it is still fairly close, but confirms that changes have been made. 

Nevertheless, the Septuagint contains many good faith promoting stories and events. The books and portions of books it contains that are absent from the Hebrew Bible are:

Tobias 

Judith

Wisdom (of Solomon)

Ecclesiasticus

1st Macabees

2nd Macabees

Baruch 1-5

Baruch 6

Esther 10:4-16:24

Daniel 3:24-90

Daniel 13 & 14

1st Esdras

2nd Esdras

Prayer of Mannasseh

The main reason why the Septuagint ought to be taken seriously by practicing Chtistians and Jews is that we know that Jesus Christ (Yeshua) was very familiar with it because he quotes from it. This fact tells us two very important things. Firstly Christ would not have quoted from a text He had not read and studied and Himself believed to be fundamentally true.  Secondly He would not have quoted from it unless it was widely accepted among the Jews that He was teaching. At the time of Christ, the Septuagint was the Bible. 

When the early Roman Christian church was forming under Constantine, at the Counsil of Nicea (AD 325) the basic Christian doctrine was decided upon and the Nicean Creed was issued, and at a later Cousil of Carthage (AD 393, 397), the books that made up the New Testament as we know it were solidified. However, for the Old Testament they kept what was already in the Bible at the time which was the Septuagint. So for centuries the Septuagint remained the standard Old Testament for most Christians. 

Old Testament (Hebrew Bible)

And interesting discussion can be made regarding the Old Testament. Many Christians today will insist that God would not permit the Bible, His Holy word, to be tampered with, omitted, or polluted. They will state the Bible contains everything we need to obtain life and salvation. 

But most Christians are unaware that the Bible has in fact been edited, altered, rewritten, and has major portions inserted or left out. I will give some examples  How many of my Jewish or Christian readers are aware of how many versions of the Bible exist?   Did you know the Catholic Bible is different from the King James Version?  Did you know the Greek Orthodox also have a different Bible?  Also there have been Christians living in parts of Africa for centuries that are fully disconnected from European Christianity and they have a different Bible too. 

Our Protestant Bibles (KJV and several others including the NIVs) base their Old Testament content on what is contained in the Hebrew Bible. And it would stand to reason that the "Hebrew" Bible would be the original Old Testament. But if that's what you think, you would be mistaken. 

First off, let's make one thing perfectly clear. There is no "original" Bible. Bibles have always been collections by their very nature. What is contained in those collections always has a back story. In the case of the Hebrew Bible, it too has a back story, and one that will embarrass Jews and Christians alike.  

One has to remember that Jesus Christ was a Jew.  As such early Christians were not considered to be a new religion. Rather early Christians often identified as Essenes.  At the time of Christ you find that there were many factions of Judaism. It was not a unified religion, just as Christianity is not today. At the time of Christ there were four major groups: Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Samaritans.

The number of Christians began to grow, and as political strifes grew between the groups, as well as between some of the Jewish sects and Rome, many Jews felt that their faith was in danger.  Many of the Jews were being converted to the Christian view using widely accepted teachings from the Biblical texts common at the time. The Bible used at the time, and that Christ and His disciples would have used is known today as the Septuagint or Greek Bible, so called because it was written in Greek.  

Jews at the time felt that by separating from their Hebrew heritage and mingling with the Greeks and Romans, that all kinds of pagan ideas and doctrines had been mixed into Judaism, and that the solution was to abandon any perceived influences from Greek or Roman culture. And they rejected Yeshua (Jesus) as the Messiah despite the fact that there were a lot of prophecies that fit and described Yeshua perfectly. In fact these prophecies in particular were such strong evidence that many Jews were converted on that evidence alone. So in an effort to save the Jewish faith as they saw it, they needed to define what texts would be included in a new Bible. 

So they established a new Hebrew Bible by first abandoning the Greek Bible and including only texts where old Hebrew copies still existed that they considered to be scriptural and verifiable. This obviously ruled out a lot of books and did not add or include anything new. Their thinking was that Hebrew was the holy language, so only books written in Hebrew could accurately convey the word of God. Secondly, they omitted many of the prophecies concerning the coming of Christ. This meant that parts of the Books of Daniel and Ester and other books were removed because they gave credence to the Christians.  Other books may also have been omitted because they taught other "strange" doctrines that did not appear to be in line with traditional Jewish theology.  More specifically, most of the selection was to bring Judaism in line with the Sadducee beliefs. So this was hardly representative of all Jews at the time, though few would have been opposed to the actual content.   

So in short, the Hebrew Bible was selected and compiled for purely political reasons to try to unify a faith and limit the spread of a rival faith.

Now for an interesting question which I will endeavor to answer in an upcoming article. Why do the Protestant Bibles use the Hebrew Bible for their Old Testament if it was specifically designed to reinforce a particular version of the Jewish faith and disprove Christianity?

How The Bible Came To Be Part 3

So the next question is, who decided which books became part of the Bible, which ones were excluded, and why. The answer is complicated, but basically has a lot to do with politics, differing views, nationalities, money, etc. One also has to ask which Bible, since as of this writing there are many versions around the world. 

A common question that people ask, is that if there are so many versions of the Bible, then which ones are correct, which ones aren't, and how do we know. The simplest answer I can give is that they are all correct, and they are all incorrect. They all teach the same basic doctrine. But all of them have material that is incomplete, and all of them have material that does not belong. All of them have materials that have been altered and changed to some degree. The core teachings and doctrines are relatively the same, so if you apply the truths they contain into your heart, they will lead you closer to God. 

That being said, there are many books that are not part of the Bible that also contain important truths. They are often labeled as "apocrypha" which I think is a term that often discredits many of them. Some of them are incorrect, but the same can be said of some works that are included in the Bible. The key is to learn all you can, and develop a relationship with God so that you can know how to discern truth from error. 

How The Bible Came To Be Part 2

Through the ages, God has always desired to teach His children about the principles and ideals we need in order to overcome our fallen nature. As such he has sent prophets, noble men who had become sufficiently humble to be able to come into God's presence, to teach the people.

The words of these prophets was written down, sometimes in their own hand and words, other times by scribes. Sometimes the events became oral tradition and were not written down till a later time. As a result, you find different writing styles consistent with the human authors. This has a times been used to try to discredit the Bible, critics saying that this proves that man, not God, wrote the Bible.   That view does not hold up to real scrutiny however, and shows that both the critics who make such statement are ignorant, as are those who believe such statements. As a proof of point, the KJV of the Bible has a Shakespearean poetry to it, consistent with the English writers who translated it. This does not detract from its message and serves to neither prove nor disprove its origin. 

The next thing to consider is that the Bible did not exist in the time it was written. Rather what did exist was separate records written by various authors. Each text has a distinct signature writing style consistent with the author.  Also the medium that was written upon dictates writing style as well.  These texts were recorded either as scrolls or as codex (books). Almost all ancient Hebrew texts were recorded as scrolls, the later texts that became the New Testament were usually codex. My reason for making this distinction, is that the writing medium does dramatically affect the writing style. My main point is that these works regardless of author or style contain God's word to us, but they are written and recorded by men. 

These texts were not collected into a larger Bible until a much later time. Scholars would try to collect as many as they could and maintain libraries of texts which they would then read and study. Then at later dates, scholars and religious leaders decided it would be advantageous and unifying to their religion if many of these texts could be collected together into a single volume. Even at that, there are multiple versions of the Bible depending on which culture, and which works they decided to include. 

How The Bible Came To Be Part 1

In my previous article I made that statement that the scriptures do not contain the entirety of the gospel. I feel inclined to explain this statement to clarify some things I believe to be crucial points. 

It is said that the Bible is God's word. This statement is complicated yet simple. The Bible and other texts do contain God's word, as revealed through His prophets. But these texts also contain the words and opinions of men mingled throughout. Some of these minglings are men attempting to justify their own beliefs and deeds with what the prophets have said. Some things are written from a bias that portrays one group as superior to another. Still others are the results of typographic errors, or translational errors, or changes in the meanings of words. 

I do not state these things to discredit or diminish the Bible. Quite the contrary. But I do state these things to make the reader aware both that the Bible does contain some incorrect teachings and mistakes. I wish to show the reader that there are also other scriptures which contain truth that are not included as part of the Bible. 

There is a process which can be employed in which one can get truth and understanding in regards to the scriptures and it involves study and prayer. It also involves a focus on what is actually important, which is the principles contained in the scriptures. The stories may or may not be true in the sense of literally having happened as it is written. The Bible does contain histories and truths of events that really happened, but it also contains parables meant to teach moral lessons. Focusing on the message helps us learn what the Bible is meant to teach. 

So What Is the Gospel?

Now that we have defined the Gospel as God's story, how do we know what that is?  One could make the easy guess that it is the Bible and you would be partially correct. But that gets to be a history lesson which we will discuss and demonstrate in our coming articles. For now let's just state that the Bible is not God's story in its entirety, rather a part. It is a very important part, don't get me wrong,  but it is not the whole story. 

God is a real living being. He is also an eternal being who's guiding principles are unchanging. He knows the hardships and challenges we face. He has stated that He wants us to be joint heirs with Him, and He wants to teach us how to do it. 

So in addition to this written portion of the gospel is a living portion we know as prayer. It is a means through which we can get to communicate with God, and come to know Him and in the process, come to know ourselves as well. 

Through prayers we can receive God's living word for our lives are find out how to serve Him and how to overcome our difficulties. We can receive answers, comfort, hope, faith, blessings, hearings, and miracles by establishing and building a relationship with our Father. 

God's Story

This message is all about good news!!!  Today I am going to share with you a wonderful message. This message is about the Gospel.  

Now let us begin with a question. What is the Gospel?  The root origins of the word come from old English.  The old English word gōdspel breaks down into gōd which is self explanatory and spel which means story. So the Gospel is God's story. 

So what does this statement mean?  It means that a set of principles, attributes, qualities, and teachings is laid out in the scriptures which describes what God is like, what his traits and attributes are, and what kind of a being He really is. By understanding this, we come to see what he expects of us. The scriptures are a basic roadmap of how to become like Him. 

Now this is the good news. God is a real tangible being, and we are His children. Now what good father does not want His children to become all they can and to be like himself. God has told us in His scriptures that he wants us to be heirs with Him. 

Forgiveness To Those Who Repent

A common teaching among Christians is this idea that you can profess the name of Christ or claim to be a Christian or be fellowshipped in a Christian church and that by doing this we are saved. But I challenge anyone to find scripture that backs this idea or view. 

"This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.  If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." 1st John 1:5-10

We have to "walk in the light" in order for the atonement to act on our behalf. To walk in the light means to repent and keep the commandments. But more that that, if God is the light, then in order for us to be in that light it means we have to follow Him. It means that we have to be sufficiently humble and receptive to Him that we actually receive light and understanding from Him. But you have to get to that point. It starts as baby steps. And just so long as we keep moving forward, it doesn't matter how small the steps are. Even the highest mountains and the greatest distances are conquered one step at a time. 

The place to start is to repent, and the process of repentance is a process of progression. As we progress, we gradually become closer to our Father. Simply calling on His name will not change you into the person you need to become in order to be in His presence. 

Love, Tolerance, Forgiveness

A common misguided teaching is that Christ wants us to be loving and accepting of others regardless of their choices. This attitude is often used to shame those who voice their views on things such as abortion, homosexuality, divorce, morality, etc. They always state that Christ teaches us to be loving and accepting.  The world loves this politically correct, "don't judge" attitude. They will quote:

"Judge not, that ye be not judged." Matthew 7:1

But in order to understand this saying properly, we need to keep in mind the context in which it was given and the principles Christ was trying to teach. 

So let's look at the bigger picture. 

"Judge not, that ye be not judged.  For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye." Matthew 7:1-5

Now when we look at the whole passage you see a different picture here. It is common nature for men to look at a situation with limited information or understanding and make a judgement. By this they will adjust how they treat and value people. 

But more interestingly, this passage seems to be addressed to those that are looking for faults in others.   The Lord brings out an interesting fact here, that we are not perfect. We are here on this earth to learn and grow.  And part of the process of learning by experience is that we will make mistakes.  If we want to judge and condemn the actions of others, then using that same measure how do we stand?  Most often we judge with a double standard.

Another concept and pehsps the most important part that is brought out in the last portion is that we need to correct our own weaknesses and faults instead of pointing out the faults in others. Not from this simplistic "mind your own business" attitude. Rather, Christ wants us to overcome our failings so that we can be effective at helping others. 

So what is the principle that Christ was trying to teach? The idea that we shouldn't judge isn't really possible. We make judgements so that we can make decisions on a continual basis. And judgement is often a positive thing. What we are not supposed to do is condemn others. It's not our job to condemn, our job is to help others. And that help come by way of understanding their struggles. We need to learn how to understand the difficulties that others are facing so that we can help them to overcome. 

When I look at these passages, I don't see the  new age "acceptance" doctrine the world wants to teach. What I see is a call for repentance. By repenting and resolving to overcome our faults we become far more effective tools to affect real change around us. And by learning to overcome our own sins, we can more effectively teach others how to overcome theirs. We need to learn to love as God loves, and we need to understand that it does not mean embracing the sins and follies of the world. It means first repenting ourselves, then showing forth good fruit so that others may choose to follow the same path. Lead by example. 

Forgive Others

It stands to reason that as we need to ask others for forgiveness, we must be eager and ready to freely forgive others. 

Often times this is a very hard thing to do. In our natural state, our flesh teaches that if we let things go, then others will walk all over us and that the door will be left open to further abuses. But there is a difference between letting things go and forgiving. 

The age old saying "live an let live" does not foster love and forgiveness. It fosters indifference. And indifference is only one step away from hatred. God has commanded us to learn to love as He loves (agape).  This kind of love is different from our natural feelings and affections. It's easy to express our natural love towards our friends and those who are agreeable to us. It is much harder to extend love towards those who have hurt or offended us. 

Learn To Ask Forgiveness

The principles of repentance and forgiveness are integrally linked. And one of the steps in reconciling with others is to ask and seek to actually obtain their forgiveness. 

We have been discussing humility and pride. It is a very hard thing to seek forgiveness, even impossible, if we have pride in our hearts. But know this. In the scale of the eternities, all things must balance. If others have claims of wrongs and injustices against us, it must be set right. This mortal life is the place to do this. If we pass to the hereafter and have we left unresolved business, it must still be set right, but often our ability to do good has been hampered. One dishonest deed, one damaged friendship, one negative emotion can have consequences that can last for generations. 

Asking forgiveness is not strictly for our benefit. Oftentimes this process can start healing and helping others. It helps people release any bitterness and negativity. Whether we resolve these matter or not, it can have an impact on who we and others are and may become. If we can heal and help others and heal ourselves in the process, how much better things can be. 

I'm not saying these things to be discouraging, in fact this is good news. As long as we have breath, we can try to progress. Let go of the pride and fear that keeps us from trying. Reach out to others and ask their forgiveness for your wrongs against them, and don't give up till you have obtained satisfaction. 

Misconceptions About Humility

Many people have this idea that a person who is humble will act shy, and try to avoid recognition, that they have to avoid doing anything that might be seen as showing off. Others will state that they are nothing, or that their accomplishments are nothing. 

However, people can appear humble and yet not be. My goal is not to point this out, but rather I will suggest that the results will speak for themselves. A person who is faking humility will pretend they don't want attention, all the while drawing attention. But a person who is humble will be quick to praise God, and to recognize good works in others.

True humility is seeing ourselves as we are. We are all valuable in God's eyes, but we must also see that we are not perfect. God loves us dearly, but that does not justify our sins and weaknesses. Only by becoming humble can we learn to submit to truth and start to perfect our characters. 

Misconceptions About Pride

One of the problems when we try to talk about pride is the fact that it's meaning gets watered down in our language. Because one word can have multiple meanings, it can be misunderstood and misused. 

I have heard it said that pride can be a good thing. Here are some examples. "A man should take pride in his work" is used to state that a man should put forth his best. "A father should be proud of his son" is used to state that a man should be pleased when his children are good at something. 

However, these examples are also good examples of the negativity that pride is. A man should never take pride in his work. All things should be our best for the glory of God. We must do our very best in humility, not pride. We should never aggrandize ourselves with our accomplishments. Likewise in being proud of our children.  Yes we can be pleased when we see things that are good. But we need to give the glory to God, not unto ourselves. 

When we allow ourselves to be proud we blind ourselves and we enslave ourselves. When we are proud of our own work we hinder our own progression. That pride will cause us to fall and it causes us to cease striving towards perfection.  Always give the glory to God. Always remember that we are far from His glory an perfection and we need to become humble to approach Him.  Always remember that pride is NEVER a good thing. 

Become Humble

In order to be humble, we need to understand what that means. We need to understand how to let go of our pride and reject the ego that holds us back from progressing. 

In order to be humble we need to realize certain facts about ourselves and our natural tendencies. Then we can begin to break down these weaknesses and start to turn them into strengths. 

So firstly, our nature is to be selfish. We always try to figure out how things can benefit us. By nature we will do this with food, clothing, houses, cars, jobs, friends, spouses, children, hobbies, education, etc. We seek to obtain these things for ourselves, and then only seek to give to others if it suits us. I am being serious here. Even in areas where we might be 'giving' it is not naturally done out of true selflessness. In a base natural form when we give time and attention to a spouse, it's often to gain something, be it affection, security, offspring, sex, etc. We show more love and affection to people who mean more to us. We love and give to our own children because they are a part of us. This is all part of natural law. However these acts are all selfish in their nature. 

Secondly we are fearful. We fear the loss of property, affection, security, wealth, etc. We fear change, we fear the unfamiliar. We fear embarrassment. We fear to loose our status in society. As a result of this fear we will fight to defend our position. This fear is motivated by the selfishness, the pride. 

So in order to be humble we must get rid of this pride. We tend to think that everything we are, everything we have accomplished, everything we have is of our own efforts and our own doing. So what can help humble us is a realization of our actual standing in the eternities. 

And realize you are going to need help to become humble. You are going to need to ask and pray for guidance, and when you are shown your weaknesses you need to overcome them. If you reject or ignore those areas you need to work on, you are only holding yourself back. The pride has to go. 

Pride Versus Truth

When you really distill it down, you find that there is one sin that causes all sins. That one key sin is pride. Pride leads to seeking our own will instead of God's. Pride makes us justify what we do. Pride makes us do wrong, and pride prevents us from admitting that we have done wrong. 

One of the first steps in repentance is humility. Now just to be clear, humility is not this walking about with a sad downtrodden look, pretending to be nothing. Humility is seeing and understanding the truth about our own situation. Humility is seeing ourselves as we really are. Not justifying ourselves or pretending we are great because we think we have accomplished something. No, if we are really humble, we will see ourselves as who we are. Only by becoming humble can we break down our deep rooted pride and start this process of becoming truly better than our natural state. 

So What Is Truth?

Now that we have established that morality must be based on truths, we need to learn what those truths are. The answer is in many ways very simple. 

When we examine the character and qualities of God, we find a set of attributes that are perfect in their alignment with truth. You find a being who: is always honest, is perfectly humble, is loving beyond our understanding. A being who would risk His very being for the chance to save us. A being who selflessly gives with no thought of return, a being who desires to bless us with all that He has. A being who has no hatred or animosity towards others. 

The truth is that every law that God has revealed to his children is self enforcing. Right or wrong is not so because God said so. It is so because it is the eternal truth. Whenever we transgress the law, we bring its consequences upon us. Whenever we keep the law we bring its blessings upon us. Either we are trending towards humility, selflessness, faithfulness, self discipline, gratitude, and love or we are not. That is the simple truth. Either our motives are pure, or they are impure. 

Dangers of Relativism

Perhaps one of the best ways of showing how relativism can be terrible is looking at history. By examining the past you can see examples where people did what they thought was right from a relative point of view, but the deeds and means were not in accordance with moral truth.   The consequences for humanity were devastating. 

Eugenics has this goal in mind of breeding a better human race. It has no regard for God's children, no regard for life (even though it claims to be creating better life), no regard for cultural beliefs, no regard for circumstances. 

When eugenics became a popular idea in Germany, then it was very easy to justify the elimination and poor treatment of people that were deemed genetically inferior. From the viewpoint that they were trying to make a better humanity their cause was noble. But from a basic standpoint of right and wrong, it is terrible. It is wrong because it devalues life. Furthermore it values some human life above others. Under the eugenics programs millions of lives were lost. Even in the United States tens of thousands have been forcibly sterilized to prevent them from procreating. 

Now to those that don't want to accept that the bible and the Word of God are true, another standpoint is that if an act robs another intelligent being of their agency, life, or liberties or causes emotional or physical harm then it stands to reason that such an act is wrong. Conversely if an act empowers others, preserves life, or defends freedom and protects others from physical or emotional harm then that act is probably right. 

The idea I would like to leave my readers with is that what is right or wrong is not dependent upon our points of view. It is not dependent upon some new theory. It is not decided by a society. Right and wrong is determined by unalterable eternal truth.