See for more themes. | Q2: Author's "Scripture" method. Isa 28:13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. By comparing every line and precept in Scripture with every other line and precept, until the Sola Scriptora meaning is in harmony with developing new theories of faith. How does the author study Scripture ? Notice all studies have a conclusion right up front of each study, rather than at the end. A reader busy with the task of reading tedious discussions can review the major findings quickly. This makes for convenience and rapid studies. A reader can gain information quickly or for the more serious reader more slowly by reading all the discussion in the studies. Step 1 :- A hypothesis is stated. The hypothesis is usually a question. Step 2 :- An introduction may be added. Introductions help readers to preconceived ideas , and any history with the study in question. Step 3 :- The method is shown. The method as Scripture shows Isa 28:13 is to look up ALL verses of any word under study to seek for a consistent basic meaning to a word regardless of context. All methods comes with assumptions. The method has basic assumptions used in my studies. These assumptions are :- (1) Words in any language have basic meanings that remain consistently the same meaning regardless of context. It is amazing almost immediately I can differ with most Pastors and Scholars out there in the world. Most people believe words in any language have different shades of meaning which can change depending upon the context. Here is an example from one such scholar on the eight meanings of "flesh" Hebrew 'basar' (= Greek "sarx") (a) flesh (e.g. Lk 24:39); (b) the human body (Mk 10:8). (c) "fleshly creature" = human being (Ro 3:20). (d) physical nature, human or mortal nature, earthly descent (Ro 1:3; 4:1) (e) life here on earth (1 Pt 4:2) (f) the external or outward side of life, that which is natural or earthly (J 8:15) (g) human nature, as the willing instrument of sin (Jn 3:6) (h) source of the sexual urge, with no suggestion of sinfulness (Jn 1:13). Do these different meanings truly exist ? Lets translate the word "basar" (or "sarx") for the reader and let you decide. (a) Lu 24:39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. (b) Mr 10:8 And they twain shall be one flesh : so then they are no more twain, but one flesh . (c) Ro 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh (d) Ro 1:3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh ; (e) 1Pe 4:2 That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. (f) Joh 8:15 Ye judge after the flesh ; I judge no man (g) Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (h) Joh 1:13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh , nor of the will of man, but of God. Now I cannot see eight major or different meanings here in any of these verses using "flesh". If you can see them, please email and tell me how has the word changed. It hasn't. The word's basic meaning is unchanged. Some other words next to the word may create contexts which suggest different shades of meaning, but this does not alter the basic meaning of "flesh" which is this :- The home letter in Hebrew is the place where you live. The thorn letter means to protect. Thorns were used as walls to corral sheep safely inside their home enclosure. The head letter means the person's mind or head. Put all this together the word "flesh" means the home covering that protects the person. The word is broad in meaning, and can mean muscle, flesh including the meat or flesh of dead animals for food. (a) Lu 24:39 "of flesh and bones as you see I have", tells you the meaning of flesh is the body muscle covering over the person. (b) Mr 10:8 marriage is a symbol of "united flesh". This is a poetry saying. The Bible is mostly poetry. The home in this case is still the flesh of both couples in the marriage. The use of "echad" means "one" or "united" . This word means the parts of many become united as one. Thus the marriage is a symbol of the head (married life) being "united flesh". Has the meaning of "flesh" changed ? No. But the symbolism in the verse about marriage suggests a poetry context that changes the overall words used. Sentences convey information from words that remain consistent in their meanings. Sentences cause changes to information because sentences have different words, or the words placed in different word order. (c) Ro 3:20 "shall no flesh be justified" is a strange use of "flesh", but the meaning has not changed. The scholar suggests another Hebrew word "nephesh" could be used which means "soul" or "person", but Romans 3:20 chose "flesh" instead of "person". Why ? Paul is talking about "circumcision" the "flesh" part of the "person" which people did as works of flesh in order to obtain salvation, as if salvation was based on the removal of this flesh unto God. Ro 3:1 ¶ What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? So the word "flesh" is correct and Paul's use of the word remains unchanged. (d) Ro 1:3 "according to the flesh" is another Hebrew poetry saying referring to how people are born, in biological "flesh" . Jesus was born of the same biological "flesh" as ordinary humans. The scholar's use of other words such as "physical nature, human or mortal nature, earthly descent" does not change the basic meaning of "basar" as "flesh". (e) 1Pe 4:2 "in the flesh to the lusts of men" Scholars suggest the phrase means "life here on earth", is based on a group of words here in a phrase, but has the single word "basar" (Greek sarx) changed in it's meaning ? No. The context is talking about how Jesus came in human flesh, but did not need a sin-offering for personal sinning. Peter is suggesting our flesh, and it's propensity to help our mind choose sinning plays a role in helping us to do sinning. Jesus d id not choose sinning, despite having human flesh as ordinary humans have. The Hebrew word here "flesh" has not changed in meaning, but the phrase of meaning from its context does tell us different information. Notice Peter is using the Hebrew word "chataah" (Greek hamartia) which means "sin-offering". Translators in the NT translate this word as "sin" rather than "sin-offering". There is a slight difference in meaning between both concepts. The Hebrew word "chata" means sin, and the Hebrew word "chataah" is a sin-offering, a person would take "flesh" and place sinning onto the "flesh" as a "sin-offering" pointing to the time the Sin-bearer would take away the sinning placed there by the sinner. This is why Peter is talking of "flesh" and the "lusts of the flesh". Jesus suffered in his human flesh by taking upon his flesh all the sinning of mankind while not sinning Himself. (f) Joh 8:15 "judge after the flesh" is a Poetry saying and a parallel. Notice the full verse Joh 8:15 Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man.(nothing) Therefore humans judging human flesh is a simile of Jesus judging nothing. Notice "flesh" is a simile of "nothing" . The Greek word "oudeis" means "nothing" and "no man" is implied in some contexts. (2) Some words with multiple meanings do exist in any language, yet these words have consistent meanings for the context that defines their intended meaning. Multiple meanings in any language tend to be rare, and Hebrew is no exception. However scholars in Hebrew translations like to believe many multiple meanings exist in Hebrew words. This assumption is false. For example nephesh (Strongs 5315) has English meanings in KJV as "creature" "life" "soul" "heart" "beast" "person". For example basar (Strongs 1320) has English meanings in KJV as "flesh". The author knows of some scholars who render as many as 8 different context meanings for "flesh". Is there justice for this kind of polysemy to word meaning, because of the context they are used in ? I don't think so. The KJV is good in their translations in rendering the Hebrew meaning well, unlike other translations. However often the KJV is not consistent, they seek the English variety in similar word meanings, rather than strictly seeking a single English word for all contexts of the Hebrew. Sometimes there is no equivalent meaning in the English, so the Hebrew word is used instead. The Hebrew "sabbath", "amen" and "halelujah" are examples of Hebrew that come into English unchanged in meaning for these are Hebrew words directly. (3) Languages can change depending upon the introduction of slang and evolutionary degrading of words over time, as well as technological advances or word introductions due to invasions by other cultural peoples. Hebrew is assumed to remain unchanged except for adopted words. Most Hebrew words have 2 and 3 letters to a word and are assumed to remain unchanged over time since ancient times as early as 3,000 BC. Hebrew like any language has it's slang, its puns and its short cuts in word usage. For example "Job 2:9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die." This verse has Job's wife using "barak". Barak means to "bless". Job's wife does not say bless God and die, but rather the opposite is intended as sarcasm, curse God and die. (4) Hebrew words have broad meanings, not easily recognized in other cultural settings, like English. For example many people assume the word "el" means "god", but it does not. The ancient pictograph reads "strong, authority". There are many verses that show "Strong authority" used rather than "god". Ps 80:10 The hills were covered .. (with).. the goodly "'el" cedars ('erez).. The hills were covered (with) the strong authority of cedars Ps 36:6 Thy righteousness is like the great "'el" mountains (harar).. Thy righteousness is like the strong authority of mountains Isa 57:5 Enflaming yourselves with idols "'el".. Enflaming yourselves with (other) strong authorities (idols) Eze 32:21 The strong "'el" among the mighty (gibbowr).. The strong authority among the mighty humans.. (5) Hebrew words are composed of pictograph letters based on verbs of function and thus give clues to the basic meaning of the word and how the word came to be. Because understanding the culture of Hebrew (a dead language since 2500 to 2000 BC), it can be difficult to render the meanings of words with any certainty. (Modern Hebrew culture while helpful, is not the same as Ancient Hebrew, which wrote pictograph in 3000 BC and was changed into other script soon after, and invaded by Babylon changed into Aramaic script, and later into modern Hebrew script with massive changes due to Alexander the Great invasions and Greek translations. Thus modern Hebrew culture is now influenced by Greek culture as thousands of years ago in time .) Most scholars today call this assumption the root word fallacy. I believe their assumption to be wrong. Root words, and child related words do exist in Hebrew, and the evidence for similar meanings in pictographs far outweigh evidence against this assumption. For example here are some two letter words and their opposite spellings. Do they have opposite meanings ? (1) (2) (3) Notice the differences in each Hebrew word and the opposite spellings....and notice the proof here that Ancient Hebrew pictograph script works !! Scholars who scoff can find examples of pictographs that make no sense. Understanding a dead culture is extremely difficult, so rather than dismiss parent and child roots, we should embrace the language technology based on the probability of the evidence that does show it exists. Remember slang is the evolutionary degradation of language in any culture, and over time all languages degrade, as one culture impacts another. Job 33:4 The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life. Scholars assume this parallelism means we can equate Such parallelism destroys Hebrew words as words with exact meanings, shown in different settings. The author sees parallels as poetry similes. You have to be careful with poetry parallels, otherwise much meaning can be lost in translation. In this example, notice the similes used in the poem lines :- The breath is a simile of Ruwach, which means "wind". Hence a breath is a little wind as life flows in and out. Can you see the simile here ? Breath is like wind. The strong authority is a simile of the Shadday. The Hebrew word "el" or strong authority is always numerical singular in its context. Thus the Shadday is a single numerical co-eternal member of GOD and does not refer to any member of GOD or a collective term for any member. ( It's amazing to me scholars do not even agree that "el" is always numerically singular as a word. Thus they destroy the understanding of Hebrew words in deeper studies. It's also amazing other people with their faith, never tell you their assumptions. Here are mine listed in black and white. If you disagree with any assumption you can disregard my entire faith and my theories of faith completely, for they are based on these assumptions.) The term of being made is a simile for the Hebrew chayah, meaning ongoing life, or to be quickened. This is a special work of the Holy Spirit. (7) Meanings of words are assumed to be defined only within Scripture. Scholars might use a dictionary of other cultures to render meaning. The author only uses the Bible only. One should not use human dictionaries, or Strong's or other humans to render meaning of Hebrew. Only the Bible verses should be used. However I do use other humans to help me render meaning as long as their studies are in harmony with the Bible. The more inspired I feel the human is in harmony with the Bible, the more I may use the influence of humans studies. Other humans would seem thus inspired are called witnesses in Scripture, or disciples. And we are allowed to use such witnesses outside Scripture, because they are writing what the Holy Spirit is leading them to write. There are two people outside of the Holy Bible I refer for assistance. Step 4 Conclusion. Major findings are placed in the conclusion, to allow the reader who is busy for time, to find the author's meaning quickly. I would encourage all who defend their faith, to do so in few words and as quickly as possible. Nobody likes a person who rambles and does not know his material well. Ec 5:2 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few Step 5 Picture. The word under study has a picture in modern Hebrew and ancient Hebrew, written right to left. The word is written again by the author in ancient Hebrew, left to right. The Strong number is shown to assist in identification. The meaning of the word is shown as well. The pictograph reading of the word is also shown. To be objective in reading pictographs, I use the same meaning for each letter all the time, rather than fitting the meaning of the word to it's letters. This makes the reading of pictograph simple, but there may be other meanings intended in the letter meanings, language is always more complex. However I like to keep things simple. Step 5 Application. Here I write my own personal application of the study for readers. You welcome to disagree here as all humans have their own right to believe as they wish in minor matters of application. I hope we all agree with the conclusion. Scripture cannot be wrong, and thus the word meaning of words must be always true and faithful. Step 6 Discussion. And finally the discussion listed last. The discussion is by far the biggest part of the study looking up all Bible verses and making discussions on some verses as they show different applications in context. You are welcome to email me to add or change discussions for any verse, and these opinions may be placed in the discussion for others using the website. Now that my study method is placed here for those to read, if you email me regarding your faith, please follow the Scientific Method as I do. Most people I correspond with do not unravel their bias, logic and assumptions, and make reading their material difficult. Enjoy studying Jesus' words in Hebrew. Oh, one last assumption. I also believe the entire Bible, both OT and NT was originally written in Hebrew, for Hebrew Jewish people and later Hebrew Greek people. Thus while I use Greek in the NT, I don't like it, and change the Greek to Hebrew where I can. I prefer to study Scripture in the original language first, before making application in the English. The most common English translation I use is King James version. God bless your studies of Jesus' words in His Bible. I trust you find His love written there and respond to that love. Shalom |
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Strongs 1320 "flesh" The pictograph of ancient Hebrew reads "The Home, Protects, the Head".
