Bible Study Seattle

Andrew Gabriel Roth has an interesting theory that Christ died on Nisan, the first day of unleavened bread.  The challenge is: did the disciples eat the Passover?  Passover lambs are eaten at the end of Nisan 14 and into the first part of Nisan 15.  Andrew mentions that the Passover lambs were killed relatively painlessly with a slit to the throat.  The following seven day had messier Bull offerings.  This author doesn’t subscribe to this view, but it’s interesting in light of the last supper.  It may be correct.

“Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.”  And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.  The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”  And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.”  Revelation 17:1-6

“ I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.  Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds; in the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her.  To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as a queen and I am not a widow, and will never see mourning.’  For this reason in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who judges her is strong.”  Revelation 18:4

Who is Babylon the Great?  Many have identified her as the Papal system.  And the Protestant spinoffs as her daughters.   Ezekiel chapter 16 talks about the wicked religion that Judaism had become thousands of years ago, which also applies to what the church had become a few centuries after Christ.  But some bible students who assume that Christ’s return is imminent will look askance at you if you have anything to do will mainline churches.  But some who assume they are out of Mystery Babylon are in fact still a part of it.  Jehovah’s Witnesses come to mind, as well as every other religious system.  Although some are much closer to the truth, all have some aspect of the Babel misunderstanding in them.  We are all wrong to some extent.  Let us not be too quick to judge and assume someone will be condemned because they are in such-and-such church.  It will take several centuries to squeeze out all the falseness out of our understanding of God.  Let us not be like the Pharisees who assumed only they had it all right!  The return of our Lord is not as imminent as some suppose.

Jesus apparently rose from the dead on Sunday, hence Christians started using Sunday as their Sabbath.  If you google Sunday worship this is what you will read.  But wait a minute.  If we look at some prophecies of the future, what do we find?

“Thus says the Lord,
“Preserve justice and do righteousness,
For My salvation is about to come
And My righteousness to be revealed.
How blessed is the man who does this,
And the son of man who takes hold of it;
Who keeps from profaning the sabbath,
And keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say,
“The Lord will surely separate me from His people.”
Nor let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”

For thus says the Lord,

Marcion was an early church father (85-160AD).   Apparently he coined the terms ‘Old Testament’ and ‘New Testament’.  He also established some purely Gentile churches that worshiped on Sunday.  Marcionism appears to be related to an Anti-Jewish bias after the Bar Kokhba revolt of 135AD.

Jesus died about 3pm Nisan 14th. This day was sometimes referred to as the preparation day. Nisan 15-21 is the feast of unleavened bread. (Leviticus 23:4-8) Jesus said the only sign that would be given to that generation was from Jonah: “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Matthew 12:38-40

Even if we count partial days/nights, we have this: Jesus spent one day in the grave Nisan 14 from 3pm-6pm. 6pm Nisan 15th to the next 6pm (sundown) is another night and day. 6pm Nisan 16th to the next 6pm is another night and day. He would need at least a few more hours the beginning of Nisan 17th to add the third night. He must have died between 7pm Nisan 17th and sunrise. Most accounts have Jesus rising on Sunday, but this author doubts that. The women went to the tomb on Sunday because they would have honored the Sabbath by resting. We believe Nisan 17th was a Sabbath and the women went to the tomb on Nisan 18th at or before sunrise. Much confusion has been added by not realizing that Nisan 15th is always a high Sabbath no matter what day of the week it falls on. That would make Thursday Nissan 15 a Sabbath, and Saturday Nisan 17 a Sabbath.

Sheryl Sandberg has a movement to ‘ban bossy’.  This makes sense where people (girls in particular) are being mocked.  But some people really honestly are just bossy.  It is not one of the nine fruits of the spirit:

“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”  Galatians 5:22-23

Bossy people seem to think the world should revolve around them.  There is a touch of pride and arrogance.  And don’t question their decrees – how dare you!

Leadership is not the same as bossyness.  Leadership is about getting things done with the good of everyone in mind.  Bossyness is about stoking the ego of the bosser.  Jesus was very clear about leadership:

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them.  It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve,”  Matthew 20:25-28

Notice that Jesus’ service to the believers was not about being a doormat.  He served with their best interest in mind.  He was not bossy, not a micromanager.  He did not tell someone he’d meet them at 5:00 and show up at 5:35.  Sadly some people are woefully lacking in self-awareness.  They boss and micromanage their kids, then when the kids react, they say, “everybody is mean to mommy.”  No!  Can’t she see it?!  But she refuses to see it.  We are not to exasperate our children (or anyone else for that matter).

“Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?”

He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:

For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men —the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.”

He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.  For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’   But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban”—’ (that is, a gift to God),  then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”  Mark 7:5-13

“ Therefore the Lord said:

“Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.  From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three.  They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”  Luke 12:51-3

What is interesting is that Jesus had four brothers and at least two sisters, all younger than him.  “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us?”  Matthew 13:55-56

We know that James and Jude were disciples.  Evidently Joseph and Simon were not.  Thus his own family was divided about him.  He probably also had a sister-in-law or mother-in-law at odds about him.

“ Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.  You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for life is from the Jews.  But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.”  John 4:21-23

“Life is from the Jews”:  The word life in Aramaic is plural.  Why?  Could this refer to current life and the second life after resurrection?  Or could it be the resurrection life, followed by a translation into heaven?  We don’t know…

There’s a heavy chronological clue at the end of Joshua.
“It came about after these things that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being one hundred and ten years old. And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of Mount Gaash.
Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, and had known all the deeds of the Lord which He had done for Israel.” Joshua 24:29-31

Evidently, the elders outlived Joshua by about 19 years as discovered by Paul Mezera. This insight gives the date for the exiling of the Northern tribes in 722 BC.