CJB emphasis
in bold (online), green, red, and blue, with footnotes in blue; NIV in magenta (none); Nomads* comments in yellow; and my comments in gray.
*Participative
Sunday-school-class at UBC led by Kenneth Tipton. My continually improved
statement about Genesis 1:26-28 is at the end of this.
John
wrote approximately 4 to 6 decades after Yeshua was executed. I perceive civic considerations
to the good regarding the scripture that follows, including:
1. Could writer John’s
“the Word” have been Yeshua’s “the good”?
2. Is John the Baptizer
a fictional character intended to prove constructed prophesy from Semitic-speaking
ancient people?
3. I like these consecutive
statements from V 17-18: “For the Torah was given through
Moshe; grace and truth came through Yeshua the Messiah. No
one has ever seen God . . . “
4. Notice that
when John the Baptizer said, “I am not the Messiah”, Yeshua was alive and Paul’s
concept of salvation on the cross had not been developed. Yeshua’s contemporaries
debated a king anointed to unite the 12 tribes of Israel.
5. Ken’s focus on
V 38 prompts my reflection, “Do I want influence to perfect civic behavior in
living or do I want salvation of mysterious soul?” That’s why Genesis 1:26-28
is so important to me.
6. I wonder if Adonai expresses an Old Testament representative on earth to the God, and Yeshua presents a New Testament replacement. Do modern Messianic Jews and Orthodox Jews distinguish Adonai and G-d?
7. Civic people may and can, could and should, choose for themselves how to aid humankind to the good rather than divide on mysteries.
John
1 CJB, what do you want
1:1 In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word
was God. [I imagine that “the
Word” is “the good”.]
2 He [the good] was with God in the beginning.
3 All
things came to be through him,
and without him nothing made had being.
4 In
him was life,
and the life was the light of mankind.
5 The
light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not suppressed it.
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was
Yochanan. 7 He came to be a testimony, to bear
witness concerning the light; so that through him, everyone might put his trust
in God and be faithful to him. 8 He himself was not
that light; no, he came to bear witness concerning the light.
9 This
was the true light,
which gives light to everyone entering the
world.
10 He
was in the world — the world came to be through him —
yet the world did not know him.
11 He
came to his own homeland,
yet his own people did not receive him.
12 But to as many as did receive him, to those who
put their trust in his person and power, he gave the right to become children
of God, 13 not because of bloodline, physical
impulse or human intention, but because of God.
14 The Word [the good]
became a human being and lived with us,
and we saw his Sh’khinah [presence],
the Sh’khinah of the Father’s only Son,
full of grace and truth.
15 Yochanan witnessed concerning him when he cried
out, “This is the man I was talking about when I said, ‘The one coming after me
has come to rank ahead of me, because he existed before me.’”
16 We
have all received from his fullness,
yes, grace upon grace. [Humility on goodness.]
17 For
the Torah was given through Moshe;
grace and
truth came through Yeshua the Messiah.
18 No one has
ever seen God; but the only and
unique Son, who is identical with God and is at the Father’s side — he has made
him known.
19 Here is Yochanan’s testimony: when the Judeans
sent cohanim and L’vi’im from Yerushalayim to
ask him, “Who are you?” 20 he was very
straightforward and stated clearly, “I am not the Messiah.” [That is, the Baptizer is not the one sent to unite the
12 tribes. This is 3 years before they executed Yeshua, 6 years before Paul
began what became Christianity, so it cannot refer to the cross: to hearers, it
is about Israel, not about humankind. Fourteen years more, and Paul called the Council
of Jerusalem to get relief from circumcision for pagans. The council to Paul
was absent orthodox Jews who opposed Yeshua and included elders and John
supporting circumcision, James who promoted Yeshua’s return to unite the 12
tribes, and Peter hoping to accommodate Jews and pagans. Neither Yeshua nor
human-beings who want civic integrity even accommodating religion were
represented. Thus, borrowing applicable words, “read back into Paul’s letters and passages”, from Ron
Perritt, the contemporary question,
is the Baptizer the Messiah? applies to uniting Israel and is not germane to
the cross.*] 21 “Then
who are you?” they asked him. “Are you Eliyahu?” “No, I am not,” he said. “Are
you ‘the prophet,’ the one we’re expecting?” “No,” he replied. 22 So
they said to him, “Who are you? — so that we can give an answer to the people
who sent us. What do you have to say about yourself?” 23 He
answered in the words of Yesha‘yahu (Isaiah) the prophet, “I am The voice of
someone crying out:
‘In the desert make the way of Adonai straight!’” [Isaiah 40:3, CJB, “A voice cries out:
“Clear a road
through the desert for Adonai!
Level a highway in the ‘Aravah [2024 Jordan Rift Valley.] for our God!”] [In the Old Testament, is Adonai an emissary for “our God”?]
24 Some of those who had been sent were P’rushim. 25 They
asked him, “If you are neither the Messiah nor Eliyahu nor ‘the prophet,’ then
why are you immersing people?” 26 To them Yochanan
replied, “I am immersing people in water, but among you is standing someone
whom you don’t know. 27 He is the one coming after
me — I’m not good enough even to untie his sandal!” 28 All
this took place in Beit-Anyah, east of the Yarden, where Yochanan was
immersing.
29 The next day, Yochanan saw Yeshua coming toward
him and said, “Look! God’s lamb! The one who is taking away the sin of the world! 30 This
is the man I was talking about when I said, ‘After me is coming someone who has
come to rank above me, because he
existed before me.’ 31 I myself did not know
who he was, but the reason I came immersing with water was so that he might be
made known to Isra’el.” 32 Then Yochanan gave this
testimony: “I saw the Spirit coming down from heaven like a dove, and remaining
on him. 33 I myself did not know who he was, but
the one who sent me to immerse in water said to me, ‘The one on whom you see
the Spirit descending and remaining, this is the one who immerses in the Ruach
HaKodesh.’ 34 And I have seen and borne witness
that this is the Son of God.”
35 The next day, Yochanan was again standing with
two of his talmidim. 36 On seeing
Yeshua walking by, he said, “Look! God’s lamb!” 37 His two talmidim heard
him speaking, and they followed Yeshua. 38 Yeshua
turned and saw them following him, and he asked them, “What are you looking for?” [This Ken perceives is the key question
in this chapter: It’s important to listen to God’s questions, then pursue the
response you perceive to the good. My example is: Do I want influence to perfect civic
behavior in living or do I want salvation of mysterious soul?]
They said to him, “Rabbi!”
(which means “Teacher!”)
“Where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come
and see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and remained with him the
rest of the day — it was about four o’clock in the afternoon. 40 One
of the two who had heard Yochanan and had followed Yeshua was Andrew the
brother of Shim‘on Kefa.
41 The first thing he did was to find his brother
Shim‘on and tell him, “We’ve
found the Mashiach!” (The word means “one who has been
anointed.”) 42 He took him to Yeshua. Looking at
him, Yeshua said, “You are Shim‘on Bar-Yochanan; you will be known as Kefa.”
(The name means “rock.”)
43 The next day, having decided to leave for the
Galil, Yeshua found Philip and said, “Follow me!” 44 Philip was from
Beit-Tzaidah, the town where Andrew and Kefa lived. 45 Philip
found Natan’el and told him, “We’ve found the one that Moshe wrote about in the Torah,
also the Prophets — it’s Yeshua Ben-Yosef from Natzeret!” 46 Natan’el
answered him, “Natzeret? Can
anything good come from there?” “Come and see,” Philip said to
him. 47 Yeshua saw Natan’el coming toward him and
remarked about him, “Here’s a true son of Isra’el — nothing false in
him!” 48 Natan’el said to him, “How do you know
me?” Yeshua answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the
fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Natan’el said, “Rabbi, you
are the Son of God! You are the King of Isra’el!” 50 Yeshua
answered him, “you believe all this just because I told you I saw you under the
fig tree? You will see greater things than that!” 51 Then
he said to him, “Yes indeed! I tell you that you will see heaven opened
and the angels of God going up and coming down [Genesis 28:12, CJB, “He dreamt that there before him was a
ladder resting on the ground with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of Adonai were going up and down on it.”] on the Son of
Man!” [I do not think
either entity -- Yeshua or Jesus -- uttered this spurious promise. It was
constructed by Bible writers and religions. I accept that I could be wrong and
so judged by the God.]
*This is the first time in my Nomads-class-records that I
have cited and refuted Bible-reporting about Yeshua. It seems intended to
construct evidence that Yeshua fulfilled prophecy from Semitic-speaking
peoples, only some of whom were ancestors to Israel. However, the Bible shows
that Yeshua (whether student or God) affirmed Genesis 1:26-28: Humankind is responsible, empowered, and
authorized to pursue the good (order) to the earth. Primitive physics is
affirmed by modern physics.
Yeshua was an actual person, who spoke Aramaic, a Semitic
kin to Hebrew, Syriac, and
We read John the apostle’s opinion about John the Baptizer’s speculation
about Isaiah’s prophecy: a Messiah to unite the 12 tribes of Israel. I took
about 300 years after Yeshua was executed and Paul developed a religion grounded
in the cross for “Iesu
Christi”, a name and a title to be promoted
over Yeshua’s civic influence. Then, 1300 years later, “Iesu
Christi” became “Jesus Christ” the savior of elected souls, rather than
Yeshua, who was open-hearted and encouraged freedom from error to every
human-being. It is a choice of entities rather than labels. I choose Yeshua’s
civic influence to the good among humankind.
[I read to apply perhaps 5500 year old Sumerian political philosophy. It’s
primitively expressed by Semite scholars of 3900 years ago in Genesis 1:26-28;
in my paraphrase: Female-and-male-human-being may and can choose to
independently and together constrain political democracy on earth: on earth,
humankind has the power and authority to pursue the good
and constrain the bad. Civic citizens may use the rule of law to
develop statutory justice. Yeshua*
affirmed these ideas in each Matthew 18:18 (no peace-power above humankind),
Matthew 19:3-8 (civic loyalty), Matthew 5:48 (perfection), and in other direct
dialogue.
The next Bible canon could and should include the law codes of Sumer and
competing civilizations. Resulting insights would take the heat off
Judeo-Christianity, a Christ vs Messiah** vs the God competition.*** Personal
and institutional competition egregiously deludes Yeshua’s civic influence to
the good. The collaborative view could accelerate mutual pursuit of human being
(verb) and lessen habitual baby killings, like those happening in Israel, in
Ukraine, and in the U.S. in the year 2024.
*In
4 BC, Yosef and Myriam of Nazareth begot Yeshua. 250 years beforehand, Greek
translation of the Torah provided Ἰησοῦς and χριστός, both of which competed
with “Yeshua”, the former during Yeshua’s life and the latter in afterdeath. By
the 16th century CE, Christianity used “Jesus Christ” to
repress Yeshua.
The
person, Yeshua, said, in my paraphrase: if people don’t speak my name they can
neither consider my civic influence nor share my open-heartedness. Competitive
monotheism hides Yeshua’s civic influence. Churches hide Yeshua. Churches claim
the Holy Bible is the word of the God yet do everything they can to negate
Genesis 1:26-28: humankind is responsible to rule to the good on earth.
The
God is a mystery. However, civic citizens may, can, and do discern Yeshua’s
civic influence. Accepting Genesis 1:26-28 helps yet does not exclude the
open-minded and open-hearted fellow citizen who has not discovered Yeshua.
**Cyrus,
600 BC, is called a messiah in Isaiah 45:1.
***Competitive
monotheism survives on war.]
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