Ephesians 2, CJB: Is salvation by The God? Are there antinomians?

Ephesians 2, CJB: Is salvation by The God? Are there antinomians?

Guide: CJB New Testament emphasis in bold (CJB online) or Old Testament OJB text I emphasize in green; NIV in magenta; OJB in olive. footnotes to CJB in superscript sky blue and OJB; Nomads* discussion in yellow; and my comments in gray. I may use endnotes to cite outside literature or extensive comment.  

*Participative Sunday-school-class at UBC led by Kenny Tipton. Kenny appreciates opinion in a continuous search for the ineluctable truth. My evolving statement about Genesis 1:26-28,31, now from OJB, is at the end of this post. Also, this report is the first after I discovered Psalm 82, OJB, which in my view affirms that because I accept Genesis 1’s directive to constrain chaos in my way of living I am a god facing death. I will post this under a new label, Genesis-1’s Psalm 82.

Chief concerns and possible insights re Ephesians 2:

1.      Of all the New Testament writers, Paul is the one I most distrust, all the while, claiming that I do not know the ineluctable truth.

a.      Paul was not authentic enough to want to aid a woman for life.

b.     Paul never considered Genesis 1:26-28, 31 as appreciation to The God.

2.       Who can accept “a life of good actions already prepared by God for us to do” as a personal intention? Being gods facing death (Psalm 82, OJB), we cannot choose passivity – must oppose “wickedness”.

3.      There are textual problems between CJB and NIV and between CJB and OJB.

4.      There are too many “Gods” invoked in the text.

What Paul’s text seems to say:

V1   Anyone who does not pursue and practice good behavior is dead but may reform.

V3 Sex is a major distraction.

V4 But the Messiah redeemed us by God’s mercy, love, and grace.

V8 Even your trust and commitment is God’s gift.

V10 Since we are Messiah Yeshua’s group, our life of good actions is not our intention. I do not accept this idea: I choose good behavior, because I oppose wickedness.

V12 The uncircumcised, before the Messiah, were without Israel’s God.

V13-V16 The Semitic-speaking people who left Ur to resist killing humans for blood for god worship nevertheless believed that blood was necessary for atonement, so killed animals and birds. Israel continued the belief until Rome destroyed the Second Temple in CE 70, after which Israel turned to obedience, continually discovered. Belief in a Messiah hung on a stake is not attractive to me, and that belief has increased the world’s division, these 2025 years later. Paul’s “single new humanity” is a dream, I think unattainable through blood sacrifice, whether by worship or by war.

V17 CJB slights its own footnote:  Isaiah 57:19, NIV slights both OJB and CJB, which claim to those nearby “I will heal him”.

V19 Messiah, one Spirit, and the Father may leap to “Trinity”.

V20-22 After “Messiah” why “the Lord” then “for God”?

 

The CJB text follows, with comments:

^2:1 You used to be dead because of your sins and acts of disobedience transgressions and sins. ² You walked in the ways of the ‘olam hazeh this world and obeyed the Ruler of the Powers of the Air, who is still at work among the disobedient. ³ Indeed, we all once lived this way — we followed the passions of our old nature flesh and obeyed the wishes of our old nature desires and our own thoughts. In our natural condition we were headed for deserving of God’s wrath, just like everyone else.

⁴ But God is so rich in mercy and loves us with such intense love ⁵ that, even when we were dead because of our acts of disobedience, he brought us to life along with the Messiah Christ — it is by grace that you have been delivered. ⁶ That is, God raised us up with the Messiah Yeshua Christ Jesus and seated us with him in heaven, ⁷ in order to exhibit in the ages to come how infinitely rich is his grace, how great is his kindness toward us who are united with the Messiah Yeshua. ⁸ For you have been delivered by grace through trusting faith, and even this is not your accomplishment but God’s gift. ⁹ You were not delivered by your own actions; therefore no one should boast. [If a person cannot boast about choices in life, how can they imagine effecting a good afterdeath?] ¹⁰ For we are of God’s making, created in union with the Messiah Yeshua for a life of good actions already prepared by God for us to do. [Let’s all be passive and let Paul’s plan play out! Not me: I trust Yeshua’s influence to necessary goodness, not Paul the boastful “self-appointed apostle to the pagans”.]

¹¹ Therefore, remember your former state: you Gentiles by birth — called the Uncircumcised by those who, merely because of an operation on their flesh, are called the Circumcised (which is done in the body by human hands) — ¹² at that time had no Messiah. You were estranged from the national life of Isra’el. You were foreigners to the covenants embodying God’s promise. You were in this world without hope and without God in the world. [Paul via NIV suggests Israel was/could limit God’s access to humankind: not possible.]

¹³ But now, you who were once far off have been brought near through the shedding of the Messiah’s blood. ¹⁴ For he himself is our shalom peace— he has made us both one and has broken down the m’chitzah barrier which divided us ¹⁵ by destroying in his own body the enmity occasioned by the Torah, with its commands set forth in the form of ordinances regulations. He did this in order to create in union with himself from the two groups a single new humanity and thus make shalom, ¹⁶ and in order to reconcile to God both in a single body by being executed on a stake the cross as a criminal and thus in himself killing that enmity hostility. [So far, Pauline Christianity increased division rather than aided “a single new humanity”.]

¹⁷ Also, when he came, he announced as Good News shalom to you far off and shalom to those nearby I will heal him,^{[Isaiah 57:19, “ I create the [repentant] fruit of the lips; Shalom, shalom to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith Hashem; and I will heal him.”]}  [Notice the V17 disagreement with its own footnote. Both OJB and CJB at Isaiah 57:19 say about the circumcised “I will heal him”.  NIV lumps circumcised and uncircumcised together.]
 ¹⁸ news that through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. [The Trinity.]

¹⁹ So then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers. On the contrary, you are fellow-citizens with God’s people and members of God’s family household. ²⁰ You have been built on the foundation of the emissaries and the prophets, with the cornerstone being Yeshua the Messiah himself. ²¹ In union with him the whole building is held together, and it is growing into a holy temple in union with the Lord. ²² Yes, in union with him, you yourselves are being built together into a spiritual dwelling-place for God! [In light of the trinity in V 18, why “the Lord” in V 21 and “for God” in V 22?]

[Genesis 1:26-28, 31 OJB:

I read to consider and apply perhaps 5500 year old Sumerian political philosophy, religiously referenced by Semite (pre-Israel) scribes of 3900 years ago, in Genesis 1:26-28, 31, in my paraphrase and extension to law:  

Female-and-male-human-being may and can choose to practice the power, the authority, and the responsibility to pursue necessary goodness and constrain wickedness on earth. Civic citizens may and can use the rule of law to develop statutory justice. And that is good. 

Political and religious philosopher Yeshua affirmed Genesis 1:26-28, 31, contributing ideas in each Matthew 18:18 (no peace-power above humankind), Matthew 19:3-8 (mutual spousal-loyalty), Matthew 5:48 (in good behavior, pursue personal perfection, which also affirms Deuteronomy 18:13), Matthew 19:4-6 (don’t divide/lessen goodness), John 10:34 (non-wicked humans are gods -- facing death, as in Psalm 82:1-7), and in other direct dialogue, such as “go and sin no more”. Psalm 82 says nothing about resurrection.

Discussion

I think Genesis 1:26-28, 31 informs humankind to flourish in necessary goodness rather than accommodate badness and allow evil. Quoting OJB below,

And G-d said, Let Us make man in Our tzelem, after Our demut: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon ha’aretz (the earth).

So G-d created humankind in His own tzelem, in the tzelem Elohim (image of G-d) created He him; zachar (male) and nekevah (female) created He them.

And G-d blessed them, and G-d said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. See note, below.

Accepting the power, the authority, and the responsibility to rule on earth is human being (verb). Reliable human-beings choose necessary goodness to actual reality. The God judges the goodness in V 31:

And G-d saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was tov me’od (very good).

Note: OJB uses “Elohim” in Genesis 1 and 2, excepting “G-d” in 1:24-31. V 27 seems to equate the two entities. Septuagint uses “ὁ θεὸς”, or God throughout Genesis 1. I use “The God, or whatever constrains human choice”, hoping to express humility to whatever The God is.

Since monotheism is a human construct, I use the phrase, “The God, whatever it may be”, to express objection to any doctrinal God yet reserve humility to ineluctable evidence and remaining unknowns about what constrains the consequences of human choices.]