That the term salvation is so meaningfully used in connection with so many religions, however, shows that it distinguishes a notion common to men and women of a wide range of cultural traditions.

The fundamental idea contained in the English word salvation, and the Latin salvatio and Greek sōtēria from which it derives, is that of saving or delivering from some dire situation.

According to WEBSTER:
SALVA'TION,n.[Hebrew.H3444 Yeshua,save,deliverance,victory; Greek. G4991 soteria, save, rescue, deliver; Latin. salvo, to save.]

1. The act of saving; preservation from destruction, danger or great calamity.

2. Appropriately in theology, the redemption of man from the bondage of sin and liability to eternal death, and the conferring on him everlasting happiness. This is the great salvation.

[NOTE: Greek Scriptures perspective - reflecting what most of humanity is wanting.
From the Hebrew Scriptures perspective, the afterlife was not a big part of Jewish thinking until after Babylon. Up until then, "salvation" was about the "here and now".
Other religious cultures had their own understanding of "salvation".]

2Co_7:10
2 Corinthians 7:10 YLT
(10) for the sorrow toward God reformation to salvation G4991 not to be repented of doth work, and the sorrow of the world doth work death,

[NOTE: There are many different theological "systems" in Christianity, i.e., "This is what we believe"; the various Apostles' Creeds, etc.]
3. Deliverance from enemies; victory.

[NOTE: this is is Hebrew Scriptures perspective - the "here and now". The life that is here now and how to live life here and now instead of focusing on the afterlife.]

Exo_14:13
Exodus 14:13 YLT
(13) And Moses saith unto the people, 'Fear not, station yourselves, and see the salvation H3444 of Jehovah, which He doth for you to-day; for, as ye have seen the Egyptians to-day, ye add no more to see them—to the age;

4. Remission of sins, or saving graces.

Luk_19:8-10
Luke 19:8-10 YLT
(8) And Zaccheus having stood, said unto the Lord, 'Lo, the half of my goods, sir, I give to the poor, and if of any one anything I did take by false accusation, I give back fourfold.'
(9) And Jesus said unto him—'To-day salvation G4991 did come to this house, inasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham;
(10) for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.'

[NOTE: Did Zaccheus understand "salvation" in the Greek or Hebrew context?

Zaccheus was a Jew.
Did he understand the Master's words as meaning that He was here to set Israel back on the correct track?
OR, since "salvation" in Hebrew is "Yeshua", and using Luk_19:10 as context, did Zaccheus understand Luk_19:9 as an announcement that Yeshua had arrived?]

Luk_19:11-27 adds even more context.
Even the apostles were confused by salvation’s meaning:

Act_1:6-8
Acts 1:6-8 YLT
(6) They, therefore, indeed, having come together, were questioning him, saying, 'Lord, dost thou at this time restore the reign to Israel?'
(7) and he said unto them, 'It is not yours to know times or seasons that the Father did appoint in His own authority;
(8) but ye shall receive power at the coming of the Holy Spirit upon you, and ye shall be witnesses to me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and unto the end of the earth.'

5. The author of man's salvation. (WEBSTER - AU'THOR, n. [L. auctor. The Latin word is from the root of augeo, to increase, or cause to enlarge. The primary sense is one who brings or causes to come forth.]

1. One who produces, creates, or brings into being; as, God is the author of the Universe.)

Psa_27:1
Psalms 27:1 YLT
(1) By David. Jehovah is my light and my salvation H3468 , Whom do I fear? Jehovah is the strength of my life, Of whom am I afraid?

Heb_2:10
Hebrews 2:10 YLT
(10) For it was becoming to Him, because of whom are the all things, and through whom are the all things, many sons to glory bringing, the author G747 of their salvation through sufferings to make perfect,

Hebrews 2:10 ASV-2015(10) For it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

6. A term of praise or benediction.

Rev_19:1
Revelation 19:1 YLT
(1) And after these things I heard a great voice of a great multitude in the heaven, saying, 'Alleluia! the salvation G4991 , and the glory, and the honour, and the power, is to the Lord our God;

NEXT

Continue SALVATION study.
Resume SECULAR and HISTORICAL CONTEXT, laying the foundation for the Scriptural study.

The idea of saving or delivering from some dire situation logically implies that humankind, as a whole or in part, is in such a situation.
This premise, in turn, involves a series of related assumptions about human nature and destiny.

The creation stories of many religions express the beliefs that have been held concerning the original state of humankind in the divine ordering of the universe, going all the way back to The Enuma Elish, or Sumerian (Babylonian) Creation Tales, considered the oldest written creation story, perhaps from the second millennium B.C. (https://www.magicgatebg.com/Books/The%20Seven%20Summerian%20 Tablets%20of%20Creation.pdf)
The Enuma Elish is composed of almost one thousand lines of cuneiform script that have often been compared with
the Hebrew Scriptures creation story in Genesis.
The story features a great battle between gods Marduk and Tiamat that results in the creation of the Earth and mankind. The storm god Marduk is ultimately declared a champion, which enables him to rule over the other gods and become the chief god in Babylonian religion.
Marduk uses Tiamat's body to form the sky and the earth.
He forms the great Mesopotamian rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris, from the tears in her eyes.
Finally, he forms mankind from the blood of Tiamat's son and spouse Kingu, in order for them to serve the gods.
The Enuma Elish was written across seven cuneiform tablets that were copied by ancient Assyrians and Babylonians.
The epic was recited or re-enacted in the annual New Year's events, as is recorded in Seleucid era documents.
Many of these stories envisage a kind of golden age at the beginning of the world, when the first human beings lived, serene and happy, untouched by disease, aging, or death and in harmony with a divine Creator.
Stories of this kind usually involve the shattering of the ideal state by some forbidden human deed, with wickedness, disease, and death entering into the world as the result.
Adam and Eve (Gen_2:1-31, Gen_2:7-9, Gen_2:15-25, Gen_3:1-24) is particularly notable for tracing the origin of death, the pain of childbirth, and the hard toil of agriculture to humanity’s disobedience of its Creator.
It expresses the belief that sin is the cause of evil in the world and implies that salvation must come through humanity’s repentance and whichever

god that religion happens to have at that time forgiveness and restoration.
In ancient Iran, from Zoroastrianism's sacred book, the Zend-Avesta, a different cosmic situation was contemplated, one in which the world was seen as a battleground of two opposing forces: good and evil, light and darkness, life and death.
In this cosmic struggle, humanity was inevitably involved, and the quality of human life was conditioned by this involvement.
Zoroaster, an Assyrian and the founder of Zoroastrianism, called upon human beings to align themselves with the good, personified in the god Ahura Mazdā, because their ultimate salvation lay in the triumph of the cosmic principle of good over evil, personified in Ahriman.
This salvation involved the restoration of all that had been corrupted or injured by Ahriman at the time of his final defeat and destruction.
Thus, the Zoroastrian concept of salvation was really a return to a golden age of the primordial perfection of all things, including humans.
Many believe Zoroastrianism had a profound effect on early Judaism.
Some ancient Christian theologians (e.g., Origen (c. 185 – c. 253), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an early Christian scholar, ascetic, and theologian) also conceived of a final “restoration” in which even devils, as well as humans, would be saved.
This idea, called universalism, was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church as heresy.
In those religions that regard humans as essentially psychophysical (the branch of psychology that deals with the relationships between physical stimuli and resulting sensations and mental states) organisms (e.g., Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Islam), salvation involves the restoration of both the body and soul, or body and spirit.
Modern Judaism, as a result of Hellenism post-Yeshua, has adopted the

concept of resurrection of body and soul.
Yeshua was an orthodox, pious Jew.
The concept of resurrection of body and soul was foreign to ancient Judaism.
These religions teach doctrines of a resurrection of the dead body and its reunion with the soul, or spirit, preparatory to ultimate salvation or damnation.
At this point, some intersting questions arise:
1. With all these differing beliefs and points of view:
A. Which religion is correct in its presentation of the Creator's Word?
OR,
B. Is each one as correct as the others?
That is, does the Creator give differing enlightenment to different peoples, so that a "footstep follower" in any religion has as much of an opportunity of salvation as any other religion's adherents?
If 1.B is chosen, then explain the fact that some teachings in each religion are diametrically opposed to other religions' teachings.
Also, most religions claim that following their teachings are the only way to acheive salvation.
For example:
Christians:
Joh_14:6
John 14:6 YLT
(6) Jesus saith to him, 'I am the G3588 way G3598 , and the G3588 truth G225 , and the G3588 life G2222 , no one G3762 doth come unto the G3588 Father, if not G1508 through G1223 me;
Yet, even amongst Christians, there are many different Christian organizations that claim theirs is the ONLY road to salvation.
Almost every religion has its own sacred writings that are considered to be THE G3588 authoritative sources of doctrine, practice, and history.
These texts may have different origins, forms, and functions, depending on

the religion and its context.
Some religions have one main text, while others have multiple texts that complement each other.
Some texts are believed to be divinely revealed, while others are composed by human authors inspired ( G2315 - "God-breathed") by the divine.
Some texts are written down, while others are transmitted orally or through other media. Many written texts began orally and were written down years, even centuries, from their beginning.
Some texts are fixed and unchangeable, while others are open to interpretation and adaptation.
Some organizations "update", that is, change the wording or interpretation, their texts based on a myriad of factors, e.g., the current popular beliefs, a change in organizational leadership, etc.
One possible reason why every religion writes its own sacred texts is to provide meaning and purpose for its followers.
According to the website The Spiritual Life,
"Religious texts may be used to provide meaning and purpose, evoke a deeper connection with the divine, convey religious truths, promote religious experience, foster communal identity, and guide individual and communal religious practice."
Sacred texts may also answer existential questions such as the origin of life, the nature of the universe, and the destiny of the soul (or spirit or personality).
Another possible reason why every religion writes its own sacred texts is to preserve and transmit its sacred history and narrative.
According to Wikipedia,
"Religions have sacred histories and narratives, which may be preserved in sacred texts, symbols and holy places, that primarily aim to give life meaning. Religions may contain symbolic tales that may attempt to explain the origin of life, the universe, and other

phenomena; some followers believe these to be true stories."
Sacred texts may also record the lives and teachings of prophets, sages, saints, and other religious figures.
A third possible reason why every religion writes its own sacred texts is to reflect and respond to its cultural, historical, and geographical context.
According to a book chapter on World Religions: The Spirit Searching, "The use of sacred texts helps make tangible the beliefs and history of a faith tradition. This can be useful in approaching any particular faith. It can also, in some ways, freeze a faith tradition in time. Cultural, historic, and geographic context matters, as one considers what has gone into making a text what it is."
Sacred texts may also adapt to changing circumstances and address new challenges and opportunities.
In conclusion, every religion writes its own sacred texts for various reasons that relate to its identity, beliefs, values, and goals.
Sacred texts are not only sources of information but also expressions of faith and inspiration.
From the Judeo-Christian experience, the Torah began orally (with the exception of the Ten Commandments) and much later was written down as the Hebrew Scriptures (what Christians refer to as the Old Testament).
When Yeshua was teaching on earth, the only written Word of YHVH was the Hebrew Scriptures of the Jews.
Yeshua was well-versed in the Hebrew Scriptures and often quoted or referred to them in His teachings and conversations.
In all His teachings He referred to the divine authority of the Hebrew Scriptures (Mat_5:17-18; Mat_8:17; Mat_12:40-42; Luk_4:18-21; Luk_10:25-28; Luk_15:29-31; Luk_17:32; Luk_24:25-45; Joh_5:39-47).
He quoted the Hebrew Scriptures 78 times, the Pentateuch alone 26 times.

He quoted from Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Amos, Jonah, Micah, and Malachi.
He referred to the Hebrew Scriptures as “The Scriptures,” “the word of God,” and “the wisdom of God.”
The apostles quoted 209 times from the Hebrew Scriptures and considered it “the oracles of God.”
However, He did not always quote them verbatim, but sometimes rephrased them in His own words to make a point or apply them to a new situation.
For example, in Mat_24:32-33 and Mar_13:30-31, He used the analogy of a fig tree to illustrate the signs of the end times, drawing from passages like Hos_9:10 and Joe_1:7.
Yeshua also quoted from different parts of the Hebrew Scriptures, such as the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms, showing that He respected and fulfilled the whole of YHVH's revelation.
Some of the most frequently quoted or referenced Hebrew Scriptures passages by Yeshua are:
- Deu_6:4-5 : The greatest commandment to love YHVH with all one's being.
Yeshua quoted this in Mat_22:37 and Mar_12:30, and added a second commandment from Lev_19:18 to love one's neighbor as oneself.
- Psa_110:1 : The messianic prophecy of the Lord saying to David's Lord, "Sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool."
Yeshua quoted this in Mat_22:44, Mar_12:36 and Luk_20:43 to challenge the Pharisees' understanding of the Messiah's identity and authority.
- Isa_61:1-2 : The mission statement of the Messiah to proclaim good news to the poor, freedom to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and the year of YHVH's favor.
Yeshua quoted this in Luk_4:18-19 when He announced His ministry in Nazareth, and applied it to Himself.

- Psa_118:22-23 : The prediction of the stone that the builders rejected becoming the cornerstone.
Yeshua quoted this in Mat_21:42, Mar_12:11 and Luk_20:17 to warn the Jewish leaders that they would be rejected by YHVH for rejecting Him, the only begotten Son of YHVH.
- Dan_9:27, Dan_11:31, Dan_12:11 : The prophecy of the abomination that causes desolation standing in the holy place.
Yeshua quoted this in Mat_24:15 and Mar_13:14 to describe the future destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Romans in AD 70.
These are just some examples of how Yeshua quoted the Hebrew Scriptures to reveal His identity, authority and purpose as the Messiah, and to teach His followers about YHVH's will and plan for His people.
The first Greek Scriptures (New Testament) book to be written and available for distribution was probably the epistle of James, written by James, the half-brother of Yeshua, around AD 44-49.
This letter was addressed to the Jewish Christians scattered throughout the Roman Empire and dealt with practical issues of Christian living.

At the time, “presumably” this was considered a "new sacred text" from a "new" religion - CHRIS-ti-ans.

(Note)
Evidence suggests any New Testament writings were not considered scripture until much later. The “old” scriptures were still the foundation of the faith.

The first gospel to be written was likely the gospel of Mark, composed around AD 65-70.
Mark was a companion of Peter and wrote down his eyewitness account of Yeshua's life and ministry.
The other gospels followed later, with Matthew and Luke using Mark as a source along with other oral and written traditions.
The gospel of John was the last one to be written, probably around AD 90- 95.
John was one of the original disciples of Yeshua and wrote his gospel to present a theological portrait of Yeshua as the Word (Logos) of YHVH and the only begotten Son of YHVH.
The earliest surviving complete text of the Greek Scriptures is the Codex

Sinaiticus, dating to the 4th century CE.
This manuscript contains the Greek translation of the Hebrew and Greek
Scriptures, along with some other Christian writings.
It was discovered at the Saint Catherine monastery at the base of Mount Sinai in Egypt in the 19th century.
Before the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, the Bible was copied by hand by scribes and monks who worked with parchment and ink.
The copying process was slow and prone to errors, but also produced some beautiful and artistic manuscripts that are now preserved in museums and libraries around the world.

NEXT
Continue SALVATION study:
SECULAR and HISTORICAL CONTEXT (Continued):
Resume SECULAR and HISTORICAL CONTEXT, laying the foundation for the Scriptural study.

Mat_28:19-20
Matthew 28:19-20 NWT-2013
(19) Go, therefore, and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit,
(20) teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you. And look! I am with you all the days until the conclusion of the system of things.”
Matthew 28:19-20 YLT
(19) having gone, then, disciple all the nations, (baptizing them—to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
(20) teaching them to observe all, whatever I did command you,) and lo, I am with you all the days—till the full end of the age.'
Matthew 28:19-20 IGNT+
(19) G4198 [G5679] GOING G3767 THEREFORE G3100 [G5657]
DISCIPLE G3956 ALL G3588 THE G1484 NATIONS, G907 [G5723] BAPTIZING G846 THEM G1519 TO G3588 THE G3686 NAME

G3588 OF THE G3962 FATHER G2532 AND SON G2532 AND G3588 OF THE G40 HOLY (20) G1321 [G5723] TEACHING G846 THEM
G3588 OF THE G5207 G4151 SPIRIT;
G5083 [G5721] TO
OBSERVE G3956 ALL THINGS G3745 WHATSOEVER G1781 [G5662] I COMMANDED G5213 YOU. G2532 AND G2400 [G5628] LO, G1473 I G3326 WITH G5216 YOU G1510 [G5748] AM G3956 ALL G3588 THE G2250 DAYS G2193 UNTIL G3588 THE G4930 COMPLETION G3588 OF THE G165 AGE. G281 AMEN.

There are obvious problems with these verses.
Various Christian groups cite them as a command and the basis for ministry work and evangelism.
A casual reading of almost every translation of the Bible for this verse seems as if this is a command.
Go! Make disciples!
That's pretty clear, is it not?
Unfortunately, English is hardly ever clear.

For example:
The text does not say, "go".
The verb is an aorist, passive, participle, not an imperative, thus, it should say something like "as you have been going."
It is a continuing action from the past to the present, something that is still ongoing.

from the IGNT+:
G4198 [G5679] GOING
G4198
- Original: πορεύομαι
- Transliteration: Poreuomai
- Phonetic: por-yoo'-om-ahee - Definition:
1. to lead over, carry over, transfer

a. to pursue the journey on which one has entered, to continue on one's journey
b. to depart from life
c. to follow one, that is: become his adherent
1. to lead or order one's life
- Origin: middle voice from a derivative of the same as G3984
- TDNT entry: 15:26,9
- Part(s) of speech: Verb
- Strong's: Middle voice from a derivative of the same as G3984; to traverse that is travel (literally or figuratively; especially to remove [figuratively die] live etc.): - depart go (away forth one ́s way up) (make a take a) journey walk.
Here's where it gets a bit complicated for those of us who do not know and understand the Greek language and nuances (SEE FOOTNOTE):
[G5679]
Tense-Aorist Voice-Passive Deponent Mood -Participle
[G5777]
Tense-Aorist
See [G5777]
See [G5789]
See [G5796]
The aorist tense is characterized by its emphasis on punctiliar action; that is, the concept of the verb is considered without regard for past, present, or future time.
There is no direct or clear English equivalent for this tense, though it has been generally rendered as a simple past tense in most translations.
The events described by the aorist tense are classified into a number of categories by grammarians.
The most common of these include a view of the action as:
• having begun from a certain point ("inceptive aorist"), or
• having ended at a certain point ("cumulative aorist"), or
• merely existing at a certain point ("punctiliar aorist").
The categorization of other cases can be found in Greek reference grammars.

It is easier, but less accuate, for English reader not to be oncerned with most of these finer points concerning the aorist tense, since in most cases they cannot be rendered accurately in English translation, being fine points of Greek exegesis only.
It was a common practice of translators to render an aorist by a simple English past tense, which may suffice in some cases, but certainly not all cases.
[G5789]
Voice-Passive Deponent
The passive deponent forms in almost all cases are translated as being in the passive voice.
See "Passive" [G5786] Voice-Passive
The passive voice represents the subject as being the recipient of the action. E.g., in the sentence, "The boy was hit by the ball, " the boy receives the action.
[G5796]
Mood-Participle
The Greek participle corresponds for the most part to the English participle, reflecting "- ing" or "- ed" being suffixed to the basic verb form.
The participle can be used either like a verb or a noun, as in English, and thus is often termed a "verbal noun."

The text also does not say, "make disciples" but it says "disciple." What is the difference?
The Hebrew concept of discipleship involves a lot of time and energy.

Discipleship is a demonstration of God's will in my life to the student. A disciple in Hebrew culture copies the life of the master.
This is not the passing on of information that we experience in our Greek educational system.

You may have heard someone say, "do as I say, not as I do."
Yeshua certainly never imagined that as a possibility.
Living the way the master lived, doing what the master did is a disciple.
The master teaches the disciple to observe a particular way of life.
For Yeshua that life revolved around the word of YHVH, the Torah.
As you live, whether you are a welder, a carpenter, a tax collector, you teach others as you go along.

For example:
Act_18:1-4
Acts 18:1-4 YLT
(1) And after these things, Paul having departed out of Athens, came to Corinth,
(2) and having found a certain Jew, by name Aquilas, of Pontus by birth, lately come from Italy, and Priscilla his wife—because of Claudius having directed all the Jews to depart out of Rome—he came to them,
(3) and because of being of the same craft, he did remain with them, and was working, for they were tent-makers as to craft;
(4) and he was reasoning in the synagogue every sabbath, persuading both Jews and Greeks.

It seems Paul and the other apostles spent much of their time plying their trades, yet, he took every opportunity to reason with Jews and the Greeks.
Yet, their actions, conduct and behavior in whatever communities they were in testified to their beliefs.

The condition under which you are going to perform the command is your basis for discipleship. You live differently than the rest of the world and they see you live differently.
Just like the Jewish leaders were always trying to catch Yeshua doing something that violated YHVH's Word, people today watch carefully to see whether or not a self-claimed disciple negates what s/he preaches.
How do I imitate Yeshua if I do not know who Yeshua was?

The early followers did not have this problem, but as time went on and the faith grew into a Hellenistic religion under Rome, Yeshua became someone else, something else.

The "church" does not represent who Yeshua was. They do not represent Him as an obedient first-century Jew.

These verses are not a great commission to evangelize and build "the church."
We have no control over the process.

God draws people to himself through his son.(Joh_6:44)
John 6:44 YLT
(44) no one is able to come unto me, if the Father who sent me may not draw him, and I will raise him up in the last day;
We plant and water, but God causes the growth.
(1Co_3:6-7)
1 Corinthians 3:6-7 YLT
(6) I planted, Apollos watered, but God was giving growth;
(7) so that neither is he who is planting anything, nor he who is watering, but He who is giving growth—God;

Evangelism is not our job, being a follower of Yeshua is our job, and when we walk the path, we are to be doers of the word as we go.
Deu_30:11-20

Deuteronomy 30:11-20 YLT
(11) 'For this command which I am commanding thee to-day, it is not too wonderful for thee, nor is it far off.
(12) It is not in the heavens, —saying, Who doth go up for us into the heavens, and doth take it for us, and doth cause us to hear it—that we may do it.
(13) And it is not beyond the sea, —saying, Who doth pass over for us beyond the sea, and doth take it for us, and doth cause us to hear it—that we may do it?
(14) For very near unto thee is the word, in thy mouth, and in thy heart—to do it.
(15) 'See, I have set before thee to-day life and good, and death and evil, (16) in that I am commanding thee to-day to love Jehovah thy God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commands, and His statutes, and His judgments; and thou hast lived and multiplied, and Jehovah thy God hath blessed thee in the land whither thou art going in to possess it.
(17) 'And if thy heart doth turn, and thou dost not hearken, and hast been driven away, and hast bowed thyself to other gods, and served them,
(18) I have declared to you this day, that ye do certainly perish, ye do not prolong days on the ground which thou art passing over the Jordan to go in thither to possess it.
(19) 'I have caused to testify against you to-day the heavens and the earth; life and death I have set before thee, the blessing and the reviling; and thou hast fixed on life, so that thou dost live, thou and thy seed,
(20) to love Jehovah thy God, to hearken to His voice, and to cleave to Him (for He is thy life, and the length of thy days), to dwell on the ground which Jehovah hath sworn to thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them.'
Isa_48:17-19
Isaiah 48:17-19 YLT
(17) Thus said Jehovah, thy redeemer, The Holy One of Israel, 'I am Jehovah thy God, teaching thee to profit, Causing thee to tread in the way thou goest.
(18) O that thou hadst attended to My commands, Then as a river is thy peace, And thy righteousness as billows of the sea,
(19) And as sand is thy seed, And the offspring of thy bowels as its gravel, Not cut off nor destroyed his name before Me.

Mat_28:19, probably originally written in Hebrew, is a very trinitarian verse, "to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit". Some scholars claim this part of the verse was added after the fact - not in the original manuscripts.

I have not even gotten to the baptism part of these verses yet. That is another story for another day.This is only the tip of the iceberg when we consider the bigger picture.
There are so many problems with the text and so few problem-solvers.
Personally, I am not a problem solver. I simply enjoy pointing problems out and sharing ideas.
We each have to decide how comfortable we are with the idea of errors, inaccuracies, and purposeful glosses in a text we consider sacred and inspired.

FOOTNOTE:
Unfortunately, a cursory look at what some of the Greek grammarians say about the aorist participle may yield more confusion than enlightenment.
Greek grammarian, Ernest De Will Burton, attempting to explain more clearly what was written by A. T. Robertson, in, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, can be summarized:
• It is not accurate to say the Aorist Participle properly denotes past time.
• The action denoted by the Aorist Participle may be past, present, or
future either with reference to the speaker or relative to the leading verb. [Robertson denies that it is ever future relative to the leading verb, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament, p. 861ff.]

• The Aorist Participle is distinguished from the present or perfect participle in terms of kind of action, not time of action, in that it conceives of action not as in progress (Present), nor as an existing result (Perfect), but as a simple fact.
• The aorist participle will not ordinarily be used when one wishes to
indicate action as coincident with the leading verb, because that idea necessitates ongoing activity and is therefore better described by the present tense.
• Nor will the aorist participle be used when the result of the action is especially in view, because that idea is best expressed by the perfect tense.
Nor will the Aorist be used if the writer desires distinctly to indicate that the doer of the action will perform it in time subsequent to that of the principal verb, the Aorist being incapable in itself of suggesting subsequence or futurity.
• Excluding these instances, the aorist is useful in many instances when the action denoted by the participle is thought of simply as an event.
• Action antecedent to that of the principal verb furnishes the largest number of these instances.
• So it can be said action antecedent to that of the principal verb is the most frequent use of the Aorist Participle.
Got it?

The bottom line, take home message seems to be that the English language is extremely poorly equipped to properly translate the author's intention in many Scriptures.
While the Greek aorist was very often translated as a simple past tense in English, its implications in Greek can be quite different.
The use of the Greek aorist has more to do with the author's view of an event than with the time at which that event happened.
An aorist participle may express any time (past, present, or rarely future) relative to the main verb.

A participle is considered a "verbal adjective".
It is often a word that ends with an "-ing" in English (such as "speaking," "having," or "seeing").
It can be used as an adjective, in that it can modify a noun (or substitute as a noun), or it can be used as an adverb and further explain or define the action of a verb.

For example:
Adjectival use: "The coming One will come and will not delay." Heb 10:37 Adverbial use: "But speaking truth in love, we may grow up into Him in
all things." Eph 4:15
Greek has been called a 'participle loving language'.
"There are few languages which have equaled the Greek in the abundance and variety of its use of the participle, and certainly none has surpassed it.... This wealth of significance which belonged to the Greek participle at the zenith of its development lies undiminished before the student of the New Testament, and becomes a valuable asset in interpretation when adequately comprehended."
(A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, Dana and Mantey, pg 220.)
A participle is called a 'verbal adjective' because it is formed from a verb, yet often modifies other words.

Oftentimes it may be hard to to translate a participle into English and still bring out the same force as it has in the Greek.
First try to understand the meaning of the Greek participle is trying to convey, then worry about an appropriate English translation.
The translation may have to be as an English relative clause when used adjectivally in Greek.

The participle can be used in one of three major categories of use:
1. Adjectivally
A participle can be used as an adjective to modify a noun or assert something about it. This is a common use of the adjective in Greek.
E.g. Colossians 1:12 "to the Father who made us sufficient". The word 'made sufficient' is a participle in Greek, but it needs to be translated into a relative clause in English to make sense.
2. Substantively
(This category is really a subset of the adjectival use.)

A participle can be used as a 'substantive' to take the place of a noun.
3. Adverbially
Participles can also be used in the same way that an adverb is, to modify a verb.
There are different classifications and uses of adverbial participles. (These are also referred to as 'Circumstantial participles'.)
One of the most challenging and enlightening areas of Greek grammar for the student of the Greek Scriptures comes in identifying the correct use of these adverbial participles.

NEXT
6/22/2023
Continuing with:
The great "addition/omission" commission (Mat_28:19-20)
How does this harmonize with Joh_20:21 (CONTEXT: Joh_20:19-23)?

ADDITIONAL NOTES
We have to recognize that ALL the "errors, inaccuracies, and purposeful glosses" are of human origin -
• some unintentional (through ignorance or mistakes),
• many others intentional (usually to force the Scriptures to conform to
some human organizational doctrine),
• others translational (so many Hebrew and Greek words have no English
equivalent), and,
• Greek Scripture scribes and copyists of 1st through early 3rd centuries
were not always accurate. In first century, scribes did not always believe that it was the inspired Word of YHVH (for example, the Apocrypha). These scribes were copying these over and over, and were not always careful. It wasn't until 3rd-4th century that they were trying to keep the written word accurate - but these had already been corrupted by the first three items listed above (1Jn_5:7).
Example:
It has been taught by Trinitarian scholars that:
"Name in Mat_28:19 is singular. One name or essence, yet three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."
Matthew 28:19 IGNT+
G3588 THE G3686 NAME

Yet these same scholars fail to mention that the same Greek word has been translated "names" (plural) in 9 verses:
Mat_10:2; Act_1:15; Act_18:15; Php_4:3; Rev_13:8; Rev_17:3; Rev_17:8; Rev_21:12; Rev_21:14
and, in fact, as "the names" in Mat_10:2.
How do we harmonize Mat_28:19-20 with Joh_20:21 (CONTEXT: Joh_20:19-23)?
John 20:19-23 YLT
(19) It being, therefore, evening, on that day, the first of the sabbaths, and the doors having been shut where the G3588 disciples were assembled, through fear of the G3588 Jews, Jesus G2424 came and stood in the midst, and saith to them, 'Peace G1515 to you;'
(20) and this having said, he shewed them his hands and side; the G3588 disciples, therefore, rejoiced G5463 , having seen the G3588 Lord.
(21) Jesus, therefore, said to them again, 'Peace G1515 to you; according as the G3588 Father hath sent G649 [ G5758 ] me, I also send G3992 [ G5719 ] you;'
(22) and this having said, he breathed on G1720 them , and saith to them, 'Receive G2983 the Holy G40 Spirit G4151 ;
(23) if of any ye may loose G863 the sins, they are loosed G863 to them; if of any ye may retain G2902 , they have been retained G2902 .'
DISCUSSION:
When we are learning from Yeshua, we know the source, the Father.
The source is VERY IMPORTANT.
If our source is human, it is liable to human tradition, bias and error, even if that human claims to be from the Father.
Joh_20:19 It was now the Sunday evening of the same day that YHVH resurrected Yeshua (Joh_20:1-18).
The disciples were assembled together, perhaps in the same room where they had met four nights ago.
The doors were shut .... through fear G5401 of the G3588 Jews G2453 . Suddenly, they saw Jesus standing in the midst, and they heard His voice saying, “Peace G1515 to you.”

Wouldn't Yeshua have said, "Shalom H7965 to you"? In Septuagint, the related words to "peace" are:
H983 betach H1980 halakh H3948 leqach H6703 tsach H7962 shalvah H7965 shalom H8252 shaqat
It seems clear that Yeshua entered the room without opening the doors. This, clearly, was a miracle.
It should be remembered that His resurrection body was a real body of flesh and bones.
Yet He had the power to pass through barriers and otherwise act independently of natural laws.
The words “Peace G1515 to you” now have new meaning because Christ has made peace - ended the enmity between mankind and YHVH - by the blood of His cross.
Those who are justified by faith have peace with YHVH.
Cross References:
that day. Mar_16:14, Luk_24:33; Luk_24:36-49, 1Co_15:5.
the first. Joh_20:1, Mar_16:9, Act_20:7 1Co_16:2, Rev_1:10 when the doors were shut. Joh_20:26, Gen_45:1, Neh_6:10-11, Act_5:19; Act_5:23; Act_12:6-10, 1Co_15:44, Rev_1:9.
where. Mar_14:15, Luk_22:12, Act_1:13.
were assembled. Luk_24:33, Heb_10:25.
for fear. Gr. phobos (S# G5401, Mat_14:26). Joh_7:13; Joh_9:22;
Joh_19:38, Act_12:12-17.
the Jews. Joh_5:10.
came Jesus. Joh_14:19-23; Joh_16:16; Joh_16:22, Act_1:3; Act_12:10; Act_13:31.
in the midst. Joh_20:26, Mat_18:20.
Peace. Isa_57:19, Joh_20:21; Joh_20:26, Joh_14:27; Joh_16:33, Gen_43:23, Jdg_6:23, Psa_85:8-10, Pro_16:24, Isa_42:3; Isa_57:18-19, Mat_10:13; Mat_28:9, Mar_6:50, Luk_24:36, Rom_15:33, Eph_2:14; Eph_6:23, Php_1:2, 2Th_3:16, Heb_7:2, 1Pe_5:14, Rev_1:4.

NOTE:
An interesting debate about "rooms" has existed for centuries:
The question of whether the disciples were in THE upper room at Pentecost has been debated by biblical scholars and tradition.
The upper room G508 was the place where Yeshua celebrated the Last Supper with His disciples (Luk_22:12 (CONTEXT: Luk_22:7-13) and, perhaps, the same upper room G5253 where they gathered after His ascension (Act_1:13 (CONTEXT: Act_1:6-14)), although the Greek definitions indicate the former was a second floor room and the latter was a thrid floor room.
However, the book of Acts does not explicitly state that they were still in the upper room when the Holy Spirit came upon them on the day of Pentecost.
Some claim that the disciples were in one of the courts of the Temple, as they were required to present themselves before YHVH on that feast day .
They also point out that the Temple was a more likely place for a large crowd of Jews from different nations to hear Peter's preaching and witness the miraculous signs of tongues and fire .
Moreover, the Temple had pools for mass immersion, which could explain how three thousand people were baptized that day.
Others maintain that the disciples were in the upper room, based on local tradition and the continuity of Luke's narrative.
They suggest that the phrase "it filled all the house where they were sitting" (Act_2:2) refers to the upper room, which is also called "the house" (oikos G3624 ) in Act_2:2.
They also propose that the crowd gathered outside the house after hearing the sound of the wind and seeing the fire, and that Peter addressed them from a balcony or a window.
Therefore, there is no definitive answer to this question, as both views have some merits and difficulties.

The most important thing is to recognize that the disciples received the Holy Spirit as Yeshua promised, and that they became His witnesses to the ends of the earth.
Another interesting debate surrounds the relationship between Moses receiving the Ten Commandments and the disciples receiving Holy Spirit.
According to some sources, Moses received the Ten Commandments on the same day as Pentecost, which is a Jewish feast that commemorates this event.
Pentecost, also known as Shavuot H7620 in Hebrew, means "the fiftieth day" and it occurs fifty days after the Passover.
However, other sources argue that there is no clear biblical evidence that the giving of the Law at Sinai happened on Pentecost, and that this is a later tradition that is not supported by the original text.
They point out that the exact date of the Exodus and the arrival at Sinai are not specified, and that there are discrepancies between the chronology of Exodus and Leviticus regarding the timing of the events.
Therefore, it is not certain that Moses received the Ten Commandments on the same day as Pentecost, and some scholars suggest that it may have been a different day or even a different month.
Moses received the Ten Commandments during the time when YHVH revealed to him the entire Torah, with all its laws and interpretations.
He went up the mountain and stayed there for forty days and forty nights (Exo_24:18).
He came down with two tablets of stone, written by the finger of YHVH, containing the Ten Commandments that summarized the moral and spiritual obligations of the people of Israel.
The Ten Commandments (Exo_20:1-17) are considered to be the foundation of the Jewish faith and ethics, as well as a source of inspiration for many other religions and cultures.

Joh_20:20 After announcing peace to them, He shewed them the marks of His sacrifice, by which peace had been obtained.
They saw the print of the nails and the wound cause by the spear.
Joy G5463 filled their hearts to realize it was truly the Lord.
He had done what He said He would. He was raised from the dead.
Cross References:
had so said. Luk_24:40.
he shewed. Joh_20:25; Joh_20:27, Joh_21:1; Joh_21:14, Luk_24:39-40, Col_1:20, 1Jn_1:1.
hands and his side. Luke (Luk_24:39-40) says hands and feet. All three were pierced. Joh_19:34; Joh_19:37, Mat_27:35.
Then. Joh_16:22, Isa_25:8-9, Mat_28:8, Luk_24:41, Rom_5:1; Rom_5:2. rejoiced. [glad - KJV]. Joh_16:22, Psa_69:32; Psa_118:24, 1Pe_1:3; 1Pe_1:8.
having seen [when they saw - KJV]. Joh_20:25, Joh_21:7, Mar_6:50; Mar_16:14, 1Co_15:14; 1Co_15:19-20; 1Co_15:56-58.
the Lord. Joh_20:18; Joh_20:25; Joh_20:28, Joh_21:7; Joh_21:12; Joh_21:15.
Joh_20:21

Does this verse teach that believers are not meant to enjoy His peace selfishly, but are commanded to share it with others?
Was He sending them into the world, as the Father had sent Him?:
Christ came into the world as a poor Person.
He came as a Servant.
He emptied Himself.
He delighted to do the Father's will, instead of his own. He identified Himself with man.
He went about doing good.
He did everything by the power of the Holy Spirit. His ultimate goal was the cross.
Now He said to the disciples, “I also send you.”
The question becomes, EXACTLY WHAT is Yeshua sending His disciples to do?
Become leaders in their churches on Sundays and live their regular, worldly lives the other days?
OR
Knock on doors, take a break at Dunkin', at the end of the day return to their regular, worldly lives?
OR
Live as Yeshua lived, and as the original disciples lived?

Mat_10:7-14
Matthew 10:7-14 YLT
(7) 'And, going on, proclaim saying that, the reign of the heavens hath come nigh;
(8) infirm ones be healing, lepers be cleansing, dead be raising, demons be casting out—freely ye did receive, freely give.
(9) 'Provide not gold, nor silver, nor brass in your girdles,
(10) nor scrip for the way, nor two coats, nor sandals, nor staff—for the workman is worthy of his nourishment.
(11) 'And into whatever city or village ye may enter, inquire ye who in it is worthy, and there abide, till ye may go forth.
(12) And coming to the house salute it,
(13) and if indeed the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it; and if it be not worthy, let your peace turn back to you.
(14) 'And whoever may not receive you nor hear your words, coming forth from that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet,
Compare with Mat_28:19-20
Matthew 28:19-20 YLT
(19) having gone, then, disciple all the nations, (baptizing them...... (20) teaching them to observe all, whatever I did command you,) ......'
AND
Luk_24:44-49
Luke 24:44-49 YLT
(44) and he said to them, 'These are the words that I spake unto you, being yet with you, that it behoveth to be fulfilled all the things that are written in the Law of Moses, and the Prophets, and the Psalms, about me.'
(45) Then opened he up their understanding to understand the Writings, (46) and he said to them—'Thus it hath been written, and thus it was behoving the Christ to suffer, and to rise out of the dead the third day,
(47) and reformation and remission of sins to be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem:

(48) and ye—ye are witnesses of these things.
(49) 'And, lo, I do send the promise of my Father upon you, but ye—abide ye in the city of Jerusalem till ye be clothed with power from on high.'
AND
Mar_16:15-16
Mark 16:15-16 YLT
(15) and he said to them, 'Having gone to all the world, proclaim the good news to all the creation;
(16) he who hath believed, and hath been baptized, shall be saved; and he who hath not believed, shall be condemned.

Cross References:
Peace. Isa_57:19, Joh_20:19, Joh_14:27, Gen_43:23, Num_6:26. as the Father. Joh_14:28, Isa_22:24; Isa_48:16.
hath sent. Joh_3:17; Joh_3:34; Joh_6:38; Joh_17:18, Luk_4:43, Heb_3:1.
so send. Note the distinction. The Father sent the Son alone, but the Son sends His disciples with an "escort" or guard, i.e. the Holy Spirit.
This is to emphasize the fact that Yeshua Messiah remains (by the Spirit) with those whom He sends. Joh_13:20; Joh_15:16; Joh_17:18-19; Joh_17:22; Joh_21:15-17, Isa_61:1-3, Jer_23:21, Eze_2:3; Eze_3:4, Mal_2:7, Mat_9:38; Mat_10:5; Mat_10:16; Mat_10:40; Mat_13:37; Mat_23:34; Mat_28:18-20, Mar_16:15-18, Luk_24:47-49, Act_1:2; Act_1:8, Rom_10:15, 1Co_1:1, 2Co_5:20, Gal_1:1, 2Ti_2:2, Heb_3:1, 2Pe_1:1, 1Jn_4:6.
Joh_20:22 This is one of the most difficult verses in the entire Gospel.

We read that Yeshua breathed on G1720 the disciples and said, “Receive G2983 the Holy G40 Spirit G4151 .”
breathed on G1720
- Original: ἐμφυσάω
- Transliteration: Emphusao - Phonetic: em-foo-sah'-o
- Definition:

1. to blow or breathe upon. This word used only once by the LXX translators in Gen_2:7 where God breathed on Adam and he became a living soul. Just as the original creation was completed by an act of God, so to the new creation was completed by an act from the head of the new creation. (AWP Joh_20:22)
- Origin: from G1722 and phusao (to puff) [cf G5453] - TDNT entry: 10:56,2
- Part(s) of speech: Verb
- Strong's: From G1722 and φυσάω phusaō(to puff; compare G5453); to blow at or on: - breathe on.
Total KJV Occurrences: 1 • on, 1
Joh_20:22
The difficulty is that the Holy Spirit was not given until later, on the day of Pentecost.
Yet how could Yeshua speak these words without the event taking place immediately?
Several explanations have been offered:
(1) Some suggest that Yeshua was simply making a promise of what they would receive on the day of Pentecost. This is hardly an adequate explanation.
(2) Some point out that what our Redeemer actually said was, “Receive Holy Spirit,” rather than, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (the Definite Article, G3588, is not present in the Greek) They conclude from this that the disciples did not receive the Holy Spirit in all its fullness at this time, but only some ministry of the Spirit, such as a greater knowledge of the truth, or power and guidance for their mission. They say that the disciples received a guarantee or a foretaste of the Holy Spirit. Hmmmm.
(3) Others state that there was a full outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples at this time. This seems unlikely in view of such statements as Luk_24:49 and Act_1:4-5, Act_1:8, where the coming of the Holy Spirit was still spoken of as future. It is clear from Joh_7:39 that the Spirit could not come in its fullness until Yeshua was glorified, that is, until He had gone back to heaven.
In the past, Moses was given Holy Spirit. Moses apportioned out Holy Spirit to the builders of the Tabernacle.

Cross References:
he breathed. Gen_2:7, Job_33:4, Psa_33:6, Eze_37:9, 1Co_15:45.
on them. The Firstfruits of the resurrection here bestows the firstfruits of the Spirit, not only on the apostles, but on "them that were with them" (Luk_24:33, Act_1:14; Act_2:1) [Eze_37:5, Act_1:4, Rev_3:1.
Receive. Joh_7:39; Joh_14:16; Joh_15:26; Joh_16:7, Act_2:4; Act_2:38; Act_4:8; Act_8:15; Act_10:47; Act_19:2, Gal_3:2, 1Th_4:8.
Spirit Gr. pneuma, +Mat_1:18 .
The suggestion that this and the following texts teach that the Holy Spirit is merely is an "active force," is questionable, for it confounds what is said of His gifts with what is asserted of His person. (Joh_16:13 , Joh_16:14 Mat_12:32 ).
Joh_14:26, Isa_48:16, Mal_2:15, Mat_3:16, Luk_24:49 Act_1:8; Act_2:2- 4; Act_2:16-17; Act_2:33, 1Co_12:4-13, Eph_5:18.
Joh_20:23 This is another difficult verse, about which there has been a great deal of controversy.
(1) One view is that Yeshua actually gave His apostles (and their supposed successors) the power to forgive sins or to retain sins, since all authroty had been given to Yeshua by YHVH (Mat_28:18). This is in direct contradiction of the Hebrew teaching that only God can forgive sins (Luk_5:21).
(2) Another view is that the power promised and authority given is in connection with the preaching of the Gospel, announcing on what terms sins would be forgiven, and if these terms are not accepted, sins would be retained.
(3) A third view (which is similar to the second) is that the disciples were given the right to declare sins forgiven.
To illustrate this third view:
• The disciples go out preaching the gospel.
• Some people repent of their sins and receive Yeshua Messiah. The disciples are authorized to tell them that their sins have been forgiven.
• Others refuse to repent and will not believe on Christ. The disciples tell them that they are still in their sins, and that if they die, they will perish eternally.
In addition to this explanation, the disciples were given special authority by Yeshua in dealing with certain sins.

For examples:
• In Act_5:1-11, Peter used this power, and it resulted in the death of
Ananias and Sapphira.
• Paul is seen retaining the sin of an evil-doer in 1Co_5:3-5, 1Co_5:12-13,
and remitting sin in 2Co_2:4-8.
In the latter example, it is forgiveness from the punishment of these sins in this life.

Cross References:
Whose soever. Mat_4:9, literally, "If the sins of any ye forgive."
A condition of the third class. Only YHVH has the power to forgive sins (Mar_2:8).
Yeshua asserted his authority and power to forgive sins (Mar_2:10), thus indirectly asserting his deity.
There is no evidence that Yeshua by this statement intended to convey this power to Peter alone, the other apostles exclusively, or their alleged successors, for not just the twelve disciples but other men and women were gathered, perhaps in the same room as Yeshua's Last Supper (Joh_20:19, Luk_24:48-49, Act_1:15).
Rather, every Christian who shares the message of YHVH’s terms of forgiveness recorded in the Bible does the work of authoritatively announcing the goodness of YHVH (Rom_11:22) by declaring the grounds of the forgiveness of sins (Act_10:43), so securing their remission (Jas_5:19; Jas_5:20); and by declaring the severity of YHVH (Rom_11:22), sharing YHVH’s terms of judgment (Joh_3:18; Joh_3:36, Act_4:12; Act_17:31, 1Co_5:4-5; 1Co_6:9-10, 2Co_5:11; 2Co_5:20), so authoritatively pronouncing the grounds of their retention (Mat_12:31; Mat_12:32, 1Jn_5:16).
sins ye. Gen_3:7.
remit. Gen_2:17, Lev_13:2; Lev_13:3, Mat_16:19 Mat_18:18, Mar_2:5-10, Act_2:38; Act_5:31; Act_10:43; Act_13:38-39; Act_22:16, 1Co_4:18-21; 1Co_5:3-5; 1Co_6:11, 2Co_2:6-10, Eph_2:20, 1Ti_1:20, Jas_5:20.
are remitted. Mat_9:6, Luk_5:24; Luk_7:48, 2Co_2:10, Eph_1:7. retain. Lev_13:3, Deu_17:12, Jer_18:23, Mat_18:18 Act_5:3-10, 1Co_5:11-13, 2Co_12:21, 1Ti_1:20, 1Jn_5:16.

Now what about "(baptizing them—to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," (Mat_28:19 YLT)?
Returning to Br. Lee Anthony's Study:
(for more, please visit Bible Talk with Lee Anthony, at: https://studytheway.org/ )

Was Matthew written in Hebrew?
Did it include the Trinitarian baptismal formula?

No manuscripts including Matthew chapter 28 exist prior to Constantine.
As a result, we cannot say, as some contend, that the text was tampered with after the fact because we have no surviving manuscripts prior to the 4th century.
However, once we research the subject and consider the cultural and religious views of the first-century Jews, we find that something is not quite right.
An early writer named Papias in the late 1st-early second century wrote that "Matthew composed his history in the Hebrew language, and everyone translated it as he was able."
He is not the only person to make this claim, many of the early church fathers say as much.
The Shem Tov Hebrew gospel of Matthew is a later work, so does not provide much evidence.
However, it is believed by many to have been translated from earlier editions of a Hebrew text.
Esebius, who was part of the council of Nicea in 325, lived at the great Christian library Caesarea and had access to manuscripts far older than what is available today.

His earlier writings quote Mat_28:19 numerous times and none include the Trinitarian formula of baptism until after the council of Nicea.

One example is found in "Demonstratio Evangelica, by Eusebius, A.D. 300-336, col. 240, p. 136," where it reads, "Go ye and make disciples of all the nations in my name, teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I commanded you."
Perhaps the most important evidence available is the rest of the New Testament scriptures regarding baptism and, of course, the words of Yeshua that are verifiable through older manuscript evidence.

I will begin with the other gospel accounts.
(Mar_16:15-16)
"And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. The one who has believed and has been baptized will be saved; but the one who has not believed will be condemned."
(Luk_24:44-49)
"Now He said to them, "These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all the things that are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled."
Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them,
"So it is written, that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed IN HIS NAME to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. "You are witnesses of these things.
"And behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."
(Joh_20:21-23)
"So Yeshua said to them again, "Peace be to you; just as the Father has sent Me, I also send you."
And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
"If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained."

Nothing is mentioned about being baptized according to the Trinitarian formula.
The concept of being baptized in the name of three separate beings was foreign to second-temple Jews.
God is one and his name one.
The Messiah was sent forth by the Father to do the will of the Father under the authority of the Father.
Let us look at what some of the other writers had to say about "the name" of Yeshua and about baptism.
(Php_2:9-11)
"For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Yeshua every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Messiah Yeshua is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
(Act_2:38)
"Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Messiah Yeshua for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
(Act_22:15-16)
'For you will be a witness for Him to all people of what you have seen and heard.
"Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins by calling on His name."
(Act_10:47-48)
"Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?
"And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Messiah
Yeshua. Then they asked him to stay on for a few days."

A few other examples can be found in

Gal_3:27
Galatians 3:27 YLT
(27) for as many as to Christ were baptized did put on Christ;
Rom_6:3-4
Romans 6:3-4 YLT
(3) are ye ignorant that we, as many as were baptized to Christ Jesus, to his death were baptized?
(4) we were buried together, then, with him through the baptism to the death, that even as Christ was raised up out of the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we in newness of life might walk.
Act_19:4-5
Acts 19:4-5 YLT
(4) And Paul said, 'John, indeed, did baptize with a baptism of reformation, saying to the people that in him who is coming after him they should believe—that is, in the Christ—Jesus;'
(5) and they, having heard, were baptized—to the name of the Lord Jesus,
Col_2:11-12
Colossians 2:11-12 YLT
(11) in whom also ye were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh in the circumcision of the Christ,
(12) being buried with him in the baptism, in which also ye rose with him through the faith of the working of God, who did raise him out of the dead.

"Belief in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost was defined by early general councils of the Christian church: The council of Nicea in 325 and the council of Constantinople in 381...(World Book Encyclopedia, 2004 Edition, vol. t, p. 363.)

The New International Encyclopedia, 1916 Edition, Vol. 22, p. 47, 477, records:
"The Trinity doctrine; the Catholic faith is this: We worship one in trinity, but there is one person of the Father, another of the Son and another of the Holy ghost - The glory equal; the majesty coeternal." The doctrine is not found in its fully developed form in the scriptures. Modern theology does not seek to find it in the Old Testament. At the time of the Reformation, the

Protestant church took over the doctrine of the Trinity without serious examination."
The history of an idea must be researched in order to determine if the idea is a valid scriptural teaching.
There are so many doctrines in the faith of Christianity that were developed hundreds of years after Yeshua and have been read back into the text.

Knowing nothing of the culture and religion of the first-century Jew named Yeshua means we only know what the church tells us, and that is not an accurate representation of the Messiah or the faith of the Messiah.

NEXT
6/29/2023
Return to our in-depth study of SALVATION.

The idea of salvation is a characteristic religious notion related to an issue of profound human concern.
It is reasonable the argue that the primary purpose of all religions is to provide salvation for their followers, and the existence of many different religions indicates that there is a great variety of opinion about what

constitutes salvation and the means of achieving it. According to WEBSTER:
SALVA'TION,n.[HebrewH3444 Yeshua-save,deliverance,victory;
H3444
ישׁוּעה :Original -
- Transliteration: Y@shuw`ah - Phonetic: yesh-oo'-aw
- Definition:
1. salvation, deliverance a. welfare, prosperity b. deliverance
c. salvation (by God) d. victory
- Origin: passive participle of H3467 - TWOT entry: 929b
- Part(s) of speech: Noun Feminine
- Strong's: Feminine passive participle of H3467; something saved that is (abstractly) deliverance; hence aid victory prosperity: - deliverance health help (-ing) salvation save saving (health) welfare.
Total KJV Occurrences: 78
• deliverance, 2 Psa_18:50; Isa_26:18
• deliverances, 1 Psa_44:4
• health, 3
Psa_42:11; Psa_43:5; Psa_67:2
• help, 3
2Sa_10:11; Psa_3:2; Psa_42:5
• helping, 1 Psa_22:1
• salvation, 65
• save, 1 Psa_80:2
• saving, 1 Psa_28:8
• welfare, 1 Job_30:15
Greek G4991 soteria - save, rescue, deliver; Latin. salvo, to save.]
G4991
- Original: σωτηρία
- Transliteration: Soteria - Phonetic: so-tay-ree'-ah - Definition:
1. deliverance, preservation, safety, salvation
a. deliverance from the molestation of enemies
b. in an ethical sense, that which concludes to the souls safety or salvation
1. of messianic salvation
2. salvation as the present possession of all true Christians
3. future salvation, the sum of benefits and blessings which the Christians, redeemed from all earthly ills, will enjoy after the visible return of christ from heaven in the consummated and eternal kingdom of God. Fourfold salvation: saved from the penalty, power, presence and most importantly the pleasure of sin. A.W. Pink
- Origin: feminine of a derivative of G4990 as (properly, abstract) noun

- TDNT entry: 23:05,1
- Part(s) of speech: Noun Feminine
- Strong's: Feminine of a derivative of G4990 as (properly abstract) noun; rescue or safety (physically or morally): - deliver health salvation save saving.
Total KJV Occurrences: 43
• deliver, 1 Act_7:25
• health, 1 Act_27:34
• perfect, 1 Heb_2:10
• salvation, 37
Luk_1:69; Luk_1:77; Act_4:12; Act_13:26; Act_13:47; Act_16:17;
Rom_1:16; Rom_10:10; Rom_11:11; Rom_13:11; 2Co_1:6(2); 2Co_6:2(2); 2Co_7:10; Eph_1:13; Php_1:19; Php_1:28; Php_2:12; 1Th_5:8; 1Th_5:9; 2Th_2:13; 2Ti_2:10; 2Ti_3:15; Heb_1:14; Heb_2:3; Heb_5:9; Heb_6:9; Heb_9:28; 1Pe_1:5; 1Pe_1:9; 1Pe_1:10; 2Pe_3:15; Jud_1:3; Rev_7:10; Rev_12:10; Rev_19:1
• saved, 2
Luk_1:71; Rom_10:1
• saving, 1 Heb_11:7
Per Webster's:
1. The act of saving; preservation from destruction, danger or great
calamity.
2. Appropriately in theology, the redemption of man from the bondage of sin and liability to eternal death, and the conferring on him everlasting happiness. This is the great salvation.

[NOTE: Greek Scriptures perspective - reflecting what most of humanity is wanting.
From the Hebrew Scriptures perspective, the afterlife was not a big part of Jewish thinking until after Babylon. Up until then, "salvation" was about the "here and now".
Other religious cultures had their own understanding of "salvation".]
Most religious organizations and institutions claim that following their teachings is the only way to achieve salvation.
For example:
Christians:
Joh_14:6
John 14:6 YLT
(6) Jesus saith to him, 'I am the G3588 way G3598 , and the G3588 truth G225 , and the G3588 life G2222 , no one G3762 doth come unto the G3588 Father, if not G1508 through G1223 me;
Yet, even amongst just the Christian religious organizations, there are many of them that claim theirs is the ONLY road to salvation.
Almost every religion has its own "sacred writings" that are considered to be THE G3588 authoritative sources of doctrine, practice and history.

There's a difference between sacred and inspired.
A sacred writing may be texts earlier followers believed in.
Ex: Judaism has many extra-Bible text they consider sacred;
Some texts are believed to be divinely revealed, while others are composed by human authors inspired ( G2315 - "God-breathed") by the divine.
The difference is whether people consider the texts authoritative, e.g., Maccabees - authoritative in an historical and traditional sense, but not inspired by YHVH.
However, something that a particular community claims is authoritative may or may not actually BE authoritative.

QUESTION:
How to convince any particular community that what they believe is untrue?
DISCUSSION:

First, that particular community would need to WANT to hear something different from what they currently believe.
That seems to require YHVH's leading.
The 2nd Temple Jews used the Torah as the arbiter of what is and what is not true.
For example, Paul cites the Torah to prove Yeshua's words, life and works were in line with the Torah's definition for the Messiah.
Thousands of Jews, especially after Pentecost, accepted Yeshua as Messiah. Modern Jews include the Talmud as part of the proving process.

These "sacred" texts may have different origins, forms and functions, depending on the religion and its context.
Some religions have one main text, while others have multiple texts that complement each other.
Some texts are written down, while others are transmitted orally or through other media. Many written texts began orally and were written down years, even centuries, from their beginning.
Some texts are fixed and unchangeable, while others are open to interpretation and adaptation.
Some organizations "update", that is, change the wording or interpretation, of their texts based on a myriad of factors, e.g., the current popular beliefs, a change in organizational leadership, etc.
One possible reason why every religion writes its own so-called "sacred" texts is to provide meaning and purpose for its followers.
In conclusion, every religion writes its own "sacred" texts for various reasons that relate to the organization's identity, beliefs, values and goals.
Sacred texts are not only sources of information but also expressions of faith and inspiration.
From the Judeo-Christian experience, the Torah began orally (with the exception of the Ten Commandments) and much later was written down as

the Hebrew Scriptures (what Christians refer to as the Old Testament).
When Yeshua was teaching on earth, the only written Word of YHVH was the Hebrew Scriptures of the Jews.
Yeshua was well-versed in the Hebrew Scriptures and often quoted or referred to them in His teachings and conversations.
In all His teachings He referred to the divine authority of the Hebrew Scriptures (Mat_5:17-18; Mat_8:17; Mat_12:40-42; Luk_4:18-21; Luk_10:25-28; Luk_15:29-31; Luk_17:32; Luk_24:25-45; Joh_5:39-47).

He quoted the Hebrew Scriptures 78 times, the Pentateuch alone 26 times.
He quoted from Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Amos, Jonah, Micah, and Malachi.
He referred to the Hebrew Scriptures as “the Writings [Scriptures - KJV] G1124 ,” “the word G3056 of God G2316 ,” (Mat_4:4; Mar_7:13; Luk_8:11;
Luk_8:21; Luk_11:28 ) and “the wisdom G4678 of God G2316 .” (Luk_11:49 )
“the Writings [Scriptures - KJV] G1124 - Original: γραφή
- Transliteration: Graphe
- Phonetic: graf-ay'
- Definition:
1. a writing, thing written
2. the Scripture, used to denote either the book itself, or its contents 3. a certain portion or section of the holy Scripture
- Origin: of uncertain affinity
- TDNT entry: 13:29,1
- Part(s) of speech: Noun Feminine
- Strong's: From G1125; a document that is holy Writ (or its contents or a statement in it): - scripture.
Total KJV Occurrences: 37
• scripture, 24
Mar_15:28; Joh_2:22; Joh_7:42; Joh_19:24; Joh_19:28; Joh_19:36;

Joh_19:37; Joh_20:9; Act_1:16; Act_8:32; Act_8:35; Rom_9:17; Rom_10:11; Rom_11:2; Gal_3:8; Gal_3:22; Gal_4:30; 1Ti_5:18; 2Ti_3:16; Jam_2:8; Jam_2:23; Jam_4:5; 1Pe_2:6; 2Pe_1:20
• Scriptures, 13
Luk_24:27; Luk_24:32; Luk_24:45; Act_17:2; Act_17:11; Act_18:24; Act_18:28; Rom_1:2; Rom_15:4; Rom_16:26; 1Co_15:3; 1Co_15:4; 2Pe_3:16
LXX related word(s) H3789 katav H3791 ketav H4097 midrash
The apostles quoted 209 times from the Hebrew Scriptures and considered it “the oracles G3051 of God G2316 .” (Rom_3:2; Heb_5:12; 1Pe_4:11)

NEXT 7/6/2023
Continue SALVATION study.

In this dualistic view of human nature, salvation has meant essentially the emancipation of the soul from its physical prison or tomb and its return to its celestial home.
Such religions generally explain the incarceration of the soul in the body in terms that imply the intrinsic evil of physical matter.
Where such views of human nature were held, salvation therefore meant the eternal beatitude (consummate bliss) of the disembodied soul.

Christian soteriology (the systematic theology dealing with salvation especially as effected by Yeshua Messiah) contains a very complex eschatological (relating to the end of the world or the events associated with it) program, which includes the fate of both individual persons and the existing cosmic order.
According to Christian soteriology:
The return of Christ will be heralded by the destruction of heaven and earth and the resurrection of the dead.

Rev_20:11-15 THROUGH Rev_21:1-27
The Last Judgment, which will then take place, will result in the eternal beatitude of the just (Roman Catholics add the requirement of these souls have been purified in purgatory - (Latin: purgatorium, from purgo, I cleanse), although not found in the Bible, is the name given in by the Roman Catholic Church to the place of imprisonment which the Church of Rome and the Eastern Church teach that holds the departed souls until they are fit for the divine presence) and, in many organizations' hermeneutics (a method or principle of interpretation), the everlasting damnation of the wicked.
The saved, reconstituted by the reunion of soul and body, will forever enjoy the beatific vision; the damned, similarly reconstituted, will suffer forever in everlasting fires in hell, together with the Devil and the fallen angels.
Some schemes of eschatological imagery used by both Christians and Jews envisage the creation of a new heaven and earth, with a New Jerusalem at its center.

Rev_21:1-3
Rev 21:1-3 YLT
(1) And I saw a new G2537 heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth did pass away, and the sea is not any more;
(2) and I, John, saw the holy city--new Jerusalem--coming down G2597 from God out of G1537 the heaven, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband;
(3) and I heard a great voice out of the heaven, saying, `Lo, the tabernacle G4633 of God is with G3326 men, and He will tabernacle G4637 with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with G3326 them-- their God,

new G2537
- Original: καινός
- Transliteration: Kainos - Phonetic: kahee-nos'
- Definition:
1. new
a. as respects form
1. recently made, fresh, recent, unused, unworn b. as respects substance
1. of a new kind, unprecedented, novel, uncommon, unheard of - Origin: of uncertain affinity
- TDNT entry: 10:27,4
- Part(s) of speech: Adjective
- Strong's: Of uncertain affinity;
new (especially in freshness; while G3501 is properly so with respect to age): - new.
Total KJV Occurrences: 24
• new, 23
Mat_27:60; Mar_1:27; Joh_19:41; Act_17:19; 2Co_3:6; 2Co_5:17(2);
Gal_6:15; Eph_2:15; Eph_4:24; Heb_8:8; Heb_8:13; Heb_9:15; 2Pe_3:13(2); 1Jn_2:7; 1Jn_2:8; 2Jn_1:5; Rev_5:9; Rev_14:3; Rev_21:1(2); Rev_21:2
• thing, 1 Act_17:21

LXX related word(s) H312 acher
H2319 chadash
From the Jewish perspective, "new" like the Flood. i.e. freshened, renewal) Isa_65:17-19,
Isaiah 65:17-19 YLT
(17) For, lo, I am creating new heavens, and a new earth, And the former things are not remembered, Nor do they ascend on the heart.
(18) But joy ye, and rejoice for ever, that I am Creator, For, lo, I am creating Jerusalem a rejoicing, And her people a joy.
(19) And I have rejoiced in Jerusalem, And have joyed in My people, And not heard in her any more Is the voice of weeping, and the voice of crying.

Isa_66:22-23
Isaiah 66:22-23 YLT
(22) For, as the new heavens and the new earth that I am making, Are standing before Me, An affirmation of Jehovah! So remain doth your seed and your name.
(23) And it hath been from month to month, And from sabbath to sabbath, Come do all flesh to bow themselves before Me, Said Jehovah.
2Pe_3:10-13
2 Peter 3:10-13 YLT
(10) and it will come—the day of the Lord—as a thief in the night, in which the heavens with a rushing noise will pass away, and the elements with burning heat be dissolved, and earth and the works in it shall be burnt up. (11) All these, then, being dissolved, what kind of persons doth it behove you to be in holy behaviours and pious acts?
(12) waiting for and hasting to the presence of the day of God, by which the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements with burning heat shall melt;
(13) and for new heavens and a new earth according to His promise we do wait, in which righteousness doth dwell;
The hope of salvation has naturally created human ideas about how it might be achieved.
These ideas have varied according to the form of salvation understood and/or taught by individuals and/or organizations (claiming to be religious), but the means employed can be divided into three significant categories:
(1) the most primitive is based on belief in the efficacy of ritual magic; initiation ceremonies, such as those of the ancient mystery religions;
(2) salvation by self-effort, usually through the acquisition of esoteric (private) knowledge, ascetic (spiritual, not of the physical world) discipline, purchasing admittance into heaven (indulgences, or, the toll for crossing some mystical barrier), or heroic death, has been variously promised in certain religions, such as Orphism, Hinduism, and Islam; or, (3) salvation by divine aid, which usually entails the concept of a divine saviour who achieves what humans cannot do for themselves, as in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

NOTE: Please read the Notes from 6/29/2023 for definitions of the Hebrew and Christian concepts of "salvation".

In Islam, in general (ignoring the different branches, sects and extremists), salvation is a concept that refers to the attainment of Allah's mercy, forgiveness, and guidance in this life and the hereafter.
Muslims believe that salvation is a gift from Allah that is granted to those who sincerely repent from their sins, believe in His oneness, and follow His commands.
Salvation is not dependent on rituals, deeds, or intermediaries, but on the sincerity and purity of one's heart. Muslims also believe that salvation is not exclusive to Islam, but that Allah will judge all people according to their beliefs and actions, and that He is the most merciful and compassionate.
Study of the relevant evidence proves that the menace of death and eternal suffering are the basic causes of soteriological concern and action.
Salvation from disease or misfortune, which also figures in religion, is of comparatively lesser significance, though it is often expressive of more immediate concerns.
But the menace of death is of another order to humans because of our profound personal awareness of the temporal categories of past, present, and future.
This time-consciousness does not appear to be possessed by any other species with such insistent clarity.
It enables humans to draw upon past experience in the present and to plan for future contingencies.
This ability, however, has another effect: it causes humans to be aware that they are subject to a process that brings change, aging, decay, and ultimately death to all living things.
Humans know what apparently no other animals know about themselves - namely, that we will die at some future time, that is, cease to exist, in this system of things until we are resurrected.
We are aware that there were thousands of years before we were born that we simply weren't here. And after we die, we simply will not be here once again.

Psa_6:5
Psalms 6:5 YLT
(5) For there is not in death Thy memorial, In Sheol, who doth give thanks to Thee?
Isa_38:18
Isaiah 38:18 YLT
(18) For Sheol doth not confess Thee, Death doth not praise Thee, Those going down to the pit hope not for Thy truth.

Psa_115:17
Psalms 115:17 YLT
(17) The dead praise not Jah, Nor any going down to silence.
Ecc_9:1-10
Ecclesiastes 9:1-10 YLT
(1) But all this I have laid unto my heart, so as to clear up the whole of this, that the righteous and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God, neither love nor hatred doth man know, the whole is before them.
(2) The whole is as to the whole; one event is to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good, and to the clean, and to the unclean, and to him who is sacrificing, and to him who is not sacrificing; as is the good, so is the sinner, he who is swearing as he who is fearing an oath.
(3) This is an evil among all that hath been done under the sun, that one event is to all, and also the heart of the sons of man is full of evil, and madness is in their heart during their life, and after it—unto the dead.
(4) But to him who is joined unto all the living there is confidence, for to a living dog it is better than to the dead lion.
(5) For the living know that they die, and the dead know not anything, and there is no more to them a reward, for their remembrance hath been forgotten.
(6) Their love also, their hatred also, their envy also, hath already perished, and they have no more a portion to the age in all that hath been done under the sun.
(7) Go, eat with joy thy bread, and drink with a glad heart thy wine, for already hath God been pleased with thy works.
(8) At all times let thy garments be white, and let not perfume be lacking on thy head.

(9) See life with the wife whom thou hast loved, all the days of the life of thy vanity, that He hath given to thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity, for it is thy portion in life, even of thy labour that thou art labouring at under the sun.
(10) All that thy hand findeth to do, with thy power do, for there is no work, and device, and knowledge, and wisdom in Sheol whither thou art going.
Yet, we can thank YHVH that our time after death is going to be like being asleep is now:
Psa_13:3-6
Psalms 13:3-6 YLT
(3) Look attentively; Answer me, O Jehovah, my God, Enlighten mine eyes, lest I sleep H3462 in death H4194 ,
(4) Lest mine enemy say, 'I overcame him,' Mine adversaries joy when I am moved.
(5) And I, in Thy kindness I have trusted, Rejoice doth my heart in Thy salvation H3444 .
(6) I do sing to Jehovah, For He hath conferred benefits H1580 upon me!
And this is later confirmed by our Master:
Joh_11:11-14
John 11:11-14 YLT
(11) These things he said, and after this he saith to them, 'Lazarus our friend hath fallen asleep G2837 , but I go on that I may awake G1852 him;' (12) therefore said his disciples, 'Sir, if he hath fallen asleep, he will be saved;'
(13) but Jesus had spoken about his death, but they thought that about the repose of sleep he speaketh.
(14) Then, therefore, Jesus said to them freely, 'Lazarus hath died G599 ; NOTE: Supporting Scriptures:
Dan_12:2, Mat_9:24; Mat_27:52, Mar_5:39, Luk_8:52, Act_7:60, 1Co_15:12-28; 1Co_15:50-55, 1Th_4:13-15; 1Th_5:10.

Nonetheless, in our natural, worldly, mortal fear of the unknown, we can project ourselves mentally into the future and anticipate our own deaths.
Human burial customs grimly attest to a preoccupation with death from the

very dawn of human culture in the Paleolithic Period (Old Stone Age). Significantly, the burial of the dead is practiced by no other species.
The menace of death cannot be disentangled from the human consciousness of time.
In seeking salvation from death, humanity has been led on to a deeper analysis of its situation: a person’s subjection to the ravages of time is the true cause of the evil that besets him.
The quest for salvation from death, accordingly, becomes transformed into one for deliverance from slavery to the destructive flow of time.
How such deliverance might be effected has been conceived in varying ways, corresponding to the terms in which the worldly process is imagined.
The earliest known examples occur in ancient Egyptian religious texts.
In what is commonly referred to as the Pyramid Texts (c. 2400 BCE), the dead pharaoh seeks to fly up to heaven and join the sun-god Re on his unceasing journey across the sky, uniting himself in a mode of existence beyond change and decay.

Later, a passage in the Book of the Dead (1200 BCE) represents the deceased, who has been ritually identified with Osiris, declaring that he comprehends the whole range of time in himself, thus asserting his superiority to it.
The recognition that humankind is subject to the inescapable law of decay and death has produced other later attempts to explain its domination by time and to offer release from it.
Such attempts are generally based on the idea that the temporal process is cyclical, not linear, in its movement.
Into this concept a belief in metempsychosis (transmigration of souls, that is, the passing of the soul into another body, according to the opinion of Pythagoras), aka, reincarnation, can be conveniently fitted, for the idea that souls pass through a series of incarnations becomes more understandable if

the process is seen as being cyclical and in accordance with the pattern of time that apparently governs all the forms of being in this world.The conception has been discussed in various ways in many religions.

In Hinduism and Buddhism, elegantly imaginative chronological systems have been worked out, comprising mahayugas, or periods of 12,000 years, each year of which represents 360 human years.
In turn, 1,000 mahayugas (12,000,000 years, or, 4,320,000,000 human years) make up one kalpa, or one day in the life of the creator deity Brahma, and span the duration of a world from its creation to its destruction.

After a period of rest, the world would be re-created by Brahma for another kalpa.
The purpose of this chronological scheme was to emphasize how the unenlightened soul was doomed to suffer an infinite series of incarnations, with all of their attendant pain of successive births and deaths.
In the texts credited to Orpheus in ancient Greece, the human destiny to endure successive incarnations is significantly described as “the sorrowful weary Wheel,” from which the initiate hoped to escape through the secret knowledge imparted to him.
As an alternative interpretation to this view of humanity’s fatal involvement with time, the tragedy of the human situation has also been explained in terms of the soul’s involvement with the physical universe.
In some systems of thought (e.g., Hinduism and Buddhism), the two interpretations are synthesized, and in such systems, it is taught that, by accepting the physical world as reality, the soul becomes subject to the process of time.

Concentration on the soul’s involvement with matter as being the cause of the misery of human life has generally come from a dualistic view of human nature.
The drawing of a sharp distinction between spirit and matter has been

invariably motivated by a value judgment: namely, that spirit (or soul) is intrinsically good and of transcendent origin, whereas matter is essentially evil and corrupting.
Through the body, humans are seen to be part of the world of nature, sharing in its processes of generation, growth, decay, and death.
How the soul came to be incarcerated in this corruptible body has been a problem that many myths seek to explain.
Such explanations usually involve some idea of the descent of the soul or its divine ancestor from the highest heaven and their fatal infatuation with the physical world.
The phenomenon of sexual intercourse has often supplied the imagery used to account for the involvement of the soul in matter and the origin of its corruption.
Salvation has thus been conceived in this context as emancipation from both the body and the natural world.

In Gnosticism and Hermeticism (an ancient occult tradition encompassing alchemy, astrology, and theosophy) - esoteric theosophical and mystical movements in the Greco-Roman world - deliverance was sought primarily from the planetary powers that were believed to control human destiny in the sublunar world.

NEXT 7/13/2023
Continue SALVATION study:
SECULAR and HISTORICAL CONTEXT (Continued).

Some explanations fitting the latter category also represent humans as the victim of the deceit of a malevolent deity or demon.
Because death has been universally feared but rarely accepted as a natural necessity, the mythologies of many peoples represent the primeval ancestors of humankind as having lost, either accidentally or in some other way, their original immortality.
One Sumerian myth, however, accounts for disease and old age as resulting from the sport of the gods when they created humans.
In contrast, the Hebrew Scriptures' account of Adam and Eve finds the origin of death in Adam's act of disobedience in eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, after being told by YHVH to NOT eat of the tree.
This causal connection between sin and death was elaborated by Paul in his soteriology, outlined in his Epistle to the Romans, and forms the basis of the Christian doctrine of original sin (Rom_5:12, Rom_5:17, Rom_5:19, Rom_6:23).

Christian doctrine holds that through all humans, being descended from Adam, every human being shares in the guilt of Adam’s sin, and a child, even at birth and before it acquires the guilt of its own actual sins, is already deserving of YHVH’s wrath for its share in the original sin of disobedience of humankind. Some refer to this as the "dented bread pan" analogy, that is, that a dented breadpad always turns out bread with a defect - the dent.

Jewish thought views all offspring as not responsible for the sins of his/her father (Eze_18:18-20, Deu_24:16).

Could this be where evil comes in?
Death comes as a result of sin, so Adam and Eve die.
Even Yeshua had the choice to sin or not to sin - where sin is an act of rebellion or falling short of YHVH's commands.
So, before one can sin, a person has to choose to disobey YHVH's commands.
Moreover, because each individual inherits the nature of fallen humanity, s/he has an innate predisposition to sin, which seems to proven true to even the most casual observer of world events.
Both the Jewish and Christian doctrines naturally conclude that a person cannot save himself by his own will and effort but depends absolutely upon the saving grace of the Messiah.
Ultimately, the saving grace of YHVH is the determiner.
In religions where a dualistic view of human nature has been held, it has been necessary to explain how spiritual souls first became imprisoned in physical bodies, in the first place.
Generally, the cause has been found in the supposition of some primordial ignorance or error rather than in a sinful act of disobedience or revolt - i.e., in an intellectual rather than a moral defect.
According to the Hindu philosophical system known as Advaita Vedanta, a primordial ignorance (avidya) originally caused souls to mistake the empirical world for reality and so become incarnated in it and incarcerated by it.
By continuing in this illusion, they are subjected to an unceasing process of death and rebirth (samsara) and all of its consequent suffering and degradation.
Similarly, in Buddhism a primordial ignorance (avijja) started the chain of “dependent origination” (paticca samuppada) that produces the infinite misery of unending rebirth in the empirical world.
All of these competing beliefs have given rise to equally competing rituals. that is, the means by which salvation might be achieved has been closely related to the manner in which salvation has been conceived and to what has been deemed to be the cause of the human need of it.
Thus, in ancient Egypt, where salvation was from the physical consequences of death, a technique of ritual embalming was created.
Ritual magic has also been used in those religions that require their devotees to be initiated by ceremonies of rebirth (e.g., baptism in water in Christianity, in bull’s blood in rites of Cybele) and by symbolic communion with a deity through a ritual meal in the Eleusinian Mysteries, Mithraism, and Christianity (the Last Supper, Lord's Supper, or Eucharist).
Religions that trace the ills of the present human condition to some form of primordial error or ignorance offer their own understanding to ensure salvation.
Such knowledge is of an esoteric kind and is usually presented as divine revelation and imparted secretly to specially prepared candidates.
In some instances (e.g., Buddhism and Yoga), the knowledge imparted includes instruction in mystical techniques designed to achieve spiritual deliverance.
Whenever humankind has been deemed to need divine aid for salvation, there has been an emphasis on a personal relationship with the savior-god concerned.
Such relationship usually connotes faith in and loving devotion and service toward the deity, and such service may involve moral and social obligations.

Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the bhakti cults of India are notable examples.
Christianity adds a further requirement in this context: because human nature is basically corrupted by sin, YHVH’s prevenient (preceeding, antecedent, activating) grace is needed before the human will can be disposed even to want salvation.

Egyptian:
The Pyramid Texts of ancient Egypt provide the earliest evidence of the human quest for salvation.
They reveal that by about 2400 BCE a complex soteriology connected with the divine kingship of the pharaohs had been established in Egypt.
This soteriology was gradually developed in concept and ritual practice and was popularized; i.e., the original royal privilege was gradually extended to all the classes of society, until by about 1400 BCE it had become an elaborate mortuary cult through which all who could afford its cost could hope to partake of the salvation it offered.
This salvation concerned three aspects of postmortem existence, as imagined by the ancient Egyptians, and, in the concept of Osiris, it involved the earliest instance of a savior-god.
An elaborate ritual of embalming was designed to save the corpse from decomposition and restore its faculties so that it could live in a well- equipped tomb.
This ritual imitated the acts that were believed to have been performed by the gods to preserve the body of Osiris, with whom the deceased was ritually assimilated.
The next concern was to resurrect the embalmed body of the dead person, as Osiris had been resurrected to a new life after death.
Having thus been saved from the consequences of death, the revivified dead had to undergo a judgment (presided over by Osiris) on the moral quality of his life on earth.
Unlike Christianity, deceased had no advocate or expiator to intercede on his behalf.
In this ordeal, the deceased could be saved from an awful second death only by personal integrity.
If he safely passed the test, he was declared maa kheru (“true of voice”) and was admitted to the beatitude (consummate bliss) of the realm over which Osiris reigned.
This Osirian mortuary cult, with its promise of postmortem salvation, was practiced from about 2400 BCE until its suppression in the Christian era.
In some respects, it constitutes a prototype of Christianity as a salvation religion.

Hinduism:
Running through the great complex of beliefs and ritual practices that constitute Hinduism is the conviction that the soul or self (atman) is subject to samsara - i.e., the transmigration through many forms of incarnation.
Held together with this belief is another, karma - i.e., that the soul carries with it the burden of its past actions, which conditions the forms of its future incarnations. Similar to today's concept of "you reap what you sow" and "what goes around comes around."
As long as the soul mistakes this physical world for reality and clings to existence in it, it is doomed to suffer endless births and deaths.
The various Indian traditions offer ways in which to attain moksha (“release”; “liberation”) from the misery of subjection to the inexorable process of cosmic time.
Basically, this liberation consists in the soul’s effective understanding of its essential unity with brahman, the Absolute or supreme reality, and its merging with it.
Most of the ways by which this goal may be attained require self-effort in mastering meditation techniques and living an ascetic life, that is, retired from the world; rigid; severe; austere; employed in devotions and subduing the passions and appetites of the flesh by penance, abstinence or painful severities inflicted on the body..
But in the devotional (bhakti) movements associated with Vishnu and Shiva, an intense personal devotion to the deity concerned is believed to earn divine aid to salvation.

Buddhism:
Buddhism accepts the principles of samsara and karma, but it differs in one important respect from the Hindu conception of human nature.
Instead of believing that an atman passes through endless series of incarnations, Buddhism teaches that there is no such preexistent, eternal core of an individual that migrates from body to body.
Each individual consists of a number of physical and psychic elements (khandhas; Sanskrit skandhas) that combine to create the sense of personal individuality.
But this combination is only temporary and is irreparably shattered by death, leaving no element that can be identified as the soul or self.
By a subtle metaphysical argument, however, it is maintained that the craving for personal existence generated by the khandhas causes the birth of another such personalized combination, which inherits the karma of a sequence of previous combinations of khandhas.
The enlightenment attained by the Buddha was essentially about the cause of existence in the physical world, from which suffering inevitably stemmed.
Buddhist teaching and practice have, accordingly, been designed to acquaint people with their true nature and situation and enable them to free themselves from craving for existence in the space-time world and so attain nirvana (the final deliverance of the soul from transmigration).
Traditionally, this goal has been presented in negative terms - as the extinction of desire, attachment, ignorance, or suffering - creating the impression that Buddhist salvation means the complete obliteration of individual consciousness.
In one sense, this is so, but, in terms of Buddhist metaphysics, ultimate reality transcends all the terms of reference relevant to existence in this world.

Theoretically, the Buddhist initiate should, by his own effort in seeking to destroy utterly desire for continued existence in the empirical world, achieve his own salvation.
But, as Buddhism developed into a popular religion in its Mahayana (“Greater Vehicle”) form, provision was made for the natural human desire for assurance of divine aid.
Consequently, belief in many saviors, known as bodhisattvas (bow·dee·SAAT·vuhz - “buddhas-to-be”), developed, together with elaborate eschatologies concerning human destiny.
According to these, before the ultimate attainment of nirvana, the faithful could expect to pass through series of heavens or hells, according to their merits or demerits and the intensity of their devotion to a bodhisattva.

Judaism:
Because Judaism is by origin and nature an ethnic-plus-proselytes religion, salvation has been primarily conceived in terms of the destiny of Israel as the elect people of YHVH (often referred to as Yahweh, Jehovah, or “the LORD”), the God of Israel.
It was not until the 2nd century BCE that the religion, presently referred to as Judaism, began to focus on an afterlife, for which the dead would be resurrected and undergo divine judgment.
Before that time, the individual had to be content that his posterity continued within the holy nation.
But, even after the emergence of belief in the resurrection of the dead, the essentially ethnic character of Judaism still decisively influenced soteriological thinking.
The apocalyptic faith, which became so fervent as Israel moved toward its overthrow by the Romans in 70 CE, conceived of salvation as the miraculous intervention of YHVH or His Messiah (literally, “anointed one”) in world affairs.

This saving act would culminate in the Last Judgment delivered on the nations that oppressed Israel and Israel’s glorious vindication as the people of YHVH.
From the end of the national state in the Holy Land in 70 CE, Jewish religion, despite the increasing recognition of personal significance, has remained characterized by its essential ethnic concern.
Thus, the Exodus from Egypt has ever provided the typal imagery in terms of which divine salvation has been conceived, its memory being perpetuated each year by the ritual of the Passover.
The restoration of the holy nation, moreover, always has been linked with its Holy Land, and Hebrew literature, both in biblical and later forms, has described the establishment of a New Jerusalem and a new Temple of YHVH, whether it be in this world or in some new cosmic order.
Into this new order the rest of humankind, repentant and purified, will be incorporated, for the original promise made to the patriarch Abraham included all within the divine blessing.

(Gen_17:1-19)
In the Book of Zechariah, the ultimate salvation of humankind is graphically envisaged: the Gentiles, in company with the Jews, will return to serve YHVH in an ideal Jerusalem.
(Zec_2:11; Zec_8:20-23; Zec_14:16-19)

Christianity:
Christianity’s primary premise is that the incarnation and sacrificial death of Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ) formed the climax of YHVH's divine plan for humanity’s salvation.
This plan was conceived by YHVH because of the Fall of Adam, the progenitor of the human race, and it would be completed at the Last Judgment, when the Second Coming of Christ would mark the dramatic end of this current system.
This soteriological evaluation of history finds expression in the Christian

division of time into two periods:
• before Christ (BC); and,
• anno Domini (AD).

This classification of time has been increasingly superseded since the late 20th century by the periods Before the Common Era (BCE) and Common Era (CE), respectively.
The evolution of the Christian doctrine of salvation was a complicated process essentially linked with the gradual definition of belief in the divinity of Yeshua of Nazareth.
In Christian theology, therefore, soteriology is an integral part of what is termed Christology.
Whereas the divinity of Yeshua Messiah has been the subject of careful metaphysical definition in the creeds, the exact nature and mode of salvation through Christ has not been so precisely defined.

Most organizations have been content to state in their creeds that Christ was incarnated, crucified, died, and rose again “for us men and for our salvation.”

The basic tenets of Christian soteriology may be summarized as follows:
• humanity deserves damnation by YHVH for the original sin, which it
inherits by descent from Adam;
• each human also deserves damnation for his own actual sin.

But because sin is regarded as also putting humans in the power of the Devil, Christ’s work of salvation has been interpreted along two different lines:
• Thus, His crucifixion may be evaluated as a expiatory sacrifice offered to
YHVH as propitiation or atonement for human sin.
• Alternatively, it may be seen as the price paid to redeem humanity from
the Devil.

These two ways of interpreting the death of Christ have provided the major themes of soteriological theory and speculation in Christian theology.
Despite this fluidity of interpretation, belief in the saving power of Christ is fundamental to Christianity and finds expression in every aspect of its faith and practice.

NEXT 7/20/2023
Continue SALVATION study:
SECULAR and HISTORICAL CONTEXT (Continued):

Although the word najāt (Arabic: “salvation”) is used only once in the Qurʾān (the holy book of Islam), the basic aim of Islam is salvation in the sense of escaping future punishment, which will be pronounced on sinners at the Last Judgment.
Muhammad did teach that Allah had predestined some humans to heaven and others to hell, but the whole logic of his message is that submission to Allah is the means to salvation, for Allah is merciful.
Indeed, faithful submission is the quintessence of Islam, the word islām itself meaning “submission.”
Although in his own estimation Muhammad was the prophet of Allah, in later Muslim devotion he came to be venerated as the mediator between God and humanity, whose intercession was decisive.

Taoism

Taoism is a philosophy and a religion that originated in ancient China.
It is based on the concept of the Tao, which means "the Way", the source and essence of everything that exists.
Taoists believe that living in harmony with the Tao is the natural and ideal way of life.
They follow the teachings of Lao Tzu, who is said to have written the Tao Te Ching, a collection of wisdom and guidance on how to live according to the Tao.
Taoism also incorporates various practices such as meditation, martial arts, and rituals to cultivate one's spiritual and physical well-being.
Taoism values balance, simplicity, and nature, and rejects violence, greed, and artificiality.
Taoism has many sects and traditions, some of which worship gods and ancestors, while others focus more on ethics and self-cultivation.

Zoroastrianism:

According to Zoroaster, a good and evil force struggled for mastery in the universe.
Humanity had to decide on which side to align itself in this fateful contest.
This dualism was greatly elaborated in later Zoroastrianism.
Good, personified as the god Ormazd, and evil, personified as the demonic Ahriman, would contend for 12,000 years with varying fortune. At last Ormazd would triumph, and Saoshyans, his agent, would resurrect the dead for judgment.
The righteous would pass to their reward in heaven, and the wicked would be cast into hell. But this situation was temporary.
A meteor would later strike the earth, causing a flood of molten metal.
Through this flood all would have to pass as an ordeal of purgation.
The sensitivity of each to the anguish would be determined by the degree of his guilt.
After the ordeal, all humans would become immortal, and all that Ahriman had harmed or corrupted would be renewed.
Salvation thus took the form of deliverance from postmortem suffering, for ultimate restoration was assured to all after suffering the degree of purgation that the nature of their earthly lives entailed.

Latter-day Saints (Mormons)

The term "Mormon" is often used to refer to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but it is not an authorized title and the church discourages its use. The term originated as a derogatory nickname given by outsiders who associated the church with the Book of Mormon, one of its scriptural texts. The church prefers to use its full name or the shortened terms "the Church" or "the Church of Jesus Christ".
The church also requests that its members be called "Latter-day Saints" or "members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" instead of "Mormons".
The term "Mormon" is acceptable only when used in proper names or historical expressions, such as the Mormon Trail or the Book of Mormon. The term "Mormonism" is inaccurate and should not be used to describe the doctrine, culture, and lifestyle of the church.
The church teaches that it is the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ and that it follows the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
They teach that YHVH's name is Elohim or Heavenly Father.
They believe that He is the Father of all human spirits and the creator of the universe.
They also believe that He is one of three distinct divine persons in the Godhead, along with His Son, Jesus Christ , and the Holy Ghost. They believe that the name YHVH (Jehovah) is used in the Hebrew Scriptures to refer to God the Father.
Further, they believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and they do not use the name Jehovah to refer to Him.
They believe that the name YHVH is a title that is used to refer to God the Father, and that it is not a proper name.
They believe that the proper name of God the Father is Elohim.
They also believe that Jesus Christ has a proper name, which is Emmanuel. However, they do not use this name in their worship services. Instead, they refer to Jesus Christ as Jesus, Lord, Savior, and Redeemer.
They worship Elohim in the name of Jesus Christ and pray to Him for guidance and blessings. They acknowledge Him as the ultimate object of their worship and the source of all truth and love.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that salvation is a combination of the Heavenly Father's grace and human actions.
They believe that everyone will be resurrected through the atonement of Jesus Christ, but to achieve the full quality of eternal life, they also need to obey the teachings of the Mormon church, repent, be baptized, and receive the Holy Ghost (Holy Spirit).
Mormons also believe that salvation is eternal life with their families in the highest heaven of the celestial kingdom.
They perform proxy baptisms for the dead, hoping that they will accept Mormonism in the spirit world.
However, the Bible teaches that salvation is a gift of the Heavenly Father by grace through faith in Christ alone, and that there is no second chance after death.
There are off-shoots from LDS that have modified their beliefs to conform to their own understanding.

Native Americans

Living in the Western Hemisphere, it would be remiss not to mention how Native Americans viewed salvation.
Native peoples once depended on their natural environment for survival.
Of course, not all environments in North and South America were the same, so many different cultures, languages, traditions, and practices developed, each reflecting the different peoples' relationships to their different environments. in spite of this, some similarities existed among Native American religions.
Until the 1950s it was commonly assumed that the religions of the surviving Native Americans were little more than curious anachronisms, dying remnants of humankind’s childhood.
These traditions lacked sacred texts and fixed doctrines or moral codes and were embedded in societies without wealth, mostly orally, without writing, and without recognizable systems of politics or justice or any of the usual indicators of civilization.

Today the situation has changed dramatically.
Scholars of religion, students of the ecological sciences, and individuals committed to expanding and deepening their own religious lives have found in these traditions many distinct and varied religious worlds that have struggled to survive but that retain the ability to inspire.
The histories of these worlds are also marked by loss.
Five hundred years of political, economic, and religious domination have taken their toll.
Scholars note when complex ceremonies become extinct, but often community members mourn even more the disappearance of small daily rituals and of religious vocabularies and grammars embedded in traditional languages - a loss of memories that include not only formal sacred narratives but the many informal strands that once composed these tightly woven ways of life.
Nevertheless, despite the pervasive effects of modern society, from which there is no longer any possibility of geographic, economic, or technological isolation, there are instances of remarkable continuity with the past, as well as remarkably creative adaptation to the present and anticipation of the future.

North America

Many Native American people themselves often claim that their traditional ways of life do not include “religion.”
They find the term difficult, often impossible, to translate into their own languages.
Western tradition distinguishes religious thought and action as that whose ultimate authority is supernatural - which is to say, beyond, above, or outside both physical nature and human reason.
In most indigenous worldviews there is no such divisions.

Plants and animals, clouds and mountains carry and embody revelation.
Even where native tradition teaches about a realm or world apart from the terrestrial one and not normally visible from it, as in the case of the Iroquois Sky World or the several underworlds of Pueblo cosmologies, the boundaries between these worlds are permeable.
The metaphysical distance between land and sky or between land and underworld is short and is traversed in both directions.
Instead of encompassing a duality of sacred and profane, indigenous religious traditions seem to conceive only of sacred and more sacred.
Spirit, power, or something akin moves in all things, though not equally.
For native communities religion is understood as the relationship between living humans and other persons or things, however they are conceived. These may include departed as well as yet-to-be-born human beings, beings in the so-called “natural world” of flora and fauna, and visible entities that are not animate by Western standards, such as mountains, springs, lakes, and clouds. This group of entities also includes what scholars of religion might denote as “mythic beings,” beings that are not normally visible but are understood to inhabit and affect either this world or some other world contiguous to it.
Because religions of this kind are so highly localized, it is impossible to determine exactly how many exist in North America now or may have existed in the past.
Distinct languages in North America at the time of the first European contact are often estimated in the vicinity of 300, which linguists have variously grouped into some 30 to 50 families.
Consequently, there is great diversity among these traditions.
For instance, Iroquois longhouse elders speak frequently about the Creator’s “Original Instructions” to human beings, using male gender references and attributing to this divinity not only the planning and organizing of creation but qualities of goodness, wisdom, and perfection that are much like YHVH.

By contrast, the Koyukon universe is notably decentralized. Raven, whom Koyukon narratives credit with the creation of human beings, is only one among many powerful entities in the Koyukon world. He exhibits human weaknesses such as lust and pride, is neither all-knowing nor all-good, and teaches more often by counterexample than by his wisdom.
Teaching proper behaviour toward others, which is defined by one’s relationship to them, is an essential part of child rearing.
This instruction is religious as well, because of the expectation that the parent will instruct the child in all areas of life: the entire world, one’s life, and one’s other-than-human relatives will be treated in the same way as all human relatives.
As evidenced, there is no such thing as a generic “Native American religion.”
Attempts to understand these religious traditions en masse are bound to produce oversimplification and distortion.
Instead, it may be useful to consider the broad characteristics that pertain to the religious lives of many indigenous North American communities.
In the Native American experience, place is important, and religious practices are often localized.
The importance of place is revealed in the beliefs of the Menominee, who use local geography to explain the origin of their people, and the Iroquois, whose longhouses are understood as microcosms of the universe.
Moreover, traditional knowledge, passed on orally across the generations, maintains the memory of visible and invisible inhabitants of a place. Access to some kinds of knowledge, however, is restricted.
Actions, words, and thoughts are understood in many traditions to have power in the world.
Some knowledge may be considered so powerful and dangerous that a process of instruction and initiation is required for those who will use it.
Participation is more important than belief. Arguments about doctrinal truth are largely absent from most native North American religious traditions.
Good-hearted participation in the ceremonial and everyday work of the community is the main requirement.
However, knowledgeable people with considerable life experience may discuss such matters informally.
Cooperation with and devotion to the larger kin group is a central part of small-scale societies, and this is true of Native American communities
Generosity, in the Native American tradition, is a religious act as well as a social one.
The value of generosity is perhaps most dramatically figured in the northern practice known in English as giveaway or in the potlatch of the Northwest Coast peoples, in which property and gifts are ceremonially distributed.
Human beings are taught to give eagerly because in so doing they imitate the generosity of the many other-than-human entities that provide for human sustenance.
A community’s oral narratives contain a record of human interaction with other-than-human beings, powers, and entities in a place.
In addition to the more solemn genres, such as creation stories and migration narratives, there are moralistic stories, family histories, instruction meant to teach traditional skills, and many kinds of jokes. Moreover, joking, clowning, and other forms of entertainment are integral parts of many ceremonial events and settings, either formally or informally. Sometimes such performances are a means of shaming individuals into correcting troublesome behaviour, but they are also employed simply to spread happiness and to lighten moods.
Significant achievements and life passages are meant to be shared by relatives and the community.
Various forms of coming-of-age and initiation ceremonies make up a large portion of the ritual repertoire of many Native American traditions.
These ceremonies provide structures for instruction in traditional knowledge, but, more important, they reintegrate an individual into kin, community, and cosmos when new status is attained.
One of the more important life passages is death, which is understood as a transition and not an ending. Beliefs about death, and ritual responses to it, however, are among the more heterogeneous aspects of Native American religious life.
Many Native American traditions appear to conceive of human beings as complex entities that bind together different kinds of essences, breaths, or spirits, which are thought to undergo divergent outcomes after death.
It is believed that after death some of these essences may be harmful for living people to encounter without ceremonial protection.
A serious misconception about native North American religions is that, before contact with European civilization, they existed in a changeless “Golden Age” and that what happened later can be described only as degeneration.
This view owes much to the misgivings of many 19th-century Europeans over the deep changes wrought on their own societies by the Industrial Revolution. Change, borrowing, and innovation are characteristic of any living religion, but indigenous communities relied on strands of oral communication to maintain both continuity and the memory of change, and Euro-American observers were ill-equipped to notice and record these sources.
At the same time, the changes that visited Native Americans in the wake of the arrival of the Europeans were massive, unprecedented, and mostly destructive.
Whole languages - and with them ceremonies, narratives, and oral libraries of accumulated knowledge about human and natural history and humor - were lost.
Even the most earnest and energetic efforts to rejuvenate traditional ways can seem pale and pathetic to those who remember earlier days. Yet some elders reject this pessimism.
Instead, they note that there was a community - the Hopi - where a snake dance was once performed, but the ceremony became extinct. Anthropologists expressed alarm, but an elder insisted that people should not be disturbed. “If it was lost it was because we didn’t need it any more,” he said. “If we really need it back again, the snakes will teach it to us again. It was they who taught it to us in the first place.”

Sometimes, however, disruption is so catastrophic that individuals and communities must respond with fresh, powerful visions that transplant the germ of past wisdom into entirely new seedbeds.
When it succeeds, such inspiration can meld tradition and innovation in surprisingly effective ways.
Two such examples are the Native American Church, sometimes known as the peyote church, and the Ghost Dance movement.
The Native American church emerged in the mid-19th century when an ancient ritual of central Mexico moved into the United States and blended with Christian influences.
It spread, in part, through the medium of government-run Native American schools, and it is the only native religious tradition that has become truly portable, spreading from coast to coast.
The Ghost Dance was one of two movements influenced by Christian traditions that announced the imminent return of the dead and the restoration of Native Americans’ traditional way of life.
Although the Ghost Dance tradition suffered a terrible tragedy at the massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in 1890, it was for a time a powerful expression of both hope and despair as the Euro-American conquest of the continent neared completion.
It also continued in modified form until the 1950s and underwent occasional revivals in the later 20th century.
A third response to religious disintegration involves the creation of American Indian Christian congregations.
In some instances conversion to Christianity was enforced, with dire penalties for refusal.
In other cases it appears to have been accepted voluntarily, out of sincere devotion to the missionaries and their message.
In yet other cases it was probably accepted for a more practical mix of reasons.
Often conversion meant an increased chance for physical survival, regardless of how sincere the conversion was.
Once physical survival and a degree of stability had been established, many congregations of Native American Christians recast their faith and practice to include traditional views and values. Kinship obligations, sharing of resources, and a general emphasis on community in preference to individualistic approaches to salvation have been some of these Native Christian adaptations.
In some cases traditional language and symbolism have been incorporated into Christian worship as well.
American Indian traditionalists believe that the values, knowledge, narrative traditions, and ritual worlds they were taught, however compromised by historical loss and the demands of modern life, are vital to the survival of their human and other-than-human communities.
Apart from the Native American church and Native Christian congregations, most American Indian traditionalists believe that ceremonial work and traditional knowledge are authentic and potent only when conducted in their native languages.
Yet most of these languages are eroding rapidly and among persons under age 40 are nearly extinct.
In oral societies it is vital that each generation identify and train individuals to memorize this knowledge and so carry it forward.
Wide swaths of this knowledge can disappear when there are no young people fluent enough to preserve it. For some communities it is already too late.

Ani'-Yun'wiya (Cherokee) Nation

One native culture that we know a great deal about is the Cherokees, or Ani'-Yun'wiya, "the principle people," who lived for hundreds of year here in the Southern Appalachian Mountains in parts of present-day Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Knowledge of their beliefs is because, in the 1880s, Cherokee elders in the North Carolina mountains allowed a white man named James Mooney to observe and record information about their culture.

The Cherokee stories that Mooney gathered and wrote down in English help explain the world of the Cherokee. These myths show that, for the Cherokee, the world was primarily a relationship of proper balance.
To the Cherokee, the Earth was a flat disc of water with a large island floating in the middle. The Earth hung by four cords - one each in the north, east, south, and west - from a sky arch made of stone. This was the Middle World, where the plants, animals, and humans lived.
Above the sky arch was the Upper World.
This was where the guiding and protective spirits of humans and animals lived. These spirits could move from the Upper World to the Middle World and back to help the humans keep balance and harmony on the Earth. Below the Earth was the Under World of bad spirits. Bad spirits brought disorder and disaster. They could rise to the Middle World through deep springs, lakes, and caves.
When these spirits caused trouble, the Cherokee called on the spirits from the Upper World to help restore balance and harmony to the Middle World.
Everything in the Cherokee environment - from corn and tobacco to eagles, deer, and snakes, to fire and smoke, to creeks and mountains - had an intelligent spirit and played a central role in Cherokee stories as well as daily practices. The Cherokee did not view themselves as separate from their environment - they were an integral part of it. Like other native peoples, the Cherokee did not try to rule over nature but instead tried to keep their proper place within it. A healer might listen to the spirit of a plant to find out what disease that plant could cure.
A hunter might pray to the spirits of animals for guidance and forgiveness.

In order to respect and cooperate with all of nature, the natives found ways to conserve its parts. When the Cherokee gathered medicinal plants in the forest, they harvested only every fourth one they found, leaving the other three to grow undisturbed for a future use. All of these practices contributed to the balance of their world. The Cherokee believed that if the balance of nature was upset, everyone would have trouble. They feared a loss of balance could cause sickness, bad weather, failed crops, poor hunting, and many other problems.
Humans were responsible for keeping the balance within themselves and between the animals, the plants, and other people.
One of the stories Mooney collected, "The Origin of Disease and Medicine," illustrates the idea of keeping balance:

In the old days, the animals and plants could talk, and they lived together in harmony with humans. But the humans spread over the earth, crowding the animals and the plants out of their homelands and hunting and killing too much. The animal tribes called a council to declare war on the humans. They each selected a disease to send to the humans that could cripple them, make them sick, or kill them. When the plants heard what had been done to the humans, they agreed this action was too severe and called a council of their own.
They agreed to be cures for some of the diseases the animals had sent.
In this story, when the humans destroyed the balance of nature, the animals tried to regain it. But they went too far, so the plants tried to restore the balance by stepping in and helping the humans.

The Cherokee looked to the guiding and protective spirits of the Upper World to help keep balance and harmony on the Earth.
They also maintained order on the Earth by participating in daily prayers, rituals, and seasonal ceremonies.
One ritual, called "going to water," was performed on many occasions - at the new moon, before special dances, after bad dreams, or during illnesses. Going to water cleansed the spirit as well as the body.
The ritual was performed at sunrise.
Cherokee men, women, and children would face the east, step into a river or creek, and dip under the water seven times. When they emerged, they would be rid of bad feelings and ready to begin anew, with a clear mind.

The annual Green Corn Ceremony also symbolized a fresh start. It was held each year at harvest time. First, any unused corn from the previous year's harvest was collected and burned. Afterward, the town's sacred council fire, which had been used for the past year, was put out. A new fire was then started, and the community gave thanks and forgave each other for all their quarrels and crimes of the past year (except murder).
Finally, the women, who were the farmers in the Cherokee culture, presented the first of the new year's corn harvest.
A feast began, and so did a new cycle.
Native American peoples did not use a word such as "religion," but every part of their world had a sacred connection or religious meaning.
Their ideas of religion were everything to them. They believed the world should have balance, harmony, cooperation, and respect within the community and between people and the rest of nature.
Cherokee stories and legends taught the lessons and practices necessary to maintain natural balance, harmony, and health.
Cherokee songs, dances, stories, artwork, tools, and even buildings expressed the moral values of their culture.
The Cherokee homeland and its mountains, caves, and rivers also carried symbolic meanings and purposes.
The religion of the native peoples was so different from the Christian religion of the Europeans that early explorers, settlers, and missionaries did not see native beliefs as a religion. The white Christians did not understand, for instance, the sacred meanings behind "going to water," festivals of thanksgiving, or rituals for maintaining balance. These native practices looked like childish magic and evil superstition to the Christian Europeans, who usually regarded the natives as "savage heathens." Almost from the moment the Europeans arrived, they had tried to get the natives to abandon their traditional, tribally held hunting grounds so they could have more land for white settlement.
After the Revolutionary War (1776-1783), the United States government began to develop a "civilization" policy, which was intended to convert the natives to Christianity and to pacify them.
During all this time, the Cherokee had allowed several different Christian denominations to establish missions in their area.
Some of the Cherokee accepted Christianity.
Many were eager to learn English and other skills the missionaries taught so they could understand the white man's world.
They hoped that if they could read and understand white documents, they could help fight the efforts of the whites in taking their tribal lands. But their hopes did not save the Cherokee Nation. By the 1840s, almost all the Cherokees had been removed to territories west of the Mississippi River — only about one thousand remained in their old homeland.
In time, the New Testament of the Christian Bible was translated into Cherokee and written in the Cherokee syllabary.
Scriptures, hymns, and services also began to be spoken in the Cherokee language.
Still, communities blended older Cherokee values like respect and sharing into the practices of their new Christian churches.
Some of the traditional Cherokee healers even became ministers or elders in Christian churches. Today, about ten thousand Cherokees live in North Carolina. Most of them are Christian, but traditional ideas can still be found in the use of traditional plants for healing, dances that reinforce the Cherokee identity, references to some of the old sacred Cherokee sites, and a festival that is held each year at Green Corn time.

Navajo and Peublo

A sharp contrast is found in Navajo and Pueblo ritual. Most traditional Navajo ceremonies are enacted on behalf of individuals in response to specific needs.
Most Pueblo ceremonial work is communal, both in participation and in perceived benefit, and is scheduled according to natural cycles.
Still, the healing benefits of a Navajo sing naturally spread through the families of all those participating, while the communal benefits of Pueblo ceremonial work naturally contributes to individuals.

South America

A sense of the nature and variety of religious life in South American tribes can be conveyed by examining beliefs about creation, practices associated with the calendar and with the initiation of new adults, forms of special religious authority, and prophetic movements concerned with the end of the world.
Even though they differ in detail, creation mythologies play a singularly important role in the religious life of many South American tribes.
These myths describe the origin of the first world and its fate and sometimes include narratives of the creation and destruction of subsequent worlds.
In some narratives creation is the work of a supreme being, and some myths describe creation from nothing while others involve creation from a preexisting substance.
Moreover, many creation myths describe in dramatic ways the exit of the creative beings.
They may be driven off, sent into the sky in the form of stars, or moved off into the forest, or they may take refuge in other levels of the universe. The manner of a being’s disappearance figures in the ritual celebrations that commemorate it.

The myths of the destruction of multiple worlds place a great question mark at the beginning of existence.
Why should powerful worlds fall prey to disaster? Why should beings so perfect and powerful suffer destruction?

The religious life of many South American peoples places this kind of question at the foundation of religious experience.
Rather than providing answers to such questions, the myths of multiple destruction install the questions themselves as fundamental.
Scenarios of universal catastrophe and destruction mark the passage of time and can thereby lead to the institution of the calendar.
The most obvious calendrical marker of time that arises from universal catastrophe and disaster is the procession of stars.
South American mythologies consistently join the death of primordial beings (often later known in the form of animals) with the cataclysmic destruction of the first worlds and the ascent of the stars into the heavens.
Notably, the Makiritare of the Orinoco River region in Venezuela tell how the stars, led by Wlaha, were forced to ascend on high when Kuamachi, the evening star, sought to avenge the death of his mother.
Kuamachi and his grandfather induced Wlaha and the other stars to climb into dewaka trees to gather the ripe fruit.
When Kuamachi picked the fruit, it fell and broke open.
Water spilled out and flooded the forest.
With his powerful thoughts, Kuamachi created a canoe in which he and his grandfather escaped.
Along the way they created deadly water animals such as the anaconda, the piranha, and the caiman.
One by one Kuamachi shot down the stars of heaven from the trees in which they were lodged.
They fell into the water and were devoured by the animals.
After they were gnawed and gored into different ragged shapes, the survivors ascended into the sky on a ladder of arrows.
There the stars took their proper places and began shining.
Religious ideas and practices associated with the end of the world abound in South America.

Eschatological movements have swept across South America since the time of European contact and, most probably, long before that.
Many of the movements of resistance to colonialism have appeared as messianic revolts led by millennial prophets and saviours.
Among various Guaraní groups in Paraguay, shamans led groups on messianic pilgrimages, seeking to find the Land Without Evil.
The very existence of the Land Without Evil offered the Guaraní hope, security, and courage in the face of the hunger, sickness, and death that followed the Spanish conquest.
As these eschatological groups succumbed to failure, they concluded that, on their paths to paradise, they had been overtaken by tekò-achy, the weight of accumulating imperfections that blot out the light of the sun and weigh humans down so that they are incapable of ecstatic flight into the Land Without Evil.
It seems that South American eschatological thinking and behaviour share common ground with Christian eschatology.

A Note about Scriptures:
Scriptures of the various religions comprise a large part of the literature of the world.
They vary greatly in form, volume, age, and degree of sacredness, but their common attribute is that their words are regarded by their believers as sacred.
Sacred words differ from ordinary words in that they are believed either to possess and convey spiritual and magical powers or to be the means through which a divine being or other sacred reality is revealed in phrases and sentences full of power and truth.
Most sacred scriptures were originally oral and were passed down through memorization from generation to generation until they were finally committed to writing. A few are still preserved orally, such as the hymns of Native Americans.

Many bear the unmistakable marks of their oral origin and can best be understood when recited aloud; in fact, it is still held by many Hindus and Buddhists that their scriptures lack, when read silently, the meaning and significance they have when recited aloud, for the human voice is believed to add to the recited texts dimensions of truth and power not readily grasped by the solitary reader. Not all Scriptures, however, were originally oral, nor were they in all parts directly effectual in rituals that sought the granting of magical and spiritual powers.
The greater part of recorded scripture has either a narrative or an expository character.
The types of sacred and semisacred texts are, in fact, many and varied.
Besides magical runes (ancient Germanic alphabet characters) and spells from primitive and ancient sources, they include hymns, prayers, chants, myths, stories about gods and heroes, epics, fables, sacred laws, directions for the conduct of rituals, the original teachings of major religious figures, expositions of these teachings, moral anecdotes, dialogues of seers and sages, and philosophical discussions.
In fact, Scriptures include every form of literature capable of expressing religious feeling or conviction.
Types of sacred literature vary in authority and degree of sacredness.
The centrally important and most holy of the sacred texts have in many instances been gathered into canons (standard works of the faith), which, after being determined either by general agreement or by official religious organizations, become fixed- i.e., limited to certain works that are alone viewed as fully authoritative and truly beyond all further change or alteration.
The works not admitted to the canons (those of a semisacred or semicanonical character) may still be quite valuable as supplementary texts; authoritative and/or historical texts that are not considered "inspired", e.g., Macabbees to Protestant faiths, in spite of Yeshua's referring to the "abomination of desolation" historically occurring first in Macabbees (Mat_24:15, Mar_13:14), and the "Book of Enoch", the same Enoch who is mentioned in 11 verses in the King James Bible and Jud_1:14-15 referring to 1 Enoch 1:9, which seems to be a direct quote from Jude. The book of Enoch is recognized as NOT having been written by the original Enoch.

The canon of the Bible is the set of books that are considered to be authoritative and inspired by YHVH.
The process of deciding which books belong to the canon was not done at a single point in time, but through a long and complex history that involved different criteria and authorities.

The Jewish canon, or the Tanakh, consists of 24 books divided into three parts: the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings.

The Christian canon includes the Hebrew Scriptures, which is based on the Jewish canon but with some variations, and the Greek Scriptures, which contains 27 books: the four Gospels, Acts, 21 letters, and Revelation.

The Catholic and Orthodox churches also accept some additional books as part of the Hebrew Scriptures, called the deuterocanonical books or the apocrypha.
The canon of the Greek Scriptures was officially decided in the fourth century CE by various church councils, based on the divine qualities, reception, and apostolic connection of the writings. However, some scholars argue that there was already a general consensus on the 27 books of the Greek Scriptures by the end of the first century CE, as evidenced by their use and citation by early "church fathers".
The Bible canon itself is the collection of books that are considered authoritative and inspired by YHVH.

The criteria for which writings were included in the Bible canon vary depending on the time period and the religious tradition.
However, some common factors that influenced the canonization process were:

- Apostolicity: The writings had to be attributed to an apostle or someone closely associated with an apostle, such as Mark or Luke.

- Orthodoxy: The writings had to conform to the teachings and doctrines of the early church, especially regarding the nature and identity of Yeshua Messiah.

- Catholicity: The writings had to be widely accepted and used by the majority of the Christian communities across different regions and cultures.

- Inspiration: The writings had to demonstrate the guidance and influence of the Holy Spirit, both in their content and in their effect on the readers.

NOTICE: Each consideration depended entirely on HUMAN interpretation of whether or not the book in question met the criteria.
These criteria were not always applied consistently or uniformly, and there were debates and disagreements among different groups of Christians about which writings should be included or excluded from the canon. The process of canonization was gradual and complex, and it took several centuries for the Bible canon to reach its current forms.

NEXT 7/27/2023
Continue SALVATION study.
Continue studying major religions and their various sacred and semi-sacred texts.

Its earliest portions, namely the four ancient Vedas (hymns), seem to have been provided by Indo-European families in northwestern India in the 2nd millennium BCE.
These and the supplements to them composed after 1000 BCE - the Brahmanas (commentaries and instruction in ritual), the Aranyakas (forest books of ascetics), and the Upanishads (philosophical treatises) - are considered more sacred than any later writings.
They are collectively referred to as Shruti (“Heard”; i.e., communicated by revelation), whereas the later writings are labeled Smriti (“Remembered”; i.e., recollected and reinterpreted at some distance in time from the original revelations).
The former are canonical and completed, not to be added to nor altered, but the latter are semicanonical and semisacred.

Buddhism:

Buddhist sacred literature recollects Gautama Buddha’s life and teaching in the 6th century BCE and first appeared in the dialect called Pali, allied to the Magadhi that he spoke.
As time passed and his movement spread beyond India, Buddhism adopted as its medium Sanskrit, the Indian classical language that was widely used in ancient Asia.
A distinction arose between the Theravada (“Way of the Elders”), preserved in Pali and regarded as canonical, and the vast number of works written in Sanskrit within the more widely dispersed Buddhism called by its adherents Mahayana (“Greater Vehicle”).
The Mahayana works were later translated and further expanded in Tibetan, Chinese, and Japanese.

Confucius:

Whether the basic texts of indigenous Chinese religion should be called sacred, in the sense of Holy Scriptures, is open to question.
Neither classical Taoism nor Confucianism can be said to have been based on revelation; the texts of these faiths were originally viewed as human wisdom, books written by humans for humans.
They acquired authority, actually a canonical status, however, that caused them to be regarded with profound reverence and thus, in effect, as sacred.
This certainly was true of the revered Taoist book, the Daodejing (“Classic of the Way of Power”), and of the Wujing (“Five Classics”) and the Sishu (“Four Books”) of Confucianism.

Taoism

The Tao Te Ching is a classic text of Chinese philosophy that is traditionally attributed to the sage Lao Tzu, who lived in the 6th century BC.
The text consists of 81 short chapters that express the essence of the Tao, or "the Way", which is the ultimate reality and the source of all things.
The Tao is also the principle of harmony and balance that guides human conduct and governs the natural order.
The Tao Te Ching teaches the wisdom of wuwei, or non-action, which means acting in accordance with the Tao and not interfering with its flow.
By following the Tao, one can achieve peace, simplicity, and contentment in life.
The concept of "salvation" in Taoism is not about escaping from this world or achieving a permanent state of bliss in the afterlife, but rather about living in harmony with the natural order and the cosmic forces that sustain it.
Taoists do not believe in salvation as a matter of being saved from sin or damnation, but as a matter of participating in the eternal cycle of creation and transformation that characterizes the natural world.
Taoists seek to become immortals, not by preserving their physical bodies forever, but by transcending the limitations of the human condition and attaining a state of spiritual freedom and spontaneity.
Salvation for Taoists is thus a matter of aligning oneself with the Tao, the ultimate principle of reality, and following its way of non-action and simplicity.

Jesus Christ (Yeshua Messiah):

The most precisely fixed canons are those that have been defined by official religious bodies of human organizations.
The Jewish canon, known to Christians as the Old Testament (Hebrew Scriptures), is thought by some scholars to have been fixed by a synod of rabbis held at Yavneh, Palestine, about 90 CE. However, there is no scholarly consensus.
The semisacred books that were excluded were labeled by Christians, the Apocrypha (Greek: “Hidden Away”).
Roman Catholicism later included the Apocrypha in its Bible canon.
Yeshua, the founder of Christianity, left nothing in writing, but He so inspired His followers that they preserved His sayings and biographical details about Him in oral form until they were written down in the four Gospels.
To these were added the letters of Paul and others and the Book of Revelation to John, the whole forming a sacred canon called the New Testament (Greek Scriptures), which was ecclesiastically sanctioned by the end of the 4th century.
There was also a New Testament Apocrypha, but it did not achieve canonical status because of numerous spurious details.

Qurʾān:

Where no religious body has provided sanction or authorization, Scriptures have had to stand on their own authority.
Muslims believe that the Qurʾān does this easily.
The Qurʾān, their only sacred canon or standard of faith, authenticates itself, they believe, by its internal self-evidencing power, for it is composed of the very words of Allah (God Almighty) communicated to Muhammad and recited by him without addition or subtraction.
This faith of Muslims in the Qurʾān is similar to that of fundamentalist Christians who believe that the Bible, as YHVH’s word, is "God-breathed" from beginning to end.

Latter-day Saints (Mormons)

Mormons believe that the King James Bible is a true and accurate translation of the original Hebrew and Greek scriptures, but that it is not complete.
They believe that the Book of Mormon is a companion volume to the Bible that contains additional scripture that was lost or corrupted over time, as well as a record of the ancient peoples in the Americas.
According to the book, the prophet Moroni buried a set of gold plates containing the history and teachings of his people in a hill near present-day Palmyra, New York.
In 1823, the angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith, a young farmer, and told him where to find the plates.
Smith claimed that he translated the plates by the gift and power of the Heavenly Father, and published the Book of Mormon in 1830.
Smith said that he showed the plates to eleven other men, who became known as the witnesses of the Book of Mormon.
Three of them, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris, said that they saw the plates and an angel who testified of their truthfulness. Eight others, Christian Whitmer, Jacob Whitmer, Peter Whitmer Jr., John Whitmer, Hiram Page, Joseph Smith Sr., Hyrum Smith, and Samuel Smith, said that they saw and handled the plates.
All of them signed testimonies that were printed in the first edition of the Book of Mormon.
These witnesses never recanted their statements, even though some of them later left or were excommunicated from the church founded by Smith.
According to LDS teachings, the Book of Mormon was written by ancient prophets in the Americas.
It tells the story of the people of Nephi, who were descendants of Lehi, a Hebrew prophet who left Jerusalem around 600 BC.
The Book of Mormon describes the Nephites' journey to the Americas, their wars with the Lamanites, and their eventual destruction.
They believe that the Book of Mormon is a true account of ancient history and that it contains important truths about Elohim, Jesus Christ, and salvation.
They also believe that the Book of Mormon is a living book that can provide guidance and inspiration to its readers.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) teaches that the King James Bible and the Book of Mormon are both essential parts of the Christian canon.
The LDS Church believes that the Bible and the Book of Mormon are complementary works that together provide a complete record of Elohim's dealings with humanity.
The LDS Church also teaches that the Book of Mormon is a modern-day revelation from Elohim.
The Book of Mormon is a controversial text.
Some people believe that it is a true account of ancient history, while others believe that it is a work of fiction.
The LDS Church has been criticized for its teaching that the Book of Mormon is a modern-day revelation from Elohim.
Despite the controversy, the Book of Mormon remains an important text for the LDS Church.
The LDS Church teaches that the Book of Mormon is a source of truth and guidance for its members.

Other literature:
There exists a large body of literature that possesses less of the aura of true Scripture than the works just mentioned.
They are interpretations about divine truth and divine commands, or stories that illustrate how persons, exalted or lowly, have acted (with or without awareness) in response to a divine stimulus.
They are, in effect, supportive of true Scripture.

Talmud, or (the written Oral Torah):
The Talmud is a compendium of law, lore, and commentary that to many Jews has more authorit than others as the Mosaic Torah (the Written Torah, Law, or the Pentateuch).
Indeed, in the postbiblical rabbinical writings it was generally considered a second, or Oral, Torah, complementing the Written Law of Moses.
In Orthodox Judaism, rabbis might give different answers about the authority of the Talmud, due to varying opinions by different rabbis.
There have always been questions about the Written Torah concerning, for example, HOW to do this or that.

There is so much in the Written Torah that is circumstantial, ex: the culture (the way people lived) - as cultures change, the Torah changes in response to those changes.

Exa: The Written Torah does not have a lot of details about how to keep the Sabbath. The Pharisees added human traditions based on oral traditions passed down through the generations on to how the keep the Sabbath as well as any other subject one might imagine.

In the first century there were two major schools of thought for which impacted the belief systems of a majority of Jews. The school of Hillel and the school of Shammai.

For more see https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2832622/jewish/Hillel-and-Shammai.htm

One group viewed Gentiles as dirty and untouchable, and could become proselytes without circumcision - another side say this differently.
The Oral Torah is very important in Jewish tradition. The Gemara and the Mishna, and major repositories of debates and commentaries which make up the Talmud.
The Talmud, itself, has two different versions: the Babylonian and the
Jerusalem. The Talmud has been characterized as a product of historical process of continual interpretation.

Another example is provided by the Christian church, most particularly the Roman Catholic, Jehovah's Witnesses and Bible Students organizations.
Each of their major creeds have, at one time or another, been regarded as infallible statements, to depart from which would be heresy, and the basis for excommunication or disfellowship from the organization.
This is particularly true of the Apostles’ Creed and the three “ecumenical creeds” of Nicaea (325 AD), Constantinople (381 AD), and Chalcedon (451 AD).

Roman Catholics add to these the papal decrees summarizing in credal form the conclusions of the councils of the Roman Catholic Church concerning the sacraments, transubstantiation (the changing of the substance of the bread and wine in the mass into the body and blood of Christ), confession, the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, papal infallibility, and the Assumption of the body and soul of the Virgin Mary to heaven.

More or less binding for Protestants are their distinctive statements of faith:
• the Augsburg Confession of 1530 (Lutheran),
• the Heidelberg Catechism of 1563 (Reformed),
• the Westminster Confession of 1646 and
• Shorter Westminster Catechism of 1647 (Presbyterian), and
• others.
Other writings:
During the last seven centuries in the West, some religious writings have attained a semisacred, if not fully sacred, status:

• Imitatio Christi of Thomas à Kempis (1379/80–1471);
• John Bunyan’s (1628–88) The Pilgrim’s Progress; and,
• Mary Baker Eddy’s (1821–1910) Science and Health with a Key to the Scriptures. References:
• Cyclopedia of the Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature of the Bible
• New Strong's Expanded, Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
• Brown,-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Definitions
• Encyclopedia Brittanica
• Blue Letter Bible
• Wikipedia Judeo-Christian:
The Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and the Greek Scriptures (New Testament) are the two parts of the complete Bible that tell the story of YHVH's relationship with humanity.
The Hebrew Scriptures cover the creation of the world, the history of Israel, the laws and covenants of YHVH God, and the prophecies about the coming Messiah.
The Greek Scriptures reveal how Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ) fulfilled those prophecies, how He established a new covenant through His ransom sacrifice (death) and resurrection, and how His followers spread His gospel to the ends of the earth.

NEXT 8/3/2023
(finally!!!) Begin Scriptures study

The Lockman Foundation claims that the NASB "has been widely embraced as a literal and accurate English translation because it consistently uses the Formal Equivalence translation philosophy."[4]
One of the challenges of translating the Bible from its original languages is how to balance accuracy and readability.
Different translation philosophies have different approaches to this issue.
The **Formal Equivalence Translation** philosophy, which seeks to represent each word of the original text with an exact equivalent word in the target language, as far as possible.
This means that the translation tries to preserve the lexical details and grammatical structure of the original, even if it makes the text less natural or smooth in the target language.
Examples of Bible translations that use formal equivalence include: King James Version (KJV), Young's Literal Translation (YLT), New American Standard Bible (NASB), and English Standard Version (ESV).
Other translation philosophies, such as Dynamic Equivalence or Functional Equivalence, are more concerned with conveying the meaning and message of the original text in a way that is understandable and relevant for the target audience.

They use more paraphrasing, idiomatic expressions, and cultural adaptations to achieve this goal, but they may sacrifice some of the literal precision and fidelity of the original.
Examples of Bible translations that use dynamic equivalence include: New International Version (NIV), New Living Translation (NLT), and The Message (MSG).
The main difference between formal equivalence and other translation philosophies is the degree of literalness that they aim for.
Formal Equivalence tries to be as close to the original words as possible, while Dynamic Equivalence and Functional Equivalence try to be as close to the human translators choose as the original meaning as possible.
For example, a Dynamic Equivalence translation of Philippians 2:6 would say that Yeshua is YHVH in His very nature, while a Functional Equivalence translation would say that Yeshua was in the form of YHVH.
The Dynamic Equivalence philosophy can make the translation more readable and understandable for the target audience, but it can also lose some of the accuracy, nuances and details of the original text.
The Functional Equivalence philosophy can make the translation more accurate and consistent with the original text, but it can also make the translation more difficult and unnatural to read for the target audience.
All have their advantages and disadvantages, depending on the purpose and audience of the translation.
Formal Equivalence is more suitable for in-depth study and analysis of the biblical text, while the other philosophies are more suitable for general reading and communication of the biblical message.
The New American Standard Bible (NASB) and Formal Equivalence Translation Philosophy
The New American Standard Bible (NASB) is considered by some sources as the most literally translated of major 20th-century English Bible translations.[5]
According to the NASB's preface, the translators had a "Fourfold Aim" in this work:
1. These publications shall be true to the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
2. They shall be grammatically correct. 3. They shall be understandable.
4. They shall give the Lord Jesus Christ His proper place, the place which the Word gives Him; therefore, no work
will ever be personalized.[6]
The NASB is an original translation from the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts, based on the same principles of translation, and wording, as the American Standard Version (ASV) of 1901.
It offers an alternative to the Revised Standard Version (1946–1952/1971), which is considered by some to be theologically liberal,[7] and also to the 1929 revision of the ASV.[8] The Hebrew text used for this translation was the third edition of Rudolf Kittel's Biblia Hebraica as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia was consulted for the 1995 revision.
For Greek, Eberhard Nestle's Novum Testamentum Graece was used; the 23rd edition in the 1971 original,[9] and the 26th in the 1995 revision.[8] Seeing the need for a literal, modern translation of the English Bible, the translators sought to produce a contemporary English Bible while maintaining a word-for-word translation style. In cases where word-for- word literalness was determined to be unacceptable for modern readers, changes were made in the direction of more current idioms. In some such instances, the more literal renderings were indicated in footnotes.
The NASB claims to be reliable and faithful to the original languages.
It includes printing of verses as individual units (although more recent editions are available in paragraph format).
YHWH H3068 יהוה :Original -
- Transliteration: Y@hovah
- Phonetic: yeh-ho-vaw'
- Definition: Jehovah = the existing one
1. the proper name of the one true God
a. unpronounced except with the vowel pointings of 0136
- Origin: from H1961
- TWOT entry: 484a
- Part(s) of speech: Proper Name
- Strong's: From H1961; (the) self Existent or eternal; Jehovah Jewish national name of God: - Jehovah the Lord. Compare H3050 H3069.Total KJV Occurrences: 96
YHWH (rendered as "Jehovah" in the original ASV/A.S.V.) is rendered LORD or GOD in capital letters in the NASB.[9]
The committee stated the reason as:
This name has not been pronounced by the Jews because of reverence for the great sacredness of the divine name. Therefore it has been consistently translated LORD.
The only exception is when it occurs in immediate proximity to the word Lord, that is, Adonai.
In that case it is regularly translated GOD in order to avoid confusion.
It is known that for many years YHWH has been transliterated as Yahweh, however no complete certainty attaches to this pronunciation.[10]
This is in direct contrast to the preface of ASV of 70 years earlier, where the committee explained that "the American Revisers...were brought to the unanimous conviction that a Jewish superstition, which regarded the Divine Name as too sacred to be uttered, ought no longer to dominate in the English or any other version of the
Old Testament."[11] Genesis 1:1–3
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit
of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.[3]
John 3:16
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.[3]
1995 revision
In 1995, the Lockman Foundation reissued the NASB text as the NASB Updated Edition (more commonly, the Updated NASB or NASB95).
Since then, it has become widely known as simply the "NASB", supplanting the 1977 text in current printings, save for a few (Thompson Chain Reference Bibles, Open Bibles, Key Word Study Bibles, et al.).
In the updated NASB, consideration was given to the latest available manuscripts with an emphasis on determining the best Greek text. Primarily, the 26th edition of Nestle-Aland's Novum Testamentum Graece is closely followed.
The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia is also employed together with the most recent information from lexicography, cognate languages, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.[12]
The updated NASB represents recommended revisions and refinements, and states that it incorporates thorough research based on current English usage.[13]
Vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure were meticulously revised for greater understanding and smoother reading, hence increasing clarity and readability.[13]
Terms found in Elizabethan English such as "thy" and "thou" have been modernized, while verses with difficult word ordering are restructured. Punctuation and paragraphing have been formatted for
modernization, and verbs with multiple meanings have been updated to better account for their contextual usage.[13]
2020 revision
The 2020 revision is the version used in this study, along with other versions of the Scriptures.
Starting in 2018, the Lockman Foundation posted some passages from "NASB 2020", an update of the 1995 revision.[14]
Key differences from the 1995 revision include:
• an effort to improve "gender accuracy" (for example, adding "or sisters" in italics to passages that reference "brothers", to help convey the mixed- gender meaning of a passage that might otherwise be misunderstood as only speaking of men),
• a shift (where applicable) from the common construct "let us" when proposing action to the more-contemporary construct "let's" (to disambiguate a sort of "imperative" encouragement rather than a seeking of permission that could otherwise be misunderstood from a given passage), and,
• a repositioning of some "bracketed text" (that is, verses or portions of verses that are not present in earliest Biblical manuscripts, and thus printed in brackets in previous NASB editions) out from inline-and-in- brackets down instead to footnotes.[15]

Translators
The translation work was done by a group sponsored by the Lockman Foundation.[16]
According to the Lockman Foundation, the committee consisted of people from Christian institutions of higher learning and from evangelical Protestant, predominantly conservative, denominations (Presbyterian, Methodist, Southern Baptist, Church of Christ, Nazarene, American Baptist, Fundamentalist, Conservative Baptist, Free Methodist, Congregational, Disciples of Christ, Evangelical Free, Independent Baptist, Independent Mennonite, Assembly of God, North American Baptist, and "other religious groups").[17][18]
The foundation's Web site indicates that among the translators and consultants who contributed are Bible
scholars with doctorates in biblical languages, theology, "or other advanced degrees", and come from a variety of denominational backgrounds.
More than 20 individuals worked on modernizing the NASB in accord with the most recent research.[18] References
1. "More Information about NASB 2020" (https://www.lockman.org/nasb- bible-info/more-inform
ation-about-nasb-2020/). The Lockman Foundation. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2 0210110073221/https://www.lockman.org/nasb-bible-info/more- information-about-nasb-202 0/) from the original on January 10, 2021. Retrieved January 10, 2021. "For the Old
Testament: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS) and Biblia Hebraica Quinta (BHQ) for the books available. Also the LXX, DSS, the Targums, and other ancient versions when
pertinent."
2. "More Information about NASB 2020" (https://www.lockman.org/nasb- bible-info/more-inform
ation-about-nasb-2020/). The Lockman Foundation. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2 0210110073221/https://www.lockman.org/nasb-bible-info/more- information-about-nasb-202
0/) from the original on January 10, 2021. Retrieved January 10, 2021. "For the New
Testament: NA28 supplemented by the new textual criticism system that uses all the
available Gr mss. known as the ECM2."
3. Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible. http://www.lockman.org
4. "NASB Bible Info" (https://www.lockman.org/nasb-bible-info/). Lockman Foundation.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20210115054730/https://www.lockman.org /nasb-bible-info/) from the original on January 15, 2021. Retrieved January 16, 2021.
5. Pope, Christopher. "Comparing Bible Translations: Conclusions" (http://lwelliott.com/Documents/Translations_Summary.pdf) (PDF). Retrieved May 21, 2013.
6. "The Lockman Foundation - NASB, Amplified, LBLA, and NBLH Bibles" (https://web.archive.org/web/20191218085036/http://www.lockman.org/ nasb/nasbprin.php).
Lockman.org.
Archived from the original (http://www.lockman.org/nasb/nasbprin.php) on December 18, 2019. Retrieved February 16, 2012.
7. Harris, R. Laird (1969). "Inspiration and Canonicity of the Bible: An Historical and Exegetical
Study". Contemporary Evangelical Perspectives (2nd ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan. p. 58.
8. "NASB Translation Principles" (http://lockman.org/nasb/nasbprin.php). lockman.org. Retrieved December 2, 2015.
9. "Preface" (http://www.bible-researcher.com/nasb-preface.html). Retrieved August 9, 2010.
10. Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible (https://books.google.com/books?id=Se9YB864j PMC&pg=PT10) (NASB 1977 ed.)
April 21, 2011. ISBN 9781581351521. Retrieved February 16, 2012.

11. "Preface to the American edition" (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/bible/asv.ii.html). Retrieved August 9, 2010.
12. "Why the NASB?" (http://lockman.org/nasb/nasbcmp.php). The Lockman Foundation.
Retrieved June 16, 2009.
13. "New American Standard Bible" (http://lockman.org/nasb/index.php). The Lockman
Foundation. Retrieved June 16, 2009.
14. "The Lockman Foundation (NASB, Amplified, LBLA, NBLH)" (https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Nonprofit Organization/TheLockmanFoundation/posts/). http://www.facebook.com. Retrieved June 27, 2019. 15. "More Information About NASB 2020" (https://www.lockman.org/nasb-bible-info/more-inform ation-about-nasb-2020/). lockman.org. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
16. Metzger, Bruce (2003). The New Testament: Its Background, Growth, and Content (3rd ed.)
Nashville: Abingdon Press. p. 336.
17. BeDuhn, Jason David (2003). Truth in Translation -- Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament. University Press of America. p. 35,39. ISBN 978-0761825562.18. "The Lockman Foundation - NASB, Amplified Bible, LBLA, and NBLH Bibles" (http://www.lockman.org/nasb/nasbprin.php).
The Lockman Foundation.
Further reading
Marlowe, Michael D. (October 2002). "New American Standard Bible" (http://www.bible-researcher.com/nasb.html).
Retrieved March 19, 2005.

The Lockman Foundation (1995). "Preface to the New American Standard Bible" (http://www.bible-researcher.com/nasb-preface.html). Retrieved March 19, 2005.
The Lockman Foundation. "New American Standard Bible" (http://lockman.org/nasb/index.php).
Retrieved April 13, 2006.
The Lockman Foundation. "Translation Principles" (http://lockman.org/nasb/nasbprin.php). Retrieved April 13, 2006.
Ryken, Leland (2002). The Word of God in English. Wheaton, IL: Crossway. ISBN 1-58134-464-3
External links
Official webpage (https://www.lockman.org/new-american-standard- bible-nasb/)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_American_Standard_B ible&oldid=1165287887"

NOTE:
In the Scriptures used in this study from the NASB, there are three (3) different superscripts utilized in the text.
The superscripts beginning with H or G refer to the Strong's numbers. The superscript N indicates a footnote and the R indicates cross-reference verses.
They give the information usually found in the center line concordance. The references are expanded underneath each verse in their order of appearance in the Scripture.

ANOTHER NOTE.
About the name YHWH (or, YHVH or Jehovah) and translations from the Hebrew and Greek.
In these studies, the Creator, the Heavenly Father, may be referred to by His title, God, or by the various translations of His personal name:
Psalms 83:18 YLT
(18) And they know that Thou—(Thy name is Jehovah—by Thyself,) Art the Most High over all the earth!
Psalms 83:18 KJV
(18) That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.
JEHOVAH H3068 H3068
יהוה
yehôvâh yeh-ho-vaw'
(the) self Existent or eternal; Jehovah, Jewish national name of God: - Jehovah, the Lord.
OR
Psalms 83:18 CLV (Concordant Literal Version)
(18) So that men may realize that You, You, Whose Name is Yahweh, Yours alone, Are the Supreme over all the earth.
The name of God in the Jewish Scriptures is an enigmatic mystery.
Exodus 3:13-15 CLV
(13) Now Moses said to the One, Elohim: Behold! When I am coming to the sons of Israel, and I say to them, The Elohim of your fathers sends me to you, then they will say to me, What about His name? What shall I say to them?
(14) Then Elohim spoke to Moses: I shall come to be just as I am coming to be. And He said: Thus shall you say to the sons of Israel, I-Shall-Come-to- Be has sent me to you.
(15) And Elohim said further to Moses: Thus shall you say to the sons of Israel, Yahweh, the Elohim of your fathers, the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of Isaac and the Elohim of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name for the eon, and this the remembrance of Me for generation after generation.
While people often pronounce God's name as “Yahweh”, “Jehovah” or "Yehovah", the god of the Israelites, His name was revealed to Moses as four Hebrew consonants (YHWH) called the tetragrammaton (the term to .). יהוה ,designate the sacred name of Jehovah, in four letters
The truth is that today, no one really knows how to say it.
In most Bibles the tetragrammaton is translated as “the LORD”.
After the Babylonian Exile (6th century BCE), and especially from the 3rd century BCE on, Jews ceased to use the name that is believed to be, Yahweh, apparently for two reasons:
• As Judaism became a universal rather than merely local religion, the
more common noun Elohim, meaning “God,” tended to replace "Yahweh" to demonstrate the universal sovereignty of Israel’s God over all others.
AND
• At this same time, the divine name was increasingly regarded as too
sacred to be spoken; it was replaced vocally in the synagogue ritual by the Hebrew word Adonai (“My Lord”), which was translated as Kyrios (“Lord”) in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures.
The Masoretes, who from about the 6th to the 10th century worked to reproduce the original text of the Hebrew Bible, replaced the vowels of the name YHWH with the vowel signs of the Hebrew words Adonai or Elohim.
Latin-speaking Christian scholars substituted the "Y" (which does not exist in Latin) with the letters "I "or a "J" (even though the sound, "Jay" was not invented yet, instead it was pronounced in Latin as a variant form of "I").
The vocalization of the tetragrammaton, as "Iehouah", was first introduced by William Tyndale in 1534 A.D., in his translation of the Pentateuch in Exodus 6:3:
Exodus 6:3 Tyndale
(3) and I appeared vnto Abraham, Isaac and Iacob an allmightie God: but in my name Iehouah was I not knowne vnto them.
Eventually, the tetragrammaton became the artificial Latinized name, "Jehovah".
As the use of "Jehovah" spread throughout medieval Europe, the initial letter "J" was pronounced according to the local vernacular language rather than Latin.
How did the letter "J" get the sound we use today?
Both "I" and "J" were used interchangeably by scribes to express the sound of both the vowel and the consonant.
It wasn't until 1524 when Gian Giorgio Trissino, an Italian Renaissance grammarian known as the "father of the letter "J", made a clear distinction between the two sounds, giving "J" the sound we use today.
Although Christian scholars after the Renaissance and Reformation periods used the term "Jehovah" for the tetragrammaton, in the 19th and 20th centuries biblical scholars again began to use the form "Yahweh".
Early Christian writers, such as Clement of Alexandria in the 2nd century, had used a form like "Yahweh", and this pronunciation of the tetragrammaton was never really lost.
Many Greek transcriptions also indicated that the tetragrammaton should be pronounced "Yahweh".
How does that apply to the name of Jesus?
Yeshua and His disciples were all Jewish and so they had Hebrew names - although they would likely have spoken Aramaic.
The “J” sound used to pronounce Jesus’ name does not exist in Hebrew or Aramaic, which is strong evidence that Jesus was called something entirely different by His contemporaries.
Jesus' original Hebrew name is Yeshua, which is short for Yehōshu'a. It’s a version of Joshua, and it means “Jehovah-saved”.
The name Jeshua was known and used in Jewish history – you can find men called Yeshua in the roll calls of teams serving in the temple (1Ch_24:11, 2Ch_31:15, Ezr_2:2).

Luke 1:30-31
(30) And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.
(31) And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus G2424
Jesus G2424
G2424
Ἰησοῦς
Iēsous
ee-ay-sooce'
Of Hebrew origin [H3091]; Yeshua (that is, Jehoshua), the name of our Lord and two (three) other Israelites: - Yeshua.
H3091
ע יהוֹשוּ ע יהוֹש
yehôshûa‛ yehôshûa‛
yeh-ho-shoo'-ah, yeh-ho-shoo'-ah
Jehovah-saved; Jehoshua (that is, Joshua), the Jewish leader: - Jehoshua, Jehoshuah, Joshua.
Since not every language shares the same sounds, people have historically adapted their names so as to be able to pronounce them in various languages.
Even in modern languages, there are differences in the pronunciation of "Yeshua".
In English, the name is pronounced with a hard “J” sound while in Spanish, even though the spelling is the same, the name is pronounced with what would be an “H” sound in English.
It is precisely this type of transliteration that has evolved “Yeshua” into the modern “Jesus.”
The New Testament was originally written in Greek (hence, the "Greek Scriptures"), which not only uses an entirely different alphabet than Hebrew but also lacks the “sh” sound found in “Yeshua.”
The Greek Scriptures translators decided to use the Greek “s” sound in place of the “sh” in Yeshua and then added a final “s” to the end of the name
to make it masculine in their language.
When, in turn, the Bible was translated into Latin from the original Greek, the translators rendered the name as “Iesus.”
John 19:19-20 YLT
(19) And Pilate also wrote a title, and put it on the cross, and it was written, 'Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews;'
(20) this title, therefore, read many of the Jews, because the place was nigh to the city where Jesus was crucified, and it was having been written in Hebrew, in Greek, in Roman.
This inscription has been a standard part of depictions of the crucifixion in Western Christianity for centuries as “INRI,” an abbreviation for the Latin: Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum
(pronounced: eye-ee-sus Naz-uh-ree-nuss Rex eye-oo-day-oh-rum), or “Iesus the Nazarene King of the Jews.”
Since Latin was the preferred language of the Catholic Church, the Latin version of “Iesus” was the name for Christ throughout Europe.
Even the 1611 publication of the King James Bible used the “Iesus” spelling.
In Swiss, the “J” is pronounced more like an English “Y”, or the Latin “Ie” as in “Iesus”.
When the Catholic Queen, “Bloody” Mary I took the English throne in 1553, droves of English Protestant scholars fled, and many ultimately found refuge in Geneva.
It was there that a team of some of the most devout English Christian minds of the day produced the Geneva Bible that used the “Jesus” with a "J", Swiss spelling.
The Geneva Bible was an enormously popular translation and was the version of the Bible quoted by Shakespeare and Milton.
Eventually, it was brought over to the New World on the Mayflower. By 1769, most English translations of the Bible were using the “Jesus” spelling popularized by the Geneva Bible.
Thus, the name used by English-speakers today is an English adaptation of a German transliteration of a Latin transliteration of a Greek transliteration of an originally Hebrew name.
Though His name may actually be Joshua, the name "Jesus" wasn't born out of creativity but of translation.
When "Yeshua" is translated into Greek, from which the New Testament is derived, it becomes Iēsous, which in English spelling is "Jesus."
Overall, the difference in names is due to translation.
While any particular religious group may prefer one of the other, the Bible doesn't explicitly deem one translation more respectful than any other.
Whether identified as Jesus or Yeshua, the story of His life and mission remains consistent.
It is unfortunate that the Lockman Foundation decided to interpret the tetragrammaton as a title, such as, LORD or GOD.
Wherever the Tetragrammaton, "יהוה", appears in the text of the Hebrew
Scripture, the the Lockman Foundation's translation to the title they selected will be annotated with [YHWH-YahWeh; YHVH-yehôvâh; JEHOVAH], to indicate the proper Name of the Almighty, just as He, Himself, "breathed" it to the original writers (2Ti_3:16-17).
A discussion arose concerning the seven "days" of creation. Some might ask, what does this have to do with Salvation? That's not an easy question to answer in just a few words.
Some believe that the Hebrew word, H853, (Hidden Treasures In the Biblical Text, by Chuck Missler), which consists of two Hebrew letters, the aleph and the tau,
the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet, are analagous to the Alpha and Omega in the Greek Scriptures - therefore identifying Yeshua Messiah in its two occurrences in Genesis 1:1 in the original Hebrew text.
If true, Genesis 1:1 would have a direct Scriptural relationship with YHVH's plan of salvation. But that's another study.
The question at hand is about the harmonizing the creative "days" with so many conflicting theories.
To begin, what was the Hebrew definition of a "day"?
A Jewish-calendar day does not begin at midnight, but at either sunset or when three medium-sized stars should be visible, depending on the religious circumstance.
Sunset marks the start of the 12 night hours, whereas sunrise marks the start of the 12 day hours. This means that night hours may be longer or shorter than day hours, depending on the season.
How did first century Jewish understanding of a DAY and a Sabbath Day?
Genesis 1:3-5 NASB
(3) Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
(4) God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
(5) God called the light H216 “day H3117 ,” and the darkness H2822 He called “night H3915 .” And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
Notice how the darkness preceeds the light in defining when a Day begins.
Yeshua alludes to there being twelve hours in a day.
John 11:9 NASB
(9) Jesus replied, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? G2250 If anyone
walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.
The Romans had 12 day-hours and 12 night-hours. Their next day began at midnight.

The first daylight hour (hora prima) began at sunrise, noon was the sixth hour (hora sexta), and the last hour (hora duodecima) ended at sunset. There were no minutes or seconds.
The Jewish day begins at sunset and ends at the next sunset, roughly 24 hours later.
Depending on the time of year there may be more or less hours in the daytime and nighttime.
Yeshua mentioning "twelve hours in a day" was typical of the average amount of sunlight during a day depending on the season.
The length of each hour was relative.
The official Jewish daytime (light) always had twelve hours and the night (darkness) twelve hours.
It was the hours themselves that would be shorter or longer to fit into the season of the year.
Not really an issue when you don't have a clock controlling your every moment.
Ancient Jewish writings always refer to hours in a relative sense. The Romans were similar in their reckoning as well.
Genesis 1:5 should ultimately be our authority and was likely Yeshua’s, as well:
“And there was evening and there was morning, one day H3117”
Each new day had an evening and a morning, or a sunset followed by a sunrise, and lasting until the next sunset.
Scripturally, one day is approximately twenty-four hours: twelve hours in daylight and twelve in darkness, but this is relative because in Christ's time on earth it is the sunset that determines when it starts and finished - not hands on a clock as in modern times.
YHVH's clock is the master clock.

HOWEVER, there is another definition of time in the Scriptures:
2Pe_3:8
2 Peter 3:8 NASB
(8) But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day G2250 is like a thousand years G2094 , and a thousand years like one day.
Being cognizant of the Scriptural counsel against humans believing we can think like YHVH thinks:
Pro_3:5
Proverbs 3:5 NASB
(5) Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.
Isa_55:8-9
Isaiah 55:8-9 NASB
(8) “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.
(9) “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.
Nonetheless, it seems apparent from the Scriptures that the "days" of creation were the thousand year variety as mortals reckon time (as indicated by Adam's life span - provided in its proper sequence).

BEFORE THE CREATIVE DAYS BEGAN:
Genesis 1:1-2 NASB
(1) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
(2) And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
NOTE:
FWIW, using the Strong's definitions, Genesis 1:1
Genesis 1:1 NASB+
(1) In the beginningH 7225 God H430 created H1254 the heavensH8064 and the earth H776 could be interpreted:
Genesis 1:1 NASB+
(1) First H7225 Elohim, mighty Gods H430 miraculously made from nothing H1254 sky H8064 and earth H776.
Also, these verses appear to have taken place outside of the creative "days" and, therefore, may have taken thousands or millions of years to complete - - or, perhaps, just an instant.

CREATIVE DAY ONE:
Gen_1:3-5
Genesis 1:3-5 NASB
(3) Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
(4) God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
(5) God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening and there was morning, one H259 day H3117

CREATIVE DAY TWO:
Gen_1:6-8
Genesis 1:6-8 NASB
(6) Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”
(7) God made the expanse, and separated the waters that were below the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse; and it was so.
(8) God called the expanse “heaven H8064 .” And there was evening and there was morning, a second H8145 day H3117

CREATIVE DAY THREE:
Gen_1:9-13
Genesis 1:9-13 NASB
(9) Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.
(10) And God called the dry land “earth,” and the gathering of the waters He called “seas”; and God saw that it was good.
(11) Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit according to their kind with seed in them”; and it was so.
(12) The earth produced vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, according to their kind; and God saw that it was good.
(13) And there was evening H7992 and there was morning, a third day H3117

CREATIVE DAY FOUR:
Gen_1:14-19
Genesis 1:14-19 NASB
(14) Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and they shall serve as signs and for seasons, and for days and years;
(15) and they shall serve as lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.
(16) God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. (17) God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,
(18) and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good.
(19) And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth H7243 day H3117

CREATIVE DAY FIVE:
Gen_1:20-23
Genesis 1:20-23 NASB
(20) Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.”
(21) And God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind; and God saw that it was good.
(22) God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
(23) And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth H2549 day H3117

CREATIVE DAY SIX:
Gen_1:24-31
Genesis 1:24-31 NASB
(24) Then God said, “Let the earth H776 produce H3318 living creatures
according to their kind: livestock and crawling things and animals of the earth according to their kind”; and it was so.
(25) God made the animals of the earth according to their kind, and the livestock according to their kind, and everything that crawls on the ground according to its kind; and God saw that it was good.
(26) Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.”
(27) So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
(28) God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (29) Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;
(30) and to every animal of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so.
(31) And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth H8345 day H3117

NOTE:
Gen_5:1-2
Genesis 5:1-2 NASB
(1) This is the book of the generations of Adam. On the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.
(2) He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them “mankind” on the day when they were created.

CREATIVE DAY SEVEN:

Gen_2:1-3
Genesis 2:1-3 NASB
(1) And so the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their heavenly lights.
(2) By the seventh H7637 day H3117 God completed His work which He had done, and He rested H7673 on the seventh H7637 day H3117 from all His work which He had done H6213 .
(3) Then God blessed the seventh H7637 day H3117 and sanctified it, because on it He rested H7673 from all His work which God had created and made H6213

NOTE:
rested H7673
שבת :Original -
- Transliteration: Shabath - Phonetic: shaw-bath'
- Definition:
1. to cease, desist, rest a. (Qal)
1. to cease
2. to rest, desist (from labour) b. (Niphal) to cease
c. (Hiphil)
1. to cause to cease, put an end to 2. to exterminate, destroy
3. to cause to desist from
4. to remove
5. to cause to fail
2. (Qal) to keep or observe the sabbath
- Origin: a primitive root
- TWOT entry: 2323, 2323c - Part(s) of speech: Verb
- Strong's: A primitive root; to repose that is desist from exertion; used in many implied relations (causatively figuratively or specifically): - (cause to let make to) cease celebrate cause (make) to fail keep (sabbath) suffer to be lacking leave put away (down) (make to) rest rid still take away.

NOTE:
At this point the Scriptural narrative breaks its chronological order and backs up in time to creative "days" THREE through SIX:

Gen_2:4-9
Genesis 2:4-9 NASB
(4) This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD [YHWH-YahWeh; YHVH-yehôvâh; JEHOVAH] H3068 God made earth and heaven.
(5) Now no shrub of the field was yet on the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the LORD [YHWH-YahWeh; YHVH-yehôvâh; JEHOVAH] H3068 God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground.
(6) But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.
(7) Then the LORD [YHWH-YahWeh; YHVH-yehôvâh; JEHOVAH] H3068 God formed the man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living person.
(8) The LORD [YHWH-YahWeh; YHVH-yehôvâh; JEHOVAH] H3068 God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.
(9) Out of the ground the LORD [YHWH-YahWeh; YHVH-yehôvâh; JEHOVAH] H3068 God caused every tree to grow that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

REMAINING IN CREATIVE DAY SIX:
Gen_2:15-25
Genesis 2:15-25 NASB
(15) Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and tend it.
(16) The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may freely eat;
(17) but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die.”
(18) Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” (19) And out of the ground the LORD God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.
(20) The man gave names to all the livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.
(21) So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. (22) And the LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
(23) Then the man said, “At last this is bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called ‘woman,’ Because she was taken out of man.” (24) For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
(25) And the man and his wife were both naked, but they were not ashamed.

STILL REMAINING IN CREATIVE DAY SIX:

Gen_3:1-24
Genesis 3:1-24 NASB
(1) Now the serpent was more cunning than any animal of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
(2) The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;
(3) but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”
(4) The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die!
(5) “For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil.”
(6) When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.
(7) Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves waist coverings.
(8) Now they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
(9) Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”
(10) He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
(11) And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?”
(12) The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me some of the fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
(13) Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
(14) Then the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all the livestock, And more than any animal of the field; On your belly you shall go, And dust you shall eat All the days of your life;
(15) And I will make enemies Of you and the woman, And of your offspring and her Descendant; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise Him on the heel.”
(16) To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you shall deliver children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.”
(17) Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; With hard labor you shall eat from it All the days of your life.
(18) “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; Yet you shall eat the plants of the field;
(19) By the sweat of your face You shall eat bread, Until you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”
(20) Now the man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.
(21) And the LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
(22) Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out with his hand, and take fruit also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—
(23) therefore the LORD God sent him out of the Garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.

(24) So He drove the man out; and at the east of the Garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.
REMEMBERING THAT EACH CREATIVE DAY (TO YHVH) EQUALS 1,000 YEARS (TO MANKIND),
EVEN STILL REMAINING IN CREATIVE DAY SIX: Gen_4:1-24 (Cain and Abel)
Gen_4:25
Genesis 4:25 NASB
(25) Adam had relations with his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for, she said, “God has appointed me another child in place of Abel, because Cain killed him.”
Gen_5:3-5
Genesis 5:3-5 NASB
(3) When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.
(4) Then the days of Adam after he fathered Seth were eight hundred years, and he fathered other sons and daughters.
(5) So all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.

NOTE:
In prayerfully considering these Scriptures, it seems that Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden BEFORE Adam was 130 human years old (Gen_5:3).
It also seems that Adam died BEFORE the end of CREATIVE DAY SIX, or, perhaps, within the first 69 human years of CREATIVE DAY SEVEN (Gen_2:17).

NEXT 8/10/2023
Continue Salvation

Mat_25:34
Matthew 25:34 NASB
(34) “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Joh_17:24
John 17:24 NASB
(24) “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
1Pe_1:17-21
1 Peter 1:17-21 NASB
(17) If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth;
(18) knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,
(19) but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
(20) For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you
(21) who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
Rev_13:1-9
Revelation 13:1-9 NASB
(1) And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten crowns, and on his heads were blasphemous names.
(2) And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne, and great authority.
(3) I saw one of his heads as if it had been fatally wounded, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast;
(4) they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?”
(5) A mouth was given to him speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him.
(6) And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven.
(7) It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority was given to him over every tribe, people, language, and nation.
(8) All who live on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written since the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slaughtered.
(9) If anyone has an ear, let him hear.
Rev_17:8
Revelation 17:8 NASB
(8) “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction. And those who live on the earth, whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will wonder when they see the beast, that he was, and is not, and will come.
Can it be reasonable to conclude, then, that YHVH already knew that Adam would partake of the fruit in the Garden?

Isa_46:9-11
Isaiah 46:9-11 NASB
(9) “Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me,
(10) Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My plan will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;
(11) Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man of My purpose from a distant country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, I will certainly do it.
And by committing the sin of disobedience by partaking of the fruit, that
death would be introduced into the world?
Gen_2:15-17
Genesis 2:15-17 NASB
(15) Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and tend it.
(16) The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may freely eat;
(17) but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Rom_5:12
Romans 5:12 NASB
(12) Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned—
AND, that YHVH had already worked out His plan of salvation for mankind?
Gen_3:15
Genesis 3:15 NASB
(15) And I will make enemies Of you and the woman, And of your offspring and her Descendant; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise Him on the heel.”
So that, with Adam's sin, Adam and Eve, and indeed all mankind, could now learn first-hand the result of using their self-will to govern their own lives their own way, instead of accepting the will of YHVH.
Now, YHVH's Plan for educating the human race and rescuing them - us - from the wages we all so richly deserve, was now in motion and moving forward.
If all that is true, then, Yes, the Sixth "Creative Day" was, indeed, a "very good" day.
Today, people are taught to blame Adam and Eve for EVERYONE's sin and death, in particular. The Scriptures seem to imply that the Garden was outside of earth, along with Paradise.

The Christian teaching of being "born again" is based on the teaching of Yeshua Messiah, who said
Joh_3:3
John 3:3 NASB
(3) Jesus responded and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born G1080 again G509 [Or, from above] he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
born G1080 G1080 γεννάω
gennaō
ghen-nah'-o
From a variation of G1085; to procreate (properly of the father, but by extension of the mother); figuratively to regenerate: - bear, beget, be born, bring forth, conceive, be delivered of, gender, make, spring.
LXX related word(s) H3 ev
H1249 bar
H1416 gedud H2981 yevul H3318 yatsa H3384 yarah hi. H4395 meleah H6510 parah H8393 tevuah H8570 tenuvah
again G509 G509 ἄνωθεν
anōthen
an'-o-then
From G507; from above; by analogy from the first; by implication anew: -nfrom above, again, from the beginning (very first), the top.

Notice that the word, born G1080 attributed to Yeshua refers to procreation.
Yet the second word, again G509 , seems to refer to a non-physical kind of procreation.
Yeshua, Himself, explains this is the verses that follow:
Joh_3:4-12
John 3:4-12 NASB
(4) Nicodemus *said to Him, “How can a person be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?” (5) Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born G1080 of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
(6) “That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit.
(7) “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born G1080 again G509 [Or, from above].’
(8) “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born G1080 of the Spirit.”
(9) Nicodemus responded and said to Him, “How can these things be?” (10) Jesus answered and said to him, “You are the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
(11) “Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you people do not accept our testimony.
(12) “If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
Clearly, Yeshua is not referring to a physical rebirth, but a spiritual one, in which a person receives a new nature and a new relationship with YHVH through faith in Yeshua Messiah.

Peter uses a different Greek word, perhaps invented by him (but unfortunately translated as the same English words), to explain this:
1Pe_1:3-5
1 Peter 1:3-5 NASB

(3) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born G313 again G313 to a living
hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
(4) to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,
(5) who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
1Pe_1:17-25
1 Peter 1:17-25 NASB
(17) If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth;
(18) knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,
(19) but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
(20) For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you
(21) who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
(22) Since you have purified your souls in obedience to the truth for a sincere love of the brothers and sisters, fervently love one another from the heart,
(23) for you have been born G313 again G313 not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.
(24) For, “ALL FLESH IS LIKE GRASS, AND ALL ITS GLORY IS LIKE THE FLOWER OF GRASS. THE GRASS WITHERS, AND THE FLOWER FALLS OFF,
(25) BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER.” And this is the word which was preached to you.
born G313 again G313 G313
ἀναγεννάω
anagennaō
an-ag-en-nah'-o
From G303 and G1080; to beget or (by extension) bear (again): - beget, (bear) X again.

Notice - ONE Greek word, requiring TWO English words to convey its complete meaning.

To be born G313 again G313 (born G1080 again G509) is to experience a transformation of the soul and heart by the work of YHVH's Spirit, who gives birth to spirit.
Joh_3:5-6
John 3:5-6 NASB
(5) Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
(6) “That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit.
The born G313 again G313 (born G1080 again G509) Christian realizes that s/he is a sinner who needs YHVH's forgiveness and grace, and that Yeshua Messiah voluntarily laid down His life on the cross to pay the penalty for mankind's sin and to give humans the possibility of eternal life. Joh_3:14-17
John 3:14-17 NASB
(14) “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
(15) so that everyone who believes will have eternal life in Him.
(16) “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.
(17) “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.
The born G313 again G313 (born G1080 again G509) person also receives Holy Spirit, who, if allowed by the human, guides, teaches, empowers and sanctifies her/him.
Joh_3:6-8
John 3:6-8 NASB
(6) “That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit.
(7) “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
(8) “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”

Joh_14:26
John 14:26 NASB
(26) “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I said to you.
Rom_8:9-11
Romans 8:9-11 NASB
(9) However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
(10) If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
(11) But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Being born G313 again G313 (born G1080 again G509) is not a result of human effort or ritual, but a gift from YHVH that can only be received by believing in Yeshua Messiah as Lord and Savior.
Eph_2:8-10
Ephesians 2:8-10 NASB
(8) For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
(9) not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
(10) For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Joh_1:12-13
John 1:12-13 NASB
(12) But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name,
(13) who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God.

Another perspective on Yeshua and his reference to being “born again”

This term was already in use during 1st century. This was not new for Yeshua. Why did Nicodemus ask what he did? Strange question for a learned Pharisee who was a sage, a respected member of the Sanhedrin.

Nicodemus understood what it meant he just did not understand how it applied to him.

The ? Is not a serious one but is hyperbole! The English translation from Greek written by someone from a hebrew cultural perspective, someone thinking in Hebrew whose first language is likely Hebrew, causes a modern reading of the text to be difficult to understand. It would not have been problem in the 1st century

He is trying to connect Yeshuas born again or born from above with who Yeshua is...

Who are you Yeshua (your not a scholar like me) to tell me I Have to be born from above.This is a Hebrew idiomatic expression.

In the mind of Nocodemus, Yeshua is telling him that he must do as the proselytes do. I can imagine Nicodemus thinking to himself, how dare you! I’ve served God my whole life and you say I have to do what a gentile does?

Notes: As they recieve torah on Sinai it is as if they were born from above or born again. This was regarded as a new birth. Being Jewish was not enough to save you, there must be a conversion of the heart, spiritual circumcision if you will.

Talmud speaks of a proselyte like a newly born child

Usually this applies to one who turns to YHVH and becomes part of Israel. They are cleansed in a mikvah, aka immersed aka baptized. They are now born again. This was a Jewish practice for those turning to th faith.

Water and the spirit. Also a hebrew expression. It is called a doublet... Expressing things the same way twice. This is very common in Hebrew.

(Exa. (Judges 13:3) You are sterile and childless... Same thing in a different way. Says it twice. She knows sterile means childless.
Solution: you will conceieve and have a son. That is how it works, as we know. Hebrew communicates the thought by saying it twice.
He got up and went, he looked up and saw...Where is Frank? Frank got up and went to the store.

In Hebrew communication happens often in doublets.

Flesh gives birth to flesh, spirit to spirit.
You need to be moved by God's spirit, have encounter with God.

This is about more than cognitive-emotional responses. To do an outward application of the commands without doing it from the heart is legalism.

Even as a religious Jew Nicodemus still had to be “born again.” Going through the motions are not enough.

Yeshua gives example to Nico from Numbers regarding the serpent on a pole. The word for bite in Hebrew doesn't mean simply biting but fatally biting, causing death spiritually not just in the flesh. What is required of them to be saved? Trust in God, faithfulness because of faith. The pole had no power, the faith of those who trusted Gods word that they would be healed just by looking at the serpent and it would heal them and restore them to Relationship with God.

Restoration of a relationship with God which was lost or not previously known is the event. Being born again is a deep change that happens within. Loving God with all of one's heart, soul, and strength. Not just with the mind.

Is the spirit a new thing? Yeshua goes away and now spirit can come? The spirit never worked before in the lives of God's people? The dispensation of the spirit is based on a paradigm.

Vs.8) when He comes... Sounds like the spirit had not manifested before...

The builders of the tabernacle were anointed with God's spirit. The invisible manifestation empowered these people to use their natural abilities to build the tabernacle according to the pattern God gave to Moses. Skill, ability, knowlege and all kinds of crafts according the Torah.

Pauls's list in Corinthians is not exhaustive.

Num. 27:18) Moses anoint Joshua. A man in whom is the spirit gives the authority to Joshua. The spirit is said to be in Joshua, Joseph, Moses and so on. The spirit anointed them in the same way as the apostles. The prophets were anointed by the spirit. The spirit seems to have a more active role but is not doing something now it never did before.

Judges 3:8-10 Authniel is anointed, the spirit comes upon him he is now a messiah.

The spirit can be in, with, upon in Greek. Hebrew does not describe things the same way as Greek. The style of communication is different. The argument that in Greek uses different expressions is not a valid argument. The translation of the text is the reason this is significant, the original meaning is not affected.

Samson had the spirit come upon him in power! This is still an anointing of the spirit. Obviously the spirit is at work in people's lives thousands of years before Yeshua.

Saul is anointed as king, 1 Sam. 10:6 spirit of lord comes upon him in power, he prophesies and is changed to a new person.

Why is my new creature in Messiah so similar to the old? Because I am human. Duh! We are not instantly changed into a new person that never sins again. The evangelical Dogmas have tainted the reality of anointing and what the work of the spirit is.

1 sam 16) anointing of David
2 chron Same with azaria the prophet
Psalm 51:10-12) Don't take spirit from me o lord?
Some say the spirit cannot be removed from a “Christian”
This verse has nothing to do with this.
David did not plead to lose spirit but that God would not remove his favor as he did from Saul.

The spirit convicts the world of sin. Spirit helps complete the message of God through the apostolic writings. The spirit will not lead us into anything not already revealed by God in Scripture.

John 7:37) last day of tabernacles. Yeshua says come to drink of me. There was a ceremony where water is being poured out. It says up to that time spirit had not yet been (given) Given not in the text...

The spirit had not what? Because Yeshua not yet been glorified...
This is cited as a distinction between new and old covenants. Spirit is different.
Is this true? What does the text say?

To receive the spirit is not theological.
Response in text is “Surely this man is the prophet!” vs. 40 messiah
He is identified as messiah because of his words regarding the outpouring of spirit.

Substitute “given” with “poured out.” Both words are supplied. Most bibles dont italicize supplied words in text. KJV and Nasb are some that do.

Given?
Gen. 1) spirit of God is hovering.
John 7 seems to say spirit is not yet in existence. We know that is not true.
Spirit was active in creation. Think Hebrew not Greek.

NEXT 8/17/2023
Next week we will discuss an article from thinkersbiblestudies.com. View Creation Days, and People before Adam. Continue salvation.