GLORIOUS FROM INGLORIOUS

Today, we embark on a journey to understand the transfiguration of Jesus. I have never heard anyone preach nor teach just what happened to Jesus atop that high place. Journey now with me as we explore the possible change in form of Jesus.

 

One of the most remarkable and least understood situations in the Bible is the transfiguration of Jesus. Note that Jesus was already made flesh (John 1:14) and was filled with the Holy Ghost, or at least had the Holy Ghost on His Person; John the Baptist revealed that when He baptized Jesus, “Upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizes with the Holy Ghost” (John 1:33).

Thereupon some saw the Spirit descending, “The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him” (Luke 3:22).

The Holy Ghost is a phantom and is invisible, but some, including Luke, saw the Holy Ghost in the shape of a person. He recognized the phantom of Jesus as the person, Jesus. Not only that but Luke saw the Spirit descending like a dove in motion and remaining on Jesus.

Luke has credibility for he was a physician (Col 4:14), ironically a person who had the power to “make whole” (iaomai) (Strong 2006).

Note that the baptism of Jesus added the missing substance from the man. He was made whole since He was afterwards light, flesh and spirit.

As I have written in my book, Adoil Come Down; Arkhas Came Undone, at the crucifixion, Adoil (Light) did come down and Jesus came apart; the Holy Ghost departing from Him. Subsequent to the crucifixion, Jesus was made whole in three processes, or stages : (1) His birth of a virgin, (2) His baptism that added an invisible substance, and (3) some other process. That other process was Jesus receiving Adoil, “Behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a Voice out of the cloud, which said, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear you Him” (Mat 17:5).

I submit that at the transfiguration, Adoil in the form of Light and a Cloud came down upon Jesus, and those there beheld it. They saw the cloud if by day or the fire if by night of tabernacle times, “So it was always the cloud covered it (the tabernacle) by day, and the appearance of fire by night” (Num 9:16). No wonder those who were at the transfiguration wanted to build tabernacles for the patriarchs and Jesus. They all were the embodiment of tabernacle worship.

The Tabernacle was the Tent of God; the place around which the Hebrews assembled. The Tabernacle was the foreshadowing of the Christian Church, Jesus becoming the Church and His disciples the assembly.

Note that they did not enter the tabernacle but had their own tents facing the cloud if by day or the fire if by night. That Fire and Cloud was Adoil, not God but His Power, as the Book of Enoch suggests.

It seems that the ‘Transfiguration’ was Adoil coming down, or the completion of the Godhead, or Holy Trinity. It may have been preparation for the crucifixion wherein ‘Arkhas’ came undone, the Father leaving the Son and the Holy Ghost coming out. Of course, Arkhas, like Adoil, is not God Himself, but processes coming about: Adoil, the Power of God, and Arkhas, the Substances of God, as I wrote in my book.

To make whole required one Thing from Jesus. Virtue, or in the Greek, Dynamis, “The whole multitude sought to touch Him: for there went virtue out of Him and healed them all” (Luke 6:19). Virtue is a sort of fluid dynamics wherein goodness corrects faults as Jesus made them whole.

The multitude therein was more than a crowd, but many races of peoples. He made them whole, removing from each of them their defective genetics, and consequently, they became sons of God, not like father and son, but more like the Image of God.

There are several depositions about the transfiguration of Jesus. Since Luke was a doctor whose vocation was to make whole again, Luke’s account would be the scientific version of a supernatural event. He wrote about Jesus becoming wholly God. The transfiguration of Jesus added something to make Jesus Holy God and entirely so.

The transfiguration may very well be ‘Adoil’ coming down, and ‘Arkhas’ coming together in preparation for the Godhead coming apart. Hence Adoil and Arkhas would be the invisible and visible substances — the ‘fluid dynamics’ of the Godhead in a fluidic from — ‘Living Waters’ flowing (John 4:10).

Since Luke would have been the most credible of the any of the apostles, his version of events follow:

After six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart and was transfigured before them: and His face did shine as the Sun, and his raiment was white as the light. (Mat 17:1-2)

 Jesus was transfigured (metamorphoo)… literally “afterward fashioned” (ibid). The ‘metamorphosis’ of Jesus was a change in form. The Light of God was added to His features. Adoil did come down, just as Enoch witnessed with the process of Creation. God, the Father, was essentially recreating the Word that made all things into Jesus whose sacrifice would re-create all things.

The Image of God in the beginning was a ‘Phantom,’ or ‘Shadow’ (ibid). Perhaps the transfiguration was God breathing life unto the Man, Jesus, to make Him a Living Soul by adding Light to His face, just as with Adam in the beginning.

God more than breathed life unto the nostrils of Adam but literally his face (ibid). He did the same to Jesus, making Him the ‘Last Adam,’ to wit: “The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit” (1 Cor 15:45). Perhaps the transfiguration was the endowment of Jesus with the quickening Spirit of God to make Him the Last Adam, or mankind’s last chance at life.

Jesus was not made into another kind of being but quickened (zoopoieo) — invigorated with Power (ibid), ostensibly from God above. If that had been thermodynamics rather than Divine Dynamics, Spirit (Pneuma) is fluidic — fluids of a divine nature from another realm.

Think of the transfiguration of Jesus this way… He was pumped up with enough Virtue to heal all the nations (Rev 22:2). Likely, Jesus was imbued with all the Power of God to finish what was to come (John 19:30).

To complete the analysis, Luke called the transfiguration by explaining it, “The fashion of His countenance was altered” (Luke 9:29) — His face and inward thoughts and feelings (ibid). The nature of Jesus changed from plain to glorious.

Isaiah conveniently predicted the change; speaking of the coming Christ (the Messiah), Isaiah wrote the following: 

For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. (Isa 53:2-3)

 Isaiah saw Jesus; he beheld his form. Jesus was uncomely — without any beauty in Him. Inwardly, Jesus was reprehensible. I submit that his vision of Jesus was pre-transfiguration. Jesus was made comely from uncomely and his face went from despicable to radiant. That was surely the transfiguration! (As it turns out, according to ancient letters from Pilate to Caesar, Jesus was a radiant and comely person.)

When we think of Jesus, we think of the face that radiates on paintings most of which were made by westerners. Jesus, during his ministry, was surely plain and ordinary like the rest of the multitude, but on that Holy Mountain, God glorified Jesus, making Him as handsome and radiant as the original Adam.

We too will be transfigured in the same fashion at our own resurrection!

The transfiguration did not last long for Jesus because the crucifixion made his Face hideous with the Glory of God departing from Him: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me? (Mat 27:46). Just as God had glorified Jesus at the transfiguration, God forsook Him at his impending death. The Glory of God left Jesus when it was finished. He had morphed back, losing all the virtue that God had given Him, to save mankind!

But God is true to His Word. When Jesus was resurrected, He again was changed. The resurrection was a permanent transfiguration wherein Jesus regained the Glory of God and regained the Power that He had given up.

Jesus said to Mary, “Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father” (John 20:17). Nobody, including Thomas, touched Jesus after He was transformed a second time, to wit: Those who walked with Jesus on the way to Emmaus never recognized Him. Jesus spoke of His death and Resurrection as glorification (Luke 24:26). But after awhile it is written, “Their eyes were opened, and they knew Him; and He vanished out of their sight” (Luke 24:31).

The nature of Jesus had changed. His face was not that of a man who was crucified but a glorified face. What’s more, the flesh of Jesus was of another substance; it was His flesh but of divine material. Jesus vanished. He had regained the Glory of God, the same Image in which Adam was endowed — a phantom like a shadow. His new flesh was much different than while He was in the world preaching.

He could not be touched because His flesh was impermeable to things of the world. He had just walked through the walls of His tomb and rolled back the stone door to reveal that He was no longer in there. Like the walkers with Him, Jesus had appeared as the Angel of God (Mat 28:2) who rolled back the stone. Likewise, the new substance of Jesus merely walked into a locked room where the eleven were gathered, for “As they thus spoke, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them” (Luke 24:36).

Jesus was made whole at the transfiguration, and after losing His Substances to save mankind, He was metamorphosed again in the form of Adam who in the beginning was made glorious. Thusly, Jesus was the ‘Last Adam’ in that He was the last glorious person who was made sin (inglorious) for us to be like us!

How is it that you see Jesus?

 

SOME WOULD DIE — A CERTAIN ONE

Grace was finished when Jesus was crucified. Never again would there be an offering for the sins of mankind. 

We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. … this man (Jesus), after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God… (Heb 10:10-12)

 After it was finished, Jesus rested during the Sabbath Day, then He was glorified with flesh that should not be touched. His flesh was regenerated holy and incorruptible in perfection.

Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit, “which they that believe on Him should receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:39) The word, ‘glorification,’ is literally ‘magnified’ — intensified. While on the Cross, the substances of Jesus were revealed, the Light, the Flesh, and the Holy Ghost. To see how, refresh yourselves with the activities when Jesus was dying.

Glorification is basically God revealing Himself in three substances — the Holy Trinity — all three present and obvious at the same time. The Cross was not only to shed the blood of God for the sins of mankind, but to reveal to the world that Jesus IS God!

Consider the key verses below: 

For the Son of man shall come in the Glory of His Father with His angels; and then He shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, ‘There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in His kingdom.” (Mat 16:27-28)

 That Jesus (the Son of man) shall come in Glory points to the resurrected Jesus. The question remains, when after He was glorified? It appears that the time may very well be in the lifetime of some of those who were standing there when Jesus spoke those words.

The critical phrase is “shall not taste death.”

“Shall” is geuomai in the Greek and so is “taste.”

 Death is thanatos in the Greek, and perhaps the best definition in that context is the separation of the soul from the body, as in the beginning with Adam.

Geuomai is to taste, implying eating. Rather than speaking of a much later event, perhaps Jesus was speaking of them eating of the “Last Supper’ wherein they ate the elements — the Body and Blood of Jesus.

There, at that time, they vicariously consumed Jesus. That Jesus was glorified at the Last Supper is not even implied, but that some would die before Jesus was glorified by the Crucifixion. That was a short time interval — one day between the Last Supper and the Crucifixion.

Who would eat of death… of the Body and Blood of Jesus? Judas sopped the bread in the wine and ate. Nobody else ate the sop but Judas.

Jesus told the twelve, “He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when He had dipped the sop, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon” (John 13:26). Then entered Satan in Judas. Satan entered Judas because the Spirit of God was not in him and never would be.

Judas ate death, not the death of Jesus, but his own death wherein his body was separated from his soul. In the key verses, it seems to be Judas to whom Jesus referred to as “some.” The Greek word translated ‘some’ (tis) is more literally “a certain one” (Strong 2006). As it turned out, the certain one was Judas Iscariot, and he would indeed have his body separated from his soul.

Most theologians indicate that those key verses (Mat 16:27-28) refer to the rapture of Christians. If so, then that would be the coming of Jesus in that generation. As you know, the snatching up of Christians has not yet occurred, so the key verses are not according to the Pauline letters. It makes sense that the ‘certain one’ was Judas because the Greek definitions, according to James Strong, fit him better than any group (“some’).

On a personal note, this theory was not a preconceived notion on my part because after I read it many times, I still had no idea what it meant. Neither do I refer to the commentary of others until after I study scripture and make my conclusions.

However, as I studied the Greek, it became clearer. Of course, my thoughts are not as perfect as the Thoughts of God, so the reader should judge for himself. Indeed, Judas, as far as it is known, is the only one to whom Jesus was speaking who died in that interval. He was the ‘certain one’ and indeed, his soul and flesh were divided as he died.

By the way, Judas was judged on the day that Jesus died, just as the key verse indicates:

Jesus told Pilate, "He that delivered me unto thee has the greater sin" (John 19:11). That certain one ('He') was Judas whose sin was greater than any of the others. 

 

 

TO DIE, DIE, DIE

Jesus, who just asked that those who pick up their crosses and follow Him shall not die. Death, as He explains it, is each denying himself. Essentially whoever loses his life for Jesus shall find life. (Mat 16:24-25). You must first die to be born again.

Some things are not literal, or maybe they are, but they are just not understood. Death must be comprehended. To find the meaning of death, scripture must be examined.

God defined death for the first time with these words, “In the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die” (Gen 2:17). There is always a cause and an effect for every process. Death is a process. The duration of dying goes from immediate to eternal.

In the case of Adam’s kind and the man himself, the cause was eating, and the effect was certain death, or as it appears in English, he would “surely die.”

Eating per se was not the cause for the two Adamah were free to eat of any other tree (Gen 2:16). Eating of that one tree — the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil — was the root cause, not to be a pun.

Much later, the root cause is made more explicit, “For the love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Tim 6:10). Obviously, there was no money as money is thought of in the Garden of Eden, but it did have its own ‘economy,’ so to speak; everything was permissible but one thing… commerce with another being who offered free things to two beings in exchange for lordship.

Due to commerce with the so-called ‘Serpent,’ Eve became as God, or so she thought. God had created all things, but after sin, Eve made for Adam another existence, Cain (Gen 4:1). She said, it was for the ‘Lord’ but she had become the lord of Paradise, and Adam saw that she was the giver of life.

Now, consider ‘money’ as currency and the root of all evil. “Covetous” is the root adjective for the Greek word “philargyria” (money). It is a yearning to have something that is not your own. Eve yearned for the fruit owned by God and trespassed onto God’s property to obtain it. The currency of the Garden of Eden was grace, but Eve stole the grace when she took what belonged to God against His Law. Breaking one Law was as if breaking them all. She broke the Law against coveting, and because of that, breaking the law dishonors your God (Rom 2:23).

The root cause, therefore, was dishonoring the “Root” of the Tree of Life. “If the Root be holy, so are the branches” (Rom 11:16). Of course, the Root is Jesus, because Jesus is God, but the ‘Root’ became the ‘Vine’ (John 15:1), or specifically the “both of two, both the one and the other” (Strong 2006). Thus, Jesus came from God and was God. That is the ‘Vine’ and the “Tree’ that came from the ‘Root.’  

Father God, Yahweh was the ‘Root,’ or the ‘Word’ (‘dabar’ in the Hebrew) — the First Cause (ibid). It is so much plainer in the Hebrew. The ‘Root Cause,’ or ‘First Cause’ was Yahweh. Adam and Eve violated the First, or Root Cause.

Hence, God was the ‘Root Cause’ and as the Giver and Taker of life, dying, was the ‘Effect’ of violating the Cause.

God breathed Life into the clay and Adam became a living soul, did he not? Therefore, to die is removal of the Spirit of God from the persons of the two Adamah.

The penalty, in English, was to “you shall surely die.” In the Hebrew it was mut, mut, mut; or to die, die, die. Certainly one ‘die’ was the flesh, another the soul, and maybe the third the casting out of the Garden into the world (Gen 3:24). Indeed, the death of the flesh is the first death, “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death” (Rev 20:14).

Therefore, to die is threefold: (1) the flesh perishing, albeit slowly for Adam, (2) the loss of the Spirit of God upon sinning, and (3) isolation from the Presence of God. Perhaps, using those definitions, all of Adam’s progeny are born dead, and resuscitation (regeneration) is threefold in reverse order: (1) Walking in the Presence of God, (2) Salvation of the Soul upon physical death, and lastly, (3) glorification, or the resurrection of the ‘Last Adam’ (Jesus) in you.

With that said, then death should be understood. It explains very well why Paul thought to die is gain.

The first step in the live, live, live process — the reversal of die, die, die — is that Jesus had to die for us to live. He redeemed us from the penalty of sin, to die, die, die.

I wrote above that you must first die to be born again. Hence, the first recourse is to die to the world to be in the Presence of the Lord. By grace, Jesus, died so that we need not.

When Jesus died, He gave up the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost remains in the world for all who would receive Him. The grace of God is finished (John 19:3) and Jesus will never again die for there is no need of that. Now, it is time for God to rest and for Jesus’s kind to do the work.

“Ouch,” you say, “You just stepped on my Calvinistic toes!” No, but Jesus may have!

(To be continued)

SPORTS FANS

Many live for their sports whether it be football, basketball, hockey, and volleyball. Some even get thrilled during the sport of curling. Many select their home team and each season, even during the holidays, they root for them; ironically, even during Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s day.

There is nothing wrong with supporting your team. Supporters are as if they are part of the team, and the most dedicated of them all are those who pay thousands of dollars to sit in rainstorms or blizzards to witness the games. Indeed, their presence and enthusiasm are encouragement to the players. Playing in an empty stadium would be disheartening to any team. Even the visiting team needs some supporters because of the home-team advantage.

Sports fans are necessary for the success of the team. Indeed, athletic supporters are part of the team.

In some seasons, the home-team may be on a losing streak and apathy ensues. No longer are they not enthused but have submitted to inevitable losses. Ironically, the more apathetic the supporters become, the more losses their team seem to have. Apathy on the part of sports fans is as if their home teams are the opponents. Some may even see losses as well-deserved punishment. Usually, the manager or coach takes the ‘fall’ for the entire team.

Sports fans, when things go wrong, tend to become severe sports critics. Their discouraging words, as they sit tight on their hands, is their way of punishing lackluster players and the managers.

Sports fans are part of the team and are necessary for success. Teams without fans are never in the limelight.

So, just what is a ‘fan’?

The word ‘fan’ in that context comes from the English word ‘fanatic,’ meaning an insane person. The Latin origin was fanaticus "mad, enthusiastic, inspired by a god," also "furious, mad” (Douglas Harper 2001-2023). Therefore, ‘fan’ is as much a fervent religion as any religion might be.

You all have seen it yourselves; sports fans are religious about supporting their teams. Even atheists, therefore, have a religion of sorts. Many sports fans even follow their teams to distant places to support them. Their religion is Sports Enthusiasm. They cheer for their most revered object which is as much a team of lesser gods managed by a higher ‘god.’ Some Hoosiers still idolize coach Bobby Knight — the ‘god’ that just recently died.

Sports have always been a religion. That religion became organized in 776 B.C.  Ancient Olympic games “were held at the Panhellenic religious sanctuary of Olympia, in honor of Zeus, and the Greeks gave them a mythological origin” (Wikipedia 2023).

Before the coming of Christ, the way of dating time was the year of the Olympiad. So, for sports fanatics, their time here on Earth, rather than measured from the time of Christ, is the time from the first Olympiad. For a period, that time stopped in the second century, AD, but continued secretly.

The ancient Olympiad was a celebration of Zeus every four years. That religion has been restored with the modern Olympic games, ostensibly to some unknown god.

That ‘god’ is the unholy spirit of Zeus. Hence, sports fans are unwittingly glorifying the Greek god Zeus, all the time thinking that they are just ‘fans’ as in ‘fannian’ — “to stir up air” (Douglas Harper 2001-2023).

Ironically, Satan is “Prince of the Power of the Air,” if that has any significance… and I believe it does. Sports events, for some, are more important than church and winning games is more important than winning souls. It is okay to support your teams, but not at the expense of neglecting the One True God. It is okay to support your team if not robbing God of His due.

Just what does God (Jesus Christ) deserve? Glorification!

The psalmist wrote that “All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord; and shall glorify Your Name” (Psalm 86:9). His ‘Name’ became more than the Hebrew, ‘A Sem;’ He was called Jesus (Mat 1:25).

‘Glorify’ comes from the Hebrew, ‘kabad’ — to put much weight upon. In the case of Jesus, that is to value Him highly and esteem Him much. In other words, to become a ‘fan’ of Jesus — a Jesus fanatic, or becoming fervent for Jesus. You could even imply that Christians are to go overboard with Jesus.

That brings us to Peter. While still safe in the boat, Peter saw Jesus who was walking on turbulent waters. Peter went a little insane for Jesus, perhaps with much zealousness. He went overboard for the sake of Jesus.

Jesus said “come’ and, “And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus” (Mat 14:29). Peter was not ‘making-sport’ of Jesus, mocking Him, but did go overboard for Him.

Peter was a fisherman and knew the water could drown him, especially with so much turbulence during the storm, but He was such a fan of Jesus that he did a crazy thing — he went overboard for Jesus. Peter was the fan of Jesus and was fanatical about Him to the extent that He would walk with Jesus all the way to his own death. As it turned out, Peter was such a fanatic for Jesus that he went to his own cross as well, then Nero had him crucified in the same manner as Jesus.

Peter did not only go overboard for Jesus but aboveboard. He, without resistance, died for his ‘team’ — the Church — and its ‘Coach’ — Jesus.

In AD 60, Nero commenced the Olympic games in Rome, just in time to burn the ‘Olympic Torch” (as it turned out, Rome) and to persecute the Church to honor Zeus. Then Peter was crucified at about the time of the Second Roman Olympiad games.

Playing sports for Zeus (Latin ‘Jupiter’) was more exhilarating to Nero than being part of Christ’s ‘Team.’ Although a fan for Jupiter and pagan Rome, Nero was a fanatic against Jesus and the Church — the new ‘team’ that was forming to compete against Zeus.

What was the spark that ignited this commentary? Certainly not the Olympic Torch but the Divine Spark of God.

I was speaking to a person just recently who indicated that it was okay to believe in God but not to go overboard; not to be overly enthused.

Glorifying God is essentially going overboard for Him. Just think about that; when Big Ship Earth is stormed, as it will be someday, we will indeed step off the ‘ship’ and look for safe harbor. There will be no dock to step onto, but only to trust Jesus for salvation.

We will someday be called by Jesus to “Come,’ as He told Peter. Will you go overboard to walk with Him wherever it is that He goes? Will you be enough of a fan to go overboard with Him?

‘Overboard’ is to go aboveboard with Jesus — to cross the firmament to another realm to go to a place that few will ever go because they were afraid of being fanatic enough to walk on lofty places to go to heaven!

Sports fans are fanatics of an invisible god as well. It is just that their god has no power to overcome the world as our God — Jesus — has done.

What does God expect of us? To follow Him wherever He walks, just like a rabid sports fan.

You may go to an adjacent city, or sports fanatics may go to many cities, even to distant places. Some may neglect friends and family to engage in watching sports. It may not even matter whose team or what sport they are, but you can count on them to be there glorifying their team, most often not even for a reason!

If it is okay to be a sports fan, it is okay to be a fanatic for Team Jesus — to go overboard or aboveboard for Him. That, readers, is the Way to Paradise in heaven!

 

THE WAY TO GET THERE

Christian churches, both denominational and not, each have their own criteria for entry into Heaven. Jesus provided three conditions, “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, ‘If any man will come after Me, let him (1) deny himself, and (2) take up His cross, and (3) follow Me” (Mat 16:24).

First off, “man” is literally not in the original Greek; it is “if any.”

Maybe Jesus left the word ‘man’ out intentionally, not because it elevated only the male, but because depraved men and women are not ‘man’ in the sense that Adam was the kind called ‘man.’

Jesus would refer to degenerates for what they are — something less than man as God created him. That he glossed ‘man’ and substituted “any” may have some significance. It includes everyone because “all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Coming short since Adam was made glorious, makes those living in His time less than ‘man.’

It should be humbling to know that you are neither glorious nor the dominant kind, but brutish, even more so than the beasts. How many beasts set off atomic bombs? Only our kind. Hopefully, that should humble you.

The first sin was man against themselves. Both the Adam’s ate forbidden fruit. They died in two senses of death: (1) their souls were emptied of the Image of God and (2) they assumed a very different corruptible type of flesh to replace their incorruptible. The first was immediate and the second a process in time in that they withered away as we still do to this day.

What differentiates man from beast? The value of life. For instance, Cain placed no value on the life of his brother; he challenged God, (Gen 4:9) “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Indeed, he was! As the son of Adam, just as Adam was the keeper of the Garden, so it was for Cain.

Then Cain became the ‘god.’ Rather than wait on Abel to live a full life and die naturally, Cain speeded up the process. He was an ‘Antigod’ in the sense that he could not create but he could take away life.

Cain was marked by God in some manner. Because there were giants in those days, (Gen 6:1), I believe that Cain was a hybrid being of some sort — another kind. As it turned out, inglorious Cain was made a ‘beast’ of some sort so that righteous men would not kill him… Seth’s lineage.

The first thing that the ‘free range’ beast did in his new world was to kill. In one generation, man had become brutish like the Beast. Killing his own flesh caused that degeneration as both Cain and Abel had the same father, Adam, or so it was believed.

Cain was killed by his own kind — blind Lamech. Lamech snuffed out the life of his own flesh and soon after, war was brought into existence with Genun who invented it. Note that Gen-un made death and murder genetic. [1]

As a general rule, only a few of the other species destroy their young. They may prevent the birthing process by destroying their own eggs (ovicide) but not with killing their own flesh and blood (infanticide). Any of the kinds known to do that was almost unheard of until recently, but now even many animals kill their young for various reasons. (I remember our mother cat eating several of her young and at five years old found that abhorrent.) About zoological infanticide, Wikipedia writes: 

Infanticide only came to be seen as a significant occurrence in nature quite recently. At the time it was first seriously treated by Yukimaru Sugiyama, infanticide was attributed to stress causing factors like overcrowding and captivity, and was considered pathological and maladaptive. Classical ethology held that conspecifics (members of the same species) rarely killed each other. By the 1980s it had gained much greater acceptance. Possible reasons it was not treated as a prevalent natural phenomenon include its abhorrence to people…

Now even so called ‘humane’ women destroy their young and often with the consent of the men, not for stressful reasons, but because babies are inconvenient.

Although this commentary is not about abortion nor infanticide, since 1980 points toward infanticide as one indication that the end is near. Killing your own flesh was the worst sin against another being and still is.

Remembering that the modus operandi of the Wicked One is deception, claiming “My body; my choice” is the Big Lie. It is another body and not another creature. Ironically, “believe the science’ is also in vogue, all the while people say irrational things.

Note that science says that infanticide has gained much acceptance and that it is no longer abhorrent to people. People have become conditioned to death. Killing their own children makes them more like the beasts.

Cain’s own progeny, blind Lamech, killed the aged Cain. That was the first case of euthanasia (geronticide).

People kill elderly people because the aged and infirmed are inconvenient. I winced when I realized that even Hospice kills people by starvation and drugging them in the most ‘humane’ way so that they will die humanely. Henrich Himmler would be pleased with both the humane method and lack of awareness that they were dying.

The recent killing of ‘non-human’ Jews by Hamas reveals that many are no longer humane nor even human. They are beasts and those who support such genocide on the part of Hamas are merely herds of beasts following their natural instincts to accept any new thing that denigrates others.

In short, perhaps Jesus did not use the word ‘man’ because mankind was glorious, and now they are brutish.

Jesus went onto say, if any “come after Me.” Note that on Palm Sunday, many praised Him but only a week later, many of the same people, even the elite, came after Jesus, not to follow Him but to kill Him.

Jesus had to clarify what He meant by coming after. The first step in coming after Jesus, is denying oneself. Peter denied Jesus, but he was humbled; then he followed Jesus all the Way to the Cross on which Nero hung him.

The first step in denying oneself is a pragmatic self-examination; you are not God nor any god and therefore you can neither create nor save. You will die, die as “surely die” literally means (Gen 1:31). “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb 9:27).

The first death is certain; we all have an appointment with the angel of death. Then comes judgment. We need not die the second death — the death of the soul.

So how can anyone deny themselves? By having right perspectives about who or what we are. Even Christians are sinners that are saved by grace, meaning that we do not deserve salvation but can be saved, not by following Jesus part of the Way, but all the Way to the crucifixion. Peter, at first in denial, in the process of time, followed Jesus all the Way to the Cross. No longer did Peter deny Jesus but denied Peter. He had no power over Caesar, and he was then killed in the same manner as Jesus.

Peter gave up his life long before he gave up his life, so to speak. That may sound confusing, but professing Jesus to the world and to Nero was exchanging his former life for a new one.

Peter went from fishing for fish to fishing for men. He also gave up his name, Simeon for Peter. His nature changed gradually. No longer was Peter the ‘Pebble’ as that name means, but Jesus renamed him Cephas, the ‘Rock.’

Jesus did a makeover with Simon, but people since the beginning of time make themselves over in various pagan images, the most horrible image of them all was Jezebel.

Denying yourself is ceasing to pay so much attention to the world and the things of the flesh. In this age, nearly everything is about you. You are not even satisfied with your flesh but often create new flesh that is more pleasing to you.

Marking the flesh is the most obvious, but to have a presentable image, John wore rudimentary clothes. He never needed a preacher’s suit to preach nor even the best suit to baptize. He could have baptized naked, as early Catholic priests soon did, but John wore a suit of camel’s hair much like the Garment of Adam in the beginning.

Being in the flesh is presenting yourself for what you are not. You are not a snake and to make the skin as beautiful as a snake’s is quite a strong statement who it is that you follow.

Wearing an arrogant suit to church or to preach, is play-acting royalty. It reveals the things that are important to you.

I am not any different. At times I proudly place a high-dollar fountain pen in my short pocket to be noticed. That also is in the flesh. We all are in the flesh and Christians often conceal the Holy Spirit behind our dramatic faces as if in a play.

Denying the flesh is walking as Jesus walked. He never ever would have dressed like media preachers today, nor would He overly magnify Himself, albeit He had a right to. (God did that at the transfiguration.)

Jesus is known for his meekness. He put no stock in His Flesh, but it was the Spirit of God that He was to manifest. Nowadays so many people manifest the demonic spirit of the Wicked One, and wear garments made in the manner of him.

Denying yourself is admitting that you are no god at all. Even the Serpent knew that! (Gen 3:5), so quit acting as if you are. The world is not all about you, albeit we all have inclinations to make it self-centric with over self-estimation. (Christ esteem is what is lacking in people.)

Finally, we are to “take up His Cross, and follow Me,” so said Jesus.

The most obvious two that did were the repentant thief and Simon who carried the Cross of Jesus.

The less obvious was Judas whose ‘cross’ was a tree. He took it up to follow Jesus in death (by suicide), but it was not for Jesus but to redeem himself.

Ironically, salvation is for self-exaltation. Even that humble state that it is for each of us, to provide for us room in the mansion of God, and forever.

Salvation allows us to squat on the Estate of God to be realistic, but those who trust Jesus see it as the way to glorify God. In other words, salvation is not all about you but all about God. If you only want to go to Paradise for your sake, then that makes you ‘God.’ Taking up the Cross is to do so, not for your preservation per se but to please God. His expectation is that you will glorify Him and not yourselves.

Denying yourself is having right reasons, and those reasons are not to escape Hell nor for life in Paradise, but to honor God.

For those reasons, God expects those who will abide with Him forever to begin denying themselves now; we must not wait until we get there to glorify God for glorifying God is the Way to get there. Hence, our ‘crosses’ that we are to bear is to deny our fleshly desires. It is not so easy to take off our flesh, so the next best thing is not to let it burden us.

Jesus carried a weighty Cross. Our ‘crosses’ are much different. We need only to shed the flesh that the Serpent gave us so that the flesh that God created for us can carry the burden.

In that process, the work is made easy just like in the beginning when God did it all. Taking up our crosses is trusting Jesus to get us where He was going!

(Picture credit; Alamy)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] References to Genun come from the Books of Adam and Eve.

WORDS MEAN THINGS

 In this commentary on Matthew chapter sixteen, it will be revealed how to test every word in scripture for deeper meaning. Just why would Jesus point out that Simon was one of Jonah’s kind and why did He point out that Judas was the Kerioth kind (Iscariot)? Why was Simon the Sorcerer designated as the Magus kind? [1] Let’s find out.

 

Peter, called by Jesus, ‘Simon Barjona,’ was with Jesus and the others. Jesus asked him, “Who say you that I AM?” (Mat 16:15). Jesus was interested in Peter’s thoughts. Then Jesus told him who he was!

I always examine the meaning of names and places. Barjona consists of two parts, the Aramaic ‘bar’ meaning ‘ben’ in the Hebrew, and in English; either ‘son’ or ‘one of’ (Abarim Publications 2023). ‘Jona’ can mean that he was the son of Jonas, or one of the family of ‘Jonas.’ It could be the Jonas (Jonah) from the big fish or even another Jonas… or Jesus could be nicknaming Simon. The Latin for ‘bar’ is ‘gen’ meaning ‘born of,’ inferring genetics.

Now consider Jonah.

Wikipedia indicates that Simon was born Shimoun Bar Younah (in Aramaic), but that comes from the scripture in one place — Matthew 16.

Why would Jesus call Simon ‘Barjonas?” It was because of either his paternity (genetics) or his nature. Perhaps Jesus called him that in a critical way; rather than saying to him, “Jonah you are afraid to stand up for Me,” He just named him ‘Barjonas’ to paint a mental picture in Simon’s mind. Simon would have been quite aware of what Jesus meant!

It took Jonah three days in the belly of a big fish to persuade him to judge the people of Ninevah that they must change their ways or be destroyed. Jonah would be persuaded to speak for God, and Peter, for Jesus. We think of ‘doubting Thomas,’ but here we see ‘reluctant Simon.’

Jesus would not want those who only knew His true identity but to spread the Good News. Simon said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mat 16:16). Yes, he said that, but did he believe that?

On a personal note, I said that for years, but when did I come to truly believe that? ‘Babes in Christ’ often say that, but mature Christians believe that. I now believe that because the evidence converges on Jesus as the ‘Christ,’ that He IS the Son of the living God.

To be honest, I questioned how Jesus could both be God and the Son of God. Furthermore, how could Jesus both be the son of David, as some called Him, and the Son of God in whom Simon believed.

Simon was an educated man. When Jesus called him, ‘Simon Barjona,’ Simon knew who his father was. He also knew who Jonah was. We do not know who Simon’s father was, but we do know that Simon was the ‘son of Jonas.’

Simon was either the progeny of a man named Jonas, or he had the reluctance of Jonah of Gath-hepher who was of the gens of Zebulon. In other words, Jonas of the big fish fame was a Galilean like Simon. Therefore, it could be that Simon was the progeny of Jonah, and that Jesus sought him out for that reason.

In fact, as it turned out, although Simon believed in God just as Jonah, Simon was reluctant to support Jesus, denying Him three times. Then, like Jonas (Jonah), Peter followed through. He was crucified.

Jesus already knew the outcome (John 21:18-19) when He called him ‘Barjona.’

Why was Simon Peter finally crucified?

He went to Rome for a purpose. Simon Magus (Simon the Magician), according to Eusebius of Caesarea, was in Rome. There he persuaded many, that not Jesus, but himself was the Christ, and the Son of God. Simon Peter went there, just as Jonah would go to Nineveh, to set them straight about which god was the One True God.

According to the early church father, Jerome, Simon Peter was in Rome for twenty-five years, obviously competing with Simon Magus for the truth.

As it turned out, Simon Magus remains ‘alive’ today. He was ‘resurrected’ in 1945 via Gnostic writings from near Nag Hammadi in Egypt. Simon Magus was the ‘father’ not of scripture, but the ‘father of secret knowledge’ (Gnosticism) and that dead faith was resurrected with that finding.  

During the reign of the emperor Claudius, “he (Simon) was regarded as a god and honored with a statue on the island in the Tiber which the two bridges cross, with the inscription ‘Simoni Deo Sancto’ — ‘to Simon the Holy God.’” (Chism 1911).

Why did Jesus not just say, “Simon”? He perhaps wanted to be clear for later. He was ‘Simon Barjonas,’ not ‘Simon Magus,’ who I believe was the ‘thorn in the side’ of both Peter and Paul, as he was always there when they were!

Now imagine Peter in Rome simultaneously with Simon the Sorcerer. Peter was preaching the Christ and Him crucified and resurrected. At the same time, Simon Magus was teaching that he himself was the living Christ. He needed another name and Jesus would know that in advance, so he became Peter, and Simon Barjona became history.

Jesus had to rename Simon. It was him, not the other Simon, who would preach the truth.

There might have been confusion about the identity of Peter as well. He would be crucified about the same time as Simon Magus came to his end.

Just as some still believe that Judas Iscariot was the Son of God and Jesus the imposter, [2] that same thought might arise about the two Simons. Simon Barjona had the Holy Spirit in him while Simon Magus, the spirit of Satan in him.

There are several versions of the death of Simon the sorcerer. A reliable one follows:

Another apocryphal document, the Acts of Peter and Paul gives a slightly different version… which was shown in the context of a debate in front of the Emperor Nero. In this version, Paul the Apostle is present along with Peter, Simon levitates from a high wooden tower made upon his request, and dies "divided into four parts" due to the fall. Peter and Paul are then imprisoned by Nero, who further orders that Simon's body be kept carefully for three days, in case, Christ-like, the magician should rise again. (Acts of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul n.d.)

Note that Simon Magus did not die like Christ but fell and was torn asunder like the ‘Satan’ that he was… much like the death of Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:18). Judas’s death when Satan was purged was when he fell from a tree and burst asunder. Simon stepped off his homemade ‘tree’ —  a wooden tower similar to the Cross — levitated as if the Holy Ghost of Jesus, then he was divided into parts, not like Jesus, but like Satan was separated from Judas.

Jesus was divided into Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; Judas was divided into the person and Satan; and Simon was divided into four parts with one surely Satan.

Scripture says that there are many Antichrists, or types of Christs. Judas, because he had Satan in him, would be an ‘Antichrist.’

Since there is only one Christ, there is only one Antichrist at any given time. Jesus is always the Christ, but the Antichrist is whoever has Satan in him. Scripture and history point toward Simon Magus as the Antichrist after the death of Judas because he claimed to be the Christ.

I think that Jesus knew what was coming and made a distinction between Simon Barjona and Simon Magus, alias ‘Simon the Holy God.’

Jesus was the ‘Rock’ as the “Cornerstone that the builder’s rejected” (Mat 21:42).

Hannah prayed in the time of David, “There is none holy as the Lord: for there is none beside You: neither is there any Rock like our God” (I Sam 21:2).

Jesus said to Simon Barjona, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it” (Mat 16:18). He was not speaking of the ‘Pebble’ but the ‘Solid Rock’ from which all things are measured.

The etymology of the name ‘Peter’ is not ‘Rock,’ as we have been taught; it is ‘Pebble.’ (Abarim Publications 2023). Peter was the Pebble to Jesus, the Rock.

Simon’s nickname was ‘Pebble’ whereas Hannah nicknamed the Name, the ‘Rock,’ presumably because Jews could not say the Name in vain.

The ‘Name’ in Hebrew is ‘Shem;’ Jesus was also the ‘Son of Shem’ or the genetics of the Name. In other words, etymology points toward Jesus as the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, the Son of Shem, the Son of Adam, and the Son of God.

Hopefully, you can see that God did not sire Jesus in a paternal sense, but that Jesus was of the genetics of Yahweh. Jesus was engendered by God the Father, or the Divine ‘Progenitor.’ Jesus, while God was on Earth, was the nickname of God. He was called ‘Jesus’ (Mat 1:25). Jesus is the ‘Name’ who has always existed, ‘I AM THAT I AM’ (YHWH the Tetragrammaton).

Sure, much of this is conjecture but words mean things. The ‘Word” of Holy Scripture means Jesus, and Jesus named Simon, ‘Barjona,’ perhaps because he would be like Jonah, and as it turned out, he was!

 (picture credit; Springer Nature; "Flying Simon Magus')

 

 

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[1] Simon the Magician was the father of the anti-Christian religion of Gnosticism.

[2] Some of the theologians of the Islamic faith.

MADE WHOLE

I was lazy yesterday. I left the readers hanging, saying, “HUMAN BUT NOT QUITE.” That indeed is humbling, but today the commentary is about being made whole.

 

Over the millennia humans have devolved. Humbling ourselves is recognizing ourselves for what we are!

Adam was made whole. Sin resulted in something missing from him. Adam died in a sense; he was no longer whole.

We think of the man, Adam, but the one less whole than before was most certainly the woman. Sin made her a new kind. No longer was she of Adam’s, but a new kind that Adam called ‘Eve;’ simply put, “Adam knew Eve” (Gen 4:1) not in the sense that he had coitus but that he recognized the change in the woman from Adam to Eve.

Hebrew ‘Hava’ (root noun of  ‘Eve’) means ‘revealed.’ One linguist suggests that Haua (Eve) means ‘serpent.” If that is not enough, the first usage of the word ‘wife’ was after the first sin (Gen 4:1).

Before that time, the woman was Adam’s mate (Gen 2:18). Afterwards, no longer was she his mate, but wife (Issa), the feminine form of ‘Is’ (pronounced eesh). Is means ‘extant’ and is the male form, ‘Issa’ means extant in the female form.

With that background, no longer was the woman of Adam’s kind but a female of the extant kind — another ‘existence.’ When Eve was beguiled, that changed her. She was no longer whole, an Adam, but something lesser, just another alien life — alien to God.

If that is true, and the Hebrew does point to that, it explains why women are secondary to the men in scripture.

Not that Adam was vindicated, but that the woman was punished because she sinned first.

Paul explains that well, to wit: Speaking of death he wrote, “For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of Him that was to come.” (Rom 5:13-14).

To make that clear, from Adam to Moses, there were no Laws. However, nothing was imputed to anyone because there was no Law. Sin was in the world but was not charged to anyone because there was no Law that was broken.

The two Adamah were not breaking any Laws because they were deceived as they had no knowledge of evil. The consequence, however, of the original sin was death. Their sins were not counted because Adam was the figure of the Jesus — the ‘Last Adam,’ as is written (1 Cor 15:45).

Adam was the ‘typo’ (Greek) of the One to come. The male of the species was the prototype of Jesus. Hence, Adam, the male sinned, but it was not accounted to him, and neither was it imputed in Eve, both by the grace of God. The prototype sinned unwittingly, but the Type never sinned. (Think of that as ingenuity.  Adam was the prototype and Jesus the Image. That, readers, is engineering by the Tekton, Jesus.)

Paul also wrote that death (thanatos) reigned from Adam to Moses. “Death’ as it turns out is separation of the soul from the body. [1]

Hence, both Adam and his mate died in an esoteric sense. God did not kill, kill them because of grace, but removed His Image from the two. No longer were the two glorious and good, but ‘iniquitous’ (Psalm 51:5; depraved). No longer was the ‘Phantom” Image of God (Strong’s) within them, but another image that was cunning, and that is called the ‘Serpent.’

As a reminder, cunning, or subtilty, is craftiness. Remembering that Jesus is the Tekton whose body of knowledge was the Word, Lucifer — the Serpent — would try to out-craft Jesus, hence the ‘Serpent’ was not an image of flesh but the nature of the Beast in Lucifer and imputed to Eve.

The Gentile Romans were not under Jewish Law, so it was as if, for them, there was no Law. The Romans fit the genetics of Adam very well as Paul pointed out when he said, “even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression.” Paul implied that sin is genetic, and it is, because Jesus shed his blood as a propitiation for “sins that are past” (Rom 3:23). In other words, the sins of mankind, even those who were not under the Law.

Something happened to the flesh of the woman, ‘Adam’ (not his name but his kind). Before sin, the woman was of Adam, but after sin, she was an ‘Eve’ (an Issa) and a wife, (an adulteress).

Sin had made her a little less than Adam and the male of the kind had been a little lower than the angels, as the prototypical Jesus (Heb 2:9) “for the suffering of death.” Righteous angels are immortal beings but with the prototypical man, sin made men mortal.

God had to make them mortal to fulfill the punishment, to “surely die” (Gen 2:17) or literally to ‘die, die.’ The soul would die and in the process of time (930 years) the body, or image, would die… thus die, die. 

(Key Verses): Then came she (the Caanite woman) and worshipped Him, saying, “Lord, help me.” But He answered and said, “It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.” And she said, “Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.” Then Jesus answered and said unto her, “O woman, great is your faith: be it unto you even as you will.”  And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. (Mat 15:25-28)

 The commentary thus far has been about mankind who was separated — the soul emptied of the Sprit of God from the body. The female of the species lost her soul, and her flesh was changed. She died spiritually and was separated from God.

How did her flesh change? Sin was genetic, so the ‘mother of all living.’ all her progeny, would be born spiritually dead as well; dead in the sense that they are separated from God and joined with Satan whose will they do, or whose nature they have (John 8:44).

In other words, sin is genetic and until recently nobody could alter your genes, but now mankind has discovered the knowledge of God. Eugenics is science playing God on behalf of Lucifer whose desire is to be like the Most High God (Isa 14:13-14). I believe eugenics is unpardonable.

Since God is Glorious and Adam made in the Image of God, then Adam was glorious as well. Scripture, in the English, uses the phrase “very good” (Gen 1:31) but that is literally exceedingly precious — splendorous. ‘Wholeness’ is in the Image of God.

The daughter (Mat 15) was possessed by demons; she was beguiled. As such, she had guile in her. ‘Guile’ is deceit. The daughter had deceit in her — the cunning of the Devil. How it got there is not said, but somehow the dominant genes of the Wicked One overcame her.

Dominant? Yes! Glorious Adam and his mate had dominion over all things (Gen 1:21) but remembering that Satan is the ‘Prince of the Power of the Air,’ he now has dominion over Eve’s kind. (all who exist since sin).

Because of the mother’s faith, the daughter was changed; “her daughter was made whole (Greek; iaomai) from that very hour” (Mat 15:28). She was healed, hence ‘made whole’ is her Soul returned to her body and the separation ended. In other words, The Goodness of Jesus filled her soul by his Virtue (Dynamis). The ‘Phantom,’ or Image of God, engendered the girl. She was ‘born again,’ not by natural birth but from a regenning by Jesus.

He did to her as His Father did to Adam. Jesus breathed life unto her. No longer would the woman be the giver of life (Gen 4:1) but God Himself would do that.

As Mary proved, she was not the progenitor of Jesus but merely a ‘vehicle’ from which Jesus came from the invisible realm to Earth. Mary was no more the mother of Jesus than Eve the mother of ‘righteous Abel.’

Hopefully, the reader realizes that there are two deaths: the death of the body and the death of the soul. That seems to be the meaning of die, die.

The first death is the death of the body. Someday it will happen, John saw “the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death” (Rev 20:13-14). That will be the second die in to die, die! However, for those regenned by Jesus, death is gain, according to Paul. They will only die once, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb 9:27).

Everyone will die once, but after the judgment some will die, die but the others die, then live!

The second death therefore is the walking dead — those who are separated from Jesus, and without the Holy Spirit in their souls. The dead, dead are those who die without Jesus. Dead, dead is forever dying and dying. The flesh apparently dies repeatedly and the souls of the lost are forever dying.

 

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[1] All the Hebrew and Greek meanings come from James Strong’s Lexicon (Strong 2006).

HUMAN BUT NOT QUITE

Jesus left Galilee and came to the coast. The saying today is from the river to the sea. That is what the Palestinians are fighting about, in other words, all of Israel. Jesus came for all of Israel, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” Jesus responded to the Jews who followed Him.

In modern times, that would have been very insensitive to many, especially when Jesus put things in the right perspective. He revealed the truth, and oftentimes the truth hurts.

But before we get into the key verses, consider the location from where Jesus spoke and to whom he spoke, and to whom he listened.

Jesus went to the coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon (refer to the map below). 

The city of Tyre was settled by people from Sidon. As such, those twin cities were the homes of the Phoenicians whose exact race is unknown but whose genetic family is said to be from the god, Zeus. Zeus is said to have raped Europa, the woman for whom Europe is believed to be named.

Tyre means the ‘Rock’ because of the island rock on which that port city was built.

Sidon (‘The Fishery’) was named after Sidon, the son of Canaan, the son of Ham, the son of Noah. Sidon, because of the sin of Ham that was passed down as a curse to Canaan, would be cursed as well. Hence, both Tyre and Sidon were accursed cities, the former by spirit and the latter by the flesh.

According to the Book of Jasher, Canaan was cursed, not because Ham saw his father naked, but because he stole the ‘Garment of Adam’ from Noah, thus revealing Noah’s depravity. Yes, even righteous Noah was the of the gens of Seth who was of the adulteress Eve and Adam, the latter of whom was of the gens of God (Luke 3:38).

Noah carried the seed of both Adam and Eve, unlike Abel, who was born pure. Hence, Noah had some guile in himself, but God covered that guile when  “Noah found grace” (Gen 6:8). Jasher indicates that grace was the Garment of Adam (Gen 3:21). Adam wore that Garment until he died, then God put the Garment on Noah. God covered the depraved genetics, it seems, of Noah with the Whole Armor of God, that he may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil (Ephes 6:11).

Ham stole the Armor of God and soon after, Noah sinned. He became the ‘Husbandman’ in God’s stead and drank the wine from the vine. As it seems from Jasher, Noah, like Samson long after, was born a Nazarite and drinking wine broke that pure state.

That the woman was a Canaanite is important. She was of the seed of Sidon, Canaan, and Ham. Not only that, but Tyre was populated not by the offspring of the false God Zeus, but Baal who was of the seed of Nimrod. According to Jasher, he was the man who ended up with the Garment of Adam.

He was a ‘mighty hunter’ not because he was strong, but because he wore the Garment of God.

The woman of the coastal plains was of the flesh of Adam and the spirit of Nimrod, so to speak. Genetically and spiritually, the woman was somewhat less than glorious.

The Canaanite woman cried out to Jesus, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, you son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil” (Mat 15:22).

She saw Jesus as the heir to the throne of David. Jesus was certainly of the gens of both David and as the ‘Son of God’ (the Genome of Yahweh) because he had the virtue to heal.  Jesus was both royal and Divine in her humble eyes… because she cried.

The woman’s daughter was vexed with a devil (daimonizomai). She was under the power of a demon, to be literal (Strong 2006).

How do demons enter people? Eve was beguiled by the ‘Serpent’ demon. Lucifer got into Cain because the woman was beguiled. Cain had guile in him. The Greek word means cunning, deceit, or subtilty. Just as the Serpent was subtil (cunning), so was Eve.

‘Crafty’ in an evil sense is deceptive but in a good sense it is prudence. Hence, the good and evil of the Tree of Knowledge was crafty wherein things that seem good can be evil, and things that are evil seems to be good, or as Isaiah said it, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight” (Isa 5:20-21).

The girl was confused. She failed to know what was right and what was wrong. She would be doing about anything that pleased her.

The first woman was beguiled. She was no longer able to differentiate between right and wrong.

Adam, the man, was never beguiled. Where his offspring would have the knowledge of a Good God; Eve, as “the mother of all living” (Gen 3:20) would pass confusion along to both men and women. (In modern times the science reveals that to be the mitochondrial DNA that men cannot pass down, but women can. Our first genetic ‘Adam’ was the woman and hence mitochondrial DNA identifies the entire spectrum of our origins. Our genetic ‘Adam’ is ironically Eve and thus we also are of the wicked one, albeit with some residual DNA of God within us. That makes us worth preserving with some gene editing by the blood of Jesus!)

Then came the Canaanite woman to Jesus. She was basically revealing the truth that her daughter was of the wicked ones. Indeed, all sinners are, but to different degrees; likely by the correction of defective genes by God through the semen of the patriarchs such as Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David.

Then came Jesus with their genes in His flesh as well as the Genome of Yahweh. (It is to be noted that the blood of the Shroud of Turin lacked any genetic markers other than the Y and so did the blood of the Messiah that the archeologist Ron Wyatt had tested from blood beneath Gordon’s Calvary.)

Only Jesus, since the time of the first Adam, had glorious flesh with no subtilty within Him. No wonder He was considered the ‘Last Adam’ (1 Cor 15:45); He is the last time mankind will be generated after so many successive attempts with Seth, Noah, and Abraham.

Next (tomorrow) we will consider the insensitive accusation that Jesus inferred about the girl.