Soil from Stone: August 2022

Lucifer vs Hel-El

Someone on Facebook asked me about this interesting post:

The name "Lucifer" is nowhere in any of the original scripture but was a mistranslation of the name Hel-El, which means Shiner, or Hel god.

Ooh, sounds scary. I don't want to come across any "dangerous names".

Although I know it's sometimes hard to tell, most people aren't complete idiots. If you tell them an obvious lie, they can usually tell, and they'll just ignore or mock you. If you want them to believe it, you have to spend a lot of time conditioning them to believe nonsense (see the current trans-mania) or you have to disguise your nonsense with a veneer of truth. That's what this person is doing. It's total nonsense, but it's couched in just enough truth and true-sounding gobbledygook to seem believable.

This warning(?) sounds plausible if you don't know any Hebrew, nor how languages interact and evolve, nor how to use the tools to verify its claims.

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, Lucifer is a Latin word that means "light bearer" or "morning star".

According to the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew dictionary, helel means "shining one" or "morning star". It appears only once in the entire Bible in Isaiah 14:12.

When Jerome translated the Bible into Latin in the 4th century, he translated this word literally from the Hebrew to the Latin. That's pretty reasonable, since there is nothing in the context to indicate that it is the name of a person. The Jewish Publication Society and the English Standard Version both translate it as "day star", although the ESV capitalizes it as a proper title. Jerome wasn't trying to hide the original Hebrew, he was just translating it.

The Hebrew word isn't "Hel-El" and did not refer to a "Hel god". The Hebrew is helel (הילל), related to another Hebrew word halal (הלל), which is a verb that means "to shine". It is not a compound word made from hel and el, a generic Hebrew word for a god. It is a deverbal noun derived from a single verb. As far as I can tell, there was no deity named "Hel" in the Ancient Near East, so rendering helel as "Hel god" is doubly nonsensical.

Since almost all early churches in England exclusively used Jerome's Latin Bible, the word "lucifer" was eventually adopted into the Old English language as a pseudonym of Satan. The King James Version translated Hebrew helel as Lucifer, because that was a reasonable translation for the English of that day. Nobody was hiding any "dangerous names".

The only conspiracy here is by someone trying to make Bible believers look foolish. Beware of peddlers of sensationalism. They are almost always trying to trick you into something.

Now I'm just waiting for someone to claim that drinking Shiner beers is pagan.

A Chiasm in Matthew 5 on the Spiritual Nature of the Law

A - v2-12 - Spiritual application of Torah
-- B - v13-16 - Righteousness that glorifies God
---- C - v17a - Don't think that Yeshua will abolish the Law or Prophets
------ D - v17b - Yeshua didn't come to abolish them
-------- E - v18a - Until Heaven and Earth pass away
---------- F - v18b - Not an iota or dot will pass from the Law
-------- E - v18c - Until all is accomplished
------ D - v19a - Relaxes the least commandment and teaches others so
---- C - v19b - Does and teaches the commandments
-- B - v20 - Righteousness that glorifies man
A - v21-48 - Spiritual application of Torah

A few things that can be learned from this chiastic arrangement:

"Until Heaven and Earth pass away" and "Until all is accomplished" are not two possibilities for when the Law will pass away, but two descriptions of the same event. In other words "all" will not be accomplished until heaven and earth pass away.
Verses 13-16 are meant to exemplify a kind of righteous behavior that glorifies God. This righteousness is juxtaposed with that of the scribes and Pharisees in verse 20, which serves only to glorify men.
The Beatitudes in verses 2-12 concern the inner character of the perfectly righteous man, while the "You have heard it said" statements in verses 21-48 are specific instructions on how to become that righteous man. Both sets of statements are examples of literary anaphora, a form of parallelism in which the first word or phrase is repeated in each statement in order to connect them together.
Verses 17-20 are usually treated as a discrete passage with a complete message in itself, but this misunderstands Yeshua's real message. The Beatitudes are Torah. Letting the light of your righteous deeds shine before men in order to glorify your Heavenly Father is Torah. So long as there is a need for peacekeepers, for mercy, for endurance of persecution, there is a need for the Law. Only when the need for those qualities has vanished--when wickedness, covetousness, and hatred have been abolished--will the Torah, also known as the Law of Moses, no longer be necessary to teach and convict mankind.

Extra-Biblical Works Named in the Bible

This list includes anything written by God's people that is mentioned in the Bible, but not included in the Biblical canon. It might not be complete. Many other extra-biblical works are quoted in the Bible, but not named, and I have not attempted to include those here. Inclusion doesn't imply anything at all about the inspiration or authority of any works on the list.

Wars of YHWH (Numbers 21:14)

Jasher (Joshua 10:13, 2 Samuel 1:18)

Joshua's Census (Joshua 18:9)

Rights and Duties of Kingship (1 Samuel 10:25)

Further Proverbs and Songs of Solomon* (1 Kings 4:32)

Natural History of Solomon* (1 Kings 4:33)

Acts of Solomon (1 Kings 11:41)

Chronicles of the Kings of Israel (1 Kings 14:19, etc.)

Chronicles of the Kings of Judah (2 Kings 15:6, etc.)

Chronicles of King David (1 Chronicles 27:24)

Chronicles of Nathan the Prophet (1 Chronicles 29:29, etc.)

Chronicles of Gad the Seer (1 Chronicles 29:29, 2 Chronicles 9:29)

Prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite (2 Chronicles 9:29)

Visions of Iddo the Seer (2 Chronicles 9:29, 2 Chronicles 12:15, 2 Chronicles 13:22)

Chronicles of Shemaiah (2 Chronicles 12:15)

Chronicles of Jehu, son of Hanani (2 Chronicles 20:34)

Isaiah, son of Amoz (2 Chronicles 26:22)

Chronicles of the Seers (2 Chronicles 33:19)

Jeremiah's Lament for Josiah (2 Chronicles 35:25)

Genealogy of the Aliyah (Nehemiah 7:5)

Council of Jerusalem to the Diaspora (Acts 15:23, etc.)

Introduction of Apollos from Ephesus (Acts 18:27)

Zeroth Letter of Paul to Corinth (1 Corinthians 5:9)

First Letter of Corinth to Paul (1 Corinthians 5:9, 1 Corinthians 7:1)

Second Letter of Corinth to Paul* (1 Corinthians 16:3)

Zeroth Letter of Paul to Ephesus (Ephesians 3:3)

Letter of Paul to Laodicea (Colossians 4:16)

Letter of Introduction from John (3 John 1:9)

Enoch (Jude 1:14)

* Presumed to have been written in some form.

Objections to Keeping Torah

Torah

Torah is a Hebrew word that means "instruction" or "law", depending on the context. It refers to the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), also commonly known as the Pentateuch. When Yeshua (aka Jesus) spoke of "the Law and the Prophets", he was referring to the Torah and the rest of the Old Testament.

You might also hear of the "oral Torah", which refers to a semi-mythical tradition that was passed down to the ancient rabbis from Moses by word of mouth, as opposed to the written Torah referenced above. Those rabbis debated and discussed them, and the records of those discussions are recorded in the various Talmuds. I don't think there can be any doubt that Moses gave oral instructions that were never written down, because there is much in the written Torah that can't be fully understood otherwise. However, I don't think those instructions survived intact for the rabbis to discuss them. Clearly the religious leaders of Yeshua's day had a very confused understanding of the Torah, so it seems very unlikely that they had straightened it all out a few hundred years later. It's much more likely that they had gone even further astray.

That's not to say that the Talmud and rabbinic traditions are worthless. If you understand that it contains a record of debates, not just a straightforward recounting of oral tradition, then you can look past some of the more offensive and blasphemous contents to find some really profound and insightful bits. It's not divinely inspired Scripture, but it is useful for historical context and perspective.

The written Torah, however, most certainly is divinely inspired, parts of it originally written directly by the hand of God himself. It is the foundation for all later revelation. None of the books of history, poetry, and prophecy, the Gospels, and the Epistles can be understood without a solid foundation in the Torah.

The Torah Movement

At this very moment, there is a spontaneous, global movement of people who worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to study the Torah and apply its instructions to their real lives. There is no leader, no central committee, no parent organization, and no headquarters of this movement. There isn't even a commonly accepted name. People in this movement call themselves Christians, Messianic Jews, Messianic Believers, Torah-Keepers, Hebrew Roots, Pronomians, Nazarene Israelites, and numerous other labels.

I don't particularly care for any of those labels, but I've used several of them for myself at times.

Regardless of the labels, they all have two things in common:

Yeshua is the Son of God, Messiah, and King of Israel.
The Torah still applies today to followers of Yeshua.

Beyond that, there is an almost infinite variation in their interpretations of Scripture.

There is also a lot of controversy within the rest of the Body of Christ as to what to do with these upstart Obeyers of God's Commandments. Some even deny that we are a part of the Body of Christ at all, claiming that we have rejected God's grace in favor of earning our salvation. (I'm sure they're right about a very small minority.) Some radicals say that any willful attempt to obey any of God's commandments is a rejection of grace. Fortunately, most Christians reject those people in turn.

The Controversy

Of course, all of this means I've put together quite a few words on the subject of whether a follower of Yeshua--or Jesus, if you prefer...it's the same man--ought to obey the full Law of God or not.

A point of clarification on "the Law of God"... Some people make a distinction between the Law of God and the Law of Moses. The distinction is mostly artificial. The instructions that God gave through Moses at Sinai are a written expression of the Law of God. The Law of Moses is the Law of God as it was conveyed in a specific time and space, to a specific people as part of a specific covenant.

Below, I have attempted to catalog all of my online teachings on Torah-keeping, organized by sub-topic, but not in any other kind of order. There's a lot of overlap, and I'm sure to forget some articles or videos, so please search American Torah, Soil from Stone, Rumble, YouTube, and other sites for more from myself and many other fine teachers.

A caveat if you do search for other defenses or refutations of Torah-keeping, though: There is a vast spectrum of quality in the content you will find. Unless you are very thoroughly versed in the Scriptures and confident in your beliefs, I recommend that you set aside the teachings of anyone who denies the divinity of Yeshua or who denies that God has any objective standards of morality for his people.

Salvation by Faith

New Covenant vs Old Covenant

Does the Law Apply to Christians?

Under the Law

The Weekly Sabbath

Other Appointed Times

Food and Not Food

Does Joshua's Long Day Disprove the Heliocentric Model of the Solar System?

At that time Joshua spoke to YHWH in the day when YHWH gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, “Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.” And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. There has been no day like it before or since, when YHWH heeded the voice of a man, for YHWH fought for Israel.
Joshua 10:12-14

A few years ago, I recorded this video addressing the idea that NASA or a computer could prove the historicity of Joshua's long day through mathematics and astronomical observations.

It's a short video, but if you really don't have time, let me summarize: No. That's ridiculous.

Someone (we'll call him Perry) commented on the video today, letting me know that Joshua's long day and Hezekiah's solar reverse disprove the heliocentric model of the solar system. How could the sun stand still or--even more amazing--go backwards if the earth revolves around the sun!?

I didn't reply to his comment. In fact, I removed it. I have no problem being friends with flat-earthers in the real world, as long as they're not evangelistic about it, but I have very little patience for it from strangers on the Internet.

I can see how someone who doesn't know anything at all about astronomy might believe that someone could calculate the exact date of an unusual event, like the earth pausing in its rotation, by observing the current positions, vectors, and velocities of hundreds of astronomical bodies and...doing some computer and math magic. It's a complicated problem. Since very few people have anything like a working knowledge of orbital mechanics, it's reasonable for most people to just shrug and say, "Sure, sounds like it could happen."

Perry, on the other hand, has made a pretty basic logical error, and you don't need any knowledge of astronomy, physics, or math to prove him wrong.

According to the flat earth model, the sun is somehow fastened to or suspended from the inner surface of a dome. It moves in a continuous circle at some relatively small distance above the earth. How would the sun stand still or move backwards in that case? Easy: God makes it happen.

According to the geocentric model, the sun and all the rest of the universe revolve around the earth (instead of the earth revolving around the sun) in a complicated system of cycles and epicycles. How would the sun stand still or move backwards in that case? Easy: God makes it happen.

According to the heliocentric model, the earth and the other planets in the solar system revolve around the sun. How would the sun stand still or move backwards in that case? Easy: God makes it happen.

Here's the thing about miracles: None of the usual rules apply. Although God usually works through the natural processes of the universe, a miracle is, by definition, an exception to the natural processes.

How did God separate light from darkness? By commanding it.

How did Yeshua raise Lazarus from the dead? By commanding it.

How did God make the sun stand still? By commanding it.

How did God make the sun move backwards? By commanding it.

In each case, trillions of trillions of separate events had to occur in concert and contrary to the natural order of things for the miracle to happen. That's God for you. He knows every star in the sky, every hair on your head, and every subatomic particle in the universe by name and commands them all to do his bidding whenever it suits his purposes. Gravity, entropy, inertia...all obey the word of YHWH.