In the Foreword, there was a comment about sharing some quotations from Wierzbicka (2001). She has been quoted in this book, from two of her books from her linguistic perspective, one of many tools in the “historical-critical method” that has been referred to previously. The straightforward logic of her linguistic approach was a new concept to this writer, seeming to have a great deal of merit (Wierzbicka 2001, 2014), though there are few people on this earth with her background to duplicate her efforts in her 2001 book, and the challenge would be greater still approaching the Hebrew writings, as one can glean from the earlier quotations from her 2001 book.
The purpose of sharing a few quotations here is to introduce the reader to her approach, simply noting how very different it is from the approach in this Website. She uses her very learned background of simple concepts of the universal foundation of language, to come to many of the same conclusions we have here. Her understanding is shared here, at the end, which is following Strauch’s recommendation, not beginning with an author’s commentary. She does not at all discourage the type of work that has been shared in this book. Indeed, from her book, (p 148) “Jesus cautioned against exclusive reliance on understanding God’s will as expressed through detailed commandments of the Law and instead encouraged a more personal relationship between a human being and his or her Abba. So he was also implying a greater need for a person to listen to God’s voice in private prayer, ‘in secret’ and in the privacy of a personal I – Thou relationship with God.”
This is precisely what this writer and what Spurgeon, Hays, and Strauch all have said. Study Scripture intently, yes, but study it prayerfully. Here is a sample of how Wierzbicka writes in the book: “Semantic research over the last three decades suggests that concepts like GOOD and BAD, SOMEONE and SOMETHING, YOU and I, DO and HAPPEN, KNOW and THINK, or THIS and OTHER (= ELSE) are among those that cannot be made any clearer by further explanations, although volumes can, of course, be written — and have been written — about so-called values, norms, actions, events, objects, self, mind, cognition, intentionality, and so on.” (p6) An illustration of how she tends to break down the saying of Yeshua are, for “Love your enemies” (p7);
- if someone wants to do bad things to you
- it will be good if you don’t want to do bad things to this person because of this
- it will be good if you want to do good things for this person
- God wants this
Going to a discussion about “what else Jesus wanted to say,” in the Sermon on the Mount, (Mt 5-7) she writes: “Trying to focus on what seems to be the most indubitable and the least controversial, we could say the following: as Jesus saw it in the Hebrew Scriptures God was speaking to people, using Moses and the Prophets as his spokesmen. Jesus’ question was not so much whether Moses and the Prophets had communicated God’s message ‘correctly’ but whether the people to whom they spoke had come to know fully what God wanted to say (through the Scriptures); and to this question his answer appeared to be, ‘no, not necessarily, not always.’
This can be represented as follows (p60):
- when these people were saying these things about God • God wanted to say some things to all people [all Israel] in this way
- people [Israel] didn’t always know what God wanted to say Hence the need for Jesus’ own explanations and revisions:
- I want people to know what God wanted to say
- I want to say this to you now”
Wierzbicka is a linguistic scholar. Her background for many decades has allowed her to apply her linguistic knowledge to these interpretations of the teachings of Yeshua in the Greek. She is presented as another witness, from a different viewpoint, having reached a number of similar conclusions. Few people in our world have her experience in this approach, and it is not possible for most of us to approach Scripture in this way. It is encouraging that the “big picture” in many ways comes across even from such a different approach. This is the multiple witness or “triangulation method” discussed before.
The purpose of this writer’s approach has been to demonstrate methods by which those of us who are not scholars, but readers of Scripture as a revealing of the nature of life may come to answers to some of our tough life questions. One final quotation from Wierzbicka, near the end of her book (p463):
“Using these concepts, we can make it clear (in any language) that according to Jesus’ teaching, ‘God wants to do good things for all people,’ that ‘all people can live with God,’ and that ‘God wants it,’ as well as how people can live if they want to live with God.”
• • • And her thoughts combined with this writer’s thoughts lead to a final plea. If, indeed, we are a people of God, We must demonstrate that by loving one another, working with one another, rather than trying to prove who is “right.” Such a human characteristic! Not glorifying to our Father!! Are we so very certain about our stance, our assumptions, that we are unwilling to listen to the actual Word of God? Here is one last opportunity for the writer to challenge all readers, brothers Yehuda and Christians alike. We will begin with the root, Yehuda, the foundation of our faith, the ones whom God chose to preserve his Word and to be a light, a witness, to his teaching. There is a typical controversy between you brothers Yehuda and Christians about much in the book of the prophet Isaiah. Where Christians say Isaiah is prophesying of Yeshua, the Anointed One, you say Isaiah is speaking of Israel, God’s people, God’s firstborn. Take this passage:
Isaiah 42:1-9 NKJV 1 “Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. 2 He will not cry out, nor raise His voice, Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. 3 A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth. 4 He will not fail nor be discouraged, Till He has established justice in the earth; And the coastlands shall wait for His law.” 5 Thus says God YHWH, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, Who gives breath to the people on it, And spirit to those who walk on it: 6 “I, YHWH, have called You in righteousness, And will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the Gentiles, 7 To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the prison, Those who sit in darkness from the prison house. 8 I am YHWH, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images. 9 Behold, the former things have come to pass, And new things I declare; Before they spring forth I tell you of them.”
If, indeed, brother/sister Yehuda, this is you and not Yeshua, are you walking in this? If you say this is you, are you demonstrating that?
And for you, sister/brother Christian, it was previously brought out:
Jeremiah 31:31-34 NKJV 31 “Behold, the days are coming, says YHWH, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says YHWH. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says YHWH: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know YHWH,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says YHWH. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
If you believe that you, as Christian, are living in the “New Covenant,” do all know the Father? Ah, but the Christian may fall back on “the Great Commission,” which by the way is one of those commentator’s headings that is not Scriptural. As a matter of fact, what most Christians believe as their command to go and convert the world is another of those “interestingly interpreted” passages. There is a significant issue with virtually all English renderings of Matthew 28:19. The Greek is most closely rendered “having gone, make disciples.” The point is that there is no command to go out in order to make disciples. The imperative is to make disciples [i.e. teach]. Pushing others to convert to “our way of thinking” is not the intent. See Green’s commentary on Matthew 28:19-20 in Appendix 4 from The Evergreen Devotional New Testament. C.A.F.E. Edition, Hollis L. Green, pp80-81. Dr. Dr. Green is an exquisite scholar and makes the point that we, in our everyday walk of life, by how we live, teach others about the nature of God. When others see how we live, then they may be changed. God changes hearts. We cannot push others into our beliefs.
But for the Appendices, this is the end of the dissertation that was done for my doctorate, with a few writings done since the summer of 2017, when the doctorate was awarded. I hope that this sharing has been of some help to some people (particularly the sections on “It is written” and “Fulfilled”). I also, Father willing, intend to continue to write on newer thoughts with additional posts. My plea will remain to get to truly know YHWH, the only way of doing so by way of his guidance through Scripture, and to break down the walls between all of those who are guided by the Holy Word.
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