Pastor David B. Curtis
Pastor David B. Curtis
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We begin this morning a new study in the book of Ephesians. This letter to the Ephesian Church is full of some of the most fantastic revelations to be found anywhere in the Scriptures about the believer's union with Christ.
This Epistle, or letter, has been called: "the quintessence of Paulinism" (F.F. Bruce); "the crown and climax of Pauline Theology" (John Mackay); "the queen of the Epistles" (William Barclay); and "the divinest composition of man" (Samuel Taylor Coleridge).
John Stott, writes, "The letter to the Ephesians is a marvelously concise, yet comprehensive summary of the Christian good news and its implications. Nobody can read it without being moved to wonder and worship, and challenged to consistency of life."
In this letter, Paul uses what language he can to attempt to unfold the "mysteries of God"; speaking of election, adoption as sons, union with Christ, predestination, the making of a new man from both Jews and Gentiles, and the reconciliation of that man to God.
This morning, as background to our study, we are going to look at just the first word in the letter:
Paul, an apostle of Christ Yeshua by the will of God, To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Yeshua: Ephesians 1:1 NASB
Who is Paul? How would you answer that? An Apostle, the man who wrote most of the New Testament, a servant of Yahweh. Yes, all of those, but do you think of him as a Jewish Rabbi?
If you were among the earliest of Christians at the time just after the Crucifixion of Yeshua the Christ, the name "Saul of Tarsus" would very likely bring out strong emotions in you. Dislike and fear would be quite normal--and justified. Saul's view of Christianity was really quite simple--he wanted it, and everyone involved in it, destroyed. The man writing the letter of Ephesians was a Jewish Rabbi who had hated Yeshua and His people:
But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house; and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison. Acts 8:3 NASB
Saul was a hateful, evil man who was out to wipe Christians off the face of the planet. Yet, the result of the persecution in Jerusalem was the scattering of believers from Jerusalem, which resulted in the Gospel being preached wherever they went. Yahweh was using Saul's hatred to carry the Gospel beyond Jerusalem.
This is the man writing the letter of Ephesians. This is amazing! This Rabbi had formerly traveled from place to place, doing what he could to snuff out the every last existence of what he thought was a blasphemous group; claiming that God joined Himself with man, and that this Man was the promised Messiah, who actually was killed, and who these madmen say came back to life and ascended into the heavens. This Paul, who had "advanced in Judaism beyond many of [his] contemporaries... being more extremely zealous for [his] ancestral traditions," who eventually was party to the murder of Stephen and who "ravaged the church," was now writing a letter as "an apostle of Christ Yeshua." How could this be? You know the story from Acts 9:
Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, Acts 9:1 NASB
Only God knows how many people Saul was responsible for killing. He did not want to merely contain Christianity or to drive it from Jerusalem, he wanted to rid the earth of Christianity and its followers. Thus, his opposition to Christ and His Church took on a "missionary" spirit. Saul went to other cities where he sought to arrest Christians and to bring them back to Jerusalem for punishment:
and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Acts 9:2 NASB
The early Christians had not yet broken away from the Synagogues, and so the high priest in Jerusalem had jurisdiction, even in Damascus. Evidently the Syrian Jews were permitted by the government of Damascus to arrest any Jews from Jerusalem who were accused of breaking the law and return them to their native land for trial and punishment.
So Saul, filled with hatred and a burning desire to stamp out "The Way," heads for Damascus:
And it came about that as he journeyed, he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; 4 and he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" Acts 9:3-4 NASB
The road to Damascus would become one of the best remembered roads in the whole world precisely because of this incident.
To a Pharisee a voice from heaven was the voice of Yahweh, the "bath qol," especially when accompanied by blinding glory. Who, then, was this Who spoke from heaven? It could only be Yahweh. But how could He be thought of as persecuting Yahweh? Saul was without doubt thoroughly confused. He was not persecuting God! Rather, he was defending God and His laws!
And he said, "Who art Thou, Lord?" And He said, "I am Yeshua whom you are persecuting, Acts 9:5 NASB
His reference to "Lord" was an expression of humility before divine authority. He wanted "the Lord" to identify Himself. How could he be persecuting God when his whole life was given to His service?
The reply came, "I am Yeshua." Can you even imagine how Saul felt at this moment? Saul had dedicated the most recent part of his life to this belief that Yeshua was not the Son of God, Yeshua was not the Messiah, Yeshua had not risen from the dead, and all those who believed that must be exterminated. Can you imagine the sobering reality of suddenly standing face-to-face with the resurrected Yeshua, knowing He is indeed both God and alive--and you had been very wrong? These three words turned Saul's world and his theology upside down.
And Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. Acts 9:8 NASB
Saul's physical sight is gone--he is blind. Here is Saul, the most educated Jew in Palestine, and he has been blinded by Yeshua. Saul, as a Hebrew, would have had the Torah memorized. He would have known Deuteronomy by heart. Do you know what Deuteronomy 28 talks about? Saul did:
"But it shall come about, if you will not obey the LORD your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Deuteronomy 28:15 NASB
God told the Israelites that disobedience would bring a curse. Now notice what verse 28 says:
"The LORD will smite you with madness and with blindness and with bewilderment of heart; Deuteronomy 28:28 NASB
When does Paul say it was when he saw this vision on the road to Damascus? We know from other accounts (22:6; 26:13) that it was "noontime" or "midday" when Saul was stopped in his tracks by a bright light from heaven. Notice the next verse in Deuteronomy 28:
and you shall grope at noon, as the blind man gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways; but you shall only be oppressed and robbed continually, with none to save you. Deuteronomy 28:29 NASB
As Saul stood there blind and in shock, I'm sure that this verse came to his mind. He must have thought: I'm under the curse as a covenant breaker.
The blindness to which Saul was subject for three days provided him with much time for reflection, meditation, and prayer. But his blindness was symbolic of his condition. Israel was also blind, and Paul's blindness was but a specific example of this blindness:
And Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Yeshua, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit." Acts 9:17 NASB
The laying on of Ananias' hands was a distinct act of identification with Saul. The result was the restoration of Saul's sight and, it would seem, Saul's reception of the Holy Spirit. Saul's baptism followed, accompanied by his profession of faith, his "calling on the name of the Lord":
In that moment, something like scales fell away from Sha'ul's eyes; and he could see again. He got up and was immersed; Acts 9:18 CJB
I see this as Sha'ul's conversion. Scales fall off his eyes. All through Scripture, blindness is a spiritual metaphor. And it is used to represent the spiritual inability to see God's truth. There is obviously some symbolism, some metaphor here; the scales had fallen off Saul's eyes, and for the first time he had really seen the truth concerning Yeshua the Christ.
and he took food and was strengthened. Now for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus, Acts 9:19 NASB
Notice what the text says next, "Now for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus." He went to Damascus to arrest, torture, and kill the disciples, and now he's hanging out with them. This is what Yahweh does, He transforms us.
What can you say about Christianity when its most outspoken and zealous opponent suddenly claims to have seen the risen Christ and to have trusted in Him as the Messiah? The conversion of Saul of Tarsus and his subsequent conduct is a proof of the truth of Christianity.
It is this Paul who writes to the Ephesians. What I want to emphasize here is that he was a Jewish Rabbi. Too often I think we think of Paul as a modern day Christian theologian. Notice how Sha'ul describes himself:
b'rit-milah on the eighth day, by birth belonging to the people of Isra'el, from the tribe of Binyamin, a Hebrew-speaker, with Hebrew-speaking parents, in regard to the Torah, a Parush, Philippians 3:5 CJB
"A Parush"--is a Pharisee. The man we know as Paul was a Hebrew Rabbi, a Pharisee. He was Rabbi Sha'ul. Notice what he says, "A Hebrew-speaker, with Hebrew-speaking parents"--the NASB puts it, "A Hebrew of the Hebrews." Paul is saying, "I have maintained my tradition." The Hellenists were Greek speaking Jews. A Hebrew was a Jew who was not only of pure racial descent, but who had deliberately, and often laboriously, retained the Hebrew tongue. Such a Jew would speak the language of the country in which he lived, but also, the Hebrew which was his ancestral language. Sha'ul and his parents spoke Hebrew. Some Scholars try to tell us that Hebrew was a dead language at the time of Christ. I think the Bible tells us other wise. When Sha'ul addressed the mob in Jerusalem he did so in Hebrew:
Having received permission, Sha'ul stood on the steps and motioned with his hand to the people. When they finally became still, he addressed them in Hebrew: Acts 21:40 CJB
"Brothers and fathers! Listen to me as I make my defense before you now!" When they heard him speaking to them in Hebrew, they settled down more; so he continued: Acts 22:1-2 CJB
He is speaking to the crowds in Jerusalem and he speaks to them in Hebrew. Why would he do this if it were a dead language? We must keep in our thinking that Sha'ul is a Hebrew Rabbi, who speaks and writes in Hebrew.
"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as you all are today. Acts 22:3 NASB
He was born in Tarsus of Cilicia where there were large numbers of respected Jews, and his family was so "Jewish" that they arranged for him to be educated in Jerusalem.
"Educated under Gamaliel"--Gamaliel was the leader of the school of Hillel, one of the two most influential parties of the Pharisees. He had been a protégé of Hillel, who was his grandfather. People called him "Rabban Gamaliel." Rabban (lit. "our teacher") was a title of higher honor than "Rabbi"(lit. "my teacher"). Gamaliel was the most respected Pharisee of his day. The "Mishnah,"a collection of commentaries on the oral laws of Israel published toward the end of the second century A.D., contains the following statement about him: "Since Rabban Gamaliel the elder died, there has been no more reverence for the law; and purity and abstinence died out at the same time."
According to tradition, Saul was born the same year that Yeshua was born. He was born in Tarsus. Tarsus is at the southern tip of Asia Minor in what is now Turkey. As a young man Saul learned the trade of tent making. At 13 he was sent by his father to Jerusalem to study under the leading theologian in the world at that time, Gamaliel. Saul studied under him for 7 years and received what was the equivalent of two PhD's. By the time he was 21 he was the most educated Jew in Palestine. He had memorized and mastered the Tanakh and all the Rabbinic interpretations of the Tanakh.
You couldn't have a better educational background in Hebrew than to be brought up at the feet of Gamaliel. Rabbi Sha'ul was fluent in Hebrew, and was an expert in Hebrew literature and Rabbinics.
I said all that to say this, I believe that it is highly unlikely that the letter to the Ephesians was originally written in Greek. We know that Rabbi Sha'ul was fluent in speaking, reading, and writing Hebrew. And it is my opinion that he wrote the letter of Ephesians in Hebrew. There are several different ancient Greek versions of Ephesians. This seems unlikely if it was originally written in Greek, but makes sense if it was written in Hebrew.
In fact, it is my opinion that all of the New Testament was originally written in Hebrew. Why is this important? Well, we need to understand that interpretation is an inherent part of translation. A translator may attempt to translate a body of text literally, but even reading the text is a process of interpretation. Even reading one's own language or listening to some speaking is a process of interpreting. So, any translation carries some of the translator's beliefs within the text. I believe that our English Bible is a translation from Greek, which is a translation from Hebrew. So in order to really understand the text, we must try to get back to the Hebrew, not Greek, mind-set.
I have told you before that I believe the New Testament was written in Hebrew; today I'd like to show you why I believe that. There are basically four dominant views of the original language of the New Testament. There is Greek, Aramaic (there are several Aramaic views), Latin, and Hebrew. And all 4 of these positions have evidence to back them. But let me say this: We have no original New Testament manuscripts.
I think to start we must understand how the Hebrews viewed the Hebrew language. This is critical to the argument. To them it wasn't just something they spoke and wrote, to them it was a God given divine language. They viewed it as the DNA of creation.
The ancient Jewish sages and people have historically believed that the alephbet (Hebrew alphabet) was the building block of life. In other words, those twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet are what all of life is built on. They believe that Yahweh created the world with the alephbet:
By trusting, we understand that the universe was created through a spoken word of God, so that what is seen did not come into being out of existing phenomena. Hebrews 11:3 CJB
Yahweh spoke the world into existence through the alephbet. To see how they come up with this idea, let's look at the first verse in the Bible:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 NASB
This opening sentence is constructed out of seven Hebrew words. The number seven is recognized as a very special number from the Jewish point of view. It is a number that speaks of spiritual completeness and fullness.
When you examine this verse, you see how the Jews got the idea of the alephbet being the DNA of creation. In Hebrew Genesis 1:1 it reads: Bere'shiyt (in-beginning) bara[baw-raw] (created) Elohiym [el-o-heem] eth [ate] hashamayim [ha-sha-my-im] (the heavens) v'et [ate] (and) ha'aretz. [ha-er-rets] (earth).
Now I'm sure that you're thinking, "Big deal, that is what it says in English." Well, what you don't see in English that is of great importance is that after Bere'shiyt bara 'Elohiym, there is a fourth untranslatable word. That fourth word is actually two Hebrew letters: the Aleph and the Tav. These two letters do not actually form a word, but rather they express an understanding. The aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and the tav is the last letter of the alphabet. The placement of these two very significant letters at strategic locations within many sentences of the Hebrew Scriptures express a total completeness. It is equivalent to saying. "From a to z."
So, from the Hebraic point of view, they see that "In the beginning 'Elohiym created the aleph-tav." In other words, they believe that the very first thing 'Elohiym created was the Hebrew alphabet, which is known through ancient writings also as the aleph-tav. They recognize that He created the letters by which all life springs forth. Each letter in the Hebrew has a meaning and significance; the aleph is an ox head and stands for strength, leader, first person. It is also the number 1. The tav in ancient Hebrew is a type of "mark," probably of two sticks crossed to mark a place. What does our "a" stand for? Nothing it is just a sound.
The ancient sages believed the same way about the aleph-tav as modern science believes concerning the elements; that they are the fundamental building blocks of everything we see. I'm sure that you are somewhat familiar with the periodic table of the elements. There are 92 fundamental elements that Yahweh made. Elements are the basic building blocks for all types of substances. When they are combined with each other, they can form molecules. Man can take these elements and make things from them.
You can take two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen and produce H2O (water), which is a life sustaining compound. However, you may take the same two parts hydrogen and combine it with one part sulphur, and that produces H2S (hydrogen sulphide), which is very lethal. You can do this with the alephbet. You combine these letters and you form words, which form thoughts, which control behavior. Each letter has meaning and purpose. You can make words that refresh and strengthen, or words that poison.
For ages during Old Covenant times, people and even scholars were stumped and were clueless by the presence of "Aleph Tav." But in the New Testament the light began to come on. And many scholars now see that the aleph/tav represents Yeshua in the Tanakh. So whenever you see a Aleph Tav in the Bible, it is the personal signature of Yeshua the Christ Himself!:
"I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. Zechariah 12:10 NASB
In the Hebrew it says, "They will look on aleph/tav whom they pierced." Yeshua said in Revelation 1:8 that He was the aleph and tav. We see the aleph/tav in the creation story because Yeshua was the Creator. John 1:1-4
Alright back to seeking to prove that the New Testament was written in Hebrew. Some scholars have also suggested that under the Hellene Empire Jews lost their Semitic language and in their rush to hellenize, began speaking Greek. The books of the Maccabees record an attempt by Antiochus Epiphanes to forcibly Hellenize the Jewish people. In response, the Jews formed an army led by Judas Maccabee. This army defeated the Greeks and eradicated Hellenism. This military victory is still celebrated today as Chanukkah, the feast of the dedication of the Temple. Those who claim that the Jews were Hellenized and began speaking Greek at this time seem to deny the historical fact of the Maccabean success. During the first century, Hebrew remained the language of the Jews living in Judah and Galilee. Aramaic remained a secondary language and the language of commerce.
Jews at this time did not speak Greek, in fact one tradition had it that it was better to feed ones children swine than to teach them the Greek language. The Greek language was completely inaccessible and undesirable to the vast majority of Jews in Israel in the 1st century.
The first century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (37-c.100 C.E.) testifies to the fact that Hebrew was the language of first century Jews. He testifies that Hebrew, and not Greek, was the language of his place and time. Josephus gives us the only first hand account of the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. According to Josephus, the Romans had to have him translate the call to the Jews to surrender into "their own language." Josephus gives us a point-blank statement regarding the language of his people during his time:
I have also taken a great deal of pains to obtain the learning of the Greeks, and understanding the elements of the Greek language although I have so long accustomed myself to speak our own language, that I cannot pronounce Greek with sufficient exactness: for our nation does not encourage those that learn the languages of many nations.
So Josephus makes it clear that first century Jews could not even speak or understand Greek, but spoke "their own language."
Confirmation of Josephus' claims has been found by Archaeologists. The Bar Kokhba coins are one example. These coins were struck by Jews during the Bar Kokhba revolt (c. 132 C.E.). All of these coins bear only Hebrew inscriptions. Countless other inscriptions found at excavations of the Temple Mount, Masada and various Jewish tombs, have revealed first century Hebrew inscriptions.
Even more profound evidence that Hebrew was a living language during the first century may be found in ancient documents from about that time, which have been discovered in Israel. These include the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Bar Kokhba letters. The Dead Sea Scolls consist of over 40,000 fragments of more than 500 scrolls dating from 250 B.C.E. to 70 C.E.. These Scrolls are primarily in Hebrew and Aramaic. A large number of the "secular scrolls" (those which are not Bible manuscripts) are in Hebrew. The Bar Kokhba letters are letters between Simon Bar Kokhba and his army, written during the Jewish revolt of 132 C.E.. These letters were discovered by Yigdale Yadin in 1961 and are almost all written in Hebrew and Aramaic. Two of the letters are written in Greek, both were written by men with Greek names to Bar Kokhba. One of the two Greek letters actually apologizes for writing to Bar Kokhba in Greek, saying "the letter is written in Greek, as we have no one who knows Hebrew here."
Many of the Church fathers confirm that at least Matthew was written in Hebrew.
Papias (150-170 C.E.):
"Matthew composed the words in the Hebrew dialect, and each translated as he was able."
Ireneus (170 C.E.):
"Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect."
Origen (c. 210 C.E.):
"The first [Gospel] is written according to Matthew, the same that was once a tax collector, but afterwards an emissary of Yeshua the Messiah, who having published it for the Jewish believers, wrote it in Hebrew."
Eusebius (c. 315 C.E.):
"Matthew also, having first proclaimed the Gospel in Hebrew, when on the point of going also to the other nations, committed it to writing in his native tongue, and thus supplied the want of his presence to them by his writings."
Here is a little of what these scholars have written on the topic:
"When we turn to the New Testament, we find that there are reasons for suspecting a Hebrew or Aramaic original for the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, John, and, for the Apocalypse." Hugh J. Schonfield; An Old Hebrew Text of St. Matthew's Gospel; 1927; p. vii
"The Book of Revelation was written in a Semitic language, and that the Greek translation, is a remarkably close rendering… of the original." C. C. Torrey; Documents of the Primitive Church 1941; p. 160
"We come to the conclusion therefore, that the Apocalypse as a whole, is a translation from Hebrew or Aramaic" R. B. Y. Scott; The Original Language of the Apocalypse 1928; p. 6
The common wisdom of the Luke/Acts tradition has been to portray Luke as a Greek speaking, Greek writing Gentile, who wrote his account to the Gentiles. The reality of the matter is (whether Luke himself knew Greek or not) that Luke was most certainly written in a Semitic language. As Charles Cutler Torrey states:
"In regard to Luke, it remains to be said, that of all the Four Gospels, it is the one which gives by far the plainest, And most constant evidence, of being a translation." C.C. Torrey; Our Translated Gospels, p. lix
Modern linguistics shows that the text themselves don't lend to an "original Greek" translation. A very good book that demonstrates this is, The Semitic Origin of the New Testament, by James Trimm.
Up until 1947 there were many misunderstandings about the languages of the Bible. But when the DSS were discovered, the dominant amount were in Hebrew. Even the commentaries were all in Hebrew. Scholars began to realize that Hebrew was the language of the people.
I think that there is overwhelming evidence, both historical and linguistic, that shows that the texts were originally written in Hebrew, and also that Hebrew was not a "dead language" (as was thought of for quite some time). The Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR) magazine has had articles in the past on digs that have unearthed documents from around the first century written in Hebrew, including legal documents and one woman's personal diary.
The sign they put on Yeshua's cross was written in what?:
Many of the Judeans read this notice, because the place where Yeshua was put on the stake was close to the city; and it had been written in Hebrew, in Latin and in Greek. John 19:20 CJB
It was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Why not Aramaic? It was because it was not a dominate language in Jerusalem.
When Yeshua spoke to Sha'ul from heaven, what language did He speak in?:
We all fell to the ground; and then I heard a voice saying to me, in Hebrew, 'Sha'ul! Sha'ul! Why do you keep persecuting me? It's hard on you to be kicking against the ox-goads!' I said, 'Who are you, sir?' and the Lord answered, 'I am Yeshua, and you are persecuting me! Acts 26:14-15 CJB
Internal evidence of an original Hebrew text is found in the many Hebrew idioms found in the text. For example Matthew 6:19-24:
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. "But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. "The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. "But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness... Matthew 6:19-23 NASB
Note that He begins speaking about money, then says something about "an evil eye," then finishes His statement about money. If this were penned in Greek originally, you would have to ask, "Why this odd verse about an 'evil eye' in the midst of a money topic?" It makes no sense. However, if you happen to know that having an "evil eye" is a Hebrew idiom of that time for "being stingy with your money," then, the passage makes sense, and you realize it had to be written in Hebrew first, then whoever translated it into Greek (unaware of the idiom), simply took it word-for-word from Hebrew into the Greek.
I think that all of these New Testament letters were originally meant to be read by "leaders" in the Messianic community (most likely Jews), who were well versed in the Judaism of the first century and its understanding of Torah. We must remember that the believing communities began in the Synagogues.
Do you think of them meeting in a church building similar to our church buildings? I want to suggest to you that the early church met in a Synagogue. Both Jews and Gentiles meet in the Synagogue to worship Yahweh.
I believe that the writers of the New Testament wrote in Hebrew, which was then immediately translated in the more dominate speaking languages of the time. The Tanakh was written in Hebrew and so was the New Testament. Our Bible and our faith is Jewish. I hope that you understand that our roots are Jewish. If we are to understand Christianity, we must understand our Hebrew roots.
David Bivin writes, "In any attempt to understand the Bible, there is no substitute for a knowledge of ancient Jewish custom and practice."
The Bible, in its original languages, is, humanly speaking, a product of the Hebrew mind. So we must make an attempt to think and interpret from a Hebrew perspective.
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