Hebrew Voices #39 – Hebrew Manuscript of the Book of Revelation: Part 1

Hebrew Manuscript of the Book of Revelation This episode of Hebrew Voices is one of the most exciting things I have ever discovered: A Hebrew Manuscript of the Book of Revelation! This 17th century manuscript in the British Library contains the name Yehovah with full vowels and refers to "Yehoshua Mashiach". Torah-loving Methodist pastor AJ Bernard and the mysterious "T-Bone" joined me for a lively discussion of the Hebrew text and English translation. We unpacked topics such as the "Aleph Tav", the Jewish understanding of the Messiah coming on the clouds, and the meaning of Yehovah's holy Name.

Please listen to the episode, study the text, and share your thoughts in the comments section! Geoff wrote: “Nehemia, This was one of your best to date. Wow. I have been intrigued by the Hebrew Matthew manuscripts, but this is a step or more beyond any of that…I will be looking forward to Part 2.”

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Hebrew Voices #39 - Hebrew Manuscript of the Book of Revelation: Part 1

 

You are listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

Benjamin Netanyahu: Le ma’an Zion lo ekhesheh, u’l’ma’an Yerushalayim lo eshkot. (For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest. Isaiah 62:1)

Nehemia: Shalom, this is Nehemia Gordon with Hebrew Voices, and this week I’m going to be speaking to you about a newly discovered Hebrew manuscript of the Book of Revelation from the New Testament, and I’ve invited two people to join me in this discussion. One is Pastor AJ Bernard, who is a Methodist Pastor, and the other is a man I call “T-Bone”. Shalom, are you guys there?

AJ Bernard: We’re here. Hello, Nehemia.

Nehemia: T-Bone, are you there?

T-Bone: Hello, Nehemia. This is T-Bone.

Nehemia: [laughing] Hey. Well, this is a text I’ve read about years ago. There’s a book written in 1982 by a Frenchman, and he mentions that there’s this unidentified Hebrew text of the Book of Revelation. It’s actually only a chapter-and-a-half, and it goes from chapters 1:1 to 2:13. About 14 years ago, I was the library in Jerusalem at the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts looking for this, and I couldn’t find it. And just a few days ago, T-Bone wrote to me. T-Bone’s been helping me on research with the Masoretic text and looking for the name “Yehovah”. And he’s done some incredible things where he went through the entire Aleppo Codex, found the name with the full vowels, verified certain six times, possibly even a few other times. So he’s been helping me with his Masoretic text, and we’ve found so far 21 manuscripts of the early Masoretic text with full vowels, Yehovah. Now, T-Bone, you are coming from a New Testament perspective, is that an accurate description?

T-Bone: Yeah, or a whole perspective, I would say.

Nehemia: Okay. And what I mean by that is, I’m a Karaite Jew. My Bible is the Old Testament, the Tanakh. But you also look to the New Testament as your Scriptures, is that correct?

T-Bone: Correct.

Nehemia: T-Bone’s said, “I’ve been doing all this Old Testament stuff. It would be great to have a Hebrew Book of Revelation,” and I pull up on my computer, and I’ve got like a treasure trove of information on the computer of decades of research, and I’m like, “Well, there is this manuscript, but I’ve never been able to find it.” Within how long was it, was it even a day? I don’t remember how long, and he writes to me he and he’s got it. Tell us about that, T-Bone.

T-Bone: Yeah, I saw it was on the British Library, so I started looking through there, and I had found a document on it, but it had a broken link in it, so I dissected the link and then popped it up, and it was there. And I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it.

Nehemia: Wow. [laughing] So, I’ve been waiting 14 years to see this manuscript, since around 2003, when I was kind of in the intensity of doing the research. I was actually looking for every Hebrew New Testament document I could find that was on record anywhere, and there’s more than you would think. Now, is this the original Hebrew that was written by John of Patmos? Or is this a translation from Greek or some other language? I don’t have the answer to that right now. But it’s still a fascinating text, and this is dated to the 17th century, possibly earlier, but at least the 17th century. It was purchased in 1753 by a collector named Sloane, and today it’s in the British Library, which is like their version of the Library of Congress, or the Smithsonian Institute. So, the British Library and the Sloane Collection manuscript 273, and anybody could go online and see this for yourself. And today, we’re going to read it. This is what I wanted to do, I want to read and translate this manuscript - it’s only eight pages long – and discuss it with these two gentlemen.

AJ, tell us a little bit about yourself. You did a podcast with me, I think we called it something like, “How the New Testament interprets the Old Testament”, or something like that? Tell us a little bit about who you are, and where you’re coming from.

AJ Bernard: Yeah. My name is AJ Bernard. I’m a United Methodist Pastor at the Victory Chapel in Jackson, Ohio. What was it, a year ago or two years ago, two summers ago, I guess? Nehemia came to Jackson and spoke, we had a great event. A few months later, I had a question about the way Matthew utilizes Hosea 11:1 in his gospel. I called Nehemia, and it turned into a very interesting podcast I really enjoyed doing.

Nehemia: Yeah, and I’ve had people write to me and say, “This is the best podcast you’ve ever done.” I think I get that for every podcast, [laughing] except for maybe the one about the aliens, but whatever.

AJ Bernard: And the Raelians one is my favorite one.

Nehemia: Oh, is it really? Okay.

AJ Bernard: It is. It is, because most of it is so crazy, and then the last 30 seconds just hit my heart, and it’s beautiful.

Nehemia: Oh, wow. Okay. And I’ve got people who said, “Yeah, I listen to everything you do, except I skipped that one.” Like, whatever, you know? It sounded good when I did it. I mean, I enjoyed doing it. I learned things from it.

So, let’s jump into it, guys. And look, I’ve been getting a lot of questions from people because I shared that this was discovered, and I’m still in disbelief. Like, I was sitting there in front of my computer and I get the email from T-Bone. And guys, we call him “T-Bone” because when he was helping me with the earlier discoveries I said, “I need to tell everybody this was discovered, and I want to give you credit.” And he’s a really humble guy. He says, “Look, I’m not a public figure, so I want to be anonymous.”

Shall we just start reading this manuscript? It’s incredible. So, what I did is I sat down and I transcribed every jot and tittle, every letter, and this one has vowels in it. Actually, let me jump to the middle, because the first thing I did when I saw this manuscript is there’s this passage about the Aleph and the Tav which of course, in the Greek is the alpha and the omega. And to me, what’s even more important is that it talks about “Lord God” as a phrase that’s used in a number of places. And I wish we had more of this, this only goes to 2:13. So, I immediately pulled up that passage to see, “Okay, what does it say?” And let me read that. It really is, to me, the most exciting.

Look, I’ll tell you guys up front, there are three things in this manuscript that I find to be extremely exciting. And again, I don’t know, is this the original Book of Revelation that was written by John of Patmos or is this a translation? If it’s a translation from some other language into Hebrew, then it has some unique elements that aren’t found anywhere else, which is pretty cool. And by the way, I’m not so sure this is a unique element necessarily, but here, it’s chapter 1:8. It says in Hebrew, “Ani ha’Aleph ve haTav omer Yehovah, haElohim.” “‘I am the Aleph and the Tav,’ says Yehovah, the Elohim.” And what’s so powerful about that, to me, is that I’ve been hearing people for years speculating, “It says alpha and omega and originally, that was Aleph Tav.” Okay, that’s your opinion. Show me a manuscript where that’s the case. Now, is this the original manuscript? I don’t know. Even if it’s a translation from Greek or Latin or something like that, whoever read that said, “Well, obviously in Hebrew, alpha and omega can’t be alpha and omega, it would be Aleph and Tav.” And that’s what we have here.

And then it says, “Yehovah haElohim, Yehovah…” and when you add hey at the beginning of Elohim it means “the God” with a capital G. Hebrew doesn’t have capital letters. So, “I am,” or “Says Yehovah, ‘the Elohim,’ the God, the one, true God.” And there, Yehovah has the full vowels [laughing] which is so cool!

AJ Bernard: That’s awesome. I noticed that in the copy you sent me that it had the full vowels. I didn’t know if it was in the British manuscript as well.

Nehemia: Oh, it is. It absolutely is.

T-Bone: But not only that, it had the accent mark on it, too, if I’m not mistaken.

Nehemia: Right. That’s one of the really interesting things about this manuscript - that it has not a full set, but it has selective accent marks, what we call the “trop” or the cantillation marks, which you find in the Bible in the Old Testament in the Masoretic manuscripts. Occasionally, you’ll actually find it in the Mishna, believe it or not. In other words, the scribes who copied the Mishna also had some form of cantillating. If you’ve ever been to a synagogue, you’ll know what I’m talking about, where they’ll read it with a tune. I won’t torture the people and let you hear what that sounds like.

All right, let’s start from the beginning, and I’m going to post this on the website, nehemiaswall.com. I’ve actually created a thing, line by line, of the Hebrew transcribed precisely along with the English translation. So, let me read it. Are you guys ready?

AJ Bernard: Absolutely.

Nehemia: T-Bone, are you ready?

T-Bone: Yes, I am.

Nehemia: Excellent. Okay, here we go. “Chazon Yochanan hakodesh, hamedaber el meshulach u’mevasser.” This is the title. “The Holy revelation of Yochanan who is speaking to the one who is sent and announcing good news.” And what’s interesting here is that the word “who is speaking to”, that’s my translation. But you could also translate it – perhaps you should translate it as – “The one whom God is speaking, or God’s speaking to the one who’s sent,” but then we’re missing the word “to.” And that’s where things get a bit complicated. In Hebrew, the word “el” with a segel is to, and with a tzeirei is God. And here, it’s written with a tzeirei. It’s actually written “the one who is speaking, God” as a single word, “hamedaber el,” which I’ve never seen that in the history of the Hebrew language. This is very interesting, and with a shva underneath the Reish, it’s very interesting little things going on there.

What probably happened here is it said, “God speaking to the one who is sent,” and so you had “el el, God to,” and one of those dropped off in the copying. They call it “haplography”. But I’m speculating there. Really what it literally says, I guess, is “God speaking sent,” and announcing the good news, “mevasser,” which is the word for like “gospels,” meaning “and announcing the gospel,” really. Any thoughts on that, guys? I don’t know we need to comment on every verse, but if you have any thoughts…

AJ Bernard: That’s before the Greek text. Would that be like the title of the work?

Nehemia: Absolutely. It’s the title. And we don’t know, is the title put in there by the copyist? That’s always a question, right? We never know that. So, let’s go on.

This is chapter 1 verse 1, and maybe I’ll read a few verses. Let’s just start. “Chazon Yehoshua Mashiach she natano haElohim leharot avadav asher hutzrach lihiyot beshetzef, vehora shole’ach beyad hamalacho le’avdo Yochanan.” “The vision of Yehoshua Mashiach that the Elohim gave him to show His servants that which was necessary to be with wrath, and He taught sending by the hand of His angels to His servant, Yochanan.” We’ve got to discuss that. That’s so much in there.

AJ Bernard: Sure.

Nehemia: So, AJ, can you read us what you have in the English translation of the Greek, because I think there’s a significant difference here.

AJ Bernard: Yeah, and I’m reading from the English standard version. “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to Him to show His servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending His angels to His servant, John.” And that’s verse 1.

Nehemia: Okay, so what’s interesting here is we have the word “vehora”, which means, “and He taught”, and it’s from the same root as the word “Torah.” So, you could translate that and it sometimes is translated as, “And He taught Torah, sending in the hand of His angel to His servant, John,” [laughing] which is pretty cool.

AJ Bernard: That’s awesome.

Nehemia: So, that’s the kind of thing that could easily be lost in translation, because you have this term which is charged with meaning. It’s the same word as in Isaiah 2, where they’re talking about going to Jerusalem.

AJ Bernard: Isaiah 2 verse 3, “And many people shall come and say, ‘Come, let us go to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways and that we may walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. Hallelujah.’”

Nehemia: So, it says in Hebrew, “Vehalchu amim rabbim ve’amru lechu vena’aleh le har Yehovah el beit Elohei Yaakov,” “And many nations shall go and they shall say, ‘Let’s go and go up to the mountain of Yehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob.” “Veyoreinu midrachav,” “And He will Torah us, He will teach us from His ways.” Same word that is up here in this Hebrew version, which is interesting, it’s not from the Greek. The Greek doesn’t have that. So, where did he get that? And again, I don’t know. Is this a translation from Greek or from some other version? But it has something here that we’re not finding in the Greek. It’s just very interesting. It has this root to teach Torah in 1 verse 1.

AJ Bernard: Wow.

Nehemia: So, let’s go on, verse 2, “Asher he’id hadavar haElohim veha’eidat Yehoshua Mashiach asher khazar veshehena veshutsrach la’asot acharei zot.” “He testified the word of the Elohim and the witness of Yehoshua Mashiach which he saw and that are here, and that which was necessary to do after this.”

And there’s an elephant in the room, I want maybe T-Bone to talk about, which is that if you were translating this from Greek, what I would expect is that it would say, “Yesus Christos” or “Yeshua haMashiach”. And what we have here is something a little different. Can you talk about that, T-Bone?

T-Bone: Sure. Yeah, that’s the first thing that struck me when I saw this was that it had the full name of Yehoshua.

Nehemia: Right.

T-Bone: I had read that there were some manuscripts of the Hebrew Matthew that had the full name, but the copy I have always has “Yeshua”. So, I found that was interesting when I first saw this.

Nehemia: Right. It’s so interesting. And of course, in the Old Testament, in the Tanakh, the name “Yeshua” is an abbreviation for Yehoshua, which means, “Yehovah yoshia,” Yehovah will save. And by Second Temple times, anybody named Yehoshua was called Yeshua, and you have, for example, the High Priest, Yehoshua, the son of Jehozadak. And it’s kind of like if someone was named Michael, you’d call him Mike. But here, it is the original full form of Yehoshua, and maybe it’s kind of like your name, AJ. So, AJ’s got to stand for something, right? What does it stand for?

AJ Bernard: [laughing] My dad named me Alois Joseph when I was born.

Nehemia: Oh, my gosh. [laughing]

AJ Bernard: But no American can pronounce Alois.

Nehemia: Wow. I didn’t see that one coming.

AJ Bernard: So, from a very early age, I was AJ.

Nehemia: Okay, so imagine if all of a sudden we have some document, and instead of AJ it says, “Alois Joseph”. So, that’s this equivalent here of Yehoshua, which is interesting, like this is totally unexpected. Let’s say this is translated from Greek - why would he write “Yehoshua” instead of “Yeshua”, which is more common? And look, if this was a Rabbi writing this, there’s no question that he would have written “Yeshu”, which is an even more abbreviated form that we could discuss, perhaps.

AJ Bernard: That’s actually what the Greek says is, “Esu”. It doesn’t even have the whole Esuas, it’s just Esu.

Nehemia: Oh, wow, okay. So, this is interesting. And again, maybe it is translated from Greek, I don’t know. But it’s just fascinating. I do think it’s interesting, T-Bone, that the first thing my eye went to was “Yehovah”, and the first thing your eye went to was “Yehoshua”. Maybe that speaks volumes.

All right, verse 3, “Ashrei ha’ish asher koreh vehashom’im hadivrei hanevua umeshamrim hena asher baketuvot, ki ha’et karov.” “Happy is the man who reads and the one who hears the words of the prophesy and guards here,” or “they guard here, those that are written in it, for the time is near.” And that word “here”, “hena” keeps appearing. My guess is that it means “these” but that’s not what it means, but that might be what this text uses it as, in other words, so it probably means “and guard these”. But it’s interesting.

So, for those who are Hebrew speakers, one of the things that will sound very unusual here, we have this very wide use of the Hey hayedi’a of the Hey meaning “the” in places that are totally unexpected in the Hebrew language. And definitely I know there’s going to be some people who are going to say, “Well, this is translated from Greek or some other language by somebody who didn’t know Hebrew well enough.” You could definitely think that’s a possibility. I don’t know that it proves it, but it’s very strange. You have here, “divrei hanevua”, “the words of the prophesy”, and it has, “ha divrei hanevua”, the words of the prophesy.” And that first Hey is completely not only extraneous, contrary to certainly the standard rules of the Hebrew grammar. You wouldn’t expect that.

And we have the structure in Hebrew called “semichut” or the construct case. It’s kind of where one noun leans upon another noun. And in those situations, the first noun never gets Hey, although I guess it doesn’t matter in Hebrew. You wouldn’t expect that, but it’s a quirk of this text. It appears quite consistently throughout the text.

AJ Bernard: Even in the Greek, there are grammatical quirks in the Revelation that cause Christian scholars to balk at it. At one point, in fact, they believed that it was written in what they called “Holy Ghost Greek”. It wasn’t a common language at all, but rather something that the Spirit made up to teach the Church. The problem is that Revelation is 404 verses which contain over 800 references or allusions to the Old Testament. So John will frequently insert a quote from the Old Testament in an odd place, and it sounds difficult to our American ears, or to a Greek speaker, but if I were an American and I said, “I am an American.” And if I said, “So, Nehemia, do you believe in ‘We, the people’?” That would be grammatically incorrect, “do you believe in ‘We, the people’?” But it’s making a reference to something else that is much more familiar.

Nehemia: Something known from the culture, very interesting, great point. Very, very interesting, yeah. And of course, there are definitely scholars - in fact if you look in the standard Greek grammars, they’ll say that John is full of Hebrewisms. Some of them are very obvious, even if you don’t know Hebrew, like “Avadon” for “abanon” and “Armageddon”, which is “Har Megiddo”, those are straight out Hebrew phrases that were in the Greek. And then you have more subtle things which you’d only know if you were a Greek scholar, like “kai genito”, which is, “and it came to pass”, but literally a translation of “vayehi”, and he was.

So, even without this Hebrew text you have signs that point it to be possibly of a Hebrew source. Anyway, let’s read verse 4. “Yochanan leshiva makalelim, hem b’asya, chen lachem veshalom mimenu hoyeh vayihiyeh vesheyavo umisheva haneshamot shenegged hakis’o.” “Yochanan to the seven congregations that are in Asia, grace to you and shalom from Him who is and who will be, and who will come and from the seven souls that are opposite His throne.” Wow. [laughing] This is…

AJ Bernard: Yeah.

Nehemia: Wow, wow, wow, wow, this is cool. Wow. So, first of all, we have “makelim”, which is very interesting. I would expect if someone were translating this from Greek they’d have “knessiot”, which are “churches.” Makelim is from the word “kahal” a congregation. It’s very interesting. You could even translate it as “choirs”, but I think it means here “congregations”. So you have this phrase that appears a number of times in this text, which is, “He that is, He that will be, and He that is to come,” which is what we would find certainly in more common Hebrew texts as haya, hoveh, ihiyeh, He was, He is, He is to come. And I wonder if that’s not what he means here.

AJ Bernard: I was wondering that too, yeah.

Nehemia: Well, and you have that, of course, in the Greek version, “haya, hovey, ihiyeh”. And let’s save a discussion of that for verse 8. Any thoughts about this, besides that?

AJ Bernard: Well, there’s the idiom of the seven souls. In the Greek it says, “Before His throne.” The Greek word there, it gets used in the Septuagint to translate, “lepnei”, “in the face of”. So, I was wondering about the word “opposite” here.

Nehemia: Yeah, “lifnei”.

AJ Bernard: Yeah. Sorry, “lifnei”.

Nehemia:Negged” just means if I’m standing and you’re standing in front of me, that’s negged. That’s opposite.

AJ Bernard: Okay, so it’s not opposed.

Nehemia: No, no, no. No, no, no. They’re facing him, is what it means. And T-Bone, if you’ve got any thoughts, just chime in.

T-Bone: So, you’d translate it as “souls”, and I don’t see “ruach”, but the Greek has it as “spirit”.

Nehemia: No, so “ruach” is spirit, and the place we have “neshamot” in the Tanakh is where God blows “nishmat ruach hachayim”. Let me pull that up. It is usually translated as something like “the breath of life”. So, it’s Genesis 2:7, “Vayipach b’apav nishmat chayim,” “And He breathed or blew into his nose, his nostrils, the neshama of life.” Then Genesis 7:22 talks about God destroying all that has “nishmat ruach chayim,” “all that has the…” and here it’s both, “the breath of the spirit of life.” So basically, “neshama” is the life force.

T-Bone: These are living people?

Nehemia: No, these are, I guess they’re seven life forces, meaning neshama is the life force that is breathed into a human being. And then a human being can then be referred to as a neshama. In Deuteronomy 20 verse 6 it says, “You shall not save a life kol neshama, any neshama,” meaning a living person. So I don’t know. That’s a theological question – in other words, are these seven living people that are in front of the throne, or are they seven life forces? I don’t know. I don’t know what it means.

AJ Bernard: Well, the common Christian interpretation is that this is the “ruach”, the Holy Spirit, and that seven is the Levitical number for completeness.

Nehemia: So, there’s seven Holy Spirits?

AJ Bernard: Well, no. It’s one Holy Spirit but He’s complete.

Nehemia: Wait, so you’ve got a Trinity and then you have a Septinity of one of the… What? I never heard that.

AJ Bernard: God is complex, I guess. I don’t know.

Nehemia: No, is that seriously what they say?

AJ Bernard: That’s what I’ve heard - that the seven Spirits that are before the throne represents the Holy Spirit. Of course, it could also be like four of the Seraphim that Isaiah sees in chapter 6.

Nehemia: Okay, so in basic terms, it could be seven angels.

AJ Bernard: It could be seven angels, sure.

Nehemia: Okay, so that’s one interpretation from Christians, that the Holy Spirit has seven parts or something. All right, let’s move on. [laughing] Presumably, the significance of the seven here is the seven congregations, but who knows. Okay, so verse 5, is that where we’re in, verse 5?

AJ Bernard: Yes.

Nehemia: By the way, we’re now on page 2, meaning that was one page. It’s a very spacious text. And by the way, it ends at 2:13, like it ends, I think it’s even the middle of a verse. We’ll get to it, but what’s really interesting is often when something ends in the middle, so you’ll say, “Okay, that’s the last page of the manuscript.” This is a 32-page manuscript, and it only takes up 8 pages, this text. So what happened is they had like a notebook and somebody was copying this into the notebook - basically it was a codex - and he’s like, “Okay, I’m out of text. My source only goes this far,” and so he has a whole bunch of, I guess it was 32 minus 8, he has 26 empty pages. It’s very interesting.

All right, verse 5, “Vemi Yehoshua Mashiach she’ed hane’eman habachor min hametim vehasar ha melachim ha’aretz asher ahavanu veyitpoleinu michata’einu badamo.” And from Yehoshua Mashiach who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the men and the prince of the kings of the earth, who loved us and baptized us from our sins with His blood.”

And here, we have a major difference from the Greek and that major difference is expressed in the vowels. AJ, can you talk something about “firstborn of the men?”

AJ Bernard: Yeah. The Greek says, “The firstborn of the dead.”

Nehemia: And so, Hebrew, the dead would be “hameitim” and with a tzeirei under the mem. And here, it has a shva under the mem, which is “hametim”. And when I first translated this, I translated it as “the dead”, even though that’s not what it said. And I thought, “You know what? I don’t need to give my opinion. Let’s translate what it says.” So, “metim” is men, and you could say, “Hey, it means ‘dead’ and the vowels are wrong here.” You could say that, but the way the vowels read is “hametim”, “the men”. So, it’s pretty weird. It could also be “people,” not just men.

Let’s kind of read a few verses at a time here, because I really want us to get to a few things that are… I don’t know if we can do this, if we can go a few at a time. Let me just keep reading.

Ve’asanu et malchut vekhohanim le’Elohim ve Avihu lo kavod vehashilton ad olmei ad, amen.” “And he made us a kingdom and priests to Elohim and His Father, to Him His glory and dominion forever, Amen.” I thought it was very interesting, here - we have “to Elohim and His Father”. And what does the Greek have? It has something slightly different.

AJ Bernard: “To His God and Father.”

Nehemia: Right, so the word “His” there is distributive, meaning it’s both “to His Elohim” and “to His Father”, they’re the same. And here it’s not so clear that they’re the same. They could be two different entities, “Elohim and His Father”. I mean, that’s… [laughing]

AJ Bernard: And the King James does translate it that way in…

Nehemia: Really?

AJ Bernard: In some cases, yeah.

Nehemia: Okay. So, that’s an internal, perhaps even an issue that appears in the Greek. And so, for those who are getting nervous here, the Trinitarians, can you help them out with this one, AJ? What’s the Trinitarian explanation if it’s “to Elohim and His Father”?

AJ Bernard: Well, I would simply say that they’re referring to the same being.

Nehemia: Okay.

AJ Bernard: Or maybe even that God, as in the totality of the Godhead, and then specifically to the person of the Father, the first person of the Trinity.

Nehemia: Okay, my Jewish head is spinning here. I mean, if I were a Trinitarian, I would say that “to God” here refers to the Holy Spirit, and then His Father, as in the third entity. I don’t know, whatever. I’m a simple Jew. All right, any thoughts on that, T-Bone?

T-Bone: The operative word here is the “and” right?

Nehemia: Yeah.

T-Bone: “To Elohim, His Father.” So, if that Vav wasn’t there it would just be “Elohim, His Father”.

Nehemia: Then we wouldn’t have an issue. [laughing]

T-Bone: Right.

Nehemia: But the Vav is there. And look, I mean, in Hebrew you have a concept called “hendiadys”, “two that are one”, and it’s very common, if I want to say one thing, I actually say it twice. The most common, it’ll be “chessed ve’emet”, which is “righteousness and truth.” And what you mean is “true righteousness”, and that’s an extremely common form. And then, the other one it’ll say in Jericho, “sogeret umisogeret”, which basically means “closed and closed in”, and it’s the same thing. It just amplifies it.

So, you could say from a Hebrew perspective, this is hendiadys, the two that are one – meaning, “His Father, God”, You could translate it that way. Or you could interpret it that way, because you can’t translate it that way.

Okay, verse 7, “Hineh ba im ha’anan vekhazahu kol ayin. Veha’eleh she bidcuhu vesafdu alav kol hashivtei ha’aretz gam amen.” “Behold, He has come with the cloud and every eye saw Him and these that stabbed Him, and they will mourn Him all the tribes of the earth. Also, amen.” I think that’s cute, in Hebrew it says, “Also, amen.” [laughing]

AJ Bernard: The thing that I noticed when I read through this was the tense change.

Nehemia: Yeah.

AJ Bernard: In the Greek it says, “Behold, He is coming with the clouds and every eye will see Him.”

Nehemia: Interesting. So, in Hebrew we have a concept called “prophetic past”. It’s extremely common. You won’t see it often in your English because you’ll see it in the future, but in the Hebrew, prophesies are often versed in the past, and the idea is that this is so certain it’s going to happen that I refer to it as if it’s something that already happened.

And we have an example in modern Hebrew. If we’re really in a hurry and I want us to go, I say, “zaznu”, which means, “we have moved”. It’s almost like in English, “we’re out of here”. Well, you’re not out of here, you’re still standing here. And in that case, it’s certain. “We’re leaving this second.” I suppose it’s a cohortative, it’s more like wishful thinking, in the case of zaznu, right? Like, “I’m telling you we need to leave,” so I say, “zaznu”.

In this case, presumably I think what’s being described is the man is seeing a vision, and in his vision, that thing has already taken place. And that’s the idea where you find it in Isaiah and Jeremiah, is Jeremiah is standing in the throne room of God and he describes something that he sees as an accomplished fact, but it is something that from our perspective is going to be in the future. That’s how I understand it.

A great example, by the way, is at the end of Deuteronomy it says, “There was no prophet in Israel like Moses.” So, most Jewish commentators understand that as prophetic past, not that when Joshua wrote it 30 days later, there was no prophet like Moses. Like, “Okay.” That’s not as impressive as, “No, there isn’t going to be a prophet like Moses.” It’s stated in the past tense to express its certainty. And of course, presumably this passage is a reference to Zacharia, or part of it is…

AJ Bernard: Yeah.

Nehemia: …in any event. Could you talk about that, AJ?

AJ Bernard: Well, yeah. There’s the, “Even those who pierced Him,” which is the reference to Zacharia 12:10, as well as the Daniel 7, “coming with the clouds,” and then “every eye will see Him.” And I forget where that verse is.

Nehemia: What’s interesting is, last night I read through Daniel 7 in the original - not in the original Hebrew, because Daniel 7’s written in Aramaic - I read it in the original Aramaic, and then I read the Hebrew and then I read the English. And then I looked at what the commentators say, and it’s very interesting. It talks there about a bar enosh, a son of man, coming on a cloud. And he’s contrasted there with the “ancient of days”, who has the white hair. And all the Jewish commentators I read, that I was able to find, understand the “ancient of days” as referring either to God or what they call the “Shekhinah”, which Christians would call “Shekinah”, I guess, the Holy Spirit that is representing God, and that the “bar enosh” was either Israel collectively, or the Messiah. And the Jewish commentators were divided on that, but that’s very interesting that you have the Messiah coming riding on a cloud in the Book of Daniel, according to many commentators, and according to the other Jewish commentators it’s Israel collectively riding on a cloud, and in that case, maybe it’s not literally a cloud. I don’t know.

AJ Bernard: And another interesting thing about this coming on the clouds is that Yeshua references this in Mark chapter 14 in a passage beginning around verse 60 when he’s standing before the High Priest.

Nehemia: All right, the one I’ve been waiting for, verse 8! My eye immediately looked for this passage when T-Bone sent me the link on the British Library website to the Hebrew version of the Book of Revelation. “‘Ani ha’aleph vehatav’ omer Yehovah, haElohim. Hoyeh vayihyeh vesheyavo haShaddai.” “‘I am the Aleph and the Tav,’ says Yehovah, the Elohim. He that is and He that will be, and He that will come, the Shaddai.’”

Wow, there’s so much to unpack here. So, this is so cool. If we’re translating from Greek you could write the alpha and the omega. Alpha and the omega obviously are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Aleph and Tav are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and He says, “Yehovah Elohim,” and Yehovah has full vowels in this 17th century manuscript… this is incredible! It’s incredible.

T-Bone: I was almost speechless when I saw that.

Nehemia: I shouted. I actually thought, “Oh, I don’t want to get arrested.” Like I was literally shouting. [laughing]

T-Bone: And I remember you called me and said, “Look at it. Ten lines down on the second page.”

Nehemia: Yeah. And I think I was shouting when I was on the phone with you. Wow, it’s pretty cool. I want us to all calm down here, because one of the things I looked up – and this was T-Bone suggesting I do this – is we looked at two different Hebrew versions of the Book of Revelation that everyone agrees are translated from Greek. And we all agree they’re translated from Greek because we know who translated them and when.

The first one is from a guy named Franz Delitzsch and the other is from a man named Salkinsohn. Salkinsohn was actually a Jewish convert to Christianity, Delitzsch was a Christian who was involved in proselytizing Jews, and they both translated the New Testament into Hebrew from Greek, and they both independently translate this as “I am the Aleph and the Tav,” and have Yehovah there. [laughing]

AJ Bernard: Nice!

Nehemia: So if this is a translation from Greek… meaning, you can’t take this and say, “Well, this proves it’s from Hebrew,” you actually can’t say that, because those two men clearly translated it like they admit they’re translating it from Greek. However, let’s say this is a translation from Greek. So, we have three independent translations from Greek from three different people. One is a Jew, one is a Christian, and we don’t know who translated this one, and they’re spanning hundreds of years, right, going back to at least the 17th century, possibly earlier, all the way to the 19th century. So, over a period of 400 plus years, you have three different people translating this as “Aleph and Tav” and “Yehovah”.

What that tells me is that anybody reading the Greek can reasonably understand and independently arrive at the conclusion that alpha and omega in Hebrew would be Aleph Tav, and that when it talks here about in the Greek “Lord”, what’s the exact phrase in the Greek, there? Can you give us that?

AJ Bernard: Kurios Deos.

Nehemia: Kurios Deos, which is “Lord, God”, that when you see that phrase “Kurios hotheos”, that would be the conclusion - that it’s “Lord, God”. Interestingly, I see the Textus Receptus only has Kurios but then the GNT28, the Nestle-Aland 28 has “Kurios hotheos”, which is “Lord, the God,” which is “Yehovah haElohim”, and here in the Peshitta it has “Maria elaha”, I mean, this is powerful stuff.

AJ Bernard: It’s awesome.

Nehemia: It’s incredible. And again, I want to be really careful here, I don’t want people to say, “Nehemia says this is the original letter-for-letter transcribed by John from a 2nd century manuscript.” I’m not claiming that. I’m claiming here, we’ve got some really interesting things that make you go, “Ooh.”

T-Bone: Yeah, no doubt.

Nehemia: I feel like Scoobie Doo right now, “Ooh!” [laughing] And whether it’s from Greek or the original Hebrew, this is clearly bringing us back to the original Hebrew. And this is a third witness in addition to Salkinsohn and Delitzsch, that this is what the Hebrew had to read. I mean, that is powerful stuff.

So, now AJ, can you talk to us just a bit about… and I’m going to get out of your way, because we’re going to go into some stuff that I try to stay out of, which is the phrase, “Hoyeh veyihyeh vesheyavo”, “He that is, and He that will be, and He that is to come.”

AJ Bernard: I love that phrase. I will sing that meditatively sometimes, because it’s the breakdown of the name of God. I once had a Hebrew Professor in seminary tell me that you can’t put a name on God because that necessarily limits Him.

Nehemia: Wait, wait, wait! So, God says, “This is My name forever,” but your professor says, “You can’t put a name on God!” [laughing]

AJ Bernard: Yeah, that was it. We actually used the phrase, “Ein sof”, which means, “without end”.

Nehemia: That actually comes straight out of Kabbalah, did you know that?

AJ Bernard: Yes, I did. I have another friend who’s been preaching Kabbalah to me.

Nehemia: Meaning, what Kabbalah teaches, or the key teaching of Kabbalah, is that the true God is unknowable, He’s infinite and us finite humans can’t know Him, and that infinite deity is called “Ein sof”, which means literally “no end”, and that what we experience are 10 emanations that come out of God, like light from the candle. That’s the basic teaching of Kabbalah.

Wait, so you had a Christian Seminary teacher who taught this?

AJ Bernard: I did, yes. And I pointed out to this professor that the name “Yehovah” is a contraction of “Haya, Hoveh, and Yihiyeh”, which means, “was” as in “forever was”, “is” and “will be” as in “forever will be”.

Nehemia: Amen.

AJ Bernard: It’s not limiting in any way at all.

Nehemia: Wow. And just a quick story - people ask me all the time, “What does Yehovah mean?” And it’s very obvious to the Jewish ear that Yehovah, the meaning is explained in Exodus 3:14, where it says, “Ehiyeh asher Ehiyeh”, which is, “I am that which I am” or “I will be that which I will be”, and actually, they’re both true there in the nuance, meaning you had this repetitive action in the Hebrew imperfect. “I am now and will continue to be in the future” is really what it means. And so, that’s clearly the explanation of Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey, which comes from that root, “Haya, Hoveh, Yihiyeh”, meaning He says, “I am now and I will continue to be in the future.”

When we speak of Him we speak of Him as we put that Yud in front which means, “He will be,” and it becomes, “Haya, Hovey, Yihiyeh, He was…” meaning, “He always has been”, “Hoveh”, “He is now”, “veYihyeh”, “and He will continue to be in the future, always.” And it’s just obvious to the Hebrew ear, maybe it’s partially obvious because I grew up singing in the synagogue a song, “Vehu Haya, vehu Hoveh, vehu Yihiyeh betifara,” which is, “He was, He is, and He will be in glory.”

And I did an interview recently with a Samaritan leader, and I’ll share about this more in a different place, but he says to me, “Do you know what it means?” and I say, “Well, I know what the name Yud-Hey-Vav-hey means, but you tell me what you believe it means.” He says, “What it means is, ‘Haya, Hoveh, Yihiyeh.’”

AJ Bernard: Hallelujah.

Nehemia: So, we’ve got it from the Jews. We got it from the Samaritans, and we have it in the Book of Revelation. Like that’s three witnesses to me. [laughing]

AJ Bernard: Well yeah, even in the Greek it uses, “Him who is and who was, and who is to come.”

Nehemia: Right, and that appears a number of times in the Greek version of the New Testament, it’s pretty powerful stuff, wow. And then, at the end here we have “Shaddai”, Shaddai is often translated as “Almighty”. This is extremely controversial, what I’m about to say, but it’s quite clear to me that the word “Shaddai” comes from the word “shed”. Shed is usually translated as “demon”. However, there is no evidence for that, that is a later Hebrew concept. In the Tanakh, “shed” means spirit, and the context is it says, “Don’t sacrifice to shedim,” so they translate it as, “Don’t sacrifice to demons,” but really it means, “Don’t sacrifice to spirits.”

And Shaddai has what we call the “majestic plural.” You could literally translate it as “My spirits”, but it’s understood this majestic plural as indicating something great. It’s actually the same form as “Adonai” or “Elohai”, meaning “Adonai” literally is “my Lords,” but we translate it as “my Lord” with a capital L or “my great Lord”, and Elohai is “my God” with a capital G, “my great God”, and here, it’s “my great spirit”. That’s pretty clear to me what Shaddai means. People want to say it means “my breast”, that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. [laughing]

AJ Bernard: In preparing for this, I was looking at that word, and there were even some sites that said that this is the name of the mountain in Canaan, and it refers to the “mountain God”. And I thought that was kind of ridiculous.

Nehemia: That’s one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard in my whole life. [laughing] What?

AJ Bernard: Yeah, I thought so too, yeah.

Nehemia: So, there’s a mountain that’s not mentioned anywhere else? Where is this mountain? I’ve never heard of this mountain. It’s bizarre.

AJ Bernard: It’s called “Shad” I think. The mountain…

Nehemia: Mount Shad?

AJ Bernard: The mountain of Shad, and this is the God who lives on that mountain, which I thought was silly.

Nehemia: Even if there is a mountain named Shad, that makes no sense whatsoever. Yeah, De’ur which is a location, which obviously…Well, that’s a person’s name, Elitzur ben Shde’ur,” which means “the light of Shaddai”. No, that’s utterly ridiculous. Even if there were such a mountain, so where’s the word “mountain God” here? They’re just making stuff up. That’s what scholars do, they like to make stuff up.

All right, verse 9, “Ani Yochanan achichem vechaver batzara uvemalkut u’vetochelet beMashiach Yehoshua. Hayiti ba’ee shenikra Patmos.” And here, I’m going to have to read into the next page… “ba’avur hadvar haElohim u’vavur ha’eidut Yehoshua Mashiach.” “I am Yochanan your brother and a participant in the suffering and in the kingdom and in the hope in Mashiach Yehoshua. I was on the island that is called Patmos, for the word of the Elohim and for the testimony of Yehoshua Mashiach.”

Verse 10, “Hayiti beruach baYom Adoni’i veshamati kol gadol acharai kemo chatzotzra.” “I was in the spirit on the Lordly Day and I heard a great voice behind me like a trumpet.” I know in the English they usually say, “The Lord’s Day”, which is understood as Sunday. And AJ, you are actually a pastor of a United Methodist Church, which I assume meets on Sunday, right?

AJ Bernard: We do, yes.

Nehemia: So, as a UMC pastor, can you tell me, is it true that Yeshua Mashiach, as He’s called here, that He changed Shabbat from Saturday to Sunday?

AJ Bernard: No, it’s absolutely not true. Yeshua said, “Not one jot or one tittle shall pass from the law until all will be fulfilled.” And the Shabbat is a law that predates Moses, because the Lord rested on the Sabbath. So, as a Christian - and I’m not speaking for the entire United Methodist Church, of course. Nobody would ever dare do that - but as a Christian, I observe Shabbat from sundown Friday night to sundown Saturday.

Nehemia: Amen.

AJ Bernard: And then I go to Church on Sunday morning. And so, for me, there’s a very big distinction between Shabbat, or the Sabbath, and the Lord’s Day. We worship on Sunday because that was the first day of the week, and the Gospels tell us that’s the day Yeshua left the tomb.

Nehemia: And I know that some of our listeners will dispute you on that. They’ll say He left on Shabbat, but whatever, I’m not going to get into that. What I do think is interesting is this phrase, “The Lordly Day”, and you would expect this to say, “beYom Adonai,” or “beYom Adon,” and it says, “beYom Adoni’ee”, and Adoni’ee has been turned into an adjective. We’re going to see a similar adjective later with the word “Yehudi’im”, which is very interesting. And again, I don’t know if this is translated from Greek or the original Hebrew, I don’t know. It is an authentic 17th century Hebrew manuscript copied clearly from an earlier source that was missing pages, most of the pages.

It’s interesting, because somebody posted on my Facebook page and he says, “That’s not a manuscript. It’s from the 17th century.” It’s like, “Do you know what the word means? ‘Manuscript’ means it’s written by hand as opposed to a printed book, so by definition it’s a manuscript.”

You could have a 21stt century manuscript, right? When you go to a synagogue and they have a Torah scroll, and if it was written in 2017 it’s a 21st century manuscript. This is one from the 17th century. That doesn’t mean it’s the original, it just means it’s copied from some other source that we don’t have. I know it’s copied from another source because, like I said, it ends in the middle of 2:13. That must have been the end of the page in the earlier source.

So, what does he mean here by “the Lord’s Day” or “the Lordly Day”? Do you think he means Sunday? And I really don’t know the answer.

AJ Bernard: I’ve taught the Revelation. I have listened to the Revelation taught many times. Most people will take that to mean one of two things. Either it means Sunday, and if this is John the Apostle, then by the time he’s writing, the Christian Church was meeting on Sunday. They were still observing Shabbat, but they were meeting on Sunday and they called it “the Lord’s Day” to differentiate it from Shabbat. Or it could mean, “I was in the spirit on the great and terrible day of the Lord” that Joel speaks of.

Nehemia: Aha, nice.

AJ Bernard: That God takes John out of his time in Patmos in like 95 AD and moves him forward in time to see these things that he’s about to do.

Nehemia: Or maybe it just means Shabbat. [laughing]

AJ Bernard: Or maybe it means Shabbat, you know.

Nehemia: Like if I was going to say, “Yom Yehovah” and you’re right, it could be this eschatological end times day or it could just be Shabbat. That’s a great thought. Okay, let’s go on.

This is verse 11, 1:11. “Ha’omer shechozeh ata khtov basefer ushlach el shiva hamakelim el Ephesus v’el Smyrna ve’el Pergamus ve’el Tyatira v’el Sardis v’el Philadelphia v’el Lardekea.” That says…meaning this is the voice he heard saying, that says, “That which you see write in the book and send it to seven congregations to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamus and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Larodicea.”

I’m going to read another verse, “Vesham paniti lehabit hakol asher diber iti, u’fneh ani ra’iti et menorot hazahav sheva. U’vekerev hasheva menorot mimshal leven adam lavush im ktonet ad reglayim ve’afud el hashodim in khagorat hazahav.” So, I just read two verses there, 12 and 13.

“And there I turned to look at the voice that spoke with me, and I was turning and saw seven lamps. And in the middle of the seven lamps the minion for the son of man, dressed with a tunic to the legs and girded to the chest with a golden belt.” Any thoughts on this?

AJ Bernard: Yes, Hallelujah. He uses the word “menorot” from menorah.

Nehemia: Yeah, absolutely.

AJ Bernard: That’s awesome!

Nehemia: Yeah, menorot, which are lamps. And it doesn’t mean necessarily seven, meaning, you could think of this as a menorah has seven branches and this is seven times seven which is 49, that’s possible that’s what he saw. Or maybe he saw one menorah with seven little menorot on it, meaning seven lamps at the top. I don’t know.

Veha’orsho vehasa’arot levanot ketzemer tzakhar kemo shaleg ve’einav kelahav esh.” Verse 14, “And his head in the hairs are white like bright wool, like snow in his eyes, like a flame of fire.” Let me just finish the description, “Uregalav mimshalim min’choshet kalal ka’asher lohatim bekhur vekolo kekol hatsulah.” “And his feet are likened to polished copper when glowing in the furnace and his voice is like the sound of the deep sea.”

AJ Bernard: Well, is this talking to the burnt offering on the altar of bronze?

Nehemia: Huh, yeah. I hadn’t thought…

AJ Bernard: Feet glowing in a furnace, because Yeshua is the sacrifice in Christian theology.

Nehemia: And by the way, in Hebrew the word “nechoshet” can mean copper, bronze or brass. There’s no distinct term for it.

AJ Bernard: Okay.

Nehemia: Meaning, it’s all nechoshet. And bronze and brass are copper alloys, they’re like, I think, 90-something percent copper with some tint thrown in to strengthen it. Yeah, I hadn’t thought of that. What I was thinking is in verse 14, perhaps this is an allusion to Daniel 7. The only problem is, in Daniel 7 that describes the ancient of days, not the son of man. So, I don’t know.

T-Bone: I’m trying to understand the polished copper glowing. Is that like molten copper, or…?

Nehemia: Well, when we say “polished copper” we’re guessing. We don’t really know what kalal means. It appears twice in the Tanakh, and one is something Ezekiel saw, one is something Daniel saw. So, we don’t really know. It’s some kind of copper. It could be actually molten copper. I mean, who’s to say? It could be nechoshet kalal could be the Hebrew phrase for brass versus bronze.

So here, what we have to do is, we’ve got to put an English word in there, and we don’t want to say kalal “copper” so we say polished copper. But that’s actually a guess from the context of Daniel and Ezekiel.

T-Bone: I’m just trying to visualize what he was seeing, so I’m trying to understand it.

Nehemia: It sounds to me like it’s something that’s glowing like white hot, or red hot, perhaps.

T-Bone: Right, right.

Nehemia: Okay. Verse 16, “Ve’ochez beyad yemino kekhochavim shiv’a umin hapiv holech kherev piyot ufanav kashemesh, orim ba’uzo.” “And he is holding in his right hand seven stars, and from his mouth goes forth a double-edged sword. And his face is like the light of the sun in its strength.” So, AJ, who’s he seeing here?

AJ Bernard: That’s a great question. As a Christian, I want to say he’s seeing Yeshua, but I think more appropriately, he would be seeing the entirety of the Godhead. There’s a verse in the Gospel of John where Yeshua says that, “Those the Father have given Me have lost none. No one can pluck them out of My Father’s hand.” And then He repeats it by saying, “No one can pluck them out of My hand.” And so, it may be that He’s talking about they’re one and the same hand, or that His hand is cupped over the Father’s hand, and that no man can remove those whom the Father holds.

Nehemia: Huh, and I like to stay out of theology.

AJ Bernard: Sure.

Nehemia: But leaving aside theology, you’re saying it’s not a given that he’s seeing Yeshua, he might be seeing the Father, he might be seeing the Holy Spirit, he might be seeing a combination of two or three of them. I mean, that’s interesting, coming from a Christian Pastor, that’s interesting that it’s not a given that he’s seeing Yehoshua. That’s interesting.

AJ Bernard: Right. And then, the speaker changes later on. There’s a point where it says, “By Me who was dead and is alive,” and that’s obviously Yeshua speaking.

Nehemia: Right, that has to be Yeshua. That can’t be somebody…

AJ Bernard: Sure.

Nehemia: …because the Father was never dead. Okay, 17. “Vekha’asher ra’iti oto nafalti el raglav kemet, ve sam hayad yemino alai. Vayomer, ‘Al tira. Ani harishon veha’acharon.’” “And when I saw Him, I fell to His feet like a dead person. And He put His right hand on me and He said, ‘Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last.’”

AJ Bernard: The Aleph and the Tav.

Nehemia: Right. Well, here it says, “Ha rishon veha’acharon,” the first and the last.

AJ Bernard: Right.

Nehemia: Yeah. But you’re saying that’s the significance of Aleph Tav. Could we talk about that for a minute? I know this is controversial.

AJ Bernard: Yeah, sure.

Nehemia: So, when he says in verse 8, “I am the Aleph and the Tav,” you’re saying He means, “I’m the first and the last”? He doesn’t mean that He’s the word Aleph-Tav in the Hebrew language? I’m serious.

AJ Bernard: [laughing] I’ve heard people try to make the argument that the Hebrew word “et” as in “Bereishit bara Elohim et hashamayim v’et ha’aretz,” that that’s referring to Yeshua as the “et”. And the people who make that argument generally don’t understand how Hebrew works. They want to say that this “et” is Moses putting the stamp of Yeshua’s divinity on the Elohim of Bereishit 1. It’s not. The “et” just shows which object receives the action of the verb.

Nehemia: My head is spinning. Putting the stamp of divinity...? I don’t know even know what you’re talking about. So, et has a grammatical function, and I actually had a guy write to me just this morning. He said, “Well, that word Aleph-Tav is never pronounced. It’s actually unpronounceable.” I’m like, when I was in first grade and we read, “Bereishit bara…” actually, we read, “Bereishis bara es hashamayim v’es ha’aretz,” we read it with the Ashkenazic pronunciation. I learned to pronounce it in first grade, so I don’t know what you’re talking about, that it’s unpronounceable. It’s quite pronounceable. It has a vowel under the Aleph which makes it therefore pronounceable. It has a segel or a tzeirei, depending on whether it’s connected to the word after it or not. So yeah, I don’t even know what they’re talking about, and that’s perhaps one minor variations of this argument.

But yeah, they want to give it a spiritual meaning. And look, I can’t tell you it doesn’t have a spiritual meaning. I can just tell you what the grammatical meaning is. This is what I say - if you want to interpret it spiritually, that’s got nothing to do with me and the text. But please, first understand what the literal grammatical function is, and if you don’t understand that, then you’re the tail wagging the dog.

AJ Bernard: Amen. We must deal in truth.

Nehemia: And I think you’re doing yourself a disservice, because I hear people saying this. And more importantly, other Jews hear them and they say, “Well, so their whole faith is based on misconception of how Hebrew works, a misunderstanding. So, their faith must have nothing to it. It’s just wrong.” That’s what normal Jews hear when they hear this Aleph-Tav being not the first and last, which is presumably what’s meant, but rather being this grammatical “direct object marker”. But anyway, who am I to say?

I mean, really, I can’t tell somebody what they should believe - that’s between them and the Creator of the Universe. What I can do is talk about grammar and texts. So, T-Bone?

T-Bone: What I find interesting is the double-edged sword portion of this…

Nehemia: Oh, okay.

T-Bone: How that ties in with the word of Yehovah. I don’t know if you can comment on that or not.

Nehemia: That phrase, “double-edged sword”, is the phrase that appears in Psalms, and the word is “herev pifiyot”, it’s in Psalm 149 verse 6, and that is translated in the original King James translated by Moses. “Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand.” So, what exactly does that mean?

And by the way, I’ve heard people say that “two-edged sword” means you get cut when you hold it. No, [laughing] it’s not a sword without a handle. It’s a sword that, in fact, if you look at like a kitchen knife, one side’s sharp and one side’s dull. Well, the two-edged sword is sharp on both sides. And I know in Texas law, that’s referred to as a “dagger”. You’re allowed to walk around in Texas with a single-edged knife but not a double-edged knife, which is defined as a dagger. And of course, a sword presumably is larger than a dagger, more like perhaps a dirk.

In any event, yeah, I don’t know what the significance of that is. It’s a good question.

AJ Bernard: There’s also the passage in Ephesians 6 verse 17 where Paul is talking about the “armor of God”, and he says, “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” And I found it interesting that the sword of the Spirit proceeds out of the mouth – that is, the word of God proceeds out of the mouth. And then, later on in the Revelation, where it talks about “those who overcome do so by the word of their testimony.”

Nehemia: Okay. I’m completely lost. [laughing]

AJ Bernard: So that our only weapon, our only offensive weapon is the word of our testimony. We preach the word of God, and that’s how we overcome.

Nehemia: Okay. So, what’s the significance of it being a double-edged sword versus a single-edged sword?

AJ Bernard: I’m not sure. I would think that it would go back to the military usage. If you’re in a battle and you’re fighting with a single-edged sword and your sword gets nicked, and chipped, and goes dull, you can always turn it around and use the other edge if you have another edge on there. So, it’s a more powerful weapon than a simple, single-edged sword.

Nehemia: Okay. And I think in Psalms what it’s saying is… let’s go back to the Psalm 149:6, “Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand,” that the praises of God are this powerful weapon. I mean, a single-edged sword - you can kill somebody. But the double-edged sword, that’s the powerful weapon of war. And the high praises of God being in your mouth, and in your case in the New Testament, in the testimony, is this powerful weapon. And I guess that’s the image here in Revelation - that he’s got this powerful weapon in his hand, and I guess you could tie it into testimony. I don’t know that we should read too much into it, but you could tie it into testimony and to praises of God.

I want to get to verse 18, because verse 18 is the second most exciting verse in the whole section, for me.

Oh, wow. We’re out of time. We’re going to have to continue next week with verse 18. I’m just so excited! We’re going to continue this conversation next week and read through to the end of this Hebrew manuscript of Revelation in part 2.

AJ, would you end this amazing discussion with a prayer?

AJ Bernard: I sure will. Avinu shebashamayim, yitkadesh shimcha, Father in Heaven, may your Holy name be sanctified.

Nehemia: Yes.

AJ Bernard: Lord, we thank You for this text. We thank You for this discussion. We thank You for these people, because we know there are no accidents in Your kingdom, Lord. We know that You are the same yesterday, today and forever…

Nehemia: Amen.

AJ Bernard: …that Your name is always, always forever and ever.

Nehemia: Yes.

AJ Bernard: Father, we thank You that You have brought us to this place and we ask that You would guide our studies, that we may be drawn ever closer to You. These things we pray in Your Holy name. Amen.

T-Bone: Amen.

Nehemia: Amen.

 

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  • Dannett says:

    I am going down a rabbit hole search. An I think you are one of the only people that could put it straight. It’s the mark of the beast in Revelation 13. I saw Rood awakening episode of him explaining there was a Roman battalion an mostly the Syrian army that destroyed the temple. He thinks the anti christ will be Muslim. Then i saw this African preacher Uebert Angel say the 666 was a Greek mistranslation. He had what was a print of it from code Vatican 350 AD. It is a Arabic writing he said the symbols read warriors of Allah. The symbols are very close. I wondered about the Dead Sea scrolls if they showed these symbols.

    • The Way says:

      The mark of the beast is found in Ezra ch 2. Adonikem a man is numbered 666. He was the leader of Dan. Dan was removed from inheritance for Sunday worship of tammuz. They settled Gaul and changed the name of tammuz to Hesus to hide their shame. In 50 b.c. Julius Caesar took Hesus back to Rome . Tertullion wrote that by the first century rome widely worshipped Hesus on Sunday. When the letter j was invented in 1548 it took until 1620 ad for James to add it to English at which time Yehovah became Jehovah, Yeshua became Joshua, and I’ll let you guess what hesus became. So Sunday worship of Jesus is the mark. Elohims mark on us is the Sabbath. Exodus ch 18-33

  • Mary Yaworski says:

    I did not see an answer to previous question. The question being-was any further documents on this book found???

  • Velvet Mighells says:

    Beautiful. When they talk about what Yeshua’s feet look like, it basically means a Rose Gold color. Or a Perfect deep Tan! He has an Emerald Green Halo that has what looks like white hot coal, surrounding the Gold light, that emanates from Him. I seen Yeshua in detail on 4/1/2016. It was reported that many others seen Him in detail around the same time frame, to Daystar TV, though nobody was really listening! My life is changed forever.

  • Brittany says:

    I’m shocked that none of you know what the 7 standing opposite the throne is. Ze`ir Anpin is a revealed aspect of God in Kabbalah, comprising the emotional sephirot attributes: Chesed, Gevurah, Tiphereth, Netzach, Hod and Yesod. These are, yes, the life forces that flow into man.

  • Deric Dalton says:

    Another tidbit for reference, Isaiah 59:17, when AJ references the Armour of God…

    “And He put on righteousness as a coat of mail, and a helmet of salvation upon His head, and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.”

    I have found searching for all things in the NT, looking for any ref. to the Tanach can shed some light on what is written about. In some cases, it can be quite interesting. Reference and check what the quotation says in Tanach and spend time in context to the quoted text. Pay attention to the author’s teaching from the quotation after that. Check for any external ingests. There are some interesting things that would be great discussion for all traditions.

  • Deric Dalton says:

    A teaching that I have heard, and I am not saying that it is what I believe, in reference to the seven spirits in Revelation is referring to Isaiah 11:2

    “And the spirit of YHVH shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of YHVH.”

    I can’t remember who teaches this. However, they said that the seven spirits are:

    1. Spirit of YHVH (as the teacher of this said the Holy Ghost)
    2. Spirit of wisdom
    3. Spirit of understanding
    4. Spirit of counsel
    5. Spirit of might
    6. Spirit of knowledge
    7. Spirit of fear of YHVH

    For discussion and contribution to the discussion.

  • Gav says:

    Studies by whom the catholic church? Yes blindness and the love of man’s ways is rife amongst western churchianity.

  • Michael Mauro says:

    These texts are blessings for me in my walk after righteousness and obedience to Yehovah so that I may enter his Kingdom.

  • Ana Goings says:

    I was watching The Name of God in Gospel Manuscripts video at 37:29 (Lost Treasures in the Vatican) on Rood TV and came here. Why is Rood surprised that Yeshua says, I am the first and the last in Revelation 1:17-18.

  • Ray says:

    Shalom Alechem, Nehemia..!

    RE: “Synagogue of Satan (Rev. 2:9)

    Seems this was posted 3 yeats ago!!
    Thanks for shining a light on this manuscript and your scholarship of translating the text.

    Regarding the above In context of message, Due to Isaiah 45:17 a “new” assembly of sons was raised by Yeshua because the sons who sat in “Moses Seat” we’re infiltrated by wickedness, adding and removing from Torah (“takanot”). Thanks..

  • Scott Wojack says:

    The lord’s day John is referring to is the public holiday of Emperor Domitian where he demanded to be called Lord and God and one day a year he was to be worshiped. The same Greek words were used to for Domitian’s Lord’s day. Know your history. John was having these visions of the one and true Lord the same day Domitian was demanding worship. Domitian’s holiday is a shadow of what the anti-christ will also do.

    • auntganny says:

      If you ever want a witness to what the NT is talking about, you will want to go to the OT, not to some pagan ruler. In this case, the LORD’s Day, spoken about by John in Revelation, is the Day Yehovah talks about in Isaiah 58:13-14, the Sabbath Day of rest.

      13 “If because of the Sabbath, you turn your foot
      From doing your own pleasure on MY holy DAY
      And call the Sabbath a delight,
      the holy Day of YEHOVAH honorable,
      And honor it, desisting from your own ways,
      From seeking your own pleasure
      And speaking your own word,
      14 Then you will take delight in YEHOVAH
      And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
      And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
      For the mouth of YEHOVAH has spoken.”
      NASU

      Since Yehoshua/Yeshua said that He was Lord of the Sabbath, He is confirming what He, Yehovah (now in the human form of Yeshua), said in Isaiah 58.

      The Sabbath Day in this passage of Isaiah is the LORD’s DAY….or the DAY OF YEHOVAH. John was in the Spirit on the seventh Day of Rest, YEHOVAH’s DAY/the LORD’S DAY. On what other day would John have been quiet enough to receive what God wanted to say to him?

      • Tom says:

        Very interesting possibility I don;’t believe I have considered over the years, thank you ganny.

        • auntganny says:

          You are welcome, Tom.

          • auntganny says:

            I think it safer to let Yehovah tell us what His special Day is…to let Yehovah explain what His words and His terms mean. : ) It might help us not get side-tracked into our ‘own wisdom’. There is no question that John spoke of many things that sound like the Day of the Lord in Revelation, but at the moment of receiving this vision, there was no great and terrible destruction happening. He was in the Spirit… waiting on the LORD, and the restful Hebrew Sabbath and the cessation from other labors makes this possible.

          • גבריאל says:

            Scripture tells us exactly what the day of יְהֹוָה is, so we do not need to guess.

      • Ya'oh-khanan Ban Missamou says:

        The Yehovah name comes from the Masoretic script which’s according to some scholars an artificial form if Hebrew. The masoretic script and vowels system is fake. Take any historical discovery and compare it with that masoretic script if its looks the same? God’s name can never be Yehovah as the letters “V and E” were born from the 6th century CE of the masoretic system.
        God’s name is: YA’OH.

        • Jeanne Riegler says:

          God’s name is “Y’hovah”
          There are 4 Hebrew letters and the name is older than the 17th century document. The Hebrew letters are “yud” (י) “hay” (ה) “vav” (ו) “hay” (ה).
          יהוה the Hebraic vowel sounds or
          נקודות. (n’kudot) tells one how to pronounce those letters correctly.
          “Yehovah” is correct.

          • Jeanne Riegler says:

            I think I actually should have said ONE of God’s names… For example, another name is “אלוהים”.
            Which encompasses the 3-in-1 principal.

          • ScottinTexas says:

            Jeanne – Elohim is not a na,e but a reference, like human for us.

        • ScottinTexas says:

          Watch Nehemia’s teaching on Arabic influences on Hebrew pronunciation. It disproves your belief. Never seen your conclusion. Ever. By any Hebrew scholar.

      • jenny says:

        I think it is obvious that Lordly Day is speaking of the Day of the Lord. That is what the revelation is about–how God wraps up history and establishes the Messianic Age

    • גַבריאל says:

      Absolutely! I wonder if Nehemia G has looked into the Greek spelling of the name jesus as used only in the book of Revelation. I understand it is totally different to the spelling used anywhere else in the Ketuvim Netzarim erroneously called the New Testament.
      From what i’ve seen via a couple of studies of the Greek spelling, it translates directly into the name, (and he has many, Apollo, Nimrod, Gilgamesh, Zues etc etc) of the false Messiah. There are a couple of in-depth videos on this, Parable of the Vineyard and one other i can’t remember the name of, but worth looking at. I personally believe the anti-mashiach will be named jesus, he will fulfill all that has been taught by the false sun worshiping of western christianity, he will do false signs and wonders and obviously be Torah-less, and blaspheme Aveenu Malkaynu. Western christians will accept this as that is what they have been taught for 2000 years.
      שׁלום וברַכה

      • Absolutely what has happened. Jesus is a false God and yeshua is the messiah

        • ScottinTexas says:

          Jesus is NOT a false god, but a transliteration from Hebrew to Greek to Latin to English. Don’t get so caught up in transliteration of names bc it can lead you down some errant rabbit trails.

          Instead, ask someone if the Jesus they worship is the Messiah, the Son of God, and the Savior of the world. That answer will tell you if they worship a false god, not the name they use.

          • Empath Travis says:

            Already we find errors in our Bible where they took away from or added to and due to it every Christian has the mark of the beast which is Sunday worship. Why is that the mark? Because in exodus ch 18-32 God tells us his mark on us is the Sabbath. Yeshua said he was lord of the Sabbath and that he did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it and that the law would remain until time was no more. Also the Greek translation tells us that “No man knows the day or hour except the Father in heaven.” It actually should have been translated :”No man can give you the hour or day, But my Father in Heaven can.” And he did in Enoch, Daniel, Revelation and the Dead sea scrolls. This year is jubilee, marks the end of Daniel’s 70 days and all the sign have happened. In 2017 sept, virgo was clothed in the sun with moon at her feet and jupiter came out of her belly after 42 weeks. Only happened once before in sept of 3 b c. Then 3.5 years later (1 day =1year in prophesy) we had the dead prophets raised together in the sky in December 22 2020 at the great conjunction. Yom Kippur (the day of atonement) is our redemption day. Keep the sabbath holy, love God, be baptized to cleanse your soul and look up.

            • Velvet Mighells says:

              Hello Friend, there is a third sign. Rev. 15:1. Nobody ever mentions this sign. Plaiedes. It’s a curiosity, considering the Covid 19 in 2020. (see The Two Preachers) Things lately have picked up their pace on a global scale. Not to mention, Jacobovich searched out the 12 Tribes of Israel, and may have found them. Consider the whole mess of this current day, and Pray for those people who don’t fully see yet. Take no Offense, but have compassion. We all will be shown our own specificity, in YHWH. God Bless.

              • Empath Travis says:

                Thanks brother. As always compassion and love are forefront if anything we do. Since my comment, Elohim has shown me his Way and had me re-commission the Way, the first following of Yehoshua Maschiach. So much has been taken and hidden from scripture. It’s hard to fathom. I am interested to know of this third sign of Pleiades. Please expound for me. I know of a third sign the locust swarm. As that will be sagitarrius, Scorpio, serpent caput and the woman’s hair. Already we only have 2 years left in tribulation. From the revelation 12 star sign we are told 1620 days and then a time, times and half time which equals to 7 years total. In Daniel ch 12 we are told by John who stands next to Daniel asks the man on the sea when it is all finished and he said after the time, times and half time. It’s a perfect match line. Revelation is Daniel part 2 and links the gospel into the Torah and the prophets. The trumpets read out like Jericho and the two witnesses in the tanahk are the sun and the moon so I’m betting those are the same in revelation. We know from the prophets the sun will go dark for 3 days and revelation says after 3.5 days they raise in the heavens. Yeshua said he’s coming back early in Luke so we are looking at anytime now since we have 2 years left….your thoughts?

      • ScottinTexas says:

        Nonsense on those studies suggesting Iesous derives from the names of pagan gods. Keep studying and you’ll come across some studies where the writers are actually formally trained not self taught.

        Iesous is merely the Greek transliteration of Yeshua. Jesus comes to us in English through Latin. These so-called scholars are amost always self taught, and while their intentions my be good, their conclusions are error.

        Nehemia has discussed this matter many times.

        • Empath Travis says:

          Have you ever read pilates letter to caesar at the time of Yeshua that actually describes Yeshua? It’s in the library of congress. If the romans could say Yeshua so could the Greeks. Jesus is a cross between Hesus a God in Gaul and Krishna (hindu) in order to unite the roman kingdom. The took the messianic church and twisted it into pagan worship. They changed the sabbath and God’s word and that is the deception we are faced with. New testament not originally Greek. They found several copies and are being translated now. And as you see from revelation 1, there is only 1 son of God. Adam. The first man as Yeshua calls himself. Son of man was mistranslated because the orthodox couldn’t handle true spirituality

    • Caasi Algazi says:

      C’mon you guys every single prophet in OT knows what day of the Lord is. It’s the day that burns like an oven when he brings the final redemption of Israel. All the prophets and all of Israel written in OT longed to live to see that day. Here we are living in the generation that’s actually going to witness it and you are in a stupor. Pray over a closed Bible. Preferable a Hebrew translation and ask God to lead you in all truth. We haven’t much time left to get this right. The word is alive through all generations. The great I AM was, and is, and is to come. It’s past, present and future with partial fulfillments and repeat fulfillments to keep you always watching always praying and always prepared to meet the Lord. Enoch saw the past generation and the day of the Lord, Noah did, Abraham did, Isaac, Jacob, the 12, the apostles. Even Yeshua himself said the abomination was future. Daniel said there is abomination after abomination UNTO THE END. BUT IN ORDER FOR THE DAY OF THE LORD TO COME, Israel must be a nation in the world again. That means the prophetic time clock started from the decree to restore the Jews to their land in 1947. Now it’s been Jeremiah’s 70 years and Jerusalem was just declared eternal capital. We are living Daniels vision at the end of Jeremiah’s 70 years right now! Get ready and get this right! #theKINGDOMisCOMING

      • גבריאל says:

        I only have one problem with the Israel becoming a nation again in one day as in 1947, and that is, Scripture tells us when יהוה births this nation again, that peace will flow from it. Do we see peace flowing from Israel today? No. Netanyahu is busy bombing all his neighbours into submission which is not what Scripture tells us will occur. One has to wonder whether Yehovah used the ruling elite to create modern day Israel for for His purposes or whether this modern day Israel is and has been created for the purposes of the ruling elite. It was the money from these people that created Yisra’el.
        Its a question on a lot of peoples minds, and the main reason for this is, if יהוה had created it, there would be peace flowing from it. What we see today if a corrupt to the core Netanyahu and others whom want total domination and not peace. This by no means what Aveenu Malkaynu wants. It is by His hand that people will bow to him, not the hand of Netanyahu and the Orthodox Yehudim.

    • Empath Travis says:

      The antichrist already did. It was changing sabbath worship to the day of the sun God. That is the mark of the beast. It is from the tribe of dan

    • Paulette Gray says:

      That’s what I understood the day of the lord referred to. At that time in history Sunday was referred to as “the first day of the week” and even this is confusing in today’s world where calendars start with Monday!

  • Yahsplain says:

    It’s too bad these trinitarians continue to twist the scriptures to their destruction. God is not and has not ever been any part of a trinity. This is Babylonian doctrine of devils. The NT is clear that Mashiach is a man born of a woman, that which is born of flesh is flesh. God is spirit, they are not one in the same. Please Nehemiah know that your Messiah has come as the suffering servant and will return as the Conquering King. The Bereshit does not teach what Christians are claiming, they are under the delusion of the false messiah and have place God as a man on the altar of their hearts, removed the Torah, have blasphemed the Father, and have taken away from the Messiah all that he came to do. The Lamb is not God.

    1 Timothy 2:3-5 (NIV)
    3 This is good, and pleases Yahuah our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the TRUTH. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the MAN Yahusha HaMashiach

    • Gav Bootel says:

      Absolutely! We are under grace but grace hasn’t replaced the Torah and grace has always been part of Aveenu Malkaynu’s love towards man, not something that just appeared when He sent Yeshua to take our sin’s. The Torah is in our hearts, so we live it and have the testimony of Yeshua. He who says he knows the father but doesn’t keep His mitzvot, is a liar and the Truth, Emet, Torah, is not in him. He who turns his ear from hearing the Torah, even his prayer is an abomination.

      • Tom Moniz says:

        Indeed, we are all saved by grace. Without Yehovah’s grace we are nothing. The question is, what do we do once we have been saved? I figure the least I can do to show my appreciation is to learn and live by His instructions. This isn’t rocket science.

        • Gav Bootel says:

          It obviously is for a lot of people, but this is what occurs when you do not read Scripture for yourself and you rely on someone with a pre-conceived ideology or learnt by rote the commandments of me.
          שׁלום וברכה

    • I have always believed this. Do you have favorite Bible references? I would like to enlighten at least 3 pastors.

    • Nehemiah is a practicing Jew. He does not believe in Christ.

      • גבריאל says:

        Nehemia is a Karaite Jew, do not get it mixed up with Orthodox Judaism, they are nothing alike. The Tanakh (Torah, Prophets & Writings), is what Yeshua taught from, the only Scriptures all peoples had access to 2000 years ago. Nehemia believes in the Messiah, but i understand, he doesn’t believe He has come yet. Unlike western churchianity whom believe in some blue eyed gentile that was disobedient to His Father, taught against His Fathers Teachings / Torah / Law which is a total contradiction of Scripture. Yeshua taught fully (Pleroo), the word / Torah of His Father, He didn’t add too or diminish from, otherwise this nul and voids Him as being Messiah. Yeshua was and is an obedient son, as His Father clearly states, and why He loved Him, as no father likes a disobedient son, and BTW, Yeshua clearly states, He came to do His Father’s will, Not His Own. What is His Fathers Will? Keep Torah and Have the testimony of His Son Yeshua.
        As per revelation, the Lawless One will be taken out of the way – why is is lawless or why does it matter if the law has been done away with? Because the false messiah will promote Torah-less-ness, lawlessness, iniquity, he is the Father of All Lies and Western sun day churchianity of Roman origin promotes this false ideology / theology.

    • Empath Travis says:

      I think the Hebrew version of the Revelation hit the nail on the head. In kabbalah they say that when God retracted his light that a pure light broke through and with that light so did the words and letter and they tumbled into the metaphysical void in jars. But the jars collided and exploded in what the scientists call a big bang creating all we know. So God gets the light and it is Adam Kodesh. Primordial man pure in spirit. And Adam kodesh goes into the vessel after all is created and becomes Adam. When God takes and splits Adam and Eve the spirit too split the male from female. These spirits are the son and daughter of God now. His only begotten son. Yeshua and the holy spirit are these two beings. In revelation in the Hebrew transcript, yeshua says I am the first man. John chapter 1 also voices this analogy very loudly. “In Him was the light, and that light was Adam”.

    • Empath Travis says:

      Technically there is a trinity. Father, Son and Holy spirit. Old kabbalah theology says when God contracted his light to create the universe, a bright light so pure broke off from him and that light was also the 26 letters of the alphabet. That light was quickly put in jars to keep it contained but they had a “big bang” and the light formed all the world’s we see and took shape as Adam Kodesh. Adam Kodesh was primordial man or spirit. Since he came from El Elyon, he had the same likeness. When God created man, the word(Adam kodesh) became Adam. When the feminine was split from him to make eve, the spirit split as well making the Rauch haKodesh ( holy spirit). So there’s your answer to the trinity. Only 1 God but technically they are 1 in the same because of them coming from the source.

  • Anita Burke says:

    this is my first time using the British Library site. is it just me? the search seems awfully clunky. i tried searching for the EXACT title (1500-1699,
    New Testament in Hebrew translation.) and got over 5000 results, Sloane MS 237 nowhere to be found in the first 4 pages. also tried typing in Sloane and 237 and it told me my search item was too short! … the Browse tab seems like a better way to find it. i know Nehemiah provided us with a shortcut, im just trying to familiarize myself with the site

    • Marc-Olivier Roy says:

      If you wish for truth then start studying the book of the law by aleister crowley and please do not read it like a story or a roman dont take any word by its proper meaning ,occult mean secret and it took me about 10 years to actually really understand about 60 percent of hidden knowlege
      That some words are more than double sens

      Also see on youtube the kybalion of hermes trismegistus

      • Gavriel Yochanan says:

        Your kidding right?! aleister crowley the devil worshipper wouldn’t know Truth if he fell over it in hell, which is where he is heading. If you want Truth one reads the 5-books of Mosh, the Torah, not a. crowley unless you want to be inspired by darkness.

        • ScottinTexas says:

          The adversary (hasatan aka the “devil”) knows the Truth and rebels against every bit of it. I’d venture to say hasatan knows Truth better than we do, and is able to distort it.

  • Ron says:

    Regarding the christian habit of meeting on sunday or “the lords day” as we call it;
    The new testament does NOT say that jesus was raised on sunday.
    Yes,Mark 16:9 says that, but we know versus 9-20 weren’t in the earliest manuscripts.It was obviously added later and thus can’t be trusted.The other gospels don’t mention when he was raised, only that he was gone by sunday morning.
    We can’t possibly make doctrine on such flimsy evidence.And of course ,even if we could prove he was raised on sunday, that does not mean that we can change the sabbath to sunday. It’s ridiculous.It always was and always will be.
    Jesus

    Also it seems i need to add -because it was brought u by one of the speakers- that ‘the lords day’ in revelation isnt talking about sunday.
    It’s clear from the context that it’s talking about ‘the great and mighty day of the lord’ mentioned several times in scripture.It’s clear that the lords day refers to his coming.
    In any case even if we don’t agree with that, trying to say it refers to sunday is an idiotic circular argument.

    • Gavriel Yochanan says:

      Agree, and i’ll go a little further. Christianity has done everything in its limited power to change His Mitzvot, His Mo’edim, His Sabbath, and His name, including the name of His son. Sorry, but i do not follow the traditions of men, and i do not add too or diminish from His Word. If its not there, why add it? Just Shima and Asah, hear and do! Shalom u’vrakah

    • ScottinTexas says:

      “Early on the first day” in Israel (in modern calendar terms) would be about or after sunset on Saturday night. This is about right because he died and was taken down hastily on Wednesday afternoon just before sunset (bc sunset would begin the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a High Holy day and annual Sabbath). Thus, the full days and nights would take us to late afternoon on the weekly Sabbath (about Saturday afternoon/evening).

      Also, it is worthy of note that while the earliest Greek mss did not contain this, the Hebrew mss do, suggesting possibly that the Hebrew mss were used to complete the Greek mss of this missing info.

      • Gavriel Yochanan says:

        The only sign Yeshua gave to the idolatrous people was the sign of Jonah, 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of the fish.
        This being the case with the 1st day starting on the Pesach or HaMatzot (High Sabbath), which was on 4th day of the week (wednesday on the gregorian calendar), the timing would suggest he was gone by dusk at the end of Shabbat or the start of the 1st day of the week.
        The new days starts at sundown, which means during the day on the 4th day he was hung, was in the tomb by sunset as per the law of the land, which is the end of the 4th day and the beginning of the 5th day. So this would equate that he rose at the end of Shabbat at dusk just as Shabbat ended and the 1st day of the week started, fulfilling Jonah’s sign of 3 days and 3 nights exactly.
        If you do a graph showing the time line of the start and finish of the days in Biblical times, the fact He was in the tomb by sunset, as per the law of the land, this shows clearly that He was raised by the end of Shabbat.

    • UKJ says:

      Thank you Ron! I share the same understanding ..

  • Gavriel Yochanan says:

    From my perspective Tora’tikha תוֹרָתְךָ is a double edged sword, ִit is the word of life and teaches us, and convicts us.

  • Gavriel Yochanan says:

    He keeps the Shabbat but then says Yeshua some ordains the meeting on the 1st day of the week. Obviously none Scriptural and adds too the word. Yeshua upheld and taught His Fathers will, and that will is Return to Torah and keep the Commandments. Irrespective of what day Yehoshua rose from the tomb, there is noting to suggest that this started a new day of worship. We have Pesach, and that gives us memorial for Yeshua’s taking of our sin’s allowing us to Teshuvah, and to start obeying His Father. Do not add too or diminish from His Word / Commandments, its a way of keeping a straight walk without turning to the left or right.

  • Gavriel Yochanan says:

    Not sure if already mentioned, but Chazon 1:7 can also be referenced through Dani’el 7:13 and Zech 12:10

  • Tom says:

    Could the word “glowing” be the modern rendering of the Hebrew word you are using for the adjective modifying copper?

  • MaryAnne says:

    Great panel, loved hearing all of you get together to teach us 🙂 My thoughts on the Alef/Tav and double edged sword link could be Alef on one side and Tav on the other? I DON’T think it is the same as Greek tho, the first and last… as Elohim has no beginning nor an end. More like ‘from eternity past (and here now) thru eternity future’.

  • From what I understand (I can’t remember what the source is – i.e. classes from Dallas Theological Seminary, my old pastor, or something I read from scholars) that seemed to make the most sense was that Yohannan was a Hebrew whose primary language was Hebrew but was trying to write in Greek because his writings were going to have to go through Greek speakers and in his fervor in writing this magnificent vision he wrote rather broken Greek with some Hebrew leaking through and that is why it is so disjunctive.

    • UKJ says:

      This is actually very interesting! Thank you!

    • ScottinTexas says:

      This is a reasonable guess if you conclude The Revelation was not written first in Hebrew. I find it far more plausible and logical that a Jew would write in Hebrew and others would translate it for those they were appealing to that read Greek. It make more sense that it contains Hebrew idioms bc it was written in Hebrew.

      Starting with preconceived beliefs can lead to all kinds of innocent errors in trying to understand a bunch of Jewish writers who spoke and wrote to other Jews in Hebrew, especially about spiritual matters. Welcome to the world of the semitarians.

      The Septuagint was written for Jews in Egypt where they mostly spoke Greek bc of the Greek influence of Ptolemaic Empire there.

  • LP says:

    “THE LORD’S DAY” is the same day referred to at Isaiah 13:9; Joel 2:1; Zephaniah 1:14; Malachi 4:1; Acts 2:20; 2 Peter 3:10

  • Gregory Irby says:

    Verse 4 (life energy) may be referring to the 7 energies of one’s aura. 6,000 year old Hindu writings talk about the 7 chakra of one’s life energy, or aura. Buddhist call it one’s Chi. The concept may have been common knowledge 2,000 years ago. I have always questioned the Greek and just assumed it was referring to the Spirits of the 7 Angels. Thanks for this Revelation. I’ve been studying eschatology for over 40 years now. Is there a complete Hebrew version anywhere? Some of the events in the Greek are out of order. 616 is more likely correct (666). 6 is the # for man, 1 is the # for GOD. So,… man-god-man, and this is what he will claim to be. It’s all a Divine Code,, fascinating stuff!

  • sylviamzz says:

    Shalom! I’m adding my two cents on the Hebrew manuscript of Revelations. First of all, I love it!! I love your ministry in general. I believe the two-edged sword refers to the concept in Hebrews 4:12-13, “The word of God is active and alive, sharper than any 2-edged sword….” It gives discernment & ultimate truth. Shalom!

  • Cash says:

    The God speaking sent is Jesus right?

    • Aubrey DeLaVega says:

      Yes. Jesus says HE SENT HIS ANGEL in REV.22:16

      • ScottinTexas says:

        Angel in Greek is aggelios, which derives from the Hebrew word malak, which means messenger. John was Yeshua’s messenger who wrote what He saw and was told by Yeshua.

  • Caasi Algazi says:

    Nehemia the spirit of the lord is 7fold. It is prophesied his 7fold spirit is to be poured out on all flesh in the last days!

  • Tarron Evans says:

    The Shabbat is Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. “The Lord’s Day” is always a day of judgement. He ressurrected on the first day, which would still be Saturday evening. Nowhere in scripture do they meet on Sunday. If your referring to Acts 20:7 “And upon the first DAY(the word day doesn’t appear in the original text) of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight(or a better translation would be between the even’s).” The Greek word for week is sabbaton meaning the first of the sevens or Sabbath’s counting to shavuoth. In Acts 20:6 we can clearly see it was after passover/unleavened bread. Learn the feast!

  • Gregg W says:

    Okay, first of all I laugh every time I hear part of this! Nehemia tells “everyone” to calm down (at finding Yehovah in the Revelation 1:8) but HE is the one who is excited!! Either way, it is funny but awesome. I always love your enthusiasm Nehemia!
    I tried to find a copy of Delitzsch’s Revelation but haven’t been able to yet. I then pulled out my Delitzsch Hebrew Gospels (no Revelation of course), but looked for the passage in Luke 1 about the birth of Yeshua. Unfortunately the version I have replaces YHVH (no vowels) with Hashem!! Oh well, I will keep looking. Grrrrr.
    Thanks for this great discussion. I love it.

  • Leslie Murray says:

    My understanding from a spiritual aspect of “double edged sword” refers to the words spoken, and how they can be used to heal or kill (so to speak).
    Thank you for the work you share with us, there is so much to learn, and I Thank God every day, that you teach so that I can learn faster.

    • Tom Moniz says:

      I see it much the same Leslie, but with a slight twist. The Word of Yehovah can both save and kill, depending on the one hearing it. They can hear and repent which leads to life, or hear and ignore the warning which leads to death. Same word, 2 different results. Much the same with the furnace, the fire of Yehovah, it both refines or destroy, depends on the person.

  • Erin Hunter says:

    A very interesting conversation! Going to hear the next one. My thought on this is that perhaps there’s some more investigation needed before we can gain a complete understanding. Praising YeHoVaH for His Wondrous works! Shalom

  • Nebiyu says:

    Shalom,
    V 6″Elohim and his Father. And vers 8 Yehovah the Elohim ” is referring to the one true God. In rev4:8 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. The book of revelation from chapter 1 to 22, 95x God referring to God the father. There is no room in the book of revelation for the trinity.
    John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the ONLY TRUE GOD, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. REGARDING THE HOLY SPIRIT JESUS ALWAYES REFFERING TO HIS FATHER, JOHN CHAPTER 4 GOD OR HIS FATHER IS SPIRIT JESUS CALL HIS FATHER IN CHAPTER 17 HOLY FATHER, HOLY FATHER AND HOLY SPIRIT IS REFERING TO THE ONE AND ONLY TRUE GOD.
    1 COR 8: 6 But to us there is but ONE GOD, the FATHER, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

    • Yvonne says:

      This is exactly what I believe. I grew up with the Trinity teaching. I never believed it. It didn’t make sense to me. I discovered by myself communing with God in his Word that God is Spirit and anyone who has his spirit is one with him. Christ never had his own spirit. He was bestowed with the spirit of Almighty God at his baptism. When he said I and the Father are one he meant they are together one in the spirit. They are both separate but one together in the spirit. The disciples couldn’t understand it. So Philip asked him to just show us something i.e., the Father and then they would believe. Christ said everything I say to you is spirit. The flesh profits nothing. They eventually got it. But it was a process of understanding what he was teaching. When you discover the right interpretation which only the spirit can unveil it is a miraculous blessing.

      • Michale says:

        God=Existence. Yeshua and his Father were literally one, not just in spirit, if you exist; you are Reality or Yehova. If you love God so much that it causes great joy for you to practice Altruism, then you are closer to the Spirit. This was the Good news of the kingdom: an Awakening of the Spirit. The Kingdom is found in Altruism, in being one with Nature’s true will[pouring love into itself through the Trinity

        • So then why did the Father give all authority rule and dominion to His only /begotten/ Son, Yeshua? Yeshua is the the lamb slain before/ the foundation of the World and the Word through which /all/ things became manifested.

  • Piotr says:

    I follow what you wrote. I do not speak English so I’m using Google translation.
    The number seven in the Bible occurs many times and often has a relationship with God and His purpose.
    The number seven indicates complete from God’s point of view:
    7 days of creation – a full creation process,
    7 God’s spirits – the fullness of the Holy Spirit,
    7 congregations – all God’s congregations,
    In general, the book of revelation begins with the information that Jan was presented with a vision in signs or symbols
    The numbers 2,6,10,12,24 have other meanings.

  • brad says:

    Black Elk of the Lakota, an Yesraelai Lost tribe, actually spoke about seeing the throne of Wakan Tanka(Great Holy Mystery). He said he met 6 grandfathers who were the powers of the world which were one with the great spirit, in the tipi of the sky, the seventh place belongs to the sprit of El.

    One spirit with four winds, the above and the below.

  • Scott says:

    As a veteran, you mention Double edge sword, a double edge sword it used for cutting in left and right and thrusting, a single edge sword only cut in one direction and thrusting, double edge sword was commonly use in cut with both edges and for cutting a swath through several fighters, when a warrior is faced with more than one, he can cut his foes in both direction.
    Shalom

  • Charles Atkinson says:

    Oh my…I listened to this podcast when it first came out. I read through the English translation at that time too. HOWEVER, for the last few weeks, I’ve been taking a Hebrew reading class, and I decided to look at the actual manuscript today.

    I was startled and delighted by the nervous-excited feeling I felt in my stomach as I searched for vs. 8 with Yehovah’s name. Such an amazing experience.

    Thanks for researching and sharing. I look forward to future discoveries of the manuscript.
    Charles

    • Gregg W says:

      Charles, Don’t know if you’ll see this, but I was wondering which Hebrew reading class you’re taking. I want to find one. Thanks, Gregg

  • Vyomi says:

    Hi Nehemia
    On the Hebrew Book of Revelation
    Revelation 2:8-9 In considering what you mentioned about the council/gathering of satan, it brings to mind the early church councils of Laodicea and Nicea, where many important aspects of torah was changed to suit the ‘Roman world’ for eg the sabbath to Sunday and the prohibition of anything to do with the ‘Jewish love feasts’ etc… And still applicable today in mainstream Christianity. Please do let me know your thoughts on this.
    Thanks vyomi

  • please allow us access to the full translated version you have prepared. and as you can see I was right about Yahusha’s [as in Joshua’s] name these last few years. you are an inspiration to many of us. please give our love to the family

  • Geoff Robinson says:

    Nehemia,

    Thanks for another great presentation. When you were discussing the Nicolatians, and then progressed through word puns and then ended up at the Tree of Life, I could not help but see an important theme in Revelation that most Christians overlook.

    Revelation make reference to Torah observance three times, all associated with that group of people surviving the destruction presented within the book. Revelation 12:17 and Rev 14:12 mention a group of individuals protected by God who 1) keep the commandments of God and 2) have the testimony of Yeshua. Torah observance is important even in the Christian world. I will tie in the third reference but first a look at Heaven.

    Heaven is described in Revelation 21 and 22. Chapter 21 describes a new heaven and earth. It also describes a new city, Jerusalem, that is brought down for survivors to dwell in. The city has gates and foundations. A careful look at the end of chapter 21, especially Rev 21:27, it says not everyone gets to go in to the city. There also appear to be kingdoms of men outside the city. Revelation 22:1-2 describe the Tree of Life growing over a River that flows from the throne of God. The Tree is described as having 12 fruits meant for healing and it grows from both sides of the river. I also note that the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” is not there… so we cannot make that mistake again.

    Here is the verse that ties this together…. Revelation 22:14. “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Wow…. Torah observance is important in Christianity as it is what allows access to the new Jerusalem, God’s throne and the Tree of Life!

    Maybe someday we will get an opportunity to access the rest of Revelation in Hebrew.

    Shalom,

    Geoff

    • Jeffrey says:

      Towrah observance is the only way to be cut into the covenant. Christianity, via it’s love of Paul’s lies are currently “off the mark”. Yahowah only has one covenant, not two, and in order to be cut in one must be Towrah observant. Pure and simple. All other organized forms of “religion” are screwed.

      • verdiblue says:

        oh how the blind are mislead. yes there is only one covenant and that is thro blood – the blood of jesus which does what the blood of bulls and goats could not achieve.

        • Scott says:

          Paul does not lie! He taught full on, proper understanding of Torah. It is the Roman “church” that doesn’t know how to understand Paul that lies. Check out 119 Ministries on Paul. They clear up most of the false understanding of Paul.

          “… just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, [16] as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.” 2 Peter 3:15b-16

        • Laurie says:

          I don’t often reply but…I really love the covenants the Almighty has made. I’m very thankful for the covenants He made, establishing His covenant with Noach and with the animals! The covenant He made with Avraham. The covenant of Shalom. In fact, if you grab a Concordance you can look up the Covenants. He keeps His covenants. His most beautiful covenant is Yeshua HaMassiach, His Ruach HaKodesh. He is my only hope and my only help. Thank You Father for Your Salvation! Thank You Yeshua for all You have done for us!

    • JOSEPH P. MOSES says:

      Yes I agree with you, brother. Thanks for sharing your opinion. May Elohim bless you.

  • Janice says:

    For the Dear Pastor, Sunday vs Shabbat. You cannot get 3 days and nights in the grave; if buried on Friday and raised on Sunday. Have to us the Hebrew measure of night and day; not the Gregorian.

  • Anne says:

    Isaiah 11:2Seven Spirits of God.

  • onesentforth says:

    I always thought the “seven souls” represented the pastors of the seven congregations in Asia that were being addressed in the text.

    • Janice says:

      The 7 stars are the 7 leaders, .or kahila.
      Isaiah 11:2, start at 11:1 to get the full flavor, a branch Zemach – will emerge from the trunk of Yishai, a shoot will grow from it’s roots; the
      1)Spirit of Adonai
      2)Spirit of wisdom and 3) understanding (Torah)
      3)Spirit of Counsel and 4) power
      5) Spirit of knowledge and 6) and reverance
      He will be inspired by fearing (obeying) Adonai
      This is like a menorah, as there is a trunk or stem,
      is offshoot from it’s roots, someone in line of David; each called spirit is not a trinity, light comes from one source and has 7 characteristics, but it’s all light
      And He is a judge

      This is a temple text and also, on the Day of the LORD, this is season of Yom Kippur; there are 10 days of awe;
      He judges the 7 congreations, the wholy righteios, the wholy wichked and the undeceided (you can put them in the categories, they have time to repent, Chapter 2

      • UKJ says:

        The 7 stars are the 7 leaders, .or kahila.

        Janice, I hope the following is speaking about the same council you are making reference to.

        Unlike the ancient Qahal/Kehilla, abolished in the Russian Empire by Tsar Nicholas I in 1844,[1] the modern Kehilla council was elected like a municipal council, with lists of candidates presented by the various Jewish parties: Agudat Yisrael, the religious and non religious Zionists, but also the marxist Bundists and Poalists, the liberal-minded secularist Folkists, etc.

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kehilla_(modern)

        In actual fact this would emphasize my point about a timeless message being sent to the seven congregations.
        Also the mixed background is of interest plus the characterizing you are proposing, hence rebuke to the people of Asia Minor.

        Besides the message in Isa 11

        Rev 5:6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

        Zech 4:10 For who has despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run back and forth through the whole earth.

        Zech 4:2 And said unto me, What see you? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:

        • UKJ says:

          PS
          Please correct me if Qahal/Kehilla, is different from what you are saying. I couldn’t find anything else about the name. I plead ignorance about kahila. I assume the article represents what you talking about. Please correct me if I am wrong.
          Thanks!

      • Caasi Algazi says:

        Hit nail on the head

  • Ian says:

    Very good to find this document, but this is a 17 th century doc and not an ancient manuscript, good to hear the audio but is there any more manuscripts in Hebrew before Rome became Christianised ?

    Regards IAN & Shalom

    • Gregg W says:

      Ian, He did say it was purchased by this Sloane person in the 17th century, so not necessarily written then. Since they don’t have the actual document in hand, it is impossible to determine the age. I imagine some of the language, grammar and vowel markings could give clues about the time frame also. As Nehemia has said, this is still an interesting manuscript for what it does contain. This is now a 3rd Hebrew Revelation that uses Yehovah instead of Lord/Kurios when appropriate. The other 2 were known to have been translated from the Greek, but this one is still uncertain. Shalom.

  • UKJ says:

    verse 20 from the hebrew it says :that though saw are the seven congregations ( they are the second gate)

    There are 12 gates mentioned in Rev 21:12, but those gates apply to the 12 tribes of Israel, with their names written above.

    The question arises, who and what are those 7 congregations?
    Also, why seven congregations and why seven stars to the seven congregations, who are the seven messengers?

    My conclusion so far ..: The message of the book of Revelation is mainly for the end times, hence the message has to be timeless and not just for those seven congregations at the time.

    The congregations also have to be seven categories of people, as there are seven types of corrections.

    When John wrote this message, did he include Goyim people in those categories? If so, where do they fit in? Would it be correct to say that the number four stands for Israel? (4 women producing the 12 tribes for example?) The number three for the Goyim, as in 3 types of races? (3×4=12 )(3+4=7)

    verse 20 from the hebrew scripture it says”.. :that though saw are the seven congregations” ( they are the second gate)

    It begs the question..

    The second gate or fitting into the gates of twelve, of which the second gate is part of it?

    And if this is correct, the Goyim people would have to be seen as being grafted into the tribes of Israel..?

    Any thoughts anybody?

    • UKJ says:

      Sorry for not making myself clearer.
      To quote from the Hebrew manuscript:

      “(20) The secret of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lamps , the seven stars are angels of the seven congregations and the seven lamps that you saw, are the seven congregations. (they are)
      The Second Gate.”

      The Second Gate is in reference to the seven congregations . The only gates in the book of Revelation I can find is in Rev 21:12

      The Second Gate could possibly refer to the house of Judah, which would, in my view , make perfect sense, as the priesthood of Yeshua is not from the house of Levies but after the order of Melchizedek and from the house of Judah.

  • VM says:

    Shalom Nehemia, you stated there are more Hebrew NT manuscripts, more than we know about. Can you tell me what you have discovered so far regarding NT Hebrew manuscripts which have not been made public? Thanks and shalom.

  • Rocky says:

    Well as I first have said wow just wow ..
    But after sending out a note to someone I ordered several books even thou for example I’ve watched the Hebrew Yeshua verses the Greek Jesus a dozen times I just read thru it until appendix 2 ( I got the book ) yesterday
    And burned thru it until about midnight getting to appendix 2 melted my Brain…And I’ve read it thru 3 times for clarity …

    So I must share a testimony ever since ” coming to Torah” I have NOT been able to reconcile the
    Anti-christ verse’s especially the verses of 1-2 John I can’t find bases for these words AT ALL!
    At least I can’t ( Gloss over) these words.

    Perhaps we will gain some understanding in part two…

    Or someday someone will open a vault or cave ?

    Anyone have thoughts, maybe Mr AJ Bernard?

    Waiting humbly in awe!

    • Gregg W says:

      Rocky, Not sure if you found an answer some other place, but I wanted to comment.
      First, BIG AMEN about Nehemia’s book – his others are pretty good too.
      I was intrigued by your question about not being able to reconcile the “anti-christ” verses that John mentions only. I John 2:18,22 ; 1 John 4:3 and 2 John 1:7 ;

      That is a good point. This same John was given the vision of the Revelation, so he saw the Beast and False Prophet who are to come and all they do. Maybe he is the only one who referred to them as “anti-Messiah”??
      I’d never considered that. He was also the closest disciple to Yeshua and really loved him and was loved by Yeshua. I am sure he knew exactly what he was talking about.

      I only worded it this way because many people have “found Torah” but then find teachers who will lead them away from Yeshua. I hope that is not what you are dealing with. I will assume it is not.

      I SO wish we could find early copies of John’s writings in Hebrew (I am sure he wrote in that) to clear up such things.

      Have you ever noticed how in the Book of John there are lots of comments like “A feast of the Jews” or “after the manner of the purifying of the Jews” or even “the Jews’ Passover was nigh”. What in the world?!!??

      John was Jewish, born and raised. He was not a rabbi but a fisherman and would have spoken Hebrew. It is just very odd that he would have written with those phrases. Someone obviously translated his writings to Greek and later to English to come up with the phrases about “the Jews”.

      I know I didn’t answer your question, but I wanted to touch base. Yehovah bless you, brother. Shalom.

      • Rocky says:

        Personally I truly believe that when John writes his book he is as fully persuaded like Paul who wrote in Romans 2:29 that he that is a Jew is circumsised in the heart the inward experience , thusly why John repeats the same Doctrine that the Torah established

  • daniel says:

    WOW. This is the sort of thing that makes me wish I had studied ancient languages(starting 50 yrs. ago). As a cutlery buff, the double-edged sword cuts both ways, i.e.; the swing, and the backswing. And, it pierces twice as nice upon the thrust. The handler of such a blade (such as a Dive Knife) must be very careful not to cut himself by mistake. Great symbolism and allegory for The Word. The ‘7 spirits’ may be just that – as in the 70 spirits that lead the nations and their language from the time of Babel to now – they would be of Elohim (included in Heavenly Council, but not necessarily of the Godhead) – just my guess. Thanks tons, and anxiously await part 2.

  • John Oliver, M.D. says:

    The discussion about the “Lord’s Day” in the episode on the Hebrew Manuscript of the Book of Revelation was interesting. There was a man named Samuele Bacchiocchi who for his doctoral thesis wrote a book entitled From Sabbath To Sunday. This book is perhaps the greatest defense of the Sabbath written during the 20th century. The interesting thing about this is that Dr. Bacchiocchi was a Seventh-day Adventist who received his doctorate in Church History from the Pontifical Gregorian University at the Vatican. In From Sabbath To Sunday he lists three possible explanations for the Lord’s Day: 1. Sunday, 2. Easter Sunday, and 3. The eschatological day of the Lord. This was a possibility mentioned by Pastor Bernard in the podcast. In this book he defends this third possibility and gives very good reasons why the “Lord’s Day” is not Sunday. It was decades after Revelation was written before any Christian writings specifically identified the “Lord’s Day” as Sunday. It is interesting to note that in a later book, The Sabbath In The New Testament, Dr. Bacchiocchi lists a fourth possible explanation for the “Lord’s Day.” He says that it also could be referring to the Sabbath as you mentioned in the podcast. He says that this is the explanation that he personally believes is the correct one. Why didn’t he even mention that the “Lord’s Day” could have been referring to the Sabbath in his doctoral thesis? This perhaps might have been a bridge to far for his Roman Catholic doctoral thesis supervisor. So why would a Seventh-day Adventist want to get his doctoral thesis at the Pontifical Gregorian University at the Vatican? This would give him access to the Vatican Library with sources that were available nowhere else. So the basic conclusion of Dr. Bacchiocchi’s book is that the Sabbath (and Passover as well) were discarded by the Early Christian Church in the second century because of antisemitism. Until the Simon bar Kochba rebellion the Jewish religion was an approved religion of the Roman empire and Christians were considered to be a Jewish sect. After the Simon bar Kochba rebellion was crushed and Judaism was outlawed and the a heavy tax was place upon the Jews to pay for the cost of the war, the Christians started distancing themselves from Judaism. They did this by discarding Passover in favor of Easter and by discarding Sabbath in favor of Sunday. This does not seem like a good reason for discarding the day of worship specifically commanded by Yehovah Himself.

    • auntganny says:

      I agree with you on the Sabbath still being the Lord’s Day based on the passage in Isaiah 58:13-, and the fact that Isaiah even ends his book speaking of it. Isa 66:23
      23 From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me,
      declares the Lord. ESV
      That doesn’t negate worship on Sunday for anyone who wishes to do so, but from the beginning, the seventh day was the day that was blessed and sanctified by Yehovah Himself after He finished his work of creation, and later re-emphasized by Moses, but based on the many things that Yehovah says about this day, it seems to be a very special day to Him There is NO mention anywhere of another day being set apart and blessed by the Lord anywhere in the scriptures. Sometimes it seems to me that scholarly thinking gets itself in kinks instead of simply looking to scripture to explain scripture. Because the Gentile believing church tends to think of itself as being a whole new entity…never mind the fact that the new covenant was promised in Jeremiah as well as Ezekiel talking about the Spirit being given…
      It seems sometimes that the Gentile church thinking tends to get somewhat out of proportion about its “exclusive position”, but that is just my opinion. After all, the first members of the Church were Jewish…..not to mention that its leader just happens to be of Jewish birth, too.

    • ScottinTexas says:

      There was, no doubt, some distancing due to antisemitism, but it began with the edicts of Constantine which outlawed these practices commanded by YHVH.

  • Very interesting discussion, thanks to everyone for bringing this to light!

    The “Elohim and his Father” part in 1:6 in the Greek, “God and his Father” (KJV), for the Greek text, is referred to by many Greek NT scholars as an example of the Granville Sharp rule (or “Granville Sharp construction”) — articulated in 1778 — in which classical grammarian Granville Sharp discovered a construct in much of classical and biblical Greek that states that “when you have two nouns, which are not proper names (such as Cephas, or Paul, or Timothy), which are describing a person, and the two nouns are connected by the word “and,” and the first noun has the article (“the”) while the second does not, *both nouns are referring to the same person*.” (James White, of Alpha & Omega Ministries).

    So, two possibilities exist here (in my mind), either this was translated from Greek, or it’s a deeper construct that isn’t totally related to Greek. In my opinion, the latter is more likely, because, the “rule” wasn’t discovered until the 18th century; and, the guy who discovered it was only looking at the Greek language, as far as I can tell.

  • Ezracha Bat EPhrayim (WatchWomanOnTheWall2015) says:

    A two edged sword represents the spirit of truth, and the word of truth, or Torah which is also referred to as a two edged sword because of it’s power which pierces even to the marrow of the bone. Why? Because it is a thick strong dagger type blade, the type used in Judges chapter three. It is used to stab, not to swipe. It is not a thin long flexible blade like the type we typically see used in sword fighting.

    • A.J. Bernard says:

      In preparation for this episode, I went looking for the type of sword which would have been common at the time. I didn’t find much, but I did find the Roman Gladius, which would certainly have been a common sight in Judea, and was a double edged weapon used primarily for thrusting. The Gladius was only about two feet long… a very short weapon… but the Romans conquered the world with it, because it was a very powerful weapon when wielded properly. That is, you couldn’t be very effective without considerable amounts of training…. much like the Scriptures. If you only read the Bible once a week, or if you don’t spend time studying deeply, it won’t be very useful to you.

      Shalom!

    • Tom Moniz says:

      I believe another strong possibility concerning the double mouthed sword is how The Word of YHVH can both save and kill, depending on who receives it. If it turns them to repent of their ways, it saves, If they hear and ignore the warning, it leads to death.

  • Ezracha Bat Ephrayim (Watchwoman On the Wall 2015) says:

    I follow Yahshua Messiah. All Christian’s do not believe the MYSTERY of the trinity. I believe the trinity is The Mystery written on the forehead of the whore of Babylon. Since I was a very young girl, age 4 is when I first prayed to God, I knew by the time I was 5 or 6 that who I called Jesus was a man, a flesh and blood person. He had an earthly Mother and a spirit Father who I knew only then as God. I was such a believer at age 4 or 5, that I dressed my little sister and took her across the street to church, while my mom slept. We were not allowed to have the wine I remember. I volunteered to be baptized in the river in our back yard by age 7. My mother was not there. My two older sister’s and I took the row boat across and sat in the park ther with hundreds of other people and listened to the Jesus people. How was I to know that this would become what I still call today, my real baptism, a full immersion, and I remember it well to this day. I remember the men didn’t want to baptize me, but I insisted, so they finally did. When I began coming out of churchianity a little over 10 years ago, I went to the SDA church looking for fellowship with Sabbath keepers, though only for a couple months. I asked the pastor there if a person was “required” to believe the trinity doctrine in order to be saved. It was a question I already knew the answer to, but I had to get his opinion none the less. He said, “No.” I hate to sound harsh, but I compare the trinity doctrine to what I call Satan’s big lie, for this was the belief that man could be God, knowing good and evil; but not just any old god, but Yahovah God, or “in the “person” of Yahovah God. This brings me to point number two. We are commanded, not inquired of, that we shall make NO image of Yahovah, for He is a spirit, and not flesh. Also let’s note John or Yochanan chapter 17, where Yahushua prays to Yahovah his Father, and elsewhwere he teaches us to do the same, and again in the Revelation Yahushua says, “Do not bow down to me, for I am your brother.”This leads me to the conclusion: The Catholic church invented the trinity, or carried on this pagan tradition from Babylon, that a man “if ordained by them” can take the place of Yahovah God on earth. This certainly rings true if a person studies the Catholic doctrines in depth, and reads the words on the Poop’s fish hat which read Vicar of Christ, or IN PLACE OF CHRIST, and this proves my point because the Catholic church teaches that Jesus Christ IS God. Therefore the Poop reigns as god of this earth. I have also noted in my walk that people who believe the trinity also have a stunted spiritual growth. In conclusion: I believe that It is more horrific for Christian’s to believe that Yahushua is The God, Yahovah, than for a Jew to profess that he does not know that Yahushua is The Messiah. I follow Yahushua H’Moshiach, and he has NEVER lead me astray! Shalom

    • A.J. Bernard says:

      A correction, if I may…

      You’re referring to Rev. 22:9 with your “do not bow down to me” comment. If we read one verse ahead of that, it clears up the issue:

      Rev.22:8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, 9 but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”

      That is, John bends to the angel showing the vision, not to Yeshua.

      Aside from that, in order to deny the Trinity you have to take creative interpretations of some very important New Testament passages such as Luke 5:24, Mark 14:62, John 1:1, Acts 5:4, and others.

      The Trinity is something we discover in the New Testament, not something we impose upon it. The Doctrine of the Trinity is the church’s best attempt to make sense of some of those passages listed above.

      Shalom!

      • Gregg W says:

        AJ and Ezracha – great story of your early life, by the way (Ezracha)! I agree the trinity is man’s confusion of things written in scripture, but also helped by satan to get us off track.

        I will say that Revelation chapter 5 is a beautiful picture of Yeshua receiving power, authority and dominion from Yehovah his Father – very much like Daniel 7. One like the Son of Man comes before the Ancient of Days and receives power, authority and dominion. From this and other passages in Revelation (and other places in NT) Yeshua does receive worship from all creation! Yehovah does not stop this, nor do the 4 living creatures, the 24 elders nor any of the thousands of angels! He is worth to receive this.

        BUT, no where does it say in any of Scripture that Yeshua is the being we know as Yehovah (God). He is called repeatedly the Son of God, the son of the Most High, the Son of man.

        One of the best examples is when Joseph is given power and authority over all of Egypt and everyone has to do as he says. He is NOT Pharaoh, and does not replace Pharaoh. He acts in the authority of Pharaoh.

        All that to say, I AGREE with you! Sorry but I get excited sometimes when discussing such things.

        Yehovah bless you both. Shalom. Gregg

    • plz go to the book of Ezekiel and read chapter 8,9,10 and you’ll find YESHUA the FATHER and the HOLY SPIRIT

    • Nebiyu says:

      John 17:3
      “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the ONLY TRUE ELOHIM(YAHOVAH), and YAHUSHUA, whom thou hast sent.”
      1Corinithians 8:
      But to us there is but ONE ELOHIM, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord YAHUSHUA, by whom are all things, and we by him.

      For further study Elohim is One Revelation 4;14 and 22 in fact from chapter one to 22, 95 times Elohim refer to YAHOVAH without adding Him and His.

      In heaven angels are not worship trinity.

      And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.(Father and His Son

      • Nebiyu says:

        John 4:21-24 Elohim is Spirit = In John 17: 11 Yeshuah called His father Holy Father so
        Holy father = Holy Spirit
        Elohim Himself is Holy Spirit. There is no room for third person.

        Revelation 21:22
        And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.(two YAHOVAH & YESHUAH

        salvation belong to who?
        Revelation 7:And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
        Rev 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
        16 And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
        17 Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.

    • Simona Mazyck says:

      Thank you so much for your post. This has been my quest to understand and establish a believe on “the rock build without hands”. Can you help me by explaining The concept of Ha Satan vs. Satan and his role ? Is he The adversary that rebelled or the adversary that fallows YHWH orders?

    • ScottinTexas says:

      Don’t get to caught up in the metaphors father and son. It is easily established in Scripture that YHVH and Yeshua are the same, by character, by Name, etc. They certainly also have a Spirit that operates consistent with their Will.

  • Geoff Robinson says:

    Nehemia,
    This was one of your best to date. Wow. I have been intrigued by the Hebrew Matthew manuscripts, but this is a step or more beyond any of that. I agree with all three of you that this manuscript is really interesting, regardless of its origin. I will be looking forward to part 2.

    Geoff

    By the way, I am taking a break from ancient Hebrew (I am overwhelmed with vocabulary) and spending some time on modern Hebrew. I look forward to the next time you get a chance to stop in northern Colorado.

  • Neville says:

    Nehemia, can you tell us what you actually said in this study at the time mark 29:56, right after “what kabballah teaches” ? I know what I think I heard, but I’m unsure and it surprised me. Could you give us a transcript of that couple of sentences, please?

    • “Meaning, what Kaballah teaches, or the key teaching of Kaballah, is that the true God is unknowable, He’s infinite, and us finite humans can’t know him. And that infinite deity is called Ein Sof meaning, “No End”. And that what we experience are ten emanations that come out of God like light from a candle.”

  • Laurie Laine says:

    Year’s of fear and darkness clouded my heart and mind. My thinking was distorted. I was worthless in my own mind. Yehovah, You saw. Yehoshua, You appeared to me and I saw Your Love and Acceptance for the first time in my miserable life I saw love and acceptance. I repented and You freed me from the darkness that kept my hands a prisoner. You lifted that darkness out of me. I felt and I saw it leave out of me. I saw from You, Your Spirit from You literally flow into me so beautifully, so gently, beauty pouring into my heart. You changed me. You accepted me. You gave me the beautiful gift of life in You. Your everlasting Love in my heart. I trust You.

  • Ursula Jebb says:

    Thank you for sharing such a great discovery.I am looking forward to part two and for more Hebrew texts to be discovered (hopefully). I have always wondered why there are so few of them, as most of the early and possibly later Nazarene’s were of Hebrew origin..

    Interestingly, the book of Zechariah might shed some light unto the seven lamps..
    And said unto me, What see you? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof..
    Zechariah 4:2
    (This indicates that there is one candlestick — the oil at the top — lighting the seven lamps…
    ..or one could say one spirit giving understanding to
    the seven candlesticks which you saw are the seven churches. Rev 1:20

  • Just Someone says:

    To be honest, I don´t really see the sensation to this manuscript. Sure, it is another witness to the correct pronunciation of The Name (which is awesome!), and it contains some interesting linguistic concepts. However, it is still merely a 17th century Hebrew manuscript of of an utterly censored series of books: The “New Testament”.

    When will people finally realize the fact, that the NT is full of insertions and deletions, edited to the maximum by the roman catholic church. In the beginning, there were almost 40 gospels, surprisingly only 4 made it into the canon (of which only Matthew seems to have some degree of authenticity; presumably written around 50 CE in Hebrew). If one would genuinely care for the evolution of their christian faith, he would have to acknowledge that it is a melting pot of philosophical and pagan elements, only serving one goal: control of the masses. Christianity is a truly political outcome with the intention to unite the stumbling roman empire under the banner of a common faith (back then, every city had their own gods/ faith! Impossible to control!). A faith based on words (confession of Jesus Christ as the savior from all sins), rather than deeds. Yeshua was a great prophet trying to teach the people the true word of JHVH, aside from all the religious dogma and traditions of ancient Judaism. Furthermore, HE IS THE SWORD!!! (cf. Math. 10: 34-36) NOT THE SAVIOR/ MESSIAH !! At least that´s what he said about himself, in contrast to what was laid into his mouth by Paul.
    I guess he would be quite shocked to see what mankind produced out of his teachings 🙂

    One aspect to disprove the divinity of the NT: The “Concept of Logos” by John. This concept of logos (greek for word or reason) as the son of God is an old philosophical concept. Philon of Alexandria (jewish philosopher) tried to combine this logos-concept 100 years before the gospel of John was presumably written (ca. 115 C.E).

    WIKIPEDIA: Philo followed the Platonic distinction between imperfect matter and perfect Form, and therefore intermediary beings were necessary to bridge the enormous gap between God and the material world.[34] The Logos was the highest of these intermediary beings, and was called by Philo “the first-born of God.”[34] Philo also wrote that “the Logos of the living God is the bond of everything, holding all things together and binding all the parts, and prevents them from being dissolved and separated.”[35]

    Plato’s Theory of Forms was located within the Logos, but the Logos also acted on behalf of God in the physical world.[34] In particular, the Angel of the Lord in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) was identified with the Logos by Philo, who also said that the Logos was God’s instrument in the creation of the universe.[34]

    ———-

    I am not saying that the logos-concept is wrong or non-existent. The point I try to make is that most “Christian” concepts are not “innovative” or “divinely inspired”. This whole trinity and salvation thing is pure dogma. Maybe Logos indeed is the son (or more precisely: The pure product of the male and female energy inherent in JHVH and hence in EVERYTHING). However, the Tanakh, which in contrast is the divinely inspired, clearly teaches us that everyone is responsible for his deeds/ sins. There is no salvation by merely confessing something. Follow the true teaching of JHVH (the Torah) and you will be justified by your deeds, not your words.

    Shalom

    • Just Someone says:

      Edit:
      I just found a verse that perfectly emphasizes the wrong notion most people in the western world hold regarding true faith.
      “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” Romans 3:28.
      Hence, according to St. Paul, the previous law and commandments of God are worthless, this simple belief will guarantee for all comers a place in heaven.
      Why would anyone believe this assertion rather than believing in the word of JHVH or the teachings of Jeshua himself: “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:18-19

      I guess there is nothing more to add …

      • ursula jebb says:

        To be fair on the apostle Paul, it might be worth while to include verse 31.

        In Rom chapter 3 where he says :”Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid:yea, we establish the law.

        • Yep, the bible willingly lends itself to support just about any doctrine you wish, if you just pick out the supporting verses. The devil did this when he tempted Yeshua in the desert.
          That’s why contemporary Peter writes to us that Paul’s letters are hard to understand and unstable people twist them to their own destruction.
          With Paul one has to always read the whole chapter, better yet the whole letter, plus understand where he was coming from. He was a religious lawyer before encountering Yeshua. Then he was overjoyed of being set free from pharisaical Takanot (man made laws).
          Also the Greek language, while using the word “nomos” = law, does not differentiate between Torah-law and other laws. The Hebrew uses several different words for law.

  • The translation “angel” rather than messenger can be confusing. There are 7 letters to be given to the 7 assemblies by Yochannan by way of 7 messengers.

  • The Day of Yehovah
    Amos 5:18 explains clearly what that means. And so does the prophet Joel.
    Saying the Lord’s day is Sunday is utter nonsense and made up by the Bishop of Rome / Pope / Catholic Church with the help of Constantine.
    Yochanan in his long vision got to see how THE Day of Yehovah is going to play out.
    One of the old deceptive teachings of the Catholic Church is that the day of the Lord and His judgement has already happened, that we are living already in the millennial reign of Christ and that the pope it the one reigning on earth as the vicar of Christ. I know this from an old friend who grew up catholic. He claims no longer to be a Catholic but he still believes that lie and therefore interprets the whole book of revelation as one big allegory and all just spiritual.

    • Ezracha Bat Ephrayim (Watchwoman On the Wall 2015) says:

      AMEN, the “LORD’s Day” is the day or Yahovah, a day of vengeance, and a day of salvation, depending on whose side we’re on.

      • auntganny says:

        I know that there is a Day of the Lord…a time of judgment but why are we getting so complicated?

        YHVH tells us what the Lord’s Day is in Isaiah 58:13-14 and I can’t help but feel that John is referring back to Isaiah when he says, I was in the Spirit on the Lordly Day, or the Lord’s Day. YHVH is very specific about the Sabbath being the LORD’S HOLY DAY, the day that He blessed and sanctified. I don’t find anywhere else in scripture that Yehovah speaks of any other day as being specifically HIS DAY. Even in Christ, it is still His holy Day, because Yehovah was in Messiah, reconciling the world to Himself. He doesn’t change. Just because believers worship on the first day, doesn’t make the 7th day any less blessed or make it cease to be the Lord’s Day.

        13 “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,
        from doing your pleasure on MY HOLY DAY,
        and call the Sabbath a delight
        and THE HOLY DAY OF THE LORD HONORABLE ;
        if you honor it, not going your own ways,
        or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;
        14 then you shall take delight in the Lord,
        and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; ESV

  • SAM says:

    Your info. on a Hebrew Revelation is exciting!.

    I have been working through the Book of Revelation for several years now. I am not a scholar but a student who has been studying the Temple services and Appointed times for over 20 years. Many books have been written by Christians about Revelation. None however have taken into consideration that this is a Jewish book. Written by a 1st century Jew given a vision of the last days. The Lord’s Day is in Scripture is the Day of YHVH, the Millennium (not Sunday). Yeshua used the language of the Temple liturgy and the Mo’edim. I do not have all the answers but more than before.

    It was shocking to realize the Seven Churches aren’t those ancient congregations described in Ephesus, etc. They are here today. The ‘white washed (or sanctified) paganism of Jezebel that people refuse to repent of. The Nicolatians, those that separate the Priests, Pastors, etc. from the laity. And the laity that are willing followers rather than take responsibility and search for themselves if what they are being taught is truth. Only the group represented by Philadelphia have kept His word.

    Jewishencyclopedia.com has a tremendous article on Eschatology. Most don’t know that Judaism has an end time theology. John’s vision and much of the sayings of Yeshua and writings of Shaul (1 Thess. 4::13-5:9) speak of Jewish expectation in the language of the Fall Festivals. Well worth reading.

    Thank you Nehemia for all you do. You are truly a blessing.

  • Mark says:

    Nehemia’s best podcast ever! Just kidding. I’ve enjoyed many others but this one is a really exciting and interesting rediscovery. It was made so much better with the trio of perspective and interpretation. MORE, MORE, MORE!!!

  • MIles Teg says:

    Shabbat Shalom, Nehemia. Loved it. Although, I have questions regarding AJ’s interpretation of the Greek for ‘first day of the week’ in Acts….

    • Shabbat Shalom , regarding the passage in question : Acts 20:7 7 On the first day of the week……..the “Week” in this verse is “σαββατον sabbaton.” in the greek .Either he doesn’t know or are just turning his head to not see it.

    • A.J. Bernard says:

      I believe my comment was regarding John 20:1. The Greek phrase there is

      “Τῇ δὲ μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων”

  • Andrew says:

    My Bible correlates the “seven Spirits” of Revelation 1:4 with “And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him [1], the spirit of wisdom [2] and understanding [3], the spirit of counsel [4] and might [5], the spirit of knowledge [6] and of the fear of the LORD [7];” (Isaiah 11:2 KJV) 🙂

    • A.J. Bernard says:

      Yep. The question becomes this: Are those seven aspects of the Holy Spirit, or seven unique spirits?

      Thank you for your comment!

      • Andrew Pecaut says:

        I’m not certain, based on my elementary understanding of Hebrew, but each of these spirits appear to be attributive to the only proper noun provided, which is the LORD (Yehovah)?

  • Keren De Tornos says:

    nehemiah. Toda Aba! Awesome podcast filled with answers for my heart and mind. Now, I pray for patience, until PART TWO. There is a part two, yes?

    shalom.

    keren De Tornos

  • Rion Clark says:

    You rock Gordon.

  • Barbra Terry says:

    In Proverbs 5:4, the phrase “double-edged sword” also appears חרב פינות

  • P'alex says:

    That was beautiful.
    The double edged sword
    Hebrews 4:12
    Refers to God’s word having the power to do war against our enemies and ourselves.
    The will of God
    The will of the adversary
    The will of man — my will not aligned with God’s can be overcome by hearing the word of God which is the two edged sword.

  • Aron Brackeen says:

    Looking forward to the subsequent parts. The PDF tutorial is powerful. THANKS! Truly over the top…

    (Oh, consider how the English “lordly day” in Rev.1:10 is demonstrably referring to “The LORD’s Day” with “The Day of the LORD”, often used in the Prophets, and thus the nature of the book of Revelation.)

    • Aron Brackeen says:

      2nd listening: Even better (when not exhausted)! To A. J. and “T-Bone”, your inputs, efforts, and commentaries were blessed. To NG, great job on bringing it all together. For my planned, 3rd listening, I’ll take some serious notes on the printed PDF with time to study. TY!!!

      AB>

      • A.J. Bernard says:

        Thank you for your kind words, Aron! I too listen to most of Nehemia’s teachings multiple times. I learn so much from them!

  • N.Bishop says:

    Wow this was just amazing.

  • Barbara Jayne says:

    Loving this. It was hard to see the video winding to its end. Looking forward to the next posting.

  • Dave & Bonnie Kimble says:

    Thank you gentlemen for your giddy discussion; exactly how my wife, Bonnie, and I received it. Wonderful!!

  • There is no way someone in the first century is redefining a biblical term of “Lord’s day” to now be on the first day of the week when the only Lord’s day throughout the Tanak is the 7th day. Only someone looking backward and reading into the text would assume it is 1st day. I don’t think it matter when we meet or how often but the most horrendous thing about Sunday churches is the false teaching of lawlessness. Every single Sunday church that I have ever heard of or been a part of, teaches that the Torah is abolished thereby abolishing the Sabbath and the food laws. Why would anyone continue to attend any gathering where error is taught?

  • Every spoken language has vowels so no one invented the vowels.

  • marcy says:

    I think the guy probably meant that the aleph-tav is never translated, instead of not pronounced.

    • It is translated through syntax. It’s the difference between “In the beginning, Elohim created ET the heavens” and “In the beginning, it was Elohim that the heavens created” (without ET this is a valid translation!).

      • Bruce says:

        I am gonna have to follow up on this one. Is it that the Aleph Tav gives order to the Scriptue?

        • Bruce says:

          It looks like it sets order, and can be used with another letter to join together, such as and, him, them?

        • Rion Clark says:

          First use of ALEPH TAV was the forth word in Gen.1:1 Brashyt bra Alohim AT.
          In Ruth used 12 times the first 10 Ruths had no AT the last two had the AT showing being part of the family after being redeemed.

  • auntganny says:

    Oh my!!! I just started listening to this podcast, and I am beside myself with excitement and awe of Yehovah and what he is doing today! I have been yearning for someone to discover a Hebrew manuscript of Revelation, and was sure that it had to exist somewhere! You are blessing my soul with this ‘revelation’!

    YEHOVAH Elohim bless you! Appointed for such a time as this, you must surely be like Nehemiah of old who, with Ezra, was so instrumental in getting things back to the way of Yehovah again in Jerusalem after years in Babylon.

    May He lead and guide your research. I’m glad you are such a stickler for the study of the Words of God and not the traditions. I can trust that! In the end, the Words of God will be the only thing that really counts…especially when we stand before the Judge of all the earth. Thanks so much for all you are doing. I know the Spirit of God is resting upon you for a reason….
    P.S. You don’t have to post this…but just had to write.

    • auntganny says:

      Nehemiah, I wish that someone would re-translate this manuscript for us with the Strong’s number over the word so I can connect the word in Revelation to the Hebrew scriptures…like the interlinear does with the number over the Hebrew word, the Hebrew word, and the way it is pronounced underneath, and then the English translation underneath. But most of all, I just want to know the number for it, so I can find the same word in the OT and look at how it was used in the OT. Limping along a bit and can figure out some of it, but I am not always sure where there are prefixes or what they actually mean when they do show up. “And” seems simple, but not sure. But I just want to know how the same word is used in the Old Testament. Thanks so much.
      Also, I am so excited to see the actual names of YEHOVAH ELOHIM in Revelation. Can’t wait for someone to discover Revelation 22:12-13!
      In the Hebrew Translation of Matthew, the name for God was translated a bit differently (at least in the first chapters) and I don’t know why. And from what I could tell, there was NO word translated as Yehovah in the Matthew Hebrew translation. Now why would that be so?
      So now to find the whole manuscript of Revelation, and then after that, I am DYING for someone to find the book of JOHN!!!! “IN the beginning, there was “the WORD” and the Word was with God and the Word WAS GOD and the same was in the beginning with God….and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” How was all of this translated in Hebrew?! : )
      Thanks so much for sharing all of your research with us!

  • Adri Kruger says:

    That is interesting. Well done….I really enjoyed it.

  • Thank you nehemia for all your work. I was so excited about this podcast, unfortunately you have only the first chapter. Anyway… That Yehovah help us keep his law as Yohannan said 1Jo 3:4

    Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.

  • Laurie says:

    Wow! This is awesome. Thank you so much for reading and sharing these manuscripts! Truly the highlight of my days!

  • Marty Shrabel says:

    Wow, wow, wow! Thank you so much for the time spent in discovery, analysis, translation and recording the discussion so that we all can benefit and become closer to the One we have come to believe. Amein.

  • Janet says:

    I have always thought that Revelation would have been in Hebrew. Why would Jewish Yeshua, talk to a Jewish prophet in Greek? It makes no sense.

  • walter schwenk says:

    Nehemia; is there any reason why “Sh’dai” could not mean “which is enough”? Could not “El sh’dai” simply mean “the elohim of sufficiency”?

  • Joy Mathew says:

    My cup runs over . For a person who does not know Hebrew or Greek listening to you on the Hebrew Text of Revelation was great . This is helping me to understand the text as I read it in English .

    I was hoping that you would explain Revelation 1: 1 – the phrase ” to show his servants that which
    was necessary to be with wrath, ” ; the same in the King James as ” that which shortly must come to pass ” ; in the Orthodox Jewish Bible it is translated as ” MAH DI LEHEVE (“what will happen,” Dan 2:28f), the things which are destined to take place, and speedily; ” ; while in the HalleluYAH Scriptures it is translated as ” with speed ” .

    Anyway I thank YHVH and ha’Masiach for whatever he is revealing through people like you , Keith Johnson and Micheal Rood which is helping me in the spiritual walk gifted to me by YHVH in the spiritual desert of Hyderabad , India .

    May YHVH bless you and be with you at all times .

  • Danny says:

    Rev 1:5 (RVA) “…Jesucristo, el testigo fiel, el primogénito de los muertos…”
    Primogénito de los muertos = first born of the dead ones = the first one among the dead to resurrect.

  • Robert K says:

    That was Awesome in the truest sense of the word! I look forward, with great anticipation, to hearing Part Two of this most illuminating podcast.

    Many Thanks!

  • Leona says:

    I have been reading the Book of the Revelation recently, and wondering if it is a correct translation. What a timely, timely addition to my reading! No more wondering, thank you Nehemiah

  • Rocky says:

    Wow just wow, for now I have SO MANY questions I don’t know where to start.