100 Prison Meditations: Cries of Truth from Behind the Iron Curtain (19 page)

Lesser Known Personalities of the Bible

Paul writes to the Romans, “Erastus, the treasurer of the city, greets you” (Romans 16:23). An inscription was found in excavations at Corinth, “Erastus, procurator, aedile, laid the pavement at his own expense.” According to archaeological evidence, the pavement is from the middle of the first century. The identity of name, location, and date make it likely that the subject is the same person. To receive a greeting from such a person, one who does not profit from his position to enrich himself, but, on the contrary, spends from his pocket for a public need, would be an honor indeed.

Gamaliel is the only New Testament name also celebrated by the Talmud, a book commonly opposed to Christianity. It is believed that Gamaliel’s father, Simeon, was the old man who took the baby Jesus in his arms and said the prayer, “Nunc dimittis” (Luke 2:25–35). His grandfather was the renowned Rabbi Hillel. Gamaliel was so honored that he is one of seven Jewish teachers to whom the name “Rabban” was given, a title also born by Jesus.

Unlike other Pharisees, he was not a bigot. It is said that he once bathed in Greece in a place where a statue of a heathen goddess stood. Reproached for this, he silenced his critics by saying that the bath was not built for the goddess, who does not have the habit of washing herself, but for men, the statue serving as ornament.

Gamaliel was Paul’s teacher of religion. He also undertook the defense of St. Peter when persecuted.

His attitude toward Christianity fluctuated. After a period of mild tolerance he became its passionate adversary. He composed a prayer against the Hebrew Christians which is still recited three times daily in Orthodox synagogues: “Let there be no hope to them that apostate from true religion, and let heretics, how many so ever may be, all perish as in a moment. And let the kingdom of pride be speedily rooted out and broken in our days. Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, who destroyest the wicked and bringest down the proud.”

Archaeologists, however, discovered that Gamaliel’s tomb bears a Christian inscription, suggesting that toward the end of his life he may have received Christ as his Savior.

Sources of the Bible

The Bible is not entirely a direct revelation from God. It contains quotations from numerous other books, some of which are known.

Jude quotes two apocryphal books in his epistle. The story told in verse 9 that the archangel Michael contended with the devil about the body of Moses comes from the book
Assumption of Moses
. The saying in verse 14, “The Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment on all,” is a quote from the book of Enoch.

In Acts 17:28, St. Paul quotes the Greek poet Eratus: “Some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’” Since Eratus like Paul, was a native of Cilicia, it was natural that Paul be familiar with his writings. Eratus was renowned for his astronomical poems, and Ovid declared that his reputation would endure as long as the sun and moon. Eratus’ only lasting reputation, however, is that Paul quoted a phrase from one of his poems: “Thou who amid the immortals are throned the highest in glory, Giver and Lord of life, who by law disposes of all things; Known by many a name, yet the almighty forever; Hail, O Zeus, for to thee should each mortal voice be uplifted. Offspring are we too of thine, we and all that is mortal around us.”

How many preachers today would dare quote the Book of Mormon or the Koran as freely as Paul quotes this ode to the heathen deity Zeus, a poem which proclaims that not only men but all that is mortal, including animals and plants, are God’s offspring?

Paul also quotes three other Greek poets. From Aratus he takes the words, “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). The saying, “Evil company corrupts good habits” (1 Corinthians 15:33) is a line from “Thais,” a comedy of Menander, and could well have become a proverb.

“Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons” (Titus 1:12) is from Epimenides of Crete (8th century b.c.), whose sayings were considered prophetic. Plato called Epimenides a divinely inspired man and Plutarch called him a man dear to God, but his harsh judgment against a whole nation certainly does him no honor.

Judgmental generalizations about a people should be avoided, but they lose their sharpness if they come from a son of that nation. The Jewish prophets spoke harshly about the Jews, and Luther about the Germans. Their intentions were beneficent.

Even great artists can sometimes write on a low intellectual level. It is correct to show respect toward poets and men of letters not only when they are at their peak, but even when they fail, as Paul shows Epimenides in this instance.

These are but a few examples of the sources referenced by the authors of Scripture.

The Phoenicians

Most Christians are aware of their debt to the Jews in matters of knowledge of God. We also owe much to another biblical nation, the Phoenicians. They were among the Canaanites, and are also called in the Bible by the names of their cities, Sidonians or Tyrians. The Greeks gave them the name Phoenicians. Jesus speaks of them favorably as compared with the sinfulness predominant in Jewish cities of the time (Matthew 11:21).

The Phoenicians were the first people to introduce an alphabet as we now know it, with 22 symbols for different sounds (as in the Hebrew, they had no letters for vowels). This was a great advance over the hieroglyphs of the Egyptians or the cuneiform characters of Mesopotamia. When you read your Bible, remember that we learned our alphabet from the Phoenicians.

The word for our holy book, “Bible,” is a Phoenician word. These people had a town named Byblos which was renowned for its trade in papyrus and for its use of script. Eventually the idea “book” became identified with the name of the town. When rabbis translated the Hebrew writings into Greek for the first time, they gave the book the name “Bible.”

The Hebrews had received exact indications from God about building a sanctuary to Him, but they did not know how to construct such huge edifices. They learned it from the Phoenicians, from Hiram, King of Tyre (1 Kings 5).

The Lebanese of today are the successors of the Phoenicians. Remembering in love the heritage we received from the Jews, let us remember in love this people also.

The Need for Theological Clashes

Paul quarreled with Peter and Barnabas in matters involving doctrine and church leadership. He taught us to reject heretics (Titus 3:10). The apostle John likewise advises us not to receive into our house anyone who brings a false doctrine (2 John 10).

In later ages the difference between Christian truth and heresy became blurred. At Interlaken, Switzerland, two rivers merge, one thick with salt and mud and the other pure. For a time they run in the new bed without mingling, as if there were a border between them. But finally they merge. The mud triumphs, invading everything.

It is difficult to distinguish water from mud, but this filtration must be made. Truth alone frees us. Theological error only compounds bondage. Debates and clashes on religious issues were not avoided in the time of the apostles and they cannot be avoided now.

Immediately after the Reformation, the newly founded Protestant church was torn by four main theological quarrels:

1. The fight against antinomians led by Agricola. Nomos is the Greek word for law. The antinomians asserted that law should be the business only of magistrates, and should play no role in religion. Luther opposed them, saying that law comes from God and must be respected under the new covenant.
   
2. Schwenkfeld and Osiander did not believe that Christ’s righteousness can be ascribed to us. They believed that in order to be justified before God, we must have an essential righteousness of our own, and that Christ cannot manifest Himself fully in us because of our inherent sinfulness. Luther taught to rely totally on Christ for our salvation.
   
3. Professors Major and Amsdorf went so far in denying any human merit in salvation that they declared good deeds as harmful for those who wish to obtain eternal life. Luther believed that good deeds are the natural fruits of faith.
   
4. The great synergetic quarrel was started by Melanchthon who granted the human will a part in our salvation. Our will for the good, he said, is not dead, but only sick, and can still cooperate with the Holy Spirit. In opposition to him Flavius believed that fallen man can only oppose divine endeavor, and God forces us to be saved. Luther kept the golden middle with his doctrine that our will plays no active role in salvation, but can participate by suffering, receiving, and accepting it.
   

We have to endure theology and pass beyond it to love our brethren. Theology can only be endured. It is repugnant to make the Word of God a matter of debate, most often of low quality. But there are many repugnant things a man cannot avoid. We have to orientate ourselves among the different tendencies in religious thought. If we are unable to recognize heresy, neither will we be able to discern the truth.

We therefore have to accept the strife among believers both in the past and those today, but in this, as in all other matters, right measure is the most important Christian value.

The Holiness of Sex

In the modern world the sexual organs are commonly the objects of greedy desire, obscenity, and dirty jokes. In biblical times the sexual organ was held in such honor that oaths were given on it, as today some people would swear on the Bible or on the crucifix. “Abraham said to the oldest servant…Please, put your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear” (Genesis 24:2,3).

The usual biblical name for the male organ is “vessel,” and for the female,
boshet
, or “shame,” in the sense that it is shameful to speak about it in a degrading manner.

These are the organs of procreation. Understand clearly the meaning of this word. We
pro-create
. We create in behalf of God. When God wishes another human being, He assigns a male and female the high calling of creating it. Among the people of God, sexual union is considered sacred.

The standard of social justice in the Bible was high, with the result that there was no occasion for sexual impurity in Israel. Today rich men contribute to sexual immorality not only by overt sexual wrongs, but by driving thousands of girls into prostitution by paying unjust wages.

The New Testament begins by recording a long series of sexual acts: “Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob,” and so on (Matthew 1:2). Some of these unions were illegitimate, but what distinguished them all from ordinary sexual intercourse was the aim pursued in them. Abraham begot Isaac.

Modern people mate without giving any thought to the personality which might result. But Abraham and Sarah’s purpose was to bring into life a child of a certain character who would further bear the seed of the Messiah to come.

Leah, when she was past the age of bearing, gave her handmaid to her husband that the holy seed of Jacob should not be lost. Later she herself gave birth to a son, saying, “God has given me my hire, because I have given my maid to my husband” (Genesis 30:9–18).

Let us also treat sexuality with deep respect; let us procreate with reverence and for the purpose of bringing new servants of God into the world.

This does not mean, however, that sexual union should not be pleasurable. Dietrich Bonhoeffer expressed it well when he wrote, “To long for the transcendent when you are in your wife’s arms is, to put it mildly, a lack of taste, and it is certainly not what God expects of us. We ought to find God and love Him in the blessings He sends us. If He pleases to grant us some overwhelming earthly bliss, we ought not to try to be more religious than God Himself.”

Unusual Letters in the Bible

The original manuscripts of the Bible do not have upper- and lowercase letters; all letters are of equal size. However, there are some exceptions in Hebrew which have nothing in common with English orthographic rules prescribing the use of capital letters for God, proper names, or the names of countries. In the German language,
all
substantives begin with a capital letter.

In the Hebrew Old Testament, only in some 35 places are letters of unusual size used, either larger, smaller, or above the line, to alert the reader to special paragraphs that were considered very important. For example, in Ruth 3:13, the word
lini
, which means tarry, is written with a larger “L” because it is very necessary for believers to learn to tarry. Boaz said to Ruth at midnight, “
Tarry
this night, and it shall be in the morning…” (KJV). In other words, do not be in a hurry. Do not try to achieve things under adverse circumstances. Tarry. A beautiful morning will come; Boaz will marry Ruth; David and Jesus will both be descendants of this marriage. “Tarry” is written here with the only larger “L” in the Bible.

Jesus believed not in the verbal but the literal accuracy of Scripture. He said, “One jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law” (Matthew 5:18). Historic events since then have proved that He was right.

St. Athanasius fought against the heretic Arius for an “i.” Arius said that Christ is
homoiusios
, of similar substance with the Father. Athanasius said that He is
homousios
, of the same substance. Had Arius’ “i” been accepted, the whole Church would have gone astray.

Believe in every letter of Scripture, even the size. It is no accident that the Communists oblige people to write “God” with a small “g,” and that Solzhenitsyn refused to have his book published if the word were not printed with a capital “G.”