Category Archives: logos

Last and First

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The words first and last are found together in many verses in the New Testament. The passage that started this study is 1 Corinthians 15: 45-48. Paul is explaining the resurrected body to the church in Chapter 15. He uses the body of Jesus as the example of how His earthy (dust) body was sown in the tomb and a spiritual body came out of it. Paul compared the “first Adam” to the “last Adam” and then changed terms and said the first man and second man (referring to Jesus). In this set of verses first is some form of protos. The word second is deuteros. The word last is eschatos. Sorry, those are English-to-Greek translations (Mounce).  

This first study led to a second one, and this last study provide some surprises. I will use Matthew as the reference book. These stories are also found in the other Gospels and the words and uses of them seem consistent among several major translations of the Bible.

Bad to Worse – These two stories are on different topics but the last to first concept is the same. In 12:45 Jesus is responding to a demand from the Pharisees for a miraculous sign. The final part of the teaching is about a demon that leaves a man and then returns with seven others. The man had it bad at first, but his last condition was worse. The second story has the Pharisees demanding a guard be posted by the tomb of Jesus (27:64). They argued that the first lie from Jesus would be worse than the last lie of the disciples. They said the lie was Him rising from the dead in three days. (No surprises here.)

Shall, First, Last – As a parent, coach, and teacher I have used the iconic saying “the first shall be last” many times in dealing with people. Jesus, the Master Teacher, surprised me by switching the order of the saying on the same day in two different circumstances to deliver two different meanings. This day of teaching occurred before Jesus started His victory parade into Jerusalem during Holy Week, He was on the east bank of the Jordan.

The rich young ruler was the object of the story in 19:30. He had money, and I am sure he was always allowed to be first in line wherever he went. He did not want to give up his money. The end of his part of the story was – the first shall be last and the last shall be first (those who gave up their money).

As Jesus expanded this teaching, He told the parable of a landowner hiring workers – Chapter 20, especially Verse 16. At the end of the day, the owner paid the last workers the same as he paid the first workers. Here the last workers are the object of the action, and they got what was promised them – the last shall be first, and the first last. (Attitude is part of the issue here.)

My surprise came in because of the switch in the order and the condition of whom He was talking about. The phrase still signals a change in position, but apparently, I need to think before slinging around who is first and last, why they are there, and whether they should be moving.

This is my first day writing on this topic, it will not be my last. The thoughts on a first day can be changed after studying, so these mat not be my last thoughts on the subject.

NASA vs MASSA

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I found these transliterations, nasa and massa, while reading/studying Isaiah (NIV, 1998 edition). The greatness of these words became such a burden to me, I had to be an oracle and sing their meanings. All of you Hebrew scholars, please lighten up as I have fun exploring these terms.

Massa, Strong’s H4853, has several ideas connected to it, but “a burden” is the major one. The KJV and other translations render the word “a burden”. The 1998 NIV says “oracle” and the 2011 NIV uses the word prophecy. That is why I found these two great words; Bible Gateway did not have enough oracles listed. They changed the translation, NIV does this frequently, and it really messes with search tools.

When it is used as “burden”, it means you are personally carrying the load. It also is used as a “weighty message” or a hard or dark saying. Isaiah 13:1 has massa and Isaiah “saw” it as actions against Babylon.

Okay, I thought it looked like masa, which is a corn mush used in cooking.

Nasa, Strong’s H5375, is the “parent word” for massa and it means burden. Strong’s says it is used in many different ways and it is. The definition that is given is very specific in that it is a burden carried for someone else; like the Messiah, Jesus, carrying our sin to the cross.

That is the term for the United States Space Agency, period. I truly believe God has a sense of humor.

Show some love to a translator. The job they do to bring an ancient language to modern man is astounding. There really is no dictionary the ancients left for your use. These men and women find the words in every passage and have to piece together meaning from the context the word is found in. Then they use modern words so it makes sense to us. That is why the Dead Sea Scrolls improved scholars’ understanding of the biblical text, they have more to work with and compare.

So, place yourself into the world of Isaiah. He saw a vision that was “dark” toward Babylon and it weighed him down, so he spoke it out as a prophecy.      

Now that the corny burden is lifted to the moon and beyond, I can continue studying Isaiah, and not be weighed down by massa and nasa.

Krypto in the Bible

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Krypto and its various forms are used in the Bible that was written in Greek (New Testament). This is a thought that makes translators work, hard. I am using the Mounce website as a reference. The simple transliteration is krypto, but it does take various forms and is used eighteen times. In the text we read it may be-hid/hide, hidden, secret, covered, or concealed. The Strong’s number is G 2928.  

Some of the verses that caught my attention are:

Matthew 13: 44 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. (KJV)

Matthew 25:25 And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. (KJV) This is from the Sermon on the Two Mounts.

On the lighter side, Superman’s dog is named Krypto. That should come from kryptonite and not something hidden.

The Bible and Science-Erg and Dyne

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I have been using the Mounce Interlinear to help in my studies. While studying the works of God I came across the words: ergon (Strong’s G2041) and energeo (Strong’s G1754). The science word I recognized is erg. In science, it is a unit of energy and is associated with work. The Greek words not only deal with work but doing work and some translations will also say power in some passages.

A dyne comes from the Greek word dúnamis (Strong’s G1411) and is power or force in the New Testament. Ergs and dynes come together in the formula for a joule. Our word dynamite is derived from dunamis.

A Word to Live by-Salvation

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Logos is a new category of study that is starting with the word salvation.  Since this is a Bible study blog you will need to be ready with your Word, a concordance, or at least a Bible study site like biblegateway.com.    

This post started by doing a search on the term “salvation”, where I went to the New Testament.  First, I noticed that the word salvation is not used in Matthew or Mark. (You may notice that number counts don’t match! Gateway does a verse count while a concordance does a word count. Throw in titles and modern word replacements, counts will vary between websites and concordances.)

You can focus on one verse, book, or writer and have a meaningful study.  I noticed in looking at the uses of salvation in the New Testament an interesting pattern.  In Luke 1: 69, 71, and 77, these verses are part of the prophecy of Zechariah about Jesus and John.  Luke 2:30 and 3:6 are “seeing” salvation.  Luke 19:9 and John 4:22 (only use) is Jesus talking to people about salvation – Zacchaeus, the hated tax collector, and the Samaritan woman at the well. 

Luke starts again in Acts 4:12 with salvation for mankind and his next three mentions (concordance please) have the Gentiles included in receiving salvation.  The Holy Spirit continues the inclusion of Gentiles in Romans 1:16 and 11:11. 

Romans 13:11 starts another facet of material that presents things and ideas associated with salvation.  Paul includes two different verses about salvation being our “helmets” – Ephesians 6:17 and 1 Thessalonians 5:8. Hebrews and Peter (1+2) include many verses about salvation.  The last verse about salvation is Revelations 19:1 where “salvation, glory, and power belong to God”.

Hebrews 2:10 I found interesting because it is about Jesus.  He is the pioneer of our salvation that was made perfect by what He suffered (most of that thought is from the NIV).  “Perfect” in the thinking of the Old Testament would be one who is complete.  That may cause a bump in our modern thoughts about the term perfect.

FYI – biblegateway.com has forty verses with salvation in the New Testament NIV.  I found the ordering of the word salvation in the Logos interesting because it makes a logical presentation on the topic starting in Luke and going to Revelations.