Category Archives: Study Helps

A Look at the Biblical Calendar

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A Look at the Biblical Calendar

In Mark 14: 5 some disciples were complaining about Jesus being anointed with a “bottle” of pure nard.  The complaint was it could be sold for a year’s wage or three hundred denarii.  According to Matthew 20, a denarius was a day’s wage.  The year in the Bible was twelve months or lunar cycles (29 ½ days). (Some years had thirteen months to make up the eleven-day difference and that would keep the season in line with the calendar.)  So why only 300 denarii?

They were to rest on the Sabbath, so there are forty-eight days (four weeks times 12 months).  For the missing days, we need to look to the feast days, I will use Leviticus 23.  These had a “no work” or “no regular work” day associated with them, which means they would not be paid on these days.

  • Unleavened Bread – one at the beginning and the end
  • Pentecost – one day
  • Feast of Trumpets – one day
  • Day of Atonement – one day
  • Feast of Tabernacles – one at the beginning and the end
  • This is seven no work days.

That totals to 299 days – I guess we can round off one day or it is more than a year’s worth of wages.

Jesus Walks on the Water

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While reading the Gospel of Mark I got to the phrase in 6:48  where Jesus was walking on water it says, “He was about to pass them by.”  That phrase bothered me as it does not “fit” the mental image of Jesus and what I thought He would/should do.  More on that phrase later because I am starting with Mark and his version of the Gospel and the Sea of Galilee.

In the Holman Study Bible the introduction to Mark makes the point that most all of the Gospel of Mark happens around the Sea of Galilee.  It seems that Jesus would go to the “other side” to get away from a crowd or to get rest and usually the “other side” Galilee - Sunrise - Sept. 09, 2012offered its own version of busy.  If you read much about the New Testament Mark’s Gospel was the first gospel to be written.  Mark and Matthew are structured and worded the same and some scholars think both writers used another source that has been labeled Q for their inspiration.  Peter is frequently mentioned as helping Mark with the details and some even say that Mark just wrote Peter’s gospel and it was mentioned in some literature that Matthew just copied Mark’s writing while adding his own details.

The Sea of Galilee is a harp-shaped lake that is 13 miles by 7miles and is roughly 150 to 200 feet deep.  The mountains that surround the lake run east-west an can create extreme winds and waves (bibleplaces.com).  Waves in the middle of a lake are not usually breakers like you see along the shore but given the size of the boats that they had a strong wind and 3 or 4 foot waves would have been a serious problem.  It is feasible that on a clear night from up on a mountain that Jesus could have seen the boat since they were only three to four miles out from the shore.

Joyce Meyer made an observation about the two seas in Israel that are connected to the same river.  The Sea of Galilee has water that comes in and goes out while the Dead Sea only has in coming water and no channel for any to leave.  The point was to check your life and see how you are using the talents and gifts you have.

Story Comparison

Mark, Matthew, and John are the three gospels that have the story of Jesus’ walk on the water.  The basic story is the same but there are variations in the accounts.  I think each writer recorded what affected him the most.  To say that for Matthew and John is no big deal because they should have been on the boat but I would like to make the case that Mark may also have been on the boat that night.  In fact I would like to think that Mark was an eye witness to every thing in his gospel and that is why it is centered around Galilee and the Sea, he was allowed to go with Peter, Andrew, James, and John when they were in the “neighborhood.”  I say that because he was probably their nephew – see Acts 12:12.  So the phrase “He was about to pass them by” would be something a young teenager might think instead of a man who was about to try water walking (Peter).

This story really starts with Jesus sending out the Twelve to do ministry.  When they came back Jesus knew they would need time to reflect and rest so He got them into the boat and set off for some quite time.  But since the Sea of Galilee is only seven miles wide the crowd that followed them would have been able to see the sail on the boat from shore (Mark 6:32).  The feeding of the 5000 men, which means it was probably a larger crowd than that, is recorded in three Gospels.  Jesus felt they needed to feed them and wanted the “successful” ministers to continue using the anointing they had just been walking in.  (I will add to the story again and say that the five loaves and two fish were Mark’s lunch that had been packed by a doting mother or aunt; what an impact on the second generation of leadership.  No, that cannot be proved but it makes a nice twist to the story.)

In John the feeding of the 5000 is considered one of the Seven Miracles that confirmed Jesus as Messiah and it was probably the most public one as far as people who saw it firsthand.  After this miracle Jesus had concerns that the crowd may try forcing Him to be king (John 6: 14,15).  Jesus walking on the water is also considered one of the Seven Miracles and it would have been the most private of those miracles and was only intended for the disciples in the boat to witness.  This story does not end once Jesus is in the boat; each of the three Gospels has a slightly different version to finish the story.  They all end up on the other side but it seems they are different places.  Mark and Matthew put them at Gennesaret while John ends the story in a synagogue at Capernaum (Jn. 6:59).  The people at Gennesaret wanted healing, the crowd that was fed wanted more bread and a better sign (miracle) than feeding them.  I think the crowd is why Jesus got the Disciples in the boat he did not want them caught up in the hysteria about a physical kingdom. (see the Problem with the Miraculous)

The word “immediately” jumped out of the stories while I was studying this out (in the NIV).  There really are four uses of the word as Mark and Matthew duplicate two – Jesus getting them in the boat and Him speaking to them while He was on the water.  The other two are in Matthew and John – Matthew, Jesus immediately grabs Peter and in John the boat was immediately at the shore.  The reference in John is the only mention of this and in it self would be a great miracle.  For some reason I really had to separate “immediately” from the thought of “suddenly” in this story.  “Suddenly” would be a surprise while “immediately” shows thought with a quick action.

A Sinking Peter

Peter was possibly older than most of the other disciples and certainly could run a business so him being a “leader” within the group may have come naturally.  So if he had continued to walk on the water, instead of sinking, my guess is that everyone on the boat that night would have been out walking on the water.  Faith is contagious and if Peter could do it all of them would have braved it up and asked but since fear is also contagious when he sunk no one else dared to ask!

Why a Ghost

Mark and Matthew both use the term for ghost when describing how the disciples saw Jesus as He was walking. That word phantasma (Strong’s 5326) is only used twice in the New Testament, here in this story.  You have to wonder why a ghost and not an angel?  They had just been living in the miraculous on their mission trip and had just seen a great miracle with the loaves and fish.  Did they slip back to superstitions because of the storm and being tired?  Why not an angel coming to help them?  Maybe this was a problem that Jesus had to work out of them and get them to start thinking Heavenly minded. Pastor Joel Osteen noted in a sermon how they were used to seeing Jesus in the day walking on dry land but could not recognize Him in a storm at night walking on water.  I just wonder if Jesus was in a “transformed” state allowing Him to walk on the water so He may have actually been shining while He came to them.

Walk on By

Back to the phrase that started this study, “He was about to pass them by.”  Even if this was a boy’s impression it was recorded but with no explanation as to why.  We know Jesus saw them having trouble and purposely walked to them.  He did not have to go that close if He really just intended to meet them on the other side.  So why would He get close but not that close to His men as they were having troubles?  I have no clue!  Maybe He wanted them to call out or it could have been a lesson in believing for the miraculous.  How about He wanted them all to get out and follow Him on the water.  Since it was just for the disciples it may have just been a display of power so they would shift their thinking back to “God matters” instead of physical kingdoms.

http://www.bibleplaces.com/seagalilee.htm

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/geo/Galilee.html

The picture is courtesy of  http://ferrelljenkins.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/galilee_sunrise_fjenkins090712_301t.jpg  If you like photos of the Holy Land and other places that connect with the Christian/Bible story you need to see his blog.

The Birth of a New Adam

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Why do a post about Adam during Christmas?  The first week of Advent was to reflect on the Old Testament shadows and prophecies of Jesus and since Adam was “a pattern of the one to come” (Romans 5:14) my reading went to Genesis, Isaiah, and several other places.  Most references to Adam outside of Genesis are family tree notations like 1 Chronicles 1:1, Luke 3:38, or Jude 1:14.  1Corinthians, 1Timothy, and Romans actually do some of the explaining of the “pattern” so I am comparing the first Adam and the second Adam (Jesus).

Adam 1

Adam 2

Other comparisons that are interesting: Adam sewed fig leaves together; Jesus cursed a fig tree before His crucifixion.  Eve came from Adam and the Bride is found in Jesus.

Notable things in Adam’s life – He was the first to operated on, first to make clothes, first to blame some else for his mistake, named all the animals in the Garden, first gardener, and the first to bury a child.

A word about Eve; evolutionists have come to the conclusion that there must have been an “Eve” who birthed all of mankind.  I saw a program where they spent forty minutes stating why there had to be one (Eve) and twenty minutes denying the concept.  The problem here is dual evolving of human DNA is unbelievable and I am sure that mathematically it has to be impossible.

In Hebrews, the first chapter, Jesus is clearly shown as “The Son.”  Several quotes from the Old Testament such as “You are my Son today I have become your Father” from Psalm 2:7, other verses that are mentioned at the beginning of Hebrews are     2 Samuel 7:14, and Psalm 45:6,7.   Several other verses that tell of things to come are Psalm 110:1 and Isaiah 8:17 where everything is put under His feet showing Lordship of all things.

The word “Adam” comes from a word that means, “to show blood”, “be flushed, or to turn rosy or ruddy.”  This possibly referred to his color. This leads to a question I just did not understand, “Why did God “hate” Esau (Edom)?”  He was a type of Adam (the sinner-man) being the firstborn and he was “red.”

Since Jesus was a second Adam, if we are found “in Him” we are a completely new and different race of people.

Putting On or Spandex Tight

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Have you ever thought about putting on clothing as “sinking into a garment” or that you wrap or encircle yourself in your clothes?  Those are the visuals Paul is telling us to do when we put on the “armor of God” and important other things in the rome_soldierEpistles.

If you have ever sunk into something, other than water, that picture presented by the Greek word enduo (#1746, Strong’s) becomes very vivid.  As a boy I played in an abandoned sand quarry where the pits filled with silt/mud.  We tried to run across them and found ourselves waist deep in mud standing on a sandy bottom.  The mud wrapped around us as we sunk, and you could barely move.  It conformed to your body and held tight even when you did get free.  That is what I thought of as I read the definitions for enduo.  Now imagine all of those New Testament references in the graphic and that is how tight Jesus, or the armor of God, and all of those other things are to be attached to us.  Imagine having compassion and kindness Spandex tight so that they it could not be distinguished from you.

Saint Paul in Ephesians 6:10 – 17 uses two different words for what we are to do with the armor, in verse 13 the Greek word is analambano (#353, Strong’s) and enduo in verse 11.  So, Paul tells us to sink into the armor and then he tells us to “receive” the individual parts like the belt, shoes, and shield.  The Strong’s Concordance uses Mark 16:19 as an example for receiving; this is where Jesus was received into Heaven.  Even though it is not stated I have to think that Jesus was welcomed (received) with joy, excitement, and a celebration and that the Father purposely took Jesus to Himself.  So, when Paul teaches us about the armor in Ephesians, he wants to purposely receive it and sink into it so completely that it surrounds us.

Where did Paul get such an idea as to equate salvation as a helmet or righteousness as a chest protector?  As I have stated in another post called (God’s Will Has Made Your Will) Paul read them in Isaiah 59:17 where he is describing what the Lord put on when there was no justice and no one intervening.

Example of Things We Are to Put On

Examples of Putting On

The verses are from:

New International Version (NIV)

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide

Clipart from: http://rome.phillipmartin.info/rome_soldier.htm 

The Number Fourteen in the Bible

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The significance of the number fourteen in the Bible is very understated if you are just 14looking in a concordance, as there are not a lot of instances of it mentioned.  Many of them are associated with one very important day but fourteen and its symbolism goes very deep and starts with how it is written in Hebrew. Each of the twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet represents a number.  The first nine letters are the ones for single digit numbers and the others take on higher numerical values.  An acrostic psalm is one that each verse/section starts with a letter of the alphabet so they either have twenty-two verses like Psalm 25 and 34 or twenty-two sections.  Psalm 119, which is acrostic, is divided into twenty-two sections of eight verses.  (Please see my blog for different way to read Psalm 119.)

The fourteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet is Nun, like Joshua, and is pronounced “noon”; in the counting system it represents the number fifty.  The meanings and types and shadows that are associated with Nun really are a great study in itself so I will encourage you to look deeper but here are my gleanings from the literature.  Nun equals the word David so it is immediately associated with the Messiah. (See more on fourteen in the Book of Matthew and the Christmas story.)  For Christians it goes deeper than that since it also means “fish” in Aramaic, which leads to the symbol of the fish or ichthus.  The thirteenth letter in Hebrew is Mem, which represents water that is needed for fish.  Nun is a shared letter with several other languages so in the literature you will see that it also represents a snake/eel and seeds.  The snake that Moses made in the wilderness, Nehushtan, was a shadow of Jesus and He referred to Himself as a “seed of wheat” that had to “fall to the ground and die.”  Nun is used to portray life and faithfulness so you can see it is a very symbolic letter.

There are two different Nuns, one is standing and the other is kneeling.  They can also be written with “crowns.” (Please see the website Hebrew4Christians listed below.)  When they are combined to make the word Nun they represent the righteous one (who is upright) and faithful one (who is bent) or love and fear.

fn_bluei                                                                          n_bluei

“image copyright Bitsela, used courtesy of free-bitsela.com”

Numerically, Nun is fifty or Pentecost, which leads to what I would like to propose the number 14 means in Scripture – the new thing actually starting.  Pentecost was the beginning of the Church of Jesus and the new anointing of the Holy Spirit.  Just as 13 was signaling the start so 14 is the start.  Remember Mem is before Nun in the alphabet. Just as Joshua son of Nun “started” the Promise Land or David started the family tree of Jesus things associated with 14 show things starting.  My groupings below are just a product of my need to sort things but hopefully, they will help.

Fourteen

  • Exodus 12:6 – The 14th day of the month was the start of Passover or when Israel as a nation was started.  Most references to 14 in the Bible are about a Passover that was being celebrated.
  • Esther 9:15 – The day of Purim was the 14th day of the month; this is when the Jews were allowed to kill their enemies.  This started a new period of freedom for them.
  • Ezekiel 40 – Fourteen years after Jerusalem was destroyed Ezekiel had the visionKing's timeline the end of the New Temple.  In verse one, the reference to 25 years is how long Ezekiel was in exile. (Please see the timeline at Jeremiah 52.)  One way to look at the 70 years of Exile is 14 x 5 = 70.
  • Acts 27:27 – It was the 14th day of being in the storm when Paul got the crew to eat so they could start “new” on the island.
  • Matthew 1:17 – Matthew used fourteen because David translated into numbers equals fourteen.  (See Jesus’ Generations in Matthew)

7 + 7 = 14

  • Genesis 8:9 -12 – Noah sent the dove out twice and waited a total of 14 days.  That showed that the earth had dried and started growing again.
  • 1 Kings 8:65 – Solomon and the people had 14 days of partying for the new Temple.
  • 2 Chronicles 30:15 – Hezekiah and the people had 14 days of partying for Passover. Which had not been celebrated in a long time so it was a sort of new beginnings.

12 + 2 = 14

  • Ezra 3: 1+8 – Zerubbabel and the people had been back in Jerusalem a year and in the second month of the second year they started to build the Second Temple, 12 months + 2 months = 14 months.  In the 7th month of the first year, they built the altar and started sacrificing burnt offerings so it could be a 7+7.

Other 14’s (You may need to work with me here.)

  • Genesis 31:41 – Jacob worked 14 years for his wives and then started working for his family.
  • Book of Joshua – The tribe of Benjamin and a “clan” of Judah got 14 towns each to start a new life in the Promise Land.
  • 2 Kings 18:13 – Hezekiah and Jerusalem were attacked in his 14th year as king, and he got the boil with the death sentence (20:1).  But he got a new lease on life and 15 more years (2 Kings 20:6).
  • 1 Chronicles 25:5 – Heman had 14 sons through the promise of God so he had a new reason to praise God.

“Pushing it” 14’s

  • Genesis 14 – King of Sodom rebels in his 14th year and Abraham rescues Lot.  In verse 22 is where Abraham starts to really acknowledge God, up until now God was “doing for” Abraham.
  • Exodus 14 – Moses and the people were directed back to the Red Sea so they could actually start out of Egypt; until now they were just wandering around inside of Egypt.
  • No, I did not check all Chapter 14’s in the Bible so who knows what gems of knowledge are waiting to be found.  Yes, I did check all the 13th chapters when I studied the number 13.

Acrostic Psalms

A quick look at the “14th verses” of some of the acrostic Psalms. (This is not all of the acrostic psalms.)  These may not show a “starting” I just like the scripture.

  • Ps 25: 14 The Lord confides in those who fear Him; He makes His covenant known to them.
  • Ps. 34: 14 Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
  • Ps.37: 25 – 27 Verse 27 is similar to Ps 34:14 Turn from evil and do good; then you will dwell in the land forever.
  • Ps.145:14 The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.
  • Ps 119: 105 Your word is a lamp to my and a light for my path.

The 14’s after the 13’s

Remember Joseph after 13 years of slavery/prison was the leader of the country in the 14th year and several others that I listed in the post on The Number Thirteen in the Bible.  I hope this study has shown you that biblically fourteen is important and that the significance of fourteen is alive and well in your life and that “new things” are starting in your life now.  A study of the number fifteen is available at Cleaning Up to Celebrate. A study on sixteen in the Bible is at Sixteen In The Bible.

http://bethaderech.com/learning-hebrew-the-letter-nun/

http://hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_One/Aleph-Bet/Nun/nun.html

The Nun graphics came from http://free-bitsela.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=897&g2_page=6