An Irridescent Bubble of Oil Rises in a Lake of Bitumen
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I was reading an article on the Dead Sea Scrolls recently when a phrase leaped off the page at me…while the heavily salinated sea lacked fish, it provided salt and bitumen… Pieces of a puzzle clicked together in my mind. Suddenly, things I had only speculated about made sense. Come back with me to the beginning and we’ll reconstruct this puzzle piece by piece.
King Herod the Great had many sources of wealth. And with a lifestyle like his, he needed them all. Of course he taxed his subjects to death; that’s what Kings do. But he also had a number of other, shall we say, investments that generated significant revenue. One of these was a monopoly he shared with Cleopatra on the Mediterranean bitumen trade.
The Egyptians used bitumen in their mummification process. In fact. the word from which mummy is derived mūmiyyahmeans bitumen in Arabic. The black, oily, viscous material known as bitumen and mentioned in the article I was reading is also called tar…or asphalt. The La Brea Tar Pits in California is one place where a smelly oily bitumen lake can be, um, enjoyed firsthand.
No, they didn’t pave their roads with it like we do. They did, however, use this naturally occurring organic product as a sealant for their roofs and boats. Genesis 2:3 “But when she could hide him (Moses) no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar…” Bitumen was also used as an adhesive, mortar, and an ingredient in incense.
Bitumenous Mud Being Applied as a Mudpack at a Modern Dead Sea Spa
Herod the Great ruled over the territory surrounding the Dead Sea. From time to time large quantities of bitumen rise to the surface from the bottom of this Lake/Sea. Chunks of the stuff can also found along its shores. This is referenced in Genesis 14:10 “Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits…” Consequently, the ancients called the Dead Sea Lake Asphaltitis, or the Lake of Asphalt.
Meanwhile, Cleopatra reigned in neighboring Egypt. How convenient. Herod controlled the product and Cleopatra controlled the primary market. It was a financial marriage made in…well, lets not speculate on that. By forming a monopoly they could both get rich, which is exactly what they did until Cleopatra became romantically entangled with Mark Antony. This led to their war with Octavian (later known as Caesar Augustus), who defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra. The defeat resulted in their suicide.
So, as I have always suspected, Lake Asphaltitis was not only aptly named, but the source of Herod’s bitumen and a significant contributor to his wealth. This leads us to this final, and I believe, most interesting conclusion. King Herod the Great turns out to have been the world’s first great oil tycoon, not that Johnny come lately Rockefeller guy.
Several months ago I published a review of Carsten Peter Thiede’s bestselling book, Eyewitness to Jesus. Today we look at another of his books, The Dead Sea Scrolls. The book is subtitled And the Jewish Origins of Christianity. Clearly Mr. Thiede is not one to shrink from controversy.
Carsten Thiede is first and foremost a papyrologist. In this book he details how he utilized his pioneering methods of restoring ancient scrolls to study and interpret the Essene library found at Qumran in 1947. Thiede begins with the basics. The scrolls were written by an ancient sect of Judaism known as the Essenes. The scrolls were written in Hebrew and Aramaic…the language of Jesus. And these scrolls were known to other ancient writers such as Origen and other early Christian theologians until at least the Third Century. In so doing he verifies what many have long believed: early Christianity, The Way as it came to be called, was essentially a Jewish movement, not a fundamentally new religion.
That such a conclusion should be deemed controversial indicates how modern Christians have lost touch with their roots. Anyone examining the origins of Christianity is quickly led to its relationship to Judaism. Jesus and all of the original disciples were, after all, Jewish. The way they thought and worshipped, their sense of the sacred, of feast and festivals, of fasting, praying, their rites and rituals, all were part and parcel of their Jewish roots. And so, when the two religions began their bitter separation, is it surprising that the dowry which Christianity took away from the relationship would be Judaic in nature?
Interestingly, Thiede was able to identify scroll fragments from Mark’s Gospel and Paul’s first letter to Timothy among the Dead Sea Scrolls. What does this mean, and what does it say about the settlement at Secacah…present day Qumran? First, and foremost, this amazing discovery indicates these documents must have been written before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. It also suggests that the Essene community apparently viewed the early Christians as fellow Jews, perhaps members of a new sect, and were eager to examine their provocative ideas about the true Messiah.
I originally purchased this book as background research for my Seeds of Christianity™ Series. Though startling in its conclusions, the book is very readable, well illustrated, and as interesting as any novel. Mr. Thiede explains the technical aspects of papyrology in understandable terms, making the book assessable to the non-scientist. I highly recommend it. You will be amazed at how much information he can pull from a few centimeters of ancient parchment. Product Details: TradePaperback: 256 Pages Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan Language: English ISBN: 978-1-40396143-3
Painting of Christ Blessing the Family of Czar Alexander III
Hello My Friend and Welcome.
Four days ago I put up a post about togas and how they were misused in various works of art depicting Jesus and his disciples. If you missed it, here’s a link. I used the picture of Jesus above to illustrate the post ignoring the fact that he was depicted with long, flowing hair. I chose the picture based on the toga he was wearing and completely overlooked his hair. After all, aren’t we all accustomed to seeing Jesus with shoulder length hair?
Well, it didn’t remain overlooked for long. Donna sent an interesting question asking, “Did Jesus really have long hair?” Ginger extended the discussion by adding another. She wrote, “…how did they cut their hair back then…did they have scissors or just knives to cut it with?”
A Well-Worn Pair of Shears
Let’s address the second question first. They didn’t have scissors, if by scissors you mean the familar two- piece device joined by a screw. They did, however, have shears. They’re still used to shear sheep. Clearly, one blade moves across the other just as it does with a scissors, making them a precursor to our modern tool. I’ve watched them being used to shear sheep and will confess that I don’t understand exactly how to make them work. God forbid I should ever be forced to actually operate them.
The word scissors, by the way, derives from the Latin word cisoria, meaning a cutting instrument. I would guess that a variety of shears existed in the First Century, coarse ones for shearing sheep, and they sheared a lot of sheep because their clothes were mostly wool, and finer ones for trimming hair, etc. To bolster my case, I offer the photo below of an item in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s possession.
A Set of Bronze Egyptian Shears from the Third Century BC
These Egyptian bronze shears from the Third Century BC are a unique object of art. Although their decoration is characteristic of the Nile culture, they show a strong Greek influence. These shears illustrate the high degree of craftsmanship which developed in the period following Alexander’s conquest of Egypt. Decorative male and female figures, which complement each other on opposing blades, are formed of solid pieces of metal inlaid into the blades of the bronze shears.
Okay, that was easy enough; now we move on to the first, and more difficult, question: Did Jesus have long hair?
I did a little internet research and found a wide range of opinions. There were occasional references to Josephus and Eusebius, but when I checked them out I couldn’t find any useful information in either source. Next, I turned to Alfred Edersheim’s books. A converted Jew, Edersheim wrote extensively in the late 1800’s about Jewish life in ancient times. Nothing there either. I also scanned Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus by the German author, Joachim Jeremias, and came up empty again.
Several sites insisted that Jesus had to have short hair because the Romans and the Greeks did. Just take a look at their statues, they said. This train of thought ignores the fact that the Maccabean Rebellion in 167 BC was a response to the Hellenizing influence of the Seleucid Empire. They didn’t want to be like the Greeks. First Century Judaic society was also dominated by the Pharisees. Their strict adherence to the laws of the Torah and zeal for a regulated society would have led them to resist the prevailing cultural norms rather than copying them. Judea was known as a particularly difficult region to govern because its people were so unbending and noncompliant.
There were also references to the Nazarite movement which, among its precepts, prohibited the cutting of the hair or consuming alcoholic beverages. I found people confusing Nazarite and Nazerean — someone from Nazareth — and they therefore assumed Jesus would have had long hair. John the Baptist is often believed to have been a Nazarite, but Jesus clearly never took the Nazarite vow.
Another surprising insight came to me from the movie Fiddler on the Roof. It depicts Russian Jews living in a society divorced from that of their neighbors. The Jews wear distinctive clothing, the men have beards and their gentile neighbors don’t. Some dress in black coats and have distinctive hair styles similar to modern Hassidic Jews. Again, we see the Jews stubbornly resisting the dominant cultural influences.
But in the end, none of these provided the convincing evidence I was searching for. For this I turned to Jesus himself…or at least the imprint his body left on his burial cloth. About 25 years ago I read a book written by a physician who had analyzed the Shroud of Turin. I tried to find it, but couldn’t. I recall him mentioning that the person on the shroud had his hair braided in the back, which was the style at that time. I was unable to find a clear enough image of the back portion of the shroud to verify this. I did, however, find two pieces of evidence.
The first comes in the form of an ancient coin minted in the realm of Herod Phillip, the son of Herod the Great and his fifth wife, Cleopatra of Jerusalem. He was a half-brother to Herod Antipas who divorced his wife to marry Herodias, Phillip’s former wife. (You’ll recall she’s the one who wanted John the Baptist’s head.)
Phillip had a coin minted with his image on it. Coins from that region and era with images on them are extremely rare because of the Torah’s injunction against graven images. Because Phillip ruled the easternmost region of Herod’s Empire, he didn’t bother to maintain the pretense that he was an observant Jew or worry about offending his Jewish subjects. Even though the coin is a couple of thousand years old and shows plenty of wear, it still appears to me that Phillip has his hair braided in back.
Coin with Image of Herod Phillip...Note Braided Hair
Be that as it may, my search for shroud-based evidence led me to a wonderful site called Shroud of Turin. If you go there, you will find a list of topics on the sidebar under the heading Shroud of Turin for Journalists. Among them is one entitled Christ Pantocrator icon and the Shroud. Long time readers will recall that we dealt with this famous, and enigmatic, image of Christ in our earlier post Icons and the Iconoclastic Controversy.
The website’s article links the image known as Christ Pantocrator to the discovery in 544 AD of a cloth hidden above a gate in Edessa’s city wall that bore an image of Jesus. Six years later, an icon, the Christ Pantocrator, was produced at St Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai. It represented a dramatic change in the way Jesus was portrayed. Previously on coins, frescos and mosaics he had been shown in storybook settings as a young shepherd or modeled after the Greek god Apollo. Suddenly he had become a living, breathing human being.
To confirm the relationship between the two images, they digitally overlaid one on top of the other. I found the results startling. The congruence between the two is unmistakable. Clearly the Christ Pantocrator was derived from the Shroud of Turin in the same way that a forensic sculptor creates the likeness of a living person from their skull. Is it a perfect likeness? No. Hair color and eye color have to be guessed at…although since Jesus was of Middle Eastern descent, that task is made much easier.
In our post Veronica’s Veil we noted that Sister Blandina Paschalis Schlomer, a German Trappist nun, pharmacist and icon painter, made painstaking comparisons of the image on the veil and the face of the man depicted on the Shroud of Turin, and concluded that the two images were identical. We now have another validation for the Shroud – Christ Pantocrator.
Digital Overlay of Shroud Image on Christ Pantocrator
My point here is not to claim that Christ Pantocrator is an exact portrait of Jesus. Such a thing is beyond the realm of possibility. But just as with forensic reconstruction, what we arrive at is a generally recognizable likeness. And that likeness indicates the person to whom it belonged had long hair.
Hello My Friend and Welcome.
Just a short update on what’s happening here at Sowing the Seeds.
The Christian Writers September Blog Chain is quickly taking shape. In light of the back to school season, the upcoming theme is It’s All About School. I’ve posted the first links on the sidebar at the right. I’ll add additional names as people commit to a posting date. Each time you visit, be sure to check out the latest posts in the chain. You’ll find all sorts of interesting and diverse viewpoints when you do.
Shalom Aleichem!
The next several posts on Foods of the First Century may appear to be a bit of a hodge-podge, because that’s what they will be…a little of this and a bit of that as I make the final additions and clarifications to the series. For instance, our list of spices contained all of the items readily available to the typical homemaker. Other Indian spices, especially black pepper, would also have been available. However, pepper traded at more than its weight in gold, making it beyond the reach of all but the very rich.
Proof of the vigorous spice trade that existed between India and what became the Greco-Roman world is found in Genesis 37:25, where Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery. “And they lifted up their eyes and looked, and behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm, and myrrh, going to carry it to Egypt.” These Arabs would have followed the Via Maris, the Way of the Sea, to reach their destination.
The Roman historian Strabo mentions a vast increase in trade following the Roman annexation of Egypt. The city of Bernike, which lay at the southeastern extreme of the Roman Empire, functioned as a transfer port for goods shipped through the Red Sea. Trade activity there peaked in the First Century. Ships would sail between Berenike and India during the summer, when monsoon winds were strongest. From Berenike, camel caravans carried the goods 240 miles west to the Nile, where they were shipped by boat to the Mediterranean port of Alexandria. From there, they could be moved throughout the Roman world. By the time of Augustus up to 120 ships set sail to India every year. This maritime network continued until the fall of the Roman Empire when Rome lost its access to Red Sea ports.
Our post on Fruit and Nuts overlooked an item not mentioned in the Bible, but readily available in the Middle East: pine nuts. Among other things, they would have been used in fruit cake. That’s right, fruit cakes. They existed long before Christmas did. Fruitcakes can be traced back to ancient Egypt and Sumeria over 4,000 years ago. (Makes you wonder if they had figgy pudding as well.) The four primary ingredients in these ancient Egyptian/Sumerian fruitcakes were pomegranate seeds, raisins, pine nuts and barley. Although the early recipes don’t mention that other fruitcake staple, glazed citron, I’ll remind you that citron was the only citrus fruit people of that time and place had. I would not be surprised if some of it ended up in a fruitcake.
Curly Mallow
Moving onto vegetables…we overlooked asparagus. This native of Mediterranean area and Asia Minor can be traced back as far as 200 BC. Both Julius Caesar and Augustus are known to have prized asparagus. Interestingly enough, almost 2,000 years before Clarence Birdseye introduced commercially frozen foods, the Romans ate frozen asparagus. How, you ask? Being both clever and resourceful, they kept it frozen in the Alps for later use in their Feasts and Festivals.
Bright Lights Chard
Another aspect of the ancient diet that we overlooked was salad greens. Mostly because there never seemed to be a place to put them. But before we get into salads, there is a misunderstanding that needs to be addressed. Neither Julius Caesar, nor any of the other Caesars for that matter, ever dined on Caesar Salad. This famous dish was invented over a Fourth of July weekend in 1924 in Tijuana, Mexico by restaurateur Caesar Cardini.
Aurora Orach
I recall seeing women gathering dandelion greens when I was a child; nowadays dandelion in salads has been replaced by endive. Ironically, many of the trendy greens being featured in cookbooks and on the Food Channel are the same ones that the ancients consumed. They’ve been overlooked for so long and to such an extent that some are now treated as ornamentals or, worse yet, weeds. Most can easily be gathered wild should you choose to do so.
Purslane & Cucumber Salad
Check out some of the accompanying photos. Not only were they tasty and nutritious, but their color and variety provided a feast for the eye. Besides leaf lettuce, people of the First Century ate rocket, roquette, now known as arugula— watercress, mallow, sorrel and goosefoot. Goosefoot belongs to the genus Chenopodium and includes Bright Lights Swiss Chard, Tyee Spinach, and Aurora Orach, or Mountain Spinach. They also ate purslane, chicory, chervil, and beet greens.
Here’s a salad recipe from Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome by Patrick Faas. I’ve added approximate quantities where I could. Columella’s salad: Put savory in the mortar with mint (3 ½ oz.), rue, fresh coriander — cilantro— (1 ¾ oz), parsley (1 ¾ oz), a sliced leek or, if not available, onion, lettuce and rocket leaves, and 1 sprig of green thyme, or catmint. Add salted fresh cheese (7-8 oz.). This is all crushed together. Stir in a little peppered vinegar. Put on a plate and pour oil over it.
Columella, Re Rustica, XII) Columella added nuts to some of his other salads. Pine nuts might go nicely in this one.
Next time we’ll examine some of the foods they didn’t have. Until then, Shalom Aleichem!
If it seems like I have an obsession with the inaccuracy of the depictions of ancient life, well, maybe it’s because I do. As I pointed out in my post about the Centurion’s plume, Will Hollywood Never Get it Right? mistakes, once introduced, tend to be perpetuated over and over. So here I am up on my soapbox again railing against another common misrepresentation of ancient dress, the Roman Toga.
The toga, which most everyone has seen in movies and paintings, most probably began as a simple wool wrap thrown on like a cape when going out in inclement weather. From there, it grew and grew, becoming longer and longer and less and less practical in the process. So impractical, in fact, that to arrange and wrap it properly required the assistance of a dresser. This distinctive Roman garment eventually became a twenty-foot-long piece of woolen cloth which was wrapped around the body and worn over a linen tunic. The first togas were unisex garments, but that all changed around the second century BC. After that the toga became exclusively a man’s garment, and women were expected to wear the stola, a long, flowing tunic.
A number of rules evolved regarding togas. For instance, only Roman citizens were allowed to wear them. The toga was considered the only decent attire when out-of-doors. Harkening back to their more humble origins, they were typically taken off indoors. They were also removed when performing manual labor. This is evident from the story of the Roman General, Cincinnatus, who was plowing his field when messengers from the Senate arrived to tell him he had been made dictator. On seeing them approach, he sent his wife in to fetch his toga from the house so that he could be properly attired when he received them.
The toga graduallyacquired increased importance as a ceremonial garment and came to signify different stations within society. As early as the second century BC the toga became the characteristic badge of Roman citizenship. It was worn by magistrates on all occasions to denote their office. It would have been highly improper for a magistrate to appear in any other attire.
Augustus became so upset when he observed a meeting of citizens without togas that he quoted Virgil’s phrase, “Romanos, rerum dominos, gentemque togatam” —Romans, lords of the world, the toga-wearing race — and ordered that no one was to appear in the Forum or the Circus without it.
Formal occasions demanded a plain white toga for Roman men of legal age. The first wearing of this Toga virilis, also known as a toga alba or toga pura, became part of maturation celebrations. (Hence its name, Toga virilis.) There was also the Toga candida a garment bleached to a dazzling white and worn by candidates for public office. Our term, candidate, evolved from Candida, Latin for bright white. During the Imperial period, the right to a wear the Toga praetexta, an ordinary white toga with a broad purple stripe on its border, signified the honor of high rank.
Painting of Christ Blessing the Family of Czar Alexander III
There was also the Toga pulla, or dark toga. It was worn mainly by mourners, but could also be worn in times of private danger, public anxiety, or as a protest. For instance, when Cicero was exiled, the Senate resolved to wear togae pullae to protest his banishment.
Most elaborate of all was the Toga picta a solid purple garment, embroidered with gold. Magistrates giving public games wore them, as did consuls and the emperor, on special occasions.
Painting of Peter Preaching at Pentecost
By now, I’ am sure you can see the flaw in many, if not most, of the portrayals of Christ and his disciples. More often than not, they are depicted wearing one form or another of what appears to be a toga. Is this portrayal accurate, possible, reasonable? No, of course not. They were Jews who would have most likely rejected all aspects of the Roman culture. Their standard dress was an ankle length tunic accompanied by a long-sleeved robe, or cloak, when needed for warmth.
Of all the apostles, only Paul of Tarsus was a Roman citizen and therefore entitled to wear a toga. He very well may have worn one on his missionary journeys to enhance his credibility in cities such as Athens or Corinth. Whether he did or not, of course, we can never know. What we do know is that many, many artists have perpetuated a stylistic error.
The Christian Writers Blog Chain is winding down as August comes to a close. Check out the remaining posts on the sidebar.
A Roman Gaming Table Carved from Stone that was Found in Ephesus
Hello My Friend and Welcome.
Believe it or not, maintaining a blog is not all fun and games. Well, at least not most of the time. But it will be today because that’s exactly what we’re doing…studying the Roman game of Duodecim Scripta. Like a lot of games, its play appears deceptively simple yet leaves plenty of room for strategy.
Duodecim Scripta translates from the Latin to Twelve Lines. The game was played on a board numbered one to twelve on one side and thriteen to twenty-four on the other…similar to the one at the bottom of this paragraph. Two players faced each other with the board between them. The playing pieces would have been chips sawed from a bone similar to those we mentioned in our post on Dice. The chips would have been stained or painted in contrasting colors to separate each player’s men. Black and white was most commonly used, but blue, red and yellow chips have been found as well.
A Representation of a Duodecim Scripta, or Twelve Lines, Playing Board
To begin, each man placed a stack of 15 playing pieces on the first square on their side of the board. Although the rules I’ve seen never mention it, presumably the players moved in different directions. Notice the way the board is numbered with One and Twenty-Four opposite each other. Clearly, one player moved from low to higher numbers while the other moved from high to low. The final square, what we might call Home, for one player was 24 while Home for the other was 1.
Play consisted of tossing a set of three dice from a cup and moving your pieces according to the throw. The object of the game was to get all of your pieces around the board and to the final square first. If you landed on a square that was occupied by an opponent’s piece, their piece had to return to their starting square. If two or more of the opponent’s pieces were on the square, then the opposing player couldn’t occupy it. In those cases, you would be forced to distribute the value of the dice among your other pieces.
Some of the squares were given special names. Square 14 was known as Antigonus. Square 19 was Summus, and Square 23 was Divus. Could it have been that certain squares were safe, or some such thing? We’ll never know, because the special meaning of these names has been lost to history.
As we saw with Hounds and Jackals, games follow an evolutionary path as they gradually change and merge with similar games from other cultures. Duodecim Scriptora most probably has prior links to the Egyptian game Senet and clearly contributed much to the modern game of Backgammon.
Strangely enough, some historians also believe that the unnamed game of six six-lettered words, which we call Lucky Six, or Felix Sex, is actually a modified version of Duodecim Scripta, with an extra line down the middle. They assume that the extra row was added to create 36 squares, and that the squares were changed to letters so players could form words. Why would it continue to be called the game of Twelve Lines when there were neither twelve items nor any lines? It would appear that the game table at the top of this post was designed for Felix Sex rather than Duodecim Scripta.
With the addition of the extra line, Duodecim Scripta or whatever it was called, more closely resembles Senet, which had 30 squares. It has also been speculated that the words (letters) were a ruse to disguise the board since gambling was technically illegal. Games sometimes split into two variations just as both Football and Rugby evolved from Soccer. While we can’t say for certain that Duodecim Scriptora may have led to the development of Felix Sex, it most certainly led to the spin-off version called Alea or Tabula. And Tabula was forerunner to a group of similar games played in Medieval Europe, Ad Elta Stelpur & Sixe-Ace and the Arabian game known as Nard.
In the next post in this series we’ll follow those chnages and take a close look at Tabula and its variants.
The Augus CW Blog Chain continues with a post tomorrow. Check them all out using the links in the sidebar.
It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!
You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
***Special thanks to Anna Coelho Silva | Publicity Coordinator, Book Group | Strang Communications for providing a review copy.***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Bill Wiese is the New York Times best-selling author of 23 Minutes in Hell. A dedicated Christian since 1970, he has served in various capacities, including teaching and leading worship. He is an accomplished speaker and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. He lives with his wife, Annette, in Southern California.
List Price: $15.99
Hardcover: 160 pages
Publisher: Charisma House; Har/DVD edition (July 6, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1616380276
ISBN-13: 978-1616380274
AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. —Romans 5:8
Would you say that the leaders of our country are mean for constructing prisons? No, it’s your choice; you don’t have to go there. (See Deuteronomy 30:19; Psalms 9:17; 86:5; 145:8–9; Proverbs 11:19, 21; John 3:16; Romans 5:8; 2 Peter 2:9; Revelation 20:13–15.)
Besides, hell was not prepared for man but for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41). God never intended for man to go there. Even now, He is preparing a place for us in heaven (John 14:2). It is only by man’s stubborn will that he rejects the provision God has made
for our access into heaven. It is arrogant of man to desire to go to heaven yet demand his own terms of access. If you want to live in God’s house, you come by His way and not your own (Luke 13:3; John 3:36; 14:6; Acts 4:12; Rom. 10:9–10; 1 Tim. 2:4–6).
Why is hell so horrific? Because God’s attributes are not present there. Many do not realize that the good we all enjoy is from God. Good doesn’t exist apart from Him. James 1:17 states, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights.”
The same word, hetoimazo, is used in Matthew 25:41, where God prepared hell for the devil, as is used in John 14:2, where Jesus says, “I go to prepare a place for you” (emphasis added). God prepared heaven as His eternal home, filled with all the attributes of His holiness and glory. But in God’s preparation of hell, He removed all of His attributes, or goodness, from that place of torment. Spiritual death means to be separated from God, and to be separated from Him is to be separated from all good. As a consequence, this is the result:
• Hell is dark because God is light (1 John 1:5).
• Hell is only death because God is life (John 1:4).
• Hell is hatred because God is love (1 John 4:16).
• Hell has no mercy because the mercy of the Lord is in the heavens (Ps. 36:5).
• Hell is only weakness because the Lord is the giver of strength (Ps. 18:32).
• Hell is loud because “My people will dwell in . . . quiet resting places” (Isa. 32:18).
• Hell has no water because water is the rain of heaven (Deut. 11:11).
• Hell has no peace because Christ is the Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6).
The good we experience is because God allows us to enjoy it while we are here on the earth. Psalm 33:5 states, “The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.”
However, if you want nothing to do with God, then there is a place prepared that has nothing to do with His goodness. His presence is there (Job 26:6; Ps. 139:8; Prov. 15:11; Rev. 14:10–11), in that it is before His face. However, His goodness and influence are removed.
He looks down upon it from heaven (1 Kings 8:30; Job 22:12; Ps. 11:4; 33:13; 102:19; 123:1; Prov. 15:3; Eccles. 5:2). Of course, God is in all places and sees all. I am simply saying that He has withdrawn His goodness from hell.
Proverbs 15:29 says, “The Lord is far from the wicked.” In 2 Thessalonians 1:8–9 we read, “In flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.”
Cast out from the presence of the Lord is the idea at the root of eternal death, the law of evil left to its unrestricted working, without one counteracting influence of the presence of God, who is the source of all light and holiness.1 —Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Essentially, hell is the place where all aspects of the presence of God will be completely withdrawn forever.2 —Henry M. Morris and Martin E. Clark
Dr. Robert Peterson said in his book Hell on Trial, “God is not present in hell in grace and blessing . . . He is present in hell, not in blessing, but in wrath.”3
However, there is one additional thing in hell. God’s wrath is present in the form of fire. The fires of hell are representative of His wrath (Deut. 32:22; Ps. 11:6; 21:8–9; Isa. 30:33; 33:14; 34:9; 66:24; Jer. 4:4; Mal. 4:1; Matt. 13:49–50; 18:8; Mark 9:43; John 15:6; Jude 7; Rev. 14:10–11; 20:10–15). The reason for this wrath is because sin must be punished (Rom. 6:23). God took out His anger on sin at the cross, as He poured out His wrath on Jesus (Ps. 22; Isa. 53; Matt. 17:12; Mark 9:12; Luke 9:22; 17:25; 24:26, 46; Heb. 9:26; 1 Pet. 2:24). However, if we don’t acknowledge Him and receive Him as our Lord, then we will take the punishment (2 Thess. 1:9–10; 2 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 14:10–11; 20:13–15). It is our choice.
Most of the other terrible things in hell are not experienced because of His wrath but because of His absence—the absence of His attributes and goodness (Prov. 15:29; 2 Thess. 1:9). We need to understand that good things are not just here by a series of coincidental random events but because they emanate from the presence of God (Ps. 90:2; Matt. 5:45; Luke 6:35; Col. 1:16; 1 Tim. 6:17). When some say that hell is only “separation from God,” as if that is no big deal, we can now grasp what that really means.
Many will look at the trees, the sky, the ocean, and so forth and comment, “Isn’t Mother Nature wonderful?” Well, it is not “Mother Nature,” but rather, “Father God” who provided all of the beauty we enjoy.
Just as prisons have been constructed to protect the innocent from those who are breakers of the law here on Earth, hell has been prepared for the offenders of God’s law. The simple solution is, don’t break God’s law. “Unless you repent you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3; see also John 3:36; Rom. 10:9–10). Proverbs 27:12 says:
A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself; the simple pass on and are punished.
Remember this point: Just as prisons were not the first thing in mind when men came to this country, so too hell wasn’t God’s first intent when He made the earth and man. Nevertheless, hell exists— and it will be your own fault if you go there.
Salvation is a free gift, but we must receive it in order to be saved. God loves you and is a good Father. He is trying to keep you out of hell and to divert you from your misguided course.
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound.
—Isaiah 61:1
My Review: 23 Questions About Hell is a follow-up, or companion volume, to Bill Wiese’s best selling book 23 Minutes in Hell. Understandably, the first book, in which he related an out of body experience that temporarily took him to Hell, generated a number of theological questions. Questions that for the most part were discussed, dissected and settled by Christian Theologians hundreds of years ago. Based on the sometimes simplistic nature of the questions, I sense they are designed for an audience with little or no understanding of historic Christian theology…a group that unfortunately grows larger each year. Bill’s responses to the questions are well-structured and his position is usually backed up with a number of Biblical references. Whether this is sufficient to convince an unbeliever, who can say?
This may sound strange, but I was somewhat bothered by the book’s preoccupartion with Hell and damnation. I hear you saying, “Hey, it’s a book about Hell; what did you expect?” I undertsand Bill’s platform: I went to Hell. It’s an awful place. You don’t want to go there. And, though I agree with the conclusion , I’ve never been a big supporter of the scare tactics it engenders.
23 Questions About Hell is, at the very least, a thought provoking book. If it happens to make a person to think about their eternal destination, and, perhaps, causes them to alter their behavior, this is not a bad thing. This little book will then have accomplished its purpose.
Until next time, Shalom Aleichem!
The Machinery Needed for an Author to Undertake the Creative Process
Hello My Friend and Welcome.
As you can see from the drawing above, a modern writer relies upon complicated mechanical processes to accomplish his or her creative task. The focus of today’s Christian Writers Blog Chain post addresses not the mechanical aspects of writing, but Where Do Ideas Come From.
If I knew, I’d go grab me a bagful! Ideas are like rocks scattered across a field and writers the prospectors who wander the field looking here and there to see what can be found. Most turn out to be merely what they seem, rocks in a field. A few, however, are the protruding tip of a giant boulder. A great and wonderful idea requiring gentle excavation so it can be lovingly examined, polished…refined.
Let me give you an example.
In 2006, while singing Oh Little Town of Bethlehem at a Christmas Eve service, an image appeared in my mind. What would happen, I wondered, if a young shepherd girl accompanied her father to the stable in Bethlehem that first Christmas? I immediately knew the answer; she’d want to hold the baby.
I had stumbled upon the protruding tip of a powerful idea. When fully excavated, this tiny beginning would grow to encompass four books: The Seeds of Christianity™ Series. Not that I had any inkling then. I was simply poking around where I’d seen the sun glint off a rock.
Armed with this nugget of an idea, I decided to write WITNESS, a short —Richard Paul Evans or Mitch Albom short— little Christmas tale about a shepherd girl who went to Bethlehem with her father. I began knowing only two things. Her name was Rivkah, the Aramaic form of Rebecca, and she’d held the newborn Christ child. Ah, but Rivkah would have none of it. She was much too complex for a novella and made sure I knew it straight away.
Regrouping, I began the hard work of putting words to paper, weaving her story out of the threads of my idea. Wanting to be historically and Biblically accurate, I first immersed myself in research. I studied Judaism: its beliefs, its feast and festivals, the priesthood and their Temple practices, the early church and the spread of Christianity. I pored over maps of the ancient Middle East…Jerusalem, Antioch, and Rome and beyond. I read the writings of the Church Fathers and the works of historians such as Josephus, Eusebius, Tacitus, Juvenal, Cassius Dio, and Suetonius. When I couldn’t find the answers myself, I corresponded with Rabbis, University Professors, Historians and other experts.
What a new writer quickly learns is, unless your name is John Grisham or Dean Koontz, no one is interested in your ideas.
Ideas, you see, are a dime a dozen; worth no more than picked over rocks in a field. Carefully crafted words are where the treasure lies. About 3,000 years ago King Solomon the Wise expressed it this way, “A word well spoken is like apples of gold in a dish of silver.” Likewise, Mark Twain said, “The difference between the right word and the almostright word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” And so word by word, or as Anne Lamont would have it, bird by bird, I set about the hard work of moving Rivkah from my imagination to a computer screen, and ultimately to paper and ink.
Rivkah and I are now about ¾ of the way home. Two of the four books are in the stores and another one is nearly wrapped up. It’s been a longer journey than I could have imagined that Christmas Eve. Which is as it should be. Ideas are meant to tantalize the writer. Then, completely enamored, we eagerly slave away refining and polishing our precious nuggets until they sparkle. After all, that’s what writing is, endless hours of servitude punctuated by occasional moments of unexpected joy.
Follow the links on the sidebar for other Blog Chain posts. Until next time, Shalom Aleichem!
Remains of the Entrance to the Church of St Simeon in Antioch
Hello My Friend and Welcome.
Today we’re going to visit the ancient city of Antioch on the Orentes. In the First Century Roman world Antioch, with a population of more than half a million, was justifiably famous for its beauty, a leader in trade and culture as well as an important military outpost. Antioch rivaled Alexandria, the second city of the Roman Empire. Today, Rome, Italy has a population of 3.7 million and 4.1 million people call Alexandria, Egypt home. Meanwhile Antakya, Turkey, once the seat of the Christian Church, has a population of only 140,000. Why?
Antioch on the Orontes, also known as Antioch of Syria, was situated on the eastern side of the Orontes River in the far southeastern corner of Asia Minor. When the city was founded in 300 BC by Seleucus I Nicator, he urged Jews to move there from Jerusalem and the city quickly developed a large Jewish population. As was his policy in all the cities he founded, Seleucus I granted these Jews equal rights of citizenship along with the Macedonians and the Greeks. Several ancient sources tell us that the Antiochene Jews, having a governor of their own and comprising a large percentage of the population, exerted as great an influence there as they did in Alexandria.
Christianity came to Antioch following the persecution which resulted in Stephen’s death. The new faith was preached to and accepted by the Greeks of the city and it was there that the name Christian originated. The Church exhibited great enthusiasm and became the base of the missionary journeys of Paul, Barnabus, Silas and others.
Remains of the Theater/Stadium
Just as Ephesus gloried in the Temple of Artemis, Antioch was home to the primary Temple of Aphrodite…the Aphrodisias. Interestingly enough, though typically associated with seduction and sexuality, the statue of Aphrodite was clothed in a heavy cloak that disguised her figure and a long veil covered her face. So much for the images of gauzy lingerie Aphrodite’s name conjures up.
The city was also famous for the Church of St. Simeon, a native saint who lived in the Fifth Century. It consisted of four basilicas radiating from the sides of a central octagon. With over 16,000 square feet of floor space, it nearly equaled the more famous Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. The church was only one part of a huge, walled complex that included a monastery, two lesser churches, and several large hostels.
Remains of the Tetrapylon, or Monumental Gate
Antioch was also known for the Tetrapylon, or monumental gate. The ancient Greeks placed great importance on the location and orientation of architecture. Thus the main axis of the city was aligned with the distant mountains and the Tetrapylon was at one end of this axis. The city also had a large theater/stadium and the Museion, a complex on the insula, the island between the arms of the Orentes River, devoted to the arts.
True many of Antioch’s architectural treasures now stand in ruins, but even in their current state their former grandeur is readily apparent. So why did Rome and Alexandria prosper while Antioch languished? I believe the answer to that question can be found in a single event that occurred in the year 526.
Late in May of that year, sometime between the 20th and the 29th, a major earthquake struck Antioch and the surrounding area. On the Modified Mercalli Scale, it is estimated to have registered VIII (Destructive) at Antioch, the epicenter, and VII (VeryStrong) at Daphne and Seleucia Pieria. The port of Seleucia Pieria experienced an uplift between two to three feet. The subsequent silting up of the harbor left it unusable. The raging fire which followed the earthquake destroyed any of the buildings in Antioch that had survived the earthquake. In all, approximately 250,000 people died. It still ranks as the 3rd most deadly earthquake of all time.
My conclusion is, given the extent of the damage and the area’s known seismic instability, the decision was made to abandon the city rather than attempt to rebuild it. Much as was done at Pompeii and Herculaneum after the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. What a sad end for Antioch, the city once known as the Queen of the East.
Looking ahead, I will be posting my entry on Where Do We Get Our Ideas for the CW Blog Chain on Monday. Check the list in the sidebar to follow each post.
We sponsor a child through Christian Foundation for Children and Aging, a lay Catholic organization that creates relationships between sponsors in the United States and children and aging persons in 24 developing countries. Our contributions provide life-changing benefits such as education, nutrition, clothing and medical care for our sponsored friend. Through letter writing we are able to learn about our sponsored friend's life and offer our encouragement and prayers. Grounded in the Gospel call to serve the poor, CFCA works with people of all faith traditions. CFCA receives the highest ratings from Charity Navigator and the American Institute of Philanthropy.
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