HEBREW VS GREEK MIND: ANTIOCHUS IV TO YAHUSHA

John chapter 1








Today we are walking in: Hebrew vs Greek Mind: Antiochus IV To Yahusha








1 Chronicles 28:9




And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind H3824: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.

























MIND













Today we look to the word-MIND-H3824 lebab--mind, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory















The Torah testifies...............







Genesis 23:8




And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind H3824 that I should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and intreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar,




Leviticus 24:12




And they put him in ward, that the mind H3824 of the LORD might be shewed them.







Numbers 16:28

And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works; for I have not done them of mine own mind H3824.



















The prophets proclaim..................




Isaiah 26:3




Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind H3824 is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.







Ezekiel 11:5




And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and said unto me, Speak; Thus saith the Lord; Thus have ye said, O house of Israel: for I know the things that come into your mind H3824, every one of them.









Habakkuk 1:11




Then shall his mind H3824 change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.















The writings bear witness..........................







1 Chronicles 22:7




And David said to Solomon, My son, as for me, it was in my mind H3824 to build an house unto the name of the LORD my God:













Lamentations 3:21




This I recall to my mind H3824, therefore have I hope.







Job 34:33

Should it be according to thy mind H3824? he will recompense it, whether thou refuse, or whether thou choose; and not I: therefore speak what thou knowest.












Hebrew Mind vs. Greek Mind

ANTIOCHUS IV TO Yahusha'

Lesson Five




During the second and third centuries B.C., Hellenism and the perpetuation of the Greek language quickly dominated the entire Western world. The Macedonian kings from Greece took their Egyptian influenced culture back to Egypt through the Ptolemy family. Around 260 B.C. the language and thought processes of Greece had so changed the Eastern culture that King Ptolemy put forth the decree to translate the entire Hebrew Bible into Greek. This was later known as the Septuagint translation of the Scriptures, or the LXX. The Septuagint was so named allegedly because it was accomplished by 70 scholars, but there is some uncertainty about that. None the less, Yahusha' quoted from it quite often. This version of the Scriptures is one of the most awesome pieces of evidence of the reliability of itself. Virtually every scriptural and secular scholar agrees that the Scriptures, with the exception of Esther, were translated from Hebrew to Greek in or around 250 years before the birth of Yahusha'. Do you realize what that means? It means that the 333 prophetic utterances of Yahusha''s birth, life, death, burial, and resurrection are, at the very least, written 250 years before they happened.

One by one the generals of Alexander began to fall to the Roman Empire. Philip IV of the Antigonid empire began the decline by challenging Rome in the first place. The Seleucid dynasty was still going strong in 163 B.C. when Antiochus IV ruled Jerusalem. Antiochus, as did his predecessors, carried the Greek-Egyptian traditions and culture into his reign. The books of the Maccabees record much of this period of Greek history, especially as it permeates the Hebrew culture. The story of Chanukkah is the best example to date of how scriptural thinking and culture can be dramatically altered. Normally a change in thinking processes occurs very slowly over a long period of time. But the account of the Maccabees happened comparatively quickly.

This is a quote from 1st Maccabees:

1st Maccabees 1:11-14

In those days [i.e. of Antiochus Epiphanes] lawless men came forth from Israel, and misled many saying, "Let us go and make a covenant with the Gentiles round about us, for since we separated from them many evils have come upon us. This proposal pleased them, and some of the people eagerly went to the king. He authorized them to observe the ordinances of the Gentiles. So they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem [for Greek education], according to Gentile custom, and removed the marks of circumcision, and abandoned the holy covenant. They joined themselves with the Gentiles and sold themselves to do evil.

The first thing done in Greek thought is to build an education center to train captives in Western thinking. To conquer with the sword is only temporary, and still maintains an enemy. Conquer the mind and you have a friend and an ally. Change the language and you change the meaning of things, for words are only symbols. If you change the symbol, you change the meaning and create a whole new set of parameters. Paradigm shifts in any society are created over time in gradual increments. This is primarily why people, especially church people, see the instructions of Yah as antiquated, obsolete, and almost impossible to grasp. Our whole thinking process has been so far removed from Yah's that it is almost unrecognizable.

Let's continue on with 1 Maccabees:

1 Maccabees 1:41-49

Then the king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, and that each should give up his customs. [What he really meant was for the captives to give up their customs.] All the Gentiles accepted the command of the king. Many even from Israel gladly adopted his religion; [see what I mean!] they sacrificed to idols and profaned the sabbath. And the king sent letters by messengers to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah; he directed them to follow customs strange to the land, to forbid burnt offerings and sacrifices and drink offerings in the sanctuary, to profane sabbaths and feasts, to defile the sanctuary and the priests, to build altars and sacred precincts and shrines for idols, to sacrifice swine and unclean animals, and to leave their sons uncircumcised. They were to make themselves abominable by everything unclean and profane, so that they should forget the law and change all the ordinances.

This is the perfect description of apostasy, the abandonment of Yah's instructions. This will indeed happen again according to Mattityahu (Matthew) 24. More on that later. Many people in Israel at that time gave in to the king and abandoned the covenants and feasts. These were the forerunners of the Grecians. Over generations, these Hebrews mixed Western thought with their own ancestry. But many of these people did not. Some were executed for their tenacious trust in Yah. Others escaped and followed the Maccabean brothers in the desert to eventually return and take back the temple. This is, of course, the facts of the Chanukkah story. The point is that Yah's way defeated the Western way by standing strong in His words and not giving in to the Greek influence.

Between the time of Antiochus and the birth of Yahusha', the Roman empire had defeated all of the kingdoms of the Macedonian empire. Rome's culture is now prevailing at the time of the so-called birth of Christianity.

Shalom Alecheim!