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Kingdom of Heaven
#5
Hi Chuck. Thanks for your comments. I have checked every translation I can find, and the Greek sources I can get my hands on regarding 1 Cor 15:50. All of them make reference to the "kingdom of God/Theos". Interesting to hear if Aramaic sources have "heaven" there.
I could not find any example in the Bible other than the gospel of Matthew where the term "kingdom of Heaven" occurs. In Matthew it occurs 32 times, of these thirty are directly attributed to Yeshua. yet Matthew is the only New testament writer to put that phrase into print. Picture yourself with the crowd during the sermon on the mount. What do you think Yeshua actually said? Is it conceivable that He said "Kingdom of Heaven" to Matthew and then turned and said "Kingdom of God" to everybody else?? Yet he clearly said something!!! Okay no further suspense. I believe that Yeshua actually referred to the Kingdom of Yahweh/YHWH. he did not call his father HaShem, or even Adonai or Elohim. he called him by his personal name and it got Yeshua into enormous difficulty. Why? Because it was a criminal offence punishable by death sentence to utter the actual name of God out loud and "according to the letters". Only the priests in the Temple and the High priest at Yom Kippur were "authorized" to utter the actual name of God. Note that before the High Priest Yeshua was asked directly if he was the Mashiach, the "son of God". The high priest was not asking him if he was divine, he was asking him if he claimed the Messianic title which applied to King David and all of his heirs leading to the Mashiach for whom they all were waiting. Here is the interesting point. It was not illegal to claim to be the mashiach. There is nothing in the oral Law that punishes by death such an individual. The claimant might be crazy but that did not merit death. Note that bar Kokva was a failed messiah. There were others. No what got Yeshua into difficulty with the Sanhedrin was his insistence on saying two things. First "I am" only used in Hebrew for the divine. Secondly he went on to say that they would see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of......
Matthew and Mark say "power" while Luke says "power of God". Yet Psalms 110:1 refers to YHWH said to my Lord "Sit at my right hand". I believe Yeshua said exactly that. He named his father "according to the letters". That is why the High Priest ripped his clothes (exactly as the Talmud indicates he should) and turned to the Sanhedrin who agreed "He is worthy of death!"
So what does all this have to do with the Kingdom of Heaven? Plenty I argue. The custom of Jews was to avoid using the actual name of God out loud, although they continue to keep all 6,286 references in Tanach to YHWH. But would Matthew and the others follow this custom. I believe the term "Kingdom of Heaven" is a substitution for "Kingdom of Yahweh/YHWH" and NOT for "Kingdom of God". Why? Simply because in a few cases Matthew's gospel actually refers to the "kingdom of God". A substitution would have been complete not partial. Yeshua did not refer to "Power" or "Power of God" he referred to his Father Yahweh/YHWH by name.
Stephen was dragged out of the Sanhedrin and executed on the spot for exactly the same offense. Read about that in Acts 7:56-58. Note also that Paul claimed he went to the synagogues "forcing them (the saints) to blaspheme" Actually a simple task. Open the Scriptures to virtually any page and ask the individual to read out loud. If he did what Yeshua did and read "according to the letters" he was arrested. If he substituted with haShem etc the individual was assenting to rabbinical authority and was released. That's what I think happened.
So if that is the case who changed Matthew's gospel to "Kingdom of Heaven" and for that matter who changed the other manuscripts that refer to God or Lord in place of YHWH..even when they are directly quotations from the Tanach!!@!
I had hoped that the Peshitta would shed some light on all of this...
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Messages In This Thread
Kingdom of Heaven - by HSB - 06-20-2012, 12:15 AM
Re: Kingdom of Heaven - by Thirdwoe - 06-21-2012, 03:44 AM
Re: Kingdom of Heaven - by HSB - 06-21-2012, 08:59 PM
Re: Kingdom of Heaven - by Thirdwoe - 08-29-2012, 05:10 AM
Re: Kingdom of Heaven - by HSB - 08-30-2012, 01:05 AM
Re: Kingdom of Heaven - by Thirdwoe - 08-30-2012, 04:12 AM

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