What do John 3:16 and Romans 11:26 have in common?

What do John 3:16 and Romans 11:26 have in common? Most Christians are familiar with John 3:16 which in the NIV reads,

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 11:26 in the NIV reads,

And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
   “The deliverer will come from Zion;
    he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.

Look only at the words to see what is in common; don't worry about anything else. There is one very innocent little word these two verses share in most English translations, including this 1994 NIV: "so". It seems a rather insignificant word. But now look at the 2010 NIV for the latter verse (emphasis added):

and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written:
   “The deliverer will come from Zion;
   he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.

The NIV has changed. So what? Who gives a houtos? Let's take a closer look at the word so which just changed to in this way.

The Greek word here is οὕτως (houtos) which is an adverb meaning "in this manner". Sometimes the word "so" is used for this in English. For example, "Do it like so" means "Do it in this manner." The correct reading of John 3:16 should therefore begin, "For in this manner God loved the world..." In what manner? The answer comes from the previous two verses! In the same manner that Moses lifted up on a pole the serpent in the wilderness and everyone who looked to it was saved from the serpents (see Numbers 21:8-9), God would have Jesus lifted up on a cross, and everyone who looks to him will be saved from his sins.

So (no pun intended), John 3:16 is not saying that God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son. It is saying that God loved the world so! (in the manner described in verses 14-15), giving his one and only Son in the same way. Yet the overwhelming majority of English translations continue with the traditional "For God so loved..." which is misleading to modern English speakers. The LEB and NET are two examples of modern translations that have forsaken the "so", producing "For in this way God loved..." and "For this is the way God loved..." respectively.

How do we apply this to Romans 11:26? We saw above that the 2010 NIV has made the change to "in this way" here, though not in John 3:16. Paul is arguing that the manner in which all Israel will be saved is through the partial hardening of Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (into the Kingdom of God, that is, verse 25). I am not going to expound the scripture here, but the nutshell version is that the church in Rome was not to boast over Jews who didn't believe in Jesus and therefore had not entered into the Kingdom (verses 17-22). He says that God is able to restore Israel (bringing them to faith in Jesus), and that this will happen through the fullness of the Gentiles coming in (verses 23-25).

It is sad to see so many English Bibles using the word so when in this manner is clearly a better translation. One little word can make a world of difference!

Theology in the Park: The mystery of Romans 11:25

Yesterday I attended an all-day Theology in the Park conference organised by Messianic Good News, an organisation directed by Peter Cohen and Kevin Daly "who are both actively involved in writing and spreading the good news" (see their website), most especially to the Jewish people. In spite of some theological differences I have with them, I really think they do great work; their articles are thoroughly researched and they know what they believe, and why.

One of the exercises the conference participants were given was to identify the 'mystery' (Greek: μυστήριον, 'mysterion') mentioned by Paul in Romans 11:25. Immediately I felt embarrassed because I should know the answer off the top of my head (since it is closely related to my Masters topic), but I didn't. So I quickly looked up the verse and read the surrounding verses before my turn came up. As we went around the circle of about 20 people, we had an equal number of different answers though of course many overlapped. Nevertheless, there were some very different answers. Some people offered great biblical truths as the meaning of the mystery that Paul was writing to the church in Rome about. They really were wonderful gospel truths, but they were not the right answer to the question.

I feel there were two critical oversights that were made by most participants. Firstly, Paul says he does not want his readers to be ignorant of this mystery, and then he goes on to tell them what the mystery is in the same sentence! (The explanation also runs into the next verse, which in some translations is the same sentence.) Both the demonstrative pronoun this (τοῦτο, 'touto') and the conjunction that ('in order that': ἵνα, 'hina') appear in Greek text - the translators did not 'supply' them (that is, add them in, as is sometimes necessary in interpretation): "I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery... that..." and then Paul spells it out.

The second oversight was equally significant. The 'answer' to the question was supposedly given in Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Now I do believe that the Bible is an integrated whole -- that it is internally consistent, that apparent contradictions are solvable, and that one passage of scripture may be vital to unlocking the meaning of another. And certainly the mystery mentioned in Ephesians is related to the one in Romans 11, but the church in Rome did not have Paul's letter to the Ephesians at hand. Paul had to describe the mystery in the self-same letter in which he refers to it, or his readers would not have known what he was talking about. There are many mysteries in the Bible, but there was no need for my companions to explore further; Paul gives the answer then-and-there.

Why don't you take a look at Romans 11:25-26 and see what you think the 'mysterion' (secret, mystery) is that Paul was writing about?

Exegesis: The transfiguration of Jesus in Mark 9

This paper seeks to expound the passage of Mark 9:2-13 concerning the transfiguration of Jesus and the fulfilment of Malachi 4:5 in John the Baptist as Elijah. The principal point of this text is the revelation of Jesus as the Son of God (v7). The story is paralleled in Matthew 17:1-13 and Luke 9:28-36.

More about God's Name

I have published on the Name of the LORD before, once in an exegesis of Exodus 6:1-7 (God's Name revealed) and once in Hashem: What's in a Name?  This assignment was supposed to be on the names (plural) of God, but as usual I ended up focusing on 'the Name' because this really is it. God has revealed himself to us by one principal Name, and it is the only Name by which we may be saved!

What I really liked about this study was the Christology, the fact that Jesus has been given the Name above all names - not 'Jesus' (Saviour), but the Name of the Father. I've also discussed the important matter of having the Name removed from all our Bibles and replaced with the very bland "the LORD".

The cry of the crowds to Jesus at his final arrival in Jerusalem was a well-recognised Hebrew greeting reserved for the Messiah: בָּרוּךְ הַבָּא בְּשֵׁם יהוה (Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the LORD!) Ironically, though they acknowledged Jesus as YHWH’s Anointed One, they did not grasp the double entendre – he who comes in the Name of YHWH is YHWH.

I hope you enjoy this essay on this literally vital topic.

Hebrew word study: מִן (min) - 'from'

It's amazing just how much one can discover in the use of a single, ordinary word. Last year I did a study on the Hebrew word for from, מִן (pronounced min). Non-Hebrew scholars may be interested in the last paragraph concerning "grace" (as in giving thanks for a meal). From what I can tell, the popular notion in the charismatic movement (and others) of blessing the food is not Biblical. Jesus and his tradition would bless the LORD, giving thanks for the meal.

Here's the study.

Using the Psalms in pastoral care

This is an assignment I did on the use of the Psalms in pastoral care. It starts with a great poem by Yehuda Amichai, Summer Evening by the Window with the Psalms, which begins:

Close scrutiny of the past.
How my soul yearns within me like those souls
in the nineteenth century before the great wars,
like curtains that want to pull free
of the open window and fly.

I used an online tool to generate a "word cloud" of the top 70 words in the New English Translation, and it looks like this:

Here's the whole assignment.

God's Name revealed

This paper is an exegesis of Exodus 6:1-7 in which God makes himself known by his name, YHWH, to Moses and promises that He will deliver this people from slavery under Pharaoh in Egypt...

The whole passage is dominated by God’s repeated self-disclosure: “I am YHWH”. This is one of the most significant events in the Bible for, though God has many “names” in the Bible, the others are really just titles and descriptors. YHWH, however, may be regarded as his unique, personal Name that is to treated as sacred and never used in vain (Ex 20:7; Dt 5:11). The Name is believed to be related to the verb הָיָה (haya, to be) and hence God’s earlier answer to Moses’ question, “If... they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?” (Ex 3:13). God’s reply was “I will be who I will be” or, “I am who I am” (אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה), and that “I will be”, or “I am”, is sending Moses.

For the full assignment, click here.

Science and Creation, Faith and Truth

This is an essay I wrote in 2010 on the topic of The Christian Belief in Creation.

This paper reviews some key points in the science-faith debate. Rather than attempting to evaluate different interpretations of the biblical creation motif, only one is presented – one that best fits the science and without violating the Bible. What is the rationale for starting with science instead of the Bible? The Bible primarily tells us the story of the relationship between God and Man. Its purpose is to redeem humanity and to glorify God, not to explain scientific facts. Nevertheless our initial assumption is that both science and scripture are good and they glorify God.

For the whole essay, click here.

Book Review: Post-Missionary Messianic Judaism

The book review below is something I wrote that was published in The South African Baptist Journal of Theology, 2010, volume 19. The book reviewed is Mark Kinzer's Post-Missionary Messianic Judaism: redefining Christian engagement with the Jewish people, published by Brazos Press in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 2005 (ISBN 9781587431524). Kinzer works at the Messianic Jewish Theological Institute.

Post-Missionary, in Kinzer’s jargon, does not suggest an end for missions. Rather, Kinzer promotes a post-missionary form of Messianic Judaism which reaches out to Jews in a different manner to the traditional missionary approach. Instead of converting Jews to Christianity and instructing them to abandon “all things Jewish”, Kinzer promotes helping Jews to discover the Jewish Messiah within their Jewish faith, its practices, history, scriptures—and among the practising Jewish community.