Holy Hormones Bible Study: Teaching — If your book isn’t a buzz, it’s not the Bible.

HUMANS ARE NO MORE SPECIAL THAN ANY OTHER ANIMAL!

That’s not true, according to the grammar.

Brace yourself! This is more of a teaching blog than an entertaining one. It may not be an easy read because there is more here than a normal, well-adjusted person would generally want to know. But the time will be well spent. The detail which makes me a boring person brings the Bible alive for me. If, however, you happen to like what you read, there’s more to be found here.

[NOTE: Important words analyzed below are identified with Hebrew/Greek transliterations into English and Strong’s Numbers so that whoever wants to can check them out — the recommendation is that you do. I use the Blue Letter Bible ]

Introduction

If anyone reads my articles you may have noticed that I’m into the original languages.

With the first Covid lock-down I decided to learn Greek. One of the websites mentioned that the advantages of having just a smidgen of knowledge of Bible languages would be the difference between watching a game on a grainy old 1950s B&W TV (I remember them well) and a virtual reality model where you could feel that you were actually inside the game. After a slow start (Greek-in-a-week) I completed a 10-week Greek Grammar course and now everyone is entitled to my opinion.

There are good, sincere people (whom I respect) who say that learning the original languages is a waste of time because we get everything we need from the English.

Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I don’t expect to change anyone’s mind — but just have a look at what can be done with the actual Word of God and decide for yourself.

Examining three verses in the Creation Account

Genesis 2:7 tells of the creation of humans, Genesis 2:19 tells of the creation of non-humans, Genesis 2:17 tells of the warning that Yehovah gave Adam of the consequences of eating the forbidden fruit.

Genesis 2:7 || And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Genesis 2:19 || Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them.

It can be seen that there is no mention of Yehovah Elohim breathing a breath of life into non-humans.

What does this mean?

A reasonable person could be forgiven in deducing that all oxygen breathing lifeforms are variations of fungible carbon — but humans have been given something extra. There is no intention of getting embroiled in an argument about soul and spirit at this moment. It is hoped that the picture may become clearer, later.

A CLOSER LOOK AT A FEW WORDS

• Formed: H3335 — yāṣar

Creation of humans: Genesis 2:7 || And the Lord God formed (H3335 — yāṣar וייצר) man of the dust of the ground . . . (This spelling of H3335 is mentioned in the Leningrad Codex only once.)

Creation of non-humans: Genesis 2:19 || Out of the ground the Lord God formed (H3335 — yāṣar ויצר) every beast of the field and every bird of the air . . . (This spelling of H3335 is mentioned in the Leningrad Codex eighteen times.)

As can be seen, there is an extra yod (י) for the spelling of the human but Table 1 shows that all other grammatical properties are identical.

Table 1: Parsing of the Hebrew word H3335 — yāṣar, translated “formed”

Surely a typographical error

There is a total of 419,687 words in the Hebrew text for all versions of Christian and Jewish Bible translations, the Westminster Leningrad Codex (WLC). From all of these, there is only one instance of this word, with it’s unique spelling, occurring. Also, it applies to the Creation of Humanity. Not only one letter, the size of an apostrophe, in ½ million words — but also in the exact, perfect, word in the exact, perfect, place.

I’m open to explanations.

Breathed, nostrils and breath in Genesis 2:7

The venerated Hebrew Sage of the Middle Ages, Rashi , Interprets this verse thus:-
He made him of earthly matter and of heavenly matter: the body of earthly matter the soul** of heavenly matter.

** Rabbinical Judaism and some Christian denominations do not subscribe to the spirit + soul + body model presented in 1 Thessalonians 5:23. They see only
soul + body.

In today’s parlance, this description could be interpreted as Mouth-to-nose resuscitation — but it was not resuscitation because they hadn’t been alive, yet. (Is suscitation a word? Perhaps, there are so many senseless new words popping out nowadays.) However, depending on how mystical (and romantical) you are, it could mean kiss.

[So it may be that God personally kisses each one of us to life. A sort-of up market version of the Sleeping Beauty. Just a thought. I won’t try to start a cult with it.]

Apostle John was a mystic, in the best sense of the word, but Jesus gave him and his brother, James, the surname Boanerges, sons of thunder. That doesn’t carry much of a fragrance of romantic.

[For what it’s worth from me, I think that there should be more romance (i.e., love with a spark) and high beam LIGHT between Christ and His Bride.]

Life in Genesis 2:7

This is interesting. Pay heed, the English contradicts the Hebrew.

The root word of this Hebrew noun is H2416 — ḥay חַיִּ meaning life (easy enough).

But the inflection actually written is חַיִּים. There is a suffix ים (pronounced im), denoting a plural format.

So חַיִּ + ים → חַיִּים

חַיִּ = life ים = plural suffix

The correct translation should be lives — not life

Of the 62 Bible versions (last count) on the Bible Gateway website, NOT ONE (including1599 Geneva and Wycliffe) picked up this error. Neither did Tyndale nor Chabad.org (Jewish translation) on their own sites. The only one that got it right was The Scriptures 2009 , but they have made errors in other places so that isn’t the Holy Grail.

The obvious conclusion here (at least to me) is:-

Don’t let the choice of Bible Translation cause a church split. In 1Corinthians 8:2, the Apostle Paul writes along the lines, “Don’t get too far up yourself. No one knows as much as they think they know, but everyone who loves the Lord is known by the Lord.”

Check it out and you may find that BOTH parties have it wrong.

You mean we can’t trust the Bible written in English?!!!

Contrary to popular belief on this platform, we can.

The important question is, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30. It is advised everyone do some revision on that topic.) Of the 70-odd English translations I’ve personally checked, the instructions about that are abundantly clear — of course, there are many versions I haven’t checked. That includes the Wicked Bible of 1631, The Queen James Bible, and the Jehovah’s Witness Bible. As are the Prophecies which show the Redemption Plan. Satan does his best but he can’t hide the Truth.

Why is this trivial error so important?

There are heaps of trivial errors that a few of the naysayer Medium contributors, who have an eye-watering number of followers, hoe into to denigrate the Word of God. That is their prerogative and, giving credit where it is due, some of their criticisms are valid. But zeroing in on a few misspelled words misses the point that the Bible is INSPIRED, INERRANT, INFALLIBLE.

In this case it becomes important because of the two yods in the human version of H3335 — yāṣar וייצר.

Rashi, interprets this (’’) peculiarity thus:-

וייצר, with two “yuds,” hints at two creations, a creation for this world and a creation for the time of the resurrection of the dead. But in connection with the animals, which do not stand in judgement, two “yuds” are not written in the word ויצר describing their creation.

NOTE: It must be highlighted that these two creations are NOT the supposedly two different creation accounts which occur in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. They are simultaneous and in parallel. That is, we humans have both a natural and a spiritual existence. A body and a spirit linked by a soul. (But that is the stuff of another post.) I have been unable to discover anything in the Bible that hints at animals having a spirit but, if anyone else has contrary evidence, please let me know.

You mean we have a body life and a spirit life?

So it would seem, according to the Hebrew.

Where is there any evidence of that?

Bear with me.

It is written in Genesis 2:17 || but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely (H4191 — mûṯ) die (H4191 — mûṯ).”

It looks like, in the Hebrew, Yehovah Elohim is saying, “You shall die die,” but we shall see that the inflections [you will have to look that word up yourself] of the spelling become extremely important.

Surely

H4191 — mûṯ (inflection מוֹת) = to die, perish, be separated from life.

Speech: Verb
Type: Infinitive Absolute. A verbal noun (-ing ending) which expresses the intensity or certainty of a verbal command.
Read, “Certainly dying” or “Surely dying.”

Die

H4191 — mûṯ (inflection תָּמוּת) = to die, perish, be separated from life.

Speech: Verb
Type: Imperfect (tiqtol) an action that either occurs in the present or will occur in the future.
The form of tiqtol is to read as, “You will die.”

Combining both inflections

Literally, “Surely dying you will die.” Hebrew is self-parsing. It has no punctuation marks. These two consecutive phrases apply to the two lives mentioned earlier, so: -

“Surely dying” + “You will die”

What on earth does that mean?

Before the Fall: It is written in Genesis 2:25 || And they (Adam and Eve) were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

After the Fall: It is written in Genesis 3:7 || And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.

Obviously something had happened. There are Hebrew teachings which postulate that, before the Fall, Adam and Eve “glowed in the dark” because of the post-biblical word Shekhinah, meaning the Divine Presence. At the instant of the Fall the Shekhinah left.

[I sometimes muse that the Shekhinah is why sex was created. Their glowing in the dark at night kept them awake so they had to have something to do. Just a thought.]

Science is pretty good but… It can go through the nuts-&-bolts about what is required for life to exist but doesn’t know what sparks consciousness. The Bible makes it clear. Jesus says, “I am the Life.” Life is the presence of God. Conversely, the absence of God is death. (A lot more on that may come in another post. So many nuggets. So little time.)

The essence of death is a separation. Natural death is a separation of the soul & spirit from the body. The separation caused by divorce is the death of a marriage. And so on… So, when the Shekhinah left Adam and Eve, their spirits died. They were functional spirits but not alive so they came under the control of the Flesh. That happened instantly.

WISDOM COME SUDDENLY!

This would have happened before Adam was 130 years old, but he lived to 930, as is written in Genesis 5:3–5 || And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters. So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died.

SO, ADAM SUFFERED TWO DEATHS, SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL, AND NOT COINCIDENT.

When Jesus offers you eternal life that means you will be in His presence for that period.

Adam left God but the whole Redemption Plan shows that God NEVER left Adam.

SUMMARY

• Humanity (וייצר) was created with something more than all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and all that swim the paths of the seas (ויצר).
• God breathed two lives (חַיִּים) into Adam — not just one.
• Adam and Eve experienced two deaths.
  Spiritual death (מוֹת) at the time of the Fall.
  Physical death (תָּמוּת) about 800 years later.

This information is contained in the original Hebrew, but English readers are blind to it.

That’s a bit unfair. Only Gentiles who know Hebrew will get into Heaven?

No. This is a blessing available from God and He directs us toward it, as is written in Proverbs 25:2 || It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.

And Saints are a Royal Priesthood as is written in 1 Peter 2:9 || But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

Also, we are admonished by Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 2:15 || Be diligent (G4704 — spoudazō) to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

G4704 — spoudazō = to study, to exert oneself, endeavor, give diligence
Speech: Verb, action
Tense: Aorist, completed task
Voice: Active, listener/reader does it
Mood: Imperative, command (not a suggestion) in this case from the Holy Spirit.
Person: 2nd Person, YOU
Number: Singular, every individual Saint

The aorist tense shows that the Saint is expected to complete his homework before presenting himself before God. The late American Bible Teacher, Chuck Missler, interpreted Matthew 13:12 || For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him, with regard to Bible Study.

God will give you some wisdom about Himself and, depending on what you do with it, He will decide how much more to give you. Chuck Missler

Why has He written in such a manner?

Not to bar people from Heaven but to confound the wisdom of the wise. There is so much garbage written on this platform by posers who think they out-think God. Pray for them.

Conclusion

Five words were the key to open the vault to show that the Bible makes it crystal clear that Humans are much more special than any other animal. It is a ploy of Satan to seduce over-educated, over-privileged, over-fed Westerners into self-flagellation and false humility. My African acquaintances have no time for such nonsense because they are too busy scrambling for their next meal.

Satan’s weapons of choice

The Devil has a weapon of choice for each region of the world. His preferred weapon in the Western World is affluence. It is the most dangerous of all.

The forgoing evidence has not been presented to convince any reader but to allow a personal decision to be made. There is much more to know about this subject. Perhaps you’ll pay another visit, sometime. If you have seen something you like, I encourage plagiarism. So, always check everything I say first, then please re-cycle, re-brand, re-structure, re-issue, re-label, or re-gurgitation in any manner you please. No need to acknowledge me because the Holy Spirit Who holds the Intellectual Rights.

All Glory to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

(We all have a plank in our eye. It’s bigger than we think.)