Holy Hormones Bible Study: If your book isn’t a buzz, it’s not the Bible.
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS NOT IKEA
You must read the instructions no matter how intuitive it seems. The Holy Spirit is ALWAYS more than a step ahead.
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 analysed 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 (BLB)]
Introduction
Two recent articles have really resonated with me.
On Jan 31, Medium Buddy, Kyle Chastain, published “I Asked Chat-GPT to Translate These Bible Stories Into Gen Z Slang”. His response to my comment about the original languages was, “I spent years studying Greek and Hebrew and they add so much depth and understanding.” An article well worth the read.
Within a short time in Medium years (Feb 26) another Medium Buddy, Sebastian D’Souza, published “What’s On Your Mind? Train your mind by filling it with God’s word” . Which focused on Disciplined Thinking using the metaphor of pea soup. Give it a read, as well.
The Holy Spirit chooses His words well and the English translations rarely pack the punch of the original inspired word. Often a deeper insight into just one, or a few, of the words in the original language provides the key which opens the door to a world of understanding previously unimagined. The professor of Greek at the Ezra Project, Dr. John Bechtle, makes a comment along the lines of, “Having even a slight knowledge of the Bible Languages is the metaphorical difference between watching the game on a 1950s grainy monochrome TV and using a virtual hologram and being inside the game.”
[SIDE NOTE: It is not necessary to become fluent. A $100, 10 hour, course on Greek Grammar from Ezra Project (+ BLB) is the best bang for buck I’ve enjoyed in a long time.]
This article is an effort to catch the slip-stream of those two articles — I hope I can do them justice. There is no apology for stealing Sebastian’s metaphor.
THERE ARE TOO MANY VEGETARIANS READING THE BIBLE
The Meat is there, waiting to be found.
Hebrew and Greek are not Top of the Pops for all Saints — and rightly so.
The Holy Spirit works across the entire spectrum.
If the analogy of the Bible being sheet music is applied, some Saints read the music, some play the chords, and some harmonise by ear.
ALL HAVE A PLACE BECAUSE EVERYONE MUST HEAR THE MELODY.
So, if this type of thing is not your cup of tea don’t torture yourself. Go to a happier place.
Why so much detail?
I must admit that I’ve been selfish because I’ve wrung this out as much as I could to get it clear in my mind. It is heavier than the usual Medium fare. Perhaps you’ll read it — perhaps not.
One of the significant American theologians of the second half of the 20th Century, the late Walter Martin, gave some good advice, “When someone makes an assertion, demand to see the evidence.”
The Medium platform abounds with the echos of assertions against the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The echo is because they are hollow. When I speak His Truth it is not to convince those with an agenda, it is to comfort the believers.
Always demand evidence, evidence is the elementary courtesy that is anyone’s due. — Paul Valéry
We live in an era when people expect the answers to deep questions to be shorter than the original question and contain no big words. Not much chance of that happening in my posts.
Sebastian’s main point
That our minds be transformed to be the mind of Christ; a transformed mind, a disciplined mind; as is written in Romans 12:2 ║ And do not be conformed (G4964 — syschēmatizō) to this world, but be transformed (G3339 — metamorphoō) by the renewing (G342 — anakainōsis) of your mind (G3563 — nous) . . .
Parsing of Critical Words:-
G4964 — syschēmatizō = synchronised: passive verb. Allowing the world (the forces hostile to the Will of God) to bring you into step with them.
G3339 — metamorphoō = metamorphosed: passive verb. The Holy Spirit changes you from an ugly grub into a beautiful butterfly.
G342 — anakainōsis = complete change for the better. The analogy is that you are not a rusty old banger that has been given a paint job to cover the rust. That heap of garbage has been sent to the scrap yard. You are being completely re-built, from the ground up, as a brand new Rolls Royce straight out of the factory. You have the latest GPS. The Indwelling Holy Spirit. (I hope that is not new news to you.)
G3563 — nous/noos = The power of considering and judging soberly, calmly and impartially, to reach understanding. There is some expansion on this in the article,
But
an apparently different Greek word is used when Jesus defined the most important Commandment.
It is written in Matthew 22:37 ║ Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind (G1271 — διάνοια — dianoia) .
G1271 — διάνοια is not a simple word and demands rigorous dianoia in its study.
Wherever it is investigated the flavour is always one of mind and thinking. One explanation (now lost by me) explained it was a farming term referring to ploughing a straight furrow in a field → a straight furrow in the mind. In her classical book, “The Way of Agapē,” the late Nancy Missler explains that, more properly translated, it means willpower.
But, in this case, whose will?
Here unfolds the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
It is made up of two Greek words διά (G1223) + νοῦς (G3563) [There are a number of different inflections for νοῦς (G3563) but they don’t change the picture so I’ll stick with the root, νοῦς]
I’ll forgive you if διά (G1223) doesn’t cause your heart to flutter, but if νοῦς (G3563) doesn’t make it pound perhaps it’s not beating at all.
G3563 — nous/noos — νοῦς, noun = as mentioned above.
“Mind” is only a near-enough-is-good-enough English translation for G1271 — διάνοια — dianoia because it stops short:-
It is written in 1Co 2:16 ║For who hath known the mind (G3563 — nous) of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind (G3563 — nous) of Christ.
This seems to place Humanity’s thinking capacity on the same level as Yehovah’s. But that contradicts Isaiah 55:8–9 ║ “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
“the mind (G3563 — nous) of Christ” links directly to the Septuagint where it is written in Isa 40:13 ║ Who hath directed the Spirit (G3563 — nous — νοῦς ) of Yehovah, or being his counsellor hath taught him?
And we already know from Isaiah 11:2 ║ The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him — the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord.
There are numerous verses informing us that Saints have been blessed with the indwelling Holy Spirit but one with clout is 2 Corinthians 6:16 (b)║ For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:
“I will dwell in them
And walk among them.
I will be their God,
And they shall be My people.”
And in 1 Corinthians 2:10–12 it is written, “No one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. . . . Now we have received . . . the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
Having The Mind of Christ is not that we can do hard sums. It is a Divine Gift that gives us the ability to see things from God’s perspective.
If you haven’t noticed that the Saints are in a war you haven’t been paying attention.
Paratroopers are one of the Elite Corps in any nation’s military. They are dropped behind enemy lines and expected to prevail even though outnumbered and surrounded. To do this they must be trained to the hilt.
God has dropped His (Big ‘C’)Church into the midst of the kosmos so we are surrounded. He knows the importance of training, as it is written in 2 Samuel 22:35 ║ He teaches my hands for the war, So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
How does He do it?
Training — in the arts of both Natural and Spiritual warfare. The Natural Arts have been honed over history. What about the Spiritual Arts? For it is written in Ephesians 6:12 ║ For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Apostle Paul provides the answer
In the article, WHO WROTE THE BIBLE? Someone with a different logic to you, it is explained that Apostle Paul was very much into study — as demonstrated in 2 Timothy 2:14–16 .
2 Timothy 2:15 is jolting when viewed through the lens of Greek Grammar.
The key word in the verse is diligent.
Be diligent (spoudazō G4704) to present yourself pleasing to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
spoudazō (G4704) is a verb, sometimes translated, ‘study’= to hasten, make haste, exert one’s self, endeavour, give diligence. It is ultimately derived from a root word, pous (G4228), having the flavour of disciples attentively taking instruction at the feet of the teacher. In this context the Teacher is the Holy Spirit through His Written, and sometimes Rhema, Word.
The Grammar of spoudazō is profound.
The mood is imperative; that is, it’s a command that the disciple must spoudazō. The command is from the Holy Spirit, not Paul. He merely scribed the letter so don’t argue with the messenger.
The voice is active; that is, the disciple is the one who must spoudazō.
The tense is a strange one. It is aorist; that is a completed action. The disciples must have completed the spoudazō before presenting themselves. We have all experienced an unprepared preacher.
But the command is much more emphatic than seen in the English translations!
When the aorist tense is combined with the imperative mood in a single verb, it carries the flavour of a command barked by the Regimental Sergeant Major on parade at the Trooping of the Colour at Buckingham Palace. THERE IS NO ARGUMENT!
But there is an even richer flavour to the word. It is written in 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. On the spiritual level, an interpretation of this verse is, God will give you an insight into Himself; depending on what you do with that Wisdom, He will decide whether to give you more. With more practice at being attuned to the Vibes of the Holy Spirit, the Hebrew Logic becomes easier to spot. Unfortunately, we Western Saints are more attuned to the secular wavelengths because they are just pounded, and pounded, and pounded. But, with spoudazō, the skill can be learned surprisingly quickly.
This could be the last straw — but you’ve come this far, hold on.
There are three Greek words carrying the flavour of to know, to have knowledge.
G1987 — epistamai ἐπίσταμαι← ἐφίστημι — G2186 (with νοῦς — G3563 implied); verb, = Having head knowledge on human level; natural knowledge/understanding. Sadly, that’s what I see graduating from most Bible Colleges in my part of town. There seems to be a conspiracy to gut the Divine.
G1492 — eidō εἴδω root word regarding experiential knowledge → you burn your finger when the stove is hot so you know not to do it again.
G1097 — ginōskō γινώσκω ↔ Hebrew Gen 4:1 ║ And Adam knew ( H3045 — yāḏaʿ) Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. ↔ Greek Matthew 7:21–23 ║ “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew (G1097 — ginōskō ↔ H3045 — yāḏaʿ) you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
H3045 — yāḏaʿ = primitive root verb → intimate knowledge. Shows the difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge. It is the Saint’s responsibility to test every spirit (1 John 4:1–3) so as to separate the Rhema of God from a brain fart. This is accomplished by training in the Signature Patterns of the Holy Spirit laced through the Bible.
Returning to Sebastian’s main point
The Heavenlies are a different realm requiring a different diet. Unless you get the Spiritual Food (1 Corinthians 10:3) you are not under the L-A-W but you could be under the L-O-R-E.
IF ALL YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU SEE, YOU DO NOT SEE ALL THERE IS TO BE SEEN.
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-gurgitate 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.)
