Year: 2026

What are we to think

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

I am currently reading a whole bunch of chapters about Solomon, ever so wise, Mr. Temple builder etc. Now in what I write he is a whole lot wiser than me… however, how are we meant to read some of the stuff? How many wives? And how many palaces? And how many foreign gods? And how many…? Silver was a nothing and everywhere gold; along comes the Q of Sheba who is well impressed… and on we go. Some very smart proverbs, but leaves me thinking – and that seems to be the thing with so much of Scripture that we just can’t figure out. Gets you thinking – cos it ain’t really about Solomon but about me aligning to what I believe. I used to say to people – listen to me and you will discover what I think (or what I hope you think) I believe. Come stay with me, go ask my spouse, even neighbours – then you will discover what I really believe. True doctrine seems far more to do with how I live than how I can string a few Scriptures together. People like Paul said – ‘imitate me as I imitate Christ’. OOOFFFF. He also suggested that we simply give a couple of considerations concerning anyone entering leadership – how is that thing called family working out and go ask a few neighbours (specifically those who don’t have faith) and get their opinion. Too practical all of that! ‘Jesus began to do and to teach’. We like to teach and tell people what to do – could it be we have got it the wrong way round? Never, I hear myself say…

Anyway back to the aforementioned king. The era of success has arrived; started by David then brought to another level with Solomon. The borders are at the largest; the army at the strongest; the order… OK wait a minute. The order – all things flowing to the centre to maintain the centre. Maybe now a question just enters. Surely Solomon has not organised things to rival that place the earlier generations escaped from – that place known as Egypt with a king known as Pharoah? And the next king of the northern tribes, Jeroboam, comes up out of… Egypt… erecting 2 golden calves… Yes it is the rebellious northern tribes that did not stay loyal to the house of David, but maybe we are to think maybe the prosperous days of Solomon were not so healthy after all.

Success. We have growth, we have influence; everything is testifying to ‘we have never seen anything like this’. Good or bad?

Small is no better than big; failure certainly no better than success!!! But the successful centre – big or small is probably more the issue. Scaling up nearly always ends up confusing us – we have done something amazing; now God can take a nap we have this. Scaling out – that is something different. Where is the centre? Bit like asking post the last Supper as to where Jesus is? Cos if each person ‘eats’ and ‘drinks’ him he is wherever the eaters and the drinkers are. It seems to make sense of Jesus botanical answer to the Greeks who wished to meet him (Jn. 12:20-26). His reply of ‘unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies…’ Strange request for an interview. Want to visit the centre? Advice… wait a while cos you don’t need a Jewish Jesus, you need a Greek one – so hang on till there are many Jesus-es (yes I know they will be inadequate and you would really like to see the proper one, but…)

Time to wrap this wandering blah blah up. Success and growth and recognition – well what a set of dangers arise. We move from being dependent on God to we pretty much got this. I advocated a whole number of years ago that a corporate exorcism would not go amiss if done once a year. To take a stand and to say to whatever we need to: ‘I am / we are not here for your success. We will not serve you, nor defend you. We will declare you and any resources you have are here to serve God’s kingdom, and that kingdom will not exalt any one person… so any spirit seeking to attach to us we renounce…’ and so on.

I’d rather not go the way of Solomon. And I kinda think that there is a squeeze on right now, for without the squeeze we have such a tendency to think we have really done something quite amazing.

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And the children

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Theology

Some 18 months ago Gayle had a very long and impactful dream that ended with her addressing ‘Mr. Banks’ pleading that he take off his banking clothes, his shoes and go play with the children in the grass. ‘If you can do this everything will follow.’

Everything will follow!

That is quite a statement. Navigating this world is not an easy task. We live in but not ‘of’ this world. The kingdom of Jesus is not of this world otherwise the methodology of this world would be employed. Living in the world requires compromise for it is how do we engage with an imperfect world. But compromise has to be that of redemptive compromise – taking less than perfect action as it at least stops the bigger picture sliding further backwards or at best leaves a better ‘after’ picture than the ‘before’ one.

God or mammon? The two that Jesus put in opposition to each other. Money is not mammon, but so much of the financial world has been colonised by mammon, and mammon is a source from which society can live. The voice of the Old Testament prophets can be reduced to challenging Israel over two issues: is God your Protector and is God your Provider. They rebuked Israel repeatedly over those two issues.

Child sacrifice was an abomination that was never to be part of the life of Israel. Understandably so. But what lay behind child sacrifice. The foundational belief was that of appeasement of the gods (why with certain views of the atonement NT Wright has described them as pagan). One sacrificed to get the gods to bless, and to get the gods to bless the harvest today, in this season, there was no greater sacrifice than to sacrifice the future. The next generation offered to the gods guaranteed blessing today.

Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my days.”

Isaiah rebuked Hezekiah for his naive behaviour and said that he had messed things up for the next generation; Hezekiah’s response is that he was happy because things would go well in his lifetime. Happy… but the future sacrificed.

Great parts of money and the economic system has been colonised by this same spirit. And I would go as far as to suggest that a continual pattern of borrowing from the future for blessing today is of the same spirit as Hezekiah embodied, and is on the spectrum heading into Moloch (child sacrifice) territory. Whole financial structures are based on money as debt. Remove debt and the current financial world would collapse! Imagine running one’s own finances on that basis (leveraging).

I think this relates to Gayle’s dream. Play with the children in the grass. Get the dew of creation on your toes; be committed to the next generation on their terms. Play – their terms; their world.

Compromise… but redemptive compromise. Disengaging from the world and living the life of the hermit might be the call for some, but the call for the majority is to be present within; the call on all who follow Jesus is not to be ‘of’.

Compromise but moving toward, making signs of, a fresh economy that might or might not affect ‘money’ but has to break the alignment to mammon and refuse to sacrifice tomorrow for the desire for blessing today.

From:

  • buying and selling to giving and receiving.
  • reversing the ‘harvest before sowing’ to ‘seedtime and (then) harvest’.
  • refusing to set ‘profit’ as the bottom line.
  • refusing to maximise what can be earned / harvested.

This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease but did not aid the poor and needy.

‘Your sister Sodom’. The family DNA, hence in Revelation the city where the Lord was crucified was termed ‘Sodom’ and ‘Egypt’. The Reformers gave us justification by faith and for that we should be (and will be!) eternally grateful, however adding the word ‘alone’ (justification by faith alone) has not helped us and flies in the face of the one Scripture that explicitly uses that phrase: ‘You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone‘ (Jas. 2:24)!

A child will lead them (Isaiah 11):

The wolf shall live with the lamb;
    the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
the calf and the lion will feed together,
    and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
    their young shall lie down together;
    and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
    and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy
    on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.

And he set a child in the midst:

He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me (Matt. 18:2-5).

But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did and heard the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became angry and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,
‘Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies
you have prepared praise for yourself’?” (Matt. 21:15,16).
Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
    to silence the enemy and the avenger (Ps-. 8:2).

Take off your uniform / shoes and go play

In a world that calls us to conform find the crack where some redemptive seed can be sown… and make sure that it is about a better tomorrow than today. Do something to restore seedtime and harvest… even if ever so small. A movement where everything will follow.

Desiring blessing today at the cost of tomorrow finds its ultimate expression demonstrated at the cross. Judas is there with his money to be gained; the religious system makes it plain that the only way to keep the ‘blessing’ of Imperial favour was to sacrifice Jesus (‘ If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation… You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed’ – John 11:48,50).

At the cross was the breaking of the power of mammon for even Judas threw back the money into the temple system; the ‘place’ and the ‘nation’ were destroyed, but a new way of life was released, with an invitation to follow.

Amidst crisis in the charismatic world where will the children be found? They will lead and ‘all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.’

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Apocalypse… and hope

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

I wrote a post ‘Time for an update’ and Anne commented on the post. I was very struck by the comment so I asked if I could publish it here with her permission. Permission granted!

Anne commented:

I am just finishing a book titled: Apocalypse, How catastrophe transformed our world and can forge new futures, by Lizzie Wade. No not a theological perspective but an anthropological one. She examines different societies and civilizations in the past and how they survived and were changed by their own apocalypses. From climate change along the north coast of Peru to the plague in Europe. And lots of other places. She ended up writing this during the Covid pandemic, our most recent global apocalypse.

A few of her conclusions:

Apocalypses have always revealed and exploited societies’ weak points, from an unsustainable relationship with a changing environment to an overly rigid and oppressive social hierarchy. Because of that, apocalypses are also the best chance our societies have for change. . . . apocalypse can reveal the failures of old systems and inspire the creation of new ones.

We can harness the energy and potential of apocalypse to create a new world. But first we have to accept that the apocalypse, with all of its horrors, is here to stay. Only then can we see its opportunities. . . ‘

Embracing apocalypse doesn’t mean resigning ourselves to the worst-case scenario, or giving up on the idea of progress. It means believing that destruction can be a gateway to that progress, societies can and should change, and endings are also always beginnings. It means recognizing that just because we’re used to something doesn’t make it right. It means prioritizing values and ways of life that allow us to adapt and change rather than shoring up brittle social structures that crumble at the first hint of challenge or pressure. It means looking forward with clear eyes rather than scrambling backward toward an illusion of safety that has already disappeared or perhaps never really existed. It means mourning what we’ve lost while also imagining all the things we could create next. It means choosing hope, not instead of fear but alongside of it.

People have prayed the Kingdom come for millennia. Perhaps this is the moment. Not to look back and try to resurrect a structure that was ungodly in the first place – Christendom – but to look forward to connection back to community and to the land (and yes, that involves it’s history) as we face the challenges and opportunities ahead of us.

And to quote the Canadian Prime Minister in his recent comments at Davos: ‘Nostalgia is not a strategy’. It’s time to move on from what is over and find/create our new homes.

Rather than wish I (Martin) had such wisdom I am eager to learn… nostalgia is not a strategy and again I am reminded by Martin Luther’s reply to what he would do if he knew the world was ending tomorrow. He replied ‘I would plant an apple tree’. A sign of the future. The world as we have known it is ending; it will just take a little while before the powers acknowledge it. Whether the parousia takes place ‘soon’ (those words uttered some 2000 years ago) or not, we are called to sow in the light of the future. The soil has changed, the bag from which we draw the seed is different but the seed to be sown remains. Hope is within the seed and nostalgia certainly is not.

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Time for an update

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

Been forever (Jan 20th) since I posted on Sicily. Gayle has been in Malaysia (back on Tuesday) and I have survived, for that I give myself a pat on the back. As from the previous posts I have also been reading and writing about ‘Israel’ and ‘Jew’. Got a way to go on that but some things are coming clear to me. The two terms are not interchangeable – so much quickly becomes evident when looking at where the two terms are used and where they are not – in Josephus, Philo, Paul and Scripture. Anyway…

Sicily has had a tie of being battered. Initial estimates of the damage was around 750,000€ but that quickly rose to 1bn and now the suggestion is it will be closer to 2bn€ of damage. The East coast was hit hardest but many will have seen on the news the landslide in Niscemi – about 50 miles / 80 kms from where I am currently based. The weather was intensified as Sicily was the centre of the coming together of three different fronts – one from the West, one from the East and one from Africa. There is ‘weather weather’, ‘demonic weather’, and at times something to be read from the weather – the land speaks, as also does the seas. There is some element of creation speaking in the storm that has been so violent. (I have a sneaky desire that sometime into March that Mt. Etna speaks – a sign of fire… spectacular but without damage. Let’s see!)

Over these past 10 days I have sought to hold here at the level Gayle left things, she has been far east with some wonderful doors opening. (The wonderful aspect of seeking to be a Jesus’ follower has nothing to do with success but is marked by ‘where did they come from, where did they go’ (Jn. 3 illustration used of those who are born of the Spirit) is that we are all so ordinary but 2 coins ignorantly put in a treasury can change so much!)

Walking there is stuff to see. Today two street names. Of course they can be innocent but they can open one’s eyes to what part of the history is being / has been remembered. The first Civil War 1921. And if one searches google maps it is not even on there. 1921 – a time of deep unrest in Italy and the year of the formation of the Communist party and the major entry of the Fascist party into parliament, paving the away for Mussolini in 1922 to take over. The second street was December 1968 – the aftermath of one of the most significant earthquakes to hit Sicily with towns like Gibellina, Salaparuta, Montevago, and Poggioreale destroyed, and causing over 300 deaths, injuring 1,000+, and leaving around 100,000 homeless.

Avola – been a good place to kick back and be quiet, but oh my a tough place for the likes of me. So ordered and neat. It is what lies behind the order and the call for compliance. I posted a map of the internal ‘hexagon’ a few days ago… it is wrong to forget the past and probably understandable to have memorials erected, but along that main road through the middle of the hexagon down to the sea… well Madonna and child by the sea looking straight up and then walk that road and one will encounter monument after monument that has been erected to those who have ‘fallen’, ending with (the expected) obelisk at the end. Maybe some 2kms away from Mary and baby Jesus.

I have learnt something (maybe the first thing I have learned – how do you spell learnt / learned???) that with history that runs so deep what on earth is appropriate to focus on. (That was a bad sentence not sure myself if it was a question or a statement, whatever…) Whatever stops a moving forward and holds something in place needs to be addressed (whether at a personal, city, corporate or global level). The issue we (at all the above mentioned levels) all have a past -what becomes relevant is whatever blocks the entry to the future.

It could be easy to get bogged down here but I sense these days are about sight. Yes walk the streets and ‘see’, take note of street name even… but I think it is about sight for the next phase. Gayle returns Tuesday and we will then move, find a place to settle, but be mobile. In a few days after Gayle comes here we will be joined by 3 very smart women who will be so important to close phase 1, and move through phase 2 to open the way for phase 3. (Sounds like I know what I am talking about; I hear Paul say ‘don’t leave a falsehood’ so to make it clear all the above is vague, with a capital ‘V’.)

I hope to take the sight from here into the next weeks. There is a way forward from earthquakes, even from major landslides and devastation, but it should not be into the nice orderedness of conformity. Conformity offers safety. Something we run to when we feel insecure. So with the help of good feminine energy (and there is no gender in God but if there was the references to the Spirit (ruach; rechem = womb and thus the Incarnation involves the womb of the Holy Spirit and the womb of a wiling young woman)) it will be time to close down orderedness (epitomised in Christendom) and call for the release of the wild – hence a little sneaky desire for Etna to speak after those weeks.

The above might be a bit vague – and we will forever only see in part. Always enough to provoke us to pray and to seek to align with heaven… and earth.

Separate to the above and I might post on this separately at some point. Around 3-4 years ago I was praying and had in my vision a map of the world. It looked standard the same as one could buy. There are 3 major land masses on the bottom side of a map – South America, Africa and India. In one instant South America relocated underneath Europe; Africa under China – that surprised me as it happened simultaneously. But India did not move. India is the dark horse of this next era (through to 2040). An old world order is not going back – Mark Carney spoke of a rupture. The importance of the ekklesia is in focus. It is a governmental word but NOT to be understood as governing over (as per seven mountains of influence) but taking responsibility for a shape to be held so that what is healthy can grow up within it. It is not about discerning where the next trade deal can be done… they might give us signs but I am convinced we are to look for a new economy and Scripture is full of it. No need to fear ‘not allowed to buy and sell’ as that is part of an economy that is collapsing… We bumble along in Sicily, the centre of ‘middle earth’ hoping we will cluelessly contribute to the future, and staying here in Avola is underlining for me that we have to step away from being locked in what has been.

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Paul’s statistical use of Israel

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Biblical Observations

Paul uses ‘Israel / Israelites’ 13 times in Rom. 9-11 and 7 in the rest of the  Pauline literature (we will look at those below); he does not use the term ‘Israel’ in Romans outside of these 3 chapters, but uses the term ‘Jew’ on numerous occasions, but only once does he use the term ‘Jew’ inside those three chapters. His focus inside these chapters is on ‘Israel / all Israel / restoration of the twelve tribes’; outside the chapters he is diving into the Jew / Greek issue (the world as categorised that he is working within). Those statistics alone should get our attention.

Of the seven references outside of Romans 9-11 when Paul uses the term ‘Israel’, he is referring to historical / ethnic Israel. Only once does he use ’Israel’ to refer to a current entity, the ‘Israel of God’ (Gal. 6:16), 

As for those who will follow this rule—peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

‘And (καὶ) upon the Israel of God’ can either be indicating two groups – ‘those who follow this rule’ and ‘the Israel of God’, or the use of the καὶ can be ‘epexegetic’ and thus carrying a clarifying meaning – those who follow this rule who are the Israel of God. We can further contrast this phrase to Paul’s use of ‘Israel according to the flesh’ (1 Cor. 10:18). There ‘Israel’ is clearly a reference to ethnic Israel (τὸν Ἰσραὴλ κατὰ σάρκα); in Galatians his term is τὸν Ἰσραὴλ τοῦ θεοῦ. The contrast – if both terms are applied to ethnic Israel simply suggests that ‘not all who are (ethnically) Israel are of God’s Israel’. The reference then is either to that portion within ethnic Israel that has responded to Messiah (the Galatian letter is about how Jew and Greek are included in the Messiah) or he is pushing his view that those who respond in faith (who follow this rule) are descendants of Abraham (whether Jew or Gentile) and thus are the ‘Israel of God’. Regardless he is not advocating two ways to salvation!

Paul never uses the terms ‘Jew’ and ‘Israel’ synonymously (he maintains the distinction between the terms as other Jewish writers of the ‘second temple’ era do). Outside of Romans 9-11 his normal contrasting language is ‘Jew and Greek’ (Rom. 1:16; 2:9, 10, 17; 3:1,9; 1 Cor. 1:22, 24; 12:13; Gal. 3:28) or ‘Jew and Gentile’ (Rom. 3:29; 9:24; 1 Cor 1:23; Gal. 2:14-15).

I end this section with the important understanding when coming to Rom. 9-11 with the foundation that ‘Israel’ and ‘Jew’ are not synonymous terms. ‘All Israel’ cannot mean ‘every Jew’ and has to extend beyond those living in the land.

This is the fourth post seeking to follow what I am currently writing. I am about to get into the three chapters of Rom. 9-11, so it is likely to be a little while before there are other posts on this theme.

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Israel or Jew

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Biblical Observations

This is the third post of what I am working on with regard to the phrase in Paul ‘and all Israel will be saved’. This post begins to show the distinction between the terms ‘Israel’ and ‘Jew’. They are not synonymous.

Israel or Jew

A common response and understanding of the terms ‘Israel’ and ‘Jew’ is to see them as simply synonymous, such as we read in the following quote,

Generally speaking, the terms Hebrews, Jews, and Israelites all refer to the same people – the nation which sprang from Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, a nation promised and chosen by God in the Old Testament (https://www.timberlandchurch.org/articles/is-there-a-difference-between-hebrews-jews-and-israelites#:~:text=Generally%20speaking%2C%20the%20terms%20Hebrews%2C,the%20Old%20Testament%20(Genesis%2012%3A1%2D3).

The work of Jason Staples has shown that the two terms are not simply two descriptions for the one entity and that Paul follows the distinction that writers such as Josephus and Philo make.

Josephus (37-100AD) who wrote the Jewish Antiquites (a history of Israel) referred to Israel/Israelites 188 times in the first 11 volumes but does not use those words outside of those 11 volumes; he uses the term ‘Jew’ only 26 times in the first 10 volumes, but in the remaining 9 volumes he only refers to the term ‘Jew’ (1162 times), never using the term ‘Israel’. If the terms were interchangeable we would expect a much more even spread. Something happened in the history to highlight ‘Israel’ in the earlier period but ‘Jew’ in accounts relating to the later history. It was only ‘Jews’ who returned from the exile in Babylon – Jews being from the southern kingdom of Judah.

When these Jews (Ioudaioi) learned of the king’s piety towards God, and his kindness towards Ezra, they loved [him] most dearly, and many took up their possessions and went to Babylon, desiring to go down to Jerusalem. But all the people of Israel remained in that land. So it came about that only two tribes [Benjamin, a smaller tribe is included, also some from Levi who were distributed in both the northern and southern kingdoms] came to Asia and Europe and are subject to the Romans, but the ten tribes are beyond the Euphrates until now and are a countless multitude whose number is impossible to know (Ant. 11:132-133).

Jospehus writing in the Roman era describes the other 10 tribes as being beyond Roman territory. His change of usage indicates that ‘Israel’ (the 10 northern tribes that were taken away in the Assyrian conquest) did not return and he could not use the term ‘Israel’ of returning Jews. Israel was either used to refer to the whole people or the northern tribes; the Iuodaioi (Jews) were the southern kingdom that did return after the Babylonian exile.

The later volumes of Josephus cover the history after the northern kingdom went into their exile (never to return), hence those that remain are referred to as ‘Jews’. Once the Southern kingdom later returns from Babylon the people are only referred to as ‘Jews’ by Josephus; Jews then are a subset of Israel and all Jews together do not constitute Israel – this will become important when we come to Paul’s statement of ‘all Israel will be saved’.

A few paragraphs later Josephus writes,

From the time they went up from Babylon they were called by this name [Ioudaios] after the tribe of Judah. Since the tribe was the prominent one to come from those parts, both the people themselves and the country have taken their name from it (Ant. 11:173).

Jews are those from the tribe of Judah – the southern kingdom. It was the tribe of Judah and Benjamin that went into Babylonian captivity and who returned.

Within the Hebrew Bible (our Old Testament) and the books that are post-Babylonian exile the term ‘Jew’ only refers to those who were from the tribe of Judah (and Benjamin and some from Levi who were distributed across the northern and southern kingdoms). Philo of Alexandria (20-50AD) likewise uses the term Israel(ite) eighty times in his Greek works, but he never uses it synonymously with Jew, nor does he ever refer to the contemporary people as Israel or Israelites. Like Josephus, he uses Ioudaios to refer to contemporary Jews.

The shift that takes place is the demise of the northern kingdom who are taken into exile by Assyria and eventually are scattered among the nations. That northern kingdom carried the name ‘Israel’ whereas the southern kingdom was termed Judah – the tribes splitting after Solomon dies. Israel could be used as a term describing the whole people (descendents of Jacob/Israel) or of the northern kingdom by itself, but the southern kingdom was never referred to as Israel.

This distinction remains consistent in the Old Testament Scriptures. It is the ‘elders of the Jews’ (Ezra 6:14) who are those who rebuild the Temple and when the Temple is dedicated a sin offering is made for all Israel, twelve male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel (Ezra 6:17). ‘Jews’ have returned from the Babylonian exile, but the remainder of Israel had not, hence the elders were the elders of the Jews. Yet a hope persisted for the restoration of the twelve tribes (Israel / all Israel) such as was articulated by Paul,

And now I stand here on trial on account of my hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors, a promise that our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship day and night. It is for this hope, Your Excellency, that I am accused by Jews (Acts 26:6,7).

The prophetic hope was for the twelve tribes, but Paul was accused by Jews! The hope was expressed in different passages but the ‘I will make a new covenant’ passage in Jeremiah is a good summary of the future hope of restoration (emphases added below) of Israel – the fullness of the 12 tribes:

At that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people… The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals. And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord… The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Jer. 31:1, 27-28, 31-33).

[A sidenote – there was a partial return of the northern kingdom but it was ethnically mixed, being based in Samaria they were known as Samaritans. They are never known as Jews, but did refer to themselves as ‘Samarian Israelites’ or as ‘guardians of the Torah’, thus further making the identification of ‘Jew’ with those of the southern kingdom. They viewed themselves as Israelites (not as Jews) while the majority of Jews viewed them as illegitimate. The debate was not whether they were Jews – that point was agreed on by all: they were not Jews. The debate was whether they were legitimately part of Israel. Thus again we see that even the sum total of all Jews could not be termed ‘all Israel’.]

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Ethnic or faith

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Theology

Israel is both bigger than we might suppose ‘Israel’ to be and also smaller! The name Israel is used for the covenant people because of the patriarch ‘Jacob’ whose name was changed to ‘Israel’. [Israel has three applications: the land of Israel; the whole 12 tribes; and the northern ‘10 tribes’ sometimes also called ‘Ephraim’. Jews, as we will see, are part of Israel, but are not ‘Israel’. They are those who are of the tribe of Judah (and Benjamin is included, along with some of Levi who were originally distributed throughout the land).] They are the covenant people who come from the line of ‘Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’. The twelve tribes we might assume are descended from the 12 sons of Jacob / Israel but that is only approximately true. Joseph’s two sons (Ephraim and Manasseh) are described either as two tribes or as half-tribes with the two together making up the tribe of Joseph. The bigger point though is one of ethnicity. The sons of Joseph are born in Egypt to the daughter of the priest of On; Asenath, Joseph’s Egyptian wife, gave birth to two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. They are not only included but give identity as tribes so much so that in later history ‘Ephraim’ can be given as an umbrella name for the 10 northern kingdom tribes. Ethnicity is not in view! 

[There are various lists of the tribes; for example ‘Joseph’ is included in the blessing of Jacob over his sons prior to his death (Gen. 49: 3-27); in the census of the tribes (Num. 1:20-43) Ephraim and Manasseh are included (Joseph nor Levi are listed); and in Revelation 7:5-8 the list includes Manasseh, Levi and Joseph but drops Dan and Ephraim.]

At the time of the Exodus we read that not only those descended from Jacob’s immediate family exit the land but that an ‘alien’ who joined themselves to those of ‘Israel’ were to be considered as ‘natives of the land’ and as a result a ‘mixed multitude’ left Egypt (Exod. 12: 36-38). Those who enter the land are not all descended from Abraham. They are considered to be part of Israel though they are not ethnically descended from the patriarchs.

As they enter the land we read of Rahab and her household being added to the covenant people and later of Ruth (a Moabite) who becomes an ancestor of David. In the Rahab story Achan and his household (Israelites) are cut off from the people while she and her household are incorporated. Matthew in his Gospel that is very ‘Jewish’ lists both those women as part of the genealogy of Jesus.

Caleb (a great hero) was a Kennizite as was Othniel, the judge. The Kennizites were either a tribe in Canaan or descended from Kenaz, a grandson of Esau.At that level ‘Israel’ is not confined to those whose genealogies are ethnically off ‘Israel’, but includes a larger group whose allegiance is to the God of Israel,

[Y]our people shall be my people and your God my God (Ruth 1:16).

We can further add the challenges from the New Testament, such as John the Baptist’s statement that confronted the claim to ethnicity as the marker,

We have Abraham as our ancestor,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham (Matt. 3:8).

Or Paul’s pushback on ‘external’ factors as defining who is a ‘Jew’,

For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something external and physical. Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not the written code. Such a person receives praise not from humans (Rom. 2:28,29).

In those passages we have both a widening of those who are of Israel and also a narrowing. Either way faith seems to take precedence over ethnicity.

‘Israel’ being smaller than ‘Israel’ is summed up in Paul’s words,

It is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all those descended from Israel are Israelites, and not all of Abraham’s children are his descendants (Rom. 9:6,7).

This was not unique to Paul, for within Judaism (Judaisms?) this ‘narrowing’ view is what fuelled the diverse sects. The stricter the sect the more they saw themselves as truly Israel and others as not being faithful to the ways of God. The ‘sinners’ we read about in the Gospels were those considered not to be part of the covenant people, even though ethnically they might have been pure. 

‘Being cut off from this people’ meant in spite of ethnicity a failure to keep the covenant required those people to be excluded (Lev. 7:27, 18:29, 23:29); Peter uses the same understanding (now provocatively as he centres everything in on Jesus) with his entreaty to his audience to,

Save yourselves from this corrupt generation. (Acts 2:40)

Ethnicity is further challenged by Jesus in Matthew 21:43,

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruits.

The complexity of Israel being both larger and smaller than ‘Israel’ means we cannot simply draw (for example) a straight line from the Israel of the Bible to the state of Israel today.

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And (all) Israel?

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Theology

I am reading, not just some history, but material around the terms ‘Israel’ and ‘Jew’, hopefully ending up with around 10,000 words that I can put out as a pdf and then when I get back to Spain will look to host an open Zoom around the material. I thought in the process of writing as I get some material ready I will post it here and also hope that any comments will provoke me further. The final pdf might not follow the posts exactly…

All Israel will be saved (Ro. 11:26)

The verse is toward the end of Paul’s discourse that had begun in Ro. 9 and is a fitting conclusion to his statement in 9:6

It is not as though the word of God has failed.

In these chapters he is concerned to show his understanding of how God has been faithful to his promises to Israel, ending then with the fuller statement ‘And in this way all Israel will be saved’. He is focused primarily on how (‘this way’) not on a time-table (translating or reading καὶ οὕτως (kai houtōs) wrongly as ‘and then’).

In eschatology there is often a focus on the land of ‘Israel’ and events that can indicate what the time is on ‘God’s clock’. There are accusations of ‘replacement theology’ (church has replaced Israel) on the one side and of ‘Christian Zionism’ on the other, with the extreme being of two ways of ‘salvation’. This paper will suggest that we need to distinguish between two central descriptions, that of ‘Israel’ and of ‘Jews’. The central verse of Romans 11:26 (‘and all Israel will be saved’) has been taken as a statement about the future and understood to mean that in the ‘end-times’ or at the parousia there will be a wholesale turning to Jesus as Messiah. There are many difficulties with such a reading:

  • It does not use a temporal clause, such as ‘and then’ or ‘after this’.
  • It does not say ‘all Jews’ but ‘all Israel’.
  • With such a reading that proposes a future event, what about all those from Israel or all Jews who had lived prior to this future event – would this Scripture be limited to those alive at this future event? If it extends beyond this we would expect somehow that anyone ethnically of Abraham’s seed would have been ‘saved’ all along – something hard to align with the preaching in Acts (calling the audience to a response and at first the audience is only a Jewish one) or to the ‘conversion’ of Paul.

We will explore this Pauline statement, but for now I note that there is no temporal statement in this verse and to translate it as a ‘and then’ clause is simply in error. ‘In this way’ is the only valid way to translate καὶ οὕτως (kai houtōs) as it is not a temporal clause, but indicates an outcome or a result.

A second factor to consider is how the term ‘all Israel’ was used here by Paul. He has already stated that,

For not all those descended from Israel are Israelites, and not all of Abraham’s children are his descendants, but “it is through Isaac that descendants shall be named for you.” (Rom. 9:6,7).

We thus enter an interesting scenario: not all those descended from Abraham are considered to be ‘Israel’, and as we will explore, ‘Israel’ is bigger than those who are called ‘Jews’! (Smaller and larger!)

One final Scripture to add in this introduction is that of Paul’s statement before Agrippa,

And now I stand here on trial on account of my hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors, a promise that our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship day and night (Acts 26:6,7).

I get ahead of myself, but simply wanted to flag up one key direction that I will be taking, and that is the difference between the term ‘Jew’ and the bigger definition of Israel, or as Paul uses here the ‘twelve tribes’.

There are a number of aspects we need to keep in focus as we progress.

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Ten weeks and a bit more

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

It has been a little while since I have posted about our small adventure in Sicily. We are now into our 11th week here – probably about half way through. Today is the second day of a storm centred on the island; yesterday Gayle left for Malaysia with an overnight in Rome. Of course objectively Gayle is not at a Pauline level of shifting the powers but subjectively of course she is! Paul left Sicily to get to Rome and we held on to that with regard to her getting on that first stage of her journey and that she would not be storm-bound. She heads east – to the ‘far east’.

In previous posts (to the point of boredom?) I have shared my take on the ekklesiastical (yes my spelling) task. The gospel of the kingdom to the nations… or ‘the Pauline gospel to the ends of the earth’. Paul cheekingly claimed the gospel had gone throughout the entire world, knowing full-well it was impacting the entire world of the Roman empire, but the far east? I think the world-view those early Christians had was of ‘once this is completed everything follows’. Once Jerusalem was ‘split’ (Zech. 4) everything else could follow… once Rome had been ‘split’ (the apostolic task, embodied particularly in Paul) the rest can follow… and here we are at a wonderful time in history. (By split I intend to mean separated from the previous dependency and set apart to the revelation that is from heaven.) Western empires (drawing on Rome) are crumbling, the east is rising and it is time for the gospel to go eastward. And absolutely the gospel has been there in great abundance already, and at numerous levels a purer gospel, and yet…

Christendom has to go. Sicily sits in the old maps as the world under the domination of Christendom, so I do consider that if something can shift here there is a knock on effect. And for all of us anxious about the future we are told to cast our anxiety on ‘him’. For all of us who trust in the world economic system to save us we will need to shift our trust asap. For there is no ultimate shift without there being an economic jolt within cities / empires in Scripture.

Gone a bit off-track.

While Gayle has gone I have some walking to do, some sight to ask for; and predominantly have to seek to keep the western gate shut to Christendom’s appeal. Then between Gayle and I we have to allow the territory to expand, for her to sow seed where she goes that is not the seed of western imperialism. Simple task, Gayle!

Here I have time to reflect. We have considered that our time in Sicily will be marked by three phases. An angel came in a dream with a book (four corners to a book) supported at three of its ‘corners’. We discover the island is a triangle marked in history with three capes. Now we are coming to the end of the first phase – much deeper than I can grasp but essentially the issue of colonialism in the history, right through to the unification of Italy through Garibaldi (who physically began his conquest from one of three capes – the north west in Marsala). In a dream ‘he’ came saying ‘what I have done cannot be undone’. I take that two ways – a challenge and also we don’t have to ‘undo’ what has been done but to cleanse what was done. He conquered Sicily and a follow on was / has been the impoverishment of the island. From being wealthier than the northern states it became poverty-racked within a few short years following unification.

Garibaldi conquered Sicily for the king of Sardinia (Vittorio Emanuele) who once Sicily was added became the first king of Sicily. Garibaldi did this in spite of being a republican. Here in Avola (and this is repeated in other Sicilian cities – not sure about Italy) the street honouring the then king and the street named after Garibaldi cross – here it is very marked as they cross right in the mid-point of the hexagon that marks the centre of the city.

[The screenshot from blessed google shows the hexagon. The word ‘Avola’ is on the centre and holds the main square… the road from left to right passing through that square is Corso Vittorio Emanuele and the road from top to bottom crossing that square is Corso Garibaldi. This kind of imagery on land / within locations is not uncommon and helps us to have open eyes to see how history affects geography, and how history within geography shapes spiritual powers.]

I stay here in Avola while Gayle is gone and also a few days with her when she returns. Then (hopefully more than a ‘fantasy’) we will move into the second phase. It will include a re-visit to the south easterly point, a re-visit to Agrigento – a place that seems to be a pivotal point between past and future, and a revisit to Sracusa – where Paul spent three days and the Greek tyrant Dionysius ruled from, a major despot in history. That initial second phase I am sure will surprise us as to what unfolds… then toward the end of that time we will base ourselves close to Mount Etna. It would be sweet if it breathes fire as we anticipate that – but not too close!

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Jew to Gentile to Gentile to Israel

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Theology

OK still working on all of this (Rom. 9-11) and why Paul uses the term ‘Jew’ in most of his writings but then seldom uses ‘Jew’ (but uses Israel) in those chapters in Romans… leaning heavily on Jason Staples’ writings and hopefully will get a pdf out before we leave Sicily. In popular understanding ‘Jew ‘ and ‘Israel’ are synonymous and used simply for variation… however it does seem to stack up in ‘second temple’ writings nor in the NT. (This is my little break in the days from concentrating on the land here…) A lot to cover yet but before I get too deep into it all two Scriptures are with me ‘Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel‘ (not to us Jews) and then one of my ‘central’ verses from the Pauline writings,

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith (Gal 3: 12,14).

I think Paul does not go to penal substitution at any point in his writings and also we have to work with a Jew / Gentile progression (so common in Romans ‘to the Jew first then the Greeks). In these verses in Gal. 3 he presents the cross as the answer to a Jewish problem (and I use ‘Jew’ here not ‘Israel’ as his language in the previous chapter has been Jew / Gentile and then he follows in this chapter with ‘neither Jew nor Greek’. This is not to suggest that the cross is not universal in scope – it certainly is and has also to be coupled to the resurrection. Greek / Gentile I do think are more or less synonymous – the Graeco-Roman empire. Outside of the Roman world are the Barbarians, Scythians and the like!).

The curse is the curse of the law so Paul is tightly focused on the Jewish problem – he became a curse for us (usually in his tight arguments ‘us’ is us ‘Jews’. The redeeming nation is under a curse. Far from being blessed as Abraham’s seed and hence a blessing to the nations, thus they are unable to fulfil being who they were called to be for the ‘world’ / nations. Hence no hope for the world until deliverance is brought to the ‘chosen’ nation. Jesus is Israel’s Messiah. Hence it follows if ‘in Messiah’ they are the descendants of Abraham. ‘All’ who are in Messiah! Jews are not alone at being descendants of Abraham – we have to think ‘Israel’ (12 tribes, not 1), hence the change of language in Rom. 9-11.

‘Redeemed us’ so that Abraham’s blessings might not be locked up but flow to the gentiles (language ‘us’ and ‘gentiles / nations’). And then comes something that I have missed in the past as it seems to be even more tightly put… so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit (through faith). The ‘we’ language is used again. I understood that to be an inclusive ‘we’ (= ‘all’) but am being pushed to understand that Paul has in mind the promised Holy Spirit who will write the torah on the heart (OT hope particularly in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, with new covenant language applied to both the house of Israel and the house of Judah). This is for all the ‘us’ – wider than Jews but defined by who are descendants of Israel. indeed to ‘us’ (those of the house of Israel). I think this is what is expanded in Rom. 9-11.

Galatians ch. 4 (written to Gentiles, or if not exclusively to them, for them) is where Paul pulls together who are the children / descendants of Abraham. Beginning with the last verse of ch. 3: And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise. He then continues in ch. 4,

And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (Gal. 4:6).
Now you, my brothers and sisters, are children of the promise, like Isaac (Gal.4:28).

Remove the curse, the blessings can flow beyond any former boundary, for within that flow the promise to Israel can be fulfilled. There is a sequence: death in Jerusalem to unlock / break the curse open resulting in (Abrahamic) blessings to the nations and within that flow Israel also receives all that was promised – not because of ethnicity, but through faith. Far from there being some ‘end-time’ timetable, the cross is the end and the beginning, and thus (to jump to where I will eventually get to when I write) in that way all Israel will be saved. A process has been under way since that first Easter as the invitation has gone out to respond in faith to Messiah. For there is no other name under heaven by which salvation comes. No patriarch, no other god – covering both ‘to the Jew first, also to the Greek’.

I appreciate this has been a little tight with a lot of ‘what on earth do you mean by / what about this Scripture etc’… I am in process but wanted to get some of this perspective in this form ere too long.

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