Friday, June 29, 2012

2 Chronicles 4-5

4.1  bronze altar...
4.2  Sea of cast bronze...
4.2  its circumference...  There are a surprising number of web sites that deal with this verse.  Merrill Unger seems to view it as an approximation in his commentary while others like Dr. Morris have explanations about the measurement that make it more exact.  The reality is that there is an infinit number of digits to pie (and God knows them all), so it is mainly a matter of how exact the measurement should be to be considered correct in this context.
4.7  lampstands...
4.8 tables...
4.9  court of the priests...
4.11  then Huram made the pots...
5.14  for the glory of he LORD filled the house of God...

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Hebrews 3

3.1  consider the Apostle...  We don't often see this name for Christ.
3.6  if...  "If we hold fast (ean katascwmen). Condition of third class with ean and second aorist (effective) active subjunctive of katecw. This note of contingency and doubt runs all through the Epistle."   ---A. T. Robertson
3.12 (19)  unbelief...  seems to be well connected to obedience in this passage.
3.13  deceitfulness of sin...  How true.
3.14  if...  " If we hold fast (ean per katascwmen). The same condition as in verse Hebrews 6 with per (indeed, forsooth) added to ean. Jonathan Edwards once said that the sure proof of election is that one holds out to the end."   ----A. T. Robertson
3.19  because of unbelief...  This seems to be such an overused reason,  but it begs The Truth Project question, "Do you really believe that what you believe is really real."     

Hbr 03.15    Psa 95.7-11
Hbr 03.17    Num 14.35, 36
Hbr 03.2    Num 12.7
Hbr 03.7-11    Psa 95.7-11

        .

Proverbs 11.30

11.30
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; 
And he that winneth souls is wise. (KJV)
 
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, 
And he who is wise wins souls. (NASB)
 
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, 
and whoever captures souls is wise. (ESV)
 
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, 
and he who wins souls is wise. (NIV)
 
The fruit of the righteous is like a tree producing life, 
and the one who wins souls is wise. (NET Bible)
 
The seeds of good deeds become a tree of life; 
a wise person wins friends. (NLT
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As usual, Waltke is very helpful here. (pp. 511-513)

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          The fruit of the righteous is the tree of life,
          and the wise gather lives.
     As attested partially by the translation footnotes, the translation of the second line and, therefore, its meaning is difficult and obscure.  The first colon uses the tree of life (Gen. 2.9; Prov. 3.18; 12.12; 15.4) as a metaphor and considers the righteous to be its fruit.  Fruit here also carries the connotation of the consequences.  Righteousness results in life.
     According to the MT, the second line is also about the wise. The real question surrounds the meaning of the phrase here translated tentatively "gather lives" (lōqēah  nĕpaśôt ).  If this is the correct translation, there are at least two possible understandings.  First, it may be that those who receive people are those who make friends easily.  If so, then this verse fits in with the theme of friendship in the book.  The second interpretation suggests that the actions and advice of the wise preserve and enhance the lives of others.  This interpretation is the one that I lean toward.  The third interpretation is that presented by the NIV, which spiritualizes the text, perhaps understanding nepeš in the sense of "soul."  It seems to be misled by the modern expression "winning souls," but this interpretation seems quite foreign to the OT.  The difficulty with the phrase does lead many to adopt the emendation (changing "wise" [hakam] to "violence" [hamas]) suggested in part by the versions and render something like the NRSB (suported by the Septuagint):
               The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,
               but violence takes lives away.   
 ---Tremper Longman III  in Proverbs (BCOTWP)
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11:30. As a result (fruit) of righteous living a person becomes a tree of life (cf. 3:18; 13:12; 15:4), a source of a meaningful life for others (cf. the leaf in 11:28). This contrasts with a fool who troubles his family (v. 29). Wins souls in verse 30 does not mean soul-winning or evangelism. Since “win” is literally “attract or take,” the idea may be that a righteous person attracts others to wisdom. This fits the thought in the first part of the verse of a tree giving life to others by its fruit.    ---Sid S. Buzzell in The Bible Knowledge Commentary
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Proverbs 11:30 
30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,
     And the wise man winneth souls.
The lxx translate, ἐκ καρποῦ δικαιοσύνης φύεται δένδρον ζωῆς; Hitzig takes thence the word צֶדֶק; but this translation discredits itself by the unnatural reversal of the relation of fruit and tree. The fruit of the righteous is here not the good which his conduct brings to him, as Isa_3:10; Jer_32:19, but his activity itself proceeding from an internal impulse. This fruit is a tree of life. We need to supplement פְּרִי [fruit] as little here as אֹרַח [a traveller] at Pro_10:17; for the meaning of the proverb is, that the fruit of the righteous, i.e., his external influence, itself is a tree of life, namely for others, since his words and actions exert a quickening, refreshing, happy influence upon them. By this means the wise (righteousness and wisdom come together according to the saying of the Chokma, Pro_1:7) becomes a winner of souls (לקח as Pro_6:25, but taken in bonam partem), or, as expressed in the N.T. (Mat_4:19), a fisher of men, for he gains them not only for himself, but also for the service of wisdom and righteousness.   ---Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, Volume 3



cf. confer, compare
cf. confer, compare
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Verse 30 This shows what great blessings good men are, especially those that are eminently wise, to the places where they live, and therefore how much to be valued. 1. The righteous are as trees of life; the fruits of their piety and charity, their instructions, reproofs, examples, and prayers, their interest in heaven, and their influence upon earth, are like the fruits of that tree, precious and useful, contributing to the support and nourishment of the spiritual life in many; they are the ornaments of paradise, God's church on earth, for whose sake it stands. 2. The wise are something more; they are as trees of knowledge, not forbidden, but commanded knowledge. He that is wise, by communicating his wisdom, wins souls, wins upon them to bring them in love with God and holiness, and so wins them over into the interests of God's kingdom among men. The wise are said to turn many to righteousness, and that is the same with winning souls here, Dan. 12:3. Abraham's proselytes are called the souls that he had gotten, Gen. 12:5. Those that would win souls have need of wisdom to know how to deal with them; and those that do win souls show that they are wise.       ---Matthew Henry Complete
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11.30  Virtue spreads its blessings
The sense of the Heb. (AV, RV) is that a righteous man has a life-giving influence, and a wise man wins others to wisdom.  The phrase 'to win souls (i.e. people) can, however, also mean to take lives', when the context demands it (as 1 Ki. 19.4); and by substituting 'violence' (hamas) for 'wise man' (hakam), the LXX provides such a context, and is followed by RSV.  But the Old Testament knows the metaphor of capturing people with ideas or influences (cf. in a bad sense, 6.25; 2 Sa. 15.6); and the promise, 'thou shalt catch men', was doubly apt if it was meant to awaken echoes of this proverb.    ---Kidner in Proverbs: An Introduction and  Commentary (TOTC)

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Hebrews 2

2.2  a just reward...  An interesting those for those who think the OT Law was extreme and hateful.   I am going to think about this one.
2.11 both He who...  Okay if Dr. Constable is not positive about the antecedent here, I don't feel as bad about struggling to figure it out.
2.14  Being in the flesh seems to be an important part of destroying the Devil.
2.18  has suffered, being tempted...  I have never thought of being tempted as suffering, but it makes sense. 
“Think of it this way—which bridge has undergone the greatest stress, the one that collapses under its first load of traffic, or the one that bears the same traffic morning and evening, year after year?”  ---R. Kent Hughes, 1:86.

Hbr 02.12    Psa 22.22
Hbr 02.13    Psa 18.2
Hbr 02.13    2Sa 22.2
Hbr 02.13    Isa 8.18
Hbr 02.6-8    Psa 8.4-6

2 Chronicles 2-3

2 Chronicles
2.6  who is able to...  This verse reminds me of both God's infinity (and beyond) and inscrutability.  We can't really get our minds around all that He is, but meet Him at the part we understand and worship the whole.
3.10-13  Why four verses on the cherubim?
3.17  on the right hand Jachin ... on the left Boaz...  I wonder if anybody still gives names to pillars in a building (other than after contributors)?
     "Described here are the two pillars set up at the entrance of the Temple, one call Jachin ("He shall establish") and the other Boaz ("in Him is strength").  Like the Syrian shrine descovered at Tell Tainat, Solomon's edifice had two columns that stood within the porico.  Such pillars flanking the main entrance of a temple were common in the first millenniumB.C. in Syria, Phoenicia, and Cyprus.
     In Solomn's Temple, following a common Oriental custom, they bore the distictive names of jachin and Boaz.  It has been convincingly demonstrated that the names of the two columns represented the first words of dynastic oracles taht were ascribed upon them (cf. R. B. Y. Scott, JBL 58 (1939): ff.; and Paul L. Garber, "Reconstructing Soolomon's Tabernacle," BA 14 (Feb. 1951): 8-10). The Jachin formula may have been soething like "Yaweh will establish [yakin] thy throne forever." The boaz oracle, on the other hand, may have run, "In Yahweh the king's strength [bo'az]," or a similar formula."
---Unger's Commentary on the Old Testament (0n 1 Kings 7.15-22), p.580