Esther and Malachi

1
Esther and Malachi
2

• 12/2/06 10 AM
• Next Thursday Bible study 1/4/2006
• 12/9/06 Oak Glen Fellowship

3

• 586 BC Fall of Jerusalem
• 538 BC Edict of Cyrus to return
• 520 BC Haggai and Zechariah
  Zerubbabel and Joshua
• 516 BC Dedication of the sanctuary
• 480 BC Esther
• 458 BC Ezra arrives in Jerusalem
• 445 BC Nehemiah
• ..Malachi

4

• Don't imagine that you are safer than any other
  Jew just because you are in the royal palace. If
  you keep quiet at a time like this, help will
  come from heaven to the Jews, and they will be
  saved, but you will die and your father's family
  will come to an end. Yet who knows---maybe it was
  for a time like this that you were made queen!
  Esther sent Mordecai this reply Go and get all
  the Jews in Susa together hold a fast and pray
  for me. Don't eat or drink anything for three
  days and nights. My servant women and I will be
  doing the same. After that, I will go to the
  king, even though it is against the law. If I
  must die for doing it, I will die. (Esther
  413-16 GN)

5

• 586 BC Fall of Jerusalem
• 538 BC Edict of Cyrus to return
• 520 BC Haggai and Zechariah
  Zerubbabel and Joshua
• 516 BC Dedication of the sanctuary
• 480 BC Esther
• 458 BC Ezra arrives in Jerusalem
• 445 BC Nehemiah
• ..Malachi

6

• For he makes his sun to shine on bad and good
  people alike, and gives rain to those who do good
  and to those who do evil. (Matthew 545 GN)

7
Malachi

• This is the message that the LORD gave Malachi
  to tell the people of Israel. The LORD says to
  his people, I have always loved you. But they
  reply, How have you shown your love for us?
  (Malachi 11-2 GN)
• The LORD Almighty says to the priests, Children
  honor their parents, and servants honor their
  masters. I am your father---why dont you honor
  me? I am your master---why dont you respect me?
  You despise me, and yet you ask, How have we
  despised you? (Malachi 16 GN)
• Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets and
  stone the messengers God has sent you! How many
  times I wanted to put my arms around all your
  people, just as a hen gathers her chicks under
  her wings, but you would not let me! (Matthew
  2337)

8

• It is the duty of priests to teach the true
  knowledge of God. People should go to them to
  learn my will, because they are the messengers of
  the LORD Almighty. But now you priests have
  turned away from the right path. Your teaching
  has led many to do wrong. You have broken the
  covenant I made with you. (Malachi 27-8 GN)
• The people of Judah have broken their promise to
  God and done a horrible thing in Jerusalem and
  all over the country. They have defiled the
  Temple which the LORD loves. (Malachi 211 GN)
  

9

• Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will
  prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are
  seeking will suddenly come to his Temple. The
  messenger of the covenant, whom you look for so
  eagerly, is surely coming, says the Lord
  Almighty. But who will be able to endure it when
  he comes? Who will be able to stand and face him
  when he appears? For he will be like a blazing
  fire that refines metal or like a strong soap
  that whitens clothes. He will sit and judge like
  a refiner of silver, watching closely as the
  dross is burned away. He will purify the Levites,
  refining them like gold or silver, so that they
  may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the
  Lord. Then once more the Lord will accept the
  offerings brought to him by the people of Judah
  and Jerusalem, as he did in former times.
  (Malachi 31-3 NLT)

10

• Where is this so-called Father of yours? Jesus
  said, Youre looking right at me and you dont
  see me. How do you expect to see the Father? If
  you knew me, you would at the same time know the
  Father. (John 819 The Message)
• Why do you not understand what I say? It is
  because you cannot bear to listen to my message.
  You are the children of your father, the Devil,
  and you want to follow your father's
  desiresThey asked Jesus, Were we not right in
  saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon
  in you?I am telling you the truth, Jesus
  replied. Before Abraham was born, 'I Am'. Then
  they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus
  hid himself and left the Temple. (John
  843,44,48,58,59 GN)

11

• Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will
  prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are
  seeking will suddenly come to his Temple. The
  messenger of the covenant, whom you look for so
  eagerly, is surely coming, says the Lord
  Almighty. But who will be able to endure it when
  he comes? Who will be able to stand and face him
  when he appears? For he will be like a blazing
  fire that refines metal or like a strong soap
  that whitens clothes. He will sit and judge like
  a refiner of silver, watching closely as the
  dross is burned away. He will purify the Levites,
  refining them like gold or silver, so that they
  may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the
  Lord. Then once more the Lord will accept the
  offerings brought to him by the people of Judah
  and Jerusalem, as he did in former times.

12

• I came to this world to judge, so that the blind
  should see and those who see should become
  blind. (John 939 GN)
• Jeremiah, I have made you a tester of metals,
  that you may determine the quality of my people.
  Are they not the worst of rebels, full of
  slander? They are as insolent as bronze, as hard
  and cruel as iron. All of them lead others into
  corruption. The bellows blow fiercely. The
  refining fire grows hotter. But it will never
  purify and cleanse them because there is no
  purity in them to refine. I will label them
  Rejected Silver because I, the Lord, am
  discarding them. (Jeremiah 627-30 NLT)

13

• Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will
  prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are
  seeking will suddenly come to his Temple. The
  messenger of the covenant, whom you look for so
  eagerly, is surely coming, says the Lord
  Almighty. But who will be able to endure it when
  he comes? Who will be able to stand and face him
  when he appears? For he will be like a blazing
  fire that refines metal or like a strong soap
  that whitens clothes. He will sit and judge like
  a refiner of silver, watching closely as the
  dross is burned away. He will purify the Levites,
  refining them like gold or silver, so that they
  may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the
  Lord. Then once more the Lord will accept the
  offerings brought to him by the people of Judah
  and Jerusalem, as he did in former times.

14

• Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first
  to be raised from death and who is also the ruler
  of the kings of the world. He loves us, and by
  his sacrificial death he has freed us from our
  sins and made us a kingdom of priests to serve
  his God and Father. (Revelation 15,6 GN)

15

• Come to the Lord, the living stone rejected by
  people as worthless but chosen by God as
  valuable. Come as living stones, and let
  yourselves be used in building the spiritual
  temple, where you will serve as holy priests to
  offer spiritual and acceptable sacrifices to God
  through Jesus Christ. For the scripture says, I
  chose a valuable stone, which I am placing as the
  cornerstone in Zion and whoever believes in him
  will never be disappointed. This stone is of
  great value for you that believe but for those
  who do not believe The stone which the builders
  rejected as worthless turned out to be the most
  important of all. And another scripture says,
  This is the stone that will make people stumble,
  the rock that will make them fall. They stumbled
  because they did not believe in the word such
  was Gods will for them. But you are the chosen
  race, the King's priests, the holy nation, Gods
  own people, chosen to proclaim the wonderful acts
  of God, who called you out of darkness into his
  own marvelous light. (1 Peter 24-9 GN)

16

• I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters,
  by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as
  a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,
  which is your spiritual worship. (Romans 121
  NRSV)
• With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg
  you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent
  worship, to give your bodies, as a living
  sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by
  him. Dont let the world around you squeeze you
  into its own mould, but let God re-make you so
  that your whole attitude of mind is changed
  (Romans 121,2 J.B. Phillips)

17

• You have said terrible things about me, says
  the LORD. But you ask, What have we said about
  you? (Malachi 313 GN)
• All those who truly respected the LORD and
  honored his name started discussing these things,
  and when God saw what was happening, he had their
  names written as a reminder in his book. Then the
  LORD All-Powerful said You people are precious
  to me, and when I come to bring justice, I will
  protect you, just as parents protect an obedient
  child. (Malachi 316,17 CEV)
• Once again my people will see the difference
  between what happens to the righteous and to the
  wicked, to the person who serves me and the one
  who does not. (Malachi 318 GN)

18

• The LORD Almighty says, The day is coming when
  all proud and evil people will burn like straw.
  On that day they will burn up, and there will be
  nothing left of them. But for you who obey me, my
  saving power will rise on you like the sun and
  bring healing like the suns rays. You will be as
  free and happy as calves let out of a stall.
  (Malachi 41-2 GN)

19

• The sinners in Zion are terrified trembling
  grips the godless Who of us can dwell with the
  consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with
  everlasting burning? He who walks righteously
  and speaks what is right (Isaiah 3314-15
  NIV)
• As wax melts in front of the fire, so do the
  wicked perish in his presence. But the righteous
  are glad and rejoice in his presence they are
  happy and shout for joy. (Psalms 682 GN)

20

• This is not an act of arbitrary power on the
  part of God. The rejecters of His mercy reap that
  which they have sown. God is the fountain of
  life and when one chooses the service of sin, he
  separates from God, and thus cuts himself off
  from life. He is alienated from the life of
  God. Christ says, All they that hate Me love
  death. Ephesians 418 Proverbs 836. God gives
  them existence for a time that they may develop
  their character and reveal their principles. This
  accomplished, they receive the results of their
  own choice. By a life of rebellion, Satan and all
  who unite with him place themselves so out of
  harmony with God that His very presence is to
  them a consuming fire. The glory of Him who is
  love will destroy them.
• At the beginning of the great controversy, the
  angels did not understand this. Had Satan and his
  host then been left to reap the full result of
  their sin, they would have perished but it would
  not have been apparent to heavenly beings that
  this was the inevitable result of sin. A doubt of
  Gods goodness would have remained in their minds
  as evil seed, to produce its deadly fruit of sin
  and woe. (DA, 764)

21

• We are not to regard God as waiting to punish
  the sinner for his sin. The sinner brings the
  punishment upon himself. His own actions start a
  train of circumstances that bring the sure
  result. Every act of transgression reacts upon
  the sinner, works in him a change of character,
  and makes it more easy for him to transgress
  again. By choosing to sin, men separate
  themselves from God, cut themselves off from the
  channel of blessing, and the sure result is ruin
  and death. (Letter 96, 1896)
• God does not stand toward the sinner as an
  executioner of the sentence against
  transgression but He leaves the rejectors of His
  mercy to themselves, to reap that which they have
  sown. (GC, 36)

22
The English Translation of the Bible
23
Ancient versions for the Jews

• Old Testament Hebrew, some Aramaic
• New Testament Greek
• Septuagint (Greek) 285 246 B.C.
• Jewish Targums (Aramaic)

24
Ancient versions for Christians

• Syriac Versions (a branch of Aramaic)
• Latin Vulgate pre-Jerome (342-420) Latin
  translations were abundant and unreliable

25

• For almost 1,000 years the Vulgate was the
  recognized text of Scripture
• Justification
• Sanctification
• Expiation
• Propitiation
• Salvation
• Reconciliation

26
English Bibles pre-KJV

• John Wycliffe (1330-1384)
• The Bible is the sole criterion of doctrine
• The authority of the pope is not found in
  scripture
• Handwritten translation from the Latin
• 1382 literal
• 1388 much more readable
• The only English Bible until 1526

27

• About 180 copies survive

28
English Bibles pre-KJV

• First printed Hebrew OT 1488
• First published Greek NT 1516
• William Tyndale
• Educated at Oxford and Cambridge in Greek and
  Hebrew
• English version, based on the Greek and Hebrew
• NT completed in 1525
• Only the clergy qualified to read the Bible?
• If God spare my life, ere many years, I will
  cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more
  of the Scripture than thou dost.

29

• Tyndale
• Tush, ye shall not die. (Genesis 34)
• the Lorde was with Joseph, and he was a luckie
  felowe. (Genesis 392)
• Lord, open the king of Englands eyes
• 80 or more of the English Bible down to the
  Revised Version has been estimated to be his

30
(No Transcript)
31

• Miles Coverdale (1535) first printed edition
• NT based on Tyndales translation
• OT based on the Vulgate
• Matthews Bible (1537)
• Pseudonym John Rogers
• Tyndale revision
• Burned alive in 1555 Rogers died with such
  composure that it might have been a wedding
• Richard Taverners Bible (1539)
• The Great Bible (1539) the largest Bible
  (15x10)
• A revision of the Matthews Bible

32
(No Transcript)
33

• Edmund Becks Bibles (1549, 1551)
• In the same way you husbands must live with your
  wives with the proper understanding that they are
  more delicate than you. Treat them with
  respect... (1 Peter 37 GN)
• And if she be not obedient and healpeful unto
  hym endeavoureth to beate the feare of God into
  her heade

34

• The Geneva Bible (1560)
• Persecution in England, led to Protestants
  fleeing to Geneva, Switzerland
• The names of the translators were hidden (William
  Whittingham)
• From 1560 to 1616 a new edition was published
  every year!
• The Bible of Shakespeare, John Bunyan, Puritan
  pilgrims, King James
• Breeches Bible They sewed figge-tree leaves
  together and made themselves breeches (Genesis
  37)
• Marginal notes the angel of the bottomless pit
  the pope
• King James decision in 1604 for a new translation

35

• The Bishops Bible (1558)
• Revisers were bishops
• Displaced the Great Bible in churches
• Rheims-Douay Bible (1582-1610)
• An English version for Catholics
• A translation from the Latin Vulgate
• Footnotes
• Protestant hereticks
• Two religions, God and Baal, Christ and Calvin,
  Masse and Communion, the Catholike Church and
  Heretical Conventicales.

36
The King James Bible (1611)

• 1604 Committee of 50 learned men
• Lancelot Andrews had he been present at the
  tower of Babel, he could have served as
  interpreter general.
• Rules
• The Bishops Bible was to be followed with as
  little altered as the truth of the original will
  permit and to include other translations
  Tindolls Matthews, Coverdales, Whitechurchs
  (the Great Bible), and Geneva.
• Marginal notes only to explain the Greek and
  Hebrew
• Italics used

37
Preface

• The KJV is a REVISION, not a new translation
  (although they did have the original Greek and
  Hebrew)
• The KJV is really a revision of the Bishop
  Bible....which was a revision of the Great Bible,
  which was a revision of Coverdale and Tyndale.
• The "credit" of the KJV in terms of vocabulary
  should go to Tyndale, the expression and harmony
  to Coverdale, the scholarship and accuracy to the
  Geneva Bible.

38
Preface

• In the preface, the translators of the KJV said
  that they used a variety of English words to
  translate a single Greek or Hebrew word.
• For example, they translated a single Greek word
  that occurs 27 times in the NT (katargeo) into 18
  different English words.
• At the same time, they often did the same thing
  on the opposite end of the spectrum, where one
  English word was used to express several
  different Greek or Hebrew words. For example, the
  English word "trouble" was used to translate
  about a dozen different Greek words.

39

• The first printed version of the KJV contained
  about one error for every 10 pages - some of
  these errors, due to printing, persist in the
  current KJV today.
• Matthew 2334 "Ye blind guides, which strain at a
  gnat, and swallow a camel" should have been
  printed, "strain out a gnat."
• 1631 printed edition of Exodus 2014 "Thou shalt
  commit adultery"!

40

• Weakness
• No standard edition of the Hebrew Masoretic text
• A partially corrupt Erasmus Greek text of the OT
• Codux Alexandrinus not available
• Many errors in the book of Job, Isaiah
• But, the best Bible to date

41

• Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation
  through faith in his blood (Romans 325 KJV)
• Hilasterion literally the lid of the
  covenant box.
• Luther Gnadstuhl
• Tyndale Mercy Seat
• God showed that Christ is the throne of mercy
  where God's approval is given through faith in
  Christ's blood (GODS WORD)
• God publicly displayed him at his death as the
  mercy seat accessible through faith. (NET)

42
NKJV (1982)

• Updated language but still.
• day of his espousals (Song of Songs 311)
• dandled (Isaiah 6612)
• Inferior edition of the Greek text

43

• In these lay a great multitude of sick people,
  blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of
  the water. For an angel went down at a certain
  time into the pool and stirred up the water then
  whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of
  the water, was made well of whatever disease he
  had. Now a certain man was there who had an
  infirmity thirty-eight years. (John 53-5
  NKJV)
• Few textual scholars today would accept the
  authenticity of any portion of vv. 3b4, for they
  are not found in the earliest and best
  witnesses. Biblical Studies Press. 2003 2003.
  The NET Bible Notes .

44
Between the KJV and the RV (1870)

• Private versions
• Edward Harwoods NT (1768)
• Charles Thomsons Bible (1808)
• Noah Websters Bible (1833)
• Found 150 words and phrases in the KJV to be
  erroneous or misleading. Almost all used by the
  RV.
• Julia E. Smiths Bible (1876)

45

• Mid-1800s the Greek manuscripts had shown
  beyond question that the KJV was based upon a
  Greek text that contained the accumulated errors
  of fifteen centuries of manuscript copying. (The
  Bible in Translation, pg. 100 Metzger)
• English Revised Version (1870-1895)
• And they did eat, and were all filled and there
  was taken up that which remained over to them of
  broken pieces, twelve baskets. (Luke 917)
• American Standard Version (1901)
• KJV still more popular at this time

46
Modern speech versions

• Discovery of large numbers of Greek papyri
• It became clear that the NT documents were
  written in a plain, simple style to meet the
  needs of ordinary men and women. Should they not
  then be translated into the same kind of
  English? (The Bible in Translation, pg. 105,
  Metzger)
• The Twentieth Century NT (1901,1904)
• Weymouths NT in Modern Speech (1903)
• Moffatts Translation of the Bible (1913,1924-5)
• Smith and Goodspeeds American Translation
  (1923,1927)

47

• Revised Standard Version (1952) New Revised
  Standard Version (1990)
• Revision of the ASV, using best Hebrew and Greek
  sources
• the most up-to-date textual studies of the NT
  (Essential Guide to Bible Versions, Comfort, page
  175)
• New Jerusalem Bible (1966)
• The first Catholic Bible in English translated
  from the Greek and Hebrew
• New English Bible (1970)
• Asphodel, lapis lazuli, panniers, reck, ruffled
  bustard, runnels of water, and stook

48

• New International Version (1978)
• Somewhere in between a literal translation and a
  free, modern-speech edition
• Since 1987 has outsold the KJV
• New American Standard Bible (1971,1995)
• Literal translation
• J.B. Phillips Version (1972)
• Of all modern English translations of the NT
  epistles, this is one of the best perhaps
  actually the best for the ordinary reader.
  (The English Bible, pg.223, Bruce)

49

• If I speak with the eloquence of men and of
  angels, but have no love, I become no more than
  blaring brass or crashing cymbal. If I have the
  gift of foretelling the future and hold in my
  mind not only all human knowledge but the very
  secrets of God, and if I also have that absolute
  faith which can move mountains, but have no love,
  I amount to nothing at all. If I dispose of all
  that I possess, yes, even if I give my own body
  to be burned, but have no love, I achieve
  precisely nothing. This love of which I speak is
  slow to lose patience - it looks for a way of
  being constructive. It is not possessive it is
  neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish
  inflated ideas of its own importance. Love has
  good manners and does not pursue selfish
  advantage. It is not touchy. It does not keep
  account of evil or gloat over the wickedness of
  other people. On the contrary, it is glad with
  all good men when truth prevails. Love knows no
  limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no
  fading of its hope it can outlast anything. It
  is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when
  all else has fallen. For if there are prophecies
  they will be fulfilled and done with, if there
  are tongues the need for them will disappear,
  if there is knowledge it will be swallowed up in
  truth. For our knowledge is always incomplete and
  our prophecy is always incomplete, and when the
  complete comes, that is the end of the
  incomplete. When I was a little child I talked
  and felt and thought like a little child. Now
  that I am a man my childish speech and feeling
  and thought have no further significance for me.
  At present we are men looking at puzzling
  reflections in a mirror. The time will come when
  we shall see reality whole and face to face! At
  present all I know is a little fraction of the
  truth, but the time will come when I shall know
  it as fully as God now knows me! In this life we
  have three great lasting qualities - faith, hope
  and love. But the greatest of them is love (1
  Corinthians 131-13, JB Phillips).

50
Easy to read translations (ABS)

• The Good News Bible (1976)
• The GNB is not a word-for-word translation.
  Instead it adopts the principlecalled
  dynamic/functional equivalence
• Stresses the clear meaning of each passage
• The Contemporary English Bible (1995)
• Directly from the best available original texts
• Designed for early youth

51
Paraphrase Translations

• Free rendering or amplification of a passage,
  expression of its sense in other words.
• Living Bible (1971)
• Paraphrase of the ASV into simple English
• Mid-1970s 46 of all Bible sales in the USA
• The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of
  Tekoa (ASV)
• Amos was a herdsman living in the village of
  Tekoa. All day long he sat on the hillsides
  watching the sheep, keeping them from straying.
  (LB)
• New Living Translation (1996)
• Dynamic/functional equivalence rather than
  paraphrase
• Reading level junior-high student

52
Paraphrase translations
53
Paraphrase Translations

• The Message (2000)
• This version of the NT in a contemporary idiom
  keeps the language of the message current and
  fresh and understandable in the same language in
  which we do our shopping, talk with our friends,
  worry about world affairs, and teach our children
  their table manners. The goal is not to render a
  word-for-word conversion of Greek into English,
  but rather to convert the tone, the rhythm, the
  events, the ideas, into the way we actually think
  and speak. (introduction, page 7)

54

• Does not choose simple English words, but
  power-packed words to convey the meaning
• Chagrined, embryonic, resplendent
• It is obvious what kind of life develops out of
  trying to get your own way all the time
  repetitive, loveless, cheap sex a stinking
  accumulation of mental and emotional garbage
  frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness trinket
  gods magic-show religion paranoid loneliness
  cutthroat competition all-consuming-yet-never-sat
  isfied wants a brutal temper an impotence to
  love or be loved divided homes and divided
  lives small-minded and lopsided pursuits the
  vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a
  rival uncontrolled and uncontrollable
  addictions ugly parodies of community. I could
  go on. (Galatians 519-21 The Message)

55

• And if someone takes unfair advantage of you,
  use the occasion to practice the servant life. No
  more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously. Youre
  familiar with the old written law, Love your
  friend, and its unwritten companion, Hate your
  enemy. Im challenging that. Im telling you to
  love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in
  you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard
  time, respond with the energies of prayer, for
  then you are working out of your true selves,
  your God-created selves. This is what God does.
  He gives his bestthe sun to warm and the rain to
  nourishto everyone, regardless the good and
  bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love
  the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can
  do that. If you simply say hello to those who
  greet you, do you expect a medal? Any
  run-of-the-mill sinner does that. In a word, what
  Im saying is, Grow up. Youre kingdom subjects.
  Now live like it. Live out your God-created
  identity. Live generously and graciously toward
  others, the way God lives toward you. (Matthew
  544-48 The Message)

56

• New Century Version (1991)
• Readable down to 3rd grade level

57

• GODS Word (1995)
• Natural equivalence
• Avoid the extremes of formal equivalence
  (literal), but the errors of dynamic/functional
  equivalence (inaccuracy due to oversimplification)
  

58

• For God has done what the law, weakened by the
  flesh, could not do by sending his own Son in
  the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with
  sin, he condemned sin in the flesh (Romans 83
  NRSV)
• But God sent his Son to have a human nature as
  sinners have and to pay for sin. (GODS Word)
• to be an offering to pay for sin (NCV)
• for sin (KJV)
• God went for the jugular when he sent his own
  Son. He didnt deal with the problem as something
  remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he
  personally took on the human condition, entered
  the disordered mess of struggling humanity in
  order to set it right once and for all. The law
  code, weakened as it always was by fractured
  human nature, could never have done that. (The
  Message)

59

• Strength in numbers