Here’s a FULL, PRICELESS STRING OF PRISON-BREAKING GEMs FOR YOU!
G.E.M.s = God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you to sparkle brightly with insights from Cobbey Crisler & others as inspired by God and The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“ADAM AND FALLEN MAN”
for Sunday, November 10, 2024
(Cobbey’s insights are shared with the blessing of Janet Crisler janetcrisler7@gmail.com)
by Warren Huff, CedarS Executive Director Emeritus,
warren@cedarscamps.org • 314-378-2574
ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR ORIGIN AS THE DOMINION MAN CLIMAX OF SPIRIT’S CREATION — AS SPIRIT’S VERY GOOD IMAGE AND LIKENESS
transcribed in W. notes on Cobbey’s talks on Genesis 1- 2:5/citations B1 –the true account:
[Cobbey Crisler:] “Genesis chapter 1 was written in response to the Hebrew people’s crisis of exile.
“Verse 2 attempts to explain how creation occurred as well as how a new beginning could occur out of the vacuity of nothingness of exile. To the post-exilic authors of Genesis 1 “the earth was without form and void” – or “Toe-who” and Boe-who” – the translated names of the Babylonian mythical leviathan-like, sea monster and their mythical behemoth-like, land monster. The modern-day myth is that we evolved from the sea to be dry land creatures with a refined further way of animal thought and life. Human thought was dark much like “darkness on the face of the waters.” … Spirit is the root of the whole word inspiration… No advance can occur in life without inspiration—so “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”… This happens also when Jesus is baptized, coming “straightway out of the water,” as part of a divine announcement. He sees “the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him.” (Matthew 3:16) Consequently, one recognizes that if Spirit represents the motive of his career, it’s an inspired career…
“It’s how the entire Bible begins (Genesis 1:2) because “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” It’s almost as if in Jesus’ baptism, we’re getting this genesis of God’s creation, that first chapter, applied on earth. The Spirit is moving on those waters in which Jesus is standing. There is a Spirit genesis here. Look at what happened in Genesis 1 in those brief verses when creation is depicted for us.”
Verse 3 (from a bumper sticker that Barry Huff enjoyed seeing) “The Big Bang theory: “Let there be light” and BANG! It happened!”) “Light (“or” in Hebrew, “phos” in Greek) was created before the stars… The motif here is that of the creation of the world by the WORD and a differentiation between the light and light-bearers.” Theological Dictionary of the New Testament
Verse 4 records the first Quality Control-check—“it was good.”
Application ideas:
“Any lack of originality is only a lack of knowledge about your true origin.”
Compare the development of any right idea in business or otherwise to the mental model of creation in Genesis 1 (cit. B1) and the start of Genesis 2:
Verse 3 = the dawning of the light or idea
Verses 4-6 = the analysis (compare and divide as on the first day)
Verses 7-10 = the decisive, solid manifestation of the idea (dry land appears)
Verses 11-12 = investment in the idea and its productivity
Verse 13 = exposing the idea to light universally, marketing it
Verse 14-31 = diversification (lights for seasons, living creatures multiplying, male & female)
Verse 2:1-3 = rest (not inertia, but success of the idea and its continuing yield)
DISCOVER THE INDIVISIBLE NATURE OF GOD’S CREATION from the end of Genesis 1 (citation B1) in notes from Cobbey Crisler talks as transcribed by Warren):
[Cobbey said:] “Searching the scriptures does require scuba diving or at least snorkeling because there’s a need for both clear vision and inspiration.
Verse 26 Here in a book noted for its monotheism we find plural words relative to God. (“Let US make man in OUR likeness…”) Father-Mother (F-M) must be together indivisibly or we have more than one God. If there’s indivisibility in the original there must be indivisibility in the product.
Verse 27. To have Male-Female (M-F) in the product means that it’s in the original.
On IMAGE, Clemet of Alexandria wrote: “In our view, image of God is not an object of sense, but a mental object, perceived not by the senses, but by the mind.” But in Genesis 2:7 the mental model is dropped and in the material account of creation God forms man out of dust—the very OPPOSITE view.
This mimics the opposite view of male and female that is widely promoted in which sex promises us all satisfaction in physical unity—but does it deliver? The very definition of sex is division, not indivisibility. “The sensualist’s affections… and pleasures” would put one through lots of fitful, mental contortions that Mary Baker Eddy describes as “imaginary, whimsical, and unreal” (Science and Health, 241:8).
(Transcribed from notes taken by Warren Huff during several Cobbey Crisler talks from the margins of W’s Bible.)
An excerpt from “Stronger than Armies” by Beulah May Booth, February 27, 1943, CSS
The following experience illustrates how the almost universal fear of enemy attack can be met.
In a Lesson-Sermon, “Adam and Fallen Man,” the following verses from the Old Testament appeared: “And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked?” A student’s thought was arrested by that searching question, and upon looking up the word “naked” found the following illuminating definitions: open to attack, unprotected, unshielded, defenseless, exposed, and without support. Then it became clear that the question could be paraphrased thus: Who told thee that thou wast unguarded, unprotected, unshielded, defenseless, exposed, and without support or substance? That was indeed a startling question, and when applied repeatedly in solving problems it was found to be practical.
In the night this student was called to a patient and found the family in great consternation and fear because, as they said, the aged mother had had a stroke. When they were asked: “Who told you that your mother had a stroke? Did God tell you?” they were amazed, and finally replied, “No, God didn’t tell us.” “Then who did tell you?” they were asked. The daughter said, “The devil must have told us.” Then the Scientist replied: “Are you going to believe Satan? Are you going to be fooled? Now you tell Satan what you think of him. Jesus called him a liar, and you can do the same. Turn away from the error; deny all that it claims, and affirm the truth.”
To all appearances the mother had been passing on, but with the clear and joyous realization that because man is spiritual, no one had been open to attack, unguarded, unshielded, unprotected, also that there was no mortal mind to deceive or to attack God’s child because God is All-in-all, the patient was quietly sleeping within an hour. The following morning a call came from the mother stating that she was up early and was leaving to attend to her regular duties. Needless to say, she was rejoicing in another proof of the healing power of Truth and Love.
The Word of God in the Bible, in our textbook and our Leader’s other writings and in the organs of The Mother Church established by her, shows forth the omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience—yea, the allness—of divine Love, which is stronger than all the armies of earth and is the very presence of God made manifest.
READ ABOUT & FIND HEALING IN A SIMPLE, CLASSIC POEM THAT DEBUNKS THE FABLE OF YOUR DUST-MAN ORIGIN WITH THE FACT OF YOUR SPIRITUAL ROOTS!
(Lock into your Genesis 1/Golden Text origin vs. a Genesis 2 man evolved from dust)
GENESIS 1 OR GENESIS 2
by Woodruff Smith
Where did it begin this idea called you?
In Genesis 1, or Genesis 2?
Which one of these concepts
Will prove to be true?
If you know what is what,
Do you know who is who?
In Genesis 1 in the 26th verse
There’s a man with never a taint’ of a curse.
But in Genesis 2 in verse number seven
There’s a dust man conceived…
He’ll never see heaven.
So, it really comes down
To which one you will claim,
What thou see’st thou be’st…
So, what is your name?
There they both stand.
Which one is you?
Is it immortal man one,
Or mortal man two?
If you’re immortal man
You know what you’re worth.
For according to law
You’ll inherit the earth.
But if you’re just a mortal
And made out of dust…
Is there anything to you
That’s worthy of trust?
No, the thing they call man
In Genesis 2
Is the dream of the dreamer.
It never was you.
So, know what you are.
Take your place in the sun,
You’re the immortal man
Of Genesis 1.
TESTIMONY OF HEALING [“The proof is in the pudding.”]
I gave a testimony one night in our Golden, Colorado church based on the ideas from a poem I really liked, which said, “Which of these men do you think of as you, Genesis One or Genesis Two?”
A couple of weeks later a businessman, not knowing I was behind him, probably, testified that he had heard a rather banal, trite testimony a couple of weeks ago from someone who recited that line, “Which of these men do you think of as you, Genesis One or Genesis Two?” and he thought it was so trivial, so lightweight.
He went to a business meeting in Atlanta, Georgia after that and was in a hotel room in the middle of the night, sound asleep with his wife beside him, when he had a massive heart attack.
He said he wasn’t naive, he knew what was happening, and he knew he was in a life-threatening situation. He was totally helpless, so helpless he could not even cry out to his wife for help, obviously could not call a practitioner, and he said for the first time in
his life he felt completely helpless. He tried to
repeat the Lord’s Prayer, the 23rd Psalm, the Scientific Statement of Being, but he couldn’t remember them, couldn’t put them together.
He felt totally mentally jumbled and then he recalled a very simplistic statement…”Which of these men do you think of as you, Genesis One or Genesis Two?” and he realized that it wasn’t so banal after all, that if he were a Genesis Two man he would probably not live through the night, but if he were a Genesis One man he could claim his dominion over
the “things of the flesh.”
He did it. He said the pain lifted immediately and he felt whole and well. He decided the poem was OK after all.
–Lona lngwerson, CS
| Genesis Roundtable – First day of creation Click here to view: https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/ime05d2dxu?s=e |
If you like this content, you can find more like it in the online Christian Science Sentinel.
SEE HUMANITY’S CURES AS BEING WAY BEYOND MERELY MEDICAL SOLUTIONS. Cobbey on Isaiah 1- Isaiah 2:22/citation B7: “Cease ye from Adam”
[Cobbey Crisler on the next verses:] Isaiah 1:5 and 6. Isn’t this a question of Isaiah asking all humanity, “Why should you be stricken any more? You will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head [there is] no soundness in it: [but] wounds and bruises, and putrefying sores.” That’s Job’s problem written right out there. That’s his record that he that he didn’t want to have as his witness any more when he said [in Job 16:19] “my record is on high.” They must not have been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.” Here is even Isaiah bearing witness that the application of medicine has not cured what humanity needs to have cured.
In Isaiah 2:22/citation B7 maybe this is part of the solution? What’s the recommended solution? “Cease ye from man.” That word in Hebrew is actually the Hebrew word “Adam.” It literally reads, “Cease ye from Adam whose breath [is] in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?”
“Heal the Sick”: A Scriptural Record,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
Cobbey Crisler on Matthew 1:18-23 Jesus’ nativity
One of the recognizable features of the Messiah would be that he would be the son of David. Don’t you suspect that this is probably the prime, if not one of the prime, reasons why Matthew includes the genealogy?
But we have a problem with that. What is that problem? If they trace it through the male line, through Joseph, and if Joseph is a son of David, is there any connection with ancestry here with David if it goes through Mary? This is a challenging question. We can, perhaps, answer it, though, because of the Torah. The Torah is the Hebrew word for the first five books of the Bible, Torah meaning law, or the word of the law. We find in there a definite regulation that one should marry within his own tribe. This is so any inheritance that would come via the woman would remain in the tribe rather than going to some other tribe. I think the first one to suggest this was Eusebius around 300 A.D. This would seem to suggest very strongly that Mary was also related to the tribe of Judah to which David belonged.
‘(Verse 18). That isn’t the only problem, though, because we find “the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise.” The word “birth” in Greek is our word “genesis.” Writing to a Jewish readership, there would seem to be very little question that Matthew was relating a new genesis here. The word would remind his readers of the opening book of the Bible. “The birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph.” Our modem term “engagement” would probably best suit that. It was a period in which the couple would promise to one another. It was regarded with as much sanctity as the marriage-period itself. So that any violation of it morally was treated with the same severity as if it had been adultery during marriage.
When the news reaches Joseph that Mary is ”with child,” how do you think the average husband would greet that news? They aren’t even married yet. The news comes to Joseph that his wifeto-be in this very sanctified period of promise is pregnant. Under the Jewish law, what would be the most severe measure that Joseph could take against Mary? Stoning. Publicly. He could have chosen and elected to have exposed Mary publicly and had her executed. But Joseph is as important an aspect of this great account of the introduction of Jesus humanly on earth as Mary. We get an insight into his thinking. Remember that Joseph is just you or I in the sense of going through the same reaction that one would have with this sort of news. This shows some of the quality and character of Joseph.
(Verse 19), It says that “Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example.” We see right away that he doesn’t want to take the extreme measure, He wanted “to put her away privily,” and go through divorce proceedings, but quietly.
(Matthew 1, Verse 20). “While he thought on these things.” That isn’t exactly Joseph being a philosopher. The Greek word suggests agony. “While he agonized about these things.” It gives us a view of what was really going on in his thinking. At that point, “an angel of the Lord appears unto him.” “Angel,” actually comes from a Greek word, angelos. It means “messenger” and is virtually inseparable from the message that the messenger delivers. It is this inseparable message and messenger that comes to Joseph in what appears to him as “a dream,” addressing him as the “son of David” and saying, “Forget what you’re thinking,” which was a normal conclusion any husband would come to, “Because Mary is with child but what is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.” How many husbands would exactly buy that? It really flies in the face of the entire biological history of man.
“Therefore, this event itself has become one of the most difficult to believe for anyone reading it. The virginity of Mary at the time of the birth of Jesus has been ridiculed by some, accepted religiously by others without question, and many of the rest of the readers somewhere in between. But let’s go on with what this message is as recorded by Matthew.
(Verse 21). She will bring forth a son,” his identity already established to the point that a name is given to him by the angel. That name really is a very common Hebrew name. It’s the same name as Joshua received in the Old Testament. Joshua was not his original name. It was first Oshea, “help” or “salvation,” (p. 64, J. R. Dummelow, “The One Volume Bible Commentary”).
Joshua was a given name. It means something very dose to our term “savior.” The explanation of the angel is that this name really will define his mission “to save his people from their sins.”
Now we come face to face with one of the characteristics of Matthew. When we look at the gospel from an overall point of view, you see it over and over again. It may reveal to us what inspired Matthew to put pen to papyrus and record the gospel or good news. This is in Verse 22.
(Verse 22). He explains that “all this was done.” What is he talking about when he says “all this”? The virgin birth of Jesus. He is about to give us what he considers absolute proof that the virgin-birth occurred. It occurred as a result of prophecy. Does that tell us at what elevation Matthew holds in prophecy? If he’s using this as proof of one of the most unbelievable, incredible, events recorded in the annals of man’s history, then how does he view prophecy? Does he view prophecy as a man-product or as revelation from God?
If he’s writing this book for the Jews, it shows he is bringing in his big guns right from the beginning to show his Jewish readers that this is it! We can be fairly assured that he felt that what he is about to say would not be disputed, or at least be a matter of severe controversy in his audience. His famous statement which he says so often “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet.”
“Verse 23 is taken from the Book of Isaiah (7:14). We are really in the middle of a controversy. Even at the time Matthew was writing, he obviously felt this was a major point. Look at it from a common-sense point of view. If that particular prophecy was extremely controversial when Matthew wrote this book, do you think he would have included it as his first means of proof of his whole statement in the gospel? Suppose you or I were average Jews of that period, and we’d picked up the gospel of Matthew or heard it read, and he came to this point. If we’d thought it a matter of controversy, do you think we’d even continue the book? We’d probably laugh and close it up right there.
So, I think we have a very strong indication here that Matthew, at least, felt what he was reading from the Old Testament was proof-positive for his readers. However, in the late first century and early second century, this came a matter of such tremendous controversy that it has lasted all the way up until our day. Even many ministers of other denominations today discounting completely that verse in Isaiah as having any Messianic implications. We find right in the first century Jewish writers responding to the tremendous impact of what Christian thinkers and writers were saying. They go back to Isaiah and say, “Wait a minute, Isaiah really didn’t use a Hebrew word that means “virgin” in every case. It can mean “virgin,” but he elected a word with more of a general meaning. Therefore, it could just mean “a young girl.”
“Of course, there isn’t much news in the fact that a young girl shall conceive and bear a child. Where is the news value in that? … When he begins by saying that the Lord Himself will give you a sign, there is no sign about a “young girl conceiving.” But there certainly is a sign or a wonder about a virgin conceiving because that is certainly unheard of…Matthew… is definitely convinced that early Old Testament prophesy is a prediction of a virgin conceiving.
[Chapter 2 [of Matthew] is entirely original with Matthew. No other gospel has what we read in this chapter. Without Matthew’s record we would be ignorant of the following facts.
(Verse 1). “Jesus was born in Bethlehem.” Does that ring any bells? Let’s assume that we are a first century Jewish audience. We’ve been handed a copy of Matthew’s gospel. It says “Jesus was born in Bethlehem.” What does that mean to us? What does that immediately conjure up in terms of our history? David’s birthplace was in Bethlehem. Again, what does that say to those who are expecting a Messiah? …
(Verse 2).Therefore, when we see that “wise men” suddenly show up, have an audience with Herod and say to him, “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?” How would a man like Herod receive any news about another king of the Jews? After all, that’s what he was. “Where is he that is born King of the Jews? We have seen his star in the east.” Practically every king of that period employed soothsayers. Chaldeans from the area of Babylon, whose very profession was to predict, were astrologers, stargazers and prognosticators. They would attempt to give their particular employer, king or governor, some insight into the future so he could plan. I’m sure if this kind of profession were recognized today widely, the stock exchange would employ a few of them.
Herod must have been impressed by the three. I’m sorry, I said three, but if you will notice no number is given. So you see I was influenced by the Christmas carol which has no Scriptural authority here. Nor does it say they were kings, just wise men from the east, following what they felt was a guiding, directing star.”]
(Verse 3). When it says “he was troubled,” Herod was basically troubled much of the time…
(Verse 4). So, “he calls the chief priests and scribes.” Herod is not a Jew. He’s really a foreign ruler. One of his parents was Idumean, or from Edom. The other of his parents may have been Arab. Herod really never was received by the Jews very fondly. He had support of the Roman emperors, however. He was a close friend of Caesar Augustus, and Augustus gave him his position. He had been a close friend of Mark Antony before that. You can see how clever a politician he was. Herod apparently was able to shift his allegiance from Mark Antony over to Augustus just in time so Augustus could back him.
He calls the chief priests and scribes and he says, “Now tell me what tradition do we have anywhere that a Messiah is to be born? Is there anything that I can tell about a geographical location, or what?”
Verse 5 is the answer that the Bible scholars of the nation give. “They say to him, in Bethlehem of Judea: for thus it is written by the prophet.” Now, here’s the quote. You know how Matthew does this. This is his characteristic. It’s happening because prophecy said it would happen.
“That seems to be the key reason why Matthew wrote his gospel. To show his generation, and, of course, future generations like us, that every event in the New Testament is a fulfillment of what was written in the Old Testament, therefore, dovetailing both Testaments into what would eventually become the Bible. But now Matthew is virtually saying this happened because it’s a fulfillment of prophecy.
We are able to date the general time when Jesus was born, the general chronology, because it gives Herod the king as being the reigning monarch. There are a lot of Herods. It is like the name Caesar. It’s a dynastic name. This is Herod the Great. Again we have a the problem with chronology. Herod the Great died in 4 B.C. What you obviously see is a rather insoluble point. How could Jesus have been born in the days of Herod the Great, if Herod died four years before the generally accepted birth date of Jesus? Very frankly, it couldn’t have happened. Not that Jesus wasn’t born in the days of Herod the Great. That is undoubtedly accurate. But whoever figured out our calendar figured it out inaccurately: It has been determined that it is possible that Jesus was born as early as 7 B.C. but certainly no later than 4 B.C. if he were born during the time of Herod the Great.
Herod was a weird king. He had that combination of plus and minus that exists in human nature wherever you run into it. Herod certainly brought the nation of Jews to a peak of prosperity and beauty. He had cities in Palestine that rivaled any in the Roman world.
The capitol of Syria/Palestine was in Caesarea on the Mediterranean. He built that city right from the ground up. It was described by Josephus (historian, 37/38-100 AD). Coming from the sea it was just a magnificent white marble city that caught the sun and sparkled for many miles into the Mediterranean. My wife, Janet, and I have dug at that spot. There’s not much on the surface but I know some of you have seen the theater on television because Leonard Bernstein has conducted many orchestras in the theater which has been excavated at Caesarea.
“As a matter of fact, one of the stones that was found in the theater had inscribed on it the name Pilate and the name Tiberius Caesar. It is the only epigraphical evidence of Pilate that has been uncover in the Holy land, other than coins. It was found right in that theater. Herod built the magnificent Temple in Jerusalem, far exceeding Solomon’s in its magnificence: It was all white stone and then gilded, covered with gold. So that Josephus said, when the sun came up in the morning and hit that Temple, if one didn’t shield his eyes, he would be temporarily blinded because it flashed. From a distance, the Temple of the Jews looked like a snow covered mountain but with sun glinting off the gold. This is what Herod did on the plus side.
On the negative side, as you will learn, he went around killing and slaughtering. He murdered members of his family and was very suspicious that someone was plotting his assassination or attempting to replace him. This we know of Herod’s character from other records of the period.
“Can the Old Testament stand alone then, as far as Matthew’s point of view is concerned? It can’t.
It is prophecy. But prophecy needs to have the Old Testament comprehended; it needs to be fulfilled. Can the New Testament stand alone? No, not without the fulfillment. Prophecy is the key to the fulfillment. They are inseparable.
This quotation comes from Micah 5, Verse 2. It is the only verse regarded by the first century Jews, at least, as giving any geographical location for a coming Messiah, Bethlehem named specifically.
There is one thing we should just think about as far as the virgin birth is concerned, despite all the intellectual turmoil around all the arguments relating to it. If Jesus, as an individual, has had such a tremendous impact on humanity—uplifting the standards of humanity, healing all the wounds and illnesses that humanity had been unable to solve up to his time—then from the standpoint of what we might call spiritual criticism (since the fountain rises no higher than its source), could Jesus have had any source other than the most pure origin available on earth? Could Jesus have emerged on the human scene in disobedience to the Ten Commandments? Could there have been, in other words, immorality, as some critics have urged, connected with the conception of Jesus on earth?
In one way, Jesus’ birth is the most spiritually conspicuous in all history. Isn’t that star in the heavens which the wise men thought they were following astrologically really symbolic of prophecy? Isn’t it essentially prophecy that led the wise men? Herod wanted to know why they were even there. And he went to the chief priests and scribes and the chief priests and scribes went where for their answer? To prophecy. So, once again, we see the high regard for prophecy which Matthew had, and all the New Testament writers have.
So Herod hears that prophecy indicates Bethlehem is the spot. The wise men needed help. They followed the star as far as they could and then wanted to know where this Messiah-king was to be born. Herod consults prophecy and finds out that it is Bethlehem. It is really prophecy that directs the wise men to Bethlehem.
(Verse 8). Herod, who wants to know exactly where this child is located, says the wise men are “to bring news back to him where this child is located.” Do the wise men obey Herod? No, fortunately.
(Verse 11). They go to Bethlehem and “find the young child with Mary his mother, falling down, and worshiping him, presenting gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” If there is deeper meaning to those gifts of the wise men to an infant, what perhaps, could it symbolize? Or we would be reading something into it that we shouldn’t?
In Isaiah 60, I think you will find how the tradition began that (these wise men were kings.
(Verse 1). I’m sure you’re familiar with its opening verse, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” What parallel might exist already? Light and the star, perhaps.
(Verse 3). Then we find that “the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising,” See how kings entered into the tradition here. It so happens that an early Christian writer saw this and suggested that the coming of the wise men was prophesied here in Isaiah.
In Verse 6 it says, “The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the praises of the LORD.” So, we do have early Christian commentators seeing a connection between these passages and the coming of the wise men.
Justin Martyr (A.D. 100-163) is the first commentator we know of to introduce this concept.
Here’s what one of our greatest American Bible scholars of recent years has written. Here’s what he suggests. He goes beyond what the text would tell us but it’s an interesting thing to consider. We’re talking about Professor William Foxwell Albright. Professor Albright has made the comment, first, “that myrrh is used at the anointing of a king.” The wise men bring myrrh. Does this have any implication of the Messiah? Remember they said (Matthew 2:2), “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?”
Also, Albright says that “magical charms were written with myrrh ink,” and adds “the items brought by the wise men were regarded as the tools of a trade. Offerings of the magi would not be gifts of homage,” he suggests, “but a declaration of dissociation from former practices.”
Suggesting what? That these wise men made their living off of magical charms. See, “magi” and “magic.” Although at that time those weren’t related, but magi were wise men and some of the results they were able to come up with later got the term “magic.”
Were these wise men bringing what represented the tools of their trade and dissociating themselves from them at the inauguration of a new era represented by the infant child who was to bring the Christ-solution to mankind?
Remember the magi were very concerned about astrology, predicting the future. If they were convinced that here was a child that came as a direct result of the fulfillment of prophecy, then those who were truly wise men would exercise the option to go for this new method and give up the old.
That, again as I indicate, is just an idea presented by Professor Albright. He is a man I have found to be of deep insight and probably the most respected scholar of recent years. He passed away a few years ago and anything you can get authored by Professor Albright is worth studying. For one thing, he had a very deep humility in the presence of the Scripture.
Verse 12. “The wise men leave and go back to their own country,” It does not say which”· country that is.
Verse 13 gives us the next indication we have of divine direction, which is symbolized by the appearance of an angel, where Joseph, again, gets a communication which tells him to “flee into Egypt, and stay there until Herod is no longer around.”
(Verse 14). They do that.
(Verse 15). Notice what Matthew does again. He goes to prophecy and sees this trip into Egypt as one that not only was fulfilled in earlier Scriptural times, such as when Joseph went down to Egypt and then Israel was called out of Egypt by Moses’ receptivity. But also that Jesus would repeat that very same thing. Egypt represented bondage and Moses had freed the people from bondage in one way. Is this child who is coming out of Egypt going to free mankind from a universal bondage that has restricted his normal activity by the manacle known as sin, disease, and death? Is this the mission of this child? All that, perhaps, implied just by use of the earlier Scripture which is found at Hosea 11, Verse 1.
(Verse I6). Herod’s brutal reaction to the wise men failing to return was what has been ca1led “the slaughter of the innocents.” “All male children two years old and under are slaughtered by Herod’s fiat.”
(Verse 17). Again, Matthew reaches back into Sc1ipture and sees a prophetic direction signal, taken from Jeremiah, “spoken by Jeremy the prophet.”
Verse 18, “saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children.” Rachel was the wife of Jacob, one of Jacob’s wives. She died in childbirth, giving birth to Benjamin, Rachel was buried and her traditional tomb is still outside of Bethlehem. When you mention Rachel, it means Bethlehem, in that sense, the location. “Rachel weeping for her children in Bethlehem.”
Herod the Great does pass away in 4 B.C.E. You cannot believe the funeral which was given to him. Josephus, who was born just a few years after Jesus’ crucifixion, about 37 or 38 C.E., wrote “The Wars of the Jews and The Antiquities of the Jews.” it used to be discounted, But more and more what Josephus has said is being proven by archeology to be correct.
“Josephus records the funeral procession of Herod the Great. It apparently stretched for twenty-four miles. Roman legions were involved. His private, elite guards were involved. The coffin was solid gold. He was buried at Herodium which is one of the many fortresses he built around the Holy Land. He was really scared somebody was going to get him. He had strategic locations all over the Holy Land fortresses. One of them was at Herodium.
He took a very natural hill, lopped the top off, so that it was shaped conically. You can visit there today and go up on the top. As a matter of fact, in the book “Come See the Place” there is a photograph on the top of Herodium where his palace has been excavated. It has a beautiful view of everywhere. You can see the Dead Sea. You can see Jerusalem. This was for obvious reasons. You could see who was coming, somewhere in that location, according to Josephus, Herod is buried.
You know what has occurred recently over the finding of Philip H’s tomb. Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great. Those of you who have had the “National Geographic” subscriptions or have the “Magazine of Archeology” will have seen the magnificent things that were found in that tomb.
We had the privilege of seeing it in the Museum at Thessalonica in Greece. If they find Herod the Great’s tomb you can be sure with his great sense of classical commitment, that his funeral
SEE YOURSELF AS SPIRIT GOD’S “SPITTIN’ IMAGE” AS THE SHEPHERDS SAW JESUS & ACTED ON THEIR INSPIRATION. Cobbey on Luke 2 verse 40 in citation B19 and verses right before and after)
[Cobbey Crisler:] “We’re told in Verse 40 (citation B9) that ‘The child grew and waxed strong in spirit.’ The next thing and the last thing we know and learn about Jesus in the infancy period concludes chapter 2. Jesus is in the temple discussing with those rabbis who were schooled in every literal word of the law. We find in Verse 46 that Jesus was not only listening to them, but he is asking them questions. That is the rabbinical method. Rabbis did that among themselves. They did that with their students. For them to hear a twelve-year old boy utilizing the rabbinical method, brilliantly dealing with Scriptural exegesis, must have fascinated them to say the least. For three days this phenomenon was observed…”
[Warren: Jesus’ divine intelligence demonstrated in his brilliant use of the rabbinical method with the rabbis at age 12, reminds us of what’s possible to us when we admit to ourselves, as Jesus did, that we are God’s own likeness. As Mary Baker Eddy writes in the final citation of this section: “The admission to one’s self that man is God’s own likeness sets man free to master the infinite idea.” (Science & Health 90:24–25, cit. S20)]
“Luke the Researcher”, by B. Cobbey Crisler**
“Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually…
BE YE MINDFUL ALWAYS OF HIS COVENANT;”
(I Chronicles 16:11, 15 (to 1st 😉 [Warren:] Here in the Old Testament we have an exciting (to me and other lovers of God’s covenant of the 10 Commandments) a precious precursor to Paul’s freeing “mind-set” method of repentance as he puts it in Romans 8:6: “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” (RSV Romans 8:6/ see prelude to citation B11/Rom. 8:1-2 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you[a] free from the law (W: the handcuffing illusion) of sin and death.” (NIV)
CHERISH UNIVERSAL HUMANITY—DO GOOD FOR ALL MANKIND WITH a “WALK TO EMMAUS” SPIRIT & INSIGHTS! Cobbey on cit B12/Acts 10:38 (+verses before & after)
[Cobbey Crisler with a Bonus Prelude and postlude to cit. B12/Acts 10:38] “Acts 10, verse 34, begins a lecture or sermon to the first group of Gentiles. And the opening statement that Peter makes is one that could be well considered by every denomination of Christianity today… Here Peter expressed his new view of God, that God is no respecter of persons, that God speaks to receptivity.
Acts 10:34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
This new view of God, of course, leads to this next question: Should man as well be no respecter of persons?
This is a tradition-shattering concept.
And Acts 10, verse 35, Peter summarizes it by saying “in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” … Then he begins to explain to Cornelius and the friends and acquaintances of Cornelius, the history of early Christianity. “The beginning of Christianity is traced from Galilee after John’s baptism, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth.” … Of course, that word “anointed” immediately identifies Jesus as the Messiah. This is a point that Peter is obviously going to get across to this Gentile audience that would need some instruction in this. (See below)
(citation B12/Acts 10:38 “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: (continued) who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”
And you find in Acts 10, verse 43, he does that by stating that “all the prophets had given witness to the Messiah, namely Jesus.”…
As soon as Peter gets into this “Walk to Emmaus” approach, in other words the comprehension of Jesus’ role in the earlier scripture, we find in Acts 10, verse 44 that “the Holy Ghost falls on all the listeners.” …
It wasn’t Peter’s idea that this should happen; it’s at the Holy Ghost’s initiative. This is disturbing to some of those that came with Peter: Jewish Christians.
And we will find it becomes even more disturbing to other elements in the church later on, for this is a departure. The question underlying this event is “Should the church be parochial or universal?” Is it simply a sect of Judaism or an outcome of Judaism, or is it the fulfillment of God’s will as expressed in prophecy with its ultimate mission to embrace universal humanity?”
“After the Master What? – The Book of Acts,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
FOR FREEDOM KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT ALL LIES — EVEN AN 18-YEAR OLD ONE!
Cobbey Crisler insight on citation B13/ Luke 13:11-13 + thru 17:
CLICK to see a YouTube reenactment of this healing & how it applies to you & so many of us today.
[Cobbey:] “A woman with spinal difficulty is in a synagogue. Notice that Luke doesn’t say she has an infirmity. Luke, who is reputed to have been a physician, doesn’t even diagnose it as an infirmity but as a ‘spirit of infirmity,’ a sense of infirmity, a concept, a spirit, a thought. ‘She was bowed together. She couldn’t lift up herself.’
Verse 12. Jesus comes and announces to womanhood something that could be applicable in many ways, not just this one time. ‘Woman, you are free from thine infirmity.’ Verse 13. ‘She’s made straight and glorifies God.’
Verse 14. (& beyond, outside the Lesson) Incredible, ‘the ruler of the synagogue’ in which this grand healing and correction in thought occurred ‘answered with indignation’.
Jesus’ explanation about the cause of disease is Verse 16. No longer should there be any room in Christian thought that disease stems from God or is God’s will when Jesus attributes it directly to anything that would oppose God. Only what would oppose God could impose something on man that God Himself never created in His whole man. Is this a new theology? Satan and disease linked, and not God as the cause of loss, or pain, or sickness?
Because if it is, Jesus defines Satan as a liar in John (8:44). Satan has bound this woman with an infirmity that has her bent over, and has accomplished this for 18 years (Luke 13:16). And Satan is ‘a liar and the father of it.’ Satan’s works must be lies as well. If they are, they can be corrected mentally, by a full recognition of what is true. Notice that Satan does the binding. Jesus said (John 8:32), ‘Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.’
It’s a contest between the truth and the lie about God and His theology, about man, about woman, about children and about disease. If Satan is a liar, he will never change his character. Our idea of God may have gone haywire, but God has never moved.”
“The Gospels, Volume Three, Luke the Researcher,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
FIND SATISFACTION AND HEALTH ONLY IN THE ORIGINAL! Cobbey Crisler on Psalm 17:15/cit. B15
[Cobbey wrote of Psalm 17:15/cit. B15:] “Verse 15 of Psalms 17 [tells us] that God’s prescriptions, precisely filled, bring satisfaction. Satisfaction because “we awake in God’s likeness.” But that results first from the prerequisite of “beholding God’s face in righteousness.” That requires us to go back to the theology of Genesis 1 to comprehend what that means. If we indeed are image, or likeness, and God is the original, the only way we can find out about our nature is to spend our time studying the original. Then we know the image. We also know what’s not the image by studying the original.
“Just as Treasury Department experts know counterfeit bills, not because they have studied all the many thousands of counterfeit attempts, from poor work to expert work, but rather because when you simply study the original you will know the counterfeit immediately. That’s in a sense akin to surgically removing in a mental way, or taking the purgative cathartic Word of God to remove what does not belong to our nature. Imagine the joy of letting go what has burdened us for so long. It’s part of that darkness that is ignorance, that the light, the laser beam of revealed truth, simply removes, and not painfully at all. It just does what light is supposed to do. It removes any rationale for the existence of darkness.”
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
BE MADE ALIVE by CHRIST’s EXAMPLE that SOLVES ALL PROBLEMS of a FALLEN ADAM-man!
Cobbey Crisler on I Corinthians 15:22/cit. B16, + S&H 545:31 & 564:14 & 25:16
[Cobbey:] “…If our thesis as presented is accurate, that the implication of Paul’s statement in I Corinthians 15:22: “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” presents problem and solution, or remedy. Then one of the greatest research jobs awaiting all of us is to get back into that problem called Adam which we’re all wrestling with.
“Just make a list of everything you detect that Adam did wrong mentally and physically. Because, if it is true that Jesus’ mission was to remedy the Adam man and wipe that alternative off the face of man’s consciousness, then everything that Adam did wrong which was upside down Jesus is going to put right side up and prove that man is upright. Many things may occur to you, for instance in the initial phases of such a list which we could just touch upon. Adam’s problem occurred in what environment? The garden of Eden. Where did Jesus face down and confront that Adam- problem? The Garden of Gethsemane. Is this a coincidence? Is Gethsemane intended to be the remedy for the problems of Eden in our own thinking? I love in that context to remember Isaiah’s words [Isaiah 1:29] when he says, “Ye shall be confounded for the gardens ye have chosen.” Eden, Gethsemane.
“Adam’s problem, though, is probably symbolized most graphically by what? He had been told not to do something, what was it? “Not to eat of that tree” [Genesis 3:3]. Instead he went and did it. The disobedience, doing one’s own will, would have to be totally remedied right up with the same even greater peak pressure on a humanhood that had just announced to the world that the way to get out of this Adam-mess is to yield to God’s will regardless of the pressure upon you, so [it’s] doing God’s will versus doing one’s own will. (“Jesus presented the ideal man… By his obedience to God he demonstrated more spiritually than all others the Principle of being.” (cit. S7/25:16)
“The tree of knowledge of good and evil. You know that the New Testament refers several times to the cross as the tree, that they nailed Jesus to the tree [Acts 13:29; 1Peter 2:24]. Interesting symbolism. The attempt to nail Jesus as if he were one more in the dying race of Adam, to be nailed to death, and that’s the termination and the end of anything that he would offer man radically as salvation. Jesus could not be nailed on the cross any more than God’s man could be nailed on the cross, and thus his theology was exemplified.
“Do you remember, – just things like this to show you how much fun this work can be as well – part of the curse on Adam [Genesis 3:17,18] was that thorns will be brought forth unto him. Did Jesus have to face Adam’s thorns on that weekend?
“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread…dust thou [art], and unto dust shalt thou return” [Genesis 3:19]. The grave was the pressure of the dust he was to return to. There are many other details showing the complete reversal of the Adam. It’s as if the highest sense of mind on earth, which had relinquished its right to mind except by reflection, is turning everything right side up just as we do visually. That topic is far from being exhausted. In fact, what can exhaust an infinite reservoir? It’s one thing about supply in the Bible. It’s never consumed. Therefore, there are no consumers.
“We’re going to review the actual events of the Gethsemane experience and see some of the differences. What Jesus faced, what he was remedying, why he was there and see that we must, just for gratitude’s sake alone, have a stake in that Gethsemane, pioneer work. But then we must take it beyond this. We must go and do likewise.
“Matthew 26:30 “When they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.” A hymn before Gethsemane. That shows the value Jesus places on such an uplifting of thought through the conjoining of music and words. The meaning that is often conveyed even more deeply to us when we have that unity of soul expressed by thought in that manner…
“…Jesus could say in part of that hymn that he sang before Gethsemane which is locatable in the later psalms, is still sung today at Passover, that he needed not to fear what man or flesh could do. Out of that experience flowed the oil that is still blessing us, is still being utilized. We’re not in an oil crisis today if we’re in the way with Jesus. We maybe at a “parting of the ways,” the meaning of the word crisis. We may be challenged regularly and often to make our right decisions, our right choice, our Gethsemane decision.
“Then, the result of no longer bowing down to a human will, no longer seeing within us any domination by others through their human will, but filled with the Holy Ghost’s own message, the angel that strengthens Jesus at that moment, according to Luke. That angel awaits to strengthen us today.
“The world with its creaky joints awaits, needs, yearns, for more Christ-oil to be poured from the thoughts and lives of those who have made the decision, are continuing to make the decision, and are moving from Gethsemane at the base of the Mount of Olives to the summit of the Mount of Olives where Jesus himself ascended. We never have to budge from that mount. It represents both cross and crown, both problem and solution. And therefore, that oil which negates the experience of the cross and delivers the crown shows us that those two symbols, as precious as they are in Scripture, are inseparable. If the cross represents the problem, and the crown the solution, then intertwined they deliver that simple message to me, problem solved. That is the result of the Gethsemane decision.”
“The Gethsemane Decision,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
