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Unto the Most High YHVH -- Blessed is He -- be all glory and honor.
Exposing the Da Vinci Code, A Messianic Prospective - Part 3
1. Was Messiah married?
2. Was the Gospel text suppressed or changed?
3. Did Constantine commission a ”new” Bible?
4. Did Yeshua (Jesus) have children?
5. Was Mary Magdalene the chief Talmid (disciple)?
6. Did Messiah really die on the cross?
7. Was He really resurrected physically?
8. Is Yeshua (Jesus) G-d?
9. Is Jehovah the name of G-d.
10. Is YHVH Yah & Havah
11. Is the Shekinah a female deity
12. Priory of Sion
13. Did the early believers smear women
14. Did the church kill 5million women in the middle ages?
15. Did the church demonize sex?
#9 Q: Is it true that the Jewish tetragrammaton, YHWH (it is YHVH) is a sacred name for God and is derived from Jehovah (The Da Vinci Code, page 309)
No YHVH is the most holy name of G-d. It was incorrectly translated (& pronounced) "Jehovah" in English. But a correct pronunciation is Yahweh (Yahveh). Why was it mistranslated & mispronounced? Succinctly stated, early Hebrew had only consonants and no vowels. In the Middle Ages the vowels of another word - Adonai, another name for God - were added to YHWH.
#10 Q: Is it true that the Jewish Tetragrammaton, YHWH is a sacred name for God and is an androgynous physical union between the masculine jah and the pre-Hebraic name for Eve, havah? (The Da Vinci Code, page 309)
A: Dan Brown mixes truth with fiction at this point. Let's sort this one out. The four letters YHWH are known as the tretragrammaton - which means "four letters" in Greek. YHWH are the consonants that form the word Yahweh which is the name for God. Yahweh appears over 6,800 times in the Old Testament Hebrew Bible. It is from the infinitive meaning "to be." In other words, it conveys the sense of one who "is." The word Yahweh simply refers to the God who already is. It did not represent some "male-female union" resulting in androgyny, as Dan Brown would have us believe. It has the meaning of "to be" or "is" - meaning, in effect, the "self sufficient one" or "eternal one."
How does one "name" God? How is God called in the Old Testament? God is someone without beginning, without ending. Thus He is described in the present tense. Moses had an encounter with God in the second book in the Bible, Exodus, Chapter 2, verses 13 and 14. Moses raised the question as to what God's name is and God responds, "I Am that I am", or "I am who I am". In other words, He's a God named "I Am". He doesn't have a past tense. He doesn't have a future tense. He's the God who always is. He is a God whose name means "the one who always is." If He was anything less than that, He wouldn't be God. God by definition is one who always "is."
Dan Brown is correct that God in neither male nor female. He is correct if he is saying that God contains all the best qualities of masculinity, and all the best qualities of feminity, but that does not make Him some androgynous "hybrid."
It is worth noting that Havah is not pre Hebraic form of Eve, but is the actual Hebrew name, eve is the translation. So as often seen, Browns knowledge is broad, but very shallow in issues of Theology, Scriptural History & Jewish Culture.
#11 Q: Is it true that in the Jewish tradition Solomon's Temple was seen as housing not only God but his powerful equal Shekinah - a female god? (The Da Vinci Code, page 309)
A: biblical history, scripture, nor the Dead Sea Scrolls have any reference to a female goddess named Shekinah. The Hebrew word Shekinah does not appear in the Tanakh (Hebrew 1st Testament). Shekinah, which technically means "residence" or "dwelling," in later Jewish writings refers to the "glory" of God. Glory is a difficult word to define. It basically means the overwhelming sense of God's presence. Shekinah - in biblical history - was not a female goddess. Shekinah was simply an evidence or manifestation of the presence of the living God. Linguistically speaking it is a feminine noun. Many languages have feminine and masculine words. As any linguist knows, gender is not tied to sexual reality.
#12 Q: Is the Priory of Sion a thousand year old order as Dan Brown claims?
A: No founded in the 20th century by Plantard, a French anti-Semite, who used forged documents (Les Dossiers Secrets) to try and restore the French Monarchy. Hoax exposed by French Historians & and one of his confederates confessed.
#13 Q: Did the early believers smear women?
Dan Brown claims that the church led a smear campaign against women—specifically defaming Mary Magdalene. True? No. But to come to that conclusion, you'll have to examine the confusion created by Gregory the Great in the 6th century, when he associated Mary Magdalene of Luke 8 with the unnamed sinful woman or prostitute of Luke 7. In the process, you'll discover the exalted role that Mary Magdalene held in the Bible—as the first witness of the Resurrection
#14 Q: Did the church kill 5million women in the middle ages?
Dan Brown's assertion that the church killed 5 million women during the Middle Ages—for being witches. Careful study will reveal it was not 5 million, but more like 50,000. Then they will discover that it was less the church than it was the government—and that approximately 20 percent of those killed were not women, but men. And they will learn that the church condemned the killings.
#15 Q: Did the church demonize sex?
When Dan Brown states that the church demonized sex, they will know this not to be the case (with the exception of some unfortunate, and sub-Scriptural, writings by some of the early church fathers). Instead, Christians can reflect on the beauty of sexual expression found in the "one flesh" statements of Genesis, the loving imagery of the Song of Solomon, and the "undefiled" nature of the marriage bed in Hebrews.
Notes:
1 - James Emery White is senior pastor of Mecklenberg Community Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. This column is excerpted from a sermon, "There's Something About Mary," published in PreachingToday.com issue 257.
As for the Wisdom who is called "the barren," she is the mother of the angels. And the companion of the [...] Mary Magdalene. [...] loved her more than all the disciples, and used to kiss her often on her mouth. The rest of the disciples [...]. They said to him "Why do you love her more than all of us?" The Savior answered and said to them,"Why do I not love you like her? When a blind man and one who sees are both together in darkness, they are no different from one another. When the light comes, then he who sees will see the light, and he who is blind will remain in darkness." - THE GNOSTIC SOCIETY LIBRARY, The Nag Hammadi Library, The Gospel of Philip, Translated by Wesley W. Isenberg
(Pages 1 to 6 of the manuscript, containing chapters 1 - 3, are lost. The extant text starts on page 7...)
5) Peter said to Mary, Sister we know that the Savior loved you more than the rest of woman.
6) Tell us the words of the Savior which you remember which you know, but we do not, nor have we heard them.
7) Mary answered and said, What is hidden from you I will proclaim to you.
8) And she began to speak to them these words: I, she said, I saw the Lord in a vision and I said to Him, Lord I saw you today in a vision. He answered and said to me,
9) Blessed are you that you did not waver at the sight of Me. For where the mind is there is the treasure.
10) I said to Him, Lord, how does he who sees the vision see it, through the soul or through the spirit?
11) The Savior answered and said, He does not see through the soul nor through the spirit, but the mind that is between the two that is what sees the vision and it is [...]
(pages 11 - 14 are missing from the manuscript)
1) When Mary had said this, she fell silent, since it was to this point that the Savior had spoken with her.
2) But Andrew answered and said to the brethren, Say what you wish to say about what she has said. I at least do not believe that the Savior said this. For certainly these teachings are strange ideas.
3) Peter answered and spoke concerning these same things.
4) He questioned them about the Savior: Did He really speak privately with a woman and not openly to us? Are we to turn about and all listen to her? Did He prefer her to us?
5) Then Mary wept and said to Peter, My brother Peter, what do you think? Do you think that I have thought this up myself in my heart, or that I am lying about the Savior?
6) Levi answered and said to Peter, Peter you have always been hot tempered.
7) Now I see you contending against the woman like the adversaries.
8) But if the Savior made her worthy, who are you indeed to reject her? Surely the Savior knows her very well.
9) That is why He loved her more than us. Rather let us be ashamed and put on the perfect Man, and separate as He commanded us and preach the gospel, not laying down any other rule or other law beyond what the Savior said.
10) And when they heard this they began to go forth to proclaim and to preach.
The Gospel According to Mary
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