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Understanding and comparing translations and what important Hebrew words really mean
Fred R. Coulter—February 25, 2017
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[Tointon & Coulter: Transcript begins at 27:47 of Part 1]
Today were going to start something that I want to complete before Passover, because there are in different Churches of God the same old tactics that Satan has always used to come after the Passover. The reason is because the Passover is a renewal of the New Covenant. Certain parts of it are very easy to understand.
The Scripture—John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish, but may have everlasting life"—describes the whole plan of God based upon the sacrifice of Christ. But it is not administered all the time, even though Rev. 13 tells us that the Lamb of God was sacrificed from the foundation of the world.
So, all the Scriptures, when we put them together, give us a clear picture of
- what we need to do
- how we need to do it
- when we need to do it
What is the first Scripture in the Bible that mentions concerning the Passover? Not directly, it includes a little more. Gen. 1!
What we're also going to do is learn that God has scattered through the Bible all the information we need concerning the important things that put us in contact with Him.
In Gen. 1:14 He set the sun and moon and the stars for the appointed times. Isn't that interesting that the appointed times come before the Sabbath? There was no need to have the Sabbath come immediately, because what did Jesus say concerning the Sabbath? The Sabbath was created for man, so therefore, the Sabbath was not made until man was created. What else did Jesus say? Therefore, the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath!
So, if you come across some Sunday-keeping friends that really don't understand about the Sabbath, you can approach it that way and ask them:
- Do you believe you're a Christian? Oh yes, I am, I'm a Christian!
- Do you believe that you should walk as Jesus walked? Well, of course!
- What are you going to do with these Scriptures?
Then you quote them Mark 2:27-28 and what we've discovered!
- If He's Lord of the Sabbath, and you say He's Lord of you, what man can change that?
Where is the Passover first mentioned but not by name? Gen.15! Now, we don't know that that's the Passover there until we get to Exo. 12 chapter. Just like we covered before, sometimes you have to look at a conclusion of a matter and then you can count backwards to the beginning.
In Exo. 12, the only way we know that that was the Passover and the Night to be Much Observed in Gen. 15 is because 430 years later the children of Israel left Egypt. So, you count backwards. Then you look at Gen. 15 and what do you find? Two days! Two nights! How do those fit in?
Exo. 12 is where we find the beginning of the Passover. This Passover was for the children of Israel. When you come to the keeping of the Passover there is great debate because of mistranslation, misinterpretation and lack of knowledge. That always comes up. We're going to see that there is a big problem between Exo. 12 and Deut. 16.
Different ones with different doctrines come along and try and exploit that difference and try and adjust it to what the Jews believe.
We're going to cover the Old Testament difficult Scriptures first, then the New Testament. The first time I kept the Passover was up in Sacramento in 1961; kept the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread. Here I am sitting in the congregation for the very first time.
Referring to a handout:
Exo. 12 in the King James. The Scriptures are very similar to what we have in The Faithful Version. He says:
Exodus 12:1 (KJV): "And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, 'This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying…'" (vs 2-3).
How is Moses going to speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel? No smart phones, no television. no telegraph! What does he do? You find later in Exo. 12 that he had all the elders come to him. Moses explained to them how to keep the Passover and they were to go back and explain it to everyone. You see this many times in the Bible. Sometimes you see a conclusion first then the explanation as to how you get to that conclusion.
(FV): "…In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them each man a lamb for a father's house, a lamb for a house. And if the household is too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take according to the number of the souls… [every individual] …each one, according to the eating of his mouth, you shall count concerning the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You shall take it from the sheep or from the goats" (vs 3-5).
This is important when we get to Deut. 16. Did he say anything about a calf or a bull? No!
Verse 6 (KJV): "And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening."
When is evening? You would think that the majority of the Jews have it correct, but that's a complete misnomer. Some Jewish scholars do. The one who does is Everett Fox. I'll read how he translated it in a little bit.
Reading from The Schocken Bible: The Five Books of Moses by Everett Fox:
Verse 6 (SB): "And it shall be for you in safekeeping until the fourteenth day after this New Moon… [that means the month]…and they are to slay it the entire assembly of the community of Israel between thesetting times"—the two evenings.
This becomes important because there is a different Hebrew word used for sunset and a different word used for the time immediately after sunset—'ben ha arbayim.' Also notice that he does not call it an offering; that becomes significantly later.
(FV): "...between the two evenings. [between sunset and dark] …And they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and upon the upper doorpost of the houses in which they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire and unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs. Do not eat of it raw, nor boiled at all with water…" (vs 6-9).
You're not to boil it. In reading the Mishnah concerning the way that they roasted the lamb, the Jews were very particular because if there was some juice from the meat of the lamb that came out they would cut that part off.
Not to boil it, keep that in mind.
"...but roasted with fire, its head with its legs, and with its inward parts" (v 9). That would be the heart and the kidneys and so forth. It doesn't mean that you're to roast it without skinning it or anything like that. If you tried that by time you got everything going the intestines would explode and you have nothing left.
Verse 10: "And you shall not let any of it remain until the morning…." Morning is 'boqer.' Now the King James pretty well reads the same way there up to that point.
And that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire" (v 10).
Verse 11 (KJV): "And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD's Passover."
That also was important. Based on this if you don't know the Hebrew and if you don't know the rest of the of the other things concerning the Passover, you would think that they were to eat this in a hurry and therefore when the Jews come along and say they left a little after midnight.
But we will see they did not. Now then the one from Everett Fox says
(SB)"…you are to eat it in trepidation…" (v 11)—and that's the way we did it with The Faithful Version.
(FV): "...eat it in trepidation. It is the LORD'S Passover"
Remember the paper by Robert Kuhn and Lester Grabbe that I gave you? They start out but they don't even know how they got the name Passover. So, it's not how much they think they know it's:
- What is their goal?
- What is the reason for writing what you're writing?
- Why are you doing it?
- What does trepidation mean? Great anxiety!
God was going to kill at midnight all the firstborn of the Egyptians, male and female, all the firstborn of animals, male and female, and even anyone who was in the dungeon and the jail. Trepidation! The Egyptians, when that happened, there was a great cry on that night such as you would never imagine.
Verse 12 (FV): "For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. And the blood shall be a sign to you upon the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day shall be a memorial to you. And you shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it a feast as a law forever" (vs 12-14)—the 14th day of the 1st month!
Remember the Bible reckons time from what sunset to sunset.
(break)
I want you to jump ahead to v 21, which then answers the question: When could day leave their homes?
Verse 21: "Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, 'Draw out and take a lamb for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. And you shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip in the blood that is in the bowl, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood in the bowl. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until sunrise" (vs 21-22)—morning.
- When is morning?
- A minute after midnight?
- Morning here is 'boqer'—sunrise!
Now let me read that in the Schocken Bible (referring to handout): Notice how one of the world's greatest experts in the Hebrew translates this. And this is to be a the most one of the most literal translations possible.
Verse 22 (SB): "…Now you—are not to go out, any man from the entrance to his house, until daybreak"—'boqer.'
Since they didn't have any streetlights on the streets it's easy to tell when daybreak occurs. How does it occur? It starts getting a little lighter in the East, and then brighter and brighter and brighter. So, here's how we translated it:
Verse 22 (FV)—after it talks about the blood: "...And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until sunrise."
How much education does a person need to know when the sun rises? You don't need a clock, they didn't have clocks; you don't need an hourglass that drops down sand at a certain rate. You look out and see if the sun coming up, and if it's coming up then you can go. Think about why they ate it in trepidation though they were ready to go. Because of all of the death of the firstborn!
Think of all the noise of the screaming of the survivors of the death of the firstborn in their family. Think about all the moaning and groaning and bellowing of the animals and everything like that with the death of the firstborn of the animals. Would you dare step out of the door of the house a minute after midnight with all of that going on? You'd be struck dead, because you broke the Law of God! It said don't go out until sunrise!
Verse 15—now we have the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Here is a problem—if you do not understand v 22 that you shall not go out of the door of your house until sunrise or daybreak, and you do not understand that in keeping the Lamb until the 14th—when does the 14th day of the month begin? At sunset of the 13th!
How long is sunset? Sunset in the Hebrew is 'ba erev'! How long is sunset? Three to five minutes!
When the sun is going down find a place that is level and wait for the sun to touch the top of that level part that you're looking at. Now I did this coming home from LA. The sun was going down and I was coming right by the San Luis reservoir. I pulled off on the side because this type of San Luis reservoir is as flat as you can get it. So I sat there and I was watching the timing. And in The Christian Passover book we've got all of this explained. We have a diagram in there of the sun. As soon as the sun touches the horizon that's the beginning of 'ba erev.' As soon as the sun goes down, that's the beginning of 'ben ha arbayim.'
Now then, they kill the lamb at 'ben ha arbayim' and they roast it. We actually roasted a lamb, actually burned the bones, and actually burn the hides and so forth. Some people say takes a long time to slaughter a lamb. No it doesn't; it takes about twenty minutes and it's ready to go.
So, I'm here watching the sun go down. As soon as the sun touches the horizon I'm timing it—five minutes; that it! Now also, I was given a picture of between the two evenings from outer space. There is a band that you can actually see the light on the earth, and it actually comes up sometimes as green.
They couldn't go out of their houses until morning. That's important to understand when we come back here to v 15, because this is a break.
Verse 15: "You shall eat unleavened bread seven days; even the first day you shall have put away leaven out of your houses; for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel."
Verse 18: "In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at sunset…" Remember: sunset ends that day.
Verse 18 (KJV): "In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even."
The first time I read that in the King James where it is evening when it talks about killing the lamb it makes no difference between the time of the of the day of 'ben ha arbayim' and 'ba erev.' So, this is where those people who only have the English Version and the King James Version, get mixed and they combined the first Holy Day and Passover into one day. Since they were to stay in their houses until morning, you can't combine them into one day. Then they couldn't leave at night.
Sitting there in the congregation on the first day of Unleavened Bread and they read about this: in the evening. First thing popped in my mind: What time is evening? Is it the same as the one up there in v 6? Well, the minister at that time Ron Kelly said, 'Well, it's the next evening, it's different.' So, I accepted it, but I didn't know how it was different from one day to the other. Keep it until the 14th and kill it between the two evenings—'ben ha arbayim'—and then it says here in v 18 'the first month, the fourteenth day of the month at sunset.'
This bad translation of the King James Version makes it very difficult to understand the timing. And that mistake is made over and over again. Another thing that complicates it is this: it's much like verbs. The verb to be has many different expressions: is, our, was, were, have been, will be, and shall be. All of those are expressions of to be. So 'ben ha arbayim' is not in the Strong's Concordance.
So, people come along and they say, 'Oh I know what this is, I'll look it up in Strong Concordance. Check the King James Version and it's got the Strong numbers on top of it and it will refer you to 'ba erev.' But that's not 'ben ha arbayim.' Since they didn't have clocks to tell you time, they went by appearance. Sunset is when the sun goes down by appearance. It's starting to get dark between the two evenings, or between the setting times.
They don't know how to differentiate between the Passover on the 14th and the Feast of Unleavened Bread beginning on the 15th. So if the 14th begins at sunset on the 13th—'ben ha arbayim'—the first part of the evening for killing the lamb: roast it, stay in your house, at midnight God kills all the firstborn and don't go out of your house until morning—'boqer.' So, they're two different days.
Now we'll see something very interesting in Leviticus. Two things that are very interesting that we need to know, do and follow.
Leviticus 23:4: "These are the appointed Feasts of the LORD, Holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their appointed seasons. That goes back to Gen. 1:14. Who does the appointing? God does!
Verse 5: "In the fourteenth day of the first month, between the two evenings, is the LORD'S Passover, and on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD. You must eat unleavened bread seven days."
It talks about the offering on the first day and on the seventh day. Here's how we straighten that out. Verse 32 concerns the Sabbath, the Day of Atonement. This becomes very important.
Verse 32: "It shall be to you a Sabbath of rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. In the ninth day of the month at sunset…" The ninth day at sunset begins the tenth day. How do we know that?
Verse 27: "Also, on the tenth day of this seventh month, is the Day of Atonement…."
Verse 32: "...In the ninth day of the month at sunset, from sunset to sunset, you shall keep your Sabbath." That applies directly to the Day of Atonement and every Sabbath from sunset to sunset.
How do you describe using the same thing, from the ninth day of the month at sunset until the tenth day of the month at sunset? Why did God give the command this way?
Well, the Day of Atonement is so important that if you're not fasting—if you miss it or if you eat or drink something you shouldn't during that time—… Some people say that 'ba erev' begins at three in the afternoon. Hello! There's still four hours of daylight left, so it can't be.
Steve did a good job, he questioned a couple of rabbis and asked them went when sunset was. They both said 'three in the afternoon'! When you believe a tradition of men over the word of God you're always going to get it wrong. It doesn't matter if you're rabbi over a pope or someone on the street.
Let's come back here to Exodus 12 and apply what we have just learned from Lev. 23:32. Remember that from sunset 'ba erev' on the 9th to sunset 'ba erev' defines the 10th day.
How do you define the 15th day? We'll see it right here in Exo. 12:18. If you don't know this you will never understand these verses.
Exodus 12:18: "In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at sunset…" That ends the day 14 and begins day 15. What did we just read in Lev. 23 about the 15th? The 15th day is the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So, this is talking about the Feast of Unleavened Bread being on the 15th, which begins immediately at sunset.
"…you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at sunset" (v 18)—which ends the 21st.
Let's do some finger counting. You never do addition and subtraction, you do counting: 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21—seven days. The Passover is a separate single unleavened bread day. Now you can see why the Protestants don't like these things. This becomes too complicated for them. They like it simple. Too many of them are very shallow in what they believe.
I've mentioned this before but I got a mention again: this long-billed bird flies just above the water with this lower part of the beak in the water to catch the bugs and things. I call that a skimmer. That's how too much of Protestantism is. They're all skimmers, and they fly so fast they miss everything and say 'if you have Jesus you have everything.'
Isn't that nice you can have the Bible right on your smart phone. Need the Hebrew ask and there it is. I hope they have the Truth on it. Now also understand this. That in spite of all of the things against the Bible, mistranslations, poor translations, misunderstandings, God is always reserved to Himself faithful scholars who stand for the Truth, even if it's only one man.
Sidebar: If you're talking to someone that doubts then explain to them about Balaam; how he blessed instead of cursed. He was paid to curse, but he blessed he couldn't curse. Rather than leaving his head with Balak, because he couldn't curse, he said, 'You do it this way. You send all your gorgeous dancing girls out there and you have a big barbecue, a religious festival, right at the edge of the camp of the Israelites. You let all the smoke of that flesh just come over into the camp. Be sure you're on the windward side so it gets over there. Invite them to come and then you can get them.' What happened? 23,000 were killed because they went to the sacrifice of Molech!
Now we are ready, with what you have learned there, let's come to Num. 9. Why is Num. 9 important? They build everything for the tabernacle and dedicated it on the 1st day of the 1st month of the 2nd year. Then they had all the sacrifices of dedicating. Then they had every one of the leaders of the twelve tribes bring a wagon load of goods with oxen pulling the wagon and that was all dedicated to the tabernacle and the priesthood.
One prince came every day, days 1-12. That brings you to, when that is finished on the 12th, the next day is the 13th day. The next day that evening on the 13th is the Passover after sunset and 'ben ha arbayim.'
The tabernacle is set up, the priest are dedicated, the Levites are dedicated, the altar of burnt offerings is up and running, everything is ready to go. If the Passover lamb was to be offered at the tabernacle or the temple, it would have begun at that time. They were all there. It would be simple to do.
Sidebar: People say it has to be offered at the temple by Deut. 16. They don't understand that in Num. 9 we find two important things.
Numbers 9:1: "And the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 'Let the children of Israel also keep the Passover at its appointed time. In the fourteenth day of this month, between the two evenings…'" (vs 1-3).
Have everyone bring their lamb to the tabernacle because is ready to go. So, remember that is not there! If God wanted the Lamb to be offered at the tabernacle or the temple don't you think the first time that was set up and ready to go on everyone dedicated and everyone Holy—no mistakes made, no sins at all had taken place—wouldn't that be the best time to start it? They were all there! What did they do? They all killed the lambs at their tents!
"...you shall keep it in its appointed time. You shall keep it according to all its statutes, and according to all the ceremonies of it" (v 3).
Where do you find all of those listed? Exodus 12! Keep the lamb up until the beginning of the 14th and slay it between the two evenings, as it says here.
Verse 4: "And Moses spoke to the children of Israel to keep the Passover. And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month between the two evenings in the wilderness of Sinai. According to all that the LORD commanded Moses, the children of Israel did" (vs 4-5).
There's also another false doctrine out there saying that because the children of Israel had the golden calf that that's when God chose Aaron to be the priest. No! He was the priest designated with the instructions given to Moses on how to build the tabernacle. So therefore, because of that we can avoid all the instructions in Exo. 12 and we only have to follow Deut. 16. Have you ever heard of that one before? There's always a new sly thought coming along!
Deut. 16 (KJV)—you will notice a sleight-of-hand. What is the meaning of the Passover as defined in Exo. 12? Sparing of the firstborn! Watch carefully here. You have to be very careful, and that's why we've translated correctly in The Faithful Version.
Deuteronomy 16:1 (KJV): "Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night."
What day celebrates the Exodus? The Night to be Much Observed, which begins what the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Verse 2 (KJV): "Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the Passover unto the LORD thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the LORD shall choose to place his name there. Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life. And there shall be no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy coast seven days; neither shall there any thing of the flesh, which thou sacrificedst the first day at even, remain all night until the morning. Thou mayest not sacrifice the Passover within any of thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee… [we'll see that's not referring to the Passover sacrifice] … But at the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the Passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt. And thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose: and thou shalt turn in the morning, and go unto thy tents" (vs 1-7).
There is a direct mistranslation where it says right here in the King James Version that you shall roast it. The actual Hebrew is boil. What did Exo. 12 say about boiling? Shall not boil!
Verse 5 (SB): "You may not slaughter the Passover-offering within one of your gates that the YHVH [LORD] your God has giving you."
Now that sounds like it's transferred to the temple doesn't it. What is the Passover offering as differentiated from the Passover sacrifice?
Verse 6. "Rather in the place YHVH [LORD] your God chooses His name to dwell you are to slaughter the Passover-offering at the setting time, when the sun comes in, at the appointed time of your going out from Egypt."
Well did they go out of their houses right after they slaughtered the Passover Lamb? That's the next day!
Verse 7: "You are to boil it… [not roast it; this is a separate offering altogether] …and you are to eat it in the place that YHVH [LORD] your God chooses. Then you are to face about, at daybreak and go back to your tents. For six days you are to eat matzot…"—unleavened bread with it.
- How many days is the Passover? One day!
- How many days are the days of Unleavened Bread? Seven days!
So, I'll let you think on this until next week and we can answer the question: Why this is not the actual Passover Lamb but offerings given on the day portion of the 14th for another special purpose that God commanded them to do.
All Scriptures from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version (except where noted)
Scriptural References:
- John 3:16
- Exodus 12:1-14, 21-22, 15, 18
- Leviticus 23:4-5, 32, 27, 32
- Exodus 12:18
- Numbers 9:1-5
- Deuteronomy 16:5-7
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
- Revelation 13
- Genesis 1:14
- Mark 2:27-28
- Genesis 15
Also referenced: Books:
The Schocken Bible: The Five Books of Moses by Everett Fox
The Christian Passover by Fred R. Coulter
Strong's Concordance
FRC: po/bo
Transcribed: 3/12/17
Copyright 2017—All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes, no part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner. This includes electronic and mechanical photocopying or recording, as well as the use of information storage and retrieval systems.
