From: Bill.Carlson@p0.f18.n104.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Bill Carlson)
Newsgroups: alt.messianic
Subject: Commentary on Yochanan's Good-News 1/5
Date: 6 Nov 92 19:33:04 GMT
Organization: FidoNet node 1:104/18.0 - Midrash, Denver CO


                     COMMENTARY ON YOCHANAN / JOHN
JN1:1   [Midrash Echa (1:51):]...What is the Name of King Messiah?   To
        this answered Rabbi Abba bar Kahana: HaShem is His Name, for it
        is written: 'This is the Name whereby He shall be called:
        HaShem Zidkenu'.
        NOTE: In above that Messiah is given the full Tetragrammaton in
        His Name.  Never is any created man spoken of in Tanakh or the
        Brit HaChadashah as having the very Name of HaShem.  Yet we see
        both the Angel of the LORD/(See: Metatron, Tzimtzim) and The-
        Messiah/HaMashiach given this Name! The conclusions are obvious
        to all who care to see it.
        While at first glance the following might seem to be against
        the Tri-Unity of HaShem from a Rabbinic standpoint; if one
        carefully considers the implications of what exactly is being
        said here, it becomes obvious that the Rabbi's were struggling
        with this idea presented to them; and that very early the
        concept did exist, and was having to be dealt with in an early
        post 1st Century conversation with Messianic/Natzratim Jews. If
        one is to believe the context of the passage, it is even shown
        to be a much earlier debate, with even Moshe himself
        considering the implications of this passaage in Beresheet!...
        RABBINIC: Rabbi Samuel bar Nahman in the name of Rabbi Jonathan
        said, that at the time when Moses wrote the Torah, writing a
        portion of it daily, when he came to this verse, [Gen. 1:26],
        which says, `And Elohim said, let Us make man in Our image
        after Our likeness,' Moses said, Master of the Universe why do
        You give herewith an excuse to the sectarians, (who believe in
        the Tri-Unity of G-d), G-d answered Moses, You write and
        whoever wants to err let him err.  This idea is also discussed
        in: (B.Rabba 8,9) a discussion (with the minim) on the Tri-
        Unity concerning: Let Us make man Our image according to Our
        likeness... and Elohim (being a plural form).  (See also:
        Commentary on Matt. 3:17, 21:16; and the file: 3IN1_MNV.TXT in
        MNV Volume II) [Isaiah 48:16; ] {Aboth 4:22}
        {The following is from an excellent article, researched and
        written by -James White, B.A., M.A.; on Open Bible national BBS
        echo,  - Origin: Pros Apologian--Defending the Faith
        (602)264-9927 (1:114/105.0).  The full text-file,
        (YHVH_3_1.TXT), is also available for down-load on MIDRASH BBS
        /Denver Colo. (303) 289-6864 @ 9600 baud.}:
             "The final phrase, kai theos en ho logos, presents a
        syntactical arrangement in which the term theos is emphasized.
        At the same time, the sentence is copulative, and the presence
        of the article with logos simply sets it out as the subject of
        the sentence.  Much has been said concerning the lack of the
        article with theos[*] but that discussion is beyond the scope
        of this paper. Basically, the construction 1) avoids modalism
        (i.e., the Word is not said to be completely co-extensive with
        theos) and 2) teaches that the Word has the same nature as God
        (a point that Paul will reiterate in Philippians).
             *) See F. F. Bruce, The Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Wm.
        B. Eerdman's Publishing Company, 1983) p. 31, or Leon Morris,
        The Gospel According to John, (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdman's
        Publishing Company, 1971) pg. 77 for a discussion of some of
        the issues involved in the translation of this phrase.  Most
        noteably, the New World Translation of the Watchtower Bible and
        Tract Society mistranslates the phrase as "the Word was a
        god." " 
JN1:2   {Aboth 3:14}
JN1:3   {Aboth 3:14}
JN1:4   {Aboth 3:14}
JN1:9   {Rosh haShanah 1:2}
JN1:11  {Aboth 6:10}

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