An (In)famous Turn-off Line – Part II

 

We began Part I by referring to the old saying, “Ye must be born again.” We need to recognize here that for many who call themselves followers of Jesus, the Christ, this phrase is very important to them. I am certainly not intending to belittle that. To them this statement refers to a critical experience in their lives. Remember, I said there was still more to say about dating? These individuals can give you the precise date when this occurred. Their very faith seems to hang on to the ability to do this. They can point to the date, maybe even time when they made a conscious decision to follow Christ. From then on, they identified as Christians, even ‘born again’ Christians. Unfortunately, that has sometimes been accompanied by a bit of a holier-than-thou attitude to those who also claim to be Christians but don’t make the claim of being ‘born again’ in the same date-related experiential manner. 

 

Some comments are in order here then as to why I am then referring to this saying as an “infamous turn-off line.” It has caused some who can claim that ‘born again’ date to question those who cannot provide such information. Maybe they are not really a Christian. Such individuals are actually made to feel guilty for claiming to be Christin with no date and time proof of when they were ‘born again’ into the faith. They are made to feel they are lacking somehow, because they cannot make this ‘born again’ claim. Some have grown so tired of this challenge that they have become sick of the phrase. Sadly, some of these have gone on to lose their faith entirely. If you hear often enough that you can’t be a Christian without making that claim, well maybe I am not a Christian. Would you not agree that a saying that causes people to lose faith in Christ can also be infamous? To these erstwhile believers, it certainly is. 

 

Let’s a closer look at the origins of this saying. I know, some of you will say, well, that is what Jesus said to the night-visiting Pharisee Nicodemus as recorded in The Gospel According to St. John chapter 3. Indeed, verse 7 is the actual quote. However, Jesus has introduced the concept and begun to expand on it in verse 3. 

 

But what is Jesus talking about? He is certainly not talking about human birth. He makes that clear to Nicodemus when this guest asks (3:4) how anyone as an adult can be reborn. Jesus tells him he is talking about “being born of water and Spirit (3:5).” Elaborating on the last Jesus compares it to the wind, “you do not know where it comes form or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Doesn’t that sound a bit nebulous? Does it sound like something you could hang your hat on as to a date? Maybe there is even a bit of a caution here about being too specific about your Spirit birth. You can say with reason why you know it has happened, but much of it is humanly unexplainable. More of that later.

 

Jesus is obviously, it seems to me, using birth as a figure of speech. This opens the way to look further about how birth, being born, is used in such a way. We talk about something being ‘born out of a need.’ We talk about things ‘in the process of being born.’ We understand that in both of these expressions we are talking about something that took place over a period of time. It did not happen at once, a specific date and time. So, when Jesus talks of being born again, why do we think we need to pin that down to a date, place and time?

 

If this phrase and the related experience it describes was so important, why is it not emphasized in the other gospels or the rest of the New Testament? If the line was so important, why does it only surface in this book written decades after the other gospels and all the other New Testament writings? Why is it only John who talks as much as he does about this business of being born? 

 

If this phrase is so important, why does it not show up in conjunction with passages about how you know you are a Christian. Even Jesus, when speaking of the last judgment and who will be deemed eligible to enter his eternal kingdom, talks of those who do things like giving a cup of cold water, visiting those in prison, caring for the sick etc. he does not say anything about being able to point to when you were saved.’ Again, when the Bible speaks of evidence of what it means to be born again, it does not mention being able to point to a date, it talks about showing the fruits of the Spirit in one’s life. Even john writes (I John 2:29) “everyone who does right has been born of him.” In 3:9 he adds, “Those who have been born of God do not sin.” In 4:7 John writes, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God.” If those who can point to a born again experience question the truth of another person’s confession of faith because they cannot make that claim, is that love? Or is that judgment? We know whom we are to leave such judgment to, only God can judge the heart. Our actions are the proof of a change in our lives. There many whose lives show such actions and who profess to believe in Jesus’ redeeming work. It is the repentance from past ways and confession of faith that saves and it is in our lives that we show proof of this.

 

And what of all those who came before Christ? Surely we do not believe Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David and others are not going to be in heaven because they had not heard about being born again – well, you get the picture. 

If you can claim to have had a born again experience, good for you. But don’t judge everyone else on a couple of phrases from what is written in quite possibly the second last book of the Bible to be written. 

****

 

 

 

An (In)famous Turn-off Line Part I

Where the Line Comes from

It’s Valentine’s Day, I know. So, you think I’m referring to something to do with dating. Semantically, you are correct, but I’m sure you still have a different idea in your mind than what follows.

 

I’m referring to the old saying, “Ye must be born again.” I know, even the ‘ye’ is a turn-off for many. However, for many of us, that is how the line has been burned into our minds. That’s because, if we come from a ‘Christian home’ we were raised in the Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible – which is from 1611! You see, dating does enter the picture here.

 

This translation of the Bible, for that’s what it is, from Greek & Latin into English was not the first. John Wycliffe holds those honours from the 1380s and William Tyndale the first to translate and have printed an English translation from 1525. However, we should know that the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew, so how good could those Old Testament translations be? It was not until ten years later that Myles Coverdale and John Rogers (alias Thomas Matthew – you still had to be careful what you did with the word of God in those days or the religious authorities could even make you into a martyr) published an English translation that did use Hebrew manuscripts from which to work for the Old Testament. The New Testament was written in Aramaic and Greek, so such manuscripts were more readily accessible from which to translate.

 

Then we come to King Henry VIII and The Great Bible of 1540. This was the first ‘legal’ translation in Great Britain, as the king authorized it. However, it was only printed in large volumes (hence ‘Great’, for placing and usage in churches and training institutions. Henry VIII, you will remember, infamously broke away from the Roman Catholic Church so he could obtain a divorce. He then established the Church of England (Anglican in Canada, Episcopalian in the US), with himself as head. This was part of England’s church reformation story, with Anglicans being known as Protestants. Having a Bible in English was another way of thumbing his nose at the Roman Catholics and their Latin versions.

 

Then, religious freedom took a step backwards with thee assumption to the throne of the Catholic Queen Mary. She had John Rogers and Thomas Cranmer (responsible with Myles Coverdale for The Great Bible) burned at the stake in 1511! Myles Coverdale saved his life by fleeing to Switzerland, which was where the church reformation originated, so he was accepted there. 

 

Finally, when non-Catholic King James ascended to the English throne, religious authorities came to him to request a new English translation. This was largely because a Swiss Reformed supported translation from 1560, the Geneva Bible, had become popular everywhere. It, in turn, was based largely on Tyndale’s work, as well as a recent Catholic New Testament translation. The result in 1611 was the so-called King James Version. There is some real irony here. It was based in part on translations done by Catholics. Also, as for its being a Protestant Bible, which is for many of today’s evangelicals the only acceptable version, it was done under the auspices of authorities who were still persecuting the real reforming Protestants. Finally, the version read in homes all over North America and beyond today is not from 1611, but from the Revised Oxford Version of 1769, although you’d never learn that from most editions in print today.

 

So, had enough of dating? Let’s get back to that line with which we started… although there is still more dating to follow – but it’s not quite like what you’ve read so far.

Part II to follow.

For historical details I must give credit to:

https://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/ 

The Sword in The Bible

Introduction

 

Some readers of this essay will know that I recently published a story about the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus. I had entitled this biblical historical fictional novel A Sword Shall Pierce Your Soul. This reflected a certain degree of mystery which helped to propel the plot of the story. That was based on something that was said to Jesus' parents when they went to present him at the Temple in Jerusalem for purification rituals and circumcision on this eighth day. However, I won't say any more of that now, so as not to spoil the plot of that book for any who may not yet have read it or reached that point in their reading of it.

 

Then, in my reading of the Bible this year, I read the book Isaiah, and realized there was a further actual prophecy there about a sword that I had not obviously done adequate research enough to find or it would have made a fitting piece for that mystery. At the same time, over the past year, I have been delving further into the history of The People of God, understood to be the Jews in the Old Testament. In particular, I have been trying to understand really what are the real meanings of the biblical texts that critics point to as characterizing a murderous and bloodthirsty God in the Old Testament compared to the apparent vision of peace that God's son Jesus presented in the New Testament.

 

This has altogether led me to pursue this brief study of the use of the word sword in the Bible. It is a word that appears in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, and in the last book, Revelation. According to the authoritative Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, in the 1990 Copyright Addition, there are 417 references to ‘sword’ in the Bible and 24 references to ‘swords’. Our natural inclination is to think of a sword as a weapon of violence, of warfare, which is indeed what it is most often seen as where these words are used in the Bible. It is in fact, the most commonly referred to weapon in the Bible, which does also refer to sticks, clubs, spears, bows and arrows and slingshots.

 

In preparation for this writing, I did a word search of sword in a digital version of the Bible. This is much faster than the traditional method of looking up the references one-by-one from a concordance. There are many places where the words are used in the same way, so overall, I selected some 117 sample passages to illustrate these different uses. However, even then, I am not going to refer to nearly all of those in this article. I have grouped the appearance of these words into nine categories, which we will now turn to.

 

1.     The sword as a defense

 

Most references to the word sword or swords in the Bible, I will accept, are to its use as a weapon of violence and war. There is no getting away from that. Now the very first reference to a sword is not quite in this category, and I refer to Genesis 3:24: "When he [that is, God] drove the man out [of the Garden of Eden], he placed on the eastern side of the orchard in Eden angelic sentries who used the flame of a whirling sword to guard the way to the tree of life." The behavior of humanity had become such that there was no longer any place for them in the peace and order with which God had so carefully created particularly this portion of earth. Therefore, God had placed angels there with these weapons of defense to prevent humanity from returning to the garden. At least, that is the story of Genesis chapter 3.

 

2.     The sword as a threat

 

There are some passages in Scripture where the sword is actually borne by a figure who appears to be a representative of the Lord, an angel, as a warning or threat. One of these is in the story of the seer Balaam and his donkey in Numbers chapter 23. If you are familiar with the story you will recall that Balaam had been hired out by the king of Moab to curse Israel, when he is met on the road by an angel with a sword because this is not something he should be doing against God's people. The donkey sees the sword and repeatedly balks at Balaam's futile efforts to keep it moving, until the donkey speaks to Balaam and his eyes are opened and he sees the angel with the sword. Balaam is it then essentially told that if he had not seen the angel, he would have been killed, but now that his eyes are opened, he can proceed but only on the condition that he bless Israel, not curse it.

 

There are many passages in the Old Testament, beginning already in the second book, Exodus, where the sword is held forth by the Lord as a threat. In Exodus, God was continuing his efforts, begun with the patriarch Abraham in Genesis, at re-creating a people with whom he could once again dwell on this earth as their God. From Exodus through the Prophets, the sword is repeatedly used as a warning of what would happen to God's people if they broke the covenant that they made with God during their wilderness sojourn, as described in Exodus and the following books of the Pentateuch. 

 

There are different elements to this covenant, with correspondingly different threats for failure to keep these different components of this contract. Sometimes this threat is given as a warning if the people of God do not act in justice and righteousness in their lives, for example Exodus 22:22, "You must not afflict any widow or orphan. 22:23 If you afflict them in any way and they cry to me, I will surely hear their cry, 22:24 and my anger will burn and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives will be widows and your children will be fatherless." You can see in this warning what we sometimes refer to as the eye-for-an-eye type of justice. The guilty party will be punished severely, but in some measure in correspondence with the crime they have committed. If there has been oppression of widows and orphans, children, the wives of the oppressors will become widows and their children would become orphans. Care for widows, orphans and even aliens is an often-repeated command in the Pentateuch and in the Prophets. God reminds the Children of Israel how they were treated by the Egyptians prior to his delivering them from Egypt, warning them not to treat people the same way.

 

There are many passages where this threat is given as a general warning for not keeping any of the commandments and laws that were given to the Children of Israel in this Old Testament period. An example of this would be Deuteronomy 28:15, where it is part of warning about a variety of calamities that would befall the people of God for disobedience: " But if you ignore the Lord your God and are not careful to keep all his commandments and statutes I am giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you in full force… 28:21 The Lord will plague you with deadly diseases until he has completely removed you from the land you are about to possess. 28:22 He will afflict you with weakness, fever, inflammation, infection, sword, blight, and mildew; these will attack you until you perish." 

 

3.     The sword as protection

 

There are other instances of the use of the word sword where Israel is being reminded of how their God protects them, e.g., Deuteronomy 33:29 "You have joy, Israel! Who is like you? You are a people delivered by the Lord, your protective shield and your exalted sword." Here we already have an instance of where the word is used more as a figure of speech than as a reference to an actual use of the sword as a weapon. 

 

4.     The sword as a weapon of offense

 

This is where the discussion of sword in the Bible becomes for some more difficult. I refer particularly to the use of the sword in what is sometimes described as The Conquest of Canaan by the Children of Israel. To begin with, the Israelites were instructed to offer peace to the cities in their path. However, as we read in this passage from Deuteronomy chapter 20, if that was refused, the consequences were severe: "20:12 If it does not accept terms of peace but makes war with you, then you are to lay siege to it. 20:13 The Lord your God will deliver it over to you and you must kill every single male by the sword." This appears to be a clear command by God to Israel to carry on typical warfare as they take possession of the land.

 

Indeed, when the nation finally arrives in the promised land, with Joshua having taken over as the role of the leader Moses on his death, the first thing that happens, according to Joshua 5:13, is that he looks up and sees " a man standing in front of him holding a drawn sword. Joshua approached him and asked him, “Are you on our side or allied with our enemies?” 5:14 He answered, “Truly I am the commander of the Lord’s army. Now I have arrived!” Joshua bowed down with his face to the ground and asked, “What does my master want to say to his servant?” Joshua is told to take off his sandals as he is standing on holy ground. Some see this as symbolic of the promised land being prepared as the new home for God to dwell among his people, hence holy ground. However, in spite of the apparent representation of this figure as a military commander, no further instructions with regards to warfare are given at this point. We do know though, that according to the biblical record, Joshua and his soldiers essentially invaded the land, conquering a number of key Canaanite cities and putting many to death with the sword. 

 

We also do know though that there were a number of instances where victory over Canaanites was not achieved by Israel's military might but by the direct intervention of God. An example of this is given in Joshua chapter 10 where Israel was fighting the Amorites and they "fled from Israel on the slope leading down from Beth Horon, [and] the Lordthrew down on them large hailstones from the sky, all the way to Azekah. They died – in fact, more died from the hailstones than the Israelites killed with the sword…"

 

Another example of this is the unlikely but familiar Sunday school story of Gideon's delivery of Israel from the Midianites in Judges chapter 7. After God had instructed Gideon on certain steps to take in selecting his army, he was down to 300 men against a multitude of Midianites. Then this happened: "7:20 All three units blew their trumpets and broke their jars. They held the torches in their left hand and the trumpets in their right. Then they yelled, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” 7:21 They stood in order all around the [Midianite] camp. The whole army ran away; they shouted as they scrambled away. 7:22 When the three hundred men blew their trumpets, the Lord caused the Midianites to attack one another with their swords throughout the camp." There are other examples in the Bible whereby God's command in situations like this or direct action on his part, invading armies are apparently entirely discomfited without Israel lifting a finger. In this instance though, Gideon's army is joined by a number of other tribal troops and they give chase to the Midianites who survived this initial mutual slaughter of one another and dealt with them in the usual fashion for warfare of the day (Judges 7:23-25).

 

On a number of occasions throughout the Old Testament then, God reminds Israel of this: "I sent terror ahead of you to drive out before you the two Amorite kings. I gave you the victory; it was not by your swords or bows (Joshua 24:12)". On the one hand, this can be seen as God warning Israel not to become too proud of what they might want to believe they accomplished on their own. Others use such passages to argue that God might have indeed been doing what he believed was necessary to create a new place of order and rest for his people and himself, and that the apparent military exploits of Israel were not nearly as extensive as the hyperbolic repeated descriptions of how they annihilated cities and put everyone to the sword. Those who have studied the culture of this time including other writings from this time state that these descriptions in Joshua parallel the exaggerated descriptions given by other kings of the era to describe their prowess, but that the actual events were not nearly as thorough, in terms of what might appear to be ethnic cleansing in the eyes of some, as the literal accounts suggest.

 

There is a somewhat interesting annotation in the book of I Samuel that could also cast a question on how well-equipped the Israelites actually were with swords throughout this time. They had now finished the so-called conquest of the land and had been settled in it for some years. However, as we know from numerous mentions of the fact, the children of Israel had never actually annihilated all the Canaanites, which the readings of some passages would suggest they were supposed to have done. So, during the time when Israel finally had their first King, Saul, and a group of Canaanites known as the Philistines were the problem, we read this in respect to an occasion where Israel was going to attack the Philistines: "A blacksmith could not be found in all the land of Israel, for the Philistines had said, “This will prevent the Hebrews from making swords and spears…. 13:22 So on the day of the battle no sword or spear was to be found in the hand of anyone in the army that was with Saul and Jonathan. No one but Saul and his son Jonathan had them (I Samuel 13:19-22)." However, we again appear to see the direct intervention of God on behalf of what would appear then to be the poorly armed, by secular standards, Israelite army: " Saul and all the army that was with him assembled and marched into battle, where they found the Philistines in total panic killing one another with their swords (I Samuel 14:20)". 

 

We get another view of God's view of the use of the sword in the infamous story of King David and Bathsheba. After David has arranged for the killing of Bathsheba's husband Uriah, leaving it possible for him to take Bathsheba as his wife, the prophet Nathan was sent to David with this message: "Why have you shown contempt for the word of the Lord by doing evil in my sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and you have taken his wife as your own! You have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 12:10 So now the sword will never depart from your house. For you have despised me by taking the wife of Uriah the Hittite as your own (II Samuel 12:9-10)!’" 

 

Still another window into God's view of trusting in your army versus God comes to us in the story of when King David, in his older years, decides to take a military census (II Samuel 24 & I Chronicles 21). No sooner had the task been completed then David realized his error. Just the same, God exacted a penalty against the nation for the pride of their king by sending an angel to begin to kill its citizens. When God sees the sincerity of David's repentance, the sword of the angel is stayed, leading David to buy that plot of land on which the punishment stopped, to offer a sacrifice of atonement and then designate the spot as where the first Temple was built by his son Solomon.

 

5.     The sword as punishment

 

We know that in the administration of justice, as it is often referred to, serious punishment is sometimes meted out. We still have capital punishment, execution of persons found guilty of certain crimes. If we know our history of Israel we know that the sword was the method of severe punishment in those days. It probably comes as a shock to us when we learn that this sword-wielding punishment was sometimes carried out not by rulers or their aides, but by priests and their associates and even the judges. Of course, the judges were seen as the earthly rulers before Israel had kings, so we must bear that in mind. 

 

There are some dramatic examples of where such punishment is meted out. The first stories come from when Israel was on the way from Egypt to Canaan.  When the Israelites had once again rebelled against the leadership, which actions would rest with Moses, we do not read of him carrying such out himself. However, he instructs the Levites and priests to exact such murderous punishment on their kin! According to the story, as told in Exodus 32, ostensibly, this is even told as a command coming from the Lord: “32:26 So Moses stood at the entrance of the camp and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me.” All the Levites gathered around him, 32:27 and he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Each man fasten his sword on his side, and go back and forth from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and each one kill his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’” 32:28 The Levites did what Moses ordered, and that day about three thousand men of the people died.” What might sound just as strange to our modern ears is the recognition that ensues: “32:29 Moses said, “You have been consecrated today for the Lord, for each of you was against his son or against his brother, so he has given a blessing to you today.” These Levites, which was the tribe of the priests, are blessed for having carried out this purging slaughter!

 

Then we have this action by that man of God, Samuel, in I Samuel 15, the judge who began his career as a little boy serving in the temple. Samuel reminds King Saul that he has a mandate to deal with the Canaanite tribes, in particular in this instance, the Amalekites. They were to be punished for their unprovoked attack on Israel, the first the people experienced after leaving Egypt. Saul and his army carry out this action but spare the king and a good deal of livestock, versus annihilating everything as they were to have done. Samuel is very displeased with this and pronounces judgment on Saul for this disobedience, as he refers to it. Then he calls for the spared king and hacked him to pieces himself!

 

Years later, we are told of an even more gruesome action of this nature carried out by a prominent prophet, Elijah. You might recall the story (I Kings 18). Elijah has staged a showdown between himself, as the representative of the God of Israel, and 400 prophets of the Canaanite god Baal, whom the royal family had officially drawn the nation into worshipping. The prophets of Baal fail the test miserably and we are told the people then turn on them at Elijah’s command and he executes the lot of them! Hard to believe – one man killing 400?

 

Then, when the prophets begin to warn Israel about their apostasy and the judgment and punishment coming their way because of this, the sword is not only threatened, as we noted earlier, but actually used by invading armies. This took place first with the Assyrians, mainly against the Northern Kingdom or Samaria, then the Babylonians against the southern Kingdom or Judah. Examples of numerous such warnings can be found in the writings of the Major Prophets Isaiah 1:20, 3;25, Jeremiah 5:17, 9:16, Ezekiel 5:12, 6:11 and the so-called Minor Prophets, such as in Hosea 13:16 and Amos 7:17.

 

6.     The Sword as Figure of Speech

 

We are familiar with the use of the sword as a figure of speech for the use of words but this does not occur in the biblical record until we come to the Psalms, although there is a leaning in this direction in Job already: 5:15 “[God] saves from the sword that comes from their mouth, even the poor from the hand of the powerful.” The context indicates that this is referring to aggressive behavior towards the poor that begins with the language directed against them.  Examples from the Psalms include these: 55:21 “His words are as smooth as butter, but he harbors animosity in his heart. His words seem softer than oil, but they are really like sharp swords,” 57:4 “I am surrounded by lions; I lie down among those who want to devour me; men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are a sharp sword,” and 64:3“They sharpen their tongues like a sword; they aim their arrow, a slanderous charge…”

 

Not surprisingly, the Proverbs also use the word sword in this way, as in Proverbs 5:3 “For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey, and her seductive words are smoother than olive oil, 5:4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword,” 12:18 “Speaking recklessly is like the thrusts of a sword, but the words of the wise bring healing” and 25:18 “Like a club or a sword or a sharp arrow, so is the one who testifies against his neighbor as a false witness.”

 

7.     The Disappearance of the Sword

 

We have already seen that God, even in the matter of Israel entering the Promised Land, often took matters into his own hands instead of leaving all the battles to be won by Israel’s military ability.  This could raise the question of when can humans be trusted to make decisions about when to use the sword appropriately, if at all. We have also read of how God reminded Israel of this fact so they would not think they could depend solely on their military power. Indeed, when Israel was following God appropriately, it seems there was more of their leaving their defense or the punishment of their enemies to God. We note, for example, that in the Psalms, David and other writers generally do not speak of taking matters into their own hands when it comes to lamenting action others take against them. They are constantly pleading their cause with God, asking him to act justly by them, for whatever they perceive they are suffering from. The language is still pretty graphic to our Western ears, but they are honestly expressing their feelings to God, which most of us need to feel freer to do.

 

Then we begin to come to the passages that point to the end of the use of the sword. These are the texts that we resonate with more, especially as Anabaptists, who try to adhere to an ethic of non-violence.  There are two statements we are familiar with, which sound alike, which makes one wonder if one of the writers was familiar with the other, and quoted him. There is also one in Hosea we are not as used to hearing. I refer to these passages:

i.               Isaiah 2:4 He will judge disputes between nations; he will settle cases for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations will not take up the sword against other nations, and they will no longer train for war…”

ii.              Hosea 2:18 “At that time I will make a covenant for them with the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the creatures that crawl on the ground. I will abolish the warrior’s bow and sword – that is, every weapon of warfare – from the land, and I will allow them to live securely…”

iii.            Micah 4:3 He will arbitrate between many peoples and settle disputes between many distant nations. They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations will not use weapons against other nations, and they will no longer train for war…”

 

We cannot ignore in this context though, this contrasting verse from Joel: 3:9 “Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for a holy war! Call out the warriors! Let all these fighting men approach and attack! 3:10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears! Let the weak say, ‘I too am a warrior!’”

 

As always, we need to interpret the verse in its context. The whole passage (Joel 3:9-21) is a shout out, to use a modern term, to the nations to prepare for God’s final judgment. So, it is speaking of a use of the sword, figuratively, that is again somewhat out of our realm of concern when it comes to our use or not of such. It is speaking of God’s use of the sword, or at least a use of the sword involving God and his plans, not a human endeavor. We will have more to say below about what might have been meant by the sword in this instance.

 

8.     Jesus and The Sword

 

What did the Messiah himself, Jesus, have to say about the sword? On one hand we have the pronouncement that he came not (Mathew 10:34 ff) “to bring peace but a sword. 10:35 For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, 10:36 and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. 10:37 “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 10:38 And whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 10:39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life because of me will find it.” We fairly readily understand that Jesus is not here saying that he has come to cause the use of a death-dealing physical sword between family members.  Such has indeed happened when family members in some parts of the world become Christians, and he can be referring to this. Generaly though, this is understood as bringing division because of family members’ differences because of the faith or lives of some not being like the faith or lives of others. The result can be dissension and strife among family members.

 

Jesus also refers to the sword in a prophetic sense in some of his discourses, not unlike how it was used by the Prophets who came before him. An example of this is when Jesus appears to be speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70: Luke 21:20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near… 21:23…  For there will be great distress on the earth and wrath against this people. 21:24 They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led away as captives among all nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”

 

Then we come to another strange instruction Jesus gives his disciples: “Luke 22:35 Then Jesus said to them, “When I sent you out with no money bag, or traveler’s bag, or sandals, you didn’t lack anything, did you?” They replied, “Nothing.” 22:36 He said to them, “But now, the one who has a money bag must take it, and likewise a traveler’s bag too. And the one who has no sword must sell his cloak and buy one. 22:37 For I tell you that this scripture must be fulfilled in me, ‘And he was counted with the transgressors.’ For what is written about me is being fulfilled.” 22:38 So they said, “Look, Lord, here are two swords.” Then he told them, “It is enough.” The context gives us the understanding here, as it so often does. This is spoken just prior to Jesus and the disciples leaving the scene of their last Passover meal together to go to the Garden of Gethsemane where he was arrested. Jesus, to be able to take away our penalty for sin, which was what he accomplished by his sacrificial death on Calvary, had to, as we are wont to say, take upon himself the sins of the world, i.e. be “counted among the transgressors.” Could he be suggesting here that to possess a sword is one mark of a transgressor? I believe we would readily agree that to have and use a physical swordin the manner for which it is meant, is not what Christ wants. Indeed, scarcely hours later, I think we gain further understanding of this odd exchange of Jesus and the disciples.

 

What happened when the emissaries of the Jewish authorities then did accost Jesus in the Garden? What does Matthew write: 26:51 “But one of those with Jesus grabbed his sword, drew it out, and struck the high priest’s slave, cutting off his ear. 26:52 Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back in its place! For all who take hold of the sword will die by the sword. 26:53 Or do you think that I cannot call on my Father, and that he would send me more than twelve legions of angels right now? 26:54 How then would the scriptures that say it must happen this way be fulfilled?” In the preceding paragraph, we see the disciples announce that they do have swords, and Jesus says it is enough. Do we think two swords wielded by fishermen from Galilee would be enough against the trained police and accomplices that found Jesus in the Garden? It’s almost humorous to see how ineffective the one swing of the sword was. In John 18:10 we see that the sword-wielding disciple was, perhaps not surprisingly, Peter, who often seemed to be somewhat rash in his sayings and actions.  Once again, Jesus had to rebuke him. Then he turns and heals the wound Peter inflicted! Jesus was certainly not supporting the use of the sword here.

 

9.     The Sword of the Mouth

 

Then we come to an unusual image, a sword in or protruding from the mouth. This is not the same as “the sword that comes from [the] mouth” as we saw above in Job 5. Nor is it a metaphorical use of the word. It refers to an actual image of a sword linked to the mouth. It is particularly noteworthy that this image actually first appears in Messianic prophecies, texts foretelling the coming of the Messiah or speaking of activities tied to his appearance.

 

This can be seen first in Isaiah 49: “49:1 Listen to me, you coastlands! Pay attention, you people who live far away! The Lord summoned me from birth; he commissioned me when my mother brought me into the world. 49:2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword, he hid me in the hollow of his hand; he made me like a sharpened arrow, he hid me in his quiver. 49:3 He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, through whom I will reveal my splendor.” If we look closely at this entire passage and compare it to other similar ones that we encounter in the Prophets, we see that the ultimate meaning of who the servant is, is the Messiah. So, what does it mean then that his mouth is made like a sharp sword? The answer becomes apparent when we come to the New Testament, where, of course, the Messianic predictions begin to be fulfilled.

 

Paul and the writer of Hebrews give us clues as to where this is going. This is Paul describing the ‘armour’ we are to put on when we battle the opposition we face in our lives: Hebrews 6:13 “For this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand your ground… 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. We have become used to this use of the word sword, which is further elaborated on then in Hebrews: “4:12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart.” However, are we prepared also to extend this meaning of sword to its use in the references that follow in the last pages of our Bible, in Revelation?

 

When the writer of Revelation, understood by many to be the Apostle John, has a vision of the resurrected Jesus, come to give John a message to the churches, this what he sees: one (Revelation 1:13) “like the Son of Man”, who Revelation 1:16 “…held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp double-edged sword extended out of his mouth. His face shone like the sun shining at full strength.” What has Jesus come to do at this point? He has come to bring a word, a message to ‘the seven churches’ named for seven cities in Asia Minor, now Turkey, where the Church first really took a foothold. It is a strong word, a sharp word, not unlike what the writer to the Hebrews described, as referred to earlier. Jesus has not come to do anything requiring a physical sword. However, Jesus does say this of himself later in this passage in addressing one of the churches: ““This is the solemn pronouncement of the one who has the sharp double-edged sword… 2:16… repent! If not, I will come against you quickly and make war against those people with the sword of my mouth.” What is Jesus saying here? It seems clear he is telling us that his word will be what convicts and judges the churches. He is not referring to a metal weapon. Remember again that quote from Hebrews. 

 

Then we come to the last use of sword in our Bible. This is the vision in Revelation 19 of the victorious resurrected Jesus: 19:11 “Then I saw heaven opened and here came a white horse! The one riding it was called “Faithful” and “True,” and with justice he judges and goes to war… 19:13 He is dressed in clothing dipped in blood, and he is called the Word of God. 19:14 The armies that are in heaven, dressed in white, clean, fine linen, were following him on white horses. 19:15 From his mouth extends a sharp sword, so that with it he can strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod, and he stomps the winepress of the furious wrath of God, the All-Powerful. 19:16 He has a name written on his clothing and on his thigh: “King of kings and Lord of lords… 19:19 Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to do battle with the one who rode the horse and with his army. 19:20 Now the beast was seized, and along with him the false prophet who had performed the signs on his behalf – signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. Both of them were thrown alive into the lake of fire burning with sulfur. 19:21 The others were killed by the sword that extended from the mouth of the one who rode the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves with their flesh.”

 

Ever since the dispensational interpretation of scripture that took hold in the 19^th century, this has been a passage beloved of those who see in Revelation a detailed description of events of the end times. This vision is indeed one showing Jesus as victorious over the forces of evil in a final way. It is couched in language that is really foreign to us, but familiar to those familiar with the Jewish writings of the time when this was written, the apocalyptic literature. Not only is the imagery unfamiliar, we even misunderstand the layout of this letter. We are so used to think in the linear, cause and effect way of looking at things that comes to us from the Greeks and Latins, and on through our own civilization’s intellectual movements. However, that is not how this was written. It depicts the same scenes, the same events of salvation history from different perspectives, from the past, present and future, sometimes seemingly all at once. We see the same events from the vantage point of earth and then heaven and then earth again etc. 

 

This is the case with this passage. Jesus has already gained the victory over evil in his death on the cross. With his resurrection, he clinched that by defeating death. Now, we live in what some describe as the ‘already, not yet’ stage of the development of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of our Lord. At the end of time, Jesus will reappear as the Conqueror he is to execute a final judgment on the forces of evil and death. 

 

Note that Jesus’ robe is already bloodied. He has not yet even engaged in battle (19:13). It is the blood of the cross. He is called “the word of God”. He and his followers are dressed in “white, clean, fine linen (19:14)”, scarcely earthly battle attire.  The sword extends from his mouth, further reinforcing that it refers to nothing other than the Word of God. Jesus’ judgment against the world, the conviction of the Spirit, has always been through The Word. He is called ‘Faithful’ and ‘True’ and goes to war and judges with justice. Such judgments are meted out with words. There is no talk here of a literal Armageddon battle. The forces of the world that want to do battle with our Lord are already defeated and are now, with the arrival of the time of final judgment, simply sent to their final destination.  They are killed, sentenced to their punishment, “by the sword that extended from the mouth of the one who rode the horse (19:21).” This is the explanation Jesus gave to his disciples, and this is the message we have too. Thanks be to God for The Word made flesh who now lives and reigns above!

                                                                                                                                                                                    

 

This essay is written to explore the appearance of the sword in scripture. To that I must add that it is not about every documented use of the sword by humans, such as when Levi & Simeon massacred the men of Shechem for allegedly raping their sister Dinah (Gen. 3:25-5). It is about where God or his agents mention the sword or are described as carrying or wielding one.