Antiseptic Reasoning (Acoustic, Samantha Crain)

Hello Grafted In Readers,

The month of April is just about "in the books" as they say, and it began with myself and my youngest brother and his son returning from a four-day visit with our dad in another state. We had a fun time and made some memories for sure.

I have titled this post, Antiseptic Greeting, for a good reason. In the Bible there is a book titled The Gospel of John, which records much of the activity occurring during the earthly life of Yeshua, or Jesus if you prefer. One such encounter is following his resurrection, which is why Christians celebrate what is known as Easter.

In this encounter, John chapter 20, the disciples of Jesus are meeting together behind locked doors. This verse is perhaps translated more accurately than standard Christian translations. Read as follows:
19 When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were locked where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Judeans, Yeshua came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be to you.”
20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad when they saw the Lord.

This is excerpted from the Hebrew Names Version of the 1997, World English Bible.
Most translations use the term (for fear of the Jews) rather than, (for fear of the Judeans).
Wes Howard, Jewish scholar, has an interesting article about this on the blog called, Tikkun Daily. It is titled< Jews, Judeans, and the Gospel Of John

He makes two major points:
The Greek word, "ioudaioi", is the one in question. He cites in this gospel the word refers to Judeans, those that were sympathetic to the Roman empire. The second point by Wes Howard is that the Jews of the first century are not the lineage of the predecessors of today's Jews.

This author refers to his 1994 book, "Becoming Children of God: Radical Discipleship" Orbis the publisher.

Some are reconsidering the use of transliterated Greek texts today, but many still turn a deaf ear to considering a varied understanding of formerly interpreted meanings. It's easy to include "all" when stating reasons for extraordinary events in history:
The Cuban Missile Crisis, The Communists, The Russians, the Muslims, The Roman soldiers, the Pharisees. It was sects within each of these people groups that influenced history, and not the whole ethnic. May the "smug arrogant western church" look in its own eye before considering the log jam in the other's eye. If Jesus is your head, act like it!

Mellow Rock
David C. Russell