WARNING: The text
used for my commentary is my own paraphrase and must not be
considered
“a translation” or authorative in any way. It is, in fact, simply my commentary.
Maps, when used, are from
BibleAtlas.org. Created
using BibleMapper 3.0.
Additional data from OpenBible.info. Source of Dates Used
בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית • B'resheet
(“In Beginning” or “At First”)
The First Book of Moses,
Commonly Called
Genesis
Parashah 1: B'resheet (continued)
(In the Beginning, Gen. 1:1-6:8)
J. The Corruption of Mankind (6:1-8)
1. Intermarriage Brings Decay (6:1-2)
1When
men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them,
2the benéi-Elohim[2] saw that the daughters
of men were beautiful, and they took as wives whomever they chose.
2. Mankind Given a Grace Period (6:3)
3So Yehovah[GN]
said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, because he is
mortal; so
his days will be 120 years.”[3]
Maftir (Concluding) 5Then Yehovah saw that the wickedness of man was great
upon the earth,[5a] and that every
inclinationHebrew: יצרר, yetser, purpose, intent
of the thoughts of man’s heart was altogther evil all the time.[5b]6Yehovah regretted that He had made man on the earth, and it
grievedHebrew עצב, 'atsab, to hurt, have pain, tortured
Him in His heart.
7Yehovah
said, “I will blot out man, whom I have created, from the face of the
earth — every man,
animal, crawling creature, and bird of the sky — for I am grieved that I
have made them.”
8But Noach found favor in
the eyes of Yehovah.
Blessed are you, O Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
Who has given us a Torah of truth,
and has planted eternal life in our midst.
Blessed are You, O Lord, Giver of the Torah.
Blessed are you, O Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
Who selected good prophets,
and was pleased with their words
which were spoken truthfully.
Blessed are You, O Lord,
Who chooses the Torah,
Your servant Moses, Your people Israel,
and prophets of truth and righteousness.
Haftatah B'resheet is Yesha'yahu (Isaiah) 42:5–43:10 Listen to it read from the
Complete Jewish Bible
425 Elohim
Yehovah, He Who created the heavens and stretched them out, He Who
spread out the earth and that which comes out of it, He Who gives breath to its people
and spirit to those who walk in it, says:
6 “I, Yehovah, have called you
in righteousness. I will hold your hand. I will keep you, and make you a covenant for
the people, as a light for the nations,
7 to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners
out of the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.
8 “I am Yehovah. That is
My name. I will not give My glory to another, nor My praise to engraved images.
9 Behold, the former things have happened and
I declare new things. I tell you about them before they come up.”
10 Sing to Yehovah a new song,
and His praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is
therein, the islands and their inhabitants.
11 Let the wilderness and its cities raise their
voices, with the villages that Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing. Let
them shout from the top of the mountains!
12 Let them give glory to Yehovah,
and declare his praise in the islands.
13 Yehovah will go out like a
mighty man. He will stir up zeal like a man of war. He will raise a war cry. Yes, He will
shout aloud. He will triumph over his enemies.
14 “I have been silent a long time.
I have been quiet and restrained myself.
Now I will cry out like a travailing woman. I will both gasp and pant.
15 I will destroy mountains and hills,
and dry up all their herbs.
I will make the rivers islands,
and will dry up the pools.
16 I will bring the
blind by a way that they don’t know.
I will lead them in paths that they don’t know.
I will make darkness light before them,
and crooked places straight.
I will do these things,
and I will not forsake them.
17 “Those who trust in engraved images,
who tell molten images, ‘You are our gods,’
will be turned back.
They will be utterly disappointed.
18 “Hear, you deaf,
and look, you blind,
that you may see.
19 Who is blind, but My servant?
Or who is as deaf as My messenger whom I send?
Who is as blind as he who is at peace,
and as blind as Yehovah’s servant?
20 You
see many things, but don’t observe.
His ears are open, but he doesn’t listen.
21 It pleased Yehovah,
for His righteousness’ sake, to magnify the law
and make it honorable.
22 But this is a robbed and plundered people.
All of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prisons.
They have become captives, and no one delivers,
and a plunder, and no one says, ‘Restore them!’
23 Who is there
among you who will give ear to this?
Who will listen and hear for the time to come?
24 Who gave Jacob as plunder,
and Israel to the robbers?
Didn’t Yehovah, He against whom we have sinned?
For they would not walk in His ways,
and they disobeyed His law.
25 Therefore He poured the fierceness
of His anger on him,
and the strength of battle.
It set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know.
It burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart.”
431 But now
Yehovah Who created you, Jacob,
and He who formed you, Israel, says:
“Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name.
You are mine!
2 When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you,
and through the rivers, they will not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned,
and flame will not scorch you.
3 For I am Yehovah
your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I have given Egypt as your ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba in your place.
4 Since you have been precious
and honored in My sight,
and I have loved you,
therefore I will give people in your place,
and nations instead of your life.
5 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and gather you from the west.
6 I will tell the north, ‘Give them up!’
and tell the south, ‘Don’t hold them back!
Bring my sons from far away,
and my daughters from the ends of the earth.
7 Everyone who is called by My name,
and whom I have created for My glory,
whom I have formed,
yes, whom I have made.’”
8 Bring out the blind people who have eyes,
and the deaf who have ears.
9 Let all the nations be gathered together,
and let the peoples be assembled.
Who among them can declare this,
and show us former things?
Let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified,
or let them hear, and say, “That is true.”
10 “You are My witnesses,”
says Yehovah,
“With My servant whom I have chosen;
that you may know and believe me,
and understand that I AM!
Before Me there was no God formed,
neither will there be after me.
Blessed are You, O Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
Who has given us Messiah Yeshua
and the commandments of the New Covenant.
Blessed are You, O Lord, Giver of the New Covenant.
Basar (Gospel)
The reading from the Gospels is Yochanan (John) 1:1-17
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God.
2He was with God in the
beginning.
3All things were made through Him,
and without
Him, nothing was made that has been made.
4In Him was life, and the life was
the light of men.
5The Light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness hasn’t overcome it.
6There came a man sent from God,
whose name was Yochanan.
7He came as a witness, to might
testify about the Light, so that through Him everyone might believe.
8He himself was not the Light, but
he came to testify about the Light.
9The true Light Who enlightens everyone was
coming into the world.
10He
[the Light] was in the world, and
[though] the world was made through Him, the world didn’t recognize Him.
11He came to His own
[people], and those who were
His own [people] didn’t receive Him.
12But to all who did received Him, to those
who believed in His Name, He
gave the right to become children of God,
13who were born not of blood, nor of
an act of
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14The Word
became flesh and
tabernacled among us. We saw His
Shekinah, such glory as of the
unique
Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15Yochanan testified about Him. He cried out,
saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me,
because He
existed before me.’”
16From His fullness we all
have received grace upon
grace.
17For the Torah
was given through MosheMoses;
grace and truth were realized through Yeshua the Mashiach.
512Therefore,
as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because
all sinned.
13Before the Torah was given, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged
when there is no Torah.
14Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moshe, even over
those whose sins weren’t like Adam’s disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of Him who was to come.
15But the free gift isn't like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the
many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Yeshua the Messiah, abound
to the many.
16The gift is not as through one who sinned: for the judgment came by one
to condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses to justification.
17For
if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance
of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One, Yeshua the Messiah.
18So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so
through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life.
19For as through the
one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One will many be made
righteous.
20The Torah came in also, so that the trespass might abound; but where sin
abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly;
21that as sin reigned in death, even so
might grace reign through righteousness to eternal life through Yeshua the Messiah our Lord.
615Don't
you know that your bodies are members of Messiah? Shall I then take the members of Messiah, and make
them members of a prostitute? May it never be!
6:16Or don’t you know that he
who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For He says, “The two will become one flesh.”
17But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.
8Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin that a man does is
outside the body,” but whoever commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
19Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of Ruach HaKodesh Who is in
you, Whom you have from God? You are not your own,
20for you were bought
with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
1535But
someone will say, “How are the dead raised?” and, “What kind of body do they come in?”
36You foolish person, that which you yourself sow is not made alive unless it
dies.
37That which you sow, you don’t sow the body that will be, but a bare
grain, maybe of wheat, or of some other kind.
38But God gives it a body even
as it pleased Him, and each seed is given a body of its own.
39All flesh is
not the same kind of flesh. There is one kind of flesh of men, another kind of flesh of animals, another
of fish, and yet another of birds.
40There are also celestial bodies, and
terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial differs from that of the terrestrial.
41There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory
of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.
42Likewise is
the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption.
43It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is
raised in power.
44It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.
There is a natural body and there is also a spiritual body.
45So it is also written, “The first man, Adam, became a
living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
46However, that which
is spiritual isn’t first, but that which is natural, and then that which is spiritual.
47The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from
heaven.
48Those who are made of dust are like the one made of dust; those who
are heavenly are like that which is heavenly.
49Just as we have borne the image
of those made of dust, let’s also bear the image of the heavenly.
15Now I say
this, brothers, that flesh and blood can’t inherit the Kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit
incorruption.
51Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep,
but we will all be changed,
52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at
the last shofar. For the shofar will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will
be changed.
53For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal
must put on immortality.
54But when this corruptible will have put on
incorruption, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55“Death, where is your sting?”
She'ol, where is your victory?”
56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin
is the law.
57But thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory through
our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.
58Therefore, my beloved brothers, be
steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord's work, because you know that your labor
is not in vain in the Lord.
515Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise;
16redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
17Therefore don’t be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord
is.
18Don’t be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be
filled with the Spirit,
19speaking to one another in psalms, hymns,
and spiritual songs; singing, and singing praises in your heart to the Lord;
20giving thanks always concerning all things in the name of our Lord
Yeshua the Messiah, to God, even the Father;
21submitting yourselves
to one another in the fear of Messiah.
22Wives, be subject to your own husbands even
as you are as to the Lord.
23For the husband is the head of the wife,
and Messiah also is the head of the assembly, being himself the savior of the body.
24But as the assembly is subject to Messiah, so let the wives also be
to their own husbands in everything.
25Husbands, love your wives the same way that
Messiah loved the assembly and gave Himself up for it;
26so that He
might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word,
27that He might present the assembly to Himself gloriously, having
no spot, or wrinkle, or anything like that; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
28That’s the same way that husbands should also love their own wives,
even as they love their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.
29For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it,
even as the Lord also does the assembly;
30because we are members of
His body, of His flesh and bones.
31“For this cause a man will leave
his father and mother, and will be joined to his wife. The two will become one flesh.”
32This is a great mystery, but I am speaking about Messiah and the
assembly.
33Nevertheless, each of you must also love his own wife even
as himself; and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
19Beause of this, ever since the day we heard this, we don’t cease praying
and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual
wisdom and understanding,
10so you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please
Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every mitzvah, and increasing in the knowledge of
God;
11strengthened with all power, according to the might of His glory,
for all endurance and perseverance with joy;
12giving thanks to the Father,
Who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the holy ones in light;
13Who delivered us out of the power of darkness and translated us into the
Kingdom of the Son of His love;
14in Whom we have our redemption, the
forgiveness of our sins;
15Who is the image of the invisible God, the
Firstborn of all creation.
16For by Him were all things created, in the
heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or
principalities or powers; all things have been created through Him, and for Him.
17He has continually existed before all things, and everything is held
together in Him.
211Let
a woman learn in quietness with all subjection.
12But I don’t permit a woman
to teach, nor to exercise authority over a man, but to be in quietness.
13Because Adam was first formed, then Chavah.
14Adam
wasn’t deceived, but the woman, having been deceived, has fallen into disobedience;
15but she will be saved through her child-bearing, if they continue in faith,
love, and sanctification with sobriety. [Return to note on Gen 3:13]
11God,
having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways,
2has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, Whom He appointed heir of
all things, through Whom also He made the worlds.
3His Son is the radiance
of His glory, the very image of His substance, and upholding all things by the word of His power,
when He had by Himself made purification for our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty
on high;
4having become so much better than the angels, as he has inherited
a more excellent name than they have.
5For to which of the angels did He ever
say,
“You are my Son,
Today have I become your Father?”
and again,
“I will be a Father to Him,
And He will be a Son to Me?”
6Again, when He brings the Pre-eminent One
into the world He says, “Let all the angels of God worship Him.”
7Of the angels he says,
“Who makes His angels winds,
And His servants a flame of fire.”
8but about the Son he says,
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;
The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your Kingdom.
9You have loved righteousness, and hated iniquity;
Therefore God, your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your fellows.”
10And,
“You, Yehovah, in the beginning, laid the foundation of the earth.
The heavens are the works of Your hands.
11“They will perish, but You continue.
They all will grow old like a garment does.
12“As a mantle You will roll them up,
And they will be changed;
“But You are the same.
Your years will not fail.”
13But of which of the angels has He ever said,
“Sit at My right hand,
Until I make Your enemies the footstool of your feet?”
8“Don't harden your hearts, as in the provocation,
Like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness,
9“Where your fathers tested Me by proving Me,
And saw My works for forty years.
10“Therefore I was displeased with that generation,
And said, ‘They always err in their heart,
But they didn’t know My ways;’
11“As I swore in my wrath,
‘They will not enter into my rest.’”
12Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there be
in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God;
13but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called
“today”; lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
14For we have become partakers of Messiah, if we hold fast the
beginning of our confidence firm to the end:
15while it is said,
“Today if you will hear his voice,
Don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.”
16For who, when they heard, rebelled? No,
didn't all those who came out of Egypt by Moshe?
17With whom
was He displeased forty years? Wasn't it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in
the wilderness?
18To whom did He swear that they wouldn't enter
into His rest, but to those who were disobedient?
19We see that
they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.
41Let us fear therefore, lest perhaps a promise being left of
entering into his rest, anyone of you should seem to have come short of it.
2For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they
also did, but the word they heard didn’t profit them, because it wasn’t mixed with faith
by those who heard.
3For we who have believed do enter into that
rest, even as He has said, “As I swore in my wrath, they will not enter into My rest;”
although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4For He has said this somewhere about the seventh day, “God
rested on the seventh day from all His works;”
5and in this place
again, “They will not enter into My rest.”
6Seeing therefore it remains that some should
enter therein, and they to whom the good news was before preached failed to enter in because
of disobedience,
7He again defines a certain day, today, saying
through David so long a time afterward (just as has been said),
“Today if you will hear His voice,
Don't harden your hearts.”
8For if Yehoshua had given them rest,
He would not have spoken afterward of another day.
9There
remains therefore a Shabbat rest for the people of God.
10For
he who has entered into His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God
did from His.
11Let us therefore give diligence to enter into
that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.
111Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things
not seen.
2For by this, the elders obtained testimony.
3By faith, we understand that the universe has been framed by the
word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible.
4By faith, Hevel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than
Kayin, through which he had testimony given to him that he was righteous, God bearing
witness with respect to his gifts; and through it he, being dead, still speaks.
5By faith, Chanokh was taken away, so that he wouldn't see death,
and he was not found, because God translated him. For he has had testimony given to him
that before his translation he had been well pleasing to God.
6Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to Him, for
he who comes to God must believe that He exists, and that He is a rewarder of those who
seek Him.
7By faith, Noach, being warned about things not yet seen,
moved with Godly fear, prepared a teivah for the saving of his house, through which he
condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
31This is now, beloved, the second letter that I have written to you;
and in both of them I stir up your sincere mind by reminding you
2that
you should remember the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and the
mitzvot of us, the emissaries of the Lord and Savior:
3knowing
this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts,
4and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For, from the day that
the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”
5For this they willfully forget, that there were heavens from of old,
and an earth formed out of water and amid water, by the word of God;
6by
which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.
7But the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been
stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
8But don’t forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with
Yehovah as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9Yehovah is not slow concerning his promise,
as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all
should come to repentance.
10But the Day of Yehovah
will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and
the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will
be burned up.
11Therefore since all these things are thus to be destroyed,
what manner of persons ought you to be in holy living and Godliness,
12looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the Day of God, by
reason of which the heavens being on fire will be dissolved, and the elements will melt with
fervent heat?
13But, according to His promise, we look for new heavens
and a new earth, in which dwells righteousness.
14Therefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be diligent
to be found in shalom, without blemish and blameless in his sight.
211I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the
first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more.
2I saw the holy city,
New Yerushalayim, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband.
3I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with
people, and He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them
as their God.
4He will wipe away from them every tear from their eyes. Death
will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have
passed away.”
5He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all
things new.” He said, “Write, for these words of God are faithful and true.”
221He showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding
out of the throne of God and of the Lamb,
2in the middle of its street.
On this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruits,
yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the goyim.
3There will be no curse any more. The throne of God and of the Lamb
will be in it, and His servants serve Him.
4They will see His face, and
His name will be on their foreheads.
5There will be no night, and they
need no lamplight; for the Lord Yehovah will illuminate them.
They will reign forever and ever.
The Blessing After the Ketuvei HaShalichim
Click here
to listen to this canted by
Jeremiah Greenberg of Messianic Liturgical Resources.
Page numbers refer to his
Messianic Shabbat Siddur.
Blessed are You, O Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
Who has
given us the Word of Truth and has
planted life everlasting in our midst.
Blessed are you O Lord, Giver of the
New Covenant.
The Blessing of the Messiah
Click here
to listen to this canted by
Jeremiah Greenberg of Messianic Liturgical Resources.
Page numbers refer to his
Messianic Shabbat Siddur.
Blessed are You, O Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
Who has chosen us from all peoples
and given us His Torah.
Blessed are You, O Lord, Giver of the Torah.
11Now the earth was
corrupt in the sight[11] of Elohim,[GN]
and
full of violence.
12Elohim looked upon
the earth and saw that it was corrupt; for all living creatures on
the earth had corrupted their ways.
13Elohim
said to Noach, “I have decided to put an end to all living creatures,
because through them the earth is full of violence.[13]Hinneh,[GN] I will destroy them and the earth.
14Make yourself an
ark
of gopher[14] wood; make rooms
in the ark, and coat it with pitch inside and out.
15This is
how you are to build it. The ark is to be
300 cubits450 feet long,[15]50 cubits75 feet wide, and
30 cubits45 feet high.
16You are to
make a roof for the ark, finish its walls a cubit from the top;
place a door in the side of the ark, and build lower, middle, and
upper decks.
3. Plan for Saving Noah (6:17-21)
17And hinneh, I will bring floodwaters
upon this earth, to destroy every creature under the heavens that
has
the breath of life. Everything on the earth will die.
18But I will establish My
covenant[18] with you, and you will
enter the ark — you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
19And you are to bring
two of every
living thing into the ark — male and female — to keep them alive with
you.
20Two of every kind[20] of
bird, animal, and crawling creature will will
come to you to be kept alive.
21You are also to take
for yourself every kind of food that is eaten, and gather it as food for
yourselves and for the animals.”
4. Noach Builds the Ark (6:22)
22So Noach
did everything precisely as Elohim had commanded him.[22]
2. “The sons [בְנֵי־ (ḇə·nêi-)] of
Elohim (אֱלהִים, God)” in the Scriptures almost always refers to
spirit beings beings. (See Job 1:6.)
Some scholars believe that “benéi-Elohim” refers to the godly
line of Seth and “the daughters of men” refers to the female
descendants of the “apostate” Cain, but this theory requires that
all the “daughters of men” were evil. It also provides
absolutely no suggestion as to how these forbidden relationships
could possibly have produced N'filim (נְפִילle, a race of “giants”) as
offspring. I agree with those Bible scholars who believe
that here “benéi-Elohim” refers to spirit beings who cohabited
with human women to produce hybrid giant offspring, the N'filim.
(See “benéi
Elohim.”) The name
N'filim is also used in reference to giants who inhabited Kena'an (Canaan) at the time
of the Isra'elite conquest of that land according to Numbers 13:33,
including Goliath and his four brothers from the Canaanite city of Gath. While
some believe that God sent the flood primarily to wipe out the N'filim, the fact that
Goliath and his brothers were N'filim indicates that this forbidden cohabitation
was resumed after the flood. Some believe that demons are the
disembodied spirits of the N'filim. These demons are called
incubi in modern demonology.
[BACK]
3. Some think that God was setting
the human lifespan at 120 years (Rashi,
Rambam). Moses lived 120 years, and Aaron lived 123 years
(pretty close), but Abrham lived 175 years, so that interpretation
probably isn’t correct (see also Ps.
90:10). I believe it is likely that He was giving Noah 120 years to
buile the ark, and giving mankind 120 years to repent
before sending the Flood (“I’m giving humanity 120 years to
straighten up and repent”)? A great many commentators think this is
the interpretation. Noah was a “preacher of righteousness” (2Peter
2:5) and he was 500 years old at this time, so mankind had already
been given 400 years (conservatively) to repent, and the ark isn’t
even mentioned until 11 verses later, so that understanding is
possible but unlikely. If God thought it was terribly important for
us to know, wouldn’t He have clearly explained what He meant?
[BACK]
4a. N'filim: Hebrew
נְּפִלִ֞ים, nephiylim,
giants, Nephilim; from נפל, naphal, fallen, to fall, to fall upon;
hence either fallen angelic beings, either benéi Elohim or
malakim (מַּלְאָכִ֤ים, messenger angels), or human “terrorists” who “fell upon”
their victims. I believe the former is the case.
[BACK]
4b. That is, after the Flood.
See also note 2.
[BACK]
5a. How did Moshe make the
subject transition from the
benéi Elohim and
Nephilim on the earth (vv. 1-4) to the
total wickedness of mankind (v. 5)? He assumed that his readers
would be familiar with what was considered “common knowledge” among people
living in and around the eastern end of the Mediterranian Sea at the
time, that the benéi Elohim and Nephilim directly promoted
the descent of humankind into depravity. Watch about an hour of
this video.
(To start the video, tap or click the “play” icon at the bottom of
the video window, not the red “play” icon in the middle of
the screen. Ignore the ad that overlays the video for the first several seconds.)
[BACK]
5b. When one sees all the pure evil
that is now coming from so many of our nation’s elected officials,
the govenment designating an
entire month to express “pride” in what
God has declared blatant sin, and masses of people
rioting in the streets, looting, and burning cities down
in the name of some perceived injustice (with many elected officials encouraging — and
even enciting — them), one is forced to wonder
how long Yeshua will let it go on without interceding.
Please note that this is not
intended as a political statement against either party, but rather against
the idea that the elite class in America, on both sides of the political spectrum, is
actively inciting violence, just like in the days of Noah.
For the coming of the
Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those
days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and
giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did
not understand until the flood came and took them all away [to
judgment]; so will the coming of the Son of
Man be. Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken[to judgment] and one will be left. (Matt
24:37-40)
Just as an aside, this passage from Matthew is
often used to support the idea of a “Rapture” in which one will be taken
off to heaven and one will be left to endure the Tribulation. However,
note that the one that is taken is taken off to judgment, not
to a place of escape. Therefore, this passage cannot possibly support the
idea of a “Rapture.” See that discussion HERE.
[BACK]
11. Corrupt in the sight of Elohim: Hebrew: וַתִּשָּׁחֵ֥ת (wat·tiš·šā·ḥêṯ)
to destroy, corrupt, go to ruin, decay, to pervert, corrupt, deal corruptly (morally)
לִפְנֵ֣י (lip̄·nê), in the face. Their
corruption and
perversion was right in God’s face, just as it
is today.
[BACK]
13. Violence: Hebrew חָמָ֖ס (hamas), violence,
wrong, cruelty, injustice. How interesting that this is the name of
the terrorist organization that has vowed perpetual
violence against Israel.
See “The Hamas Charter.”
[BACK]
14. Gopher wood: Hebrew גֹ֔פֶר (ḡō·p̄er),
perhaps cypress, remarkable for its durability and abounding on the Armenian mountains.
[BACK]
15. A cubit is the length
from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow on a man’s arm, or
about 18 inches or 46 centimeters on average. By comparison a football
field is only 300 feet long and 160 feet wide. The ark was taller than a
four-story building, and would have more than covered a standard
[American] football field. These videos
will answer most of your questions about the ark.
So why not take about an hour and watch all of them now.
[BACK]
1. Beware —This Will Change Your Mind on Noah’s Ark
2. Expert’s BEST Prediction on How Noah’s Ark Looked
3. Where Did All the Water Go After the Biblical Flood?
4. Fascinating Physical Evidence of Noah’s Flood
5. What Happened to Noah’s Ark After the Flood?
6. How Many Animals Did Noah Have to Bring on the Ark?
Related: Noah's Ark Genesis Flood Documentary!
Did the Great Flood Really Happen and How? Is the Bible True?
18.Humanity’s responsibilities
under this covenant are spelled out in verses 19-21 and in
Gen 9:1-6. HaShem spells out His own responsibilities under the
covenant in
Gen 9:9-17.
[BACK]
20. Modern biologists estimate
that only about 300 different “kinds” or species would be sufficient to
represent all then-existing families of animal life.
The skeptic’s argument that the ark was not large enough to house
all “kinds” of animals is invalid.
[BACK]
22. Noach immediately, and without
questioning, set his hand to the task he had been assigned, and so he continued
for the subsequent 100 years of ark construction.
[BACK]
First posted on Tuesday, 11 August 2020
Added dates and revised a few notes and comments on Tuesday, 29 June
2021
Added additional notes on Sunday, 03 October 2021
Page last updated on
Wednesday, 04 October 2023 12:45 PM
(Updates are generally minor formatting or editorial changes.
Major content changes are identified as "Revisions”) ANXIOUSLY WATCHING FOR MASHIACH’S RETURN,
SPEEDILY AND IN OUR DAY. MARANA, TA!