The Story Behind The Bible: Book Three - The New Covenant: An Advanced Messianic Perspective

By J K Alexander

With facts and information, insightful commentary, and even a few flights of fantasy, The Story Behind the Bible weaves a magnetic journey through the most ancient texts of the Bible for believers and non-believers alike. It’s a journey that could draw you into a universe that is larger and more incredible than you ever thought possible.

Rather than creating a typical Bible study, J.K. Alexander shares his unique perspectives on how and why events in the Bible occurred from Genesis to Deuteronomy. Whether you’re a longtime Christian or a skeptic, you’re sure to glean thought-provoking information from this intriguing read.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Yorkshire Publishing
• Release date: Aug 16, 2019
• ISBN: 9781950034581

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The Story Behind The Bible

Copyright © 2017 by J K Alexander

ISBN: 978-1-947825-85-7

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photo copying,recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

For permission requests, write to the publisher at the address below.

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Table of Contents

The Holy Bible Content Summary

1 In the Year One

2 The Book of Matthew

3 The Cain Conundrum

4 The Book of Mark

5 The Book of Luke

6 Away to Britain

7 Rejected in Nazareth

8 The Gospel According to John

9 The Acts of the Apostles

10 The Epistles of Paul

11 Hebrews

12 Paul in Bitain

13 The Letter of James

14 The First Letter of Peter

15 The First Letter of John

16 The Letter of Jude

17 The Revelation to John

18 The Town Square Syndrome

19 The Myth of Perfection

20 The Sons of Israel

21 Archeology

22 The Millennium, the Kingdom, and the Gift of Mortality

23 The Farthest Horizon

24 Shalom

The Holy Bible Content Summary

The Old Testament - (Hebrew: the Tanakh)

1. The Torah (Law) - five books written by Moses known as Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy

2. The Prophets – Consists of the Major Prophets, the Minor Prophets, and the Writings:

Seven Major Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel;

Twelve Minor Prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum,

Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zachariah, and Malachi;

Twelve Writings: Job, Ruth, Chronicles, Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Daniel, Esther, Ezra, and Nehemiah.

In Hebrew

The Law = Torah

The Prophets = Nevi’im

The Writings = Ketuvim

First letters forming the acronym TNK or TaNaKh also known the Miqra or readings

The New Testament - (Heb: the Brit Hadasha or New Covenant)

1. The Gospels: Mathew, Mark, Luke, John

2. The Acts of the Apostles

3. The Pauline Epistles (Letters by Paul) to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and Hebrews

4. The Epistles written by James, Peter, John, and Jude

5. The Revelation of John

In the Year One

This will be the final book in the Story Behind the Bible trilogy and it should be considerably different from the first two as we examine the manuscripts that re-emerged after nearly 450 years of prophetic silence. Four centuries passed as dispersed Jews made their way back to Judea and Jerusalem and the dispersed northern Israelites made their way across the northern wilderness lands, now known as Europe and Scandinavia. They were beginning to congregate and multiply on the great islands of Albion, now known as the British Isles. While some biblical history continued to unfold and is recorded in apocryphal books such as the Maccabees, for the most part the word of prophecy had fallen silent as the practical and somewhat primitive outside world encroached heavily on the Jews and the holy land and swallowed up the northern tribes into a melting pot of lands, peoples, legends, and histories. As pragmatism, materialism, nationalism, and imperialism asserted themselves, the divine became devalued and often even forgotten. But the Bible affirms that the divine is exponentially more powerful and sophisticated than any and all -isms including modern forms such as scientism, atheism, ancient alienism, humanism, or secularism.

However, by and large the divine is passive, subtle, and may remain relatively dormant or hidden for long periods of time. Prophecy, divinity, and times of magnified miracles and inspiration require but a spark and suddenly flash fires of the Holy Spirit quicken and spread across the land. But in the first century as the New Testament of the King James Bible opens the forge had grown just about as cold as it has ever been in known history. The quality of life across the globe was as low as it had been since the flood of Noah as Rome and others gained power and territory. Many still view Rome as the first great progressive empire on the world stage. That is because they dismiss the Bible and because non-biblical historical evidence is extremely scarce prior to the first century. The conventional perspective completely misses the fact that man was very, very clever and sophisticated once long, long ago but became severely dumbed down by his own failures and a few circumstances beyond his control. There is archeological evidence of this all over the world. There was nothing in the first century to compare with Israel in the time of Solomon and certainly not the megalithic era before the flood of Noah or the angelic age prior to that. In the first century, the quality of food, clothing, shelter, communities, and even human life spans were at an all time low for civilized man. But in that same first century the human race somehow turned a corner and began to claw its way back from severe and nearly permanent decline.

The New Testament, as it is called in the Bible tells the story of how the decline of mankind was interrupted, halted, and reversed by the power of the divine. In a single figure, the divine left the pragmatists, materialists, nationalists, and imperialists in shock and awe of His absolute power, mastery, intellect, and ownership of anything in Heaven and Earth that He chose. In that pivotal time, no mortal priest, king, or prophet struck a spark to fan the flames of the spirit. Rather, the Almighty Eternal Holy Spirit Himself sent a bolt of purest flame to start an irreversible chain reaction that would spread over the entire earth. God Himself was the flame and the Almighty cast Himself into the midst of the declining world to reverse the fall and to redeem His treasure from a declining future. His treasure is His sons and daughters on this earth and the natural world under our stewardship.

The New Testament tells the story of that brief yet most excellent visitation and how the living presence of Yah’vah, the God of Israel, walked with mortal man, corrected the Hebrew faith, set the decline of Rome in motion, and quickened the hearts, souls, and minds of the faithful to receive a new covenant of grace, to be the crowning covenant of the Torah and the Prophets. The New Covenant would not replace nor fundamentally alter any of the prior covenants contained in the Torah. But after nearly 1500 years God would add a new and final clarifying covenant that would be the greatest promise, bargain, or agreement of all. It has been described as the covenant of grace and sets mankind’s faith in the kindred sacrifice of the divine blood of God as payment for the mortal blood on the hands of human kind by reason of their sins. There is a catch 22 to the covenant. To accept that the blood has redemptive power is to accept that the blood is divine and, therefore, to accept that the one who shed the blood is God.

The Almighty sort of gets folks coming and going with this one. There are no short cuts, loop holes, or escape clauses. The covenant only applies if one claims the divine power of the blood atonement. To do so is to acknowledge the sovereignty of God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth as He is called in the Bible. Without the new covenant, if one thinks Jesus was just a man, then he or she will be subject to all the provisions, requirements, and consequences of the Torah laid down prior but be ineligible for the benefits of the new provision. The problem is that under the Torah we all stand indicted for the collective blood on the hands of mankind as well as the individual breeches of Torah principals and commandments that we tend to commit daily. The new covenant does not give the faithful immunity from the requirements but rather from certain consequences of the Mosaic Torah. But there is no flexibility to the prerequisite of the new covenant. You either believe that Jesus was divine or you don’t. And your actions must align with your belief. That is faith, and faith is the actual stuff that is required by God from his people.

Fulfillment of the long rehearsed blood atonement of the Lamb of God is only one aspect of the new covenant. To cover all aspects would require more than an encyclopedia to explain. But the New Testament encapsulates that encyclopedia in a single figure who was both man and God. We don’t need a seven year study for review and analysis. God merely put His true nature and presence on display in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. If we know the story and the sayings of Jesus we have seen the Torah, the Prophets, and the New Covenant in action by living example. His story and His sayings are what this book is all about.

As we have seen in books 1 and 2 there is always a story behind the story, history behind the legends, and profound truths behind the simple teachings of Sunday schools and Bible courses. Prepare for a new perspective on the New Testament and a renewed vision of the New Covenant as we embark upon the final flight of our scriptural journey.

The Book of Matthew

In this book, I will be using the book of Matthew to tell the story of Yeshua’s (Jesus’) life. As the story unfolds we will look at erroneous traditions and misconceptions along the way. The gospel stories are so well known that, unfortunately, it is often the corrections of the many misconceptions that become the story behind this portion of the Bible. As the other gospel writers tell the same story as Matthew we will put the other gospels into perspective and cover unique aspects but will not retell the story in great detail as we proceed through the New Testament.

I feel that the best way to begin a perspective on this book of Matthew is to look at the story behind the written text first and then there will be a better foundation from which to tell the narrative. The primary reason for this is that there are errors in the Greek and English translations that cause apparent scriptural contradictions. These should be cleared up before proceeding. But also, about 500 years had passed since the last words of prophecy from the Old Testament and things had changed a great deal in Judea so we should set the stage.

First we will look at the historical backdrop for the gospel stories told by Matthew and the other gospel writers. Matthew refers to the ruler of Judea at the time of the birth of Jesus as Herod and is apparently referring to Herod the first who, according to mainstream history, died around 4 -2 B.C. Modern historians refer to Herod the first as Herod the Great. However, by the time of the massacre of the innocents referred to by Matthew, the ruler in waiting of Judea was old Herod’s eldest son, Herod Archelaus. The best current scholarship places the birth of Jesus in the fall of 3 BC. So either modern Historians are wrong or Matthew was confused. But actually it is all sort of within the margin of error regarding births and deaths of over 2,000 years ago. It is most likely that Jesus was born in 3 BC and old Herod lived on until some time late in the year 1. The transition of power after his death would have taken some time as everything had to go through the Roman senate and Herod purposed to divide the rule of his kingdom among his remaining sons and sisters. It is certain that Herod I would have, at best, been very old and near death when wise men from the east came to his palace seeking Jesus. It is likely that his operatives, possibly under the direction of his son, Herod Archelaus, actually ordered and carried out the slaughter of the innocents to destroy the messianic seed that they feared would supplant the Herodian line. Archelaus did commit a mass execution of Pharisees shortly after the death of old Herod according to 1st century historian, Josephus. Matthew states that when Mary and Joseph returned from Egypt with Jesus they were warned by an angel and feared to go near Jerusalem because Archelaus was still ruling there. An angel had also told Joseph that they who had sought the child’s life were dead. Herod the first’s oldest son, Herod Archelaus, was promoted to rule Jerusalem according to succession and the old king’s wishes. In the year 6 A.D., Archelaus was removed and exiled by Rome for acts of cruelty and violations of Jewish law, and Herod Antipas, the youngest son of old Herod I, expanded his rule from Galilee to include the Jerusalem region, and was still ruling when Jesus began his ministry, and continued to rule for several years after the crucifixion. Judea was now a client kingdom of Rome and all the Herods were subject to the Roman senate and a Roman prefect who actually held the power in the region.

Old Herod I was actually an Edomite (Esau’s descendents) that was appointed as king by Mark Antony and the Roman senate. Most notably for our story, Herod I built massive additions onto old Zerrubabel’s rebuilt temple on Mount Moriah. He added a very large courtyard with additional wings and buildings around the older temple and a great wall which actually added to the size of Mount Mariah. With embellishments to the old temple, the new multilevel massive outer court, and the great megalithic retaining wall, Herod transformed what was a relatively small structure on a hilltop into a very impressive and massive edifice or temple complex that dominated the Jerusalem skyline and left travelers in awe. As the old temple was not replaced, Herod’s work was considered an extension of Zerrubabel’s temple and Herod is credited with the ultimate completion of what was still called the second temple, Solomon’s being the first. Though basically considered complete, some finish work on the second temple was still going on in Jesus’ time, long after old Herod’s death. But the Temple is not the only structure that caused amazement to visitors. Herod also built palaces on mount Zion, amphitheaters, battlement walls, and a great hippodrome for chariot races and other sporting events and many other structures as well. Herod transformed 1st century Jerusalem into a beautiful and impressive metropolis. This is the temple and the Jerusalem that Jesus knew in the gospel stories. And during Jesus’ adult life Herod Antipas, the youngest son of old Herod the Great, was the client ruler of the region and Pontius Pilate was the Roman prefect who held the real power

About Matthew

Mathew was a Levite that Jesus found collecting taxes in Capernaum, a town on the north shore of Galilee. He told Matthew to follow Him and the young man left his public duties and became a lifelong apostle of Messiah. He was well educated in Hebrew and Greek as well as mathematics and medicine. Being a descendent of Levi, his job as tax collector would have been seen by Jesus as beneath him and a waste of his potential. A well educated son of Levi should have been serving in the Temple at Jerusalem or a local synagogue and been very well paid or provided for in exchange for his service. So Jesus had him come along and join His ministry as one of the 12 apostles.

Being a Levite, Matthew would be able to read and write the ancient Hebrew of the Torah. Newly discovered manuscripts as well as writings of early church fathers indicate that Matthew originally wrote his gospel record in Hebrew and many subsequent translations, including the Greek from which the King James was translated arose later. The recent discovery in 2010, by Hebrew scholar, Nehemiah Gordon, of ancient manuscripts of Matthew written in Hebrew prove this beyond any reasonable doubt. The content of the Hebrew texts themselves prove their Hebrew origin and authenticity. Hebrew word puns and figures of speech are woven seamlessly into the Hebrew narrative that clarify the original meaning of references which once translated into Greek were rendered vague or all-together meaningless. Also, it is in the Hebrew Matthew that we find the genealogical and mathematical corrections of the apparent contradictions in the Greek and English. It is the Hebrew version that reveals the book to be totally consistent with itself and the rest of the Bible instead of self-contradicting as it is in the Greek and English. For in the very first pages of Matthew we find the genealogy of Jesus extending through King David back to Abraham. May readers bear with such technical info in the first chapter but this glaring scriptural contradiction must be corrected here so that the beauty of the story can fully unfold.

Problem – The Greek manuscripts and English translations mistranslated one Hebrew or subsequent Aramaic word as husband instead of father and caused the entire point of fact expressed by Matthew to be lost and totally contradictory of the book’s prior texts and other gospel accounts.

The Book of Luke’s genealogy of Joseph, the adopted father of Jesus and Mary’s true husband, would be in stark contradiction, and even the mathematics and symmetry of genealogy expressed by the text of Matthew itself were also contradicted by the mistranslation. For the Hebrew version of Matthew’s genealogy references Joseph, the father of Mary. The Greek translators, knowing that Mary’s husband was named Joseph substituted husband for father and forever caused confusion and contradiction in scripture. Mary’s father, Joseph, was the son of a man named Jacob and a direct descendent of David through the kingly line of David’s son, Solomon. Mary’s husband, also named Joseph, was, according to Luke, the son of a man named Eli and a direct descendent of King David but through David’s son Nathan, not the line of kings through Solomon. We know that the Hebrew is original and correct because correctly identifying Joseph, son of Jacob, as Mary’s father properly differentiates him and his, Mary’s, and Jesus’ royal bloodline from that of Joseph, Mary’s husband, who was not of the line of kings and not a blood relative to Jesus. This proper perspective also corrects the mathematics given by the text itself which clearly states that there were 3 groups of 14 generations or 42 generations in all between Jesus and Abraham. If we accept the Greek assertion that Joseph, son of Jacob, was Mary’s husband then there were only 13 generations in the final group of ancestors and 41 in all. This causes a stark contradiction to the text itself and places Mary and Jesus’ royal status in question. Therefore we must assume that the Hebrew manuscripts stating that Joseph bin Jacob was Mary’s father, not husband, are correct and the original meaning and intent of the author. I assure you that Matthew, a mathematician, physician, and tax collector could certainly count to thrice 14 equals 42.

As a Levite, establishing Yeshua’s (Jesus’) royal lineage to King David would be very important to Matthew. The Levites and priests had always been the closest and highest vassals to the anointed Kings of Israel and Matthew’s story presents Jesus first and foremost as the divinely anointed King of Israel, descendent of King David. The story goes as follows.

Mathew the Levite begins his account of the life and ministry of Jesus with a mathematically encoded genealogy of Jesus the son of Mary, daughter of Joseph bin Jacob, tracing His bloodline back to Abraham through the royal line of King David. He breaks the generations between Jesus and Abraham into three sections of fourteen. This was very sophisticated and clever foresight. Had Matthew not encoded these verses mathematically it would have been almost impossible to definitively sort out and correct the mistranslation concerning Mary’s father, Joseph. There would have only been the he–said-vs-he-said debate between Luke’s genealogy of Mary’s husband and Mathew’s very different genealogy of her husband. We’ve always had Matthew’s mathematical code and the book of Luke to contradict the mistranslation but it is the very recent discoveries of manuscripts of Matthew written in Hebrew that have the word father instead of the Greek and English husband describing Joseph that lay to rest any doubt or debate as to Matthew’s use of the word father, his math skills, Jesus’ royal status, Jesus’ virgin birth, or any disagreement between Mathew and Luke as they were writing about two different men named Joseph, one the son of Jacob, and the other the son of Eli. One was Mary’s father and the other her husband. In Hebrew, Joseph means numerous, augmented, or fruitful and it was probably the most common name in Israel. Both Mary’s father and her husband were named Joseph. She also had an uncle named Joseph from Arimathea and there were two other Joseph’s in Mary’s immediate family tree as well.

The main point is that Matthew’s opening verses and 3 sets of 14 generations is correct. Mary was and therefore Jesus is a direct descendent of Abraham, King David, and King Solomon. He was not connected by blood to his adopted father whose ancestry is correctly given in the book of Luke. The virgin birth is apparent and there is no contradiction between Mathew and Luke, and there is no contradiction or inconsistency in the original Hebrew Matthew with itself or the rest of the Bible so all is right with the world. This is yet another of many examples that when you get past bad translations, traditions, and omissions, when you get to the rightly divided text, the Bible always turns out to be accurate and true.

The Virgin Birth

After Matthew established the royal pedigree of Mary and Jesus, he then wrote of the circumstances of the virgin birth. He confirms that Mary was found with child prior to her betrothal to her espoused future husband, Joseph. But Joseph had a dream that the angel of the Lord appeared to him and told him not to put Mary away but to continue with the marriage because the child was of the Holy Spirit and would fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah. So Joseph took Mary to wife but knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son. I truly do not wish to offend any readers but I must go behind the story and point out that this small quote from Matthew renders the catholic tradition of worshipping and praying to the virgin Mary as undeniably false religion. As the story begins Mary is espoused and a virgin. At this time in history, virgin brides only remained virgins until the wedding night or shortly thereafter. But Matthew confirms that Joseph knew her not until after she brought forth her first born son. This one sentence axiomatically proves that Joseph did know his wife in the biblical sense after the birth of her first born. If there is a first born there must be a next born and the fact that Jesus had brothers and sisters is confirmed throughout the New Testament. There is no record anywhere of Joseph taking or God requiring, from Joseph or anyone else, a vow of celibacy, and in the first century it, quite frankly, just was not done. A man did not take a virgin wife and never consummate the marriage. Eventually, the woman would feel insulted and the legitimacy of the marriage would be called into question. Mary was no longer a virgin once her second child was conceived. We may honor Mary, remember Mary, love Mary, celebrate and sing great stirring hymns to honor her memory but no one should worship or pray to a virgin Mary that cannot and does not exist and certainly cannot hear their prayers. It is the same old make-it-up-and-worship-it model of ancient paganism, idolatry, and mythology. My sense is that Mary is living quite comfortably in paradise among many others who were faithful to her first born son. We will revisit the dangers of false worship in future chapters.

But Mary was a virgin when she brought forth Jesus, according to Matthew, and a short time after His birth they were visited by wise men from the east bearing gifts. They had come looking for a new born King of the Jews. They had determined the time, royalty, divinity, and nationality or tribe of the new born king from stellar alignments of certain constellations that would only align and be visible at that time. But Matthew clearly indicates that on their journey westward they also followed a single star that moved before them and came to rest over the child’s location. This is not describing fixed constellations and we all know that this was not an actual stellar mass of flaming atomic fission like God’s special white dwarf that He chose for a beacon. But on our scriptural journey, we have seen that, with God, miracles can almost seem common place but cannot be explained in mortal terms or by modern science. All the prior evidence contained in the Bible would seem to indicate that this star was nothing more than a zoi, one of the zoon, the amazing multi-talented flying creatures of Heaven witnessed by the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and John. They are living angelic animals that when accidentally glimpsed by modern observers often appear as nothing more than a twinkling light hovering silently in the sky, sometimes moving slowly and silently for short periods then shooting out of sight at velocities impossible for any mortal craft or creature. So their most common appearance to modern observers is that of a star that moves and that is exactly what Matthew describes as guiding the wise men. God would of course not send a white dwarf to melt down Bethlehem but it would be merely true to form for Him to send a zoi, one of the zoon who are fiercely loyal to God, travel with Him on this earth, and guard His throne in Heaven. But God wasn’t on His throne at this time. He was being a mortal child in Bethlehem. And there was one of the high flying, gravity defying khahee, called a zoi, in Greek, watching over Him and guiding the Magi.

I find it interesting that the Bible says that when they saw the star re-appear to guide them after leaving Herod’s palace in Jerusalem they rejoiced exceedingly. Just like in modern times when people see something unexplained in the sky (these were Magi, astronomers) it creates a stir, excitement, an Oh my God, there it is moment.

Now regarding the wise men from the east, there were more than three. This was an entourage with armed guards, mounted magi, and camels bearing treasure. The Bible never states the number of wise men, only that there were 3 primary gifts given to Jesus. There would have been other unique gifts and treasures as well but the 3 main gifts would have been abundant. And I find that trying to tell the story of Christ and set the record straight with the truth behind the tradition is going to be a considerable task, and I apologize for having to interrupt the narrative flow so often. The New Testament stories have been so commercialized, misconstrued, misrepresented, and misinterpreted for so many