hamartia / ἁμαρτία

hamartia/ἁμαρτία literally means to miss the mark or fail. Miss the mark as an arrow missing a target. Failure to hit an intended target. It is the word used in the Bible most often for sin. Missing the mark of what? Holiness. Holiness that can only be found in God. That’s why the word repentance in Greek is metanoia/μετάνοια. Metanoia literally means to turn or change one’s mind.

Specifically, to turn one’s mind therefore changing one’s action. Where the mind leads the body follows. Turn in a way so that one is facing where they should be going mentally/physically. In the context of sin, it is to turn away from sin and back to holiness. Thereby, reversing the turn or correcting the action that would cause one to miss the bullseye. In Classical Greek it meant changing one's mind about something thereby changing one’s behavior. Here we see the intrinsic nature of the need of a believer’s beliefs correlating directly to actions. It starts with a heart/mind change that leads to literal action. That is why James states that faith without works/actions is a dead faith (James 2:17). 

In Greek myth Metanoia was depicted as a shadowy god, cloaked and sorrowful, who accompanied Kairos, the god of Opportunity (at an exact moment). Metanoia sowed regret. The regret of the lost moment inspired repentance for the "missed moment". A form of temporal melancholy. A missed moment that likely occurred while one’s back is turned while pursuing their sin. One cannot be double-minded. You are either pursuing things in error for the wrong reasons or you are pursuing the correct things for the right reasons. 

Wherever metanoia is used it is used to express a fundamental change in thinking that leads to a fundamental change in behavior and/or way of living". In the time of Jesus, "repentance" meant "a fundamental change in thinking/living." In Christian thinking this change is a necessary component in accomplishing God's plan for salvation and communion. For everyone that live in unity as a community will be joined in the commonality of having all turned to the same exact target. All minds and action in the same direction. Christ. 

#sin #repent #change #archery#arrow

pneuma / πνεῦμα

pneuma /πνεῦμα or pneu/πνέω 

...is neither male nor female but rather it is considered genderless or neuter. It means wind; breeze; breath; spirit, Spirit. The Hebrew counterpart (rûach) has the same range of meaning as Pneuma. In Genesis it is the breath of life breathed into all beings from God. It is also used to refer to the Spirit of God. In these instances, it is often preceded by Holy Ἁγίος. Never once is pneuma used in the Bible as to refer to an impersonal ‘force’. It is an entity with persona. It is also the vital principal by which the body is animated.

Reference: Genesis 2:7 (Septuagint) Matthew 1:18, 3:16, 4:1

Reframing Prophecy

While I was riding mountain bike today I was thinking about...

Virtual reality.
Simulations.
A.I. deep fakes. 
CGI / computer graphics
The reframing of reality.

How these things are affecting perceptions. How these things are playing into the Bible and prophetic occurrences? Even the elect will be fooled. How much of these realities or lack of them were observed then and now through a tilted lens? Reframing prophecy.

Perhaps this is why much of prophecy is signified/ἐσήμανεν/esemanen (Rev 1:1)? What is really happening? Perhaps more than meets the eye or more than vision can discern. For false messiahs (ψευδόχριστοι / pseudochristoi) and false prophets (ψευδοπροφῆται / pseudoprophētai) will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

I suspect many, even much of the elect church is not thinking deep enough. Therefore Jesus was on to more than we even realized until technology opened the window to what is horribly possible.

This is literally the 'Many-Face God' of Game of Thrones folks. Except the mask never comes off.

φόβος / phobos

φόβος / phobos

It quite simply is fear. Phobos φόβος from which we get the phobias. arachnophobia the fear of spiders or arachnids, homophobia the fear and avoidence of homosexuals, claustrophobia the fear of small confined spaces. The list is endless. I guess more should be said though as there are different types of fear. This is the fear akin to dread. It is the word used often when humans come in contact with the angelic such as the women at Jesus' tomb, Zacharias' encounter in the Temple. and the shepherds in the fields being told of Jesus' birth. The proverbial fear of God. The proper response to encounter with deity or even the supernatural. This 'fear' doesn't always need to have a negative connotation. It can also be a fear that is in reality a 'sense of awe'. Either way, psychologically it can be mentally and phyiscally debilitating. Knowing Who and What God is should have us in both states of fear. Absolute awe/reverence and fear of what He is capable of. One needs only see the effect angelic beings had on humanity to understand the sheer enormity of what one would be confounded by in the presence of God. Ironically, the one thing that will dispel fear is perfect love.

References: Matthew 28:4, Luke 1:12, 1 Peter 4:18

Crossing Your Own Personal Jordan

There are just times in life when you know you have to cross your own personal Jordan.

Joshua 3:14-17 So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.

Just as God parted the Red Sea to escape Pharoah, again performs the same miracle to usher his people into the Promised Land. Albeit with slightly less fanfare.

phone / φωνή

phone 

φωνή 

...from which we get the word phone (duh), telephone and headphone means voice, sound, or speech. The clamor of men. Can have a positive or negative implication. Related to φαίνω phaino which means to disclose or reveal something unknown. In this case through speech or utterance.

Reference: Matthew 24:31 1 Corinthians 14:7; Revelation 14:2

δράκων / drakon

δράκων / drakon 

...from which we get the word dragon. Just in time for the last season of Game of Thrones. The dragon is only ever mentioned in Revelation in all of its forms δράκων, δράκοντα, δράκοντι, δράκοντος. 

Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon! Revelation 13:11

Is it a real dragon as portrayed in Game of Thrones and other Fantasy novels and movies? That's subject to interpretation. Revelation has a superscription that states right in the first verse that it was, "...The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John..." The word communicated here is actually ἐσήμανεν / esēmanen and means signs or symbols...again, its where the English word semantics finds its root. What the angel communicated to John was symbolic not necessarily literal. That means anything that comes after Revelation 1:1 has been communicated in semantics or word pictures/symbols (Ref: Dan 2:28-30, 45). So is it a real dragon? The ancient Greeks classified a "dragon" as a type of serpent and was believed to have incredible insight, able to spot prey in any hiding place. This in theory could be Satan himself. The passages are not entirely clear at times.

semeion / σημεῖον

semeion σημεῖον 

It literally means sign or miracle. A portend or representative of something else. A wonder, remarkable event, wonderful appearance, extraordinary phenomenon. The question then becomes a signs, signpost, marker or representative of what? Well, if it is miraculous it would point towards the source of said miracles. Miracles are signs of the presence of God acting in the world in an unusual manner or more specifically an unnatural way. More specifically, where we see signs and wonders it is the Kingdom of God encroaching into the world restoring order to the worlds fallen nature reverting it back to its pre-Fall, pre-cursed state.

Reference: Matthew 12:38, John 2:11, Revelation 12:1