Jesus on Fasting

Matthew 6: 16 - 18

#Jesus on #Fasting #Biblestudy #greeknewtestament #gospel

Neesteuoo fast or abstain

Judging from the pair of verses here jesus is talking from ritual fasting perhaps for funerals?

Word for word

whenever and you plural are fasting not become like the hypocrites adjective sullen angry sad faces they hide for the faces of them so that they appear / are obviously to humans / people to be fasting.

So do not "make a song and dance" of fasting.

Note the use of ginesthe in Greek this verb ginomai  in late greek seems to be used in a way that overlaps or replaces more classical poieoo or prassoo. Its like the English usage of do particularly here.

Do not become / be / act like / behave like ...

Notice how Jesus focuses on actions ? !

skuthroopoi to look sullen angry sad resentful

aphanizoo may refer to covering one's face making it unseen unclear by covering it with ashes or dirt or letting your face hang loose

In verse 17 Jesus asks us to instead when fasting to do it in private

you and when fasting anoint of you the head and the face of you wash ...

if you're doing it for god and not appearances sake  then god will see !

notice the emphasis and contrast once again between public and private rituals and behaviour a theme throughout this chapter.

What are modern parallels?

Perhaps the person who insists on telling everyone about their new "healthy" diet or the vegetarian or vegan who thinks dieting makes them spiritually or ethically superior?

You don't fast to be superior or get praised?

Yes you can encourage people to try a limited fast for health reasons but don't make a performance of it!

Finally and off topic don't forget to pray for peace and healing for everyone in gaza israel iraq or syria Christian Muslim Yazidi or Jew !

Hallowed be your name

I'v been thinking about Matthew 6: 9

   HALLOWED BE THE NAME OF YOU

   Hallowed be holy.  Hagiasthoo. Make Sacred.

Its a command to respect and KEEP on respecting the Holy Name.

the stem of this *Hag is related distantly to English AWE which was spelt in a g in the Middle Ages and Gothic has a word agis. Note also Latin Sacer *SAK.

So the Divine is awesome! We know that or should? How do we show it?

Ritual Prayer Forgiveness of others Action COMPASSION

Remember jesus ends this section after moving onto the topic of fasting by reminding us about forgiveness an ACTION?

At the VERY least try to refrain from any outbreaks of obscenity or oath taking and breaking that "Disses" the Holy Name?

Pray for peace

#blessedarethepeacemakers #pray for peace #gaza #israel #syria #ukraine

Yes I blogged on this verse before but given this week's events we all need the reminder.

Matthew Chapter 5 Verse 9

Blessed are the peacemakers

μακάριοι οἱ εἰρηνοποιοὶ

Not the online warriors and hatemongers endlessly apologizing or justifying violence.

Spare a thought and prayers for paramedics doctors patients nurse parents and civilians in war zones!

Greek Verb Key One

GREEK VERB KEY

μαι σαι ται

Μ Σ Τ

Its No MYSTERY!

For most verbs

Μαι becomes ω or plural μεν or μεθα

S becomes ες or Vowel plus ς or ς to τ

so we have ετε or εται in plurals

T becomes ε or ον or plural ονται or ουσι(ν)

Greek AORIST IMPERATIVE a useful link

One of the reasons you should be aware  of when Greek is using the Aorist Imperative or Subjunctive is that Aorist Imperative means its a one and only action to be completed.

You don't have to to take my word only for it.

Check out this site

http://www.preceptaustin.org/new_page_40.htm


You might want to also  check out the TEXTKIT site and do a general Google search?

No new translation this week!

I need to catch up on prepping new material for next week!

HOW TO PRAY

HOW TO PRAY like THIS according to 

Matthew 6: 9 - 13

So like this you pray

father ours who in the heavens (is)

make holy the name you

let come the realm of you

let become the will of you

as in the heaven and (also) upon earth

the bread for us necessary for this day give to us this day

and let go release us the debts of us

as and we release the debts of those who owe us

and not lead us into testing

but deliver us away from evil /wretchedness/being in a bad condition / place.

Note again the AORIST IMPERATIVES a verb form we don't have in ENGLISH!

We are not merely wishing or approving but asking that God's name be made holy,

that the realm of god comes, let the divine will happen,

that we have our daily essential needs, NOT luxuries,

and that if we want our debt of sin forgiven we likewise must forgive others.

This is further emphasized by verse 14.

The word used for sin is literally a falling or flying away!

Sin separates us from the Divine. Forgiveness is an action.

But not just our sins others too.

We must be concerned about others not just ourselves.

Don't bargain with God, pray for what is right and good to happen?

A short note on formatting. Since I don't know if you're reading this on a desktop monitor, a laptop, a PC Windows tablet, an Ipad or mobile. I sometimes move long clauses and sentences onto new lines. I hope that helps if you have a small screen?  

There are things that help apart from prayer.

My budget and savings account are covering the food and utility bills so far but I'm between jobs at the amount so a little support would be appreciated. If you're doing better than me money wise and have found any of the info or insights into Greek in this blog helpful ... paypal tip jar top right ? It would be both good and helpful if I finally earned enuff from Adsense or Paypal to least cover my wifi broadband costs ? 

The Good Shepherd

The Good Shepherd motif seems to be another borrowed from pagan art and adapted for Early Christian use.

While Hermes is usually shown as a herald or messenger he is also sometimes depicted carrying rams or sheep. Remember he was originally Arcadian?

Here's a Roman era painting from a CHRISTIAN TOMB.

We have to acknowledge our classical heritage.