Joshua "according as" Jehovah (YHWH)

Ethelbert Bullinger, in the Companion Bible, has an  interesting

note on Exodus 31:3.  In Hebrew, this verse begins and ends with

the word Jehovah (YHWH, or, the LORD). This is the figure of speech

epanadiplosis, or "encircling": the creation of emphasis by using

the same word at the beginning and the end of a sentence.

Examples given of the figure epanadiplosis are Genesis 9:3 and Psalm

27:14:

"Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as

the green herb have I given you all things" ('every' and 'all' are

the same word).

"Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen

thine heart: Wait, I say, on the LORD" ('wait' is the same word).

Try reading these sentences with the right word at the end:

" . . . I have given you every," and, " . . . on the LORD, wait."

Exodus 31:3 reads, in English: "The LORD thy God, he will go over

before thee, he will destroy these nations from before thee, and

thou shalt possess them: Joshua, he shall go over before thee, as

the LORD hath said."

That patently cannot be correct if the verse begins and ends with

the word 'Jehovah'. Bullinger also notes that the word 'as' really

means 'according as', and suggests the reader compare this

statement with statements of the same matter in Deuteronomy 2:9;

3:28; Exodus 23:20,23; 33:2; Numbers 27:15-23, which see.

I am no Hebrew scholar, but I know very well that what is written

in Hebrew can be interpreted very differently in English,

especially if the reader has a set bias. My understanding of

Genesis 1:1, for example, is radically different than most other

people's because I have learned the bias of Jewish mystics and

Aramaic scholars, whose views are also radically different than

the bias and understanding of the general Jewish population.

The above passages noted by Bullinger would make a very

interesting study.

I would question if the "hath said" at the end of Exodus 31:3

is an interpolation from the Hebrew words for "according as

Jehovah", or if it is in the text. (When translators expect

a word in the text so that the text will make sense to them,

and the word is not there, they simply put it in the translation

themselves and say that it was "implied".) If the Hebrew word

for 'said/spake' is indeed in the text, I would question if

it were actually Jehovah who was the speaker, or if it could

be Moses who spoke.

Why? Because Moses is the germ of the Gospel which can bring

us to the point of conversion, but cannot actualize conversion.

Moses stops at the border of decision. The only one who has

the power of life and can bring us into salvation is Joshua -

- Jesus. This appears to be Moses' own testimony, his Gospel.

"The LORD thy God, he will go over before thee" = "Joshua

(Jesus), he shall go over before thee -- ACCORDING AS JEHOVAH."

The emphasis is that Joshua, or Jesus, is Jehovah, this point

emphasized by the word Jehovah being the first and the last

word in the sentence.

The Gospel is good information, but it cannot save. It is

Jesus who brings us into the promised land and baptizes us

with the Holy Spirit. Yes, Moses was a Pentecostal. And the

name/nature of his people, the Hebrews, comes from the root

'aber, to cross over. Christianity goes way back. It is God's

intent that all Hebrews be Christians. 

The name/nature 'Jesus Christ', according to Victor Alexander

in his note on Mark 1:1 in the Aramaic New Testament (v-a.com),

means the Life-Giving, Living Branch, the Anointed One; or, in

proper English syntax, "The Anointed Life-Giver." Jesus is that

branch of our consciousness which is our live-wire connection

with the Father. Knowing about Life is not the same as the

experience of Life. There is no other connection/door/passage/way

to Life Eternal than the anointing in us who is Jesus Christ.

He is "according as Jehovah", because he is Jehovah.

That is my bias, anyway. Happy reading.