The Macaroni Principle by Daniel Langcaster

[CharlesYTK]

Daniel Langcaster of "First Fuits of Zion" tells a story about that little song, Yankee Doodle. "Yankee doodle went to town, riding on a pony, stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni."

"Did you ever wonder why when he stuck the feather in his hat he called it Macaroni?" "It doesn't make sense!" he says "What does feathers have to do with turning your hat into pasta?"

He goes on to explain that during the revolutionary war, the American troops were pretty rag-tag and looking bad. They stopped at a certain farm house for provisions and a young women there saw their sorry state and knowing they were going up to battle the proud British with their fine and dapper uniforms with plumes in their hats, she plucked a chicken and stuck feathers in their hats so that they would look more respectable. In the venacular of English spoken in those days "Macaroni" meant "A Dapper way of dressing" "To be neatly attired" I think it would be like saying "He looked real Gucci" having stylish clothes like those designed by Gucci.

So now the song when we hear it is no longer about pasta at all, it is about looking well dressed for the task at hand.

Now we go a bit deeper and in another direction, and I will make this part short. Many people read the New Testament, the words of Yeshua (Jesus) and of the apostles without knowing what the words really mean. And they come away either confused, or not understanding the real point. For example "to have an evil eye" means to be stingy. Read that teaching now in Math 6 and see how it fits with the passages around it. Or the expression "It is easier for a camel to go though the eye of a needle." It would be impossible. But if we understand that in Aramaic the word for Camel also means "A large rope" then it makes more sense.

Now we get to the conclusion of the matter, the pay dirt. Everything Yeshua taught is a principle of Torah. Paul's teachings are based in Torah. Unless we have read the words of the New Testament is light of Torah, we have not understood it's message. Paul was a Torah observant Jew to his very dying day. Messiah came to bring new light to Torah (not to destroy it or set it aside) , to free the words of God from religion and to bring it back to be read like a love letter between God and man, making it a heart matter.

Do you know that Jesus teaches almost exclusively from Deuterotomy and Psalms and Isaiah? Unless we read the New testament in its correct Jewish context, we come away with all sorts of twisted doctrines and beliefs. I encourage you to do some study in this area. It will add such revelation to the word of God and you will see a Messiah that is much different come out of the pages of the scriptures than the one presented in the pulpits. Context is everything. This is especially true of words written in the first century in the Jewish culture and which tell us Who God is, and what He wants from us, and what He has given to us.

 

[Sephania]

 

[Rafael]

People generally have to pull out some extra study books to gather information about idioms and the culture of the days. I use several study tools, but much is learned over the years only if one is inclined to desire, to know, and seek Him out over the cacophony of the world.
Thanks for sharing your insights.

 

[favored_one]

please list your study tools!!

 

[JohnJones]

...

 

[JohnJones]

(Mat 6:19-23 KJV) Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: {20} But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: {21} For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. {22} The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single [other translations say GOOD], thy whole body shall be full of light. {23} But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

You look at that and say "Aha! A Hebrew idiom, 'evil eye' meaning 'stingy,' and 'good eye' meaning 'generous.' So, Jesus is saying 'if you are stingy you are full of darkness, but if generous you are full of light.'"

I look at it and say "Is a generous Hindu full of light? No. Is a generous Satan worshipper full of light? No. Ok then, 'good eye' doesn't mean 'generous' which means 'evil eye' probably doesn't mean 'stingy.' What then? If the eye is single, that is if the focus is on God alone, then we are full of light, but if the eye is bad, not focused singly on God, then we are full of darkness. If we divide our 'eye' between God and money, then we are full of darkness, but if we soley focus on God we are full of light."

Now, only one of these interpretations fits into the context of the chapter, which is singular focus on God:

1. Don't do alms to be seen by men, but to be seen by God.
2. Don't pray to be heard by men, but to be heard by God.
3. Don't fast to look good to men, but fast to God.
4. Don't lay up treasure in earth with men, but in heaven with God.
5. Seek first the kingdom of God.

All these teachings are about being focused singly on God, not about being generous vs being stingy. Context takes precedence to supposed idiom. The context is about singular focus on God.



BTW, it is just as impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle as it is for a rope to do so, moreso actually, which is the whole point of the passage - "With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible." (Mt 19:24-26)

 

[CharlesYTK]

(Mat 6:19-23 KJV) Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: {20} But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: {21} For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. {22} The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single [other translations say GOOD], thy whole body shall be full of light. {23} But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

You look at that and say "Aha! A Hebrew idiom, 'evil eye' meaning 'stingy,' and 'good eye' meaning 'generous.' So, Jesus is saying 'if you are stingy you are full of darkness, but if generous you are full of light.'"

I look at it and say "Is a generous Hindu full of light? No. Is a generous Satan worshipper full of light? No. Ok then, 'good eye' doesn't mean 'generous' which means 'evil eye' probably doesn't mean 'stingy.' What then? If the eye is single, that is if the focus is on God alone, then we are full of light, but if the eye is bad, not focused singly on God, then we are full of darkness. If we divide our 'eye' between God and money, then we are full of darkness, but if we soley focus on God we are full of light."

Now, only one of these interpretations fits into the context of the chapter, which is singular focus on God:

1. Don't do alms to be seen by men, but to be seen by God.
2. Don't pray to be heard by men, but to be heard by God.
3. Don't fast to look good to men, but fast to God.
4. Don't lay up treasure in earth with men, but in heaven with God.
5. Seek first the kingdom of God.

All these teachings are about being focused singly on God, not about being generous vs being stingy. Context takes precedence to supposed idiom. The context is about singular focus on God.



BTW, it is just as impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle as it is for a rope to do so, moreso actually, which is the whole point of the passage - "With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible." (Mt 19:24-26)

I like what you are saying and believe there is room for that. For the only way to give correctly is as you describe, without anyone but God knowing. We give and if giving to the Lord. This is again the difference between worshipping in spirit and truth and doing the perversion of legalism, where you try to earn you own salvation through keeping of Torah commands legalistically.

The evil eye. Can a demon lay up treasure in heaven? No, but niether can he be generous from the heart and show undeserved love to his neighbor. Because this ability is something that God puts in us by the regeneration. We can't say we love God and hate our heighbor. If we really love God we will love our neighbor also, and that love will give us joy in demonstrating that love through act of kindness that a Satan worshipper can not produce. He might go through the motions, but he is not able to give from the heart with unconditional love. God knows the difference. He is not fooled by the demon or the Satanist. The point is how do we serve God in this earth? Does he need sheep, or grains or oil? No! he has it all. But we show love by how we treat one another. See Mat 25 how the nations are judged by the Lord to see if they shall enter the Kingdom of God. It is accoding to how they "treated the least of these my brothers."


I think there is much to be learned by understanding the scriptures in their correct Hebraic context. On the cross Yeshua cries out "My GOD My GOD, Why have you forsaken me" And I have heard some good sermons about "God can't look upon sin and Jesus was carrying all the sins of the world" ect. But there is something else happening. In Jewish culture it has another meaning. The scrolls of the bible are continuous, with no breaks and no chapter or verse markers. A book is know by its opening verse. When you speak it, it brings to mind the entire longer verse. For example Bershiet, means in the begining, or beginings, And it is the title for Genesis. When Yeshua said these words it immediately brought to the mind of those around him Psalm22. Why is this important? Because Psalm 22 is the actual prophetic depiction of the suffering of Messiah on the execution stake. Yeshua was calling to those around him, "Here is the proof that I am Messiah, This Psalm is about me, dying in this horrible way for you. I am the Messiah, have faith in me." To his last breath his concern was not for himself but love for us, even those who were driving those nails into his hands and feet.

Those of you who read this and didn't know this, read Psalm 22 and you will see Yeshua on the cross, and all the medical -physical things that take place in this form of death, the blood pouring out through the pours if your skin, your bone out of joint, the inability to breath, the thirst, men castly lots for his tallit, men biting him, ect. It is all about crucifixion.

 

[JohnJones]

On the cross Yeshua cries out "My GOD My GOD, Why have you forsaken me" And I have heard some good sermons about "God can't look upon sin and Jesus was carrying all the sins of the world" ect. But there is something else happening. In Jewish culture it has another meaning. The scrolls of the bible are continuous, with no breaks and no chapter or verse markers. A book is know by its opening verse. When you speak it, it brings to mind the entire longer verse.

I saw the connection between Psalm 22 and Mt 27:46 before I ever heard of such an idea. Personally, I don't see how you can claim it as being "Jewish culture" - it seems to just be universal to me. If I say "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved," anyone who knows the Bible very well will authomatically fill in "and he that believeth not shall be damned." Anyway, you might want to check out my signature. [There is a truth in Psalm 22 that most translations do not present.]

Now, there was a guy on here not too long ago who was a Peshitta primacist, who claimed that the NT was originally written in Aramaic (the Peshitta) and that the Greek is a translation of the Peshitta made by a Zobra (or was it Zorba?). Anyway, he claimed such things as that in Matthew 19:12 the word "eunuchs" should be "believers" which makes no sense at all, considering that the context is marriage/divorce, not belief/unbelief. He made another ludicrous claim that in Rom 3:15 the phrase "Their feet are swift to shed blood:" should be "Their foot-soldiers are swift to shed blood." He also said that "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?" should read "My God, My God, why hast thou spared me?" Now, I pointed out to him that none of this made any sense (especially this last one due to the connection to Psalm 22), but he wouldn't listen. I see a trend like this in those who want to Jewishize the New Testament, who want to go by Aramaic idioms and what not - they generally end up talking nonsense. Of course, a lot of people who babble about "the Greek says..." also end up talking nonsense. I think if we'd just stick to the KJV and actually think about what we are reading we can understand the Bible without a knowledge of Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin, or any other language or supposed idioms.

 

[MadeInOz]

good stuff guys

 

[CharlesYTK]

I see a trend like this in those who want to Jewishize the New Testament,

Thanks. I needed a chuckle and this gave me one. But I know what you really were saying. Because you can't Jewishize things that were written by Devout Torah observant Jewish men living in Jerusalem and writing about the Jewish Messiah who had just been killed and then resurrected in the shadow of the Jewish temple and in fulfillment of Jewish prophecies.

So you are speaking of languages.

The history of the New Testament scriptures is interesting indeed. I would really love to have one of those original Hebrew Matthews refered to by the church fathers like Epiphanius show up so that we could compare. Personally I don't think there would be too many astounding differences in regards to the critical messages, because God himself has certainly protected that.

But there are little things that seem to make more sense in the Hebrew understanding. For example the woman who reached out and touched the "fringe of his (Yeshuas) Garment and was healed." Why the fringe. Well the reference was really to his Tzi tzi, which is the little knotted tassle that is tied to the 4 corners of our garments. This is a Torah command that we wear these. Did Yeshua wear Tzi Tzi, (or Tallit) most certainly. We can be sure of this, because since his accusers made a case of a small matter of traditon which is not a Torah command,That is, washing your hands before you eat, then they certainly would have made a significant issue about him not obeying the Torah command to wear Tzi Tzi.

So lets look a little deeper into this. In the synagogue when the Torah scroll is brought around the room, those men who are there touch the Scrolls with their Tzi Tzi out of respect for the Torah which is Gods own words. The Tzi Tzi themselves are tied in a special way so that the knotts are coded words, (In hebrew the letters are also numbers) and the word code is "Yod Hey VAV HEY, Echad" YHVH is the personal name of God. Echad means one. It is the Shema "The Lord our God is One" OK. there are 613 knots and loops. There are 613 mitvah (comandments) in the Torah. There are 7 white strands in this Tzi Tzi and they are bound together with a blue cord. The 7 which are symbolic of the complete and holy God and his devine nature, and the blue represents messiah, who brings all the attributes of God into one place and binds them together, and are presented. The way they are attached to the Tallit or garment, is that they must pass through a whole of the fabric and not be sewn on. The Tallit represents the veil of heaven and Messiah brings God through the fabric of heaven and passes through freely from one side to the other.

When A Rabbi prayed for the sick he refraine from touching the person because they would become unclean themselves. so they would strike them (gently) with the Tzi tzi. (which is symbolic of Gods presence in Messiah and the Torah ) and the Lord would heal them. So this woman knew that the fringe was the place of focus.

Lets venture into another story. A little girl who died before Yeshua could get there to help her. What would Yeshua do for her? The same thing Elijah did, put his Tallit over the body of the Girl. And his command, copied for us in Aramaic, and not able to be understood by the translators, was "Tallitha Komi" Well Komi we know means Arise. Tallitha we are not sure of, but with what we know now it has something to do with the Tallit, and seems to mean "(you) under the Tallit Arise."

Well you probably already knew all this, but there are others that might not have known it. But is there a point to this? Perhaps it only adds more color to the person of Yeshua --a more Jewish color. In the church where Jesus has replaced Yeshua and is a blonde haired arian looking man who speaks in all the films in a british accent, the Jewishness of Messiah is pretty well hidden from us. The church sort of hyjacked MEssah our of Judaism and then made up its own stories about who he was and what he taught us. Chrstinaity is founded on the opinions and doctrines of the church fathers of the 3-4 th century and not on the scriptures themselves. It would be good for the hurch to return to a biblical understanding and grab hold of those fringes of the real messiah, who was a Jewish Rabbi and whose followers were devout Torah observant men. Yeshua was not a Christain and neither were the disciples. They were Jews and taught pure biblical Judaism to the followers. The Gentles who becae believers were directed to obey 4 Kosher laws for the sake of entering Table fellowship with Jews and to attend the synagogues of their own town and to study Torah (Moses). Yeshua nor his disciples started a new religion or did away with Judaism. The church fathers did that 300 years later. So we are missing some important things here. Lets grab hold of the ringes and say Take us with you for we know that God is with you. Lets open our eyes to what the scriptures really say.

I have presented some of the lighter things. There are deeper issues to be approached. For example the church teaches that Jesus broke the sabbath, because he ate grain while standing in the field. No, Torah allows this. Then Jesus broke the sabbath by healing. No his accusers were wrong as he pointed out, It is Ok to releive sufering on the Sabbath accoring to Torah. The church says Jesus did away with Kosher laws. No he remained Kosher. The accusation against him was concerning the washing of hands before eating food, Kosher food. Hand washing was a Rabbinical tradition and not a Torah command. But some men held their traditions in higher regard than the Law of God. Final Point if Yeshua broke the Torah then he sinned and disqualified himself as Messiah and as our sinless sacrifice. For sin is the breaking of Torah. I John 3:16? And Messiah is the living Torah, the living word of God. He does not break his own word.

 

[CharlesYTK]

Yeshua was born in "Bethlehem" The name bethlehem is a transliteration of the Hebrew name "Biet Lechem", which means house of bread. Yeshua is the bread of life, the manna that came down from heaven.

His name was not Jesus. This is a transliteration steming from the Greek Iesous. His name was Yeshua which comes from the word in Hebrew meaning Salvation.

The name of God is not pronounced. it is Yod Hey Vav Hey, YHVH, and apears in the Hebrew scriptures in that way many times. But when it is read it is not spoken. Instead we say HaShem (meaning The Name) or Aonai (meaning Lord) or Elohim (meaning God)

or Adonai Savot (mean Lord of hosts)

This convention of respect is caried to the English translations by printing in all caps GOD, LORD, LORD GOD,. It is all caps to let you know that the actual personal name of God was really what is in the text YHVH.

We are called to be righteous the word Righteous mean to obey the commandments of God, to be obedient to divine law.

In the NT often it says law. But the word behind it is really Torah. But Paul also uses a coined word Nomu nomau, which really means law for the sake of law, or legalism.
Torah usuallt translated law, really means instructions or teaching in Hebrew.

 

[heartofwisdom]

I love the Macaroni Principle!

Studying Scripture from our Western/American/Greek view is like looking for gold in a dark mine with a dim pen light--you can see enough to stumble around but you need more light to see clearly. A good grasp of the ancient Hebraic customs and terminology would allow you to reexamine Scripture in this powerful flood light, exposing intricate details and treasures. Take a look at the example below. Examine with a light shed from Hebraic understanding.

The Woman with the Issue of Blood

The woman described in Matthew 9:20 had faith. She believed she would be healed if she did but touch the very hem of his garment. If you understand Hebrew thought you'll understand the significance of the story. Why did the woman touch the hem?​

The hem of a Hebrew's prayer shawl is very important. The prayer shawl worn by Hebrew men is called a tallit. The fringe on the corner of the tallit is called a tzitzit. In Numbers 15 God directs the Hebrews to make fringes on the borders (also called corners or wings) of their garments to remind them of God's law!​

... Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD...(Numbers 15: 38-39).​

There are 613 actual commandments in the Torah-248 positive and 365 negative. Each tzitzit consist eight strands and five double knots. According to one Jewish numerological tradition, the numerical values of the Hebrew letters for the word for tassel (tzitzit) totalled 600. Six hundred plus eight plus five is 613, the traditional number of biblical commandments During the first century, a tradition associated with the tallit is that the tzitzit of the Messiah had healing powers. The Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings (Mal 4:2). The woman must have known of this tradition and in faith she touched the wings of His garment showing she believed Jesus is the Messiah!​

From the Biblicalholidays site​

 

[Trench777]

OUTSTANDING information, Charles. Thank you very much.

May I add, you are FAR more patient than I am and much less prone to accept offence when shoved in your face...er...I mean, offered.

I wish I had a Jewish friend to study like this with, but cyber-studying will have to suffice for the time being.

May God bless and keep you, my brother!! (and keep posting this kind of fascinating info, please! Many of us are not as...uncomprimising [for lack of a better word] about the FACT that Jesus was a Jew and how ignorant we are of Jewish custom)

T777