Dr. Brown Answers Your Best Questions

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Phone lines are wide open. You've got questions. We've got answers. It's time for the Line of Fire with your host, biblical scholar and cultural commentator, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity. Call 866-34-TRUTH to get on the Line of Fire. And now, here's your host, Dr. Michael Brown.

Welcome, welcome to the Line of Fire, one of my favorite moments of the week. You've got questions. We've got answers. 866-34-TRUTH. By the way, our Truth Studio, that was the best fade out yet. Nicely done.

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Let us start in Stockton, California. David, you are on the Line of Fire. Hello, David. I'm an old Jesus freak and I got saved in England in 74. And shortly after I got saved, I was asked to take the local pastor home from my church. And on the way home, she said, today is my 50th birthday. I kind of looked at her strangely, and she smiled and said, no, it's my spiritual birthday. So I asked her, I said, Mrs. Sargent, how did you get saved?

And she said, well... Well, hey, David, hang on, hang on. I don't want to interrupt, but I'm looking at the screen here that you had a question. So if you don't mind... I do have a question. Okay.

I do have a question about healing. Yeah. And she was my first experience as someone being healed when she was healed of polio at the age of 12 years old. Awesome. And that evangelist was Smith Swigglesworth.

So, you know, so I've always been very... So Smith Swigglesworth was praying for her. Smith Swigglesworth lived from 1859 to 1947 and prayed for this woman who had polio and she was healed at the age of 12. Awesome. Yes.

Okay. 1924 she got healed. Anyway, yesterday I was listening to a testimony of a young man at Bethel Church that was being baptized and it was on Ruslan's show. And I thought, wow, this is really great.

So I think he was some kid from Disney or whatever. But instead of talking about that, he goes into this whole thing about healing and how Bill Johnson is wrong about healings and so forth and literally called him a heretic. And it seems like that a lot of guys his age, and I don't really want to go into naming people, but there seems to be a group that wants to always attack charismatics and they call themselves charismatics, but they don't. I says, is there a way that you or some group could, you know, leaders could round up these guys that are always talking bad about charismatics and not really speaking truth about them, these people, that they could, you could have some kind of discussion because it seems like, you know, you just hear the same rhetoric.

Oh, they're into new age or they're into, you know, tarot cards or they're into, you know, just their heretics, you know, and it just really grieves my heart that you see people, Christians fighting back and forth about this. Yeah, so let me tell you what I will do. I've been on Ruslan's show a number of times. He's had me on as a charismatic. I was just on a few days ago actually responding to some misstatements that Joe Rogan had made about the Bible and biblical languages and he always welcomes interaction from me. So, let me ask him what his views are because everything I hear, I'm not doubting what you're saying, but everything I hear, secondhand I didn't try to get firsthand. And let me see how I can be a blessing in his life. I've interacted with friends at Bethel where I've had a difference on something. We've interacted freely. I interacted with a leading pastor the other day and said, hey, some concerns have come from one of your teachings. He said, I didn't say it right. Rightly, I'm pulling that from my message.

And I've had interaction with folks who are critics of Charismatics doing my best, not to be a compromiser, but to say, hey, let's understand what do we agree with, what do we disagree with, what's biblical. That's why I'm calling you. Yes, sir, thank you. And I will, and by the way, when I interrupted the story, when you went back to 74 and I thought, okay, this may be quite a while before we get to the punch line today, obviously it all tied in in times of healing, in terms of healing. But sir, I will, when I get the first break today, which is a few minutes from now, I'm going to shoot a note over to... Can I also ask you about maybe shooting a note to Mike Winger, Alisa Childers, you know, they're all in that same little cool group. Yeah, and listen, each of the ones you mentioned are, and I appreciate the call, David.

Thank you, thank you so much. Yeah, let me say this. Each of the ones that were just mentioned, Mike Winger, Alisa Childers, Ruslan, I believe are doing a lot of good in a lot of ways and helping a lot of people. And I believe Bill Johnson and Beth Hill has done a lot of good to help a lot of people. And there are differences I'd have on each side. I would have some differences with my friends at Bethel.

I would have some differences with my friends who would be considered charismatic but more strong critics of certain things or non-charismatic. So I appreciate the good that different ones are doing. And where there's misunderstanding, let's address it. Where things are being presented in exaggerated ways, let's address it.

I'll give you one quick example. There are people that make this massive grave soaking, grab Bethel's into grave soaking. It's like necromancy. It's consoling with the dead Bethel. There were some people at Bethel who, in a misplaced zeal, saying, God, you put anointings on these men and women of God from the past. It's going to lay on their grave.

God, give me what they have. I understand that. I understand the zeal behind it. I'm sure many a Christian has prayed at many a place of history saying, God, do again what you did or give me what you gave these people.

But it's a misplaced thing to lay on the grave. Okay, so it's almost aberrant practice. It was officially renounced by Bill Johnson when Chris Vallotton heard about the two simulators there.

He immediately spoke against it. Bill got on my radio show, yes, some people did it, but said it's wrong. Fine. No, this becomes this major thing. If there's one in a million charismatics worldwide that even heard about this or practice it, that would be a lot.

One in hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands. But some folks make it the big thing that's terribly misguided. And then you get charismatics into every kind of weird and wild thing. It's like, how about just reading the Bible instead of going, you know, got to go to heaven for 90 revelations a minute? How about just reading the Bible? So there are extremes on all sides. And we do our best to hear God together, grow together.

And yeah, in any case, since Ruslan was mentioned specifically, I'll reach out to him and find out his views. Let us go over to Greg in Berwick, Pennsylvania. Welcome to The Line of Fire. Hello, how are you?

Doing just fine. Okay, here we go. We'll get right to it. Genesis chapter one, verse one, says, in the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth, right?

Yes, sir. Moses uses Elohim all through chapter one. And then in the fourth verse of chapter two, he begins to inject the unspeakable name of God.

Give me your thoughts on this. Together with Elohim, together with Elohim. So YHVH Elohim, as many would say, Yahweh Elohim, or the older way, Jehovah Elohim. But right, so starting in Genesis chapter two, verse four, exactly.

So why? Why did he wait until the fourth verse of chapter two? I mean, obviously God revealed his name to Moses in Exodus chapter six, verse three. But when Moses is recounting this, when he's writing this, he intentionally waits until the fourth verse of the second chapter to let that cat out of the bag. And I just wondered if you had a thought about that.

Yes, certainly. What I'm going to say is not novel, not my own thought, but what many scholars think. Critical scholars would say it indicates there were two different sources that someone centuries later put together. One source called the Elohist source just uses the Elohim name, the other source, the Yahweh source, uses the Yahweh name or the Jehovah name and combines them so they're different sources that got patched together. I reject that, called the documentary hypothesis. I don't accept that. So, the better explanation is that Elohim has to do with God in his role as creator, where Yahweh has to do with his role in covenant with human beings. And since chapter two now brings the focus to his interaction with human beings on a different level, hence he is introduced in that covenantal name.

And that would be the explanation. And that works for me. All right, do I have time for another one? Yeah, go ahead, real quick, sure. Genesis 11. Let me see here.

Give me 10 seconds. I was ready for Genesis 1, but I didn't know if I'd get you the Genesis. That's all right, Genesis the 11th chapter. Genesis 11-1, right? Yep. This is the story of the Tower of Babel, right? Yeah. And now it says, now the whole earth used the same language and the same words.

What's your take on that? I take it as written. In other words, as far back as we can go in linguistic history, we have different language groups. So, as far back as we can go, we have Afroasiatic languages, we have Semitic languages, we have different language groups, and how they developed is debated by scholars. And then among them, endless numbers of languages and dialects. But, the Bible is telling us, if we believe that the human race does begin with a founding couple, not that you have different groups of human beings popping up all over the world at the same place with different languages, but if you believe it goes back to a founding couple and then family and descendants of those, then logic would tell you originally there was one language. And the Tower of Babel account is telling you then how those languages, that one language, became many. So, yeah, I take it as written. Hey, I appreciate the questions and going right for them.

866-348-7884. Okay, tell you what, we'll at least get to the question. We'll at least get to the question and I may have to answer on the other side.

No, no, no, tell you what, tell you what, with less than a minute for the question to be asked, let's see where we're going. Justin, Ishmael, Rick, we're coming your way shortly on the other side of the break. Can we be a resource to you in the best way to equip you?

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Let us go to Justin watching on YouTube. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey, Dr. Brown. Thanks for taking my call. You're truly a blessing to the Christian community. I appreciate you. Thank you. Go ahead. Can you hear me, sir? Yeah, go ahead. Oh, sorry, I took you off of my thing. All right, go ahead. Yeah, my apologies.

Hey, sir, so my question is, I'm dealing with some close family members who are the, you know, who are observing Christians, and I'm having a hard time talking to them because it seems like there's, you know, there's disagreement in almost every area of the faith, even though they profess to love the Lord and they know him and follow him, but, you know, they, the obvious ones being, like, the obligatory following of the dietary laws and the Saturday Sabbath and stuff, but I guess my biggest question is that they use a translation that I would call the sephirot translation, and I was wondering what you know about that translation and if it's reliable. Avoid it. Avoid it. Avoid it? Avoid it. Have nothing to do with it.

That's, that's kind of what my, you know, just preliminary little bit of research I did about it. They have some verses that are fine, but it has fundamental errors in the translation, fundamental errors in its philosophy of translation and understanding of the Hebrew. It should be avoided. It contributes to a cult-like mentality and atmosphere, and it must be avoided if people are going to have the truth of the word.

Otherwise, they're going to have scripture plus a whole lot of other stuff thrown in with it that should be avoided, 100%, and if that's what they insist on using, best just to pray for them, just to pray that God will open their eyes because they're in pretty deep deception if that's the Bible that they insist on using. Yeah. Yeah, it just kind of, it leads into every other area of, you know, disagreement that they have in our family and all that stuff, so I will keep that in mind. I appreciate it.

Is there, do you know of any, like, I guess like a good resource to learn more about it from this perspective? No, you know, I have to look for it. Maybe one day I'll just take a few minutes and demolish some of the clearest errors.

You know what, I just have to say this, Justin. I understand within the body we're going to have differences, and I understand that there are larger debates, say a Catholic can have with a Protestant or an Eastern Orthodox, and then there are debates that Jews and Christians and Muslims can have. So, inside the faith, outside the faith, and then among evangelicals we can debate aspects of eschatology or different nuances of things. I fully get that. I understand that. What grieves me, and it frustrates me in a way of, I want to help people, but it's very difficult. When people get into cult-like mentalities, whatever the particular group is, that reason doesn't seem to work, and putting down simple facts and truth doesn't seem to work. And when you demonstrate two plus two is four, that proves that you're part of the conspiracy, or part of that. And so, that's why a lot of times you have to pray, and then if you see a ray of hope, sometimes what I've found is rather than going all over the place on a hundred different issues, get them to acknowledge one crack in their system. Get them to acknowledge one chink in their arm. Okay, just, okay, you said this translation says this, all right, look at, all right, now do you see?

And if you see the light goes on, then you've got some hope to precedent. So, may the Lord give you grace as you interact, and may He touch these that have fallen into deception. If a Christian says, look, God gave the Sabbath on the seventh day to Israel as one of the Ten Commandments, and I feel it's good we celebrate it, God bless you, nobody's stopping you. The Bible didn't change it to Sunday, make it mandatory on Sunday. If you say, you know, God gave the dietary laws for a reason, I understand it doesn't make me holy or sanctify me, it may not even do me spiritually good, but if He gave the dietary laws, I'd like to follow them. Or I'm a Jewish believer and it gives me solidarity with my people, great, God bless you, you're free to follow them.

But when these things become obligatory or matters of salvation or matters by which others are judged, that's when we get into dangerous error. Let's go over to Jeffersonville, Indiana. Ishmael, welcome to the line of fire. Yes, Dr. Brown, can you hear me? Yes, I can, sir.

Okay, first of all, it's an honor to talk to you. I read your book, What Do Jewish People Think About Jesus?, and I want to get the Gay and Christian book and Queer Thing, and The Breaking Stronghold of Food, so those are other books I want to get. But my question, I started a study on self-control, and I was looking for the first mention of self-control in the Bible, and in my estimation, I think it's Genesis chapter 4, verse 7, where it says, I'm writing from the King James Version, but it says, If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted, and if thou doest not well, sin mayest at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. So I just wanted to know, in your estimation of studying the scriptures, is the first mention of self-control this verse, or am I mistaken, and do I have to look for another verse?

No, I think that's a great place to start. Certainly, we know that God tells Adam and Eve right in the garden, that the trees they can eat from every tree in the garden, but they can't eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, so that requires self-control. But a specific verse, saying, you must master this, you must rule over it, sin crouches at the door and its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. Yeah, that's the clearest teaching there.

And here's what's interesting. It's a word spoken to Cain regarding Cain killing Abel. It's a word spoken to him. So he had, on the one hand, the power to say no, and the power to refuse to do evil, and yet, it is our human nature that even though we have power to say no, we don't say no. It further points to our being enslaved to sin and needing God's grace and help. But for sure, that would be the first time where God is saying, you must master this, you must overcome this, and obviously, by grace, with God's help, with God's help, dying to sin and living a new life. What does it say in Romans 6? You've died to sin, how can you live in it any longer? Then Paul goes on to say, you're not under the law, you're under grace, and he says, consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God. Sin won't be your master, you're not under the law, you're under grace. So the law tells us don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, and it's perfect and it's righteous in accordance with God's nature, but it doesn't empower us to do what's right. Grace comes into our hearts and not only says this is wrong, this is right, we now have the power by the Spirit to overcome. We don't live perfect lives, but our lives should be characterized by holiness, by self-control, by saying no to the lusts and desires of the flesh. And as challenging as it is for us as human beings, by God's grace we can do it.

Titus 2 beginning in verse 11 says that the grace of God which has appeared to all men teaches us to say no to ungodliness and to live holy and disciplined lives as we wait for the return of the Lord. Hey, thank you sir for the call, may God bless you and may we all grow in grace and in putting the flesh and sin under our feet in Jesus' name. 866-348-7884. We come back and where are we heading next? Oh, let's see, we go to Winston-Salem.

We'll start with Rick and then Nick and then Evan. Phone lines are open 866-348-7884. You've got questions, we've got answers. We'll be right back.

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866-348-7884. You've got questions. We've got answers. So we go over to Rick in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hey, Dr. Brown. I'm actually not in Winston-Salem, but I did get to meet you there when you met with Stu Epperson. Okay.

The restaurant north. All right. One time ago. Yes, sir. All right.

Yeah. My question was, Revelation 3.10, just wondered if this was a valid point. I'm like you, I came from a pre-trib background, but I'm now one who believes that the last trumpet at the end of the tribulation were caught up.

But my friends at a pre-trib bring up Revelation 3.10, the church of Philadelphia, and I wanted your opinion to this valid point that I make to them. I asked them, did that church exist? And they said, oh, of course.

I said, okay. So that was a word given to them to keep them from that hour of trial. And they said, yes. Does that church exist now? And they said, no. And I said, okay, so would it not be reasonable to say if that word was given to that church, which no longer exists, it would have been, had to have been fulfilled in the time of the life of that church. And how do they respond? They said, well, they never thought about that. Yeah, so that's the first thing.

That's the first thing. It had to have meaning for the church to which it was given. Otherwise, it has no meaning at all. If, you know, we met in Winston-Salem one time. If there's no such place as Winston-Salem, or if Stuart Epperson doesn't exist, then our conversation has no meaning. If I say, all right, tell you what, I'll meet you at such and such a place next week, and then the place doesn't exist, or next week never happens, the words have no meaning. So, when he said, I'll keep you from the hour of trial that's coming over the whole earth, that must have had meaning to that church at that time in ancient history.

So, that's the first thing. If that was the case, then it's obviously not talking about a pre-trib rapture, because they weren't raptured out of anything. They were protected from that.

So, you're 100% right. The second thing, the second thing is, as I've often pointed out, that the Greek phrase there, to keep you from, so the verb of the preposition, only occurs one other time in the whole New Testament, and that's in John 17, 15, as Jesus is praying for the apostles, and he says, I don't pray that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. So, God can keep us from, even if it was a future promise, he can keep us from his wrath and other things right here in this world. As he said, I'm not praying that you take them out of the world.

So, your point is exegetically and logically sound. Absolutely. Thank you, sir. And just like you just said, to me, I always point out the ten blades of Egypt, and I say, where were the people of Israel?

Yes, sir. Right there in Goshen. Right there. Even Noah with the flood, he didn't leave the world. They were in the flood.

They were in the sick of the flood, but God gave them a way to survive in the midst of it. Hey, thank you for the call. God bless you. Thank you. God bless you. All right. 866-348-7884. Let us go over to Evan in New York. You are on the line of fire.

Hey, Dr. Brown, thanks for having me on. You're welcome. I don't know if this is necessarily something you can answer, but why is it that the synoptic gospels don't mention the divinity of Jesus, but John claims that throughout his ministries and at the beginning of the ministry, he claimed to be divine? Right. It's not a contradiction in any way.

In fact, they're complementary. Let's remember that Mark starts his gospel just talking about the Son of God, and we know when you get to the end of Mark's gospel in the 14th chapter, so a couple chapters from the end, when he says you'll see the Son of Man coming in power, when they ask him, you know, are you the Son of God? And he says you're going to see the Son of Man coming in power in the clouds of heaven. They call it blasphemy.

So, what he said there was deeply, deeply disturbing. And so, Mark starts with Son of God and then has the most direct answer to the question when he's being charged by the high priest in Mark 14, which is clearly an answer of deity, not of humanity there. Then, remember also that Matthew and Luke both clearly give the virgin birth of Jesus and that he's conceived by the Spirit and therefore called the Son of God, and that even the synoptic gospels have the conversation about him being sent or him coming.

So, he's pre-existent on top of that. So, you have, all of these things are certainly consistent with his deity. It's just John expresses it, and John doesn't have Jesus walking around saying I am God, I am God, because that would be totally misunderstood. Does that mean that God is no longer in heaven? Does that mean he's like some ancient Greek or Roman God walking on the earth?

And that's all there is. So, even then he expresses things in more cryptic form before Abraham was I am, I am my Father, or one, things like that. But John in his gospel lays that out from the beginning because that's the perspective he wants to emphasize. Matthew wants to emphasize Jesus is the one who fulfills Jewish scripture. Luke writing for a broader audience is coming from his point of view, but they're all in harmony as to his deity. There's nothing in the synoptics that would deny his deity in any way or that is contrary to the Gospel of John. But each author had a particular point of view that they were emphasizing, and that's why we have to look at it. And that's why God gave us all the different gospels together. If they flatly contradicted each other, we'd have a problem. If they complement each other, it's just like the rest of scripture. I understand, thank you. But could I ask one more question? Sure. Do biblical scholars, including yourself, how much do you take the Gospel of John at case value in a sense? Because I know parts of it are a forgery.

What parts are a forgery? One second. I have it written down. It's in my notes.

I've heard things. All right. Well, you're looking there. Yeah, there's— Sorry about this.

No, that's okay. I don't believe any of it is a forgery, nor would scholars in general say that it's a forgery. John 1, John 2, John 3 are— Forgeries?

God forbid. That's what I've seen. I don't know— There's not a top John scholar on the planet that would say those are forgeries.

That's completely— I've seen also, Bart Esham. I know you said last time I called that—I know he's a secular scholar, and I should take what he says with a grain of salt, of course, but he also makes the claim that parts of it are forgeries. Well, it's totally false.

It's an absolutely false claim. The world's best—Bart Ehrman is a textual scholar, respected New Testament textual scholar, but he's not an expert in the Gospel of John. He doesn't come close to, say, Craig Keener's knowledge of the Gospel of John, just in terms of scholarship, in terms of ancient sources, in terms of everything having to do with that, or other top Johannine scholars. So, no, forgeries?

Certainly not. I don't even—that seems even odd that Professor Ehrman would say it. If he was referring to 2 Peter as a forgery, or 2 Timothy as a forgery, or arguing that, but parts of it are John of forgeries. No, certainly the world's preeminent John scholars, people who have given decades of their life to study of the Gospel of John, who know the sources intimately, who know the scholarly arguments, who know the critical arguments, the external sources, the ancient Greco and Roman and Jewish sources, do not believe that John's Gospel is a forgery. Now, the John who wrote it, there's debate about which John wrote it. Of course, that's a whole separate issue.

But forgery, certainly not. Professor Ehrman's respected, but whatever claims he's made, and I don't know exactly what he said in that regard, but they've been rebutted thoroughly, very, very well by top scholars. Not just saying, well, I believe it, the Bible says so, I believe it.

No, I mean people who get in the trenches and who will unpack these things in the clearest possible ways. If you're able to make an investment in Craig Keener's two-volume commentary on John, just the introduction, the several hundred-page introduction alone is worth it, but if you're able to make an investment, Craig Keener's commentary on John would be an absolutely rich treasure for you to dig into. Hey, Evan, feel free to call and write to us with questions, okay? Thank you, I appreciate this.

You're very welcome. 866-348-7884. Look, I know it can be intimidating at times. When I was in college and all the professors differed with me and the rabbis interacted with me, it can be intimidating, but I was determined to follow the truth wherever it led, and my faith has only been strengthened over the years.

Let us go to Nick in Daytona Beach, Florida. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey, Dr. Brown, I just got a couple of questions and my mind is continuing to get blown. I'm really trying to figure out in heavenly places, there's an underlying thing there four different times, it's mentioned in the epistle, and there seems to be a component of our blessing, and there also seems to be a component of spiritual warfare, right, in Ephesians 6, we wrestle not against flesh and blood. So I guess my question is, could you help me define, you know, what in heavenly places is in your research and our relationship between it?

Would you help me with that? Yeah, I love these questions. So it seems that heavenly places would be used in two different ways. So in Ephesians 1, Ephesians 2, we're seated in heavenly places with Christ, versus a spiritual war, Ephesians 6, 12, fighting demonic principalities and powers in heavenly places, that the second heavenly places would seem to mean in the spiritual realm of this world. So the heavenly places, the unseen places, the spiritual realm of this world, you know, some refer to it as the second heavens, and Judaism had different things, three heavens, seven heavens. So if there are three heavens, so the physical realm of the natural atmosphere, that's the first heaven, and then the spiritual realm over that, that's the second heaven, and where God dwells is the third heaven. Now whether that was Paul's conception or not, it might be, because 2 Corinthians, the 12th chapter, he talks about being caught up to the third heaven. So, heavenly places, when Paul speaks of we're seated in heavenly places with the Messiah, I understand that in terms of that third heaven, that where God dwells, that we are spiritually seated with Jesus. It's a concept to this day, I pray that God would make more real to me and give me understanding while we are living in this world, we are somehow spiritually seated or standing with him in heaven. That means though, that as we're praying and doing battle, we're doing it together with him, joined with his authority, and not that we rule over others, Jesus is the Lord, but the authority we have over demonic powers, the vantage point we have of being part of the risen Savior, and together in him, coming with his authority, and in his name, that's part of it. But right now, it still boggles my mind, we are somehow seated with Jesus in heavenly places, there is a fellowship, there is a spiritual reality there, and from that perspective, we can now do war against demonic principalities and powers in these lower heavenly places.

And what I'm saying is, would be pretty much mainstream understanding of the text. Say thank you. Are you stressed and searching for a way to restore balance in your life? Look no further, introducing Trivita's Ashwagandha KSM 66, nature's science-supported secret to inner harmony and well-being. I'm Dr. Paul Burnett, a board-certified doctor of holistic health and director of wellness services at Trivita. I want you to know that Trivita's Ashwagandha KSM 66 is not just Ashwagandha. Ashwagandha KSM 66 undergoes a rigorous formulation process and has 22 gold standard clinical trials. Trivita's Ashwagandha KSM 66 adaptogenic properties assist your body in adapting to stress, reducing fatigue, and restoring your natural balance.

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Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. We are going right back to the phones. Just a reminder, we've got some calls from Chicago. We are on WYLL. Maybe that's where you're listening right now.

1160 AM, our great station in Chicago. So let's go over to Rob in Illinois. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hello, Dr. Brown.

Thank you for having me. I have a question about Tovias Singer's claim. He claimed that the nihal feber fragment does not prove that Psalms 22 16 includes they pierced my hands because I guess the line is avav or he has a certain belief about whether it's avav or a yud and he says that Christians have the wrong interpretation claiming that it's pierced my hands because it was a misspelling and that we can know that because in the very next verse, 22 17, the yodai is also misspelled.

So how can we respond to this? So number one, even if you read like lions, my hands and feet, what does that mean? There's a verb missing. If you read it like that, like lions, my hands and feet, that's literally what it would be as the Masoretic tradition reads.

So there's a verb missing. So Rashi, foremost Jewish commentator, says they mauled my hands and feet. So either way, it would be a vivid crucifixion description. That being said, orthographers, the vast majority of Dead Sea Scroll orthographers that have treated this disagree with Rabbi Singer. So he has his view, but he's not an orthographer. He's not a professional scholar of the ancient texts in that regard and looking at the orthography and how things are written. So generally speaking, if you look at any transcription by top Dead Sea Scroll scholars who don't have an ax to grind here and many of whom are Jewish themselves, they will disagree with Rabbi Singer. So just in terms of scholasticism, in terms of those that are familiar with the script, you really have to look at what those say who live with this, who spend decades looking at these things meticulously. So his view is in minority there.

That's number one. Number two, the Septuagint, of course he rejects it, he claims it's post-Christian, but the vast, vast, vast, vast, vast, vast majority of Septuagint scholars around the world would completely differ with his view on that. The Septuagint reads, they pierced my hands and feet. So that's a Jewish translation from before the time of Jesus. Not only so, there are about a dozen Masoretic manuscripts that have variant readings with a vav instead of a yud.

Some with kaf alef reish vav, some with kaf reish vav. So they read something differently there as well. And then an in-depth study of Psalm 22 digging down deep into the Hebrew in the language used by Professor Seth Postel at Israel College of the Bible in Israel has further confirmed that that is the accurate reading. So this is not a Jewish versus Christian thing. We're all talking about Jewish sources here. We're talking about manuscripts from Nachal Hever, so what from early second century AD, Jewish manuscripts, Septuagint probably 200 to 250 years before the time of Jesus, and then later Masoretic manuscripts even reflecting these different readings as well.

So our point is well-made, well-taken, and easily rebutted, easily refuted. And even if it did read, like a lion, my hands and feet, something's missing there. And it would be that they're, what, they're tearing there, but they're not licking.

They're not licking my hands and feet. But even that reading there Seth Postel has documented with a careful reading of the text that that's not even the expected thing, that a lion would not be found at that point. So on every level we can say that we feel fairly confident that the original reading was, they pierced or they dug, they bore through my hands and feet in keeping with the larger crucifixion imagery there. And these are all based on internal Jewish sources.

None of them are later Christian sources, all internal Jewish sources that we make our argument from. And again, even in terms of the reading of the orthography at Nachal Hever, Tovia Singer is in the very, very small minority there, if even that much. And would you disagree with his claim that Yaddai Y-A-D-A-I is correct, and that the Nachal Hever has some other variation of it that was misspelled? Oh, okay. So here's the thing. Notice there's two different things going on here. He's saying that, no, no, we're misreading the text.

It's really, it's really a yud and not a vav. That's his first thing. But then say, well, you have all kinds of other errors.

Well, hang on. I thought he just said it wasn't an error there. So it's very well known in Dead Sea Scrolls that you have different spelling conventions. You have, they weren't all professional scribes doing this. So you have many, many different spelling conventions. I'd have to look again at that specific spelling there to see. But that's completely immaterial. We all recognize that there are, in the Dead Sea Scrolls, popular spellings and added letters and things like that.

Nobody's arguing that. The question is why that reading there? Because it confirms the Septuagint reading from 250 years before the time of Jesus. And it's in harmony with other Masoretic texts. Think of this, knowing how Christians use the text. It's not quoted in the New Testament directly, that verse. But knowing how Christians use the text, it would be unusual that you now have Masoretic manuscripts hundreds of years after the time in the New Testament confirming the reading that Christians were using. That is peculiar on top of it.

But as to that specific, I'd have to look at it. But it's immaterial whether there's a spelling error there or not, because Rabbi Singer's saying there isn't a spelling error in this verse. So it's kind of two self-contradictory arguments, if you follow.

Yes, yeah, no, I agree with you 100%. I just think that's an interesting objection. And do you know where I can read these, the scholars that disagree with what he's saying about the spelling of the Bible? Just look at any compilation of, look at the Dead Sea Scrolls, Dead Sea Scrolls Bible in English. And you'll have Peter Flint, just look up Peter Flint, Dead Sea Scrolls Bible. He and other colleagues put together all of the Dead Sea Scrolls manuscripts, biblical manuscripts, and then translated them all into English. So wherever, this is not a translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, this is the biblical manuscripts among them. And then just look at any transcription. Just look for transcription of Nachal Hever, Psalm 22 on any academic site. And basically, they're all going to transcribe it the same way. You can also search my website for Rabbi Singer, Psalm 22, because we did a whole video where we refuted some of this.

So thank you for the call, much appreciated. By the way, we just dropped another video where I rebut, debunk a complete misstatement by Rabbi Singer about Antichrist and New Testament as this pagan concept of Antichrist, and Judaism has no such concept of Antichrist, it's totally pagan. Why say that just shoot himself in the foot? I know he's trying to make Christianity look bad and attack the New Testament. And I do feel bad for him. He does hurt some who are weak in the faith and confused. And thankfully, we hear regularly from folks who have come back to the faith that we've been able to help them back out of some of his deception and misinformation. But you know, what he thinks is going to topple Christianity or disprove Jesus, oh, boy, poor soul. May God grant him repentance. But we just dropped another video refuting more of his misinformation.

You can see it on our Ask Dr. Brown YouTube channel, ASKDR Brown. All right, let us go back to Illinois, Chicago. Amy, welcome to the line of fire. Thanks for calling. Hello. Hey. Can you hear me okay? Yes, I can. Okay, thank you for taking my call.

Okay, thank you for taking my call. I know the word does not contradict itself. That's my understanding, my experience. But I'm really confused about something. You know, recently, I've gone back to reading the Psalms. And you know, there are some that I guess they're called imprecatory Psalms. Yes.

And I like, for example, just one of them that I noticed was 109. Yes. Where David is, basically, it sounds like he's asking God to curse this enemy. And in very brutal ways. So how do we, I'm only jumping in so I can answer and you'll have time to respond before the break. How do we apply those to ourselves today?

What do we do with them? So yeah, I mean, because I'm thinking we're supposed to bless those who curse us, right? Exactly, exactly. So number one, some would remind us that the psalmist is often just pouring his heart out. And that's what's in the Psalms. Like how long are you going to forsake us forever?

How long are you going to do this? And you know, where are you? And I have no hope. So sometimes the psalmist is just expressing his heart. And we process it accordingly. You know, Psalm 139, where the psalmist says, Don't I hate those who hate you with a perfect hatred? He then says, Search my heart and see if there's anything displeasing in me. So it's followed by a prayer.

So authors like C.S. Lewis would say that we interpret everything through the lens of Christ, and that therefore, we see this was something that was spoken in emotion and pain in the heat of the moment and is recorded in the Psalms. But now we are called to a higher ethic. It's not contradictory. It's just that with the coming of the Son of God into the world, He introduces things that have not been introduced before and calls us to a higher ethic.

That's one thing. A second thing would emphasize that these things could have been spoken in the Spirit because they were not for personal vengeance or out of personal anger, but rather wanting God to show His justice for the good of the world. When we pray for the Lord's name to be hallowed or His will to be done on earth, that will ultimately mean judgment. When we say, Even so, come, Lord Jesus, He comes back in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who don't know God. We're not praying this for personal vindictive reasons. Lord, get the bad guys because they're hurting us. We're saying, God, be glorified. And when it's right to judge evil, do it. So on the one hand, I think we need to recognize that some of these prayers were prayers for justice and for God to bring about the destruction of evil.

To the extent they reflected personal vendettas, to that extent, we are called higher in Jesus. Well, at least we got the answer. Leave it in your response, but we got the answer in. Remember to get our emails. AskDrBrown.org. Another program powered by the Truth Network.