"In [Yah'shua/Jesus] was chayim (life) and the chayim (life) was the light of men. And that light brought light in the darkness and the darkness did not overtake it" (John 1:4-5, APNTT [1] - also AENT [2], HRV).

Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and may the grace of our Master Yah'shua the Messiah be with us all as we assemble to hear what the Ruach (Spirit) is saying to the New Covenant Assemblies of Yahweh.

Today's passage is taken from the famous prologue of John's Gospel. I quote the Aramaic Peshitta to you today to give you a slightly different nuance to the two which are usually commonly found in our Greek translations. The King James Version (KJV) tells us that "the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not" or "understood it" not (NIV) for the light is indeed incomprehensible to the darkness - it cannot "grasp" it (CLNT, OJB) - it can't get a handle on it to make sense of it. However, the Greek katalambanó, whilst indeed meaning 'apprehend', 'comprehend' or 'understand', also has the figurative sense of 'admit' or 'receive', that is to say, the darkness refused to accept the light - it deliberately excluded it. And this would be true too - the darkness refuses to embrace the light in any way, as error refuses to embrace emet (truth) and hate refuses to embrace ahavah (love).

Here Yah'shua (Jesus) is likened to light and we are being told in the earlier Aramaic texts that the darkness did not "overtake" the light in the sense that it could not catch the light unawares or get ahead of it. This is very good news for believers! From the point-of-view of being aware or conscious, the light is always one step ahead of the darkness - it can never overtake it as a car might overtake you on the motorway. Though it may seem otherwise sometimes in this world of evil, it's important to remember that righteousness is always ahead in the fast lane and darkness can never catch up, even if it may be close behind. This was very much the sense I had recently when I was shown the enemy pursuing believers in Russia. Though the darkness was constantly redoubtling its efforts to get ahead it never did catch up with the light because the qodeshim (saints), who were submitted to their Master, operated in the light. Only when the talmidim (disciples) get lazy or careless can darkness catch up with them and that because they let the darkness into themselves. We'll come back to this important emet (truth) presently.

There is, in addition, yet another nuance of meaning which appears in some Bible translations, and that is the sense that the darkness cannot 'overcome' or 'overpower' (RSTNE, MRC, JB), "master" (NEB) or "suppress" (JNT) the Light. The Light is irresistable - you cannot prevail over it and it would be folly to try to do so. Though satanists will tell you that Satan will defeat Yahweh, this is quite impossible, and any victories of the enemy are either only apparent or temporary. The Bible leaves us in no doubt whatsoever what the final outcome is: the darkness is overcome and destroyed. Accordingly, the Amplified Version combines some of these nuances and puts the passage this way:

"And the light shines on in the darkness, for the darkness has never overpowered it - put it out, or has not absorbed it, has not appropriated it, and is unreceptive to it" (AmpV).

I am sure you biologists will remember the humble white blood cell or phagocyte which forms a part of our immune or defence system against pathogenic invaders like bacteria and viruses or indeed anything deemed 'foreign matter' that shouldn't be in the body. Like the amoeba that pushes out pseudopods or 'false legs' with which to surround and finally absorbe the enemy to then dissolve and consume it, so the phagocycte does the same with invading microorganisms, and actually dies in the process, which is what causes puss to appear at wound sites and in spots. Though the darkness constantly seeks to surround and destroy in the same way, it cannot do so because the Light is simply too large and powerful. You might as well ask a goldfish to swallow a whale. So the darkness - the enemy - cannot overpower, absorb or appropriate the Light, which is in those who are in Messiah, provided they remain in Messiah. The emet (truth) is safeguarded.

It should be immediately obvious that no one translation conveys the full sense of the Greek katalambanó or its Aramaic equivalent. We are dealing with something so enormous, so great, and so important in the Person of Yah'shua (Jesus) that we struggle to express the sense of the original revelation in one word, or two, or three, when expressed through the metaphor of light and its antagonistic opposite, darkness, as personified in haSatan (the Adversary, Satan), Lucifer or Heylel. We sometimes forget just how great our Elohim (God) is because we're so focussed on the works of the Enemy all around us.

In these two verses we are also being told that you will never be able to make sense of Yah'shua (Jesus) so long as you are outside of Him in the spiritual darkness of ignorance and unknowing, willfully or otherwise. You will not be able to enclose or wrap your mind around Him because He is simply too big. If Satan, the fallen archangel, cannot grasp the meaning of the Light, then certainly man will not be able to either, not even remotely, if he chooses to be apart from Him.

The first chapter of the Gospel of John must surely be one of the deepest and most profound writings about Deity to be found anywhere. If you can grasp this chapter, you will have understood most of the rest of the Bible, of that I am certain. And you'll not manage with just one translation, or even half a dozen, however good they are and however well they together highlight the different nuances or shades of meaning of the original Aramaic or Greek translation. John the Revelator has always fascinated me because of his depth - or rather, the depth at which the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) was operating in this extraordinary apostle who outlived the remainder of the Twelve.

Believers have applied verses 4 and 5 of the first chapter of John in their devotionals and been ministered to by them for many generations. Here is a revelation about a Man who is both human and divine, a person whom the world did not know because it could not know Him.

"But to all who did accept Him He gave power to become children of Elohim (God)" (Jn.1:12, JB).

There is nothing and nobody, alive or dead, or who will yet be born, who will even remotely resemble Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) in His fullness. He is, and was, and will always be, utterly unique in this universe, for He was "born not out of human stock or urge of the flesh or the will of man but of Elohim (God) Himself" (Jn.1:13, JB). And yet, we are told, if we are true talmidim (disciples), submitting to Him and allowing more of Him to dwell in our hearts, that when He does return we will be astonished by what we find:

"Beloved, now we are children of Elohim (God); and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure" (1 John 3:2-3, NKJV).

Messiah was no ordinary human being, though looking at Him you would not have guessed so. The Davar in Hebrew or Miltha in Aramaic or Logos in Greek or "Word" in English, that was in the beginning, that was with Elohim (God) and was Elohim (God) (vv.1-2), who created the material universe (v.3) and was, and is, "the light of men" (v.4), "was made flesh, He lived among us, and we saw His glory, the glory that is His as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and emet (truth)" (v.14, JB).

For centuries theologians have struggled to understand what this word Davar, or Miltha, or Logos means. It is one of those gigantic words that the English word "Word" does not do justice to. It can mean 'Word', certainly, as in the spoken word, but it can also mean 'Manifestation', 'Instance' or 'Substance' amongst many other things. Some theologians have been so awed by the word that they have simply left it untranslated, and you will hear Eastern Orthodox believers simply speak of 'Christ the Logos'. It's just too big a word to translate, but we must surely try, if we have a hunger to know the Master better and deeper. Certainly no amount of etymology or the studying of the meaning of words will convey its full meaning to the heart for which we must rely on personal encounters through the Ruach (Spirit). If that is true or prophecy then it must be true of all the deeper mysteries of the Creator and His creation.

John's Gospel begins with the Aramaic words, "Breshit aytohl hwa miltha" which translates "In the beginning was the Word". Like myself you have probably read this verse a hundred times and not realised that sonmething extraordinary or peculiar is going on. What do I mean by that? The sentence construction breaks the rules of Aramaic grammar - deliberately and profoundly so. Without going into any detail, semitic languages like Aramaic require female nouns must be joined to female verbs, and male nouns to male verbs. They have to match. The genders of both parts of the sentence have to match for the grammar to be correct. When in Luke 13:11 we read "There was a woman..." the verb "was" is in its feminine form in order to properly pair with the female noun, "woman". Yet in the opening sentence of John's profoundly deep Besorah (Gospel), two masculine verbs are linked to a feminine noun, breaking the rules of grammar. And though some might be tempted to believe that this was a copyist's error, this grammatical 'error' is purposeful, and the only way we can understand it is by going to the first book of the Tanakh (Old Testament) and to the first chapter for the explanation:

"So Elohim (God) created man in His own image; in the image of Elohim (God) He created him; male and female He created them" (Gen.1:27. NKJV).

By breaking the rules of Aramaic grammar the apostle John is reminding us that Elohim (God) is both male and female Persons, Father and Mother, and that our first parents - Adam and Eve - were made in this dual image. Men are made in the image of the Father Yahweh and women are made in the image of the seven-fold Mother, the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). There is a very close creative link between the male and female aspects of the Elohimhead (Godhead) just as there must be between a man and a woman to create a child. Yahweh created the universe through the Son - Yah'shua (Jesus) was the executor of the Plan, the Executive, the One carrying out the Work of creating but notice how He is associated with the Davar, Miltha, Logos or Word:

"In the beginning was the Davar/Miltha/Logos/Word, and the Davar/Miltha/Logos/Word was with Elohim (God) and the Davar/Miltha/Logos/Word was Elohim (God)" (John 1:1, KJV).

The "Word" is female but the executive verbs are both male because the male always presides over the female, the female being the helpmeet to the male. To help you understand what is being conveyed here, we could translate this sentence on a human level by representing our first parents in the place of 'the Word' and 'Elohim (God)', thus retaining the divine tavnith (pattern):

"In the beginning was Eve, and Eve was with Adam, and Eve was Adam".

This does not mean that Eve came before Adam - what it means is that Eve was originally Adam - before she was taken out of her husband - and after she was taken out of him, she was also with Adam whereas before she had been integrally a part of him and therefore not 'with' him. The female was inside the male, the female was taken out of the male and made separate, so that Eve was both Adam as well as being with Adam. She was there at the beginning of what? What is the opening part of the Book of Genesis describing? What event? The Creation of the World. Eve was at the beginning of the creation of each of her children but first she had to be taken out of Adam to be with Adam so that the two could bring forth children. The opening verse of the Besorah (Gospel) of John is therefore describing the Ruachot haQodesh (Holy Spirits) as They prepared to create and then it recapitualtes as to Their origin with Elohim (God), as represented by the Head, Yahweh, and before that as being Elohim (God).

This is a very deep and profound emet (truth) that I wish to merely make passing mention of it because we could spend hours talking about it. People have asked me where the Heavenly Daughter(s) is/are to be found in Scripture and this is where. Here, in the opening of the prologue of John's Besorah (Gospel) and in the first chapter of Genesis, we are being shown the Son and Daughter(s) at work in Creation. The "Word" here is/are the Spouse(s) of Yah'shua (Jesus) the Creator, otherwise called Hochmah or "Wisdom" in the Wisdom literature of the Tanakh (Old Testament), the two being a mirror image of Yahweh the Father and the Ruach(ot) haQodesh (Holy Spirit(s)), just as Adam and Eve, and all men and women, are made in the image of the Son and the Daughter(s). This is the same Ruach (Spirit) who hovered over the waters on Day #1 of the Creation of the earth, specifically, the Ruach haRishon, or the First Ruach (Spirit) [3]. This is the Davar/Miltha/Logos/Word and it is female yet She is not apart from Yah'shua (Jesus) because She is Him as well as being with Him, which is why the female noun is purposefully associated with two male verbs. And though there are seven Ruachot haQodesh or Holy Spirits [4] involved here, we shall not go so deep today and try to keep it simple.

My purpose in raising this is in part to show you what nuggets of gold are burried in the Scriptures if you seek for them. This one key will open many spiritual doors for you if you dare to turn it and make sense of otherwise baffling and mysterious sayings that appear dark only because we are ignorant.

We are forced, in the end, to turn to metaphors, as the Gospel writers like John did, and as Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself did, in order to explain the deeper things of the Kingdom. There is a reason such sacred mysteries are hidden deep in Scripture because of the inevitable premeditated abuse, by those hostile to Elohim (God), that follows any deep revelation of Elohim (God), for does not the Enemy always seek to twist and destroy every emet (truth) of Yahweh? Yah'shua (Jesus) twice referred to Himself as "the Light" (Jn.8:12; 9:5) but only the Apostle John records it as this:

"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of chayim (life)" (John 8:12, NIV).

Let us see what the Master has to say on this subject in Luke's Gospel:

"No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a secret place or under a basket, but on a lampstand, that those who come in may see the light. The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light" (Luke 11:33-36, NKJV).

In these dangerous times being filled with this Light - with Yah'shua (Jesus) and the Ruachot haQodesh (Holy Spirit/s) becomes all the more important if we want to stay safely ahead of the Darkness which even how is pursuing believers to the death in Muslim lands. What everyone needs - and this is why I am speaking about this subject today - is the assurance from the Davar (Word) that if we are true to Yah'shua (Jesus) and to His Torah (Law) we cannot be overcome because we will always be ahead of the satanic game. Even when we do fall into darkness we have the assurance that the Light we do have cannot be overcome because Satan cannot overcome Messiah. Quite the opposite. Messiah dealt the devil a fatal blow at Calvary and it is now a matter of time before the verdict sealing his doom is executed. In moments of darkness caused by doubt or disobedience I want you to be assured that the Ruach (Spirit), as the Davar (Word), is speaking encouragement, for it does not matter how much you have messed up provided you repent and covenant not to do it again! The 'mess' is never too big, Yahweh can still fix it and damaged relationships in particular, no matter how heavy the burden feels because you have gone far into the tunnel of carnality and rebellion, even after you were saved and chose not to follow the Light as you should have. Though you can never make light of it, or treat the freely extended grace offered to you casually, you can overcome in Messiah and stay ahead of the Enemy in complete safety. For it does not matter that the enemy is only a few inches behind you - what matters is that he is not ahead, overtaking you!

May you find words of comfort in this and be resolved to pick yourself up and throw yourself into the hands of the very competent Messiah who is always ahead of Satan. What a friend we truly have in Yah'shua (Jesus)! Amen.

The doctrine that there are Seven Mothers or Ruachot (Spirits) of Elohim (God) is usually a hard enough pill to swallow for most brought up on classical Trinitarianism though given time the emet (truth) gradually distills into the open mind and heart as the whole corpus of Scripture is brought together on the subject [5]. The teaching that the same arrangement between the Father (Yahweh) and Mothers (Ruachot) is directly reflected in the divine arrangement of the Household of the Son should not, then, come as any great surprise. Mostly I receive the retort, 'Show me a Scripture!' for proof. The answer is that it is clearly to be seen in the divine tavnith (pattern), as demonstrated in the sermon above. However, though not mentioning numbers, the plurality of the the Ruachot (Spirits) belonging to the Son is clearly indicated in Psalm 45, a universally acknowledged messianic prophecy made clear by Paul's citation of it in the first chapter of Hebrews:

"But to the Son He says: 'Your throne, O Elohim (God), is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your Kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated Torahlessness (lawlessness); therefore Elohim (God), Your Elohim (God), has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions'" (Heb.1:8-9, NKJV).

Psalm 45, from which this is a quotation, is written against a background of a secular royal wedding, most likely that of King David whom as we know was legally married to seven wives [6] and whose marriage is a picture of the allegory of the union between Messiah, Yah'shua (Jesus), and His uniplural Bride, the Messianic Community (Church), likewise consisting of many persons, seven symbolising the completeness and perfection of that Bride, the Body of Messiah. Because Hebrews definitely ascribes the monarch of Psalm 45 to Yah'shua (Jesus) we must view references to the singular bride as well as the plural women therein to be pointing at the very least to the Messianic Bride:

"Kings' daughters are among Your honourable women; at Your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir. Listen, O daughter, consider and incline your ear; forget your own people also, and your father's house; so the King will greatly desire your beauty; because He is your Master, worship Him. And the daughter of Tyre will come with a gift; the rich among the people will seek your favour. The royal daughter is all glorious within the palace; her clothing is woven with gold. She shall be brought to the King in robes of many colours; the virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to You. With gladness and rejoicing they shall be brought; they shall enter the King's palace" (Ps.45:9-15, NKJV).

At least one version predating the 1611 King James Version writes "honourable wives" in verse 9 because that is the clear sense and context of the passage. In other words, this was a king like King David, or even David himself, who already had several wives when he married another one. They are all "honourable", living kosher or pure marriages because in the divine scheme of things Yahweh permits a man with a shem tov or good name to have more than one wife. The righteous king is here a picture of the Messiah receiving another allegorical bride (a new believer) to the rest of His "honourable wives" or other believers to expand the Body of Messiah, the Messianic Bride.

Because the imagery has rested uncomfomfortably with both Catholic and Protestant institutions who by human fiat outlawed multiple or polygamous marriage, attempts have been made to obfuscate verse 9. Amongst the worst 'interpretations' of verse 9 in particular are those translations which render the plural of ishshah as 'bridesmaids', 'companions', 'female friends' or similar fancies [7]. Part of the difficulty is that the Hebrew word ishshah can be rendered "women" or "wives" as no distinction is made between the two. Thus my 'wife' is also, in Hebrew, my 'woman', and vice versa. An honest translation would therefore have been, "Kings' daughters are among Your honourable women/wives" so that the dual sense of this word is made clear to English-speaking readers.

Now clearly if we are to view these passages of Scripture on the multiple levels of prophetic revelation that they were prepared for (for those prepared to see them) then we must also allow the possibility that at least four weddings or states of marriage are being described here:

• 1. A secular, royal wedding wherein the king takes a new wife to had to his already "honourable women/wives";
• 2. This secular king is an allegory of the Messiah and the Bride, the shegal Queen symbolising the unity of the Messianic Community (Church) and the "honourable women/wives" the plurality (the individual saved believers) of that Community (Church), the number 7 denoting the completeness of the body of the redeemed;
• 3. The secular king, likely King David, and his wives pointing to the mortal Messiah and his companions/women/wives [8]; and
• 4. The secular king and his wives representing to the Messiah as Elohim (God) and His Seven Ruachot (Spirits) in image of the Father and the Mothers, that is to say, the Seven Daughters, the Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Hochmah, a depiction of the Ruach/Spirit) on another level (Prov.9:1), as also represented by the interwoven chains on the pillars of the Temple (1 Ki.7:17).

Because of the controversial nature, historically- and traditionally-speaking, and the prejudices that need to be overcome (usually resulting in conflict with church membership), believers cannot be expected to grasp all of these layers of revelation at the same time but must absorb them piecemeal and systematically in scriptural tavnith (pattern) as they are willing. The doctrine of there being Seven Daughters as there are Seven Mothers (Rev.1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6) does, however, have a Scriptural basis if you choose to allow yourself to see it.

Endnotes

[1] Janet M. Magiera, Aramaic Peshitta New Testament Translation: Messianic Version (Light of the Word Ministry Publications, USA: 2009)
[2] Andrew Gabriel Roth, Aramaic English New Testament (Netzari Press, USA: 2012)
[3] See, for example, The Seven Wives of David for a deeper study
[4] See, Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) and His Place in the Godhead
[5] See, Trinity: The Deity of the Holy Spirit
[6] See, The Wells of Salvation: The Wives of David
[7] For example, "daughters of kings are among your maids of honour" (Ps.45:9, JB)
[8] See, Was Yah'shua (Jesus) Married?
and Shabbat Shuvah 2012: Prophetic Day of Judgment is Imminent, section starting, The Yah'shua-Was-Married Gnostic Fragment Discovery

Acknowledgements

[1] Andrew Gabriel Roth, Ruach Qadim: Aramaic Origins of the New Testament (Tushiyah Press, San Bernadino, CA: 2005), The Mystery of Miltha, pp.149-151

Comments from Readers

[1] "Brilliant. Thank you. It makes sense when you wonder who the 'we' is in the creation account" (TSP, Ireland, 4 August 2014)