January 13, 2023
Attention: This is a rather long post, please read all the way to the end
Meanwhile, as thousands in the crowd had congregated so that they were treading on one another, he began first to say to his disciples, “Guard yourselves from the yeast of the Pharisees, which is dissemblance. There is nothing thoroughly veiled that will not be unveiled or hidden that will not be known.” Luke 12:1-3 (David Bentley Hart New Testament)
I recently read Luke 12 in several translations including the David Bentley Hart version of the New Testament. In this reading, I noticed two things that got my attention. The first being his translating the 3Greek word hypokrisis in verse 1, as dissemblance, and charlatans in verse 56, rather than hypocrisy/hypocrite which is the word used by most English translations. The second thing that I noticed is that all of Luke 12 is shown as one paragraph rather than multiple paragraphs like most other translations. This led me to think that he considers all of the seemingly unconnected thoughts, expressed by Jesus in chapter 12, to be related to Jesus’s warning about being on guard against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. This was reinforced when I noticed that Jesus ended the discourse by again warning against hypocrisy in verse 56.
As I pondered the possibility of the verses in Luke 12 all being related to a warning against hypocrisy, I looked in the post-script of the translation where Hart gave the basis for why he translated certain Greek words differently than most other translations. He stated that the modern English meaning of hypocrisy is not the same as what was meant by the Greek word hypokrisis in the first century. The modern meaning of hypocrisy, in various English dictionaries includes, “the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform; pretense”. However, Hart indicates that the Greek word hypokrisis was used to describe play acting by an actor on a stage or putting on a performance to impress or beguile others. In Luke 12:1 he used the English word dissemblance. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines dissemblance as “concealing one’s true motives, feelings or beliefs”. I think this meaning, is what ties all of what Jesus spoke in Luke 12 to his warning about hypocrisy.
A common example of dissemblance is when we greet people we know, and they ask us “How are you doing?” and we answer, “fine” or “good”, when in fact this is not the truth. Why would we not be honest? There can be multiple reasons, but I think the main reason is that I want them to think well of me, that I do not want them to think I do not have it all together. It seems that the origin of such dissemblance goes all the way back to the account of what is often called the fall of mankind in Genesis.
In the Genesis account of creation, it quotes God saying, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground” (Genesis 1:26 NIV). What does it mean that mankind is made in the image of God? God is love (1 John 4:18), he is light, in him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5), he is good, and his love endures forever (Psalms 100:5). We could talk about what it means to be made in the image of God in several ways, but I think the most concise answer is the incarnation of Jesus. He was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary when the Holy Spirit came upon her and the power of the Most High overshadowed her, and she was told that he would be called the Son of God (See Luke 1:26-45). Hebrews 1:3 states, “The Son (Jesus) is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known (John 1:18 NIV). Jesus was made like us, fully human in every way and he is not ashamed to call us his brothers and sisters (see Hebrews 2:5-18). Mankind was created in God’s image to be like him and to live, eat, drink, sleep, etc. in ongoing fellowship of love with and trusting dependance upon him, in the same way that Jesus did and still does. Of all the creatures that God made, only mankind was created for this purpose.
Jesus came to reveal the true nature of our Father and what it means to be made in his image. However, we have inherited a religious vocabulary that many times is a hinderance to understanding the nature of God our Father, as revealed in Christ Jesus, and his relationship with his creation and mankind. This includes the Greek word hamartia, which is translated into English as the word sin. This word is often given the definition of missing the mark, such as an arrow that was shot that missed the intended target. However, this leads to me asking the question, what was the intended mark or target when it comes to mankind, what was God’s purpose or intent when we were made in his image? The literal meaning of the Greek word is the combination of the Greek word ha (not) and meros (portion or form), meaning without your allotted portion or without form, resulting in a disoriented and distorted identity (See notes on Romans 5:12 in the Mirror Study Bible by Francois du Toit). Sin is to live out of any other means other than in fellowship of love with and in trusting dependance upon God our Father. The opposite of hamartia (sin) is metamorphe which means with form. Metamorphe is related to the word metamorphoo which means transformed after being with. This is the root word of the English word metamorphosis. Metamorphoo is the word translated as transfigured in Matthew 17:2 when Jesus was in the presence of Moses and Elijah on a high mountain and his appearance changed. It is used in Romans 12:2 to describe the transformation that takes place in us when we renew our minds by getting rid of wrong thinking and replacing it with what God has spoken. It is also used in 2 Corinthians 3:18 to describe how we are transformed, with ever increasing glory, into the image of God when we look into the face of Jesus with unveiled faces. Note that a veiled face would be the meaning of dissemblance (hypocrisy).
You may be wondering what all of this has to do with my thinking that all of what Jesus spoke in Luke 12 is related to his warning about hypocrisy (dissemblance). Hypocrisy (dissemblance) is to live with a veil or mask over my face so that people will not know what I am thinking, feeling, and even doing when out of their sight or presence. I am saying that we learn to do this because of the lie that Satan told Adam and Eve before they ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That lie, is the same lie that he still uses, to make accusations against God our Father, of not being trustworthy to look after his children. I can imagine Satan telling them,
“He doesn’t love and care for you! If he did, why would he tell you not to eat of that tree when he knows that if you did, you would be like him, knowing good and evil. I have known him longer than you, and I tell you that you cannot trust him! He is not your Father, you are an orphan and you better start looking out for yourself. You won’t die but be fully alive like me. Come join with me and learn what it is to truly be a god, captain of your own ship. To be independent of that tyrant who tells you he loves you but really has plans to dominate and control you for his own selfish purposes.”
Sadly, Adam and Eve, believed the lie and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Before I talk about the result of this action, I desire to state that I think that God our Father never asks his children, to do or not do something, that he also does not submit to the same doing or not doing. This may sound a little strange or even heretical, so hear me out. I have already quoted scriptures above about Jesus being just like God our Father in every way. That you might being willing to believe, but what about him being completely human? Hebrews 2 tells us that Jesus shared in our humanity (Heb 2:14), that he became like us in every way (Heb 2:17) and that he was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin (Heb 4:15). This must mean that he faced the same temptation, as did Adam and Eve, to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Jesus, being God, cannot be tempted with evil nor tempts anyone with evil (James 1:13). Everything God created was declared by him to be very good (Genesis 1:31), therefore this must include the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
In my attempt to define what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is, I will use the Septuagint/LXX (Greek Old Testament) scriptures, rather than the Hebrew scriptures, so that the meaning of the words can be tied to their use in the New Testament scriptures.
The Greek word kalos is translated as the English word good. It means attractively good, good that inspires others to embrace what is lovely, beautiful, or praiseworthy. It is used by Jesus in reference to himself when he said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). This is a very important statement because it also gets to what it means that God is love. The love that God is, is self-sacrificial, a life of self for others. It is perfectly manifested in the life of Jesus who came to seek and save that which is lost (Luke 19:10). For something to be lost it must belong to someone and have a home. Jesus came to seek and save all of his Father’s children and to bring them home to his Father where they belong (See Luke 15).
The Greek word ponēros is translated as the English word evil. It means toilsome labor, pain-ridden with inevitable agonies that go with evil. I think Jesus shows the contrast between good and evil when he said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened (toilsome labor), and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10), not by toilsome labor (evil), but by accepting the yoke of Jesus to be one with him in his Father’s love. Toilsome labor is not just referring to physical tasks but also the weariness of soul that is produced from trying to live by our own effort, as if we do not have a father who loves us and desires to have fellowship with us, in the most mundane tasks of daily living (Matthew 11:28-30). I think this is demonstrated in the story of Jesus coming to the home of Martha and her sister Mary told in Luke 10:38-42. The scriptures state that “Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him (Jesus) and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” Note, that preparations had to be made, in order to show proper hospitality to Jesus and others who came to Martha’s home. I think many good women who know the importance of hospitality and the work that is required, are often criticized because of what seems to be Jesus’ rebuke of Martha when he replied, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” What might the better be that Mary had chosen? I think the better, is whatever is done in fellowship with and dependance upon Jesus. Jesus said in John 15, “If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing”. Remember, preparations had to be made for a meal, what was missing was for Martha to ask Jesus to place his yoke, of being one with his Father in everything he did, upon her that she might experience his life and all he desired to teach her, as together they made the needed preparations for the meal.
So, what was the purpose of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? For mankind to be made in the image of God, that meant that we had to have free will, to decide whether we would trust God or not. Let’s see what we might learn by looking at the temptation of Jesus by the devil for forty days in the wilderness after his baptism (Luke 4:1-13). He ate nothing during those forty days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The scriptures do not give us any details about the nature of the temptation that occurred during the forty days when he was fasting but at the end of those days, he fully experienced being hungry as a man. Jesus stated in several places in scripture, in various ways, that he and his Father are one (John 10:30) and that he did only what he saw his Father doing (John 5:19) and said only what he heard his Father saying (John 8:26-29). As to the nature of temptation I will defer to and quote from George MacDonald’s The Temptation in the Wilderness from his Unspoken Sermons series.
“I do not believe that the Son of God, could be tempted with evil, but I do believe that he could be tempted with good— to yield to which temptation would have been evil in him—ruin to the universe. But does not all evil come from good? Yes; but it has come from it. It is no longer good. A good corrupted is no longer good. Such could not tempt our Lord.”
“There is no sin in wishing to eat; no sin in procuring food honestly that one may eat.”…… Why then should he not eat? Why should he not put forth the power that was in him that he might eat? Because such power was his, not to take care of himself, but to work the work of him that sent him. …… “Because it was God’s business to take care of him, his to do what the Father told him to do. To make that stone bread would be to take the care out of the Father’s hands and turn the divinest thing in the universe into the merest commonplace of self-preservation.”
Let’s now go back to the story of Adam and Eve having believed the lie of Satan against God our Father. Before they ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, they were naked, and they felt no shame (Genesis 2:25). But after they ate of the fruit the scriptures tell us
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” (Genesis 3:7-11 NIV)
How did they go from being naked and feeling no shame to being ashamed and hiding in fear from God our Father who is the very definition and source of Fatherhood and loving-kindness towards his children? Satan is called the “accuser” for good reason. It seems to me that after getting them to believe his accusations against God our Father, he then hit them with accusations of punishment for their disobedience. I can imagine him saying to them, “Woe to you, you have done it now, you are naked, you are now God’s enemies, and he will pour out his wrath upon you and destroy you.” Was this the truth? The scriptures tell us, “I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles” (Psalms 34:4-6 NIV).
Shame is an emotion that we feel anytime the nakedness of our soul or body is revealed to others in a way that we think they will not like what they see and will use it against us to hurt us in some form or fashion. Shame only occurs when someone is looking at my nakedness, or I think someone may see my nakedness. Most people in our country take a bath or a shower several times each week. To do so they remove all their clothes, and their body is completely naked. Unless they have been deeply shamed about physical nakedness before, they will not feel any shame about their nakedness. Why? Because no one is looking at their nakedness! If someone, they did not trust to see them naked, suddenly opened the bathroom door they would immediately try to cover themselves to cope with the emotion of shame they feel. Have you ever seen the horrible photographs of Jews who were stripped of all their clothing before being driven into what they were told were showers but were actually gas chambers. Both men and women are seen trying to cover their physical nakedness with their hands!
Because of their shame and fear of punishment, Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together to cover their physical nakedness as a coping mechanism to try to rid themselves of the emotion of shame. But this could do nothing to cover the nakedness they felt in their souls when they realized they had been deceived. So, they developed other coping mechanisms, such as blaming other people which causes a deluded state of altered reality. By not believing the truth, our minds create an alternative reality which is not reality at all, i.e., that God our Father does not really love us for who we are and that we have to perform in some way to gain his approval and avoid the consequences of his disapproval. We learn to put on a mask and pretend to be something we know that we are not and to hide the nakedness of our souls. This is what Jesus warned us about when he said, “Guard yourselves from the yeast of the Pharisees, which is dissemblance. There is nothing thoroughly veiled that will not be unveiled or hidden that will not be known.” Luke 12:1-3 (David Bentley Hart New Testament)
I take great comfort in Psalm 139, which makes it abundantly clear, that nothing, not even my thoughts are hidden from God our Father and that he does not reject me or turn away in disgust because of what he knows about me! Rather Jesus says come to me with all of your shame and brokenness and know the love of my Father. God our Father is an all-consuming fire and, in his embrace, all of what is not of love in me is consumed in his love. This great truth is told by Jesus in the parables that are recorded in Luke 15 about the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son.
I cut my eye teeth of faith in Jesus in the NIV version of the Bible. That is where he met me even though, like every other translation, it has some degree of translators’ bias that can obscure the truth of God our Father revealed in Christ Jesus. That is why I have learned to read and compare multiple translations. In doing so I have found some startling differences. I recently discovered this when reading Hebrews 6:1 and Hebrews 9:14 where the NIV uses the phrase “acts that lead to death” when it is clearly stated in the Greek as “dead works”.
Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, Hebrews 6:1 NIV)
How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:14 NIV)
There is a huge difference between repentance from “acts that lead to death” and repentance from “dead works.” The implication of this mistranslation makes me very sad.
So, back to Jesus’ warning, “Guard yourselves from the yeast of the Pharisees, which is dissemblance. There is nothing thoroughly veiled that will not be unveiled or hidden that will not be known.” Luke 12:1-3 (David Bentley Hart New Testament) Is there a connection between nakedness, shame, dissemblance and dead works? What are dead works? Simply stated, I think dead works are anything we do in a manner that is not done in fellowship with and dependance upon Jesus as our very way, truth and life. Stated another way, dead works are the mechanisms/ways we have learned to cope with the nakedness of our souls, our “fig leaves” that may hide the nakedness from others but can never give us life! Anytime this nakedness gets exposed we experience shame if we do not turn our faces to God our Father and enter into his embrace. Jesus is the very real presence of all that God our Father is and he has come to us that we may have life, the real full life that he is, that he shares with his Father.
This has been a very long discussion, so I want to try to wrap it up by telling you about a dream I had a few days ago after having pondered all of this. In the dream, I had somehow gotten mixed up with some people who were thieves. One of those people knew that I wanted a lawn and garden tractor and had stolen one with the intent of selling it to me at a significantly lower price than what it was worth. This was not done with my foreknowledge or consent. When he told me about what he had done, my heart began to be filled with fear because of the possibility of being exposed as being a knowing benefactor of his criminal activity. I began to think of ways of getting out of this situation and considered calling the police and asking them to be present whenever the thief came to me with the stolen goods. However, I began to fear, that even that might not extricate me from this situation. They might still charge me with a crime, or the thief might physically harm me or kill me. In the middle of this fearful emotion, I woke up. In the twilight of not being fully awake I was still processing the details of the dream when I very clearly had the thought of, “run to the embrace of your Father”. The result of this dream is a greater awareness of when I turn to coping mechanisms to hide the nakedness of my soul when situations threaten to expose that nakedness. When I see this happening, I am choosing to run to the embrace of my Father so that the blood of Jesus may cleanse my conscience from dead works, so that I may serve the living God by accepting Jesus’ call to come to him and to take his yoke upon me, learn from him and find rest for my soul. There is no life apart from him!
One closing thought. I did not go into as much detail as I would like, to discuss what it means to run to the embrace of our Father. However, the painting at the start of this article shows what I mean. This painting was made by our grandson, Isaac Callahan, as a Christmas present for me recently. It is his adaptation of what is called a Trinitarian Cross where it depicts that God our Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit were one in the crucifixion of Jesus. Notice that it depicts the Father as embracing and supporting Jesus on the cross. This is the embrace of the Father, who has said never will I leave you; never will I forsake you. Maybe I can go into more detail about this thought at another time.
Blessings,
Kevin