Letters to the Editor (March 2025)
"On Israel and Her Foes", and "About a Certain Biblical Idiom"
Read Time: 3 minutes
Israel and Her Foes
Thank you for your article in the latest Tidings. The events of October 7, 2023, were a shock that day—a wake-up call in all things spiritual, which we value. The events continue to puzzle in various ways.
I have felt bewildered and overwhelmed by the misery of the Hamas invasion and the subsequent Israeli revenge. As a woman, mother, and grandmother, I weep for the women and children of Gaza. I want to see them in homes, I want them to have hospitals for the medical help needed, I want them to have corner stores with fully stocked shelves, I want the kids in safe schools learning their A, B, C’s, not how to hate or load guns, I want Habitat for Humanity to set up shop and provide decent, simple housing… and on and on goes a mother’s wish list for unknown women and children. It seems I want for them… the kingdom age! The time when everyone will sit under his/her own vine and fig tree, the time when no one says, “I am sick.”
But then, as a Christadelphian, I remember, “Hey, they are the enemies of God’s people.” Do I try to justify what war crimes I see? When is enough war enough? And does God REALLY favor such Israeli tactics? I find myself ashamed and apologizing to God Almighty for my doubts and fears, and once more, asking for forgiveness for this doubting woman. Lord, help my unbelief!
I am grateful for Bro. Dave’s writings on Isaiah 19, which I’ve always puzzled over—the reminder that the promises to Abram included ALL his seed, whether from Ishmael or Bethuel/Laban. (Let us not forget Keturah and her “boys,” and I have to believe that they, like Ishmael, were sons of the covenant of circumcision—unlike Lot, who seems to have left the family circle before circumcision, if things are in chronological order.
I’ve been really disappointed week after week in attending Sunday School and Memorial at how little, if anything, is said in classes, conversations, or prayers about the current Middle East agony. We’ve been working through the “minor” prophets in Sunday School and are now into Zechariah. I feel strongly that we personally and ecclesially need to pray not only for the peace of Jerusalem (we all like that one!) but also for ALL of God’s family/people, whether spiritually or naturally. We don’t know who is in those categories, but I feel we have a duty to give Him no peace till His promises are in place for all people. We owe it to those brothers and sisters who have been long in the dust, the “souls under the altar,” to urge the Father to end mankind’s pride and ambition and replace it with His Son’s righteous rule as promised so long ago.
Thank you, brothers, for redirecting my thoughts in these perplexing times/subjects. I truly feel that we are all in for a “bumpy ride,” but the best is yet to come! Many of us have lived too well for too long. May God have mercy on us all!
Revelation 3:12 tells us that those who overcome he will “make a pillar in the temple of my God.”
May we be there! With appreciation for your efforts with every edition and love in the Promises we share.
Barbara Booker,
Austin Leander Ecclesia, TX
About a Certain Biblical Idiom
In the Gospel of Mark there is an interesting Greek idiom in Chapter 4, verse 39. Let us examine it through reviewing five different translations of the New Testament.
Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. (New King James Version).
And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. (English Standard Version).
And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. (New American Standard Bible).
And he awoke and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. (Revised Standard Version)
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. (New International Version)
The first of the highlighted words (quiet) comes from a Greek word, siōpāo, or similarly as in Hebrew charash—to be silent, to hold one’s peace, to be quiet and damam—to be still, to be silent.
The second of these words comes from the Greek word phimoo. It could be translated as “shut up,” or literally as “be muzzled.” It turns out that translators do not want to express the literal meaning of this word and instead translate it as “be still,” or less often as “be quiet.” This idiom occurs only once in the New Testament, so it cannot be compared to other terms by analogy.
Krzysztof Biliński,
University of Warsaw, Poland
Editor’s Note: Mr. Biliński is a researcher at the University of Wroclaw, Poland. He is a full Professor of Humanities and Doctor of Theology and Pedagogy. He found the Christadelphians on the Internet and is a reader of the Tidings magazine. We are pleased to have his insight on this passage and thank him for his submission.