Shaul emphatically states in Galatians, that they only adhere to the original gospel which he preached to them from the beginning (Heb. parashat Bereishit). In his first letter to the Corinthians, he plainly states what that gospel is. When he says that he declares it, he is letting them know that he is the same one who first declared the same gospel to them when he was first present among them, just as he both spoke and wrote to the Galatians. This is how they knew his letter was authentic.
As rabbis are want to do, the fifteenth chapter of Shaul's letter to those in Corinth is his personal commentary on Parashat Bereishit. What Shaul wants his readers to understand from the beginning, is the truth about the resurrection from the dead. Bereishit 1:1 thru 6:8 tells the story of the Creation until the time of the flood, which is 1,656 years. We must look at Shaul's commentary in light of parashat Bereishit. But first a blessing on the reading of the Torah:
"Baruch atah YHWH Eloheinu melekh haolam, asher bachar banu michol ha'amim venatan lanu et-Torah-to. Baruch atah YHWH, noten haTorah. Awmein."
Bereishit 1:9 And Elohim said, "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place and let the dry appear;" and it was so.
The Hebrew word for waters is mayim, while the word for seas is yamim. The word for people is amim, while the word for days is yomim, and ages of time are olamim. These related ideas explain why a multitude of peoples, sound like rushing mighty waters. The word for gathered together in Greek is sunagogue from which the word synagogue is derived. The word heaven in this verse is also related, being shemayim. 2nd Pehter 3:8 tells us that to YHWH, one YOM is as a thousand years. This gives us a precedent to say that each Day of Creation, as recorded in Bereishit, represents a millennium, and there are seven millennia in YHWH's dealing with Adam-kind, according to the scriptures. Comparing The Third Day of Creation to The Third Millennium shows that Israel was separated from other peoples (waters) as a nation on the earth (dry). Israel started that millennium with the Son of Promise, Yitzchok, and it was concluded with the promised King, Melek David, the true type of the Messiah. Israel was the dry that appeared and was blessed of YHWH, separated from the waters of other peoples. It was during this millennium that Israel was brought forth from Egypt through the waters of the Sea of Edom (Edom in Hebrew means red and is a type of fallen Adam) on dry ground.
Sh'mot (Exodus) 14:21 And Mosheh stretched out his hand over the sea; and YHWH caused the sea to go by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry, and the waters were divided.
Similar events to these are also related to THE THIRD DAY, as we see below.
Bereishit 1:10-13 And Elohim called the dry Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: And Elohim saw good. And Elohim said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed in itself, upon the earth;" and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed in itself, after his kind: and Elohim saw that good. And evening and morning were THE THIRD DAY.
1st Cor. 15:35 "But some will say, "How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?"
These questions are a reference to the doctrine of the Sadducees, who loved this life and the pleasures they found in it. Shaul had trouble with these wicked cohanim on several occasions: one such occasion is recorded for us, when he was arrested in the Beit haMikdash (the temple) when he went there to offer up a blood sacrifice, a peace offering, upon completion of his Nazirite Vow (see Acts 21:18-39).
Acts 23:6-8 But when Shaul perceived that one part were Sadducees (lit. self-righteous ones), and the other ones were Pharisees (lit. separatists), he cried out in the council, "Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope of the resurrection of the dead I am called into question." And when he had so said, there arose a dissension between the Perushim (Pharisees) and the Tzaddukim (Sadducees): and the multitude (sea) was divided for the Tzaddukim say there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit: but the Perushim confess both.
Yahshua also had encounters with these self-righteous ones who attempted to cross-examine him in the days between the selecting of the Pesach lamb (Aviv 10) and the day it was sacrificed (Aviv 14), immediately before his crucifixion (see Mattityahu 22:23 and Mark 12:18). Remember this detail for later, when the subject of the Counting of the Omer comes up once more. Shaul continues:
1st Cor. 15:36-38 "Fool! (The self-righteous who do not believe in the hereafter) that which you sow is not quickened (brought forth in another body), except it die. And that which you sow: you sow not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance be wheat, or some other grain. But Elohim gives it a body as it has pleased him, and to every seed his own body."
Remember the his in our passage on THE THIRD DAY in Bereishit 1:9-13. We also call to mind what the Greeks, the Hellenized Jews who loved the world and not Torah, were answered by Yahshua, when Andrew told him they wanted to see (read observe) him:
Yochannon 12:23-25 And Yahshua answered them, saying, "The hour is come when the son of man should be glorified: Awmein, awmein, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it die, it brings forth much fruit. He that loves his life shall lose it: and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto eternal life."
The Hellenization of the House of Yehudah first occurred when Antiochus IV conducted a holy war against the Torah-observant Maccavim, in an attempt to root out Torah from the lives of the faithful in eretz Israel in 168 b.c.e. Sadly, many Jews capitulated to Greek ways and culture, and adopted the Greek zest for the physical life of sport, art, and all manner of worldly pleasures and self-indulgence. There were many Hellenistes in Israel in first century c.e. Israel who liked being Jewish but did not have a love for Torah; just a feigned, outward show of compliance while other Jews were looking on.
Bereishit gives us the basis for all of Shaul's teachings about the difference between the natural, physical realm, and the spiritual realm. We recall that Yochanan haMatbil (John the Baptist), with the anointing of the Spirit of Eliyahu, preached "All flesh is grass." Shaul told us about the fruits of the spirit in Galatians 5:22-24, contrasting it with the works of the flesh (grass) in verses 5:19-21, and how the two are at war with one another within believers in haMashiah, vss. 5:16-18.
Yakov (James) 1:9-11 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted; but the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withers the grass, and the flower thereof falls, and the grace of the fashion of it perishes: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
Malachiyah 3:19-21 "For, behold, The Day comes, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the Day that comes shall burn them up, saith YHWH Tzevaoth, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear My Name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in its wings; and you shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet, in the Day that I shall do this, saith YHWH Tzevaoth."
The Sun of Righteousness is a reference to Messiah, and rightly so, for he truly is haOr haOlam, the Light of the world. The literal meaning of this phrase, however, implies a coronal mass ejection at the beginning of the Shabbat Millennium that destroys the morally decadent, while sparing those who live righteously and believe on him.
Yochanan 15:1-6 "I am the true vine (the vintage is gathered at Sukkot), and my Father is the husbandmen. Every branch that bears not fruit he takes away, and every that bears fruit he purges (with fire; the English word comes from the Greek which means to refine with a flame) it, that it may bring forth much fruit. Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in me. I am the vine, you the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast into the fire, and they are burned."
The evening, according to the scriptures, begins the day at sunset. Because YHWH saw good twice on THE THIRD DAY, the sages and rabbis recommended that it was a good day to get married. Hence we see,
Yochanan 2:1, And Yom Sh'lishi (THE THIRD DAY) there was a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Yahshua was there.
This is an important verse because it establishes that when this phrase occurs by itself in a verse, unrelated to a series of days in the immediate context where it is found, that it is specifically referring to THE THIRD DAY of the week. Context alone tells one whether the third of a sequence of days is being specified, and that must be demonstrated. But when the phrase appears by itself, it is always referring to THE THIRD DAY of the week, even as THE SEVENTH DAY would be referring to the Shabbat, the seventh day of the week. Scripture tells us to number our days (Ps. 90:12), not to name them. We also are to number our months and years and not name them either. We read about false teachers, their spiritual nature and identifying character in the next passage:
Jude:12-13 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withers, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; raging waves of the sea foaming out their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
We cite the preceding verse for several reasons. Here are the pagan names of days, named after the planets: Sun-day, Moon-day, Mars-day, Mercury-day, Jupiter-day, Venus-day, and Saturn-day. Does it interest the reader to know that the Greek word for wandering stars is planetes? The German (a people of mixed Assyrian and Israelite heritage and genetics) word for day is dahg which is the same pronunciation as the Hebrew word for fish. Dahg-on was the fish gahd (dahg pronounced backwards) of the Philistines, a deity said to have come from the constellation Pleiades, and the star Sirius, also known as the dahg star. There were only seven bright lights visible to the naked eye in the night sky of the ancients. These lights were easily identifiable due to their apparent luminosity and wandering course in the heavens. Today astronomers call it retrograde (turning backward) motion from the perspective of one who views these objects from earth, as they meander back and forth across the background of the constellations of the zodiac that appear to be fixed in relation to one another against the night sky. The pagan peoples deified these heavenly bodies and worshiped them as gods even naming the days of the week after them. They did not know that of the seven, six had no light of their own but reflected the light of the other one, the sun. There are seven days in a week and seven branches on a menorah. The menorah was the candlestick that was located in the set-apart place outside the curtain behind which was placed the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle, or Mishkan in Hebrew. There was no light in there other than the light provided by the menorah. It was sanctified light, or holy light, if you prefer. To the ancients, these seven lights in the night-time sky lined up every so often and would resemble a menorah in the sky. Let's look at the events of the Fourth Day of Creation:
Bereishit 1:14-18 And Elohim said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; Let them be for signs and for seasons (Heb. moedim lit. appointed times), and for days, and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth:" and it was so. And Elohim made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, the stars also. And Elohim set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and Elohim saw good And evening and morning were the Fourth Day<.
Shaul, in his commentary in 1st Corinthians 15, does not fail to mention other things that occurred in the Creation week.
Bereishit 1:20-23 And Elohim said, "Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that has life, and fowl may fly above the earth in open firmament of heaven." And Elohim created great whales, and every living creature that moves, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and Elohim saw that good. And Elohim blessed them and saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth." And evening and morning were the Fifth Day.
1st Cor. 15:39-41 All flesh not the same flesh: but one flesh of men, another flesh of beasts (Sixth Day), another of fishes, another of birds (Fifth Day), also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and of the terrestrial another. One glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for star differs from star in glory (Fourth Day).
Bereishit 1:24-25 And Elohim said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind:" and it was so. And Elohim made the beast of the earth after his kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every thing that creeps upon the earth after his kind; and Elohim saw that it was good.
We are both cognizant and mindful that the Law of Two Witnesses is employed in Bereishit many times over in the repetition of phrases that are used to establish the Creation story. Next Shaul, as one might expect by now, mentions the crucifixion and burial of Yahshua as relating to the Sixth Day of Creation when haAdam was made.
1st Cor. 15:42-46 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption; It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: It is sown in weakness; It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, "The first man Adam was made a living soul; but the last Adam a quickening spirit. Howbeit, that not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
We further note that when the Fifth Millennial Day arrived just after the birth of Yahshua in 1 b.c.e., that the corresponding life that was made on the Fifth Day of the Creation week was fish and fowl. Yahshua told his talmidim that they were to become fishers of men. This designation of his followers should not surprise us that the Age of Pisces, the sign of the Fish, began then at that time, just as we are entering into the Age of Aquarius, the Water Bearer, when we pay for bottled water. YHWH hinted at the regathering of both Houses of Israel, Yehudah and Ephrayim, in:
Yermeyahu 16:16-17 "Behold, I will send for the many fishers, (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers), saith YHWH, and they shall fish them; and after I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks; For mine eyes are upon all their ways; neither is their iniquity hidden from mine eyes."
The fishers spoken of here are the ones who, starting at the beginning of the Fifth Millennium went out among the gentiles where the lost tribes of Israel were to be found in abundance and whose whereabouts were well known to the apostles. The hunters are in one sense, people like myself who are at the end of the Sixth Millennium looking for these lost tribes of Israel wherever they went, leaving no stone (misunderstood scripture) unturned, since history seems to not tell us directly of their current whereabouts.
Bereishit 1:26-28 And Elohim said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air (referring to the Fifth Millennial Day), and over the cattle (clean creatures), and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps in the earth (referring to the Sixth Millennial Day)." So Elohim created man in his image, in the image of Elohim created he him; male and female created he them. And Elohim blessed them, and Elohim said unto them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air (Fifth Day), and over every living thing that moves upon the earth (Sixth Day).
1st Cor. 15:47-50 The first man is of the earth, earthy (Sixth Day). The second man is of YHWH from heaven (Seventh Day). As the earthy, such also they that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such they also that are heavenly. And as we have born the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly, Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Elohim: neither does corruption inherit incorruption.
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