Take Notes

When I was a young lady, (because girls and boys who were around twelve years old were usually referred to as young ladies and young men; given, respect, accordingly to the fact that they were in fact exiting the precious years of childhood and entering the new and demanding time of the youthful and vigorous teenage years) I was instructed to take notes. It was a serious affair. Fun. But serious. Somewhere in 1974 land, I was still going to Sunday school in a separate building from the church with floors and rooms for the children of all ages and stages. Come to think of it now, it was pretty big. And that’s to be expected in a big city like Vancouver.

So it was that one day it seemed, out of the blue, an additional burden was placed upon me and others in grade 7. Two nights a week had been reserved for lectures held in the basement of the church with the man himself. Well, not The Man Upstairs, but one of his Top Chiefs anyways. At least that’s how I saw it. And I mean it, still, to this day. The man I refer to was the pastor at the time and he was awesome! I won’t name him, I’ll just call him Pastor Morgen because I remember all of the good fellowship as we left the church service and he stood at the back doors of the chapel, shaking hands with everyone as they left and there were tons of heartfelt “Guten Morgens” going on.

I had entered my confirmation years at the Lutheran church with a real sense of meaning and purpose, but why? And was it just me? Perhaps. I still find meaning in lost pennies and bird feathers. But I think it was the cumulative effect of growing up in the church since pre-kindergarten. Years prior to Pastor Morgen’s church, we lived in Richmond, then, and I remember going into the empty chapel and helping Mom clean, putting the hymnals where they belonged, picking up any stray paper while Mom removed last week’s flowers and dusted and vacuumed and... and...   

The chapel was empty, but somehow filled. In the mostly silence, I would go to the piano and play on the keys. I think that was one of the strongest memories of being a four year old. The chapel, the stained glass, the silence, the echoes, the piano. And then, leaving in the dark, Mom locking the doors. We walked home, a hop skip and a jump from that little church, very compact compared to the grand building to come of my confirmation years, and I find something funny about writing that just now: The grand building to come. And I think: Thy Kingdom Come. Thy Will be Done. It sticks, doesn’t it? The good.

Today’s reflection is built upon just that. What sticks. Surely “the good does”. And it does prevail. The effects of my experience up until my confirmation years bring me to identifying the reasons of why I had such a sense of purpose in those years; I come up with two.

1. The cumulative effect of time I’d spent actively engaged in the church since a child.

&
2. The fact that Pastor Morgen instructed us, “Take Notes.”

It was important to not only discover the thematic elements of his sermons, but ask questions and determine what was significant and to write and submit a paper each week.

Effectively, he was teaching us to be active listeners, critical thinkers and engaged in a dialogue with his words, the scripture’s words, and ourselves as well.

That may be long ago and far away, but the truths revealed through being an active perceiver of what we call “This World” can take us far away from the mundane that appears on the surface of the day-to-day. The hoe-hum. The weather talk. The gossip. The insipid faux wood boards stamped out on factory floors that read: Live. Laugh. Love. And may have been made, for all we know, by slave labour.

Have you been taking notes? Maybe now is a good time to start.

Note this one:

In the Canadian Tire Flyer dated Friday, November 1 to Thursday, November 7, 2024 - on page 17, there are pictured various toys and games. Not unusual since we’re verging on the Christmas season. But what is questionable, is a particular Uno game. Uno. Innocent right? Yet this one, I guess is a new version. Smeared across the top of the package it reads:

SHOW ‘EM NO MERCY with the following below in smaller letters

BRUTAL. RUTHLESS. UNAPOLOGETIC.

It’s just a game, I know. But what kind of message are we sending to children?

It feels wrong to me. And many would agree, if something feels wrong, it probably is. Be that as it may, children have not necessarily developed the discernment needed to make decisions that will be good for them now and into the future. That is why it’s important they be given “the right toys and games” “the right books” & “the right and limited use of current technologies” that have the potential to hinder their development and/or manipulate their views of reality in such a way that may leave them feeling lost and confused.

In tackling the issue of right and proper teaching for children and adults of all ages, I turn first to the following:
Authorized King James Version - Holy Bible Concordance

Editor: C.I. Scofield, D. D.

2 Timothy 4:3-4

3-For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but, after their own lusts, shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

4-And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned into fables.

What I have done in my effort to witness more deeply the above text is to research it in both Hebrew and Aramaic, with the knowledge that modern Hebrew is not the same as ancient Hebrew and ancient Hebrew not necessarily the same as Aramaic, although I am seeing some words as being the same or with similar roots. In researching what came first, Hebrew or Aramaic, the verdict is still out on that one. It seems as though it’s a question like: What came first, the chicken or the egg? But some say that Aramaic was the vernacular used in everyday life and Hebrew was reserved for sacred purposes such as Torah study.

Because I don’t know, I’m making a point of cross-referencing so that I can get as clear of a focus as possible. This, I believe is extremely important.

Now, I am not going to type all of the Hebrew and Aramaic that I’ve been studying because I don’t want to shock your eyes. I’m shocked enough when I re-read and re-read what I’ve written, but I will share a few tidbits that might serve you well in your search for the truth in this world of lies, but first: Take Note. This is not the platform X or other social media where people engage helter-skelter in throwing comments at a screen. Engage yourself in time-tested thinking. And TAKE NOTES:

Modern Hebrew is not the same as ancient Hebrew and I’m not even sure if Aramaic can be termed as a “form of” ancient Hebrew, but they can be at times, quite similar if you know what you’re looking at and what to look for and also, if you try and cross reference so much as you are able to get a handle on an idea or function that seems to be re-occurring both grammatically and with similar or close interpretation as it was meant; rather than what may have seemed correct in current English or even past versions of say, King James Version (still a good choice - but translation is difficult because of contextual and cultural factors). We see that especially today because even modern English has been transformative since the age of the Internet. I used to think that LOL meant Lots of Love, like in Yours Truly, until I was corrected. So here I had thought someone was sending love, but they were rolling on the floor laughing.

With that said, I return again to:

2 Timothy 4:3-4

3-For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but, after their own lusts, shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

4-And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned into fables.

* The above resonates loud and clear in its overall message as it relates to what is going on in our school system currently. However, the “itching ears” confused me and I really wanted to read it in Hebrew. I found myself at the Orthodox Hebrew Bible from Biblehub.com

I wound up reading and writing out by hand the first four verses from 2 Timothy, but so as not to overdo here, I’m going to concentrate on the first ten words, and in particular one word that sounded out in English is neged. Here goes:

Ve-uhtah heenni becha neged haelokim ve-neged adonehnu yeshua hamaschiach

I’ll interpret: And now, I testify to you (before (neged נגד ) The gods (and before ve-negedונגד ‫ ‬) our Lord (adonehnu אדנינו) yeshua hamaschiach (ישוע המשיח) Jesus the Messiah.

read from right to left

וְעַתָּה הִנְנִי מֵעִיד בְּךָ נֶגֶד הָאֱלֹקִים וְנֶגֶד אֲדֹנֵינוּ יֵשׁוּעַ

The reason I’m focussing on “neged” as the word in question firstly, is the fact that it can be read and pronounced differently and mean different things in Hebrew and Aramaic. For instance, it can mean in Hebrew “in front of” “or opposite to” likewise “against” as in turns of phrase like “His back was up against the wall.” When we, in English, use the word, “against” we often mean: “versus” as in Batman versus The Joker, but consider the placement of the television, or big screen: It is against the wall, opposite us, perhaps. This is an example of how even just one simple screw up in translation can make a huge difference.

Compare the Hebrew:

וְעַתָּה הִנְנִי מֵעִיד בְּךָ נֶגֶד הָאֱלֹקִים וְנֶגֶד אֲדֹנֵינוּ יֵשׁוּעַ הַמָּשִׁיחַ

With the Aramaic:

וְעַתָּא הֵנֵנִי מְעֵיד בְּךָ עַל פְּנֵי אֱלֹהָא וְעַל פְּנֵי אֲדוֹנָן יֵשׁוּעַ מָשִׁיחַ

From right to left, the first four words are almost identical except the first word (Ve-uhta) for (“now” or “presently” “currently” however you want to call it) it’s spelled with a( ה Hey) at the end in Hebrew and an (א Aleph) in Aramaic. ‫)‬which turned out to mean “space” in Aramaic- “In this “space” that is now?” I question. But here we are...

Following that notation, the similarities shift-neged disappears and becomes על פני אלהא which means: over the face of God or upon the face of God.

Next we have in the Hebrew:

and in front of our Lord Yeshua HaMashiach

וְנֶגֶד אֲדֹנֵינוּ יֵשׁוּעַ הַמָּשִׁיחַ

Compare with the Aramaic:

וְעַל פְּנֵי אֲדוֹנָן יֵשׁוּעַ מָשִׁיחַ

and upon the face of the Lord Yeshua Mashiach

We see the same אל פני in Genesis where it was written:

(1) When God began to create heaven and earth— (2) the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water—

I am trying to make this as simple as I can while still giving adequate “proofs” for the differences of what exists in the two varying texts. My hope is to promote your own search for the truth and not for you to accept anything on face value, or, to put it another way: what the eye beholds is not always what the heart upholds. So, again. Pay attention: Take notes.

I’m going to get back to the beginning of this with letting you know what I found out about the “itching of ears” from 2-Timothy 4-3, but I’m going to get side-tracked for a moment and say this:

There’s a lot going on in this world right now. And they would like to steer your consciousness in a thousand different directions with all that’s going on online.

You know, I heard one lady say this about A.I. (Artificial Intelligence)

She called it: Extremely toxic ambient consciousness pollution. Simply evil-- the audacity to manipulate people’s consciousness, their memories, to play on their emotions, to play on their innocence, manipulate their need for people, to connect, to learn. A.I. is sickening.

Those thoughts on the matter are valid and that is why we must approach the use of such technologies with extreme caution.

Now, having shared that with you all, it’s quite amazing to share this:

When I was trying to “code-out” 2 Timothy from verses 1 through 4, I had learned it was saying things that I’ll translate this way in summary:

There will come a time when there will be no recovery from the lack of morals. Either teachers or pupils both, (there is grammatical confusion from Greek translations etc...) with “itching ears” seems to express a desire to be pleased or one’s fancy “tickled” as it were. One could look at this in terms of the word: משחקים mishchakim (games). With the preponderance of video gaming and social media “gossip-fests” and the likes of all sorts of click-bait, it cannot be underestimated, the truth and value of the words we even read in English today, once we determine to look deep under the surface. It serves as a clear reminder that anything of real value has substance in that it is rooted in moral truths. These are eternal truths. 2 Timothy Verse 4 writes: And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned into fables.

That is a powerful statement, considering the fact that today, we witness atrocious corrupt behaviour that I will not detail here, but of which most, I think now, are well aware. In schools, online, in the courthouse’s judicial systems, within the medical establishment, among politicians in governmental roles-- on all fronts we have witnessed the rock-bottom point, with powerful usury (charging interest) going on in big banking and markets. Balances and measures being distorted using various deceptive means in the food industry. Off the charts recklessness in terms of pharmaceuticals over natural good food and healthy living. Indeed, those that do not reconcile shall become fables, mere shells of their former soul-selves that once had the gifts The Creator endowed upon Mankind: Gifts of the intellect and creativity, the ability to love and be compassionate. There is much to detail here, but I will close for now with this final nugget.

My Aramaic Translator seemed keen to give me some Syriac dialect for the word: לשעשעי which I gather to mean to be “tickled” “amused” or otherwise “diverted”. But strangely, rather than giving me the Hebrew/Aramaic. it gave me this:

Which I found to be Syriac, but begs the questions: What was Biblical Aramaic? What was Syriac? Apparently, Biblical Aramaic was the official dialect of the Persian Empire. 559-330 BC & Syriac was the literary Aramaic of the city of Edessa in south-east Turkey from the 1st century AD to the middle ages. And... what does that script mean? It means “these people”. Well, who really knows?! But I say, in modern English: These people! or Syriac:

What’s goin’ on with these people today anyways?! All I know, is Pastor Morgen was right!

We better take a lot of notes!

Sandra El