Crumbs from the Table

The "covenant of works" (also known as the "covenant of life" or the "covenant of creation") refers to the original commandment given by the LORD God to Adam, the ancestor and head of the human race, when he created him. This is recorded in Genesis 2:15-17: "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." The command is given in the context of creating Adam and placing him in the garden of Eden "to work it and keep it" (what is called the cultural mandate).  The command involves permission ("You may surely eat of every tree of the garden") and prohibition ("but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat"). Obedience or otherwise to the command wi...

God has given us his written word in Hebrew and Greek (plus a little bit of Aramaic in the book of Daniel).  In order for God's word to be accessible to those who speak other languages, since Biblical times God's word has been translated into other languages.  At the time of Nehemiah, the Levites "gave the meaning" of the Scriptures. This would probably have involved oral translation (interpreting) into the Aramaic language people used for everyday speech. Jesus himself, when quoted in the gospels, spoke Aramaic and quotes the Scripture in that language. Likewise, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon the believers and enabled them to declare the wonders of God in the languages of those present.  There is also a longstanding history of written translation (as opposed to oral translation). The best-known translation of the Old Testament is called the Septuagint, a translation into Greek commissioned by Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–247 BCE). There were als...