The Two Witnesses - Part 6: Who Are Judah and Joseph Today?

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 Hello Friends and Readers!  I am so thankful that you have clicked in again to keep following the trail of the two witnesses along with me.  Your encouragement has been very meaningful as we have journeyed down this path together, and now we have arrived at installment #6.  Wow!  If you have found this series "in progress," hop back to this link to get started at the beginning and we will meet back here soon.

I explained in blog #5, that I believe our 2 witnesses are Judah and Jospeh, and I left you with some questions to ponder.  The first question had to do withWHO these brother are in our day.   

Throughout the Bible, we have seen Judah represent the tribe of Judah.  That is where we get our English word "Jew" from today.  So we can determine that Judah represents the Jewish people.  Judah or the Jewish people are one of the brothers.

That was easy!  

Joseph -- This one is a little bit harder.  Do you recall that I explained that Jospeh can mean a lot of different people group combinations in the Bible?  I am going to use scripture to build some background to try to introduce one more group to you.  It will be important for you to click the links as we go along, so you can see that I am using scripture to define this brother.  (I hope you have been clicking scripture links throughout this series.  Anytime you see a hyperlink, I have connected a statement to the scripture that supports it). 

I will tell you that reading multiple bible translations helped me


begin to make the connections needed to figure out this mysterious brother Joseph.  Our problem as English speakers, is that we are not reading scripture in its two original languages (Hebrew and Greek). When we read in English, we are reading a translation...which means a translator (a human) made decisions about how to translate the words.  I do not fault any translators, but I think some have done a better job than others.  I'm going to give you some examples:

Genesis 48:19 in the King James -his seed shall become a multitude of nations.

Genesis 48:19 in the New Living Translation  - his descendants will become a multitude of nations.

Genesis 48:19 in the New American Standard Bible - his descendants shall become a multitude of nations. 

Genesis 48:19 in the Tree of Life - his seed will be the fullness of the nations.

Do you notice any consistencies or inconsistencies?  

In these translations we see "seed" and "descendant" used interchangeably.  I think everyone can understand that one.

But look at the next part, "multitude of nations" vs "fullness of the nations." Three out of 4 translated using "multitude of nations."  That's too bad, because seeing that word "fullness" should send off bells 🔔🔔🔔 ringing in our heads.

I had been reading "multitude" translations my entire life until recently.  About 5 years ago, I picked up a bible and read that verse for the first time seeing "fullness of the nations" in Genesis.  --I scratched my head.  Where had I heard that before?

Does it sound familiar to you, too?

Flip on over to Romans 11:25

Romans 11:25 in the King James - until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

Romans 11:25 in the New Living Translation - until the full number of Gentiles comes to Christ.

Romans 11:25 in the New American Standard Bible - until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in

Romans 11:25 in the Tree of Life Version - until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in

Each of these translations uses some form of the word "full" and applies it to the Gentiles.  

So what Debbie?  Are you playing semantics games?

No, this is too much work for game playing.  Hang in there with me!  

Let's ask another question.  

We see the word "Gentiles" in each of the Romans 11:25 translations.  How does that compare with the word "Nations" that we see being used in the Genesis 48:19 translations?

So glad you asked!

The Greek "Gentiles" in Romans is the equivalent of the Hebrew "Nations" in Genesis. 

The fullness of the Nations (Genesis)

and

The fullness of the Gentiles (Romans)

mean the same thing. 

I can prove it, but I do not want to get overly technical here.  For now, get out your Strong's and do some checking.  Feel free to contact me privately if you want me to walk you through.

Genesis 48:19 and Romans 11:25 match!

And...

They tell us a lot about the identity of

Joseph!

We got a little bit technical today, but in our next session, I will tie these two verses together in a clearer way and make the case that they indeed are referencing the same people group -- JOSEPH.  Until then, do a little digging on your own.  I bet you can come up with the answers before I can even present the questions!  

I will be back soon to invite you to...

Come Seek With Me!

Need to Catch Up?






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