Lessons From Proverbs

This blog explores some things we have found in the Greek version of Proverbs. The Greek OT is alien. Details suggest NT era editing to the OT. The differences between the Greek OT and Hebrew OT also give some insight into modern Russian thinking. These discoveries make it clear recovery is going to be difficult, but not completely hopeless.

Proverbs

The link here is to the entire book of Proverbs in the GRB. The first point I want to make is that the right drop down menu for Proverbs is more complex than we have previously used in the BRB. As usual, you can select either Chapter or Story navigation in the right menu. That general choice drives chapter or story addressing for all books in the GRB. The Proverbs drop down will adjust for that general choice.

But, outside of story/chapter choice, the Proverbs menu also contains many other items. These menu choices give an outline of what is on the page. At the top is a written introduction to the book. Then what follows is the GRB text in the normal way. Then, below the normal GRB text are more notes dealing with the content of the GRB book of Proverbs itself.

All books in the GRB are expected to get similar treatment, with an introduction and then original content, then any trailing notes. This example is unusual in terms of the size of the content at the bottom of Proverbs.

Ryan ran into important problems in the Book of Proverbs that demanded an extensive set of notes at the bottom of the book. In that menu you will see a section dealing with the Virtuous Woman Acrostic, then a Gender Strands re-rendering of that same acrostic. Then there is a section outlining the difference between Greek and Hebrew proverbs. Finally, because Greek and Hebrew versions of this book are so different, Ryan has loaded in a parallel version of Proverbs itself, with the GRB on the left, and then the ASV in parallel on the right.

This seems like overkill, but this treatment was needed to understand the strange parallel history between Greek and Hebrew. Because neither of us, and I would suspect no readers here, are familiar with the Greek OT, this is a very important study, and a good place to learn about ancient editing.

Let me dive into some of that back matter so you can see what is going on.

Virtuous Woman Notes

The link here is into the GRB, Book of Proverbs, but at Ryan's notes dealing with the acrostic that is the story of the virtuous woman. This is the first of the back-matter notes on Proverbs. Ryan has been looking at the many acrostics found in Psalms and Lamentations, and this particular acrostic is the best example.

After an introduction to this story, Ryan provides a nice table that shows the internal structure of the Virtuous Woman poem. This poem is usually the last chapter in Proverbs. In Greek this is chapter 29, in Hebrew this is chapter 31. There are serious differences in versification between these 2 different textual traditions.

This poem is an acrostic, meaning each verse starts with a letter from the alphabet, in order. But, in this case those verses contain content that is related to the letter level meaning of those same letters. So the writer knew the 3d model for each letter, or at least the concept space for each letter.

This is all good. But, this acrostic goes on with 2 more conceptual steps. First, it folds on itself, like the silver set of 3d models. So the writer was familiar with the conceptual folding of the alphabet as captured in the silver series of 3d models. Finally, this acrostic uses letter gender within the story as well. The writer was thus familiar with the woven gender nature of the alphabet.

This is a rich and complex alphabet based poem that cannot be fully understood unless the reader knows the alphabet and closely related systems. When Ryan was working on this he dug into his research notes to find the letter/gender map we worked out years ago. When he showed me the results of those notes applied to this acrostic, I knew letter gender needed to be in the Tent of Time exhibits. Instead of another piece of wall art, I put that study on the top of the lid on the Table. We will see if it remains there.

Currently it is in pink and light blue. It could be in red and dark blue. In any case, it gives the table a nice table cloth like pattern on the lid. Americans have been so badly beat up over gender, that a reminder of real genders may be hard for some to take. I digress.

Remember, Proverbs is the likely place where early readers will be practicing to read. So this book naturally follows the proto-letter sentences on Joseph's Robe. The first column on that robe is also an acrostic. So this story of the Virtuous Woman is nicely tied back to an earlier exhibit in our theoretical Paleo reading curriculum. I will return to Joseph's robe in a future blog. Though history places this poem as the last chapter in Proverbs, it may be the first story in the inspired form of this book.

Who Wrote Proverbs?

Whenever we start looking at books like Proverbs we are watching for major additions, and of what remains, we are asking, Who is the likely inspired writer?

In this particular case, the Greek and Hebrew of Proverbs disagree over various references to Solomon. Solomon may have been involved. Solomon may have added his own proverbs and bulked up the book. Someone may have done this in Solomon's name.

But are there other, more subtle, internal clues as to authorship?

The best clue is in this same acrostic, the Wa, at verse 28a in the table, after Ryan's introductory notes on the Virtuous Woman Acrostic.

"Who shall find a virtuous woman? For such a one is more valuable than precious stones."

This verse is calling out Joseph's grandmother Rebekah and the servant who was sent to find her. Remember, he was afraid that he would not be able to find her. Abraham absolved him of the oath should he be unsuccessful. But that servant also had a king of Joshua going with him in order to be successful. That servant also took a massive dowry when he went to fetch her.

On these clues, we can sketch in that Rebekah is the model woman for whom this poem was written. How does anyone find such a woman? By following Joshua. By letting his kings lead the way. When found, how valuable is she? Priceless, worth more than the price Abraham paid for her.

The poem continues, and is likely giving us a first-hand account of Rebekah herself. She was not around when Joseph was alive, she was likely a walk off along with Isaac. She probably departed at the same time as Isaac.

The writer of this poem either knew Rebekah, say Isaac himself, or else Jacob, or perhaps even Joseph. If Joseph listened to Jacob explaining his grandmother to him, then Joseph could be the original writer of this poem.

So does this transfer out to all of Proverbs? Was proverbs written in Joseph's time?

Our working assumption right now is that Joseph was the original inspired author of a core out of the Book of Proverbs. The story of his Robe is indicating that he was particularly gifted in the alphabet itself. Proverbs-style short sentences would be natural for him to add to the canon of scripture. This is especially so if his training in the wider texts was stopped when he was sent as a prisoner to Egypt.

Joseph directed his heirs to take his bones with them when they left Egypt. Now that I know better vocabulary for this, those bones are likely a veiled reference to Joseph's copy of the 3d Birds.

Again, if Joseph was unable to complete full training, then he may have spent years at the level of the 3d systems and eventually in forming short sentences that passed audit. His ability in this area is strongly suggested when he offers to interpret the cupbearer and baker's dreams. He attributes this ability to his own ability to listen to god's voice.

So listening to proverbs and recording them for future history would have been an interesting project in prison. Because they will cipher, they likely showed him many more things besides simple truth statements. Without access to the base text in his early years, this would still have given him a legacy as an inspired writer all the way to our modern era.

Unwoven Virtuous Woman Acrostic

If you scroll down from the first table given in the link above, you will find another table. In this second table, Ryan unwinds the male/female aspect of the letter pairs found in the folding of this poem.

He puts the female strand of each couplet on the left and he puts the male strand of each couplet on the right. This makes it easier to survey the story based on letter gender.

This is yet another view of that acrostic that some readers here may also find helpful.

GRB/ASV Parallel

The link here is deeper in the GRB, down in the GRB/ASV parallel for this same virtuous woman acrostic. This time looking at the Greek and Hebrew versions next to each other. On the left is the GRB, translated from the Greek OT, on the right is the ASV, translated from the Hebrew OT.

Beware of serious versification differences between the Greek and Hebrew traditions. This story is in chapter 29 in Greek, but 31 in Hebrew. I have linked to the top of the acrostic, starting at vs. 28, but scroll down to the last verse, 29:49 on the left. This is the final verse that folds back to the first verse. This is the masculine side of the acrostic fold. In the Greek it mentions the woman's husband, as fitting with the gender for this spot in the acrostic.

Now, go look at the verse in the ASV, translated from Hebrew. No longer is this about her speech, but the work of her hands. In effect she is being muted by an editor on the Hebrew side. No longer will her husband be praised in the gates, but her works will praise her in the gates. Again, a speaking part has been removed for silence.

The Hebrew is less logical. People are praised in the gates, by people who are in the gates. The Greek is based on this idea. The Hebrew has lost the idea of people praising in the gates, and it has lost her husband. This verse is now gender neutral, having lost content that marked the gender fold.

This is an example where the Greek is telling the inspired story, it is picking up alphabet structure. The editor of the Hebrew side is loosing that internal structure, perhaps never having known it was there.

This Virtuous Woman Acrostic is but 1 example of acrostics in the text. Ryan has added an appendix to the GRB that enumerates all the known Acrostics. Let me explain that appendix, before returning to other lessons in Proverbs.

Acrostics Appendix

The link here is to Ryan's GRB appendix dealing with known acrostics in the Bible. In that article he includes a table that lists off the stories that are nearly acrostics, but are broken in one way or another.

Many, like Psalm 9, 24, 33 and 144 are missing single letters. Others, like Psalm 9, Lamentations 1, Lamentations 2 and Lamentations 3 have the Oo and Pe in reversed order. Finally, the acrostic at Nahum 1:2-8 is missing about 1/2 of the alphabet.

An inspired writer is unlikely to have written an acrostic with reversed interior letters. An inspired writer would not have made such rookie mistakes. An uninspired writer could have made these mistakes.

Finally, an editor who did not care, or was working in some other language, or who had forgotten the order of the alphabet, may well have made such changes given some originally complete acrostic. Potential loss of information is what is so troubling to us. It hints at a seriously complex recovery process when we finally get to that stage of the problem.

Proverbs P9

The link here is back in the Book of Proverbs, but into the GRB/ASV Parallel version for Proverbs chapter 9. Remember the structure of this section is in Ryan's notes, but where the GRB text, based on Greek, is set in parallel to the standard 1901 ASV, based on Hebrew.

This is interesting to us for understanding the manuscript traditions involved here. We are looking at 2 traditions that diverged around 2000 years ago. We suspect the Greek and Hebrew agreed about 2300 years ago. There is a good chance that our NT editor, Ananias, is changing the Hebrew OT to match his NT work. This is a complex idea, and this is just a hint as to what is coming from Ryan's future work.

Also, important to note, Putin's Russia uses the Greek OT, and is not using the Zionist Hebrew OT. So when you see a difference between the Greek and Hebrew in the OT, you are looking at a difference between the Western/Catholic/Protestant/Zionist OT, and the Eastern/Orthodox/Christian OT. This is a Bible study with serious application to world events, something that essentially nobody in the western Christian tradition really understands.

As you scroll down through this chapter 9 of Greek Proverbs, follow the verse numbers on the left. There are of course differences in the translations based on the preferences of the translators. So word choice differences are mostly attributable to work in the mid 1800s in the GRB and late 1800s in the ASV.

At vs. 6a you can see the 2 versions diverge for reason more severe than just translators making arbitrary word choices. In this example there are 3 sub verses on the left, while only 2 sub verses on the right. Ryan has left notes on the right to mark what is going on. This example is hard to spot the fundamental editing pattern. So, keep scrolling.

At vs. 10a on the left you can now see an example that is stronger, and which expresses itself in the difference between Russians and the rest of the west.

Vs. 10a in both indicates that fear of Joshua is the beginning of wisdom. This is the same on both sides. We know this idea in regular Protestant church circles. No news here.

On the left, vs. 10b says that in the counsel of saints is understanding and vs. 10c indicates that in knowing the law (the written text) is where people get a sound mind.

While on the right, so the western Hebrew side, 10b and 10c are removed and replaced with the idea that knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Holy can be translated Special. Some readers may take this as a reference to the divine, or divine name. But, the right side is pointing at the top of the org chart, to the High Priest in Jerusalem. The editor wrote himself in as the source of knowledge, he wrote out the community of saints and the study of the text.

The west's priestly class rules by fiat. While on the left the source for understanding is the historical community of saints who have gone before and then the text itself. The use of icons in Orthodox Churches, which are typically carved reliefs of saints, is a memory to this idea here in Proverbs. We visited an Orthodox book store and most of the religious training material was written biographies of saints. There is no supreme leader, no pope, in the Orthodox traditions. There is no veto authority in the BRICS leadership like there is at the UN. See how these edits impact the operation of various parts of the world?

A similar style of edit is found at 12a. On the left 12b through 12i are various condemnations of being wicked. These have been removed, likely by Ananias in NT times, leaving behind what is found on the right. They took the condemnations on the left and removed them so as not to be seen by the crowds in the west. The editor removed what he practiced, what he was guilty of.

A similar editing pattern is seen in vs. 18a-18i in the left. You can read through it starting at 13a and see it for yourself.

High Priest Ananias

The last 2 editors in our list of 6 villains are Ezra and Ananias. Ezra is commissioned by the king to setup a religion at Jerusalem. He is carrying the then new OT texts. He is working under the commission of the king, so he is working under and/or for the king who sent him. Ezra was setting up a system with a general public form of worship that still exists. The synagogue system that becomes the Christian church system of today is what Ezra created.

Ananias appears to be different from Ezra in an important way. The Jews of the NT, when they interact with Roman officials, are usually getting their way. The high priest can have Joshua arrested. Pilot is forced to crucify Joshua on the threat of calling down the Roman government against Pilot. The governor in Caesarea must be careful to do the Jews a favor. When Paul arrives in Rome, the Jews he meets are taking direction by letter from Jerusalem. The NT writers are giving us hints to the change between Ezra and Ananias.

The differences in the OT that we are seeing between the GRB and the ASV belie an idea that the Hebrew OT was being edited in NT times. Some editing may have happened in the centuries just before the NT was written, other examples suggest Ananias himself was editing the OT along with the NT.

The focus of all those edits wants to put the high priest in charge of and over the secular Roman government. The modern technical term for this same activity is called the Israel Lobby, who mostly dictates US Government actions. The edits were removing the community of saints as a source of wisdom, they were removing the text as a source of wisdom. Instead they were making the Holy One, so the Special One, so really the High Priest, the final arbiter of truth.

The outworked modern expression of the Greek, so unedited form, is seen in the way the Russians involve their faith in the way they run their government. It is a slow, honest, consensus based approach that ties to their historical faith tradition and to law.

The west is an empire of lies, because the high priest that runs it is the final arbiter of truth. He can change his mind on a whim. He can break the commandments, change the meaning, rewrite history, whatever he wants. These are very different religions. People living in the western traditions simply do not understand how things could be different in Russia. To Russian saints, the west is mentally deranged.

Putin gave his annual press conference in December 2024. He went live for over 4 hours, answering a wide range of questions on topics related to Russia. He commented at one point that his annual press conferences are unique in the world. No other country has anyone in high office who is as capable, or who does not answer to a secret puppet master, a secret high priest. Many times through that press conference he stopped and referenced various government processes that are there to solve some of the harder issues that Russia faces.

The west has no equivalent because the west is run by a high priest. Modern western governments have been built to conform to the Hebrew OT. Russia's government has been built to conform to the Greek OT. This is very different.

Russia is in very stark contrast to the US government, run for the past 4 years by Biden, a dementia patient. The west is really run by high priests who work in secret following the tradition of secret rule that goes all the way back to this set of textual edits. I am sure we will find many other examples as we continue to work through the GRB. But this should give you a hint as to what we are finding in the GRB.

GRB Psalms

The link here is to the Book of Psalms in the GRB. For completeness with this blog I need to reference it here too. Ryan's work in this book is slowly settling down there, at least a little.

That page begins with a massive table of raw data that helps to understand the strangeness that is the Book of Psalms. This book appears to have been some sort of catch basin for songs and poems across some season in ancient history. The diversity of ways these songs can be cataloged is an important high level introduction to the problem that is this book.

That table is set at the top of the book so that it is easy to find in order to dive deep, then return, then dive deep somewhere else, and so on. Below the table is a more formal, prose, introduction to the problems presented by the Book of Psalms.

For readers here who are carefully tracking our work, I would recommend reading through Ryan's introductory material to get a high level understanding of this book.

We would expect most of it to fail audit when we get to that point. But, we may be surprised and find something, like a few Psalms, to show divine inspiration. We will see.

Theory Of Textual Origins

Ryan and I have had long discussions about what he is finding in his GRB work. He has been working heavily in Psalms and Proverbs, but has been ranging across that manuscript in preparation for more work there. This is the first time either of us have had exposure to the Greek OT. This is the same OT text used by Putin's Russia. No wonder Russian Orthodox are so different than the west. They have a very different textual heritage. They have built their society on that tradition.

At this point it looks like our understanding of the history of the text of the Bible is probably more simple than what actually happened. Our Protestant tradition wants a simple story of divine inspiration. Starting with a source in some inspired language and then translations out to what we have now. We can of course dispute the specific source language and what are the later translations. This sort of discussion is framed by the Protestant tradition.

We then layer onto that the lessons of Acts 15, where villains came along and added to the base story. This additional step is easy to understand. Those villains have identifiable times in history when the text underwent change by someone's hand. The parables of the sower paint such a picture. Text was added along the way that was not inspired. So far so good.

The Law of Babel also indicates those editors could only add to the story. Once something was committed to the text, the editors could only add to what was already publicly available. This law protects the inspired core for later recovery. The Parable of the Sower indicates the same, the inspired core must have been left alone.

There is also a general theory of communications. Errors introduced into any transmission can only be recovered when at least some form of the message gets through to the receiver. Some recovery framework must be known for this to work. Parity bits are a computer form of this. The audit pattern is the text's form of this. This theory of communications works for messages from Mars. It also works for for divine messages carried by ancient manuscripts down across history.

All of this is reasonable. It has informed our framing of the problem of recovery. I have covered all of this in detail in past blogs.

The text that Ryan is currently studying in the GRB does not conform to these theoretical models very well. If someone was bright enough to write a poem with an acrostic, then why does it not survive with all letters to us today? Why do some acrostics have reversed letters? These questions are valid if these passages are inspired, or even if they are not inspired. Even an editor could write an acrostic. Think Psalm 119 (118 in the GRB). As the edits went into the canon, they should have then come under the Law of Babel. What I have shown by example in this blog is that the Law of Babel was not in full control of the editing process.

What seems most likely is that editing was going on in different languages at different places at different times. Those edits were merged back together in haphazard ways. Those editors were NOT strictly following the Law of Babel. They were a lawless bunch, so what should we expect?

The resulting text of the Bible we have today is essentially an accident of that editing history.

Our Hope

It will only be by Joshua's sovereign protection that his inspired core survived anywhere in this mess. Ultimately, if an editor edits an earlier editor's edits, who cares?

This is the last blog for 2024. 2025 comes soon enough. We hope to turn to the letter level component of our recovery problem some time in 2025.

Until then, Ryan will continue to bush-whack his way through the thicket of problems in the GRB. I will continue to get the exhibits for the Tent of Time designed and fabricated.

When we are ready, we will look again at the letter strings that are found in the texts that are available to us from history. Joshua has been guiding our work for years, since long before the 2009 dream series that unlocked letter forms. We trust he will continue to be with us so that we can finish rediscovering what is ultimately his work.

More Later,

Phil