Jesus breaks the rules of language and tenses with the statement “before Abraham became, I am”. The verb used is not to be (#G1510) but to become (genesthai #G1096). Yahweh did this too,
And Yahweh has said, `The One-Covering is myself from Father-of-Tumult which myself is he-who-makes. 18 And Father-of-Tumult to become he is to a nation great and mighty. And the whole of the nations of the Earth have been kneeled in-himself
Genesis 18:17-18 literal
הָיֹ֧ו יִֽהְיֶ֛ה TO BE(COME) HE IS means he is and is to become. Perhaps as Jesus is, and is to come.
It is a complete anomaly of any ancient language to play on, or with, it’s own written language in a religious or sacred text, yet the Bible does it frequently and very deliberately, as if to outsmart the so-called authorities,
And comes forth the sun, and goes in the sun. And to his place panting [running the race, Ps. 19:5, Heb. 12:1], coming forth he there.
Walking toward the south and turning around towards the north, around and around, walking the spirit, and on his circuit returning the spirit [John 3:8].
The whole of the rivers are walking toward the Sea, but the Sea is not full. Toward the place the rivers are walking, there they return to walk.
The whole of the words are wearisome [the Bible]. Man is not able to speak [mute]. The eye is not satisfied to see [blind]. The ear is not filled to hear [deaf].
What HAS BECOME, is he who IS. And what has been made, is he who will be made. And nothing of the whole is new under the sun [the sons of Day, 1 Thes. 5:5].
Is there a word [the son] of whom he says, ‘See, this is new’? He already HAS BECOME to the ages, which he HAS BECOME from-to before us. There is no remembrance for the first ones; nor also for the last ones WHO ARE; He is not for them a remembrance with those who are for the last one.”
Ecclesiastes 1:7-11 Concrete, literal translation
Can you wrap your mind around that? Time is not linear to these old writers. This is smashing the rules of how we perceive the Hebrew Bible’s order from within and out of time. And we don’t even know what time (much less eternity) is. The Bible, according to Jesus, is a book of insider knowledge. Seek and you will find, he says. His appearance was a revelation that there was still yet a revelation. He didn’t explain anything, only compounded the mystery. His followers did the same. This is why the whole of the Catholic and Protestant “tree of Babel” is exactly that, nothing but confusing, incoherent, and conflicting babel. As soon as someone starts thinking seriously about the text in which they so blindly confide in, things get really scary, because it gets really dark.
See, we took the ancients for uneducated, culturally suppressed, nomadic primates who just needed a little extra help from us superior-minded, liberated demigods, when the reality appears to me to be just the opposite. You’ve been had. There are deep teachings about Elohim, order, and time in the Bible but they are obscure and translators can’t wrap their minds around the riddles so they reject that they exist; they seem to be trigger-happy with changing texts rather than striving to understand them, and then, if they can’t, they don’t allow anyone else a chance. In fact they all have changed this one:
For now, we are looking through a mirror, in an enigma. However then, face towards face. For now I am recognizing [ginōskō] out from a portion; however then I will recognize [epiginóskó] as also I have been recognized.”
1 Corinthians 13:12 literal
Is the Bible is an enigma of you? When you open the Bible, do you see yourself in the Scriptures? (James 1:23-24). Were you fully known from ancient times and revealed within the pages of the Book? Are you yourself a “word” of God become flesh? If so, what would that mean?
Several verses add to the mystery,
according as He did choose us in himself before the sowing [#G2602, Liddel] of the world. Eph 1:4 literal
Then will say the king to those out from his right, Come, those being praised of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from sowing of world. Matt. 25:34 literal
I will open in parables the mouth of myself; I will spit [#G2044] hidden ones from sowing of world.” Matt 13:35 literal
And will worship him the whole dwelling on the earth of whom the name [singular] of them has not been written in the book of zoe-life of the Lamb—the one having been slaughtered from sowing of world… Rev. 13:8 literal
In the following verse, to be is not found in the text before the adjective “conformed” which is in the plural. It is added by interpreters.
For those whom he foreknew, he also predetermined, conformed to the image of His Son, into his being the firstborn in many brothers. Rom. 8:29 literal
Enigmas are dark, obscure, and require a lot of thought. They will vex you. Read the verse in Revelation again. “Name” is in the singular, not the plural, the name of them. Who was slaughtered at the conception of the world? Abel. Remember? Do we swallow the traditional interpretation that Jesus is referring to himself as being slaughtered from the inception of the world? How does that make any sense? But if he is referring to Abel, the text reads much more sensibly, albeit surely unorthodox. Does Abel represent those not written in the book of life?
Read that line again from Ecclesiastes 1:11. The first and the last are in the plural:
no remembrance for the first-ones; nor also for the last-ones, WHO ARE;
Jesus is the first and the last and the one WHO IS. But apparently he isn’t the only one? The Bible is living and active. What if we are writing its story today? What if our deeds, paths, risings, and sittings, are being searched out today (Ps. 139) and are being written down for us “before” the conception of the world? Remember, Hebrew thought sees a circular flow of time like of the rivers flowing to the Sea and returning to where they came. It was also said that the Bible was living and active. Maybe this story is more trippy than we thought? The writers love to use pronouns in rather important statements which force us to interpret the context to figure out who is the object and who is the subject. This forcing us to interpret context is a huge feature of the Bible and no doubt allows for some very unorthodox readings if we put aside religious tradition and bias.
