Bible Notes: Soul and Body

Originally appeared on spirituality.com

Hebrew: Job 19:25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at thelatter day upon the earth:

This beautiful verse, so well known in Handel’s Messiah, also strikes deeply to the soul of Israelite thought. The Hebrew word, ga-‘al, is a redeemer in so many senses. Boaz was a redeemer for Ruth, making Naomi’s life sweet instead of bitter. Isaiah 40-55, thought to be written at the time Jerusalem was rebuilt, is full of hope in the LORD, redeemer of Israel. But Job’s hope is that of a stricken man who nevertheless believes his God is real and living. Hebrew, khai, is life, and the measure of this life is that he will no merely stand; but the Hebrew word is qoom, maybe to rise, to arise, and this risingwill be in the a-kha-ron which is not merely later, but is also used of the end of time. Job is very old in its provenance, and its present form is well before Jesus, so Job’s faith is in God. Yet the verse well reflects the faith of Christians in later days, and does not exclude such a reading.

Greek: John 5:9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.

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