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I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ [of Jesus]. [Just as] It it is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God's grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ [of] Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through [of] Jesus [of] Christ for the glory and praise of God.
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This is the Epistle selection to be read aloud on the second Sunday of Advent, Year C, according to the lectionary for the Episcopal Church. This reading will follow two of three other possible readings: Baruch 5 or Malachi 3; and, Canticle 16. Those readings will include these quotes: “see your children gathered from west and east at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that God has remembered them;” “he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to Yahweh in righteousness;” and “In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us, To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.” All will accompany the Gospel selection from Luke, where it is written: “The word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”
At first glance, these nine verses of Paul’s letter to the Christians of Philippi is little more than the initial greeting of someone who passed through town some time back, wanting to have everyone know how much Paul missed being around them. It is far from that; but the art of translating Greek to English makes it harder to discern the truth contained in the Greek, because the letter was written in the divine language of Yahweh, using Greek as His tool. In these nine verses are five period marks, which make it appear to be five long-winded sentences. In reality it is twenty series of word segments, each of which becomes its own ‘sentence,’ according to the Word of Yahweh. Those segments are broken apart by commas, periods, verse transition, and a semi-colon, with one ‘sentence’ being one capitalized word … a word the NRSV ignored completely in translation.
In the above NRSV translation, it should be noted where some words were not translated [the genitive forms of names, which mean “of” must be added]. I have placed the omitted words in brackets. The omitted word has verse seven begin erroneously with “It is right,” when the capitalization of “it” is wrong. I have amended that to show the truth of that written. Also, in verse six, the NRSV has changed the order of “of Christ of Jesus” to show “of Jesus Christ.” That is wrong, so I have stricken out the misplaced “Jesus” and replaced it in the proper position, in brackets.
As I did recently for another seemingly benign Epistle reading of Paul’s, one where I had done an in-depth dissection of the reading three years prior, I added a new slant on the reading, where I only addressed the capitalized words written in those verses. That showed the divinity of what Paul wrote, as it is obvious that Yahweh led Paul with foresight, so what Paul wrote made deep sense, while what Paul wrote in capitalized words equally made profound sense. It would be too time consuming for Paul to write letters and try to accomplish that feat alone. The message sent in capitalized words is Yahweh speaking doubly through one of His prophets. The bold type above denotes the capitalized words in this text, which I will next present as the interpretation of this reading.
In addition to this to follow, one of the capitalized words is “Kai,” which is a marker word. The NRSV translation above denotes this word simply as a capitalized “And,” which begins a new ‘sentence’ [it follows a period mark]. It is my strong opinion that the word “kai,” in all its presentations, does not need translation at all. It should simply be seen as a place where Yahweh had His prophet signal “importance to follow this word “kai.”’ This means a capitalized “Kai” denotes great importance to follow. Because these nine verses present the word “kai” seven times, including the one capitalized version, I will then add interpretation of the five segments of words that are either begun or include the word “kai.”
There are thirteen capitalized words in the nine verses of this this reading. Ten of those words are forms of “God [Theos], Christ [Christos], and Jesus [Iésous]. The other three capitalized words include “Kai” and two other words that begin ‘sentences,’ each following a period mark. While this can seem to be the simplicity of syntax, where the first word of a sentence is always capitalized, verse seven ends with a period mark, but verse eight begins with the lower-case word “martys” [“μάρτυς”], which shows that normal syntax is not the same as divine syntax – the language of Yahweh.
Each capitalized word is listed by the verse it appears written in, with the verse numbers in bold type. Please note that there are no capitalized words found in verses 4 and 5. Also note the groupings of three: Three singular words set apart from three words stated multiple times. Of those three stated multiple times, “Christou [Χριστοῦ]” is found four times and “Iēsou [Ἰησοῦ]” three times, all presented with exactly the same spelling. The word for “God,” however, is stated three ways, as “Theō [Θεῷ],” “Theos [Θεός],” and “Theou [Θεοῦ],” each differently.
One can see this presence of the number three being repeated in words as mere coincidence; or, one can see this as another sign of divine inspiration being present. The symbolism of three, as far as Christianity is concerned, is the Trinity. The Trinity, simply stated, means the union of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This can now be seen as “God [Theos],” “Jesus [Iésous],” and “Christ [Christos].” That becomes significant, as most Christians today refer to “Jesus Christ” as if that were his first and last names. People commonly refer to “Christ,” when their minds are picturing Jesus. When they call Jesus “Christ,” that gives the impression that Jesus is the only “Christ,” when the word is Greek [christos] for “anointed one.” When capitalized, it takes on a divine level of mean, where the “Anointment” comes from Yahweh. Yahweh can “Anoint” as many as He pleases, with David being a prime example of one who was “Anointed” [a “Christ”].
Here is the list of thirteen capitalized words:
3. Eucharistō [Εὐχαριστῶ] – I Thank
Theō [Θεῷ] - God
6. Christou [Χριστοῦ] – of Christ, of Anointed
Iēsou [Ἰησοῦ] – of Jesus
7. Kathōs [Καθώς] – Just as, Seeing as, According as
8. Theos [Θεός] – God
Christou [Χριστοῦ] – of Christ, of Anointed
Iēsou [Ἰησοῦ] – of Jesus
9. Kai [Καὶ] – [Importantly]
10. Christou [Χριστοῦ] – of Christ, of Anointed
11. Iēsou [Ἰησοῦ]– of Jesus
Christou [Χριστοῦ] – of Christ, of Anointed
Theou [Θεοῦ] – of God
As I did previously, these words can be set in an order as a series of statement, such as: “I Thank God of Anointed of Jesus Just as God of Anointed of Jesus Kai of Anointed of Jesus of Anointed of God.” These can then be ‘punctuated’ by the numbering of the verses they appear in, such as: “I Thank God - - - - of Anointed of Jesus - - Just as - - God of Anointed of Jesus - - Kai - - of Anointed - - of Jesus of Anointed of God.”
By removing the influence to think of “Christ” as another name for Jesus, listing all translations for “Christou” as “of Anointed,” one is free to see how oneself can then become that soul “Anointed.” When oneself is seen as Yahweh speaking through him or her (as would the true Christians of Philippi), the first person singular “I” of “Eucharistō” has oneself saying, “I Thank God.” When the word “Eucharistō” is realized to come from “eucharistos” (“thankful, grateful”), from which the term “Eucharist” comes, these thirteen capitalized words becomes the truth of Holy Communion stated. That means by saying these words one has eaten the bread [Scripture] and drank from the cup [Received the Spirit in divine marriage]. Then, a soul can truly say, “I Thank God … as being one of His Anointed from my soul receiving the resurrection of Jesus with it … According to … the same God who makes all disciples be also of Anointed of Jesus … this Most Importantly … makes me of those Anointed in kind … all alike are the truth of the Trinity – of Jesus of Anointed of God.”
Again, it is easy to decline to accept this as being the overview of the intent from Paul in these nine verses. This certainly is not taught in churches or seminaries. Therefore, it can be taken or left alone. I offer it as my observation to the reader here.
As for the seven placements of “kai” in this reading selection, those segments containing that marker of importance can then be pieced together as a capsule of the important elements to be taken from this reading. Listed below are the seven, coming from four verses. Each verse is divided into sections, based on the presence of punctuation marks within a verse, with the first section listed as “a” and all subsequent sections having the next letter applied to the verse number. This is the Greek text parsed as such:
7e kai en tē apologia kai bebaiōsei tou euangeliou ,
9a Kai touto proseuchomai ,
9c eti mallon kai mallon perisseuē en epignōsei kai pasē aisthēsei ,
10b hina ēte epignōsei kai aproskopoi eis hēmeran Christou ,
11b eis doxan kai epainon Theou .
This then translates to say:
7e importantly in this thought-out response importantly validated of anyone good news ,
9a Most importantly here I pray ,
9c remain more importantly more to overflow in discernment importantly every kind of
understanding ,
10b in order that you might exist pure importantly not causing to stumble towards time of
Anointed ,
11b towards renown importantly approval of God .
When everything is seen to be that important to be known from this portion of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, each “kai” can be removed and dashes shown. The verse changes can then be read as comma marks. This means Paul wrote this to be importantly known: “in this thought-out response - validated of anyone good news, here I pray – remain more – more to overflow in discernment – every kind of understanding, in order that you might exist pure – not causing to stumble towards time of Anointed, towards renown – approval of God.”
Likewise, this is how divine Scripture can be seen as divine, because no human being has the ability to create writings that has this flexibility of meaning built in. Only Yahweh could lead a prophet to write on this level of profoundness. Still, I leave it up to the readers to accept it or reject it.
As a reading selection chosen for the second Sunday of Advent, when one’s soul is beginning to feel the kick inside that says one is close to a divine presence that no one else can experience in the same way, the outward appearance of Paul’s words to the Philippians is, “Ho hum.” It is like someone telling you, “I’m pregnant,” and you understand what that means, but cannot fully relate to all the inner sensations that fill one with joy. For one to have that experience as know what Paul meant, one has to be there with Paul. One needs to be divinely raised [the capitalized statements] and one needs to feel how important that is.