Expert: Marilyn - 3/27/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hello Marilyn,

It's been a while, I have a question for you, most non believers believe that Cretians means Cristians, after looking this word in my Strong's Concordance it has nothing to do with being a Christian, they also tie this word to Scripture:  Titus 1:12-13, "One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, the Cretians (Christians) are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true, wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.

He put in parenthesis Christians, I was hoping you could elaborate on this for me.

Thankyou in advance

Junior

ANSWER: Howdy Junior,
Great to hear from you again! Been too long.

This passage from Titus is a quote from the poet, Epimenides. This fellow was a 6th century Greek from Crete. According to myth, he fell asleep in Zeus' sacred cave and awoke almost 60 years later a prophet.

In his Mars' Hill speech in Acts 17, Paul quotes the poet Epimenides, verse 28, " 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone--an image made by man's design and skill..." In other words, Paul is using Epimenides own words against him to convert these sophisticated Greeks to Christ. These well educated people no doubt had read the poem Paul quotes, "Cretica."  

In the poem Minos addresses Zeus and says: "They fashioned a tomb for thee, O holy and high one—The Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies! But thou art not dead: thou livest and abidest forever, For in thee we live and move and have our being."

In Titus, Paul uses the part about Cretans always being liars etc. to make a point about not falling for the latest doctrinal fad since those generally deviate from the Truth. In the poem, the lie the Cretans told was that Zeus was mortal; Epimenides thought Zeus immortal.

This is what is called the "liar's paradox" or the "Epimenides paradox." The idea that a person who is "always" a liar makes a positive assertion of anything and it is considered true. Epimenides was a Cretan, that is a man from Crete. A man from Crete saying all Cretans are liars... We assume Epimenides meant all Cretans OTHER THAN himself, but that's not what he wrote.

Paul uses Epimenides' statement to make the same point Epimenides was trying to make--don't fall for doctrinal fads. But by dragging it into a Christian text Paul muddies everything up for us.

This kind of a paradox puzzle has been popular off and on throughout time. In the Middle Ages they called these types of puzzles "insolubilia" and had fun arguing about them. Today we have the cat in the box paradox in physics where you don't know if the cat in the box is alive or dead. Until you open the box you must assume the cat is both alive AND dead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epimenides_paradox

Paul was trying to use popular culture to make his case. The fad: Zeus is mortal, the "truth:" Zeus is immortal...this hearkens back to Paul's Mars' Hill speech wherein he substituted Zeus for God and then showed that gods made of stone can't be really God...hence if you Greeks say you are Zeus's children and since Zeus is nothing more than a marble statue, then you must not be Zeus's children after all, but the children of the Living God, Jehovah... Since our popular culture is entirely different we don't have the context for these statements readily to mind any more. It would be like someone 2000 years from now reading about a person who used a quote from "The Dark Knight."

Where this person would get the idea that a Cretan, which is a person from Crete, would be a Christian is ridiculous.  Bibles don't have misspelled words in them, they are far too carefully edited for that, although I suppose there is the theoretical possibility a Bible somewhere has a misspelled word in it... The name in my NIV is "Cretan" putting an "i" in there is a misspelling. Cretan is a person from Crete, like an American is a person from America.  

A cretin is a person suffering from cretinism which is a genetic condition in which a person's thyroid doesn't work. Since a non-functioning thyroid will make a person pretty stupid, a stupid person is also called a "cretin." Cretinism is the severe mental and physical retardation that is the result of a non-functioning thyroid.

According to my World Book Dictionary and the online Oxford Dictionary, there is no such word as "Cretian."  

I could make an ugly crack about anybody who misconstrues a Cretan for Christian is a cretin, but I won't.  ;-)

Sincerely,

Marilyn

 



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hey there Marilyn,

I do have another question for you,

In MATTHEW 5:17-18

The Fulfillment of the Law

17"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

There are people whom believe that Jesus did away with the Law by fulfilling it, and there are those who say the law is still in effect.

If we read Ephesians it says:

Ephesians 2:13-16 (King James Version)

13But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

14For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

15Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

16And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

Now here it looks like Paul is saying that by Jesus dying He abolished the Law, I guess Im looking for some guidance here on what is being said, in context to the scriptures, HELP!!

Junior

Answer
Hello Junior;

The short answer is "yes."

Ok, I'll explain.  Jesus came to us under the Law, He was born under the Law, He lived in perfect obedience to the Law, Matthew 17:5; John 8:46; I Peter 2:21-23.  He was Minister of God to the Law for the Jews, He swept it clean of rabbinical sophistries which had been piled on for centuries and enforced it on those authorities who were supposed to be obeying it, see Matthew 23. He confirmed the promises made under the Law, Romans 15:8, Exodus 19:5. Side track for a minute to Exodus...

The Mosaic Covenant consists of the Commandments expressing the righteous will of God, Exodus 20:1-26; the judgments, governing the social life of Israel, Exodus 21:1-24:11, and the ordinances, governing the religious life of Israel, Exodus 24:12-31:18.  The commandments and ordinances form one religious system.  The commandments brought death, II Corinthians 3:7-9.  The Mosaic Covenant is conditional based on obedience, "...IF you fully obey and keep My Covenant.." The high priest is the representative of the people before the Lord and offers the sacrifices that cover sin.  This activity looks forward to the cross, Hebrews 5:1-3; 9:6-9; Romans 3:25 & 26.

The Christian is not under the conditional covenant of Moses, but under the unconditional Covenant of Grace purchased by Jesus' Blood, Romans 3:21-27; 6:14 & 15; Galatians 2:16; 3:10-14, 16-18, 24-26; 4:21-31; Hebrews 10:11-17.  The Law did not change the Abrahamic Covenant, but was added for a limited time until the Seed came, Galatians 3:17-19.

Jesus fulfilled the Law by His holy life and sacrificial death, Hebrews 9:11-28. He bore the curse of the Law so that the Abrahamic Covenant might become available to all who would believe, Galatians 3:13 & 14. He transformed us from servants to sons, Galatians 4:1-7 and mediated by His Blood the New Covenant of Grace in which all believers in Him stand Romans 5:2.  Thus He established the Law of Christ, Galatians 6:2, wherein righteous living comes by power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus was baptized by John in order to qualify as High Priest, Exodus 29:4-7. He was tested in the desert proving His ability to fight the enemy and giving Him the on the job experience to function as our Mediator before God. He fulfilled the Law by His sinless life and by obeying all its ordinances to the letter. And finally, He paid for the Law by His death and finished it with His resurrection.  The Mosaic Covenant is fulfilled and finished.

BUT the Law remains.  What exactly is the Law?  Jesus made it very clear, the Law is very simple.  Matthew 7:12, "...do unto others what you would have them do unto you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets," and "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments," Matthew 22:37-40.  

The Law of Love remains. The Law of Love will never pass away, the Law of Love is the Law of Christ, the Law of Love is the foundation that existed before any other laws were written and upon which all Law rests and the Law of Love is the Law we must still obey.  

The blessings of Abraham come now to us through Jesus who fulfilled the Law i.e. the Mosaic Covenant, and brought the Holy Spirit to us so that we might be empowered to obey the Law, not by force of our personal will, not out of fear of hell, not by ritual of sacrifice, but by freely choosing because our hearts are transformed into His likeness.  We come out from under the Law through the Grace Jesus purchased with His Blood so that we might also fulfill the Law as His Body in the earth obeying it, living and dying to self in order to achieve it.  So, the answer is "Yes" to both parts of the question.  Jesus did away with the Mosaic Law, the Mosaic Covenant, mentioned above, He fulfilled it, it's finished, but He did not do away with the Law (of Love), it is still in effect.

Sincerely,

Marilyn