Harold, I’m making chicken

Poor old Harold, now Harold was a Christian man and he loved his wife dearly, his wife’s name was Mabel, now this couple was well on in years, into their 80’s and had been married for about 60 years, they no longer slept in the same room, Mabel had a nerve condition that caused her legs to jump during the night so they started using separate beds, well Harold began snoring so loudly that Mabel’s nerve condition got worse when trying to sleep so separate rooms became their life.

But, during waking hours you could not separate the two of the except for running errands or some such thing and Mabel would generally stay home. For about a year they had been bickering back and forth over nonsense things and neither one of them liked it. Harold became convinced that Mabel was losing her hearing and going deaf. One day while getting his regular checkup at the doctor Harold brought this up to his doctor and asked how he might determine if Mabel was indeed losing her hearing without upsetting her.

The doctor said that the next time Mabel was in a room that Harold should stand in the doorway and ask her a question and if she didn’t respond to then go halfway into the room and ask the question again and if she still did not respond then go to her and speak to her, telling her that he had already asked twice and that this was the third time that he had asked and since she could not hear him until he was up close that he was very concerned for her hearing and maybe she should see a hearing doctor so that they could stop all of the bickering that had been going on for so long. Well, Harold thought that this was an excellent idea so when he got home and later that evening Mabel was in the kitchen at the sink so Harold stood in the doorway and asked; “Mabel, honey, what are you preparing for dinner?” Well, Harold did not hear an answer so he then went halfway into the room and asked again; “Mabel, honey, what are you preparing for dinner?” Again Harold did not hear an answer. So now he goes on up to Mabel at the sink and taps her on the shoulder and says; “Mabel, honey, now I have asked you twice and now this is the third time, what are you preparing for dinner?” Mabel just turned around and looked Harold dead in the eye and said; “Harold, for goodness sake, for the third time I’m telling you that I am preparing chicken.”

Poor Harold, he was so concerned over the loss of hearing he believed Mabel was experiencing that he never thought that he himself may be suffering the problem. Now Harold would never have intentionally placed some burden on Mabel or cause her distress but in this case Harold’s perception was off, why?

Pride, lack of humility and judgment, all of us has a preconceived prejudice within us and it is rampant throughout the church. One group against another, lies and attacks based on lies, hatred for things one group does not understand about another, error through pride and prejudice, closed minds. Much like Harold who was proud of his own health and could not conceive that there may be a problem with him, he automatically assumed that Mabel had hearing problems and never once took a look at himself.

Today’s church is a watered down diluted form of the Christian Church and so also is the Bible that most people use, watered down, diluted, translated by various groups to suit their own philosophy and no one even knows this, why? Because no one cares enough to investigate the truth, Pastors go to seminary and learn only what has been decided by someone a century or two ago from the diluted Bible that suited their philosophy and whole volumes of that philosophy are written with out of context scripture thrown in to support this philosophy and then they preach it and continue to teach it along with the hatred of the truth, there is always enough of the truth thrown in to make it look good.

Today’s modern church has a lot of bells and whistles, entertainment but no spiritual connection, they have forgotten those who have gone on from here, they have forgotten the Holy Communion of the saints, it’s too much trouble, it isn’t entertaining enough, they have forgotten the Father in the worship, they have forgotten that we are seen and watched by Holy Ones who participate with us in the worship of the Lamb and of Almighty God, they have forgotten the Body and Blood of the Christ, Jesus, the Only Begotten Son of Almighty God and the Blessed Virgin who we know as Mary. It is forgotten by far too many for the sake of slick entertainment to keep the role call up and the money coming in to fill the coffers.

Where is the true worship? Where is the healing? Where is the love for one’s brother instead of the attitude of; well I have mine, sorry that you don’t have yours. Where are the workers that should be working?

Think about these things, Have questions? Contact me, I’m Monk Michael, ask.

May you be greatly blessed by the desire for complete truth, come to Jesus the Christ through truth and not through entertainment.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

In Christ,

Monk Michael

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Why Jesus the Christ?

Why Jesus the Christ?

 Why Jesus the Christ? There is a claim of many who have called themselves the messiah or a messiah in ages past.  How many of these who made this claim or the claim was made by others on their behalf, actually came and in their own words stated that they were willing to give up their life for humanity?

People go to a church and yet there are many who complain about religion, some claim to worship Jesus Christ and yet hate others who are also worshipping Jesus the Christ, many preach in his name and then prophecy against another saying things that they cannot prove and yet call themselves Christian, it seems the more outrageous the prophecy the more people there are to believe it.

So why Jesus the Christ? So many lies are told in His name that it defies reason and yet the lies keep coming, the liars keep prospering, are the people really this misled or is everyone just simply so full of hate and stupidity that they simply will never hear the truth because it will disturb their state of superiority and hatred of others?

Is any of this from Jesus the Christ? No, none of it is. Why did Jesus come when he did anyway? Weren’t the Jews going along just fine with their animal sacrifices? What did Jesus get so angry with them about? He was angry with the corruption that was contained within the temple worship. Didn’t Jesus tell those of the law and the temple that they twisted the law for their own purpose while denying the people access to heaven?

Listen, the temple was soon to be gone, the Jews did not know this but Almighty God did, the law stated that there could only be sacrifices performed in the temple, so without the temple where would the Jews perform their sacrifices and how would they do this? They can’t, not according to the Law of Moses, Jesus came and preached and those who believed him would come to see him as the final sacrifice and through him they would know that there was salvation in Almighty God through the sacrifice given by Jesus Christ and the temple destruction was not an issue.

Once the temple was destroyed the Jews had to come up with an alternative to the temple and the fact that there were no longer the sacrifices and the worship, still many refused to accept Jesus Christ, instead they have developed an alternative solution, that is; prayer, the study of the Torah or Law and performing acts of kindness or showing the love of God. There is nothing inherently wrong with these things but they are still not Jesus the Christ.

Christians see Jesus the Christ as the living law, the temple of old is gone, the old sacrificial system is gone, Jesus as the final sacrifice is the living law, He is the Word of God, through Him, the Word, the Living Law; is found salvation. What has changed?

It is still the law that saves only it is not the written law that was hard to comply to but the living law which intercedes for us in our weakness; it came in the form of a man and yet is still the law.

This is why Jesus the Christ and none other, no one else fulfilled the law, no one else willingly died for mankind so that we might have eternal life, only Jesus the Christ. There is no other name under heaven that man can be saved by. No one else is the Living Law.

Sadly the church is full of corruption, riches, abuse of power and authority. These things must be removed; it’s as simple as that, the abuse is not from Jesus Christ but from those in authority, the church today does not seem to differ much from the temple during the time of Jesus walking on the earth.

There is nothing wrong with having authority, do not take my words out of context or meaning, it is the abuse of authority and the abuse of the riches which is the sin, this is the sin of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, this is the sin of the church today.

The sin of the people is that they do not pray, the people are complacent; most just simply do not seem to care. A life of prayer needs to become a way of life for everyone; the world is on a path of self destruction and the church through its abuse is right along with it, do not think that when I say that the church is abusive that I meant it only for those in authority, I mean it for all who are members of the church, gossip, hate mongering, prophecies against one another, all of these things are abuse and all who participate will suffer. There will be no exceptions.

May you all be blessed and come to a better understanding of what it is to be Christian, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

In Christ,
Monk Michael


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    Well here we are in a mess, the aliens are coming and we're going to be destroyed and of course Rome is going to lead the way. I have heard some ridiculous things in my life but this new idea beats everything. The Book of Enoch tells us of the Fallen Ones who came and mated with human women and that their offspring were giants and they were called Nephilim.
    These giants were spoken of in holy scripture. That's all well and good so now the Fallen Ones are returning and these are the aliens and the UFO's that everyone talks about seeing everywhere, OK, but now Rome is accused of consorting with them, those who make these and other accusations against Rome are for the most part blatant liars and so many people listen to this garbage that it is beyond comprehension.
    Where is the love of Christ in these clowns who claim to be Christian and spin one lie after another against another group? If you truly love Jesus Christ, aren't you getting just a little bit tired of all of this? Did Jesus say these words? "that they may be one as we are one",   what a bunch of idiots and clowns who continue to chase a dollar by putting out lies, obviously they are not preaching Jesus Christ.
    Everyone needs to wake up and see what is going on, every group has problems in it, one attacking another is stupid, the lies keep coming though and people just keep jumping on the bandwagon, there will be much weeping and knashing of teeth on the last day.
    Wake up and find the true Jesus the Christ and stop following these idiots with outrageous stories, the more outrageous the story the bigger the following. Jesus said it Himself and it seems to be obvious; only a remnant will be saved, people choose to follow the lie instead of the truth, pay attention to what these nut jobs are saying and research them, don't just accept something because it is in a nice format  and is coming out of your group or one that you admire.
    Think about what you are believing and spreading. May Almighty God have mercy on us all.


In Christ,
Monk Michael
Rev. Fr. Michael Valentine

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Easter 2013

It is March 31, 2013. It is a day that many Christians are celebrating 'Easter', the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior; Jesus the Christ.

Many are celebrating from their prison cell. Some are possibly even being tortured today as a special day of celebration for the jailers.

I ask you, do not be complacent, pray for all on this day, neglect none, prayer can change the world. Pray for unity in the church so that the church prays with one voice, one Spirit. Pray!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, through the Most Holy Name of Jesus the Christ.

Amen!
Rev. Fr. Michael

Origen on Prayer Chapter Four

Origen on Prayer Origen
CHAPTER IV

ANSWER TO OBJECTIONS: MAN’S FREEWILL AND GOD’S FOREKNOWLEDGE

Of objects that move, some have the cause of motion outside them. Such are objects which are
lifeless and in passive motion simply by force of condition, and those which are moved by force
of nature and of life in the same manner and not like things which move occasionally, for stones
and stocks that have been quarried or cut off from growth, being in passive motion simply by force
of condition, have the cause of motion outside them.

Such too are dead bodies of animals and movable parts of plants, which change position under
compulsion and not as animals and plants themselves change their position but in the same manner
as stones and stocks cut off from growth—although even these may be said to move in respect that,
all bodies in decay being in flux, they possess the motion inherently attendant upon decay. Besides
these a second class of moving objects are those which move by force of their internal nature or
life, which are said by those who use terms in their stricter sense to move of themselves.

A third kind of movement is that in animals, which is termed spontaneous movement, whereas, in
my opinion, the movement of rational beings is independent movement. If we withdraw from an
animal spontaneous movement, it cannot be any longer conceived as even an animal; it will be like
either a plant moving by mere force of nature or a stone borne along by some force external to it:
Whenever an object follows its own peculiar movement, since that is what we have termed
independent movement, it must needs be rational. Thinkers therefore who will have it that nothing
is in our power, will necessarily assent to a most foolish statement, firstly that we are not animals,
and secondly that neither are we rational beings, but that, what we are believed to do, we may be
said to do by force as it were of some external cause of motion and in no sense moving ourselves.

Let anyone, moreover, with special regard to his own feelings, see whether without shame he can
deny that it is himself that wills, eats, walks, gives assent to and accepts certain opinions, dissents
from others as false. There are certain opinions to which a man cannot possibly assent though he
puts them with innumerable refinements of argument and with plausible reasoning: and similarly
it is impossible to assent to any view of human affairs in which our free will is in no sense preserved.
Who assents to the view that nothing is comprehensible, or lives as in complete suspense of
judgement: Who that has received a sense perception of a domestic misdeed, forebears to reprove
the servant? And who is there that does not censure a son who fails to pay the duty owed to parents,
or does not blame and find fault with an adulteress as having committed a shameful act? Truth
forces and compels us, in spite of innumerable refinements, to impulsive praise and blame, on the
basis of our retention of free will with the responsibility in which it involves us.

If our free will is in truth preserved with innumerable inclinations towards virtue or vice, towards
either duty or its opposite, its future must like other things have been known by God, before coming
to pass, from the world’s creation and foundation; and in all things prearranged by God in accordance
with what He has seen of each act of our free wills. He has with due regard to each movement of
our free wills prearranged what also is at once to occur in His providence and to take place according
to the train of future events. God’s foreknowledge is not the cause of all future events including
those that are to have their efficient cause in our freewill guided by impulse.
Even though we should suppose God ignorant of the future, we shall not on that account be
incapacitated for effecting this and willing that. Rather it ensues from His foreknowledge that our
individual free wills receive adjustment to suit the universal arrangement needful for the constitution
of the world. If, therefore, our individual free wills have been known by Him, and if in His
providence He has on that account been careful to make due arrangement for each one, it is
reasonable to believe that He has also pre-comprehended what a particular man is to pray in that
faith, what his disposition, and what his desire.

That being so, in His arrangement it will accordingly have been ordained somewhat after this wise:
This man I will hear for the sake of the prayer that he will pray, because he will pray wisely: but
that man I will not hear, either because he will be unworthy of being heard, or because his prayer
will be for things neither profitable for the suppliant to receive nor becoming me to bestow: and in
the case of this prayer, of some particular person, let us say, I will not hear him, but in the case of
that I will.

Should the fact of God’s unerring foreknowledge of the future disquiet anyone by suggesting that
things have been necessarily determined, we must tell him that it is a real part of God’s fixed
knowledge that a particular man will not with any fixed certainty choose the better or so desire the
worse as to become incapable of a change for his good. And again I will do this for this man when
he prays, as becomes me seeing that he will pray without reproach and will not be negligent in
prayer: upon that man who will pray for a certain amount, I will bestow this abundantly in excess
of his asking or thinking, for it becomes me to surpass him in well doing and to furnish more than
he has been capable of asking.

To this other man of a particular character I will send this angel as minister, to cooperate from a
certain time in his salvation and to be with him for a certain period: to that other, who will be a
better man than he, that angel of higher rank than his. From this man who, after having devoted
himself to the higher views will gradually relax and fall back upon the more material, I will withdraw
this superior cooperator, upon whose withdrawal that duly inferior power, having found an
opportunity to get at his slackness, will set upon him and when he has given himself up in readiness
to sin, will incite him to these particular sins. So we may imagine the Prearranger of All saying:
Amos will beget Josiah, who will not emulate his father’s faults but will find his way leading on
to virtue, and will by aid of these companions be noble and good, so that he will tear down the
evilly erected altar of Jeroboam. I also know that Judas, in the sojourn of my son among the race
of men, will at the first be noble and good but later turn aside and fall away to human sins so that
he will rightly suffer thus for them.

This foreknowledge, it may be in regard to all things, certainly
in regard to Judas and other mysteries, exists in the Son of God also, who in His discernment of
the evolution of the future has seen Judas and the sins to be committed by him, so that, even before
Judas came into existence, He in His comprehension has said through David the words beginning
“O God, keep you not silence at my praise.”—Knowing as I do the future and what an influence
 Paul will have in the cause of religion, ere yet I set me to begin creation and found the world I will
make choice of him: I will commit him from the moment of his birth to these powers that cooperate
in men’s salvation.

I will set him apart from his mother’s womb. I will permit him at the first to fall in youth into an
ignorant zeal and in the avowed cause of religion to persecute believers in my Christ and to keep
the garments of them that stone my servant and witness Stephen, so that later at the close of his
youthful wilfulness he may be given a fresh start and change for the best and yet not boast before
me but may say: “I am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God,.”
and realizing the kindness that he will receive from me after his faults committed in youth in the
avowed cause of religion may declare “It is by God’s grace that I am what I am”; and, being
restrained by conscience by reason of the deeds he wrought while still young against Christ, he
will not be excessively elated by the exceeding abundance of the revelations which in kindness I
shall show him.

To the objection in reference to prayer for the rising of the Sun we may reply as follows. The Sun
also possesses a certain free will, since he with the moon joins in praising God, for “Praise Him,
Sun and Moon” it says: as also manifestly the moon and all the stars conformably, for it says “Praise
Him all the stars and light.” As, therefore, we have said that God has employed the free will of
individual beings on earth for the service of beings on earth in arranging them aright, so we may
suppose that He has employed the free will, fixed and certain and steadfast and wise as it is, of sun,
moon and stars in arranging the whole world of heaven with the course and movement of the stars
in harmony with the whole.

If I do not pray in vain for what concerns any other freewill, much more shall I pray for what
concerns the freewill of the stars which tread in heaven their world-conserving measures. It may
indeed be said of beings on earth that certain appearances in our surroundings call out now our
instability, now our better inclination to act or speak in certain ways: but in the case of beings in
heaven what appearances can interpose to oust and remove from the course that benefit the world
beings which have each a life so adjusted by Reason independently of them, and which enjoy so
ethereal and supremely pure a frame?
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Origen on Prayer Chapter Three

Origen on Prayer Origen

CHAPTER III

OBJECTIONS TO PRAYER

If then I must next, as you have urged, set forth in the first place the arguments of those who told
that nothing is accomplished as a result of prayers and therefore allege that prayer is superfluous,
I shall not hesitate to do that also according to my ability—the term prayer being now used in its
more common and general sense. In such disrepute indeed is the view and to such a degree has it
failed to obtain champions of distinction that, among those who admit a Providence and set a God
over the universe, not a soul can be found who does not believe in prayer.

The opinion (sentiment) belongs either to utter atheists who deny the existence of God, or assume
a God, as far as the name goes, but deprive Him of providence. Already, it must be said, the adverse
inworking, with intent to wrap the most impious of opinions around the name of Christ and around
the teaching of the Son of God, has made some converts on the needlessness of prayer—a sentiment
which find champions in those who by every means do away with outward forms, eschewing
baptism and eucharist alike, misrepresenting the Scriptures as not actually meaning this that we
call prayer but as teaching something quite different from it.

Those who reject prayers, while, that is to say, setting a God over the universe and affirming
Providence—for it is not my present task to consider the statements of those who by every means
do away with a God or Providence—might reason as follows: God knows all things before they
come to be. There is nothing that upon its entrance into existence is then first known by Him as
previously unknown. What need to send up prayer to One who, even before we pray, knows what
things we have need of? For the heavenly Father knows what things we have need of before we
ask Him.

It is reasonable to believe that as Father and Artificer of the universe who loves all things that are
and abhors nothing that He has made, quite apart from prayer He safely manages the affairs of each
like a father who champions his infant children without awaiting their entreaty when they are either
utterly incapable of asking or through ignorance often desirous of getting the opposite of what is
to their profit and advantage. We men come further short of God even than the merest children of
the intelligence of their parents. And in all likelihood the things that are to be are not only foreknown
but prearranged by God, and nothing takes place contrary to His prearrangement. Were anyone to
pray for sunrise he would be thought a simpleton for entreating through prayer for the occurrence
of what was to take place quite apart from his prayer: In like manner a man would be a fool to
believe that his prayer was responsible for the occurrence of what was to take place in any case
even had he never prayed.

And again, as it is the height of madness to imagine that, because one suffers discomfort and fever
under the sun at Summer Solstice, the Sun is through prayer to be transferred to the Springtime
Zodiac, in order that one may have the benefit of temperate air, so it would be the height of
infatuation to imagine that by reason of prayer one would not experience the misfortunes that meet
the race of men by necessity. Moreover, if it be true that sinners are estranged from birth and the
righteous man has been set apart from his mother’s womb, and if, while as yet they are unborn and
have done neither good nor evil, it is said the elder shall serve the younger, that the elective purpose
of God may stand based not on works but on the Caller, it is in vain that we entreat for forgiveness
of sins or to receive a spirit of strength to the end that, Christ empowering us, we may have strength
for all things.

If we are sinners, we are estranged from birth: if on the other hand we were set apart from our
mother’s womb, the best of things will come our way even though we do not pray. It is prophesied
before his birth that Jacob shall be over Esau and that his brother shall serve him: what has prayer
to do with that? Of what impiety is Esau guilty that he is hated before his birth? To what purpose
does Moses pray, as is found in the ninetieth psalm, if God is his refuge since before the mountains
were settled and the earth and world were formed. Besides, of all that are to be saved, it is recorded
in the Epistle to Ephesians that the Father elected them in Him, in Christ, before the world’s
foundation, that they should be holy and blameless before Him, preordaining them unto adoption
as His sons through Christ.

Either, therefore, a man is elect, of the number of those who are so since before the world’s
foundation, and can by no means fall from his election in which case he has therefore no need of
prayer; or he is not elect nor yet preordained, in which case he prays in vain, since, though he should
pray ten thousand times, he will not be listened to. For whom God foreknew, them He also
preordained to conformity with the image of His Son’s glory; and whom He preordained, them He
also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also
glorified.

Why is Josiah distressed, or why has he anxiety as to whether or not he will be listened to in prayer,
when, many generations before, he was prophesied by name and his future action not only foreknown
but foretold in the hearing of many. To what purpose, too, does Judas pray with the result that even
his prayer turned to sin, when from David’s times it is pre-announced that he will lose his
overseership, another receiving it in his stead.

It is self-evidently absurd, God being unchangeable and having pre-comprehended all things and
adhering to His prearrangements, to pray in the belief that through prayer one will change His
purpose, or, as though He had not already prearranged but awaited each individual’s prayer, to
make intercession that He may arrange what suits the supplicant by reason of his prayer, there and
then appointing what He approves as reasonable though He has previously not contemplated it. At
this point the propositions you formulated in your letter to me may be set down word for word thus:
Firstly, if God is foreknower of the future and it must come to pass, prayer is vain. Secondly, if all
things come to pass by virtue of God’s will, and His decrees are fixed, and nothing that He wills
can be changed, prayer is vain. Towards a solution of the difficulties which benumb the instinct of
prayer, the following, as I believe, helpful considerations may be advanced.

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Origen on Prayer Chapter Two

Origen on Prayer Origen

CHAPTER II

SCRIPTURAL USES OF THE GENERAL WORDS FOR PRAYER

So far as I have observed, the first instance of the term prayer that I find is when Jacob, a fugitive
from his brother Esau’s wrath, was on his way to Mesopotamia at the suggestion of Isaac and
Rebecca. The passage runs: And Jacob vowed a vow (prayed a prayer), saying—If the Lord God
will be with me, and guard me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and raiment
to put on, and bring me back in safety to my father’s house, then shall the Lord be my God and this
stone which I have set up as a pillar shall be for me God’s house, and of all that you will give me
I will give you tithe.

It should also to be remarked that the term prayer is in many places is different from prayer as we
speak of it—as when applied in the case of one who professes that he will do certain things in
exchange for obtaining certain other things from God. The expression prayer is, however, employed
in our usual sense [in early texts]. Thus in Exodus after the scourge of frogs, the second in order
of the ten, “Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said to them: Pray unto the Lord for me that
He withdraw the frogs from me and from my people; and I will send the people forth that they may
sacrifice to the Lord.”

And if, because Pharaoh’s word is aw-thar’ anyone should be sceptical as to aw-thar’ meaning here
prayer as well as vow, he should observe what follows: “Moses said to Pharaoh, ‘Kindly tell me
when I am to pray (aw-thar’) for you and for your officials and for your people, that the frogs may
be removed from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile.’” In the case of the fleas, the
third scourge, I have observed that neither does Pharaoh entreat that prayer be made nor does Moses
pray. In the case of the flies, the fourth, he says: Pray therefore unto the Lord for me.
Then Moses also said: I will go out from you and pray unto God and the flies shall go away from
Pharaoh and his servants and his people tomorrow. And shortly after: So Moses went out from
Pharaoh and prayed unto God. Again in the case of the fifth and the sixth scourge neither did
Pharaoh entreat that prayer should be made nor did Moses pray, but in the case of the seventh
Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron and said to them: I have sinned this time; the Lord
is righteous, I and my people are impious. Therefore pray unto the Lord that there be an end of
thunder and hail and fire. And shortly after: Moses went out from Pharaoh outside the city, and
stretched forth his hands unto the Lord and there was an end to the thunder. Why is it not as in the
foregoing cases?

And he prayed, but he stretched forth his hands unto the Lord. That is a question to be considered
more conveniently elsewhere. In the case of the eighth scourge, however, Pharaoh says . . . and
pray (aw-thar’) to the LORD your God that at the least he remove this deadly thing from me.” So
Moses went out from Pharaoh and prayed (aw-thar’) unto God. We said that the term prayer
(aw-thar’) is, as in Jacob’s case, in many places employed in a sense other than the customary. In
Leviticus for instance: The Lord spoke to Moses saying: Speak to the children of Israel; and you
shall say unto them:

Whoever vows (naw-dar’) a vow (neh’-der), setting a price upon his soul to the Lord, his price, if
a male from twenty to sixty years, shall be fifty didrachims of silver, sanctuary standard. And in
Numbers: And the Lord spoke to Moses saying: Speak to the Children of Israel; and you shall say
unto them: Man or woman, whoever vows (naw-dar’) a great vow of consecration to the Lord, shall
be consecrate from wine and strong drink—and so on of the so-called Nazarite; then, shortly after:
and shall hallow his head in that day in which he was hallowed to the Lord for the days of the vow.
And again shortly after: This is the law for him that has vowed when he shall have fulfilled the
days of his vow . . . ; and again shortly after: And after that, he that has vowed will drink wine.
This is the law for him that has vowed, whoever has vowed his votive gift to the Lord, apart from
what his hand may find by virtue of his vow which he has vowed according to the law of
consecration. And towards the end of Numbers: And Moses spoke to the rulers of the tribes of the
Children of Israel saying, This is the thing which the Lord has decreed: A man who has vowed a
vow to the Lord or sworn an oath or entered a bond, on his soul shall not desecrate his word: all
that has gone out of his mouth shall he do.

And if a woman has vowed a vow to the Lord or entered a bond in the house of her father in her
youth, and her father has heard her vows and her bonds that she entered into against her soul, and
her father has let them pass in silence, all her vows shall stand, and her bonds that she entered into
against her soul shall remain: after which he lays down sundry other laws for such a woman. In
this sense it is written in Proverbs: [I have a peace offering: today I pay my vows; and a foolish
son is a father’s shame: unhallowed are vows from a harlot’s hire; and] it is a snare to a man to
hallow hastily anything of his own: for after vowing comes repenting.
And in Ecclesiastes: Better not vow than vow without paying; and in the Acts of the Apostles:
There are among us four men of their own accord under a vow. I thought it not out of place first to
distinguish the meaning of prayer (aw-thar’) in its two senses, and similarly of prayer (neh’-der),
for the latter turn in addition to its common and customary general usage, is also employed, in the
sense which we are accustomed to attach to vow in what is told of Hannah in the first book of
Samuel: Now Eli the priest was sitting on a seat at the doorway of the temple of the Lord.
And she was in bitterness of soul and prayed (paw-lal’) unto the Lord and wept sore. And she
vowed (naw-dar’) a vow (neh’-der) and said: O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the
humiliation of your bondwoman and remember me and forget not your bondwoman and will give
to your bondwoman male seed, then will I give him in gift to the Lord all the days of his life, and
no razor shall come upon his head. And yet in this instance, one may, not without plausibility, with
special regard to the words “she prayed (paw-lal’) unto the Lord,.” “and she vowed a vow,.” Ask
whether, as she has done both of two things, that is “prayed unto the Lord” “and vowed a vow,.”
the word prayed ( paw-lal’) on the one hand is not employed in our customary signification of
prayer (aw-thar’), and “vowed a vow” on the other hand in the sense in which it is employed in
Leviticus and Numbers.

For “I will give him in gift to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his
head” is strictly not a prayer but such a vow as Jephthah also vowed in the passage; and Jephthah
vowed a vow to the Lord and said: If you will indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand,
then it shall be that whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me on my return in peace
from the Children of Ammon shall be the Lord’s and I will offer him up as a burnt offering.

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