As referenced in the last post, there are eight times when the word Repha’iym is not interpreted as giants in the preexisting English translations, Strong’s giving a second number to an identical Hebrew word to accommodate the difference. Let’s take a look at some of the other examples, beyond the use in Iyov (Job).
Tehilliym (Psalm) 88:10
Will you show wonders to the dead (here, the Hebrew word is moot)? Shall the dead (in the Hebrew, Rapha’iym) arise and praise you? Selah.
In the English, we have the word dead here twice, yet in the Hebrew, they are two different words. How is this so? In the first instance, we have the Hebrew word moot. We use this term quite often in the law, because mootness is a legal doctrine, which means that there is no possible remedy, and that the argument is, therefore, no longer viable. Of course, this doctrine has at its root the Hebrew word moot, which means dead.
But David is asking a different question here. He is not asking whether the dead shall rise and praise, but rather, shall the Rapha’iym rise and praise. Remember, Chanoch (Enoch) tells us that the Rapha’iym have been cast in She’ol to await the great Day of Judgment, and have no possibility of eternal life. Will they ever praise YAH? This is the point David is making, which, as you can see, has a different meaning that the meaning found by using the word dead twice.
Mishlei (Proverbs) 2:10-19
When wisdom enters into your heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto your soul; 11 Discretion shall guard you, understanding shall keep you: 12 To deliver you from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaks froward things; 13 Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; 14 Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked; 15 Whose ways are crooked, and they are froward in their paths: 16 To deliver you from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flatters with her words; 17 Which forsakes the guide of her youth, and forgets את eth-the covenant of her ELOHIYM. 18 For her house inclines unto death, and her paths unto the dead. 19 None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.
When we look a little closer at verse 18, we discover that her house inclines unto death (moot), and paths unto the dead (Repha’iym).
Again, we have reference to death expressed at the term moot, and Rapha’iym translated as the term dead. But when this passage read that her house inclines unto death and paths unto the Rapah’iym, we find something a bit different.
It seems we have a bit of a discussion on this from Sha’ul (Paul). For those of you who adhere to Paul as your rabbi, this is a great writing worthy of all discussion:
Qorintiym Rishon (1 Corinthians) 11:1
BE ye followers of me, even as I also am of HAMASHIACH.
There you go. The edict is clear. Follow Paul.
Qorintiym Rishon (1 Corinthians) 11:2
Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.
Wait a minute. What ordinances is he talking about? Didn’t all of those ordinances get nailed to the cross? If you are not under the law, are you also not under the ordinances? Or is there a distinction?
Qorintiym Rishon (1 Corinthians) 11:3-9
But I would have you know, that the head of every man is HAMASHIACH; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of HAMASHIACH is YAHUAH. 4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonours his head. 5 But every woman that prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonours her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. 6 For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. 7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of ELOHIYM: but the woman is the glory of the man. 8 For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. 9 Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
Is this the edict, or not? Does this apply to the whole of the church, or can we dispose of it as out of context? I have read the elaborate justifications from head to toe about this passage, trying to contextualize it completely away – but if you do so, then you contextualize all of Sha’ul in the same fashion; that is, his writings to the Galatians only applied to the Galatians, his writing to the Romans only applied to the Romans and so forth. If Paul is your Messiah, then let the heads of the uncovered women be shorn. I didn’t write it: that is what appears in explicit language above.
It is funny that according to this text, man is the image of ELOHIYM, but woman is the image of the man. How does this comport with the following?
Bere’shiyth (Genesis) 1:27
So ELOHIYM created את eth-man in his own image, in the image of ELOHIYM created he him; male and female created he them.
Bere’shiyth (Genesis) 5:1-2
THIS is the cepher of the generations of Adam. In the day that ELOHIYM created man, in the likeness of ELOHIYM made he him; 2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called את eth-their name Adam, in the day when they were created.
Moshe tells us that both male and female are created in the image of ELOHIM, but Sha’ul (Paul) tells us something different, does he not? But let us continue with our review of the Rapha’iym, shall we? Reconsider the words of Shalomah (Solomon) using the word Rapha’iym where it appears, rather than the word dead:
. . . the strange woman, even from the stranger which flatters with her words; 17 Which forsakes the guide of her youth, and forgets את eth-the covenant of her ELOHIYM. 18 For her house inclines unto death, and her paths unto the Rapha’iym. 19 None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.
Remember that the Rapha’iym have been cast into She’ol and, according to Iyov, the depths of the sea, where they await the Day of Judgment, and that the reason they were cast down was because they were the offspring of the fallen Watchers and the women who the watchers had found to be fair. Paul’s admonition about covering the head makes a direct reference to this problem:
Qorintiym Rishon (1 Corinthians) 11:10-15
For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. 11 Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in YAHUAH. 12 For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of YAHUAH. 13 Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto YAHUAH uncovered? 14 Does not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? 15 But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.
For further reading...
The Giants - Part 1
The Giants - Part 2
The Giants - Part 3
The Souls of the Giants - Part 5