Lecture 20.docx

Alright, we want to begin by looking at these three interpretive issues as we complete our discussion of the book of Numbers. Last week we dealt with the first major interpretive issue which was the cohesion, the unity of this material that is in the book of Numbers. But internally within the book i...

Alright, we want to begin by looking at these three interpretive issues as we complete our discussion of the book of Numbers. Last week we dealt with the first major interpretive issue which was the cohesion, the unity of this material that is in the book of Numbers. But internally within the book itself, the longest discussion, and you can see this also as you read Dr. Grisanti's discussion on numbers and the world and the Word, that the great debate internally, as far as this portion of the Torah is concerned, is exactly how do we understand the numbers that are given to us in the book of numbers. And we'll just concentrate today on chapter one, although obviously this issue of numbers, large numbers, is an issue not only in the Torah, but also as we get into the former prophets as well. There are numbers of places where... There are rather large numbers that are given. Now, in Numbers chapter 1, we've already seen that Moses was commanded by the Lord to number the fighting men. So this did not include the tribe of Levi, but included the other 12 tribes. Because the sons of Joseph were divided between Ephraim and Manasseh. So there are 12 tribes. And as you go through the individual tribes, beginning with Reuben in verse 21, their numbered men were 46,500. And as you go through the list, you do see... that most of the numbers are round numbers, that they are either in the hundreds or one time in the 50s. So right away there is a discussion on whether these numbers are to be seen as per precise or rounded. because we don't have a number that is down to a single digit. Now this is different. Moses did know about single digits. Take a look at chapter 3 when we have the numbering of the firstborn men that the Levites were to... compensate for and notice there he speaks of 22,273 that need to be ransomed and the Levites being part of the solution as far as that ransom is concerned. So it is not true that as you go through the first four chapters of Numbers that everything is a rounded number. It gives us some indication that as the numbering took place that these are actual numbers. Moses knew when to make the determination of single digits, so why do we have these numbers that seem to be somewhat rounded is because that is exactly how many men were counted. As we go through the numbers, each tribe is listed, and then in verses 44 to 46 of Numbers chapter 1, we have a summation, a total of the men who were numbered, and in verse 46, Moses even lists for us that the numbered men were 603,550. And you can take your calculator, add up all the 12 numbers that are in chapter 1 and you can realize that Moses was a good mathematician even without a contemporary calculator. He got it right. Add up all the numbers and the arithmetic comes. Together I so how do we understand these these numbers and. And there are you know four different ways basically in which they have been taken. Of course the easiest one is the first one which is just simply to say that this has no. No association with history whatsoever. You know this this is merely literary has no connection you know with history. This is religious propaganda That well for many liberals there wasn't even an Israel in the wilderness to be counted So we don't have to worry about any kind of historical accuracy The second is to take the man's literal the the third that has been a traditional Means in about the last hundred and fifty years is what I've listed as see there a different meaning for the term that is translated in our English Bibles as a Thousand the Hebrew term ellop that and in other contexts That term can refer to to other realities but within the context of a census you would expect the term to be a literal number which means translating it thousand not clan or unit or chief and we'll come back because that doesn't work anyway and most evangelicals now have given up you know retranslating the term is meaning something different than Friday wait what a. Communist party at RIP Nebowille. No they didn't they were still talking nowadays about the prince. And so it's either literal as far as evangelicals are concerned or not so much a theological issue because they want to affirm the inerrancy of scripture but hermeneutically, interpretively that the audience of Israel and the plains of Moab could look around and know there weren't 603, of course in the second generation it was 601,000. They could look around and realize that we're not 601,000 fighting men. And they knew how to interpret the numbers. And we'll talk about that in just a second. So those are the four basic positions that Dr. Rossani gives to you. I will give you the different interpretive options that I've listed in the notes. and put them under one of those four categories. Although really none of these fit number one that is unhistorical and we don't need to wrestle with it any further. Anyway, these numbers are meaningless because they weren't historical. But the major tradition involved Judaism and the Christian tradition is to take these numbers as literal and precise. God commanded Moses to take the census. The census is listed and these are literally the additions that were taken on that day. So the memoir numbered and this is exactly the numbers. And of course within the context of the Torah these literal and precise numbers are speaking of the wilderness generation. This is the numbering of Israel first at Sinai and second in Numbers 26 on the plains of Moab and they are an exact enumeration of the numbering that took place those 39 years apart, second year and fortieth year. Alright, so these... Are the numbers of the wilderness generation. Now where did number two come from? Well number two came from William Albright. Who argued on the basis of Samuel. Second Samuel chapter 21. That David took a census of his army. During his rule and he estimated that by the time of David based upon archaeological extra biblical information that the population of Israel under David under Solomon probably reached a the largest number which was around four million And so to have an army of around 600,000 fighting men, particularly those number from 20 and above, particularly from 20 to 60 years of age, those who would be able to fight, he would say, well that would make a great, you know, that would make great sense if you're dealing with a population between 3 to 4 million. And so what he believes is that these numbers were literal, but they were the census of David's army, not the army of Israel in the wilderness. Our great problem with that is the biblical text is clear that this is, if you're going to say the numbers are precise, that it relates to what took place in history, well you better have the same history as recorded within the Bible. Alright, don't say that these are numbers, you know the Lord commanded Moses to take a census and by the way, now we understand the census of the army really wasn't during the days of Moses but during the days of David. And by the way the numbers don't match what we're going to see in 2 Samuel anyway. So there is a very minority school, 20th century, kind of came upon the scene, no one really holds it anymore. That these numbers are the literal numbers of David's army, not Israel's armies. At the number of Sinai, first generation, number of Plasimab, second generation of Israel. Now... Part of the problem, of course, is the fact that if you have 600,000 fighting men, and we assume that each one of these men are married, and based upon the fact that there's going to be an almost equal number that is given to us a generation later, we will also assume that they had a wife and two children. So, now you've got to multiply 600,000 by 4 because these are fighting men who each one represents a family with a wife and two children at this point. And that's where we get the number approximately 2.5. Then we've got to add the Levites. You know, we've got to add another significant... 22,000 more, we'll assume the same things with them as well. And all of a sudden we are getting and closing in on somewhere between 2.5 to 3 million people. And there's absolutely no evidence that we can find extra biblically. to warrant not only Israel at this stage being a people of close to three million people, but we would have doubts that even the population of Egypt or the population of the Canaanite city states even came anywhere close to those numbers. And this goes against the biblical claim that said that God chose Israel Deuteronomy chapter 7 not because they were mighty and numerous in fact they were the smallest among the nations. So how can you accept that at face value and we have a real hard time even saying that the Egypt from which they came and came into where they were going to mean literally they they had an army that was many times larger if these numbers are accurate. And so there are statements like that within the Bible itself. We seem to indicate that these numbers are not to be taken at a face value. Now that's what led during the latter part of the 19th and 20th century to, well here's a simple solution that in this context the term elop does not mean thousand. It means something else. So that in the end what you have is 598 military units or clans or chiefs that that were over and now just it's only a thousand that is to be understood differently the other numbers are precise and so you there's about 5,500 fighting men Now the question comes why does 5500 fighting men need 598 generals, chiefs? Why would you have 598 military units of 5500 men as basically just 100 men to a unit? But the greatest problem is internally within the text itself. and that is that Moses adds the numbers up. Now if you're going to take the term translated thousand to mean something else then 146 should read not 603,000 it should read 598 whatever because again thousand doesn't mean thousand it means something else you add those you know so those don't come into the genealogy i mean into the census and so you have five hundred ninety eight whatever that term is plus five thousand five hundred because remember you got to add up all those digits less than a thousand all those hundreds and fifties you got to add those up that's where you get to fifty five hundred but the number before that should not be six oh three the number before that should be five ninety eight so internally it doesn't make sense and that's why most evangelical commentators have moved away from C and many evangelical commentators have moved away from A so if it's not A, it's not literal and it's not C, you can explain this by a different understanding for the word that's translated thousand although that does not make sense exegetically in this context because it's dealing with the sentence number one is dealing in a numerical context you would assume the term means thousand and number two it doesn't add up to the numbers that are totaled in the text itself so it does make exegetical sense to take position C no matter how you translate the term other than thousand within this context. So those who have a hard time and don't want to be skeptics have gone back to a tradition actually begins in rabbinical Judaism with what is known as geometria which says the numbers in some way are symbolic representative that these numbers are not real numbers that that they stand for something further and so you get into into literal number games now no one would get into the kind of almost mysticism that was a part of medieval Judaism but D E and F are all part of a non literal interpretation not a lot not a non literal text they all agree that these numbers are to be taken at face value as far as the text is concerned there is no gee there's no textual corruption in fact these same numbers are repeated in a couple other occasions in and numbers not just numbers one and numbers 26 but the numbers are also referred to in the in the Exodus Exodus 23 as so so in other words you can't just write off the numbers as being textual there's a lot of textual corruption if you don't take the numbers at face value so where are contemporary evangelicals well the the latest way is to take it once again this almost goes back to Genesis chapter one don't take it a face value it is in some way symbolic Wenham who also holds to a symbolic understanding of Genesis chapter one takes the numbers and numbers as symbolic We also find out extra biblically that one of the things that the kings would do in extra biblical literature that we have found in the ancient Near Eastern documents is that they would speak about their greatness and the greatness of their armies and they would give inflated numbers. I mean inflated numbers that in no way could match reality. And so this concept of having this large army that could fight battles, that could be won in a day, and so to have a large army winning a battle in a day was known as the aggrandizement of numbers. It was a familiar practice, a familiar characteristic as far as ancient Near Eastern. literature is concerned. This whole concept of reading the Bible against its culture, the lost world of biblical interpretation, in fact a book by that very similar title is soon to be published, the lost world of Old Testament interpretation, biblical interpretation, that we need to interpret it not as Westerners but as those who put their minds into the context of the ancient Near East, that's the lost world. And then when we read even these large numbers, they will make sense. That these numbers were representative. And no Israelite on the plains of Moab would take this as literal. They would look around and realize there's just a few thousand, you know, fighting troops. And they would realize that these large numbers were to speak about the greatness, the grandeur, the glory of the army that God had given to them, and the fact that they had been able to get through the wilderness, survive the wilderness. And by the way, the wilderness would not support even 5,000 individuals marching, you know, and being there for 40 years. Even to have that massive amount. you know for everything that we're able to find out about the wilderness of Sinai and the wilderness of parent the wilderness is in While Israel is around there even even to have you know five thousand troops which would represent about you know twenty thousand You know Population even that would be a miracle to take care of twenty thousand people for forty years And so they understood that the large number was being about the glory of God and the greatness of God and what he had done and the way that would be able to be communicated to that generation, following generations, is by having these large numbers that just remind you of God's mighty deeds for the wilderness generation. And this position in evangelicalism is particularly seen here with deliberate hyperbole. This is what is seen in the ancient Near East, deliberate hyperbole. Where a king would brag and boast of the greatness, his greatness and glory by having this great army, by having, you know, numbers of troops far beyond, you know, what was reality. And it was just a given. That was the mindset of the ancient Near East. They wouldn't say that this doesn't conform to reality, that this is somehow... conform to a 21st century theological concept of biblical inerrancy. Now they believe it's inerrancy, this is what the text said, but then properly interpreted you get the right understanding, you know, from the numbers. So deliberately, deliberate hyperbole. And particularly this was brought into evangelicalism in exposit Bible commentary. The work by Allen. the original audience would understand this to be deliberate hyperbole based upon the fact that they are thinking like ancient Near Eastern individuals. Or you can go with Ashley in the game with a question mark. The numbers mean something other than literal. It's based on some system familiar. The original audience knew how to exegete this and know exactly how large the army was, but we don't have that formula anymore. Isn't that interesting? To be able to say exactly what the size of the army was. So it's in some way figurative, symbolic. It's a literary device. It once again becomes a literary framework by which Moses, the author, is communicating. And the original audience in no way would take these numbers literally. They would understand the meaning of these numbers. They would understand 603, 601,000. They would understand what the meaning was and it wasn't literal. It's a slippery slope. When do we stop saying anything in the Bible is literal? That everything is to be read against these aggrandized narratives of the ancient Near East. And of course it's only those who know and can properly interpret extra ancient Near Eastern literature today who can tell us really what the meaning of the biblical text is. So much for the perspicuity of you know scripture as far as the average Christian is concerned. You haven't read all this literature so you don't know how to interpret it. I have, I do. And the numbers are deliberate, hyperbole. Now before you grasp these people continually. It's interesting, Alan guesses that there's probably a 1 in 10 ratio, which means there was still about 60,000 fighting troops because he thinks, well, that's about what they would understand about a 1 to 10 ratio. Of course, why? Why 1 to 10? Why can't it be 1 to 20, 1 to 1,000, 1 to whatever? But he goes 1 to 10, which still means you've got a quarter of a million people in the wilderness, so it's still a miracle. Yeah. Well. It would be a miracle even if you had 20,000 people in the wilderness. That's the point that we're making, that, um, that as far as a skeptic is concerned, it doesn't make any difference whether you're talking 2.5 to 3 million, or whether you're talking somewhere between 20 to 30,000, or somewhere between 200 to 300,000. They're skeptical of the whole, the whole thing. I mean. Extra Biblical, you can't support anything. Which is fine, because. Well, let's go over to Deuteronomy. Chapter 8. Two things were true as far as Israel in the wilderness was concerned. Number one, God fed the miraculous, we've already seen that in Exodus, Chapter 16 for 40 years, he provided the manna. And then second of all in some way he slowed down or stopped natural processes Eight for talking about the wilderness after speaking about Having the the manna in verse 3 so that's the positive provision and then for Your clothing did not wear out on you nor did your feet swell these forty years. What would be expected is the fact that, okay, the clothes on your back when you left Egypt, you would assume would not last for forty years. Gentlemen, you wear the same shirt, tie, and coat for the next forty years and see if it lasts. It won't. And you're not even in a desert. You know, hot, hot, hot, hot, day in and day out with the normal processes of decay that that brings about. And so God not only miraculously gave, God also miraculously stopped, stayed. Natural processes of decay for these 40 years. So he gave them food and he stopped decay and basically, you know, stopped even the normal bodily functions you would expect. You know, the feet swelling. So the wilderness conditions. for those forty years did not equal the wilderness conditions before or after we can't take a look at the wilderness today and say there's no way that twenty to thirty thousand people could have sustained themselves there for forty years or a quarter of a million or somewhere between 2.5 to 3 million I mean it doesn't make any... once you're dealing with miracles what what difference does the numbers make? alright? So there is no natural explanation and of course even our D, E and F individuals will say that there is no natural explanation but they just understood that these numbers were to be and would be taken in a literary fashion against the ancient Near Eastern custom and not in a literal fashion and that's the that that's the argument and as I say Dennis Cole that I would highly recommend but his teacher at Western conservative Baptist was Roland Allen and he has bought into that and Another name that is in giving the sense Dan Fouts Who has written to Dan? I'm sorry about that Fouts. It's David Fouts Dan was a quarterback from the charges but But but they give all the argumentation on why this and of course Walton's new book John Walton you I believe is going to argue the same you know the same hermeneutical methodology as well But as dr. Asani concludes in the the world and the world and so would I given our present understanding There's really no reason that we should Doubt the literal nature of the numbers that are given to us in numbers particularly numbers 1 and numbers 26 because they are at the heart of the discussion but other large numbers that are given in the text as well. So and these large numbers the very same number as I said is given in Exodus chapter 12 and again in Exodus 38 this 600 and 3000 number in other words that's why you can't have textual corruption it's too many places and yet how do you deal with the fact that Israel was humble and was spoken about as being small in relationship to these other nations. Well that might not be a numerical statement as much as when it came to their power their significance that they realized that there was no way they could stand against these nations. In fact that's the very reason they rebelled the Catech Barnea because even though the land is a good land remember the evil report the spies was what? Fortified cities, giants we have to fight there's no way we can defeat them. So it wasn't a matter of numbers it was just a matter of the fact that they they faced reality they did not believe they were able to defeat the opponents. So that's the issue with the numbers and again you can see the summary of all of that and greater discussion in the text. Now before I take questions let me just add the next interpretive issue which is in Numbers chapter 5. And I've added this based upon Dr. Rosanti's discussion of what is known as the jealousy ordeal. This is within the context of the fact that adultery takes place. 512, speak to the sons of Israel and say to him, If any man's wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him, and a man, that is another man, has intercourse with her and is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and she is undetected the matter is concealed although she is defiled herself and there is no witness against her and she has been not caught in the act which is what the law stipulated if you don't catch the adulterers in the act there are no witnesses and of course they're not coming forward and confessing and so here is unfaithfulness on the part of a wife And if a spirit of jealousy that is not being caught in a spirit of jealousy comes over him that is the husband and he is jealous of his wife when she has defiled herself or if a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife when she has not defiled himself. So it has taken place and he becomes suspicious. Or it hasn't taken place, but he still is suspicious. This has to be dealt with. His suspicions of adultery have to be put to rest. Now the reason for this is obviously to maintain purity within camp. This was, this is within the context of the fact that any trespass is to be dealt with. Because Israel is to be a pure people. They are to deal with sin. But how can you deal with sin when sin is undetected?. And so what we see beginning in verse 16 is a process which a man can undertake going to the priest for the proper offering and he has the a water that is to be drunk by the by the wife after she gives an oath that that she has not been unfaithful And the reason the priest is involved is because the Lord himself will make that determination. And the woman has made to drink the water of bitterness, verse 24. And verse 27, she defiles herself and been unfaithful. The water will bring a curse? Shall go into her and cause her bitterness and her abdomen will swell, her thigh will waste away and will become a curse among her people. And again there's great debate on well exactly what does that mean? Is it looking at the fact that there's a pregnancy with a miscarriage that takes place? Is it the fact that from this point on she's barren? I mean, how does this relate? And in some way something takes place that Israel knows that she is a curse, that she is guilty. But verse 28, if the woman is not defiled herself and is clean, then she will be free and notice, and she will conceive seed, which seems to have some kind of idea that is tied in with her childbearing capacity or lack of childbearing capacity. As far as curse and blessing, of course that's exactly what will tie into curses and blessings as seen in Leviticus 26. It's going to be reiterated in Deuteronomy chapter 28. That blessing means that Israel's families will be blessed with abundance, with multiple seed. So your women will bear, you know, multiple children and of course your animals will bear great flocks and herds. Curse is exactly the opposite. So it ties in to the results blessing and curse as seen for Israel as a whole. And the blessings and curses of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy chapter 28. And why does God give this ordeal? Because purity in the camp was vital. Purity in Israel was vital. And... And also, even undetected sin still had to be dealt with. And since there were no witnesses, and yet the husband is suspicious, this ordeal had to be gone through so that the husband's suspicions could be shown to be either true or false. If he had a suspicion that sin had taken place, it had to be dealt with. Nodrosani goes on to say that this is not like ordeal as practiced in the ancient Near East. He gives three comparisons that certainly here the bitter water, the waters of bitterness are not poison. In the next series they gave poison so of course if you give poison what's going to happen to the woman? She's going to have some kind of reaction. And to be given poison, obviously she's going to be shown to be guilty. That obviously miscarriage or ultimately death will, you know, occur. And so this is different, it is distinct, though obviously it does have some similarities with other practices that were seen in other nations in the ancient Near East. But God speaks within this situation. Because he is concerned with what takes place in Israel. And secret sins are to be judged. And yet he is the only one who can judge secret sins. Since there are no witnesses and so this is the procedure which he gives in this specific situation. And you better be ready for understanding this because it seems so unfair in contemporary society. Why should a woman have to go through this just because her husband suspects her of unfaithfulness? What right does a husband have to put his wife through this kind of an ordeal? Well, it's because there's something more important than a false accusation and that is allowing undetected sin. And God is only going to deal with it with the community if it's not dealt with an individual basis like this. Along with Dr. Grissani's short discussion, there is a very good discussion of this against the whole background of the concept of marriage in the Torah. In the dictionary of the Old Testament, Pentateuch on pages 295 to 297. Very, very worth reading. as a backdrop to understanding what is here in Numbers chapter 5. Alright so these are two interpretive issues and of course we still have to deal with Balaam but let's first of all see if there's any questions. A lot of the laws that we see in the Pentateuch are based off of God's presence. Where a lot of the secret sins will be found out and God will visit the iniquity of his people and it's based on the presence. Is one of the curses of God's presence no longer being with the Jews later on with Solomon, etc., or when the Israelites were unfaithful, is one of the curses the fact that perfect justice could no longer be administered? So our question is, and this is within the context of Yahweh's presence in the midst of his people. And this is the importance of seeing this within the total context of Exodus 19 through Numbers 10. And Exodus chapter 40, God has come dwelling among his people and so this is what is necessary for Israel to have the presence of Yahweh among them. It is both a blessing and it is dangerous. It can very quickly become a curse as we have a curse. Because Yahweh's presence will deal with secret sins. And you are absolutely right. Now Yahweh's presence was with Israel as they went into the promised land. We don't know when his presence left the tabernacle. Certainly we are going to see in Samuel where the ark is captured, the tabernacle is destroyed. So for a time period... And throughout Davis reign I mean the presence of the Lord was was not in temple or tabernacle although he does have a when he brings the Ark of the Covenant. He does establish a temporary tents and comes and it says he comes into the presence of the Lord so that in some way at least David experienced that. But then with the temple all Israel has the presence of the Lord. First the first King's Chapter eight and that continues. until Ezekiel 11 when the presence of the Lord leaves right before the destruction by the Babylonians. So this, historically as far as the presence of the Lord in the midst of Israel, there were times it was present, there were times when it was not. And... And I will go back in answering your question. With the presence of the Lord undetected sin is only going to be judged because the Lord is present. You will have a great example of that when you read Joshua chapter 6 and 7. The secret sin of Achan and his family and then all Israel suffers defeat because Achan is sin. The interesting thing is, is Achan and his family and they bear the judgment. But when Joshua comes to the Lord and says, what are you doing? Why are you being defeated? And he says there's sin in Israel. So in other words, all of Israel is at that point, you know, bearing the effects, the consequences, the curse, because a curse is being defeated in battle. The blessing of the covenant is you'll have victory over your enemies. The curse of the Mosaic covenant is. If you are under a curse, God will bring defeat. God brings defeat. Israel is under the curse because Israel sinned. Because one individual has sinned secretly and has to be dealt with. And of course, he is dealt with in chapter 7. And those of his family who knew about his stealing of the material under the ban. And so, yeah, he repents, he is put to death, etc. and Israel is cleansed. And now they can have victory and battle. That shows, and you're right, I mean, this is helping you understand the backdrop of why this is so important. That if there is secret sin, it has to be dealt with because ultimately God is going to judge all Israel. All Israel will become a curse, an under a curse, if they don't deal even with secret sins because the Lord knows that the Lord will deal with them. so what seems to a you know and I have to say be careful what I just said about we tend to read this with western eyes you know unless the nice is what's the big deal it's just you know a private matter between you know three individuals you all know the contemporary discussion you know what you know consensual relationships between you know adults I mean what's the big day it doesn't affect society as a whole well we're a little naive in thinking that private sins don't have you know very very public consequences but that's our western mentality that's what I say we hear Numbers chapter 5 and say what's the big deal well when Yahweh is in your presence this is a big deal that even hidden sin has to be dealt with and how? how does the Lord bring this particular hidden sin? so it can be dealt with through the suspicions of a husband and then again the text tells us you know what led the husband to be suspicious and so any suspicion therefore has to be dealt with because the wife might be guilty now you're saying well what about the man everything is stacked here against the woman but once again because woman is a child there the woman is the one who's going to you know bring progeny bring the seed into Israel and so there is impurity on that part that's going to have consequences as far as all Israel is concerned in fact what Numbers chapter 5 says is the fact that the woman is single out within this law because she is not just inconsequential. She is not just a piece of property. She is not unimportant. She is vitally important to maintaining the purity and blessing in Israel because part of God's blessing was to bring great fertility to the women of Israel. And if the women were unpure... And therefore suffer the consequences in some way dealing with the conception and the childbearing that this would have great ramifications as far as Israel as a whole was concerned. So yeah, I think your questions are right. This is dealing with Yahweh's presence among his people and this makes the situation very serious. How do we apply that to contemporary society? I'm not sure we need to. We'll talk about this when we talk about the application of the law to believers, but certainly this is true for believers that we need to realize that private sin, even though it might be legal in our day among consenting adults, still has great consequences as far as the Church of Jesus Christ is concerned. And Paul will deal with this in a passage like 1 Thessalonians 4 where he talks about not stealing or deporting your brother in these matters, these matters of purity. So it does have application and does relate with a passage like 1 Thessalonians 4 to the New Testament believers as well. That to sin sexually outside of marriage is to have great consequences not only upon yourself and upon your partner but also upon the church of Jesus Christ. Don't defraud your brother. That's exactly what is taking place in this kind of a situation. So the New Testament confirms the same thing among believers as well. Within the same context of purity. We're called to live. a set-apart holy, pure life before the Lord." 1 Thessalonians 4, 1-8.