Righteousness:
by Steve Santini
Jesus said, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” He also said, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things (material neccesities) shall be added to you” In these simple yet profound statements Jesus introduces the importance of righteousness. As a result of Jesus’ introduction to righteousness and the apostle Paul’s expansive teaching on the subject, the seeker must pause for a moment in his quest and ask, “What is righteousness?”
When one looks into current
writings on the subject an array of definitions come out of the texts. Here is
a hand full of attempts to define the word righteousness.
Purity of heart and rectitude of life; the being and doing right. Unger’s Bible Dictionary
The character or quality of being right or just Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary
Equitable in character or act, innocent, holy, just, meet,
right Strong’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible
The state or quality of being righteous Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary
A right state “of which God is the standard” Bullinger’s
Critical Lexicon and Concordance
The ability to stand before God without any sense of sin The
Words Way
Investiture with the attribute of righteousness,
acceptance as righteous, justification
The Analytical Greek Lexicon
These definitions are quite simplistic for a word that carries such depth and import for the Christian. As one spiritual scholar has remarked, “none of these definitions do much to inspire.” Where then can we go to expand and deepen the understanding of the concept of righteousness?
The apostle Paul employed the words righteousness and righteous over thirty times in the book of Romans. This is far more than in any other book of the Bible. One needs to consider first the scope of the book to ascertain the strength of this word.
Like most accomplished writers, Paul introduces the subject of his letter to the Romans early in the context. He writes:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one who believeth; to the Jew first, and also the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written the just shall live by faith. Romans 1:17,18
He, next as any good writer, contrasts righteousness with unrighteousness in order to bring forth an understanding and appreciation for righteousness. He writes, in the following section on unrighteousness, that those who choose to worship and serve things made rather than the maker were given over to lust. This resulted in women and men changing the natural use of their bodies so that men lusted after men and women lusted after women. He writes that these are filled with all unrighteousness; the opposite of righteousness.
In this introduction Paul also points to Genesis as the foundation for understanding the invisible or spiritual things. (Rom. 1:20) In Hebrews, Paul also points to the need for the first oracles to be taught again. (Heb. 5:12) The records of Genesis were the first oracles or sayings until “written down” by Moses.
Prior to Noah, the sons of God began to come into union with the daughters of men. (Gen. 6:2) This was in response to prophetic spiritual truth yet, it, unfortunately, was presumptuous and misinterpreted. It was presumptuous in that the union of masculine and feminine could only come to pass as a result of the coming accomplishments of the Messiah. It, too, was misinterpreted as a physical union rather than spiritual. It was also during this time that the spiritual line of Cain, which had once been banished, began to come into union with the daughters of men producing giants of evil. It is written that then man’s thoughts became continually evil. Noah, the saint in the line of Abel and Enoch, scripturally is distinguished as a preacher of righteousness. His preaching was in opposition to these errors indicating righteousness has to do with the proper union of masculine and feminine. It is written that by his preaching the then present world was judged. Unfortunately, man did not believe in what Noah preached over the course of many years, therefore God brought destruction to mankind so that he could begin again in his dealings with mankind on the basis of Noah’s preaching of righteousness and the forthcoming results from the giving of his only begotten Son.
In chapter four Paul writes of what Abraham found through the flesh. Abraham first believed God’s promise and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. What is the promise that Abraham believed? In reality and as a figure, Abraham believed that through sexual union with Sarah she would bring forth a child even though she was well past the age to bear a child. Paul had written that the natural things seen in the flesh are representations of the spiritual. (Romans 1:20) Here, with Abraham, one sees the belief in sexual union and reproduction as the righteousness in which Abraham believed as it pertained to flesh. From the introduction, which describes unrighteousness as men lusting after men and women lusting after women, and the later body of the letter regarding Abraham and Sarah’s union one can ascertain that righteousness carries a meaning that relates to the union of masculine and feminine.
Next one needs to move from scope to examine the Greek word that is used for righteousness. It is the word dikaios. One of its derivatives was used for the name of the Greek court that tried issues of martial relations including inheritances.
The root of this word, diakaios, is the Greek word dike. Many Greek words were made up of combinations of other words or syllables. The first syllable of the word dike is di and is a contraction of dia, which means through. Many times dia has a meaning of through two things and joining two things.
The second syllable is ke. It is the first syllable of many Greek words of which the definitions are head, point, apex, or lump. In the English, the word key may have come from the earlier Greek ke. Ke, in the Greek language, is a pointed object inserted into a hole to release a lock. The word dike itself in the English language has several current meanings. It means a mound of earth used to separate either as a border between lands or between water and land. It also has the meaning of an intrusion of eruptive or igneous rock into the fissure or crack in older rock.
To the ancients of current world history each consonant was meant as a symbol. For example, to the Hebrews the second letter of their alphabet, beth, represented a house or home.
This symbolism is most obvious in the Egyptian written language of hieroglyphics. The sound di was represented by the conical shape of ceremonial bread. It carried the meaning of give or given. This shape had within it a solid conical intrusion rising from the common base. When depicted in two-dimensional writing it appears as a pyramid. The Greeks when forming their alphabet used some symbols from the earlier Egyptian hieroglyph. The symbol for the Greek letter pronounced as d is named delta and is represented by a triangle in similarity to the Egyptian conical hieroglyph.
The question arises at this point as to whether the Egyptian ceremonial bread was also symbolic of something more. Isaiah, who wrote the most extensively of righteousness in the Old Testament and was quoted most frequently by the apostle Paul in the New Testament, writes in chapter nineteen that in the future day of the Lord that there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt and a pillar to the Lord at the border thereof. Could the bread itself be a symbol of the pyramid of Giza which was built at the apex of the Nile delta at a point where Upper and Lower Egypt were joined? If so one may go deeper into the meaning and import of righteousness.
The Great Pyramid at Giza contains an upper masculine chamber called the kings chamber. Just below this chamber is the feminine chamber called the queens chamber. These two chambers are joined by passageways that meet prior to descending together as one to the exit of the pyramid.
(This study began with many of the current definitions of righteousness, then traversed through Paul’s revelation in his epistle to the Romans, then to the Greek secular usage of the word, the meaning of the components of the root word, the Egyptian symbol from which of the component di originates, and then on to a likely source for that symbol. Now this study reverts and goes back to the ceremonial bread as it relates to the combination of masculine and feminine and their representations in the construction and placement of the Great Pyramid.)
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica and Webster’s Dictionary, cultivatable wheat was first discovered by the Egyptians in the land of Canaan, while barley grew throughout the world. Yeast or leaven was acquired from barley malt. In Egypt wheat grew most abundantly in Lower Egypt while barley did much better in the climate and soil conditions of Upper Egypt. It is the yeast from barley malt that is needed to raise the wheat flour to obtain the full loaf of bread. (The sporadic action of cell division causes the gases that make the wheat dough to rise.) Yeast from barley malt is a spore and is represented Biblically as masculine while wheat is representative of the feminine. When making bread the yeast is first placed on top of the wheat dough and then worked evenly throughout. This causes the loaf to rise in preparation for being finished by exposure to heat. (For more information on this aspect of the present study see The Appointed Times)
In regard to the masculine spora or yeast being place on top of the lower dough, it is enlightening that Joseph told his father Jacob to tell Pharaoh that his extended family were cattle herdsmen rather than sheep herdsmen. By this Pharaoh would give them choice land in the north within the Nile delta in Lower Egypt where wheat was grow, in contrast to Upper Egypt in the south where barley was predominantly grown. In so doing the nation of Israel, considered the daughters of God, could grow and symbolically fulfill future feminine realities represented by what bearing Lower Egypt and its union with what would be symbolically masculine Upper Egypt. Likewise the Great Pyramid, with its Queens and Kings chambers, located at the joining of these two geographical parts of Egypt, foretells the future of God’s kingdom and its righteousness. Isaiah did say that in the day of paradise there would be a monument unto the Lord in Egypt. Was the Great Pyramid once a monument unto the coming of the Lord and will it again to be a monument to the fact that he has fully come?
From the foregoing it can be said that righteousness, in which the church is told to have faith, is specifically related to the union of masculine and feminine.
Delving a bit deeper in order to shore up this concept of righteousness necessitates studying the subject sin. Paul, in Romans, indicates strongly that sin which works through law is contrary to righteousness. (Romans 3:20-23, 6:12,13) Again we have many current definitions for sin, yet each like the definitions of righteousness, seem to miss the mark. To discover what sin is one needs to return to the foundation of things originally made, as Paul recommends in his introduction to his letter to the Romans. Adam and Eve, the original masculine and feminine in the flesh, were told not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Even so, they both did eat from it. The knowledge of good and evil is the basis for separation. Adam and Even first separated from one another and from the idea of pure union by covering themselves with aprons of fig leaves. Then they separated themselves from God by hiding from him in the garden in which they had been placed. Next in separation Adam blames Eve. At this point they are not in union as one but in opposition as two. In his response Adam portrays Eve as the evil culprit in the rebellion and in his mind himself as the good one because he was not the originator of the act. Then Eve has only the serpent to blame. To think and act based on the separative power of the knowledge of good and evil, as Adam and Eve did, erodes the truth of righteousness as union.
It is most interesting that they covered themselves with fig leaves. It would seem reasonable, in consideration of human nature, that they would cover themselves with a portion of something that would give them a symbolic appearance of retaining their former position and appearance of not having eaten from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In this, it is a reasonable hypothesis that the figs leaves were the leaves from the tree of life. There is a unique fig tree that exists today in which the masculine spore and the feminine stigma are within the same pod of fruit. It is called the caprifig. It was the fig tree which symbolically once represented the nation of Israel to whom the promises of the fulfillment of all things were first made.
Later God replaced the fig leaves of Adam and Eve with the skins of animals. The shedding of blood to obtain the skin is a symbolic representation of the blood shed upon the breaking of the hymen at the first intercourse of male and female. In Eastern thought, it was in the act of the wife’s first intercourse that salvation or wholeness was introduced. The act of sexual union in marriage represents the reunion of masculine and feminine. In such, the knowledge of good and evil is done away so that neither is one good and the other evil (or even less good). In the relationship each of the two meld into one. Separation dies at the cross and union comes in the fruits of resurrection and ascension just as the newborn child raises to life from the tiny fertile seed introduced at union. (For more on this topic see The Wedding Feast) Even Paul says in Ephesians that husband and wife within the revelation of the mystery are one flesh and that this one flesh represents the mystery of Christ.
It is the knowledge of good and evil that is the basis for all sins. The end point of living in the knowledge of good and evil is violence and death for both the body and the soul or death just for the soul. For those that live in the knowledge of good and evil this violence engenders more of the same in a downward cycle that ends in destruction. The belief in and actions based upon sin, in the end, engenders death and conversely faith in righteousness, in the end, engenders life.
In the epistle to the Ephesians, Paul presents the capstone to his preaching of righteousness, thus fulfilling the word of God, as he, himself, states in Colossians. He begins the epistle by addressing it both to the masculine saints and the feminine faithful in Christ Jesus. In chapter five, Paul addresses the marriage relationship. He summarizes with the declaration of marriage being a one-flesh relationship and then ends the section by writing that he is also speaking of the great mystery of the spiritual Christ. Between these two sections in chapter one and chapter five of Ephesians, Paul, in chapter two, writes of the Gentiles who have now come into the prophetic promises originally intended, first, for all Israel of the flesh. It was such that the great mystery was to be fulfilled from those of Israel, but since faith was so contrary to the law to which they were accustomed, Israel stumbled at the promises unto them. After assuring the Gentiles that those promises of masculine and feminine union were now fully available to them, also, Paul goes on to write.
But now in Christ Jesus ye who were sometimes afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Ephesians 2:13,14
The “both made one” are not Israel and Gentiles as some have taught. Careful and considerate reading of the prior context reveals that the “both made one” are the masculine saints and the feminine faithful in Christ Jesus. To deepen the understanding of this section in relation to the union of masculine and feminine the words middle wall and partition shed light. The Greek word, mesotoichon, for middle wall is a compound word. The root for meso is meta which has a meaning of being mixing with, and occupying the middle position between. The root for toichon is teko, which has a meaning of to produce from seed. This word is used only one time by the apostle Paul and is in the neuter gender. The word, phragmos, translated here as partition, is derived from a word that means midriff and blockage. It may be the Greek word from which the English word fragment is derived. In the word phragmos there is also a sense of feelings rather than intellect since its root is the Greek word phren. This word, phren, is in the feminine gender. In this section Paul writes of two beings made one and of the one new man in Christ. Here again, the sense points to the breakage of the hymen, which is a small fragment of flesh, in the first intercourse of the masculine and feminine as represented by the blood of Christ. In Middle Eastern marriage the celebration date for the wedding night was set for the most fertile day of the bride’s menstrual period. It is within this culture of the Middle East that this section can be more fully understood. It is in this fragment of broken flesh called the hymen that the symbolism of the coming greater accomplishment of the one new man in Christ can be understood and an enduring faith in reconciliatory righteousness can be built unto the realization of our hope in things to come.
(As pertaining to the flesh, in the act of sex, the divine has given mankind, within faith in righteousness, a bodily symbol and token of the satisfying union of masculine and feminine in all other realms past, present and future. All should bow in humble adoration in that the Godhead, in its love and consideration, has given such a token, as a foretaste, in this present mortal flesh of the fulfillment of all things spiritual.)
Why then the aforementioned definitions of righteousness by competent scholars and teachers who have given much to enable one to understand scripture? Very simply, the truth of the saints has been purposely veiled from the feminine ekklesia since the time of the apostle Paul. Even so, within this soon to be season, the veil is to be taken away. Then those who have been watching for coming of the Lord Jesus Christ with all of his saints will see in fullness what was a work destined to suffer and die during the first century of Christianity.
Righteousness is not some moral code or right standard other than a belief in the standard of the power of masculine and feminine union. Faith in righteousness, required for the church, entails faith in the union of spiritual masculine and feminine. In addition, all who believe in his name are to hope for the coming and fulfilling spiritual union of the masculine saints and the feminine faithful in Christ Jesus in the one body of Christ, as written by the apostle Paul. (Gal. 5:5). At this time all righteousness shall be fulfilled. This righteousness of a joint priesthood of saints and faithful in Christ Jesus is what the Christian is to seek first and to hope for in fulfillment during the kingdom of God. In such the Christian shall be, without a scintilla of need, fulfilled in one.
For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
Galatians 5:5
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Copyright, 2003, Steven G. Santini,