In John 3:14, we read, “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so that everyone who believes in Him would have eternal life.”
When we read John 3:14, it is usually translated as “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him.”
Here we have two different translations of John 3:14; in one translation, it says as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so that everyone who believes in him (the serpent) would have life. The word used here for life can refer to eternal life or life in general, depending on the translator’s choice. The other translation adds, “so the Son of Man must be lifted up,” this addition changes the meaning of John 3:14. In the first translation, the focus is only on what happened in Numbers 21:4-9. When the people looked at the bronze snake, they lived. In the second translation, Jesus says He will be lifted up on a pole just as the snake and everyone who believes in this will live and have eternal life.
In the earliest manuscripts of John 3:14, the addition “so the Son of Man must be lifted up” does not exist. It says: Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so that everyone who believes in him would have life. So God loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, so whoever believes in Him shall not perish and have eternal life. When we know the earliest manuscripts do not contain the addition “so the Son of Man must be lifted up,” we know it has been added into the text by the translators.
If we only go by the earliest manuscripts, it would say, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so that everyone who believes in him would have life. So God loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, so whoever believes in Him shall not perish and have eternal life.”
The Greek word used here for “believes in Him” is a translation of the Hebrew word Shema. So the last part of the sentence is “so whoever Shemas Him shall not perish and have eternal life.”
What does it mean to Shema someone?
Shema in Hebrew can best be translated to hear and obey. So what John 3:14 says, in the earliest manuscripts is: Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so that everyone who believes in Him would have life. So God loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, so whoever hears and obeys His teachings shall not perish and have eternal life.
Do you see the difference?
If we go by the original text, eternal life is given to us if we hear and obey Jesus’s teachings. If we go by the altered text, eternal life is given to us if we believe in how Jesus died on the cross.
This is a vast but significant difference in how to achieve eternal life.
We have another proof of this in the Great Commission in Matthew 28:16-20. Here in Matthew, we read, “16. Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
In the earliest manuscripts, the sentence “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” does not exist. In the earliest manuscripts, the great commission says: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Do you see the difference?
In the earliest manuscripts, Jesus instructs us to make disciples by teaching them to obey everything He commanded us. In the later manuscripts, Jesus instructs us to make disciples by teaching them to obey everything He commanded us AND baptizing them. In this case, the difference has to do with church politics because by adding the part of baptism, the newly formed catholic church was given great power and authority they were never meant to have. But the difference also proves how John 3:14 has been altered when we now know He never told us to focus on how He died. Jesus never told us to go and make disciples by telling them, “Jesus died for you.” Jesus said, make disciples by teaching them to obey what I taught you. Another way of wording the great commission would be “make disciples by teaching them to Shema Me.”
So now we know, from the Bible, we are never to make the cross as the object of our faith without first having made the law of Moses as the object of our faith. The cross is still vitally important because it is the only way we can atone for our sins. It is also the only way for us to be reconciled to Yehovah for our past intentional sins, but it is not the way to eternal life. The way to eternal life is through repentance; we repent from lawlessness to law. This also requires us to atone for our past sins, and this is why we need the cross. We can not repent and have access to eternal life through Moses without the cross.
Should we then stop using the cross as a symbol of Christianity?
In itself, it is nothing wrong with using the cross as a symbol for your Christian faith. Moses did nothing wrong when he obeyed Yehovah and created the bronze serpent so that everyone who looked at it would live, and it is nothing wrong or sinful with using the cross as a symbol of Christianity. What is not sinful in itself has the potential to become sinful if we are not careful.
I 2.Kings 18; King Hezekiah ordered the destruction of Nehushtan. Who or what is Nehushtan? Nehustan was the brass serpent Yehovah told Moses to erect in the book of Numbers. Over the years, the Israelites had started worshiping this brass serpent, so it had become an idol for them just as the Golden Calf had become an idol in the book of Exodus. The text of both the book of Exodus and 2.Kings shows us the Israelites did not see the Golden Calf and Nehushtan as another god; they believed this image represented Yehovah. The Mosaic law clearly says we are forbidden to make any image of our God Yehovah.
The cross of Yeshua (Jesus Christ) was and will always be Yehovahs greatest gift to humanity. Anyone who repents back to Moses and accepts the Blood of Yeshua as atonement for their intentional sins will be forgiven and saved. In the years that have gone by since the cross, Christians have made the cross into a representation of Yehovah. So instead of worshiping Yehovah, we are now worshiping the cross and what Jesus did for us at the cross and at the same time rejecting all of His teachings. If we worship the cross or worship Jesus or what He did for us, we have fallen into the sin of idol worship, and we are not shemaing Him. (John 3:14)
Repent from idol worship, repent from worshiping Jesus and start to Shema (hear and obey) what Jesus told us. He told us to repent from lawlessness back to Moses, and in our repentance, He promised us eternal life. When you repent, you will know the law says it can not atone for intentional sins, and considering how the temple is gone, we have no way of atoning for unintentional sins either. So the only way for you to now obey the Mosaic law is to believe in (but not worship) the cross of Yeshua and His Blood given for your sins.
Then and only then will you have eternal life.
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