HEBREW/ARAMAIC WORD STUDY – BROKEN – QATSA’קצע Qop Sade Ayin
I Corinthians 11:24: “And when he had given thanks, he brakes [it], and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.”
Leviticus 14:34: “When you come into the land of Canaan, which I give you for a possession, and I put a case of leprous disease in a house in the land of your possession,”
Leviticus 14:41: “And he shall have the inside of the house scraped all around, and the plaster that they scrape off they shall pour out in an unclean place outside the city.”
I have always been baffled by this verse in I Corinthians 11:24 since I was a little child. Maybe it was just me but I would hear this verse every time we took communion and I would think, “How was Jesus’s body broken.” I mean I heard the sermons even as a child and I listened and I distinctly remember hearing the preachers say that Jesus’s body was not broken, they did not even break His legs as commanded by Pilate because Jesus was already dead when they came to break His legs.
The word for break-in Greek is eklasen which clearly means to break or be broken. Somehow the explanation that Jesus’s skin was broken when he was tortured and whipped is what was meant when He said His body was broken. Somehow that just seemed like a lame attempt to explain a clear contradiction. But then I read this in the Aramaic and found the word for broken was qatsa’ which could mean to break but is usually used for scrapping. In fact, it is the identical word in Hebrew and the Targums (Aramaic version of the Old Testament) that is used in Leviticus 14:41 where the priest were to scrap the plaster of a home that was covered with the mark of leprosy.
When the people of Israel took over the Promised Land they did not necessarily build new homes, they just took over the homes that were left by the Canaanites who fled. We learn that God sent a plague of leprosy over the Canaanites and if one found the mark of leprosy in their homes they were to call a priest to remediate it. Many modern translations will render this as mold or mildew rather than leprosy because it was discovered by modern medical science that a form of leprosy was caused by a certain mold or mildew.
If one found this mold in his home he was told to report it to the priest who would come and examine it and then if determined it was the mark of leprosy they would shut the house up for seven days. After seven days they returned and if the mold had spread they were to tear out the rocks that had the mold and then scrap the plaster off the walls. The word scrap is qatsa’, the same in Hebrew and Aramaic. Plaster is sort of like the skin covering the walls. Thus, Jesus could have very well been referring to His skin being scraped off by his whipping.
Jesus was likely speaking of His body having his skin scraped off for us. This would be a reference to that corruptible part of your body, that part that is continually dying and having to be replaced. You are always shedding dead skin and growing new skin. The scrapping of his skin is like the bread that we are to eat and eat all of it. The bread was a symbol of life and through the shedding of his skin, He is passing new life unto us.
But then there is something else. Leviticus 14:34 tells us that God put this nega’ sarat (leprosy, skin disease) on the homes. The word nega’ not only means plague but a plague from God. It is not unusual for God to send a plague. He put leprosy on Miriam and when she repented God removed it. He sent a plague on Israel when they sinned by sleeping with Moabite women and when they stopped this sin the plague was lifted. God also sent a plague on the nation of Israel when David sinned by taking a census against the will of God. Once David repented the plague was lifted.
Is it possible that this pandemic, this plague that is upon the whole world was sent by God? I always rejected Isaiah 53:5 as a reference to our physical illnesses. Isa 53:5 But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him, and with his stripes, we are healed. I think I am revisiting that opinion.
The word heal is rapha’ which means a physical healing as well as spiritual healing. The word stripes is chabburah which means a wound like that from a whipping. Could it be that the scrapping or qatsa’ is a reference to both physical and spiritual? The solution to a nega’, a plague sent by God is repentance. Is it possible, like the Talmud teaches, that God sends a plague as a wake-up call for us to reconnect with Him? Is it possible that maybe this plague sweeping the world falls in the laps of us believers who need to repent and seek the face of God and reconnect with Him? After all, David pleads with God that it was his sin and not the people who were dying from the plague that brought it about.
Maybe I’m wrong, but it sure would not do harm if we as believers us this opportunity of a pandemic to repent and reconnect with God. Maybe, that will be the key to stopping this plague.
Just a thought, I could be wrong.
In ancient times (and maybe not so ancient), sickness, natural catastrophes, defeats in war were considered the result of a broken relationship with God (or gods), in other words, sin. The modern or scientific view is that these things are more a matter of chance than intent.
However, these events can be construed as opportunities to re-pent, re-turn, re-connect, re-new our relationship with God. God, in creating the universe, also created these “chance” opportunities for us to fully appreciate our need for him.
Indeed, we must “scrape” the walls of our beliefs to find what is the essence of our faith, what lies beneath. In the chaos and self-focus of the current world, maybe this pandemic will force us to scrape away the superficial to find the essential.
From the very beginning of this pandemic I have called a plague. It comes from God. Everything comes from God. These things are used for His will and purposes.
Thank you Laura! I have always paused when I read “broken.” Thank you for the revelation of “scraping” the old skin making way for the new!
I have been praying in that vein for cleansing & purging if His Bride. Thank for this wonderful insight!
Hi Catherine
oops, I posted it wrong, this was actually written by Chaim. I’m glad you enjoyed the devotional!
Jesus is the perfect representation of the Father. He never sent a storm. He stopped them. He never put sickness on anyone. He healed it. Therefore I can’t believe that God is the author of this pandemic. Do God’s people need repentance? Yes. But did God send the “plague” as a catalyst for the repentance? No! Sickness is not the fingerprint of our Creator. But there is someone diabolical whose fingerprints are a perfect match. Let’s engage the right enemy.
Angel Anan, I so agree with the thought you’ve shared here. You have spoken well of God! Our Father is a Creator, not a destroyer. He calls us to a friendship with Him, but does not force or scare us into loving Him. He created us humans as free, moral agents, and when we are determined to turn from Him (Hebrew 11:7), He sadly lets us go our own way…and that is when we suffer the consequences of our choices. It’s not God’s fault we have a pandemic on our hands; we have fallen because of our own ideas, our own counsel (Psalms 5:10), our allowing the wrong influence to lord over our lives (that diabolical one you mentioned). God takes the blame for this disaster because He has allowed it to happen, because He honors our choices, be they good or bad. But He does not forsake us; His hand is ever reaching out in invitation to build that friendship with Him that will lead to a wonderful peace.
from mike,
really good food for thought!
am really enjoying your “learning
God’s love language study guides.
thanx so much…..
Hi Laura, thank you for your devotional today. I enjoyed the thoughts and ideas in it. Can you just clarify for me if ‘qatsa’ means only to scrape’ (graze, abrasively cut a surface) or also to ‘scrap’ (to throw out, get rid of). You seem to be using them interchangeably. Thanks Laura :)
Would love a response to the following, Chaim:
My understanding of the Creation Stories in the OT is that God’s created order out of chaos. Therefore, since there is a Divine Order in the Universe (Locke coined the term, “Natural Law”), if we contradict that Divine Natural Law and trespass against its boundaries, there will be consequences. Not because God is out to punish us, i.e., God sends the plague, but because we have gone outside the boundary of Divine Reality. If I were to attempt to understand what sin it is that led to the plague, what would the common person’s role in this be? Sure, we’re all still separated from God in our various ways due to our condition of sin which is demonstrated in various acts of commission and omission, but what exactly does Mr. Smith and Ms. Jones have to do with what happened in China? Sin does affect those who had no part in it, because like a disease, the consequences spread. Sure our institutions government (NIH) and universities funded the wet market research and have gone outside the boundaries of health/Natural Law. The Chinese government had some investment in the system that created the contagion, but since they are atheists/communists, they have no concept of Natural Law/creation/Spirit of God.
So I’m not sure what kind of repentance by the public who had no idea of what was going on or a hand in it, might mitigate this plague. Of course this doesn’t preclude our continual need for repentance. But I don’t see a direct connection with the common person and the governments and other institutions that were directly responsible for the disease’s creation.
Would love a response.
Thank you,food for thought there.
Abba sent us Jesus Christ to take away the sins of the world. He gives us grace and mercy. He wishes that not one person would perish. It is the goodness of God that brings man to repentance.
I believe this ” Pandemic” is strictly from the hands of man. I truly trust the total Sovereignty of God and nothing escapes Our Fathers eye as his eye is on the sparrow. But I have reason to believe this ” health crisis” is a pretext from the Powers that be designing a snare and trap for the entire planet. Only God knows! My hope is him and his precious Son Jesus alone.
I’m sure that God is using this pandemic as a wake-up call, to the church, to repent. To change their minds about who He is and who we are. We have been like the world, with all their illnesses and fears, when we are supposed to be the light and the representative of Christ. I believe that the way we once “did church” will change for the better and that we will be “the church/body of Christ” that everyone will want to know.
Repentance is good. It is in times like these that I realize the plagues in the book of Revelation are more than a vision. There are three plagues that kill a third of mankind (9:18). Could they be a virus? The rest of mankind not killed are connected to something they didn’t do. It wasn’t self quarantine. They didn’t repent. The repent list (9:21) sounds like this year’s federal court hearings on: abortions, drugs, immorality and thefts. This connection suggests a message; virus plagues are linked to repentance.
We cannot judge what God can use-
Joni Eraekson Tada has said” God uses what he hates to bring about what He loves. “ I can agre e with that since His Kingdom is not of this world. The thing is we must believe that our suffering can be for the good and accept it and don’t waste the time bemoaning it. Jesus said Follow Me. Let go of everything and follow me.