We teach that the goal of the correct interpretation of the biblical covenants is the discovery of the meaning of the text (i.e. the Author’s intended meaning). We teach that the reader (i.e. interpreter) arrives at the author’s understanding when the reader arrives at the author's intention for his words.
We teach that the literal grammatical-historical method of interpretation is the only correct method of interpreting the biblical covenants because the literal grammatical-historical method of interpretation seeks the meaning of the biblical covenants as required by Scripture’s self-attested principles of interpretation, namely the laws of grammar and literary form, the facts of history, and the framework of context. This is the only way to accurately handle the Word of truth because the interpreter must agree with the author on these features in order to determine the author’s intended meaning (cf. John 1:18; 2 Timothy 2:15).
Understanding the author’s intended meaning is inseparably constrained to understanding the context in which the specific text is found.
We teach that the overall context to the biblical covenants began post fall with the protoevangelium in Genesis 3:15.
The word "context" comes from two Latin words, con + textus, meaning together + woven, and thus, "woven together." The English word "textile" comes from the Latin "textus," giving us the word for a woven fabric.
We teach that the crimson thread (a.k.a. scarlet thread or red thread) that is woven throughout the biblical covenants is the protoevangelium (cf. Genesis 3:15).
We teach that God is the great cutter and great tailor who provides clothing for those God redeems in the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Zechariah 3:4). Yahweh God pictured this in the context of the proclamation of the first Gospel when “Yahweh God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21), indicating an animal sacrifice to clothe Adam and his wife, picturing substitution.
There are both Royal Psalms and Messianic Psalms in the book of Psalms that show that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Seed of David as well as David’s Redeemer in the covenant that God established with David. Psalm 22:6 reveals that the Seed of the Woman is the Seed of David, and as such the Lord Jesus Christ and His crucifixion is the crimson thread that is woven into the Davidic Covenant from Genesis 3:15 when it reads, “But I am a worm and not a man, A reproach of men and despised by the people.”
When Jesus was on the cross, He quoted Psalm 22:1: “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” (cf. Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:44). For the Hebrews, if an Israelite quoted the first verse of a psalm, it was understood that was referencing the entire psalm.
Psalm 22 is either quoted or alluded to in each of the four gospel accounts of the crucifixion (cf. Matthew 27:35, 46; Mark 15:24; Luke 23:34; John 19:24). The fact that they all reference either the forsaken quote (cf. Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:24) or the dividing of His clothes by lot (cf. Psalm 22:18; Matthew 27:35; Luke 23:34; John 19:24) means the entire psalm is being referred to, not just the one line of v.1.
We teach that Psalm 22 foreshadows the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ in several ways:
For instance, “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed. My heart is like wax; it melts away within me” (Psalm 22:14); “They pierced my hands and my feet” (Psalm 22:16c); “They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing” (cf. Psalm 22:18); and “But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people” (cf. Psalm 22:6).
The Hebrew term later translated into the English term “worm” is the Hebrew term תּוֹלָע (towla`) and is the Hebrew term for a particular aphid insect known as the crimson or scarlet worm that the Hebrews used for a distinct crimson red dye for ceremonial fabrics and features from the Law [cf. Exodus 25:4; 26:1, 31, 36; 27:16; 28:5, 6, 8, 15, 33; Leviticus 14:4, 6, 49, 51, 52; Numbers 4:8, Numbers 19:6 – used in the context of the tabernacle and priestly garments (e.g., Exodus 26:1, Leviticus 14:4)].[1] Another Hebrew term that denotes the crimson dye used ceremonially in the context of fabrics and dyes, particularly in the construction of the Tabernacle and the garments of the priests from the crimson worm is the Hebrew term שָׁנִי (shaw-nee'). This term שָׁנִי (shaw-nee') appears together with תּוֹלָע (towla`) to describe one of the colors used in the Tabernacle and the garments of the high priest. These two words appear together side by side in the Torah no less than 33 times and are translated into the English term “scarlet.” The two Hebrew terms appear together 26 times in Exodus, 5 times in Leviticus and twice in Numbers [e.g. בֶּ֚גֶד תֹּולַ֣עַת שָׁנִ֔י. (be-ḡeḏ tō-w-la-‘aṯ šā-nî) “cloth of yarn scarlet” Numbers 4:8; וּשְׁנִ֣י תֹולָ֑עַת (ū-šə-nî ṯō-w-lā-‘aṯ) “and scarlet wool” Numbers 19:6).
What is also remarkable is that both terms appear in Isaiah 1:18. In Isaiah 1:18 both Hebrew terms are used, that is, שָׁנִי (shaw-nee') and תּוֹלָע (towla`), in the phrase, “’Come now, and let us reason together,’ Says Yahweh, ‘Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.’” This is the background to Isaiah 1:18 alluding to the Atonement made by the Lord Jesus Christ on the tree, in substitution for the believing sinner who confesses their sin to God and trusts in the penal-substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ to make them white as snow, that is, the expiation of the guilt of sin and to cleanse the believer by forgiving their sin (i.e. cleansed from the guilt of sin cf. 1 John 1:7-10; Leviticus 17:11).
Kermes is a red dye derived from the dried bodies of the females of a scale insect in the genus Kermes, primarily Kermes vermilio (coccus ilicis).[2] The Kermes insects (i.e. the crimson worm) are native to the Mediterranean region and are parasites living on the sap of the host plant, specifically the Kermes oak (a.k.a the holly oak – Quercus coccifera cf. Genesis 35:8) and the Palestinian oak (a.k.a. Valonia oak cf. Isaiah 44:14).[3]
When the Kermes aphid scale insect called the crimson worm is ready to give birth to its young, it finds a Kermes oak tree, and then attaches itself to the Kermes oak tree bark, feeding on its sap. The female keeps the eggs under her body and as the eggs grow into larvae the process kills the female scale insect and it dies. When the female Kermes insect dies, it releases a crimson scarlet red fluid on the bark of the tree, staining the wood. The Kermes crimson worm has to die to produce the red crimson dye.
In observing this phenomenon in nature, the Israelites would perform a process that involved crushing the worm to extract the dye.
What is more, on the fourth day after its death, the scale insect’s tail pulls up to its head making a heart-like shape and turns from crimson red to a snow-white wax, transforming from crimson red to white like snow. Its snow-white body then looks like “wool” on the tree and it is not long before the body peals off of the tree and falls to the ground like snow. This is the background and context to Isaiah 1:18 alluding to the Atonement made by the Lord Jesus Christ, in which God summons sinners to reason with God by the sinner repenting of their sins against God and placing their faith and trust in the Seed of the woman, the Seed of Abraham, who is the Seed of David, who is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53.
We teach that Jesus willingly went to the Cross because He said, “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it again. This commandment I received from My Father” John 10:18.
The Lord Jesus Christ died on the tree so that the believing sinner could live through Him. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8) and “He made the (One) not having known sin, sin (offering) for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus bled to death on the tree – “Who Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that, having been dead to sins, we might live to righteousness. ‘By whose scourge marks you have been healed’” (1 Peter 2:24) and “in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of trespasses, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7).
We teach that it is the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses the believing sinner from their sins – “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says Yahweh, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool” Isaiah 1:18.
In Matthew 27:18 the Greek term κοκκίνος was used to describe the color of the robe the Roman soldiers mockingly put on Jesus immediately preceding the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The English word for the biblical "scarlet" (cf. Exodus 25:4, etc.) is a literal translation from the same Greek term used in the Septuagint’s translation of the context of the Hebrew terms תּוֹלָע (towla`) and שָׁנִי (shaw-nee') (e.g. Koinē Greek: κόκκινον = kókkinon, meaning "scarlet").
In posing the most important question that a man could ever ask, “how can a man be just before God?” Bildad, as the wise fool in not realizing what he was saying, made a Messianic allusion to the protoevangelium in Job 25:6 when he said, “how much less man, who is but a maggot, and the son of man, who is but a worm!” (cf. Numbers 25:17-19). The Hebrew term for maggot from Job 25:6 is רִמָּה (Rimmah); but the Hebrew term used in Job 25:6 that was translated into the English term “worm” from the phrase literally “the son of man, a worm” is from the Hebrew term תּוֹלָע (towla`), namely the crimson worm.
The crimson worm or the crimson worm’s dye shows up in Rahab’s cord of scarlet/crimson thread (cf. Joshua 2:18, 21 שָׁנִי (shaw-nee').
The crimson worm or crimson worm’s dye shows up in the cleansing sacrifice of the Leper in Leviticus 14 (cf. Matthew 8:1-4; Mark 1:40-45; Luke 5:12-14; 17:14).
The crimson worm shows up in the Jonah 4:7 as the worm that God decreed to eat the plant shading Jonah (other significant crimson worm references in the OT include Exodus 16:20; Deuteronomy 28:39; Isaiah 41:44; Lamentations 4:5).
Therefore, the crimson worm pictures the atonement and how the protoevangelium is the crimson thread woven throughout the biblical covenants.
We teach that the animal sacrifices in the OT pictures the atonement and how the protoevangelium is the crimson thread woven throughout the biblical covenants (cf. Genesis 3:20; Genesis 4:4 - see Hebrews 11:4; 12:24; Genesis 8:20-22; 22:7-14; Exodus 12 - see 1 Corinthians 5:7; Leviticus 17 – see Hebrews 5-12, etc.).
The fact that there were animals who were cut into pieces in the Abrahamic Covenant (cf. Genesis 15:8-10; 17-21) shows how the theme “to cut” is an allusion to Genesis 3:21 which reads “The LORD made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.” God is the true “cutter” of the covenants and this pictures how God serves as a cutter, providing the clothing necessary for the redemption of those who trust in the Seed of the Woman, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ, and are therefore clothed in the righteousness of Christ (cf. Job 29:14; Psalm 132:9; Isaiah 59:17; 61:10; Zechariah 3:4; Luke 15:22-24; Romans 13:14; Galatians 3:27; 2 Corinthians 5:1-5; Revelation 3:18; 19:8, 14).
We teach the protoevangelium connects all the explicit biblical covenants and is the basis on which the biblical covenants are prophesied, pronounced, promised, proclaimed and fulfilled in divine perpetuity, that is, for all time and forever.
The protoevangelium is the prophesy of God’s overarching redemptive plan revealing the tapestry of the active and passive obedience of the life and death of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only atonement for sinners. The protoevangelium is the crimson thread that weaves together the tapestry of the Life and times of the Lord Jesus Christ and the purpose for why He came (cf. 1 John 3:5, 8).
Conclusion:
We teach the doctrines of substitution, imputation and justification are the first doctrines taught in the word of God directly subsequent the fall of man (cf. Genesis 3:15; 20-21). We teach the doctrine of substitution, imputation and justification are the crimson thread woven throughout the biblical covenants and woven throughout Scripture. The crimson thread is colored by the dye made out of the death of the crimson worm. The believing sinner’s substitution, imputation is made from the death of the Lord Jesus Christ in the great exchange of the cross (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21).
The clothing provided by God is the righteousness of Jesus Christ (cf. Galatians 3:26-27). The believing sinner is justified, that is declared righteous by God only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the only substitutionary sacrificial death to propitiate the wrath of God – “but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification” (Romans 4:24-25).
Therefore, the answer to the most important question ever asked, “But how can a man be in the right before God?” (Job 9:2), was answered by Job when he said, “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God” (Job 19:25-26).
[1] Henry Morris explained that the crimson dye came from the crimson worm that would die when he wrote, “when the female of the scarlet worm species was ready to give birth to her young, she would attached her body to the trunk of a tree, fixing herself so firmly and permanently that she would never leave again. The eggs deposited beneath her body were thus protected until the larvae were hatched and able to enter their own life cycle. As the crimson fluid stained her body and the surrounding wood. From the dead bodies of such female scarlet worms, the commercial scarlet dyes of antiquity were extracted. What a picture this gives of Christ, dying on the tree, shedding his precious blood that he might ‘bring many sons unto glory’ (Hebrews 2:10)! He died for us, that we might live through Him! Psalm 22:6 describes such a worm and gives us this picture of Christ (cf. Isaiah 1:18).” Henry Morris. Biblical Basis for Modern Science (Grand Rapids: Baker House, 1985), 73.
[2] Patterns of Evidence, “Biblical ‘Scarlet Worm’ Dye Found in Judean Desert Cave of Skulls,” www.patternsofevidence.com, Lora Gilb, August 9, 2024, https://www.patternsofevidence.com/2024/08/09/biblical-scarlet-worm-dye-found-in-judean-desert-cave-of-skulls/ (accessed 31 December 2024).
[3] Winifred Walker, All the Plants of the Bible; Artist to the Royal Horticultural Society, London 1929-39 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1943), 148-51.
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