This is a continuation of Paper 28: Commentary on Selected Bible Scriptures, Part I.

[33] Loins of the Father.
       Genesis 35:11: And God said unto Jacob, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; . . .
     Adam endeavored to teach the races sex equality. The way Eve worked by the side of her husband made a profound impression upon all the dwellers in the first Garden of Eden. Adam definitely taught them that the woman, equally with the man, contributes those life factors which unite to form a new being. Primitive man had presumed that all procreation resided in the "loins of the father." They had looked upon the mother as being merely a provision for nurturing the unborn and nursing the newborn. [74:7:8]

[34] Multiplicity of Virgins.
       Matthew 1:18-25: Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
     Many races have conceived of their leaders as being born of virgins: their careers are liberally sprinkled with miraculous episodes, and their return is always expected by their respective groups. In central Asia the tribesmen still look for the return of Genghis Khan; in Tibet, China, and India it is Buddha; in Islam it is Mohammed; among the Amerinds it was Hesunanin Onamonalonton; with the Hebrews it was, in general, Adam's return as a material ruler.
     [Onamonalonton, a member of the red race, lived about sixty-five thousand years ago.]

     It is true that Mary and Joseph were selected by Gabriel to be the parents of Jesus. It was the plan of Jesus to appear on earth as an average man, that the common people might understand him and receive him; wherefore Gabriel selected just such persons as Joseph and Mary to become the bestowal parents.
     Jesus was a miraculous person, but there was nothing miraculous about his conception. He was not conceived by the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit. Mary and Joseph lived together as man and wife from the day they were married in March, 8 B.C. Jesus was conceived by Mary and Joseph in the manner that all children are conceived. He was born August 21, 7 B.C.
     The two following prophecies pertaining to the birth of Jesus may be among those that were written after Jesus lived on earth:
     Isaiah 7:14: "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."
     Isaiah 9:6,7: For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
[Matthew 2:1-11] [64:6:7] [92:5:3] [119:7:5] [122:0] [122:1:3] [122:8:1,2,5-7]

[35] Is Jesus the only begotten Son of God? John 3:16
       NO. The Apostles of Jesus were confused on this point. They thought Jesus was the Eternal Son of God.
     Job 1:6: Now there was a day when the Sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. [My emphasis]
     That the teachers of olden times knew of these things is shown by the record [as restated in The Urantia Book: "And there was a day when the Sons of God came to present themselves before the Most Highs." And this is a statement of fact regardless of the connection in which it chances to appear. [43:4:8]
     [The Most Highs are the rulers of the constellations. Edentia is the capital of our constellation of Norlatiadek. The trees of life sent to the Gardens of Eden on the various inhabited planets are gifts from the Most Highs.]
     Jesus is a Creator Son of the Order of Michael. Creator Sons are created by the Universal Father and the Eternal Son. However, each Creator Son is the only-begotten and only-begettable offspring of the perfect union of the original concepts of God the Father and God the Son. There can never be another such Son because each Creator Son is the unqualified, finished, and final expression and embodiment of all of every phase of every feature of every possibility of every divine reality that could, throughout all eternity, ever be found in, expressed by, or evolved from, those divine creative potentials which united to being this Michael Son into existence. Each Creator Son is the absolute of the united deity concepts which constitute his divine origin.
     The author of Paper 21 states that he has good reasons to believe that there are more than 700,000 Creator Sons already in existence. Universe organization of the Grand Universe provides for 700,000 local universes, each ruled by a "Jesus," a Creator Son. [15:2:10,11] [21:1:1,2,4]
     As you read The Urantia Book you will learn that God the Father has trillions of Divine Sons.

[36] The Lord spoke to me saying: . . .
       One day in the latter part of July, A.D. 29, Nathaniel asked Jesus: Master, why do we pray that God will lead us not into temptation when we well know from your revelation of the Father that he never does such things?
     Jesus answered: . . . You well know how our forefathers were disposed to see God in almost everything that happened. They looked for the hand of God in all natural occurrences and in every unusual episode of human experience. They connected God with both good and evil. They [erroneously] thought he softened the heart of Moses and hardened the heart of Pharaoh. When man had a strong urge to do something, good or evil, he was in the habit of accounting for these unusual emotions by remarking: "The Lord spoke to me saying, do thus and so, or go here and there." Accordingly, since men so often and so violently ran into temptation, it became the habit of our forefathers to believe that God led them thither for testing, punishing, or strengthening. But you, indeed, now know better. You know that men are all too often led into temptation by the urge of their own selfishness and by the impulses of their animal natures. . . . [156:5:4]

[37] Moses, Founder of the Hebrew Religion.
       The outstanding religious genius between Melchizedek and Jesus was Moses, the leader of a group of Levantine Bedouins and the founder of the Hebrew religion. Moses taught monotheism: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one God." "The Lord he is God. There is none beside him." The greatness of Moses lies in his wisdom and sagacity. Other men have had greater concepts of God, but no one man was ever so successful in inducing large numbers of people to adopt such advanced beliefs. [92:5:8]

[38] Moses and the Hebrews Near Mount Sinai.
       Exodus 19:16-20: And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. . . . And the Lord came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.
     It does not appear that Moses would ever have succeeded in the establishment of his somewhat advanced ceremonial worship and in keeping his followers intact for a quarter of a century had it not been for the violent eruption of Horeb during the third week of their worshipful sojourn at its base. "The mountain of Yahweh was consumed in fire, and the smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly." In view of this cataclysm it is not surprising that Moses could impress upon his brethren the teaching that their God was "mighty, terrible, a devouring fire, fearful, and all-powerful."
     Moses proclaimed that Yahweh was the Lord God of Israel, who had singled out the Hebrews as his chosen people; he [the Lord God of Israel] was building a new nation, and he was a hard taskmaster, a "jealous God."

     Moses made a heroic effort to uplift Yahweh to the dignity of a supreme Deity when he presented him as the "God of truth and without iniquity, just and right in all his ways." And yet, despite this exalted teaching, the limited understanding of his followers made it necessary to speak of God as being in man's image, as being subject to fits of anger, wrath, and severity, even that he was vengeful and easily influenced by man's conduct. [96:4:5-7]
     [Note that the Hebrew authors included a fair amount of fiction when they wrote about this event: Moses did not bring the people out of camp to meet with God; the Lord did not descend upon mount Sinai in fire; the Lord did not call Moses up to the top of the mount.]
     Moses feared to proclaim the mercy of Yahweh, preferring to awe his people with the fear of the justice of God, saying: "The Lord your God is God of Gods, and Lord of Lords, a great God, a mighty and terrible God, who regards not man." Again he sought to control the turbulent clans when he declared that "your God kills when you disobey him; he heals and gives life when you obey him." But Moses taught these tribes that they would become the chosen people of God only on condition that they "kept all his commandments and obeyed all his statutes." [96:5:6] [Deuteronomy 10:17; 32:39]
     Authorship of the Pentateuch [the first five books of the Old Testament]: Jewish and Christian scholars alike have traditionally agreed that Moses was the original author of the Pentateuch [except for Deuteronomy, Chapter 34]. Several Scriptures are cited to support this belief: Joshua 1:7,8; John 1:17; and Luke 24:27,44.
     Joshua 1:7: [The Lord is speaking to Joshua] Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.
     John 1:17: For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
Luke 24:27,44: Verse 27: And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he [Jesus] expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Verse: 44: And he [Jesus] said unto his Apostles, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
     After a rigorous reading of the foregoing verses, I see nothing that tells me that Moses actually wrote the Pentateuch. I am convinced that in many instances Bible scholars simply declare that certain Scriptures support the doctrine under question.
     Also, I believe that the Scriptures at Luke 24:27,44 were erroneously attributed to Jesus.
     The Hebrews had no written language in general usage for a long time after they reached Palestine. They did little writing until about 900 B.C. The author of Paper 74 in The Urantia Book explains how the tradition of creation in six days was written out and subsequently credited to Moses almost a thousand years after his sojourn on earth. [74:8:7-14]
     See "The Matchless Moses" Paper 96:Sections 3-6.

[39] The Most Highs Rule in the Affairs of the Nations.
       Long ago the prophet recognized the controlling hand of the Constellation Fathers in the affairs of nations. "When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people." [Deuteronomy 32:8] [43:5:16]
     Daniel 4:25: Daniel reminded the Hebrews that the "Most High rules in the kingdoms of men, and giveth them to whomsoever he will."
     Melchizedek, the Sage of Salem, revealed the relations of the Most High observer to Abraham when he said: And blessed be the Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. [Genesis 14:20] [43:5:17]

     It is no mere poetic expression that exclaims: "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof;" "He removes kings and sets up kings." In the affairs of men's hearts the Universal Father may not always have his way; but in the conduct and destiny of a planet the divine plan prevails; the eternal purpose of wisdom and love triumphs. [3:5:2,3] [Psalm 24:1]
     Our planet is still a quarantined or isolated world as a consequence of the Lucifer Rebellion. Each quarantined planet has a Most High [a Vorondadek Son] who acts as an observer. He does not participate in planetary administration except when ordered by the Constellation Father to intervene in the affairs of the nations. It is this Most High observer who "rules in the kingdoms of men." The Constellation Fathers [the Most Highs] are little occupied with the individuals of an inhabited planet, but they are closely associated with those legislative and lawmaking functions of the constellations which so greatly concern every mortal race and national group of the inhabited worlds. [43:3:5] [114:4] [114:6:8]
     When Melchizedek was on earth, he revealed the relations of this Most High observer to Abraham when he said: And blessed be the Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. [Genesis 14:20] [43:5:16,17]