“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the one who announces good news, who makes peace to be heard, who announces goodness, and makes Salvation to be heard! Say to Zion, your God rules!” I translated this on the fly from Isaiah 52:
מַה נָּאווּ עַל הֶהָרִים רַגְלֵי מְבַשֵּׂר מַשְׁמִיעַ שָׁלוֹם מְבַשֵּׂר טוֹב מַשְׁמִיעַ יְשׁוּעָה; אֹמֵר לְצִיּוֹן מָלַךְ אֱלֹהָיִךְ.
This verse is in our reading portion from the prophets this week, in Isaiah 52, verse 7. It is a very familiar verse for many people. But, to me, in the Hebrew it is even more special, and convincing.
The feet of the one who announces good news… מְבַשֵּׂר
In that Hebrew word is the root word for the word that eventually was rendered as “gospel” to the English reader. Any other punctuation of this verse could change its meaning, and it would still be truth: “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the one who announces good news, who makes peace to be heard, the good one who announces and makes Salvation to be heard!”
The word ‘Basar‘ is sometimes ‘a body‘, and is the root word for gospel, ‘b’sorah’/בשרה. And of course, יְשׁוּעָה is the name Yeshua, also with the final letter ׳ה׳ added, “A good one who declares and makes Yeshua heard.”
This verse is likely speaking first of Yeshua, who was the one to first bring the ‘good news of salvation from our sins’. But, Sha’ul/Paul explains also that this is anyone else who ‘declares’ this good news:
13For whoever shall call on the Name of יהוה shall have life. 14How then can they call on Him in whom they have not trusted? Or how can they trust in Him of whom they have never heard? Or how can they hear without a herald? 15Or how can they declare if they are not sent forth? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of the one who proclaims, and of those who declare good tidings!” [Romans 10]
Sha’ul is referencing Isaiah 52 here, and applying it to those who go forth to declare the Good News! That news really is very, very simple. Unfortunately, after 2,000 years of hypocrisy, capitulating to pagan ways, persecutions, divisions, etc, the truth is very hard for most people to arrive at.
Just before our focal verse, the prophet wrote this for יהוה : “Therefore My people shall know My Name…”, and in the very next verse, the ‘gospel’ is predicted, the going out of the world’s most important news.
The link to ‘basar’/’b’sorah’/yeshu’ah in this verse, to me, cannot be coincidence.
Many people are not aware that it was predicted that the Son of God would be given the Name יהוה , after first being given the name Yeshua, but many are not aware that, as the Word of God, manifested in flesh, and called the Son or Progeny of God, that it was predicted The Word would become a BODY. Paul explains this plainly, quoting the Aramaic Targums, from Psalm 40 :
4For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats could take away sins. 5Therefore, when He entered into the world, He said, “Sacrifices and offerings You did not desire, but You have clothed me in a Body/בשר. [Hebrews 10]
7Zevakh and Minkhah [sacrifices and offerings, of bulls and goats] You have no delight in; [“You have clothed me in a Body / בשר” (from the Aramaic Targums)] my ears have You opened; Olah and Khata’ah [burnt offering and sin offering] have You not required. Psalm 40
So, Paul is quoting the Aramaic, which likely matched the earlier copies of the Hebrew psalms; our Jewish people likely changed this verse after Yeshua came. I fully believe the Masoretes did, who rejected Yeshua. Our Jewish people today hide the truth of Yeshua in their English translations of the ‘Old Testament’ Jewish scriptures as well. But, they cannot hide the truth from the Renewed Covenant ones who declared this GOOD NEWS!
16Truly great is this Sod of Tzedaka [Mystery of Righteousness]: revealed in a Body, בשר justified in HaRu’akh [The Spirit], seen by Malakhim [Messengers/Angels], declared to the Goyim [Gentiles], trustworthy in the world, and ascending up into Glory! [ 1 Tim 3]
Most people today do not even talk about the fact that Yeshua lives in a Body of FLESH, standing at the right hand of God. It is hyper-critical that we declare HIS BODY! And that He LIVES, STANDING BESIDE God His Father, not morphed into a three-headed beast, NOT replacing His Father! This is what those first ‘feet’ declared!
14And HaDavar [The Word] became a Body / בשר and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, a glory like that of the first-born of The Father, full of compassion and truth. [John 1]
If Yeshua is not, right now, a human being, a man, living in a body of flesh in your version of a gospel, standing BESIDE His Father, and not in the same body with him, then you have a wrong gospel, whether preached by men or messengers, popes or priests, pastors or prophets. They are lying to you.
2Ru’akh HaElohim [The Spirit of God] is known by this: every spirit which declares that Yeshua HaMashi’akh is coming in flesh / בשר is from Elohim. 3And every spirit which does not declare that Yeshua HaMashi’akh is coming in flesh / בשר is not from Elohim, but it is the spirit of the false Mashi’akh, of whose coming you have heard and who is even now already in the world. [1 John 4]
Stephen, the first one to die in faith, saw this as he was being stoned, with Paul watching:
56And he [Stephen] said, “Behold I see the heavens opened and Ben HaAdam [The Son of Man, Yeshua] standing at the right hand of Elohim [God the Creator, His Father].” 57Then they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and with one accord shouted threats against him. 58And they seized him and took him outside the city and began to stone him. Those who testified against him placed their clothes under the care of a young man called Sha’ul. 59And they stoned Tzefan-Yah [Stephen] as he prayed, saying, “Adoneinu, Yeshua, accept my spirit.” 60And as he knelt down, he cried with a loud voice and said, “Adoneinu, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he passed away. And Sha’ul was pleased, and participated in his murder.
Paul later knew who was leading him in that joy. Anyone who declares the Body of Yeshua as coming back, with God still seated on His Throne, can be in danger of execution by the religious class. Check history. In our near future, we will be executed again for the same, if we have the faithfulness of Stephen.