Let’s talk about something fascinating that might change how you see the Bible, especially how the New Testament quotes the Old Testament. Don’t worry, we’re going to keep this simple and straightforward, like chatting with a friend over coffee.
The Big Question: When the New Testament Quotes the Old, Are They Reading the Same Book?
Imagine you’re in a Bible study, and someone reads a prophecy from the Old Testament that seems to perfectly predict Jesus. It’s impressive, right? But what if I told you that in several key cases, the “perfect match” only works because the words were quietly changed along the way?
Here’s the basic idea: The New Testament was written in Greek, while the Old Testament was originally in Hebrew. Early Christians mostly used a Greek translation called the Septuagint (or LXX). Think of it as the “Greek version” of the Hebrew Bible.
Now, here’s where it gets interesting. When we compare what the New Testament quotes to the original Hebrew, and even to ancient manuscripts we’ve discovered, some quotes don’t quite line up. In fact, they seem to have been tweaked-just slightly-to fit Christian beliefs better.
Meet the Dead Sea Scrolls: Our Time Machine to the Past
In 1947, some teenagers found ancient scrolls in desert caves near the Dead Sea. These scrolls date back to before Jesus was born, some as early as 200 BCE. They’re like a time capsule, showing us what the Hebrew Bible actually said before Christianity existed.
When we compare these scrolls to the Septuagint (the Greek version), we sometimes find surprising differences. The scrolls usually match the Hebrew Bible we have today, but the Septuagint sometimes contains changes that-coincidentally-support Christian ideas.
Let’s look at some specific examples.
Example 1: The “Virgin” Birth Prophecy
The verse: Isaiah 7:14
What you might have heard: “A virgin will conceive and give birth to a son.”
Where it appears: Matthew quotes this to prove Jesus’s virgin birth.
What the Hebrew actually says: “The young woman [almah] will conceive and give birth to a son.”
What’s the difference? The Hebrew word almah means “young woman,” not necessarily a virgin. The word for virgin is betulah. Isaiah was talking about a specific situation in his own time, giving King Ahaz a sign about a child who would be born soon.
The Greek twist: The Septuagint uses the word parthenos, which usually means “virgin.”
The Dead Sea Scrolls say: The Isaiah Scroll from Qumran uses almah—”young woman.” No virginity implied.
Why it matters: The virgin birth concept only works with the Greek word, not the original Hebrew. It looks like a translation choice that accidentally (or intentionally) created a prophecy that wasn’t there.
Example 2: Jesus’s First Sermon—Did He Really Read That?
The verse: Luke 4:17–21, where Jesus reads in the synagogue
What happens in the story: Jesus opens the scroll of Isaiah, reads about bringing good news to the poor and sight to the blind, then says, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
What the Hebrew Isaiah says: The passage (Isaiah 61:1–2) talks about bringing good news and freedom, but doesn’t mention “recovering of sight to the blind.” It also mentions “the day of vengeance of our God”-which Jesus mysteriously skips.
The Greek twist: The Septuagint version Jesus supposedly read adds “recovery of sight to the blind” (taken from a completely different chapter, Isaiah 42:7) and removes “the day of vengeance.”
What are the odds? This is the only place in the entire Septuagint where two separate verses from different chapters are spliced together like this. It’s also missing the “vengeance” part that wouldn’t fit Jesus’s peaceful message.
The Dead Sea Scrolls say: The original Hebrew texts keep these passages separate and include the “day of vengeance.”
Why it matters: It seems unlikely Jesus would have found a scroll with exactly this unique combination. More likely, Luke is creating a powerful scene where Jesus reads a customized version that perfectly matches his ministry, healing the blind, but not bringing vengeance.
Example 3: Paul’s “Helpful” Editing
The verse: Romans 11:26–27, where Paul quotes Isaiah 59:20–21
What Paul writes: “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob, and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”
What the Hebrew actually says: “A redeemer will come to Zion, to those who repent of transgression in Jacob… My spirit and words will never leave your mouths.”
The big changes:
- “Come to Zion” → “Come from Zion” (Jesus was from Jerusalem)
- “To those who repent” → “He will turn away ungodliness” (removes the need for human action)
- And here’s the kicker: The last part-“when I take away their sins”-doesn’t exist anywhere in the original. Paul seems to have added it himself.
The Dead Sea Scrolls say: The Hebrew at Qumran matches our Bibles, not Paul’s version.
Why it matters: Paul is essentially rewriting scripture to support his idea that salvation comes through grace alone, not through human repentance or following the law. It’s a theological remix.
Example 4: When Prayers Replace Bulls
The verse: Hosea 14:2
What the Hebrew says: “Take words with you and return to the LORD… we will offer bullocks, our lips.”
The subtle but huge change: The Hebrew word for “bullocks” is parim. The Septuagint changes it to peri-“fruit.”
Why it matters: In Hebrew, it’s a clever wordplay: “We’ll offer the bulls of our lips,” meaning our prayers are like sacrifices. The Greek “fruit of our lips” loses this connection.
The implication? Hosea was saying prayer could substitute for animal sacrifice when the Temple was destroyed. That’s a very Jewish idea. But if prayer alone can atone for sin, it challenges the Christian claim that only Jesus’s sacrifice can do that.
Example 5: God’s “Body” vs. “Ears”
The verse: Hebrews 10:5 quotes Psalm 40:6
What the Hebrew says: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but ears you have dug for me” (meaning, “You’ve given me the ability to hear and obey you”).
What the Greek says: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me.”
Why it matters: The Greek version transforms a poetic image about obedience into a literal prophecy about the Incarnation, God preparing Jesus’s body for sacrifice. That’s not what the original Hebrew said at all.
Example 6: The Suffering Servant’s Mysterious Death
The verse: Acts 8 quotes Isaiah 53:8
What the Hebrew says: “For the transgression of my people, they were stricken.” The pronoun is plural, suggesting a group, and it doesn’t explicitly say “death.”
What the Greek says: “For the iniquities of my people, he was led to death.”
The changes: Changes plural to singular, adds “led to death,” making it about one person (Jesus) being executed.
The Dead Sea Scrolls say: They match the Hebrew version, a plural “they.”
Why it matters: The Greek version creates a much more specific prophecy about Jesus’s crucifixion than the original Hebrew supports.
Example 7: The “Pierced” Hands and Feet
The verse: Psalm 22:16 (numbered 22:17 in some Bibles)
What the Hebrew says: “Like a lion, my hands and my feet.”
What the Greek says: “They pierced my hands and my feet.”
What happened? Some scholars think a Hebrew scribe might have written the word ka’ari (like a lion) in a way that looked like ka’aru (dug/pierced). Early Christians reading Greek would have seen “pierced” and thought, “Perfect! It predicts crucifixion!”
The Dead Sea Scrolls say: The Qumran scrolls read “like a lion.”
Why it matters: One of the most famous “crucifixion prophecies” might be based on a scribal error or creative translation.
Example 8: From “Edom” to “Everyone”
The verse: Acts 15 quotes Amos 9:11–12
What the Hebrew says: God will rebuild David’s kingdom “so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations called by my name.” (Israel would rule over its enemy Edom.)
What the Greek says: “So that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord and all the Gentiles called by my name.”
The changes: “Edom” (a specific enemy nation) → “mankind” (everyone). “Possess” → “seek.” It completely flips the meaning from “Israel will conquer its enemies” to “everyone will come to God.”
The Dead Sea Scrolls say: They clearly read “Edom,” not “mankind.”
Why it matters: This change allows the early church to claim the Old Testament predicted the inclusion of Gentiles in Christianity. But that’s not what the original prophecy was about.
So… What Does All This Mean?
Here’s where we land: This isn’t about random mistakes. The changes have a pattern:
- They always support Christian theology
- They always move away from the original Hebrew meaning
- They’re preserved in the Septuagint that Christians used and copied for centuries
- They’re confirmed as changes by the much older Dead Sea Scrolls
It’s like finding a document that’s been edited to match a new story. The edits aren’t random; they serve a purpose.
Does This Destroy Faith?
That’s up to you. Some people find this information troubling. Others see it as a fascinating look at how early Christians understood their faith.
The important thing is that you now know: when the New Testament quotes the Old Testament, it sometimes uses a version that was tailored to fit Christian beliefs. The original Hebrew often says something different.
This isn’t about attacking anyone’s faith. It’s about being honest about what the texts actually say. Whether you’re a believer, a skeptic, or just curious, understanding this helps you read the Bible with clearer eyes.
The Dead Sea Scrolls gave us an incredible gift: a glimpse into what these ancient texts looked like before they were filtered through later beliefs. And that, at the very least, is worth knowing.
What Did Jesus Really Mean? A New Look at the Lord’s Prayer
The carpenter from Nazareth never came to fulfill scrolls. He came to ignite minds.
This is the story buried beneath two millennia of textual subversion, the one Paul couldn’t co-opt, the one the councils couldn’t codify, the one that survives only in whispers between the lines of scripture and in the silences of the desert fathers. It is the story of Jesus not as Messiah of the twelve tribes, but as master of the interior path.
The Kingdom That Needs No Throne
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 4:17). For two thousand years, we’ve been told this meant: “The end is near, the prophecies are unfolding.” But the Greek word metanoia doesn’t mean “repent” in the Jewish sense of returning to Torah. It means to change your mind, literally to go beyond the mind.
Jesus wasn’t announcing a political restoration. He was issuing an invitation to a mental revolution.
In the Gospel of Thomas-discarded as heresy because it refused to bow to Paul’s orthodoxy-Jesus is blunt:
“If your leaders say to you, ‘Look, the kingdom is in heaven,’ then the birds of heaven will precede you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside you, and it is outside you” (Thomas 3).
This is not Jewish eschatology. This is pure Hermetic principle: the macrocosm and microcosm as mirror images. The kingdom isn’t coming to you; it’s waking in you.
But how do we know this “kingdom” is consciousness itself? Thomas again:
“When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living Father” (Thomas 3).
The kingdom is the treasure of self-knowledge, and the mind is the field where it’s buried.
Even in Luke’s more domesticated gospel, Jesus slips:
“The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). The Greek entos hymon means inside you, not “among you” as later scribes nervously translated it. The kingdom is interior space.
The Hermetic Master
Jesus’s prayer-“on earth as it is in heaven”-is the Emerald Tablet in miniature. The Hermetic dictum “As above, so below” appears in the Corpus Hermeticum as:
“That which is above is from that which is below, and that which is below is from that which is above.”
But Jesus inverts it with a purpose: not just correspondence, but participatory creation.
We are not passive mirrors. We are co-authors.
This is why Jesus constantly uses paradox, “whoever loses his life will find it” (Matthew 10:39), “the first will be last” (Matthew 20:16). These aren’t moralisms; they’re mental yoga. They force the mind out of linear, binary thinking into what the Hermetic Poimandres calls “the union of opposites.” The kingdom transcends the categories of the world.
In the Gospel of Philip, another suppressed text, we read:
“Truth did not come into the world naked, but it came in types and images. The world will not receive truth in any other way.”
Jesus’s Old Testament references were never about fulfillment; they were provisional scaffolding, images to lead his listeners toward a truth their minds weren’t ready to receive directly.
The Mind as Infinite Universe
“Where the mind is, there is the treasure” (Gospel of Mary 10:10). Mary Magdalene, the apostle Paul sought to erase, understood: the mind is not a tool for thinking but a universe to be explored.
Jesus echoes this in Thomas:
“The heavens and the earth will roll up in your presence, and whoever is living from the living one will not see death” (Thomas 111).
The cosmos is mental, not physical. To “roll up” is to see through the illusion of externality.
This is why “daily bread” is not manna or matzah. It’s the nourishment of new awareness. In the Mithras Liturgy, an esoteric text from the same era, the initiate prays for “psychic sustenance” to journey through the celestial spheres. Jesus’s “give us this day our daily bread” is the same request: feed my mind with the wisdom to navigate its own infinity.
The canonical Matthew hints at this:
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).
The word (logos) is the true bread. Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy, but he’s subverting it: the “mouth of God” is not a divine dictation but the inner voice of nous, the cosmic mind.
Forgiveness as Mental Alchemy
“Forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors.”
In the Corpus Hermeticum, Hermes teaches:
“The punishment of desire is the agony of unfulfillment; the punishment of anger is the torment of imbalance.”
These are debts, karmic patterns, mental loops that bind us.
Forgiveness is apatheia in the Stoic sense: cutting the energetic cords to those who anchor us in reactive emotion. It’s not moral; it’s practical. When you forgive, you don’t change the past, you liberate your present attention.
Jesus makes this explicit in the Secret Gospel of Mark (a fragment even more suppressed than Thomas):
“For the child of humanity came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many, but the ransom is the teaching that sets minds free.”
Forgiveness is the mechanism.
The “evil one” is not Satan. It’s the unmastered mind, the nous lost in its own projections. In Thomas, Jesus warns:
“If you do not fast from the world, you will not find the kingdom” (Thomas 27).
Fasting from the world means fasting from the mind’s addiction to its own narratives.
Temptation as Mental Addiction
“Lead us not into temptation.”
The Stoic Epictetus taught:
“Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of them.”
Temptation is the mind’s infinite capacity to manufacture need.
In the Gospel of the Egyptians, Jesus tells Salome:
“I have come to destroy the works of the female,” meaning the material-generative principle that keeps souls trapped in cyclical desire.
Salome asks when this will happen, and Jesus answers:
“When you trample the shameful garment,” the body-identified ego.
This is the same teaching: the mind that chases its own creations is the tempter. The “evil one” is the fragmented self, the ego that believes it needs more to be complete.
In Thomas again:
“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you” (Thomas 70).
This is the temptation, to remain unborn, unactualized.
The Name That Cannot Be Spoken
Finally:
“Hallowed be Your name.”
In the Corpus Hermeticum, God is “the unnamed, the ineffable.” In Plato’s Parmenides, the One “is neither named nor spoken.”
Jesus’s prayer preserves this apophatic core: the Father’s name is holy because it is unutterable.
Any god who gives you a name is a limited deity, a tribal god, a mask. The true Father is the Plato’s Good beyond being, the Hermetic Nous beyond comprehension. To name it is to create an idol.
This is why Jesus never says YHWH. He says Abba-a relationship, not a label. The name is hallowed not by reverent repetition but by experiential silence.
As the Gospel of Truth (Nag Hammadi) declares:
“He is a name for himself, for he is unnameable. He is not one of the things that exist, but he is something far superior, not ‘Father’ or ‘Mother’ but the depth of all things.”
Conclusion: The Gospel Paul Couldn’t Steal
Paul needed a Messiah to fit his Pharisaic expectations. So he built one from cherry-picked Septuagint fragments and his own theological blueprint. But the Jesus who emerges from the suppressed gospels and the silences of the canonical four is not a fulfill-er of scripture, he’s a shatterer of idols, including scriptural ones.
His prayer is not a petition but a mnemonic for enlightenment:
- Father = Unnamable Source
- Kingdom = Awakened Mind
- Bread = Daily Wisdom
- Forgiveness = Mental Liberation
- Temptation = Ego’s Addiction
This is the arcane gospel: Jesus as a master of consciousness, teaching that heaven is not above but within, not future but now, not earned but remembered. It is a teaching Hermes would recognize, Buddha would affirm, and the great Stoic sages would salute.
Paul may have hijacked the movement, but he couldn’t hijack the mind. The kingdom remains where it always was: inside you, waiting for you to roll up the heavens and see.
The Fire That Awakens: Rethinking Hell, Reincarnation, and the Journey of the Soul
The fire burns, not as destruction, but as revelation.
For as long as humans have pondered existence, there has been the question of what comes after. Many have feared a place of torment-hell, the great abyss, the land of eternal suffering. A place where souls are cast down, punished for their mistakes, and left to endure endless agony. A warning, a threat, a cosmic jail for the wayward.
But what if everything about hell was misunderstood?
What if, instead of punishment, hell is a passage? Not a prison, but a refining fire, burning away what is false and leaving only what is true? What if hell is not the end, but the very step required to reach something greater?
The Fire of Transformation
The Sun-a searing ball of light and energy-stands as the life force of the universe, providing warmth, growth, and possibility. It is, at its core, fire. And yet, fire does not simply destroy; it purifies, refines, and transforms. The raw ore is placed in the forge so that the impurities may burn away, revealing something stronger, more resilient, more true than before.
What if hell works the same way?
Imagine that after death, every soul steps into a realm of light, not the golden paradise often promised, but something hot, raw, unfiltered. A place where nothing can be hidden, where every illusion, every falsehood, every deception-self-made or otherwise-is burned away by the sheer force of truth. There is no escape, no shadow to hide in. The light of understanding is absolute.
For some, this experience would be liberating, a final cleansing that allows them to rise beyond the need for earthly experiences. They have accepted truth, embraced knowledge, and dissolved all false attachments. They move on, ascending to something greater, something beyond the cycle of life and death.
But for others, the experience is too much. The truth is overwhelming. There are things still unlearned, lessons still waiting to be grasped. The fire reveals what they are not ready to face, and so, rather than ascending, they return, not as punishment, but as another opportunity. Another life, another journey, another chance to learn what could not be learned before.
Jesus and the Fire of Awakening
This idea isn’t new. Even Jesus spoke of fire, not as destruction, but as something he himself came to bring:
“I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!”
—Luke 12:49
This isn’t a gentle, comforting statement. It is urgent, almost impatient. The fire is necessary, not to destroy, but to transform. To ignite something within people, something that burns away falsehood and reveals truth.
John the Baptist, too, spoke of this fire:
“I baptize you with water for repentance, but after me comes one who is more powerful than I… He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
—Matthew 3:11
Water cleanses the outer self. But fire? Fire goes deeper. Fire purifies from within. It is not comfortable, but it is necessary for transformation.
And then, at Pentecost-the birth of the Christian movement-fire appears again.
“They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.”
—Acts 2:3
This was not a fire of destruction. It was a fire of awakening, of illumination, clarity, divine wisdom. It was the moment when the disciples, once fearful and uncertain, became something greater.
The message is clear:
Fire is not meant to punish. It is meant to awaken.
Hell as the Fire of Understanding
If Jesus’ fire is one of transformation, then perhaps hell is not the place where fire punishes souls, but the very fire Jesus speaks of, one that burns away illusion and reveals truth.
Maybe hell is simply the fire of understanding, the process of confronting everything we could not face in life. If so, it isn’t the wicked who suffer in hell, it’s those who resist transformation, those who refuse to let go of their illusions. The pain comes not from the fire itself, but from the struggle against it.
If we strip away the fear-based teachings of hell as a place of eternal torment, what remains is something much more profound:
- The fire that refines, not destroys
- A realm where truth is inescapable
- A necessary passage before ascension
And if a soul is not ready? If the truth is too much?
Then, just like Prometheus, they return, bound not by punishment, but by their own refusal to accept what must be burned away. They choose another life, another round of experience, another opportunity to learn.
Reincarnation: Not Punishment, but Choice
Reincarnation, in this view, is not a system of reward and punishment. It is the soul’s decision, to try again, to experience more, to refine itself further before facing the fire once more.
Many fear the idea of hell because they see it as suffering. And yet, suffering does not come from the fire itself. Suffering comes from resistance. Those who suffer the most are not those who enter hell, but those who fight against it, clinging to falsehoods that the fire seeks to dissolve. It is not the flames that hurt, it is the refusal to let go of what must be burned away.
And so, the soul that is not ready to embrace truth steps away from the fire, choosing instead to return to the world, to live another life, to gain more experience. And then, in time, it returns, again and again, until at last, it is ready.
The Greatest Lie About Hell
Perhaps the greatest deception ever told was that hell is a place of meaningless suffering, a punishment imposed by an angry god.
Perhaps hell is not the enemy.
Perhaps the only ones who fear hell are those who resist the fire of transformation, those who cling to what must be burned away.
And maybe, just maybe, the true path to freedom is not in avoiding hell but in stepping into it willingly, embracing the light, and letting it refine the soul until there is nothing left but truth.
Hell is not a place of eternal suffering.
Hell is simply the final lesson before liberation.
The Fire Is Already Here
And here’s the most important part:
We don’t have to wait until death to face the fire.
The fire is already here. In every struggle, every hardship, every moment of clarity that forces us to grow. The process of transformation is not something that happens after life, it is happening right now.
This world is the forge.
We can either embrace the fire now, letting it refine us, choosing to evolve, to awaken, or we can resist, return, and try again.
But in the end, all roads lead to the fire.
And the fire does not destroy.
The fire reveals.
A New Look at the Lord’s Prayer
Is the Lord’s Prayer just words we recite, or is it a hidden roadmap to something deeper?
When asked by John, Jesus began the prayer with the words:
“Our Father in heaven.”
He taught us to pray to our Father, your Father, my Father, and Jesus’ Father. We, along with Jesus, are His children. The Father does not have only one child. And our Father is in heaven. Jesus did not define heaven in the prayer.
Bible scholars agree that behind the Greek word patēr (Father) is the Aramaic word Abba, the language Jesus spoke. Abba differs from Father; it is affectionate, respectful, and guiding, like calling Him Dad or Daddy.
The second line reads:
“Hallowed be Your name.”
The Father’s name is holy; it cannot be spoken. Because once spoken, He is identified, limited by human understanding. To define the Father is to label Him, to place Him within a box, even if that box contains all things.
Jesus said the Father does not reveal His name. So, if a god appears and tells you his name, he is a false god. He is not the Father.
The next three lines take on deeper meaning:
“Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
“On earth as it is in heaven.”
This reflects the Hermetic principle:
“That which is above is like to that which is below, and that which is below is like to that which is above.”
However, some versions translate it differently:
“That which is above is from that which is below, and that which is below is from that which is above.”
This version aligns more closely with Jesus’ teachings. We, who are below, are drawing heaven. What we see, what we hear, and what we do, we are writing the story of heaven.
“Your kingdom come.”
What kingdom? A palace? No. No palace in the world is large enough to contain the Father. The kingdom is within us, our thoughts, our awareness, our discernment.
How do we know the kingdom is the mind?
In the Gospel of Mary, Jesus says:
“Where the mind is, there is the treasure.”
A kingdom is full of treasures. And the greatest treasure is knowledge—self-knowledge, understanding, and experiencing the brotherhood and sisterhood of all people.
“Give us today our daily bread.”
“Give us.” This is a request, a seeking, a calling.
What are we asking for?
New knowledge. New lessons. New experiences. New thoughts.
Jesus taught both learning and unlearning, to approach each day anew.
“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”
Forgiveness is a step to freedom. When we forgive, we untie ourselves from those who tempt us toward negativity. Forgiveness unlocks the chains.
But what are these debts?
They are the thoughts that occupy the mind, the weight of the past, the absence of the present. To cut these ties is to connect with what is real in the moment.
And the scissors of freedom? Forgiveness.
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
This is a call to captain the mind, to uncover the treasures within. It is a call to reveal yourself and become known.
In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus says:
“The kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living Father.”
The prayer calls us to not let the mind lead us into temptation. It also reminds us, that the kingdom is within, not just outside.
What is temptation?
Temptation is an addiction of a lost mind fabricating needs.
Satisfy one need, and another takes its place. The mind is infinite, because our imagination is an infinite universe. It is easy to lose ourselves in its depths.
“Come to know yourself.”
Temptation lies outside.
The mind that chases its own creations walks the path to evil.
Instead, guide the mind inward.
Know yourself.
Live what you speak.
This is what my mind acknowledges when I read this prayer.
Your mind may recognize a different meaning.
“The Name is beyond name,
for to name it is to bind it.
The Kingdom is not built with hands,
but unfolds within the mind.
The bread is not of the body,
but the wisdom that nourishes the soul.
Forgiveness is the blade
that severs the chains of illusion.
Temptation is the shadow
of a mind lost in its own creation.
To awaken is to remember,
that heaven is not above, nor earth below,
but both are written in the same breath.”