Spoke 22 - Tav - Universal Resurrection

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Revelation 20:6 (Spoke 22, Cycle 3)

Throughout this website, we have seen the dominant themes of every Spoke prophetically anticipated in the KeyWords God revealed in the Alphabetic Verses a thousand years before Christ. We now come to the greatest promise and ultimate hope of the entire Bible in the second to last Tav verse of the supreme Alphabetic Psalm 119:

• AV Psalm 119:175 Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgments help me.

The phrase "Let my soul live" begins with the KeyWord T'chi, which when suffixed with the Letter Hey becomes T'chiyah, the standard Hebrew word meaning Resurrection. This noun is formed from the root chayah (to live) which most people are familiar with through the exclamation L'chayim! (To life! BW book pg 250). These are the terms chosen by the United Bible Society when they translated the words of Christ into Hebrew: "I am the Resurrection (T'chiyah) and the Life (Chayim)" (John 11:25). In this they followed the traditional Jewish understanding, as explained in the entry titled Resurrection: T'chiyath-Hammethim in the Encyclopedia of Jewish Concepts [Note the article supports the idea of resurrection by citing the Inner Wheel link between Isaiah 26Book 26 = Ezekiel]:

It has been noted that the doctrine of Israel's messianic redemption is connected with the doctrine of resurrection. It is supported by the following biblical utterances: "I will open your graves and bring you out of your graves" (Ezekiel 37:12). "Your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise; awake and sing, you who lie in the dust" (Isaiah 26:19). ... During the Second Commonwealth, the belief in the resurrection of the body, in contradistinction to the immortality of the soul, became a fundamental doctrine of the Pharisees; they held that the soul and the body would, in the future world, be reunited, reconstituting the original person, who would stand in judgment before God and receive reward or punishment according to his good or bad conduct during life.

This "fundamental doctrine of the Pharisees" is precisely what Paul appealed to when he defended the Gospel before the Sanhedrin in the Book of Acts:

But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question. And when he had so said, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees: and the multitude was divided. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.

Acts 23:6ff (Spoke 22, Cycle 2)

The link between hope and the proclamation of the resurrection runs throughout the Book of Acts. Paul connected these ideas when he stood before Felix:

But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets: And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.

Acts 24:14ff (Spoke 22, Cycle 2)

And again, he mentioned hope three times when he defended himself before Agrippa (Acts 26:4ff)

My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews; Which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?

And finally when he called together the "chief of the Jews" in Rome to preach unto them (Acts 28:20): For this cause therefore have I called for you, to see you, and to speak with you: because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.

The United Bible Society translated the highlighted words using the standard Hebrew phrase Tiqvah Yisrael, shown in the KeyWord table above. This is the blessed hope of every believer. The graph shows the distribution of the word "resurrection" on the Bible Wheel. The peak on Spoke 22 is due primarily to the fact that though all Four Gospels record the resurrection, it is in Acts that it is repeatedly preached:

And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.

Acts 4:33 (Spoke 22, Cycle 2)

The two hits from Revelation proclaim the fulfillment of this great promise from God. It is important to consider what we are witnessing here. The theme of resurrection is based on the Tav KeyWord T'chiyah, which itself is closely related to the KeyWord that God presented in the penultimate Tav verse of AV Psalm 119. This then links to the distribution of the word "resurrection" on the Bible Wheel, where its frequency on Spoke 22 is more than twice that of any other Spoke. We have a total, complete, and perfect integration of these Alphabetic KeyWords with both the geometric and thematic structure of the Holy Word! Yet this is but the beginning of wonders!

The Russian Orthodox icon of the Resurrection of Christ shown below, like the Greek Orthodox version above, visually conveys these manifold truths of the Gospel. The Resurrected Christ is shown surrounded by radiant glory and standing victorious on the Letter Tav (X) formed from the lids of the coffins of those He is raising from the dead. And what do we see underneath the Tav? The Devil bound and x-ed out! The Victory of Christ over death has destroyed all of his power!

Note also the figures standing beside Him. On His right is the Elijah, representing the Prophets, and on His left is Moses with the Ten Commandments, representing the Law. This is the "righteousness of God," Jesus Christ, being "witnessed by the law and the prophets" (Rom 3:21f). This standard iconic form also appears in the icon of the Transfiguration (BW book pg 316). And of course, He is represented with the tri-radiant halo, the prophetic icon of the structure of His Holy Word.

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