SG-029: 3-1-6 > John Denies that He is the Christ or Elijah
SG-029: 3-1-6 > John Denies that He is the Christ or Elijah
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Welcome to the 29th Act of The Synoptic Gospel!
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The Synoptic Gospel is a single, complete Gospel account of the life of Jesus Christ, taken directly from the texts of the four Gospels of the New Testament; Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
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Please click on the link below to read Today’s Act:
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Act 3-1-6 - John Denies that He is the Christ or Elijah
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Adobe PDF File: The SYNOPTIC GOSPEL – Section 3, Chapter 1, Act 6
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or, you can read the commentary on the Act first…
– there is another link to the .pdf file at the bottom of the post…
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COMMENTARY on Act 3-1-6
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This Act is taken entirely from the Gospel of John.
This Act begins with,
“This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ ” (John 1:21)
This “testimony” can also be taken to mean John’s ‘confession’, his ‘statement’, or even his ‘witness’.
“The Jews” here indicates the religious leadership of Judaism, in this case very likely the ruling council of elders that was known as the “Sanhedrin”, many of whom were from the sect known as the Pharisees (John 1:24).
Apparently, as we have previously read, the fame of John had spread far and wide throughout the land, and people were coming from all over the region to listen to the preaching and teachings of John, and to be baptized by him.
This would naturally cause some questions and concern for the Jewish leadership – who was this ‘John’, and why was he doing what he was doing. Who gave him the authority to baptize people or to start a new type of religious observance, as it was clear that the Jewish leadership did not send him and tell him to do such things.
“The Jews sent to him priests and Levites” – these were people who knew the Scriptures and the Law, and would be able to determine and ascertain what exactly it was that John was doing. No doubt, uppermost in their minds was the possibility that he was harming, confusing or otherwise corrupting the people, perhaps even turning them away from God and toward idolatry or Satan. And also, as evidenced by their line of questioning to John, they wanted to see if John might in fact be the expected Messiah.
And this was likely their first question. They asked John who he was, and he answered and said to them, “I am not the Christ.” Again, “Christ” is the Greek word for Messiah.
John here again shows his humility by not claiming to be the One whom they were all eagerly expecting and seeking. It is likely that if John did claim to be the Messiah, then many people would probably have believed him. Of course, no one should ever claim the prerogatives or titles of God, or of His Son.
John then “… cried out saying,
‘This was He of whom I said,
“He who comes after me has a rank higher than I, for He existed before me.”’”
That “He existed before me” is very cryptic and interesting. One might think that John is referring to the fact that the coming Messiah was older than John, but we know that this is not the case. As we have read in SG-005, John’s mother, Elizabeth, was six months pregnant when the angel Gabriel visited the mother of Jesus, Mary, and told her that she would conceive and bear a son. (Luke 1:26-28)
From this it is clear that John is not referring to the chronological human age of the coming Messiah, because in this case, John is in fact at least six months older than Jesus.
The only other possibility is that John is indicating that the Messiah, as a great spirit being, even the Word of God, existed before, or predates, everything, as all things were made “through Him” (John 1:1-3 – see also Micah 5:2), and therefore Jesus, who “descended from heaven” (John 3:13), “has a rank higher than” anyone, including John, who was himself a mighty prophet sent by God.
Those sent from Jerusalem to question John then asked him if were one of several other individuals whom the Jewish people were expecting from the prophecies of their Scriptures. Apparently they started with the biggest claim, Messiah, and were then going to work their way down the list of possible identities for this mysterious man who had appeared and was baptizing.
They asked John if he were the prophet “Elijah” (John 1:21).
This was a good guess on their part, as Elijah was to come before the appearance of the Messiah, even to prepare the hearts of the people, and clearly John was preaching to the people that the expected Messiah was imminently about to appear.
From the prophecy of Malachi, the very last two lines of the Old Testament, written perhaps 400 years before, state:
“Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet
before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.
“He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children
and the hearts of the children to their fathers,
so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.” (Malachi 4:5-6)
John denied that he was Elijah. But we have already read in the Gospel of Luke about the prophecy of the angel Gabriel regarding John, before he was born;
“And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God.
“It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous,
so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (Luke 1:16-17)
We will examine this claim again, as Jesus will later confirm that,
“And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come.
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Matthew 11:14-15) see also Matthew 17:11-12 and Mark 9:13.
It is clear that unless John was deliberately lying, he was likely not aware that he himself was Elijah, or at least that he came “… in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17).
The people who were wondering about John then asked if he were “the Prophet”. (John 1:21)
This is likely a reference to Deuteronomy 18:15-18, which most Christians see as being a future reference to Jesus Christ. It is also possible that some people thought that the expected prophet might here be referring to the prophet Jeremiah, as he is later mentioned in Matthew 16:14.
Perhaps these questioners of John did not associate the Messiah with being “the Prophet”, so that the Messiah and the Prophet were two different individuals. Likely assumed that the Messiah would be much more than a mere prophet, and He was – but He was also at least a prophet – as was Moses, to whom God spoke those words of Deuteronomy.
Of course, the Muslims see this reference from Deuteronomy to refer to the “Prophet” Muhammad of Islam, who like Moses, was also descended from Abraham, and who like both Moses and Jesus, would found a new system of religious worship of God.
Either way, John the Baptist denies that he was “the Prophet”. Obviously John knew that he was a prophet, and he also knew that he was not “the Prophet”.
Those who had been sent to question John, now likely somewhat confused, then asked, “Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us?” (John 1:22)
John answered them and said,
“I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness,
‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’
as Isaiah the prophet said.” (John 1:23)
This is a paraphrase of what Isaiah actually said, in Isaiah 40:3.
They then asked John the obvious burning question, perhaps with some exasperation,
“Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ,
nor Elijah,
nor the Prophet?”
They asked John this because baptism was a ritual of special cleansing, which the Jews did themselves perform on people, though normally those who were Gentiles (non-Jewish) who wished to become Jews (by conversion).
For the Jews the ceremonial washing was to spiritually cleanse and prepare the people for their conversion. The baptism ritual was not normally performed on people who were already adherents, by birth or conversion, of the Jewish Faith.
So why was this man John baptizing people, both Jews, and likely also Gentiles (Luke 3:14)? Clearly the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem had not commissioned John to do this, and in fact knew nothing about it.
For a Jew to submit to this cleansing ritual of baptism was a sign of their extreme humility and repentance, and it also showed that even though they were already Jews, they were apparently not “clean” or pure enough, as they were, to meet their Messiah.
Perhaps they did not realize that as baptism was used by them to cleanse and initiate a non-Jew into the Jewish Faith, John was using the same ritual, or a version of it, to again, initiate people into yet a new Faith – the new Faith that would be initiated by their Messiah, little did they know it. It seems logical that to enter the new Faith of God, one must always be washed, cleansed and made pure.
“John answered them saying,
‘I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know.
‘It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.’ ” (John 1:26-27)
Here John is showing that the Messiah is already standing (alive on earth) amongst the people, but that they do not know it – they do not yet recognize Him. In fact, no one yet recognizes Him, as we will see.
The last part of John’s statement is a partial repetition of what he stated in the last Act – that he feels himself unworthy to bow down on the ground before the greatness of the Messiah, even to untie His the thong of His sandals. And this should also be our attitude towards God, towards His Messiah, and the Lord Jesus Christ – that each of us, no matter what our skills, our talents, our disposition and aptitudes, should each see ourselves as unworthy to perform any task, act or service for God. It is a token of the greatness of God in His love for us that these things are accepted by Him from us!
The last line of this Act states that,
“These things took place in Bethany, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.”
It should be noted that this “Bethany” is not the little village that is located near Jerusalem, but is probably a reference to another location with an older name, Bethabara, which was located on the east side of the Jordan River, within the district of Perea.
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Please click on the link below to read Today’s Act:
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Act 3-1-6 - John Denies that He is the Christ or Elijah
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Adobe PDF File: The SYNOPTIC GOSPEL – Section 3, Chapter 1, Act 6
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Click here for more information about the book, The Synoptic Gospel, or to order your copy! An electronic version (eBook – Adobe PDF) is also available!
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Coming next time:
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A new Chapter begins…
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Chapter 2 - The Baptism of Jesus The Christ
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and the moment we have all been waiting for…
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Act 3-2-1 Jesus is Baptized by John in the Jordan River
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Unfortunately, I am on vacation for a week, but look for it on
Sunday, August 22nd / 10
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Until then,
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May we all recognize the voice of the one crying in the wilderness!
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SG-028: 3-1-5 > John Preaches About the Coming Messiah
SG-028: 3-1-5 > John Preaches About the Coming Messiah
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Welcome to the 28th Act of The Synoptic Gospel!
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The Synoptic Gospel is a single account of the life of Jesus, taken directly from the texts of the four Gospels of the New Testament; Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
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Please click on the link below to read Today’s Act:
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Act 3-1-5 - John Preaches About the Coming Messiah
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Adobe PDF File: The SYNOPTIC GOSPEL – Section 3, Chapter 1, Act 5
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or, you can read the commentary on the Act first…
– there is another link to the .pdf file at the bottom of the post…
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COMMENTARY on Act 3-1-5
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This Act contains the merged portions from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.
It seems that the crowds of people who were coming to listen to John preach and to be baptized by him were wondering if John himself was the long-expected Messiah (the Christ).
This shows the respect and even the reverence that the people had for John and his preaching and teaching. It says a lot about the character and the bearing of the man that the people would consider that he himself might be the Christ. It also speaks volumes that John did not take such glory for himself, but that he continued to point these sincere people to the coming Messiah.
Of course John knew that he was not the Messiah, and he said to the people,
“As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance;
but One is coming after me who is mightier than I,…”
The “water” for repentance was an outward symbol of the inner cleansing of the heart, the “repentance”, which was the internal change and reformation of an individuals character.
John continued by famously saying to the crowds,
“… and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals.”
By this allegory John showed not only his extreme humility, but also the greatness of the coming Messiah.
In Jewish culture, as with many, the feet were considered the lowest part of a human, the part that trod upon the earth and got dirty.
In the Talmud it is stated that a slave may be required to do anything that his master asks, or a pupil for his teacher, except to take off his shoes (Ketuboth 96A). Presumably touching another man’s feet, and removing his shoes, was asking too much, and going too far.
That John was “not fit to stoop down” means that he was not worthy enough, in his mind, to even bow down before the greatness of the Messiah.
John then says to the crowds,
“I baptize you with water;
but He who is coming will baptize you with the Holy Spirit
and with fire.”
Clearly the baptism with which the Messiah would baptize the people would be quite different from the ritual washing that John was performing there in the Jordan River. Water is in fact the very opposite of fire.
John’s baptism indicate repentance and the desire to change and become spiritually clean and ritually pure before God, but it would not confer the Holy Spirit upon the washed individual, which can only come from God.
John said that the Messiah would baptize “with the Holy Spirit AND with fire.” The Holy Spirit is the spirit of God that changes and reforms human characters. And this is what the Messiah would Himself be baptized with, and then give to others.
The word ‘messiah’ means ‘the anointed one’. Anointing is a ceremony of dedication and consecration to the service of God. In Jewish culture, as with others, kings, and priests, and prophets, were all anointed to serve as God’s representatives. These anointing were usually a public ceremony.
This ceremony of anointing an individual to the service of God was accomplished by pouring oil (unction) upon the head and over the shoulders of the man.
Here the oil was usually a specially prepared and unique mixture of spices (such as frankincense) that was used only for such anointing ceremonies (Exodus 30:22-38). This special mixture itself represented the Holy Spirit of God, and was not to be made or used by the ordinary people.
Once a man was anointed as a priest or a prophet they could then confer (by anointing) the Holy Spirit upon others. And by John’s statement it is known that the Messiah Himself would be anointed, hence the term ‘Messiah’, before He could then baptize others with the Holy Spirit. In fact, it is clear that until the person was formally anointed, they were not officially the ‘Messiah’, which means “the anointed One”.
At this point in time, Jesus, though born “to be” the Messiah, had not yet undergone His official anointing, and was not yet ‘The Messiah’. And we will soon see His public anointing, by this very same man, John “the Baptist”, there in the Jordan River.
The “fire” that John mentions can be seen to represent trials, tests and difficulties. Heat and fire refines metals, and removes impurities, leaving a stronger, more pure and valuable core. Also, once melted by the heat of such a fire, the remaining pure metal can be poured and cast into a new mold, and made into something else. Whatever the fire does not destroy will be refined and made pure.
Fire in this case is also seen by many Christians to be the Holy Spirit that would later descend upon the believers in Jesus Christ, would be gathered in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost, 40 days after Jesus ascended into heaven (Acts 2:1-4).
Either way, John is indicating that his baptism with water is only for cleansing so that the people would be prepared for the baptism of Holy Spirit and fire that would be bestowed by the Messiah. For Christians, the fire can be seen as a life of tests, and also the Holy Spirit that empower the people to survive and overcome them.
John continues his discourse with an image of the Messiah standing with a “winnowing fork” in His hand. ‘Winnowing’ is the term used when a special wide-gapped fork is used to pick up piles of wheat, or other grains, and toss them into the air. The wind then blows away the lighter “chaff”, which is the husk or hull – the outer plant material that surrounds the inner core of the kernel or grain, which then fall to the ground.
This laborious method is a simple gravity and wind based way of separating the chaff – that which is of no value – from the wheat, or the edible, valuable and useful grains.
Presumably, going back to the allegory that John previously used about the trees (See SG-026), people either produce good fruit (wheat), or else the tree is chaff – useless for anything, except to be thrown into the fire. (see Amos 9:8-9; Malachi 3;1-3)
That “His winnowing fork is in His hand” means that He is already in the act or process of sifting and sorting out the good and useful souls, from those who are not useful, and presumably represents those people who are either sinners or unrepentant or who otherwise do not produce “good” fruit.
This image of the winnowing fork indicates that the Messiah will separate the people, (the wheat) – those who have faith and believe – from the chaff, which represents those people who are sinners, or who lack faith and who do not believe, and are therefore of no use to the plan or purposes of God.
This is born out by the next words of John, when he says,
“… and He will gather His wheat into His barn;
but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Chaff can be seen as light and empty – in this case, devoid of truth, spirit or purpose.
Of course all of this indicates that human souls will be separated into one of the two possible destinies that await each individual human – either salvation and eternal life for the believers, or the death and the destruction of hell (fire) that await the sinners, the unfaithful and the unbelievers. This sifting by the Messiah can be seen as the Judgment that will separate the good from the bad; the saints from the sinners.
From John’s words the Messiah has a “barn” which indicates a place where the useful or valuable things are kept, while the “chaff” – that which is useless – is to be burned, and will be no more. In this case the “barn” can be seen as the new religion of God which the Messiah would establish, in this case, Christianity, and it can also represent Heaven, or salvation – which can be seen as (eternal) life.
The part about the “unquenchable fire” is an interesting image, as fire is always unquenchable, so long as there is any remaining fuel and oxygen for it to consume.
This imagery is in keeping with a rural farming theme, of crops and fields, trees, wheat and chaff, which Jesus would use repeatedly throughout His ministry of teaching parables.
The last line of this Act states, “So with many other exhortations he preached the gospel to the people.”
An ‘exhortation’ is a piece of urgent advice, a strong recommendation, or even a warning.
This line from Luke indicates that John said many other similar types of things to the people who came to listen to him. These ‘exhortations’ were apparently to help the people realize that they needed to be cleansed by John with his baptism, and that they needed to reform their characters to be prepared to meet their Messiah.
It is a shame that the other teachings and exhortations of John the Baptist, except these few, have not been preserved within any of the Gospels.
The line says that “he (John) preached the gospel to the people.” In the original Greek the word “gospel” literally means, “good news”, and that is what this message about the coming Messiah was to the Jewish people – the ‘good news’ that they would be saved from their now burdensome and corrupt religious system of law, with all of the additional restrictions and regulations that had been added and crept in over time.
Part of this ‘good news’ was that the Messiah would usher in a new age, and a new covenant between humanity and God – a new religion, one that represented a new relationship with, and approach to God, where individual people could call on God for the forgiveness of their sins, and not through a complex and burdensome system of priests and animal sacrifices. This was good news indeed!
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Please click on the link below to read Today’s Act:
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Act 3-1-5 - John Preaches About the Coming Messiah
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Adobe PDF File: The SYNOPTIC GOSPEL – Section 3, Chapter 1, Act 5
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Click here for more information about the book, The Synoptic Gospel, or to order your copy!
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Coming next time:
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Act 3-1-6 John Denies that He is the Christ or Elijah
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Look for it on Sunday, August 8th / 10
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Until then,
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May we all be sifted and gathered into the barn of God’s salvation!
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SG-027: 3-1-4 > The Teachings of John the Baptist
SG-027: 3-1-4 > The Teachings of John the Baptist
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Welcome to the 27th Act of The Synoptic Gospel!
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The Synoptic Gospel is a single account of the life of Jesus, taken directly from the texts of the four Gospels of the New Testament; Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
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Please click on the link below to read Today’s Act:
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Act 3-1-4 - The Teachings of John the Baptist
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Adobe PDF File: The SYNOPTIC GOSPEL – Section 3, Chapter 1, Act 4
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or, you can read the commentary on the Act first…
– there is another link to the .pdf file at the bottom of the post…
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COMMENTARY on Act 3-1-4
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This Act of The Synoptic Gospel is taken entirely from the Gospel of Luke, and occurs right after John’s warnings to the Pharisees and the Sadducees (see previous post).
The Act begins with
“…the crowds were coming to him, saying, “Then what shall we do?”
The ‘him’ here is John, the Baptist, who was preaching and baptizing the people in the Jordan River.
Evidently the people were concerned about what John had just said to the Pharisees and the Sadducees in his warning to them about ‘the wrath to come’ and the ‘axe’ being ‘laid at the root of the trees’ and them being ‘thrown into the fire’.
The root of their question is really, “What shall we do to be saved (or spared) from the wrath to come?”
It seems a reasonable question, as the people were seeing that the leaders and teachers of their religion – the Pharisees and Sadducees – were evidently in trouble, and about to be thrown into the fire. If these learned leaders of Judaism were not going to be saved, then how would an ordinary person be spared from the coming wrath of God?
John’s answer to the crowds was that everyone with abundance should share “tunics” (clothing), and also food, with those who had none. This is simple charity, and shows concern for others, as well as humility and self-sacrifice. Of course, food and clothing are representative here of all of the human necessities of this physical, earthly life.
In many ways this sharing is a fundamental concept for any group of people or society – that those who have not are provided for, such as the widow and the orphan (Deuteronomy 24:19-21, 26:12).
There were also some tax collectors in the crowd that day who asked John what they should do. John’s answer to them was that they should, “… collect no more than what you have been ordered to.”
John’s words are an injunction to justice and equity. Collecting more taxes from people than the government rates specify is in effect theft, or stealing, and is contrary to the eighth Commandment – “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15; Deuteronomy 5:19).
The fact that John said this to these collectors of the Roman state tax indicates that these tax collectors were likely dishonest, and that they were cheating the people by overcharging them for their taxes.
It is known that the tax collectors were a disliked group and considered among the low-lifes of that society.
From the Jewish point of view, the tax collectors were representatives of the Roman state, that temporal power that currently enslaved the Jewish nation. These tax collectors were mostly Jewish citizens who now worked for “the enemy”, and took money from their fellow citizens, and sent it to the seat of the great Empire that oppressed them. Such tax collectors would be seen as traitors to the Jewish nation – and then to be corrupt on top of that…
In fact, so low was the opinion of the tax collectors, that in the New Testament they were grouped together with the sinners by the Pharisees (Matthew 9:10-11, 11:9; Mark 2:15-16; Luke 5:30, 15:1…),
and tax collectors were also grouped together with the Gentiles (those who were not Jewish) (Matthew 18:17),
and even with prostitutes (Matthew 21:31-32).
So low was the public opinion of the hated tax collectors that they were even contrasted as the ‘opposite’ of the (righteous) Pharisees in Luke 18:10-14.
Evidence of the corruptness of the tax collectors is demonstrated by Zaccheus, who was a rich tax collector who would later say to Jesus,
“Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor,
and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.” (Luke 18:19)
As well as the tax collectors there were also some soldiers who questioned John about what they should do (to escape the coming wrath). John replied to them,
“Do not take money from anyone by force,
or accuse anyone falsely,
and be content with your wages.” (Luke 3:14)
These soldiers may have been Jewish but were more likely Roman citizens – either way these men were employed by the Roman government of Judea.
If any of these men were in fact Roman citizens it seems that John may have been willing to baptize these Gentiles, which would be startling, and may indicate that the Gospel that led to the coming Messiah would be for everyone (Romans), and not just for the Jews.
In the original Greek the meaning of “money from anyone by force” is closer to “do not intimidate or harass” and even to not “shake thoroughly” (as a fig tree).
Taking money by force is “extortion”, and is in effect worse than mere theft or stealing, which is also contrary to the eighth Commandment – “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15; Deuteronomy 5:19)
This sounds like the kind of action that soldiers with authority might do, as even modern police are occasionally accused of (ie. a “shake-down” or maybe a bribe).
It seems that men with the power of these types of military positions can sometimes use their authority in harsh ways. As the saying goes: “Power corrupts, (and absolute power corrupts absolutely)”.
John’s words to the soldiers about “do not… accuse anyone falsely” is also something that even modern police seem sometimes tempted to do, such as to plant false “evidence” and thereby “set-up” and “frame” people.
If you could not get your way with a man that you disliked because he was not openly contravening the law, or there was none or insufficient evidence to summarily convict him of a real crime, then he could be framed and accused of a crime or unlawful act, and once falsely accused the soldiers could do with him as they wished, and even outright take or otherwise seize his possessions and property.
This injunction by John would be for the soldiers to uphold the ninth Commandment –
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16; Deuteronomy 5:20)
John’s words that the soldiers “be content with your wages” could be an indication that either the soldiers were not well paid, or that these men were generally greedy and that they used their power to take (extort) money and goods from the people. These “wages” that were due to the soldiers were not only what they were paid, but likely also included their daily allowance of food (and salt) and other necessities.
John’s words might also indicate that the soldiers occasionally mutinied, especially when they were not content with their wages.
Either way, this injunction to “be content with your wages” is a call to humility and submission. From a wider perspective, everyone should always be content with what God has provided. And this injunction applies not only to the soldiers, but also to the tax collectors, who were apparently not content with their wages and took for the people more than they were due.
And these two groups, the soldiers and the tax collectors would sometimes work together. If the tax collector over-assessed the taxes due from a man and he protested or would not pay, it would be up to the soldiers to get the money from him, on the threat of torture or prison. No doubt in such situations the tax collectors would share their ill-gotten gain with the soldiers.
Now none of the things that John said to these three groups of people was very profound, new or difficult to fulfill. It appears that salvation for these crowds of people was simply to do what was right and just – to be generous and to share with the poor and the needy, the widows and the orphans. Not to defraud or steal from anyone, and to not take anything from anyone by force (extort), and to be content with ones wages, and to not rebel against the civil authorities.
It seems that these simple instructions from John on how to avoid “the wrath to come” are simply justice, doing the right thing, and not sinning by breaking the established Commandments of God. And this is what one would expect as the way to please God, and to help ensure His grace, or in this case, avoid His wrath.
John did not say to these various groups of people that they had to sacrifice, or perform any type of vow or ritual for God, other than to submit to John’s baptism. Just be good people. Just be clean and pure and have a heart that is prepared to meet their Messiah.
It seems that John was preparing the people to meet their Messiah by returning them to the simple purity of the Will of God for humanity as expressed by the Ten Commandments, as originally handed down through Moses some 1,400 years before.
Interestingly, it seems that it is human nature to faithfully undertake and perform great vows and sweeping acts for God, but not to pay attention to do the smaller, more basic things that He requires and asks of us daily – and this is to simply serve Him by being good to our fellow human beings.
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In summary, John’s instructions were to three different groups of people:
1. The ordinary people and citizens (the crowds)
2. The civil authority (publicans – the tax collectors)
3. The military state of the Roman Empire (the soldiers)
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In summary John’s injunctions to avoid the wrath of God were to:
1. be charitable and share, especially if you have abundance (two tunics) with those who do not have
2. not to defraud or take from anyone more than you are due
3. not to harass, or to extort, or take anything from anyone by force
4. be content with one’s wages (or that which you have)
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In short, John called for a reformation of the peoples actions, so that they would align their actions with the Will of God, as expressed through the Commandments that He handed down to humanity for our peaceful co-existence and happiness.
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Please click on the link below to read Today’s Act:
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Act 3-1-4 - The Teachings of John the Baptist
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Adobe PDF File: The SYNOPTIC GOSPEL – Section 3, Chapter 1, Act 4
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Click here for more information about the book, The Synoptic Gospel, or to order your copy!
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Coming next time:
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Act 3-1-5 John Preaches About the Coming Messiah
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Look for it on Sunday, August 1st / 10
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Until then,
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May we all be faithful in daily keeping the Commandments of God,
and found doing the little things that He requires of us!
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SG-026: 3-1-3 > John Warns the Pharisees
SG026: 3-1-3 > John Warns the Pharisees
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Welcome to the 26th Act of The Synoptic Gospel!
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The Synoptic Gospel is a single account of the life of Jesus, taken directly from the texts of the four Gospels of the New Testament; Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
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Please click on the link below to read Today’s Act:
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Act 3-1-3 - John Warns the Pharisees
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Adobe PDF File: The SYNOPTIC GOSPEL – Section 3, Chapter 1, Act 3
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or, you can read the commentary on the Act first…
– there is another link to the .pdf file at the bottom of the post…
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COMMENTARY on Act 3-1-3
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This Act of The Synoptic Gospel is 100% merged text from the parallel sections of Matthew 3:7-10 and Luke 3:7-9.
The story continues with
“The crowds were going out to be baptized by him, …”
The ‘him’ mentioned here is John the Baptist and, as we read, many people from Jerusalem and the area surrounding the Jordan River were coming to listen to John preach about the coming Messiah, and to be baptized.
When John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to also be baptized by him, John seemed to be unwilling.
He said “to them, ‘You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?’ ”
Why did he call them ‘vipers’, and what is ‘the wrath to come’?
‘Vipers’ is a reference to a snake, one that has poison, and was perhaps the most deadly snake in that that known part of the world at that time. A viper can also be seen to represent danger and lethality, a quick strike, and perhaps even cunningness.
The Pharisees (meaning “set apart”) and the Sadducees, whom John called ‘vipers’, were among the learned of Israel, and were the teachers and the lawyers of the Jewish Law. They supposedly should know the Law and the Scriptures, but John obviously did not perceive this knowledge within them, as the Pharisees were overly strictly rigid on the outward form of the observance of the Law, and seems incognizant of its inner spiritual meaning and application; while the Sadducees did not acknowledge or believe in spirits, angels or the “resurrection” (Matthew 22:23). And these doctrines and teachings of men are like a viper’s venom, poisoning the peoples minds, their hearts and perception and spirits towards God, which eventually leads to a spiritual death.
And John did not like the spirit that they represented because he knew. It is likely that John had a good knowledge of the Scriptures and the Law. First of all, his father Zacharias was a priest (Luke 1:5).
One might also imagine that before John stood up before all of Israel as a prophet and to call attention to himself, knowing that this will lead to ridicule and persecution, possibly even death, John would have first studied the Scriptures, to arm himself with the word, so to speak.
Also John would want to ensure that what he was about to do was not a flagrant contradiction to the Commandments or the Law of God.
There is also the inspiration of the command of God to a prophet, which would surely have informed John about what God’s Will is for him.
So John, a prophet (John 1:5), from a line of priests, born from a miracle of God as told by angels, likely armed with a detailed knowledge of the Law and the Scriptures, does not like something about the Sadducees and the Pharisees, those who are the teachers and lawyers of the Jewish Law, and John collectively calls them ‘vipers’.
And ‘the wrath to come’ – what could John have meant by this? That there is a “wrath” can generally only indicate something from God, and this is certainly the case when a prophet, in the middle of his ministry, says this.
God’s wrath can be seen as His righteous displeasure with sin, used for punishment, and for those who are wise and receptive, the wrath leads to repentance and correction. For those who will not heed the warning and repent, the wrath leads to their destruction.
So a ‘wrath’ is coming, in the future from that time, from God.
John said, “…who warned you to flee…”
As they are ‘coming for baptism’ it can be seen that these people were being cleansed from their sins as humans before God, and for their shortcomings in the keeping of His Law and commandments, as found in the Torah (Pentateuch – the first 5 books of the Old Testament).
The Gospels at this point do not say, but we now know that later baptism, not this formula of John’s, was in fact an entry into “Christianity”, that is, a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
Therefore, what John might have known, and been referring to in his speech, was an allusion that the people being baptized, were actually being prepared to enter into a new relationship with God, a new covenant, but this time according to the teachings of the kingdom established by the Messiah Jesus, whom John was preaching.
The end of it is that if you are entering into a new relationship, you are leaving the old one. In this case, by being baptized by John the people were being prepared to enter into relationship with the Messiah, the King of Israel and Jews, and therefore they were in a sense fleeing (leaving), or exiting, Judaism.
Now, if you are still following this, ‘the wrath to come’, of which these Pharisees and Sadducees were ‘fleeing’, was that which was to come on those who stayed behind, and did not flee, ie. those who would not accept the Messiah – and who would choose to remain Jews.
In this case, that which they were fleeing, upon which there would come God’s wrath, was the corrupt form of Judaism current at that time. The Faith had started well under the guidance of Moses, but after 1,500 years, many wars and several captivities, the original teachings had become twisted and altered over time.
Obviously, from John’s point of view, the spirit of the Pharisees and Sadducees was not right. Likely John knew that the people had been blinded by God (Isaiah 29:9-10, 42:7, 15-30, 43:8, 44:18; Jeremiah 5:21), and that most of them would not be able to recognize the ‘Light’, of whom John was sent to preach, and thereby prepare a few receptive souls to meet their Messiah.
John then says to them, “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance;…” and later continues with the fruit analogy by adding,
“Indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees;
so therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down
and thrown into the fire.”
Here the ‘fruit’ must refer to the “fruit of the spirit”, which are deeds and actions, or the things that people do.
We can surmise that this is what John was referring to because Jesus used the same analogy of fruit in the same way (Matthew 7:15-20). In fact if you read what Jesus said, it is almost word for word identical to what John said, even the part about the ones who cannot produce good fruit being thrown into the fire.
“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing,
but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”…
… “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit,
nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
(Matthew 7:13…18-19) [all words in red are words that are attributed to Jesus]
And this is an important distinction. If you suppose that the ‘good trees’ – the ones that produce ‘good fruits’ – go to heaven, then the mind naturally assumes an opposite – that the “bad trees” are ‘thrown into the fire’. But this is not what was said. It does not mention “bad trees” but clearly says,
“every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Of course, most people see ‘the fire’ as at least chastisement or punishment, and likely destruction, and even as “Hell”.
As John gave this warning to the Pharisees and the Sadducees Jesus would use the same analogy and symbolism to warn the people about ‘false prophets’ – which perhaps are what the Pharisees and Sadducees were.
Perhaps all of this talk of fruit is not really so much about being ‘good’ or ‘bad’, because ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are somewhat subjective and relative concepts; because all of us do bad things, all fall short of the mark and ‘sin’, but most people also do good things, kind, thoughtful or sacrificial compassionate deeds and acts, while there are others who never make the effort to produce any ‘good fruit’.
Perhaps what John and Jesus are saying is that it is not so much our ‘bad fruit’ that will get us ‘thrown into the fire’, but rather a complete lack of any ‘good fruit’. And the two types of fruit, good and bad are related. And any tree that does not produce ‘good fruit’ is basically useful only to be used as building material, toothpicks, or firewood.
Jesus will also later Himself famously say to the Pharisees,
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad;
for the tree is known by its fruit.
You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good?
For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.
The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good;
and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.” (Mathew 12:33-35)
Notice that Jesus also called the Pharisees ‘vipers’. The similarity of the statements by John and Jesus indicates that both were able to see the Pharisees as God saw them.
It also indicates that this was indeed what John meant by his warnings to the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
John next warns them not to say to themselves,
“… ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.”
The ‘children of Abraham’ are those people who are the Jews, among others. The Jews were proud that they were descended from Abraham, the father and patriarch of their monotheistic religion. And it seems that they thought that this righteous foundation of Abraham, “the friend of God” (James 2:23), upon which their religion and entire society rested, was sufficient to please God forever.
They were also aware of the promises that God had made to Abraham about his descendants being, “as the sand of the sea” (Genesis 32:12) and “the stars of the heavens” (Genesis 22:17) which must have seemed to them that they were secure and the protected favorites of God forever, despite the fact that the Israelites had already twice been put into captivity…
The Jews would later say this exact same thing to Jesus – “Abraham is our father” to which Jesus replied,
“If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham.” (John 8:39)
This shows the power of God that He can turn stones into men; but looking with spiritual eyes these ‘stones’ can be seen to be those people who are spiritually cold, hard, unseeing, unfeeling, and dead, and certainly God can transform even these into living, spirit-filled men.
When John says to them, “Indeed the axe is laid at the route of the trees:…” he is referring to the fact that this chopping of the ‘trees’ (‘bad trees’ – the people with no good fruit [of deeds or spirit]) is imminent – meaning that it will happen, and very soon.
These lofty trees, the leaders of the religion and society of the Jews, must first be felled (cut down) before they can be “thrown into the fire”. And then God can plant something new and fruitful in their place.
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Please click on the link below to read Today’s Act:
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Act 3-1-3 - John Warns the Pharisees
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Adobe PDF File: The SYNOPTIC GOSPEL – Section 3, Chapter 1, Act 3
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Click here for more information about the book, The Synoptic Gospel, or to order your copy!
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Coming next time:
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Act 3-1-4 The Teachings of John the Baptist
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Look for it on Sunday, July 25th / 10
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Until then,
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May we all strive to be good trees
and to produce the fruits of spirit and deed that are desired by God!
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The Gospel of Mark – A Brief Overview
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As the Gospel of Mark is now being presented in the Acts of The Synoptic Gospel here is some background information on Mark’s amazing Gospel, which many feel was the first of the four Gospels to be written, and from which Matthew and Luke may have borrowed.
Attached is the brief overview of the Gospel of Mark as it appears in the book, The Synoptic Gospel.
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The attached Adobe Acrobat .pdf document provides some basic information about the Gospel named “Mark”, and the man who may have written it.
As with everything to do with God, religion, and the Bible, there is a lot of speculation and debate about who actually may have written any of the Gospels of the New Testament, and what is attached tries to be as accurate as today’s understanding and scholarship of these subjets allows.
The information presented in the attached file is only a best guess.
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Adobe PDF file: The SYNOPTIC GOSPEL – Gospel of Mark overview
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SG-025: 3-1-2 > John Begins His Ministry of Baptism
SG-025: 3-1-2 > John Begins His Ministry of Baptism
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Welcome to the 25th Act of The Synoptic Gospel!
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The Synoptic Gospel is a single account of the life of Jesus, taken directly from the texts of the four Gospels of the New Testament; Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
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Please click on the link below to read Today’s Act:
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Act 3-1-2 - John Begins His Ministry of Baptism
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Adobe PDF File: The SYNOPTIC GOSPEL – Section 3, Chapter 1, Act 2
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or, you can read the commentary on the Act first…
– there is another link to the .pdf file at the bottom of the post…
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COMMENTARY on Act 3-1-2
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This is the first Act that has been presented so far in The Synoptic Gospel that contains true parallel stories from two or more of the four Gospels. Here in this posted Act is the first example of how the parallel sections of texts were merged and combined to form a single set of verses.
While the attached Act elegantly shows a finished set of merged texts, read Matthew 3:1-3, and Mark 1:2-4, and Luke 3:3-4, to see what the original parallel verses were. Note how similar that they are, and that they are clearly discussing the same incident, or recalling the same story.
All of the verses that were combined are always listed in the Scripture Reference Column that runs along the right side of each page. Notice that for the first time there is more than one verse listed. In this first instance, at the bottom of page 28, there are three sets of verses listed from the three parallel sections of the Gospels all that record their details of the incident.
This Act begins with some historical details from the Gospel of “Luke, the beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14). Here Luke lists some of the kings and rulers of Judea and the region and territories and Empire that surrounded Israel at that time.
The people mentioned by Luke not only show the time of when the events of this Act happened, but the list also indicates something about that part of the world at the time when these events took place. In a way an acurate representation of these rules and dates gives some legitimacy to the historical accuracy of the Gospels.
Note that the list is of heathen kings and leaders, as the Jews were a conquered people, and did not have a Jewish king over their state. This was of course, Jesus, the Messiah, the King of the Jews (Matthew 2:1-2, 27:11, 37, 42; Mark 15:2, 9, 12, 18, 26, 32; Luke 23:3, 38; John 1:49, 12:12-15, 18:38-40, 19:19-21).
The entire passage from Luke is quoted here, so that a possible date range for each detail could be included. This information is useful for estimating when John began his ministry, and baptized Jesus, which in turn is roughly the date of the beginning of the ministry of Jesus as the Christ (Messiah – the “Anointed One”).
“Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, (27-29 CE)
when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, (26-36 CE)?
and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, (6-34 CE)?
and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, (4 BCE – 34 CE)
and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, (14-36 CE)
in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, (18-36-44 CE?)?
the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.” (Luke 3:1-2)
Ignoring the ambiguity of the high priests Annas and Caiaphas, which is another post, if any of the above dates are correct, a point in time and history when John stood up and began his ministry of baptism and salvation can be narrowed down.
The real key date here is the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, which, depends on whether this indicates 15 years from the beginning of his brief joint rule as Emperor, or from the two years later when he became sole ruler of the Roman Empire. For the purposes of The Synoptic Gospel the earlier date was used.
The Act continues with John the Baptist appearing in the wilderness (or hill country (Luke 1:39-40) of Judea, which is the same area in which he was born.
It says that “the word of God” came to John. This surely means a revelation or message from God; and it will also soon indicate Jesus, “the Word of God” (John 1:1-4; Hebrews 4:12, 11:3; 2 Peter 3:5; Revelation 19:11-13), born into this world as a human, because He would also soon ‘come to John’.
Evidently this “word” was that John should preach to the people that they should ‘repent’. Repent here means to turn away from your former bad, evil or sinful actions, and to have a heartfelt feeling of even sorrow or remorse for those transgressions. This is the first step, and then comes the forgiveness, which is from God.
Part of the definition of ‘repentance’ is that the individual also makes a change in their heart and mind to not do those negative actions again.
It is interesting to note that many ‘sins’, as in the last six of the Ten Commandments, are actually actions against people, and not God. Perhaps one of the ways that a human is to worship God is by not hurting other people – those fellow creatures of God who also have the ‘breath’ of God that is our living souls (Genesis 2:7). Surely the way to hurt God is to hurt the ‘God’ in others.
So John is telling the people to turn from their sins because,
“the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
Here “at hand” means is near, or from the Greek, ‘has drawn close’.
Now one might think that this is a reference to time, but it can also mean the physical proximity of ‘the kingdom’. Simply put, Jesus the Messiah WAS (is) that Kingdom of God on earth. Or at least, He was the initial spark of the idea and spirit and covenant that would grow and transform individual human souls, and that this would transform human society, and impact the entire world.
John preached this repentance to prepare the people so that they could be presentable to meet their Messiah. Of course, it is best to be ‘cleansed’ and spiritually purified if you are about to meet your (the) Messiah, the Son of God.
Those whose hearts and minds were ready would be able to see ‘the Light’, and thereby become the first to become members of His Kingdom – a form of the kingdom of God on earth, but within the hearts and the minds of the people.
Now John was to prepare them and so he ritually cleansed them, because no one would go out on a first date without taking a bath, and making themselves as clean and presentable as possible.
Luke then says that this John is the one to whom the prophet Isaiah referred to. The reference for the full quote is listed at the bottom of the page on which the end of the quote appears. In this case, that is on the next page – page 29.
Only Luke includes the next part of the passage from Isaiah, the famous part that says,
“Every ravine will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be brought low;
the crooked will become straight,
and the rough roads smooth; …” (Luke 3:5 > Isaiah 40:3-5)
This rich imagery has many possible levels of meaning. As literal as it sounds, it is most certainly referring to spiritual things, and not to the geographical topography of the planet earth being physically altered in some way.
Here the ‘ravine’ can represent the humble, the poor, the oppressed, the sick, and the weak, the widows, orphans, children, and prisoners. The ‘hill’ then is those people who are rich, mighty and powerful, who would reside on the hills over the squalor below.
The hill can also represent those who have religious knowledge and power – the priests, the scribes, the lawyers, the learned and the ecclesiastical leaders of the Jewish religion. This hill is contrasted with the ravine of those who do not have religious and spiritual knowledge and power, and who need to be ‘filled’ by the hills – those who ‘know’ and are in control.
And the levelling of physical hills could perhaps also mean here indicate mighty man-made buildings that house the civic powers and religious institutions, such as the Temple in Jerusalem, which would itself be levelled some 40+ years after Jesus was crucified.
You can see that by levelling the high and raising or exalting the low, a more level, uniform field results. Perhaps this is the beginning of equality, which is a form of justice. This is a recurring theme in the Bible – abasing the mighty and exalting the humble.
Either way Isaiah could be saying that these two groups – or by extension, all groups of opposites, the rich and the poor, the knowledgeable and the ignorant, the proud and the humble, etc., will all trade places.
In this case, this could be taken to mean that after the Messiah comes, and a new religious covenant begins between humanity and God, those who were the hills of Judaism who cease to have any meaning, while a dozen humble, ‘ravines’, these unlearned fishermen, and hated tax-collectors, would be the ones chosen to spread the Light of the Word of God, and help lay the foundation of the world-wide Christian community.
And no one could accomplish these amazing feats except God, or in this case, through His Word, as spoken by His Messiah.
Likewise the “straight” and the “crooked” “roads” in Isaiah are referring to the ways, practices and customs of imperfect human beings, and not to a physical road, although over time and with technology, yes, even the physical roads have gotten straighter and smoother.
This road can be seen as the ‘path’ that leads to the way of life (John 11:25, 14:6) which is the knowledge and religion of God.
Again, “the crooked will become straight” – but whether through force or by individual human choice it does not say, but it says that it “will” happen. As we know, all things are always conditional upon the timing and the pleasure of the Will of God.
Luke continues to quote from Isaiah when he writes,
“… and all flesh will see the salvation of God.” (Luke 3:6)
‘All flesh’ is likely a reference to all humans, who, although they may see (hear of, or know about) the Light – the salvation which is the kingdom of God – presumably not all people will recognize God or Jesus, or choose to have much of a relationship with them – which is the beginning of salvation.
This statement of ‘all flesh’ should also be taken to mean that not only the Jewish people, but also the Gentile nations, and everyone who is non-Jewish, would “see the salvation of God.”
Leaving all of that, John is now described as wearing,
“a garment of camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist;… ”
(Matthew 3:4; Mark 1:6).
The camel hair (coarse, rough hair) is depicted in the Scriptures with reference to repentance (sackcloth) and prophet-hood, as with the great and expected Elijah, whom John represents (Matthew 11:14, 17:10-12; Mark 9:11-13; Luke 1:16-17), who also
“…was a hairy man with a leather girdle bound about his loins.” (2 Kings 1:8)
It seems that the preaching for repentance by John was quite popular with the people, and many came from Jerusalem and all over Judea, and the surrounding regions, to listen to him, and to confess their sins to God before him, and to be baptized and ceremonially washed and spiritually cleansed in the Jordan River.
The specific detail of the ‘baptism’ that John performed with the people is not mentioned here, although it was likely a cleansing ritual, similar to ablutions. More details about the actual rite of John’s baptism will be given in future posts. For this act of spiritual cleansing and devotion John will forever be known as “John the Baptist”.
This individual confession of sins for atonement by the people to John is part of the Jewish way of life, and is indicative of Yom Kippur, the ‘Day of Atonement’, when the people would confess their sins and the High Priest would atone for all of Israel.
No doubt the nature of the confessions that John heard were mostly about sins against or contrary to, the complex Jewish (Mosaic) system of Law. But all that was about to change!
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Please click on the link below to read Today’s Act:
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John Begins His Ministry of Baptism
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Adobe PDF File: The SYNOPTIC GOSPEL – Section 3, Chapter 1, Act 2
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Click here for more information about the book, The Synoptic Gospel, or to order your copy!
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Coming next time:
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Act 3-1-3 John Warns the Pharisees
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Look for it on Sunday, July 18h / 10
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Until then,
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May we all prepare our hearts to walk with God!
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*****
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SG-024: 3-1-1 > Prologue
SG-024: 3-1-1 > Prologue
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Welcome to the 24th Act of The Synoptic Gospel!
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The Synoptic Gospel is a single account of the life of Jesus, taken directly from the texts of the four Gospels of the New Testament; Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
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Please click on the link below to read Today’s Act:
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SECTION III - JESUS BECOMES THE CHRIST
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Chapter 1 - John Becomes the Baptist
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Act 1 - Prologue
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Adobe PDF File: The SYNOPTIC GOSPEL – Section 3, Chapter 1, Act 1
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or, you can read the commentary on the Act first…
– there is another link to the .pdf file at the bottom of the post…
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COMMENTARY on Act 3-1-1
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Now The Synoptic Gospel begins to get interesting, and switches back to pick up the narrative from the Gospel of John.
John and Jesus have been born and survived through their childhoods. Now they are both about to begin their ministries of turning people to the Lord their God.
This entire short Act is from the Gospel of John. John wrote about the Word of God in the very introduction to his Gospel.
Back in the second Act of The Synoptic Gospel John 1:1-5 was quoted, followed immediately by John 1:9-10. The missing verses, John 1:6-8, are now given, as they are dealing with the beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist.
Here they say that John was “… a man sent from God,…” (John 1:6) and most would agree that this would make John a prophet, like the prophets of old, who would receive revelation and messages from God, and then give the message to the people.
According to what we have already read in Luke, John “… will be called the prophet of the Most High,…” (Luke 1:76), and during his ministry the people considered John as a prophet (Matthew 11:7-10, 21:26, 46; Mark 6:15, 11:32 …)
Being “sent from God” could also refer to the fact that John was born through a miracle of God to his aged parents, the Temple priest Zacharias, and his barren wife Elizabeth. Truly in this way John was ‘sent’ into the world by God.
Either way, John was sent by God,
“… as a witness about the Light,
so that all might believe through him.” (John 1:7)
The “Light” referred to here is Jesus Christ. For a fuller commentary about the “Light” see previous post SG-002 – Act 1-1-2 > The Word of God
And this is part of the function of a prophet, that they “witness” about the Light – that Spirit and knowledge and love that is, and flows, from the invisible God – as opposed to the (spiritual) ‘darkness’ of the minds of humanity. As the Light is knowledge the darkness is lack of knowledge, or ignorance of God, and His Will.
It is interesting to note that it had been a long time since there had been a “prophet” in Israel – at least none are mentioned in the Old Testament after Malachi, who prophesied some four hundred years before.
Knowing as we do that Jesus was to end the Mosaic system of sacrifice and Law, and establish a new order in its place, it can be seen that John was truly the last prophet of Judaism (Matthew 11:13), at that Jesus can be seen as the first prophet (Matthew 13:57, 21:11; Mark 6:4 …) of the new order and covenant that He established, and which would become Christianity.
So John was to witness about the Light. Witness here means to tell others about, in this case, the Light.
It is presumed that since John and Jesus were related (Luke 1:36), John knew Jesus, and the revelation from God would have confirmed to John about who Jesus was. Now John had to tell others about who Jesus is.
One might think that everybody would be able to see and recognize the ‘Light’, but apparently that was not the case. And so far, the Light has not yet been switched ‘on’, for Jesus has not yet begun His ministry.
And God had said repeatedly that the Israelites were people “… who have eyes but do not see…” (Jeremiah 5:20 – see also Ezekiel 12:1-2) and this is referring to their spiritual blindness – their inability to perceive or understand the inner, spiritual truths of the Law of God as revealed to them by Moses.
Here John the Gospel writer makes it clear that John the Baptist was,
“… not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.” (John 1:8)
The role and station of John seems obvious to us now, but at the time of John’s appearance when he began his ministry, many thought that John himself was the expected Messiah (Luke 3:15; John 1:19-20), which claim John denied.
“He came as a witness, to testify about the Light…” (John 1:7). Perhaps John was needed to witness about the Light as the need for two witnesses to establish a fact was mentioned in Deuteronomy 17:6.
Either way, John was sent from God with the ministry of service to witness about the coming Light that is Jesus Christ.
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Please click on the link below to read Today’s Act:
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SECTION III - JESUS BECOMES THE CHRIST
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Chapter 1 - John Becomes the Baptist
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Act 1 - Prologue
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Adobe PDF File: The SYNOPTIC GOSPEL – Section 3, Chapter 1, Act 1
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Click here for more information about the book, The Synoptic Gospel.
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Coming next time:
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Act 3-1-2 John Begins His Ministry of Baptism
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Look for it on Sunday, July 11th / 10
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Until then,
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May we all continue to witness the Light of God!
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*****
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The Gospel of John – A Brief Overview
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As the Gospel of John is now being presented in the Acts of The Synoptic Gospel here is some background information on John’s amazing Gospel.
Attached is the brief overview of the Gospel of John as it appears in the book, The Synoptic Gospel.
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The attached Adobe Acrobat .pdf document provides some basic information about the Gospel named “John”, and the man who may have written it.
As with everything to do with God, religion, and the Bible, there is a lot of speculation and debate about who actually may have written any of the Gospels of the New Testament, and what is attached tries to be as accurate as today’s understanding and scholarship of these subjets allows.
The information presented in the attached file is only a best guess.
The last Gospel Overview yet to be presented, for the Gospel of Mark, will be presented within the next few days.
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Adobe .pdf file: The SYNOPTIC GOSPEL – Gospel of John Overview
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SG-023: 2-4-1 > Jesus Visits the Temple at 12
SG-023: 2-4-1 > Jesus Visits the Temple at 12
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Welcome to the 23rd Act of The Synoptic Gospel!
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The Synoptic Gospel is a single account of the life of Jesus, taken directly from the texts of the four Gospels of the New Testament; Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
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Please click on the link below to read Today’s Act:
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Jesus Visits the Temple at Age 12
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Adobe PDF File: The SYNOPTIC GOSPEL – Section 2, Chapter 4, Act 1
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or, you can read the commentary on the Act first…
– there is another link to the .pdf file at the bottom of the post…
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COMMENTARY on Act 2-4-1
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This final Act of the second SECTION of The Synoptic Gospel: The Birth of Jesus, now switches back over to the Gospel of Luke.
This is a very interesting story from Luke, as it is the only story in any of the four Gospels that mention anything about Jesus as a boy, or when He was growing up. Why are there not more stories about the childhood of Jesus in the Gospels? There are other stories about young Jesus before He was baptized and began His ministry, but they are not found in the Gospels.
This Act begins by telling us that Jesus went every year with His parents to Jerusalem to participate in the annual observation of the Passover Festival, which lasted for seven days (Numbers 28:16-18), culminating in the Passover Feast.
The actual Passover itself marked the beginning of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, and celebrated their final release after 430 years of captive bondage as slaves (Exodus 12:40-41; Acts 7:6).
During this “Exodus”, Moses and the Israelites tried repeatedly to leave Egypt, but Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, would not let them go, as they were valuable slaves that built things for him (Exodus 1:11).
In order to persuade Pharaoh God sent ten plagues to the land of Egypt, the last one would kill all of the first-born males of both men and animals throughout the land (Exodus 12:14).
So that their own sons would be spared from the “angel of death” the Israelites put blood from a sacrificed lamb on the two doorpost, and the lintel of their homes. When the Angel of Death went through Egypt that night killing all of the first-born males, it would “pass over” the homes of the Israelites, and spare their sons.
They were to keep this observance as “a permanent observance” throughout all generations, as the Jewish people do to this day (Exodus 12:14)
In time the Passover would be the most important of the three major Festivals (Exodus 23:14-17; Deuteronomy 16:1-4) that the Jews were to observe each year.
At the Passover in Luke’s story Jesus was twelve years old (Luke 2:42), and when His parents left Jerusalem to return home to Nazareth, He was not with them. When Joseph and Mary had traveled “a day’s journey” from Jerusalem they finally realized that their son was not with them.
One might ask, “How could you not know where your child was?” There are two possible reasons for this.
The first is that by the time that Jesus was twelve years old He was not an only child. According to the Gospels Jesus was the first-born of at least seven children. (Matthew 13:55-56; Mark 3:31-32, 6:3-4; Luke 8:19; John 2:12, 7:3)
The second reason was that they, “…supposed Him to be in the caravan,…” Joseph and Mary traveled to Jerusalem to observe the annual Feasts and Passovers with many of “their relatives and acquaintances”. Often huge groups of family, friends, neighbors and neighborhoods would travel together to make the long pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the annual Feast and Festivals. There was joyous camaraderie, and safety, in numbers.
When however they did not find their son, Joseph and Mary returned to Jerusalem, no doubt in a panic.
The text says that “… after three days they found Him in the Temple, …” (Luke 2:46) Those must have been harrowing days indeed.
But Jerusalem was not a massive city at that time – why would it take three days? Possibly Joseph and Mary just never thought to look for Jesus in the Temple, or at those times that they did check the Temple, He was at that time somewhere else. Either way, the “Temple” is (was) a huge complex of walls, court-yards and buildings.
No doubt their search was slowed by the fact that they could not ask the local police of the city – the Roman guards – who were under control of Herod Archelaus, whose father had sought the blood of Jesus over a decade before, when He was just a baby.
Apparently when they did finally find Jesus in the Temple, He was,
“… sitting in the midst of the teachers,
both listening to them and asking them questions.” (Luke 2:46)
The vague description of teachers here would be those who were the teachers (Rabbis) of the Judaism, and they would likely have included the Pharisees and the Scribes (lawyers), as well as possibly the Sadducees, and priests of the Temple.
This group of teachers that Jesus was conversing with would have represented some of the intellectual elite of the sons of Israel, and we will meet them all again later.
“And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers” (Luke 2:47)
This is not surprising as through Jesus flowed the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Jesus was a fount of wisdom and deep understanding, especially of spiritual and religious matters.
I would give anything to have been there to sit at His feet and listen to what this twelve year-old boy was asking these learned teachers of Israel.
When His parents found Him in the Temple “they were astonished”, as would anyone be. Surely Joseph and Mary knew that their Child was unique and special, but perhaps the fact that He was amazing the teachers of Israel was not something that even they had expected.
But, like all parents, His mother said to Him,
“Son, why have You treated us this way?” (Luke 2:48)
While Mary was at first relieved to have finally found her son, she was perhaps also a little angry that He had not told them where He would be. And one can understand, for everyone is anxious to know the whereabouts of their children, to know that they are safe.
Or perhaps, like most children, Jesus just assumed that someone knew where He was. Maybe He had mentioned something about it to someone.
However, from Mary’s words – “Son, why have you treated us this way?” – I assume that she knew that Jesus had deliberately snuck out – perhaps He had done it before.
However, it is likely that this was the first time that Jesus had “officially” spoken with, or taught, the learned leaders and teachers of the Jewish Faith. If this were not His first time doing this, then Mary and Joseph would have sought Him in the Temple first, and not after two or three days.
And here in the Gospel of Luke are the first words of Jesus that are spoken in the Gospels! So far not a single word has been recorded as having been uttered by Jesus in the Gospels.
In The Synoptic Gospel all of the words that were spoken by Jesus are highlighted in red. The Synoptic Gospel is a “red-letter” edition, and this makes it easy to see all of teachings and parables that Jesus Christ said and taught, at least, all of the ones that are recorded within the four Gospels of the New Testament.
Check the attached Adobe .pdf file [The SYNOPTIC GOSPEL - Section 2, Chapter 4, Act 1] and you will that see these first words in red clearly stand out from the rest of the background story.
For many people, the real value and importance of the Gospels, and the New Testament, and maybe even the Bible itself, are those words in red that Jesus spoke to us all.
So, in red, twelve year-old Jesus said,
“Why is it that you were looking for Me?
Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49)
This is a very spiritually cryptic thing for a twelve year old boy to say to His anxious parents, and perhaps that is why it was remembered enough to be recorded here in Luke.
While Mary had said to Jesus, “Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for you.” (Luke 2:48) the response of Jesus clearly indicates that He knew that Joseph was not His real father. And as if to reinforce the point, this is the last time that Joseph, the husband of Mary, is directly mentioned in the Gospels, apart from several later references to Jesus as; “the son of Joseph.”
The text continues, “But they did not understand the statement which He made to them.” (Luke 2:50) And this might be the case, because in Jewish culture a boy would normally begin to learn and take up his father’s profession at around age twelve, and here Jesus was obviously not referring to Joseph the carpenter. Technically Joseph would have been more of a step-father to Jesus.
Surely His parents must have asked for a clarification or explanation of what He had meant.
Today, every Christian knows that at least one of the spiritual meanings of this first statement by young Jesus is that his “Father’s house” is in one sense the Faith or religion of God. Here in the Jewish Faith, under which Jesus was born, this “house” would be physically represented by the Temple complex in Jerusalem. Truly, if anything represented God’s “house” on the earth for the Jewish nation, it would have been the Temple.
Why Jesus “had to be” in that “house” is a little harder to guess at. He was only twelve and would not begin His ministry for almost another two decades, when he was in His very early thirties.
Why did Jesus have to be there, at that time, in the Temple, without telling His parents? Perhaps it was to get the real pulse of the spirituality and understanding, or hardness of the hearts, of these leaders and teachers of the Jewish Faith.
Either way, Jesus knew who His Father was – God, and that He was here on earth to attend to His Father’s house and business, which was perhaps at this time simply to learn, and in this case, to learn about the Jewish Faith and system.
So His parents arrive and break up His discussion with the “teachers”, after which Jesus then returned to Nazareth with them.
The text continues to add, “… and He continued in subjection to them; …” (Luke 2: 51)
That Jesus “continued” implies that He had already previously been “in subjection to them”, except perhaps for this little escapade in the Temple.
“in subjection to them” means that He was obedient to their will and commands, as you would expect of the Son of the God, who said,
“Honor your father and your mother…” (Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16)
Jesus Himself would later repeat this injunction to honor parents – Matthew 15:4, 19:19; Mark 7:10, 10:19; Luke 18:20.
Note that the Son of God and the Word of God, was here bound to the conventions of the human flesh, and in Jesus the human, it was humble and obedient.
This humility extended to include not only obedience to His parents, but also to all of the full requirements of the Jewish Law, or another way to say this is that Jesus was “without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
Now it would also be expected that the One who gave the Law in the first place, for humans to observe, would also conform to its obedience when that Spirit is born in the flesh of a human being.
But then again, God is God and can always do whatever He wishes – which only makes the humility and sinlessness of Jesus even more remarkable. But then again, would you expect anything less than sinlessness from God, even in the form of His human avatar.
Of course, there is tremendous spiritual wisdom in learning and keeping the Commandments and requirements of the Hebrew Law, as revealed by God through Moses, as with any good set of codes for human conduct, and the resulting society, which coming from God is a definition of ‘religion’.
Either way, no doubt the knowledge of this system helped Jesus to grow in “wisdom”. And this may be precisely what Jesus was doing in the Temple on that day when He was twelve.
There is no doubt that Jesus understood the Commandments and the Law AND He understood how they were originally intended by God to be spiritually applied to life’s situations, as they were revealed.
It is likely that Jesus could not believe how the spiritual application of the Law had changed and become ritualized, and was now being applied by these “teachers” of Judaism.
It can be seen how this encounter affected the later ministry of Jesus, where He would break the physical meanings of the words of God apart to reveal the more important spiritual meaning that lies at the heart of every word of God, because, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and truth.” (John 4:24).
The text then adds that “… His mother treasured all these things in her heart.” (Luke 2:51)
This is very similar to what Luke had previously written:
“And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds.
But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.” (Luke 2:18-19)
The last lines of this Act are,
“And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature,
and in favor with God and men.” (Luke 2:52)
Do these lines also sound familiar? Luke has already used very similar language, when he wrote earlier, in 2:40 – the very last verse of the last posted Act [The SYNOPTIC GOSPEL - Section 2, Chapter 3, Act 4]:
“The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom;
and the grace of God was upon Him.”
Apparently it takes time for even the Son of God to grow and increase in wisdom.
Although the word “stature” used here could mean fame and reputation, it is certainly being used by Luke, the physician, to indicate physical bodily size, or even age. The original Greek word clearly indicates physical growth and development.
Either way, Jesus would continue to grow and increase in stature, and wisdom, and understanding, for another twenty years, when He would be ready to really begin His world changing public ministry.
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Please click on the link below to read Today’s Act:
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Jesus Visits the Temple at Age 12
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Adobe PDF File: The SYNOPTIC GOSPEL – Section 2, Chapter 4, Act 1
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Click here for more information about the book, The Synoptic Gospel.
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Coming next time:
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A new SECTION begins!
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SECTION III - Jesus Becomes the Christ
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Chapter 1 - John Becomes the Baptist
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Act 3-1-1 Prologue
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Look for it on Wednesday, July 7th / 10
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Until then,
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May we all be found in the house of God!
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*****
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SG-022: 2-3-4 > Jesus, Jospeh and Mary Return from Egypt
SG-022: 2-3-4 > Jesus, Jospeh and Mary Return from Egypt
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Welcome to the 22nd Act of The Synoptic Gospel!
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The Synoptic Gospel is a single account of the life of Jesus, taken directly from the texts of the four Gospels of the New Testament; Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
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Please click on the link below to read Today’s Act:
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Jesus, Jospeh and Mary Return from Egypt
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Adobe PDF File: The SYNOPTIC GOSPEL – Section 2, Chapter 3, Act 4
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or, you can read the commentary on the Act first…
– there is another link to the .pdf file at the bottom of the post…
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COMMENTARY on Act 2-3-4
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This Act begins with the death of Herod, King of Judea. It is known that Herod the Great died in 4 BCE, possibly in March of that year. He was 70 years old, and had reigned as King of Judea for almost 37 years.
The text in Matthew says that when Herod died an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,
“Get up, take the Child and His mother and go into the land of Israel,
for those who sought the Child’s life are dead.” (Matthew 2:19)
This is the third time recorded in the Gospels that Joseph has received instructions in a dream from an angel. Truly this man was with God, and he was obedient to the Divine command.
It is interesting that Joseph received these dreams, and not Mary. Perhaps, as the husband, Joseph would have been the one to make the decisions for the family. While Joseph was told what to do by angels in his dreams, it was Mary who was greeted face-to-face in the flesh by the angel Gabriel (Luke 1:26-37).
The text says “… those who sought the Child’s life…” This likely indicates King Herod, and the force that he had sent to seek and destroy Jesus.
In total, it is likely that Joseph, with Jesus and Mary, had lived in Egypt for more than a year, and possibly as long as three years, from the time that Herod sought the Child’s life, until the king died..
Here the end of verse from Matthew 2:15 is added, which states,
“This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
‘Out of Egypt I called My Son.’ ”
This prophecy from Hosea 11:1 has been discussed in last week’s post,
SG-020: Act 2-3-2 > Joseph is Warned to Flee to Egypt.
So Joseph took his family and returned to Israel.
The text says that, “… when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father, he was afraid to go there.” (Matthew 2:22)
The reputation for despotic cruelty by Archelaus was exceeded only by his father, Herod. The Jews complained to the Emperor Caesar Augustus, and Archelaus was deposed and banished from the Holy Land to Gaul in Europe.
At that time Joseph was then again “…warned by God…” in a fourth dream. Matthew 2:22 does not divulge the contents or the message of this dream, but the result was that Joseph went north from Judea to Nazareth, in Galilee.
The text in Matthew says that he, “… came and lived in a city called Nazareth.” (Matthew 2:23)
This statement makes it sound like Joseph was previously living somewhere else, but we already know from Luke’s Gospel (1:26, 56) that Mary and Joseph were already residents of Nazareth, and did not live in Bethlehem in Judea, but had merely traveled there to be counted for the census when Jesus was born.
The Gospel of Luke (verse 2:39 – commentary already presented in Act 2-2-4) says,
“When they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord,
they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth.”
This current Act ends with the statement,
“This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets:
‘He shall be called a Nazarene.’ ” (Matthew 2:23)
Matthew is likely referring here to Judges 13:5, but if that is the case, the text there says,
“… and no razor shall come upon his head,
for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb;…”
A ‘Nazirite’ was a male who was dedicated to God from birth by a special vow. There were certain prescribed purity rituals that a Nazirite would follow, such as not consuming wine, or anything from the grape, and not cutting the hair, or touching anything that has died, etc. For the full description of a Nazirite see Numbers 6:2-8…21. Samson, for instance, with his famous long hair, was a Nazirite, and Matthew’s quote from Judges was specifically about Samson (read the full passage that Matthew referred to, Judges 13:1-7.
Now, a ‘Nazirite’ could also hail from Nazareth, but not necessarily. Samson was not from Nazareth.
Someone from Nazareth was known as a ‘Nazarene’, as in the nine times that Jesus is referred to in the New Testament as ‘Jesus the Nazarene’.
It is not clear that Jesus was in fact a Nazirite, although He certainly could have been. The relative of Jesus, John, on the other hand, may have been dedicated to the Lord in this way by his father, Zacharias, who was a priest who served in the Temple.
So, it appears that Matthew was likely wrong in his Gospel about where Joseph, and therefore Jesus, lived prior to their return to Israel from Egypt. It appears that he misapplied the use and application of the word ‘Nazirite’. This is partly because the word ‘Nazarite’, the word used in Judges 13:7, does not appear even once in the New Testament, and that liewise the words ‘Nazareth’ and ‘Nazarene’ do not appear in the Old Testament.
Now there is a way that Matthew could have correctly applied his statement that,
“This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets: ‘He shall be called a Nazarene.’ ” (2:23) and that is if he were referring to other prophets – prophets whose words and texts are not found within the Old Testament.
Either way, whether Jesus was in fact dedicated to the service of God as a Nazarite or not, He served God with His life, and with His death.
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Please click on the link below to read Today’s Act:
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Jesus, Jospeh and Mary Return from Egypt
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Adobe PDF File: The SYNOPTIC GOSPEL – Section 2, Chapter 3, Act 4
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————————————-
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Click here for more information about the book, The Synoptic Gospel.
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Coming next time:
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A new Chapter begins:
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Jesus Visits the Temple at 12
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Act 2-4-1 Teaching in the Temple
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Look for it on Sunday, July 4th / 10
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Until then,
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May we all be dedicated to the service of God!
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*****
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